Gordon Sturrock: 30 Seconds to Stop "Social Cleansing".

If anyone could spare just a minute (30 seconds?) to vote in a poll, it would be VERY much appreciated. Local activists here in Oregon are trying to stop a "Social Cleansing" of our homeless population, which our local police have been quite ruthless towards. Please vote "YES" to the poll question: Should the Eugene City Council grant the request to provide land for a homeless camp? For further information about how bad the problem is, here is an EXCELLENT letter on the subject written by a local activist: "Countless times, I've looked-on in horror as downtown cops have roughly shoved old vets around, man-handled elderly gents for the crime of holding an 'anything helps' cardboard sign. I've seen squad cars parked wildly on sidewalks Starsky & Hutch style, and had steroid-aggressive uniforms gesture wildly to 'keep moving' so there are fewer witnesses as their class-cops rough up the poor downtown. Bank robbery in progress? More often, some jug-band buskers, Jaywalkers, Loiterers in tie-dye. Well meaning people keep bringing this very real and ongoing concern to City Hall, but it was City Hall who found 7 mil for downtown policing, on behalf of a vocal elite-primarily three high-end restauranteurs, a bourgeois social club, and some misguided able viewers who only race downtown in over-sized white vehicles, endangering pedestrians en route to big-box franchises and malls in the suburbs, anyway. The first three years I lived downtown, it felt like a happy haven for bohemians and academics. I spent countless hours at Saturday Market, sitting around the Park Blocks, admiring all the beautiful artwork in downtown windows, watching shows at WOW Hall, seeing Frank Black in the window of Cosmic. Loved the "Unfine" Art Museum, Cosmic, the Kiva, etc.