Thursday, February 08, 2007

sit-down strike against no-sitting ordinance


The city of Olympia, Washington has joined the no sitting bandwagon, passing an ordinance that blocks anyone from sitting on the sidewalks in parts of downtown during daylight hours. In response, homeless people and advocates have erected several tent cities. Now the City Manager has vowed to demolish the encampments.

Here are several articles from The Olympian that tell the story:

tent city built

tent city raises concerns

disband or else!

[thanks to Dj Nuts & Bolts, Free Radio Olympia 98.5, for the heads up]

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Dear Robert,
You thanked a 'Ben Maurer'
in your post of Jan. 26, 2007, titled "Survivors Village."
I am searching for my son, Ben Maurer, who has been missing for nearly 5 years. He is currently 21 years old and is originally from
New Jersey. I'm trying to find leads, however unlikely they may be.Please contact me at gemaur@peoplepc.com if you can help me. Thank you for your concern and advocacy for people.

Anonymous said...

Robert,

I became aware of your work from TED Talks, and have been interested in learning more. I was happy to learn that you noticed our action.

We are now hoping to enter into talks with local governments about a piece of land to build on. We want to create 20x20 lofts for people to live in. They would be very simple designs, with only one wall wired and plumbed. Hopefully we can get most of the materials donated and also work with green building groups, alternative energy groups, and farming collectives to make our camp as self-sufficient as possible.

I would love to hear your thoughts on ways to make our vision a reality.

Thank you,

Rob Richards
Poor Peoples Union
email: torndown@gmail.com

Da' Buffalo Amongst Wolves said...

Argh! One of these days blogger.com will figure out how to allow trackbacks.

Needless to say, I've linked to this post, and added quite a bit of local Santa Cruz California color to the entry.

It's [ Here]