Statement on City Hall Park, Aug. 25, 2025
Violence in our City Hall Park has predictably led to the worst case scenario—the loss of a life. When we first began talking about the lunch distribution in the garage, I took issue that leaving the open and pervasive substance use and dealing 2 blocks over was more concerning to me than the latter. Both issues deserved discussion and addressing.
While I am grateful for the increased public safety resources that have been redirected to our City Hall Park, including the Mayor’s new Situation Table funded by the State, they are unfortunately merely a band-aid for a problem that lives at the intersection of:
1) an under-resourced substance use and mental health treatment system that also lacks legal mechanisms to hold people who pose a public danger but cannot be prosecuted due to mental health incapacity,
2) a pervasive shortage of affordable housing stock for most income levels,
3) an overly permissive culture and practice of harm reduction that largely falls short in taking into account whole communities or pathways to recovery,
4) a prosecutorial culture that chooses not to prosecute large numbers of cases and refuses to ask for equity-centered bail placing judges in tightly restrictive parameters on when they can and can’t hold someone without bail.
5) discounting the lived negative experiences and realities of downtown workers, residents, and visitors with a counter-narrative
I was glad to see President Traverse’s recent letter and resolution calling for a new, determined approach to restoring the public trust in our City Hall Park. I was particularly disheartened to see at least one Progressive Councilor instead chose to go live from the park on social media at night to interview people on how safe the park was. Let me be clear, I’m so glad those people felt and were safe. I have also seen and heard enough to know that this is not always the case. I have supported multiple Ward 7 victims of violent crime that was unprovoked, during the day, and by an unknown assailant including a person who was beaten in her head while walking home from an early dinner with her husband, and a person who was attacked while loading her toddler into a stroller for a morning walk. Their experiences happened, they matter, and it’s a disservice to us all to erase them away with counter-messaging or political posturing.
I have also felt this way when trying to talk about syringe litter. The Howard Center made comments to VPR that syringe litter was “largely a beautification issue,” and people continue to argue that there is no public safety concern with syringes while simultaneously I have met many people in a variety of trades who have recounted what it feels like to go through the terrifying experience of a needle stick and the expensive prescriptions you have to take as a precaution while waiting for your blood results. My landlord’s landscaper contracted Hepatitis B after being stuck by a needle hidden in a bush next to our playground. Patients matter and he matters too. We should not explain away the problem or center individuals over whole communities.
There are moments in the park that are beautiful, safe, and joyful, and there are also moments that are frightening, unnerving, and unsafe. Both of those truths matter and everyone’s experience is different based on many factors including sheer luck of being in the park at the right or wrong moment. I am also not so naïve to think that this issue, which is often traceable to a small group of individuals both housed and unhoused, won’t then pop up somewhere else like the Moran Plant, Manhattan Drive, Buell Street, Battery Park, or any other known past or present problem areas. We need to stay focused on those 5 issues I mentioned above and not on important but non-municipal topics like global geopolitics—particularly at a moment where our own nation is being tested to its breaking point by a corrupt President and gerrymandering politicians.
I’m excited to see new emails coming in every hour from members of the public who are answering the call and asking for action to reclaim and reframe our beloved and historic City Hall Park. Please keep writing, speaking, and telling your stories.
On Monday night, my hope is that public comment can aim to be as solutions-focused as possible rather than on a narrative war of “well this did or didn’t happen to me so therefore there is or is not a problem.” Let’s roll our collective sleeves up and deal with it together. It has nothing to do with whether or not someone is housed or unhoused but rather specific harmful and criminal behavior people are engaging in and sometimes that is attributable to Substance Use Disorder and sometimes it’s not, but it is happening.
I implore everyone who chooses to come or Zoom in to Monday’s Council meeting to center both realities, shared respect, and collaborative solution crafting. We can and should have tough conversations about the problems facing our city but we should do so with a keen eye on the solutions and remind ourselves that we are all neighbors in the same community.