City Officials discuss issues at Kennedy Plaza
By Ana Bottary
@anabottary
Enough is enough. City Officials fed up with on-going issues present at Kennedy plaza.
"Maybe one thing by itself isn’t as big of a problem but when you have everything congregated together, it is a problem,” says Former Mayor Joe Paolino.
Paolino is taking issues head on as the new chairman of the downtown improvement district. He’s bringing groups together to solve issues most affecting what’s going on at the plaza.
"There’s people that are congregating, just hanging out a lot and there is criminal activity that is going on, then there is trespassing that is going on, people on other peoples property sleeping or smoking monkey weed doing not good things, and then we have the panhandling aspect,” says Frank LaTorre, Senior Director of the Providence Downtown Improvement District.
To discuss the different options, there are two sub-committees that have formed. One, to focusing on law and enforcement, the other is on social service outreach. From a social service prospective, Andrew Horwitz feels bringing different groups together is productive, however he says there are laws in place to protect certain activities such as panhandling.
"Panhandling is a first amendment protector form of speech, it’s an activity that the supreme court has made clear is protected,” says Horwitz.
"I believe there are ways if we think outside the box, and not take no for an answer. I don’t want to hear some bureaucrat or some lawyer saying its impossible you cant do it. Let’s find a way we can do it, legally,” says Paolino.
The discussion has just begun, the two subcommittees will discuss different ideas for change and present them on September 14th.
©WLNE-TV / ABC6 2016
