I support this issue and request the Council also consider the safety of park maintenance workers who bear the brunt of threats and actual violence from aggressive individuals. This isn't an "or" issue. The safety of park users & workers can be enforced while *also* connecting people experiencing mental illness, addiction or homelessness to the help they need. However, those people must consent to receive services & frequently don't. That reality must also be addressed humanely.
I do not believe this aids the actual housing crisis problem in Arizona. We could use this money to fund community safety nets instead. We need to work on the root problem, not bandaids.
Horrible use of funds. Could be put towards affordable housing, increasing access to mental and physical healthcare, and supporting our unhoused neighbors. Not torturing and criminalizing them.
We didn't support this before, and we don't support it now. Investing nearly a million dollars into criminalizing people for existing does not create safety. Safety is a result of having our needs met: essential needs like housing, food security, health care, and community. Please direct this money to actual life-sustaining resources.
Absolutely not. This is a terrible use of resources. Instead direct that $800,000 to resources to help prevent loss of housing and house the unhoused. The public are allowed to exist in public spaces. It is insane that this is the path of action the council is trying to take.
I support the use of private security in our city parks, including Cortez Park. The park has been taken over by homeless people, their trash and their culture, discouraging local citizens who live a more civilized lifestyle from using the parks for their original purpose.
With the current understaffing issue with the Phoenix PD, the use of private security to help take our parks back makes perfect sense.
I am in support of a pilot project to provide additional security at the highest risk city parks in Phoenix. I manage a property across the street from neighborhood park. Cortez Park is overrun with transients and drug users/dealers who also come onto the surrounding properties and cause damages there. The breaking windows, destroying vacant units, burglarizing vehicles, and graffiti to leaving needles and their drug paraphernalia everywhere makes it very unsafe for tenants and staff.
We need Perry & Pierce Parks patrolled regularly. The overnight camping, homelessness is out of control. We can't bring children to the park to meet with friends and play, or gather here for family occasions for fear of being accosted, seeing drugs and sexual activity, or being harmed by drug paraphernalia, ex: hypodermic needle. Our parks must be taken back for lawful, civilized use - not the enablement of habits and behaviors that are unhealthy and lead a person to a life of sadness & misery.
I support this because the city isn't doing what they should they do not follow their own code of conduct,no tickets issued.Washington Park is a mess. It is disgusting that we can't safely use our parks.However, if they use the same security company they use on lt rail this will be more $ wasted by the city.,I do support anything that will make it safe for us to use the parks again.I took my niece to Wash.& she found and picked up a needle in the playground.Not to mention the drugs sold there.
Once again this city and the council have used their time and resources to find a way to criminalize and surveil people in our community who are vulnerable and needing support and resources that our city is already lacking in. The new proposal is asking for an additional 800k, almost 1 million dollars to roll out this pilot program. It is a waste of money and it is anti-homeless policy that won't benefit the surrounding communities and will create further harm to unhoused folks.
I want more resources to shelter and assist people, not police them. I'm so tired of you phoenix city council, ignoring the will of the people to line your pockets.
Margaret Shalley, Volunteer Neighborhood Leader
about 2 years ago
The opposition is claiming oppression, when in fact more security is needed to mitigate blight, drugs, prostitution, etc. in our parks. The city will be spending millions on new shelters to help those who want it, so let’s invest to make parks safe for all. Enforcement & services can work together - doesn’t have to be one or the other. Is also about equity – why do only the downtown historic districts get security services in their parks to feel safe and residents in hot spots elsewhere do not?
The idea of a pilot program using a private security company may let us know what the problem is in parks. However, anyone who lives near the parks like Cielito know the problems already. How about increasing Park Ranger pay and having some Park Rangers work 12 hour shifts 7p to 7a! Doing more activation, as examples, a dog park on the north side of Cielito, partnering with Park RX to have kids programs from 5 to 8 pm. Getting families back in the park discourages negative activity. Thank you
We live near Telephone Park which is right next to Village Meadows Elementary, and the park is full of illegal activity and a huge issue of safety for our children. We've heard updates from our local police officers who engage with the transients who live near the parks and highways, and 99% of them REFUSE the resources generously available to them. So we support this effort to make our parks a safe space for our communities, and I kindly urge you to consider including Telephone Park as well.
I am in support of a pilot project to provide additional security at the highest risk city parks in Phoenix. A pilot project, with periodic evaluation and reporting of the program's effectiveness and results, seems like a responsible action to take in the midst of an identified and acknowledged problem. While I understand the concern about potentially criminalizing the homeless, I think we must also recognize that the homeless are often the most vulnerable and at risk in these settings.
We chose our home because it is within walking distance of the park. We wanted that for our growing family. Unfortunately, it is no longer safe for families and has become a neighborhood blight instead of a point of neighborhood pride. I'm in favor of a temporary solution that promotes a bridge to long term safety for families.
As a newer home owner in Phoenix I am absolutely disgusted by how the city treats those that are unhoused. Affordable housing and healthcare would go much further towards fixing this problem then further harassing people. I am completely against this. I live near one of these parks and I have no fear of my grandchild playing. Just because someone doesn't have a home does not make them dangerous.
Being unsheltered is not a crime. That money could be far better utilized helping people. People are dying in the streets and the city does nothing. Police are killing citizens and are currently under investigation for civil rights violations and you give them a raise. What is wrong with you people!?
As a person who lives and works in Phoenix, I oppose this agenda item. Phoenix City Council, you all continue to find ways to use your time and resources to criminalize people you are meant to serve. There is always money to be found for “security” - imagine if you all could find money for your community in the ways we ask for instead.
I regularly take my children to Maryvale Park. The people who use that park are not dangerous. Some of them are unhoused but that doesn't give them any less right to use the park. This money needs to go to affordable housing to fix the problem not private security that just harrases people.
