Tent Ban Goes into Effect; Laws of Physics Remain in Place

A week-ago today the Grand Junction City Council voted 6-1 to ban enclosed tents in city parks. This was a reversal of a February decision by council to not enact a ban on tents, the reason being given at the time was that there was nowhere for people to reasonably go.

There is still no place for people to go.

But this morning Grand Junction Police Department Officers and Parks employees began, removing the tent city that had developed in Desert Vista Park. When we stopped by around 11am the residents were encamped with their property just across the streets from the park. This is not a solution. These people and their stuff have to go somewhere, and wherever they go, if it’s not into housing, it’s going to be the same problem.

Choas, violence, feces and neighborhood impacts were the reasons present as to why a tent ban was needed. Truth be told the city of Grand Junction, intentionally let Desert Vista Park become a problem, but it was fear that Police Chief Matt Smith was selling.

Enforcement of pre-existing park rules would have prevented the encampment at Desert Vista from forming. It was already against park rules to sleep overnight in a park, it was already against park rules to leave your belongings unaccompanied in a park. The city and PD chose for three months not to enforce the law. They chose to let it become a problem. In fact, city Housing staff were directing people to that park as a place camp.

After the closure of Whitman Park in September and the closure/remodel of Emerson breaking ground in late January. The city knew that these people would have to go somewhere, and anyone with google maps could have guessed that Desert Vista would be where they would end up. The city knew this and chose not to place port-o-potties there until just a couple weeks ago.

Just days after the City of Grand Junction, closed Whitman Park without notice or consultation with the community, I wrote a letter to the editor of The Daily Sentinel that was almost clairvoyant:

“The law of unintended consequences is going to exact a steep price on the housed residents of Grand Junction as well as those displaced.

It’s a law of physics, the unhoused are not going to evaporate into the ether because Whitman Park is closed. They will go somewhere else. Main Street? Emerson? Hawthorne? Expect an increase in police calls, petty tickets and the resulting increase in court costs and incarcerations.”

Housing is the only solution.