07-13-15 Common Council Meeting Minutes

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REGULAR MEETING JULY 13, 2015 Barbara Port — 114 W. Ireland Road, South Bend — I own and operate Maxi's Food & Spirits where I have an upstairs window where I see them pull up in really nice cars. They park behind the bank they change their shirt, they change their shoes, they get their signs out the back seat, and they make cocktails in the back of their cars. I've seen a lot more than that from my upstairs window. Any other day of the week I can clean up needles, beer bottles, wine bottles, their signs, and full bags of food. I actually offered some of the younger men dishwashing jobs or to clean up my yard; I'm not going to repeat what they said to me. They are in my opinion, 99% are scam artist. I am fortunate to get people in my restaurant that are hearing about us on social media or trip advisor as they come through town. I cannot tell you how many people have asked me about why we have all these panhandlers. It is embarrassing to me as a business owner and it's a lot of work for me as I have to clean up after them and I think we should do something. Katie Van Tornhout — 114 W. Ireland Road, South Bend — I work with my mom in the restaurant and I'm in the bar. I sit up there four (4) nights a week and I can watch everything. We have called the police to Maxi's as the girls on the corner or doing more than asking for money, they are doing favors behind our building then they go back to their corners. It is more than just panhandling. I know there are people that need the help but there are resources for those people. The people on our comers are making it worse for everybody else. They are living in the woods behind Sears. One guy came in to Maxi's asking for a beer before I saw that he had a sign. He is getting money from you to spend in my restaurant. It is fine if you need the money but don't spend it on beer and girls in the parking lot. This last weekend in cubby holes outside, we picked up signs, condom wrappers, cigarette wrappers... They are plugging their phones in our outlets outside when we are not there. This is a bigger problem than what people might think. This needs to be cleaned up to make all of our town look so much better. Leanna Morley — 721 N. St. Louis Blvd, South Bend— I see panhandlers all the time in South Bend it is extremely uncomfortable, it elicits a feeling of guilt immediately or outrage. I am earning my degree in gender studies and sociology. When you look at things sociologically, you have to look at stratification and why people are living in the particular social locations that they are living in? We need to ask ourselves an important question how do we enforce panhandlers to stop panhandling, the more important question why are people panhandling, why are people doing sex work, and I'm pretty sure it's not because they want to annoy you or that they're out there for fun. There's a systemic problem that we need to address in our community due to lack of jobs or lack of minimum wage that meets the requirements of standard living. It probably has to do with substance abuse. We can say that we have enough resources in our community if people want to get them, but maybe we don't because we have a problem and we see them all the time. I guess that people who have lots of money and from big corporations feel funny about people who don't have a lot of money. I guess if so, I just don't want them to be here. Thank you that's all. Rice Debuysser— 119 W. Ireland Road, South Bend— I have a business there on Ireland, lived in South Bend for 62 years, business there for 37 years. I am concerned about their safety, as someone will hold money out and they run across where a car will come by and you almost see them hit. The other concern is we offer them jobs, but they don't want to work. There are a few good ones there but then the other ones gang up on them and beat them. The ones that we have tried to help they get beat up later on. They are on a time schedule so it's organized. One will replace them once one gets back. Then they walk back to their tents. We have our security cameras, so we have the guys that come to collect the money, jump out the car get the money tell them that their shift it over. There are five (5) or six (6) of them out there in that area. So our security has a lot of what is going on. I think that a lot of these people standing on the comer are being abused and being taken advantage of, so that's my concern. ADJOURNMENT There being no further business to come before the Council, President Tim Scott adjourned the meeting at 10:32 p.m. ATTEST: 46 ATTEST: