The City of Asheville will try again to regulate the Occupy movement. City staff proposed prohibitions against setting open fires, damaging vegetation, and interfering with other persons’ rights to use public property. Giving staff’s recommendations a run for the money are recommendations from council’s Public Safety Committee. The recommendations consist of a number of bullet points proposed by Gordon Smith, supported by Cecil Bothwell, and opposed by outvoted Jan Davis.
Hopefully, council will not accept the Public Safety Committee proposal for a number of reasons. For one thing, reactionary legislation to address special circumstances reeks of impending lawsuits, not to mention bad ideas replete with “unintended consequences.” For another, granting concessions to a political movement, rather than persons forced from housing due to insufficient income, doesn’t seem fair. Another concern is that the list appears arbitrary and capricious in requiring such things as registration of campers and issuance of $100 fines or eviction notices and referrals to “Homeless Service Provider” for persons not camping with a permit. Another strange thing about the proposal is its acceptance that Constitutionally-guaranteed speech includes camping and sleeping. Admittedly, council is grappling with an unusual and sometimes irrational problem, so tolerance must be made for “answering a stupid question with a stupid answer.”
Data compiled by staff indicate there are only a handful of Occupants still with the program nationwide. A couple major campsites have been broken up after serious violence, but then that violence will likely be attributed to Tea Party Wall Street moguls disguised as Occupants. Compromise offered by a couple of Asheville City department directors backpedaled from the original proposals, suggesting establishing urban campgrounds, a recipe for sprawl.