I support this issue and request the Council also consider the safety of park maintenance workers who bear the brunt of threats and actual violence from aggressive individuals. This isn't an "or" issue. The safety of park users & workers can be enforced while *also* connecting people experiencing mental illness, addiction or homelessness to the help they need. However, those people must consent to receive services & frequently don't. That reality must also be addressed humanely.
I do not believe this aids the actual housing crisis problem in Arizona. We could use this money to fund community safety nets instead. We need to work on the root problem, not bandaids.
Horrible use of funds. Could be put towards affordable housing, increasing access to mental and physical healthcare, and supporting our unhoused neighbors. Not torturing and criminalizing them.
We didn't support this before, and we don't support it now. Investing nearly a million dollars into criminalizing people for existing does not create safety. Safety is a result of having our needs met: essential needs like housing, food security, health care, and community. Please direct this money to actual life-sustaining resources.
Absolutely not. This is a terrible use of resources. Instead direct that $800,000 to resources to help prevent loss of housing and house the unhoused. The public are allowed to exist in public spaces. It is insane that this is the path of action the council is trying to take.
I support the use of private security in our city parks, including Cortez Park. The park has been taken over by homeless people, their trash and their culture, discouraging local citizens who live a more civilized lifestyle from using the parks for their original purpose.
With the current understaffing issue with the Phoenix PD, the use of private security to help take our parks back makes perfect sense.
I am in support of a pilot project to provide additional security at the highest risk city parks in Phoenix. I manage a property across the street from neighborhood park. Cortez Park is overrun with transients and drug users/dealers who also come onto the surrounding properties and cause damages there. The breaking windows, destroying vacant units, burglarizing vehicles, and graffiti to leaving needles and their drug paraphernalia everywhere makes it very unsafe for tenants and staff.
We need Perry & Pierce Parks patrolled regularly. The overnight camping, homelessness is out of control. We can't bring children to the park to meet with friends and play, or gather here for family occasions for fear of being accosted, seeing drugs and sexual activity, or being harmed by drug paraphernalia, ex: hypodermic needle. Our parks must be taken back for lawful, civilized use - not the enablement of habits and behaviors that are unhealthy and lead a person to a life of sadness & misery.
I support this because the city isn't doing what they should they do not follow their own code of conduct,no tickets issued.Washington Park is a mess. It is disgusting that we can't safely use our parks.However, if they use the same security company they use on lt rail this will be more $ wasted by the city.,I do support anything that will make it safe for us to use the parks again.I took my niece to Wash.& she found and picked up a needle in the playground.Not to mention the drugs sold there.
Once again this city and the council have used their time and resources to find a way to criminalize and surveil people in our community who are vulnerable and needing support and resources that our city is already lacking in. The new proposal is asking for an additional 800k, almost 1 million dollars to roll out this pilot program. It is a waste of money and it is anti-homeless policy that won't benefit the surrounding communities and will create further harm to unhoused folks.
I want more resources to shelter and assist people, not police them. I'm so tired of you phoenix city council, ignoring the will of the people to line your pockets.
The opposition is claiming oppression, when in fact more security is needed to mitigate blight, drugs, prostitution, etc. in our parks. The city will be spending millions on new shelters to help those who want it, so let’s invest to make parks safe for all. Enforcement & services can work together - doesn’t have to be one or the other. Is also about equity – why do only the downtown historic districts get security services in their parks to feel safe and residents in hot spots elsewhere do not?
The idea of a pilot program using a private security company may let us know what the problem is in parks. However, anyone who lives near the parks like Cielito know the problems already. How about increasing Park Ranger pay and having some Park Rangers work 12 hour shifts 7p to 7a! Doing more activation, as examples, a dog park on the north side of Cielito, partnering with Park RX to have kids programs from 5 to 8 pm. Getting families back in the park discourages negative activity. Thank you
We live near Telephone Park which is right next to Village Meadows Elementary, and the park is full of illegal activity and a huge issue of safety for our children. We've heard updates from our local police officers who engage with the transients who live near the parks and highways, and 99% of them REFUSE the resources generously available to them. So we support this effort to make our parks a safe space for our communities, and I kindly urge you to consider including Telephone Park as well.
I am in support of a pilot project to provide additional security at the highest risk city parks in Phoenix. A pilot project, with periodic evaluation and reporting of the program's effectiveness and results, seems like a responsible action to take in the midst of an identified and acknowledged problem. While I understand the concern about potentially criminalizing the homeless, I think we must also recognize that the homeless are often the most vulnerable and at risk in these settings.
We chose our home because it is within walking distance of the park. We wanted that for our growing family. Unfortunately, it is no longer safe for families and has become a neighborhood blight instead of a point of neighborhood pride. I'm in favor of a temporary solution that promotes a bridge to long term safety for families.
As a newer home owner in Phoenix I am absolutely disgusted by how the city treats those that are unhoused. Affordable housing and healthcare would go much further towards fixing this problem then further harassing people. I am completely against this. I live near one of these parks and I have no fear of my grandchild playing. Just because someone doesn't have a home does not make them dangerous.
Being unsheltered is not a crime. That money could be far better utilized helping people. People are dying in the streets and the city does nothing. Police are killing citizens and are currently under investigation for civil rights violations and you give them a raise. What is wrong with you people!?
As a person who lives and works in Phoenix, I oppose this agenda item. Phoenix City Council, you all continue to find ways to use your time and resources to criminalize people you are meant to serve. There is always money to be found for “security” - imagine if you all could find money for your community in the ways we ask for instead.
I regularly take my children to Maryvale Park. The people who use that park are not dangerous. Some of them are unhoused but that doesn't give them any less right to use the park. This money needs to go to affordable housing to fix the problem not private security that just harrases people.