Proposed ordinance draws strong reactions

joing us. i’m hetaher skold. and i’m james jarman. first up… a ban on sitting… it’s the hot topic tonight in colorado springs.. city council has been debating a proposed sitting ban at two spots in colorado springs. in downtown, the proposed ban runs west to east from i-25 to wasatch, and from north to south from st. vrain to cimarron. another zone.. in old colorado city.. would run east to west .. along colorado avenue from 21st to 31st street. and north to south.. from pikes peak to cucharras. and tonight was the first night the public could tell city leaders what they think about it. krdo newschannel 13’s greg miller was at the meeting… he’s live downtown tonight. greg a lot of viewpoints. strong words from both sides… some say it’s a public issue… others call it discrimination. a lot of questions… 1:35 what is the public safety issue sleeping in a flowerbeds off the right of way strong emotions on both sides. 1:29 what is truly need by a city that is called compassionate – is a center away from downtown core where the homeless can receive all of the services need. one man, who doesn’t own a home, upset this will cause discriminatio n – 1:14 i’m tired of being pushed out. i was once in an rv and now i’m in a tent. come hang me. a downtown businessown er afraid she’ll have to leave 2:21 i have photos of the sidewalk being blocked by trash, bikes, skateboards thrown in the middle of the sidewalk. people having a drug seizure laying on the sidewalk. she says the problem got so bad – some customers won’t come in. she took this video from out of her store window. 189 days and $2500 would be the maximum penalties if someone was caught. but this ordinance has the mayor talking. 1:25 laying on the sidewalk, obstructing sidewalks, is not something we should tolerate, simply because we have homeless in our community. it’s not just homeless… it’s youthful vagrants. suthers wasn’t at this public forum but while everyone here agrees theres a problem… 2:13 we can do better than this. the solution wont be simple. agrees theres a problem… 2:13 we can do better than this. the solution wont be simple. september 17th at the west side community center – more opinions will be taken before this issue is brought to the city council again. live in cs, gm, nc 13.