Lakewood (NJ) cut down Town Square trees to deter homeless

[mopinko]

13. reminds me of daley the elder.

there were a string of rapes downtown, a couple in a public parking garage, and at least 1 that happened in the bushes at grant park, the jewel of the park system.
this was the 70's, downtown chicago was a ghost town after the last commuter train left, and ppl were pissed. (jane byrne turned this around.) the only thing the old man could think to do was start ripping out the greenery. he denuded all the parks. daley the younger made it a mission to repair that damage.
glad he did, but it cost a bloody fortune.
he wasnt a popular mayor. i was not fond of him. i live on the n end of the city and for various reasons our beaches up here a basic. ritchie came up w a grand plan for a marina, among other things. dude who had decided to challenge the 3 term alderman by making a stink about it. got a referendum on the ballot. most confusing wording i ever saw. they threw in stuff about commercialization that was not in the plan, and that is a hot button here. only a slight majority opposed the plan.
i supported the plan w this statement- i dont trust ritchie, in general, but on parks, whatever he wanted was good w me.

right now some our parks are tent cities, tho. the plague resulted in the closing of the field house at a small park near me. it had always had a lot of homeless around the clock, and w/o a supervisor on duty, it's been taken over. w covid in shelters, in a couple square blocks, there's about 100 tents. no one is talking about cutting down the trees, tho.