My family and I are yearly tourism visitors to Durango. This year we had to run a gauntlet of homeless on Main Avenue. Local business owners seem to think these people were dumped there by neighboring states. I called City Hall and the Chamber of Commerce. The person I spoke with at City Hall tried to say it was not bad compared with other big cities and told me all about all the studies and plans the city has. Typical government reaction. If you build, it they will come. Great free food and housing will increase your homeless – study Santa Barbara, Calif. The cops need to bring people with mental health issues in for evaluation as often as possible. Public drunks need to be arrested as often as possible. Begging needs to be illegal and enforced. They will move on. Build a big support system and they will move here in force. You can have homeless or tourists but not both.
Kent Scribner
Cherokee, Okla.
