City Leaders Take Back the Streets (new loitering laws)

KDLH ^

[chance33_98]

City Leaders Take Back the Streets
Melissa Ellefson 

It's a done deal. Monday night, Duluth City Councilors gave the go-ahead to a pair of ordinances designed to keep traffic on streets and sidewalks to a minimum.

It's a problem many downtown business owners say they've battled for years, clusters of people gathering around their storefronts to socialize and hang out.

Some are teens, some are transients, and some say they just don't have anywhere else to go.

"Teenagers, I'm kinda used to them, they're everywhere, but when you have a nice place like the Holiday Inn, and people coming out and they've got people hanging all over the place asking for money and just are scary sometimes, it's really poor for business," says Cheryl Z, store supervisor at Minnblue Copying.

Minnblue is just one business that has complained about people hanging around in front of storefronts and keeping customers from shopping. But some people who choose to come downtown, either to catch the bus or to catch up on gossip, feel they're being unfairly targeted.

"Well I think everyone has a right to stand around and talk to their friends, in the old days you could sit around the general store and just play games, nowadays there's such an unfriendliness," said Chris Sundeen, a Duluth resident who opposes the ordinances.

Authorities say they'll have another tool to use when people are not moving along the streets and sidewalks.

Violators could face fines of up to $700.

"You know, it's like a lot of things in this city, it's only a small percentage of people that cause the problems," says Gordon Ramsay, a police officer with the Duluth Police Department.

Once the ordinance is 30-days-old, businesses will be able to apply for the pedestrian zoning. Councilors will then hold a separate public hearing for each request.

[chance33_98]

Move along, nothing to see here - and if you don't move along we will fine you.

[Minnesoootan]

"You know, it's like a lot of things in this city, it's only a small percentage of people that cause the problems," says Gordon Ramsay, a police officer with the Duluth Police Department.

He is hinting on the West Duluth problem,but chooses to remain PC...Duluth needs to admit they have a minority problem just up the street from the downtown district,they have a slum.
I speant a month visiting my Dad in the Hospital downtown two years ago,I could have sworn it was the seedy areas of Mpls....I sat and watched from a second floor waiting area this small liquor store right across the street,what a disgrace.