MANCHESTER, N.H. – The Manchester Board of Mayor and Aldermen approved an ordinance amendment on Tuesday adding new restrictions to items allowed within parks.
With the amendment, Section 96.06 of the City Charter now prohibits, tarps, “market umbrellas”, beach umbrellas, structures or shopping carts in parks or more than one bicycle per person in a park without the consent of the city’s Public Works Department Director.
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After a committee recommendation earlier this month, the Board of Mayor and Aldermen Committee on Bills on Second Reading recommended the wording of the amendment before the full board met later in the evening.
While Aldermen Christine Fajardo (Ward 4) and Erin George-Kelly (Ward 12) opposed the amendment in committee, Mayor Joyce Craig confirmed with City Clerk Matt Normand that the committee’s purpose was focused on the wording of items rather than its policy impacts and they could discuss policy further at the meeting of the full board later that evening
Just under half a dozen individuals, several of them homeless, requested during full board’s public comment session that they table the amendment until more work could be done to provide housing to the homeless population of the city.
Some of those who spoke pledged to help the city address the issue of helping the city’s homeless, like others such as Brandon Lemay criticized the board for advancing what was seen as a meaningless and unenforceable gesture.
“(The amendment) is not solving any issue, it’s an attempt to make it look like you’re addressing the problem with a solution that doesn’t do anything productive,” Lemay said to the board.
When the board arrived on taking an action on the Bills on Second Reading recommendation from earlier in the evening, Ward 3 Alderman Pat Long made a motion to suspend the board’s rules and move the amendment to its third and final hearing, skipping another hearing by the Board of Mayor and Aldermen Committee on Accounts, Enrollment and Revenue Administration before it returned for the full board for ordainment.
Long said he had heard from constituents, particularly elderly constituents, who had become afraid to go to the park.
“Whether that fear is a perception or not, if they fear that, that’s good enough for me.”
Long responded to claims by George-Kelly that the amendment ultimately criminalized the homeless population of the city by stating that homeless individuals would still be welcome in the park on the same level of any member of the public. He also noted efforts at the state and city level to help the city’s homeless population, something Craig reiterated later.
Ward 10 Alderman Bill Barry said he had heard from constituents that they have been harassed by homeless individuals in parks as well, as did Ward 2 Alderman Will Stewart earlier in the month. However, Stewart acknowledged the comments from the public speakers that the amendment would not solve the underlying problem around the issue, seeing it as a “tactical” response.
Alderman At-Large Joseph Kelly Levasseur praised the eloquence of the speakers, but also wished that they had waited half an hour after public comment concluded to express his frustration with the city’s homeless population as a whole.
He stated that if people acted on someone else’s private property the way that the city’s homeless population had been acting in the city’s parks, they would be arrested. He also criticized members of the homeless population for cleanups needed at homeless camp sites such as the former Cracker Barrel site and the Amoskeag Bridge and their disrespect for efforts by the city to help them and the fear from members of the community in relation to recent murders committed by homeless individuals.
He also defended Craig, Ward 9 Alderman Jim Burkush and city employees who have been criticized for not solving the issue despite their efforts to do so.
“The city has had enough and I’ve had enpugh a long time ago because I knew where this was going to go,” he said. “The more free stuff you give, the more free stuff they want.”
In a roll call vote, the motion to suspend the rules and ordain the amendment passed 11-2. Fajardo and Erin Kelly voted in opposition and Tony Sapienza (Ward 5) was absent.
Fajardo hoped that discussion around the topic could continue in the future and Alderman At-Large June Trisciani and Craig noted that the Department of Public Works will store items owned by the city’s homeless population upon request.
Craig also noted ongoing efforts to address the issue of homelessness, citing $11 million spent by the board on the issue as well as new affordable housing in the city and non-profit developers with experience renovating abandoned hotels entering discussions with the city.
“I wish we could say we could end homelessness tomorrow, but it’s a long-term complicated issue,” said Craig.
