A few words on how to treat homelessness.

From the Inquir­er’s series on home­less­ness in Philadel­phia:

Nut­ter has not laid out specifics on how he will address the home­less sit­u­a­tion. Yet change is already afoot. Since Nut­ter took office Jan. 7, police in Cen­ter City’s Ninth Police Dis­trict have begun a “qual­i­ty-of-life ini­tia­tive” in which indi­vid­u­als caught loi­ter­ing, pub­licly intox­i­cat­ed, uri­nat­ing in pub­lic or block­ing a high­way will get a cita­tion and be ordered to appear in Philadel­phia Com­mu­ni­ty Court.

William G. Bab­cock, the Com­mu­ni­ty Court’s coor­di­na­tor, said that in just a few weeks his staff had noticed an increase in the case­load out of the Ninth.

In an inter­view short­ly before he took office, Nut­ter said the city would have to be fair and humane, “but we will also have to be relent­less.… We can­not allow peo­ple to sleep on side­walks, sleep on bench­es, sleep in parks as if that is their reg­u­lar liv­ing space.”

This is what is con­sid­ered ‘pro­gres­sive’ in 2008? And he likes ‘stop and frisk?’ How long before phrenol­o­gy makes its big comeback?

Last­ly, I guess Mari­mow’s liv­ing out this sea­son of the Wire for real. This sto­ry has a real Dick­en­sian feel to it.