It was all so predictable, wasn’t it?
When, during the homeless encampment on the Greenfield Common last summer, the Recorder editorialized how the city needed to get rid of the camp, anyone could predict the result. Sure, the editorial mused piously about how the City Council and the service agencies needed to work on solutions, but it was predictable nothing would come of that. Sure, folks talked about how ServiceNet was adding more beds, but nothing came of that either.
The best solution anyone had was to pack homeless people into a van and drive them to another state. Out of sight, out of mind. And now we have city councilors confessing about how ashamed they are. And that was predictable too. One more thing that’s predictable: a month from now, after the funerals are done and the headlines have moved on, the councilors and the newspapers and the good public will safely go back to not caring. Out of sight, out of mind.
Robert Traynor
Turners Falls