Park Benches Won't Return to Five Points Park

If you're looking for a place to sit down at Selby Five Points Park, you'll have to continue to squat on the grass.

The City Commission unanimously voted Monday afternoon to continue the ban of park benches at the park, located between Selby Library, the Whole Foods Market Center, Plaza Five Points and the five-point intersection.

"I don't believe it's about discrimination," Mayor Suzanne Atwell said. "A lot of the poeple who want to sit and read and look at the lights can't because they have been hijacked."

following as a way to deter crime at the park, as social service groups and law enforcement have said the park became a place for drug activity and illegal food stamp sells.

Others saw the move as a way to discriminate against the homeless and punishing those who want to just want a place to sit and rest in the midst of ther downtown stroll.

The commission agreed to have staff look at a possiblity to establishing a kiosk or a concession stand at the park to rent single-seat chairs, at the suggestion of Commissioner Willie Charles Shaw.

"To shut this conversation down at this time leaves us in the same place we have been in the past: nowhere," Shaw said.

More than 20 people weighed in at the meeting with a mix of support for and against benches. Some folks supported bringing the benches back because they don't want to sit on the grass where dogs poop. Others said bringing the park benches back expecting a different result in behavior is insane.

John Harshman of the Downtown Sarasota Alliance says the DSA supports the removal of benches until the bigger issues are are resolved.

Paul Tuttle of Occupy Sarasota says visitors to the park see the benches as a "moral issue" saying that benches are not an appropriate way to deal with the homeless. Tuttle also claimed he had 186 signatures to urge the commission to restore the benches.

Sarasota Police Lt. Randy Boyd told the commission that if benches would return, the city needs to have "solid codes" to make enforcement easier to charge people with crimes at the park.

Vice Mayor Terry Turner pointed out that the city offers numerous programs for the homeless, including having 235 shelter beds, 309 transition beds for those in drug rehab or other displacement issues, and 649 public housing units in addition to serving free meals. The city is also exploring ways to help implement the 10-year plan to end homelessness, initiated by the Suncoast Partnership to End Homelessness.

"We face an unhappy choice, and it's not between the homeless and those who have homes," Turner said. "It's between people who live on the periphery of downtown and those who live downtown."

He added that the priority for the city should be making downtown a safe and secure place for residents there.