Downtown Not So Sweet

From today’s Herald-Sun

The owner of Ben & Jerry’s in downtown Chapel Hill is attempting to sell the franchise, and if he doesn’t sell it, he plans to move the store to another location…The Chapel Hill shop has been at 102 W. Franklin St. for 19 years, but he explains there are problems with

“We’re looking at different locations a little bit further down on Franklin Street or down near Carrboro,” Healey said. “We’re trying to stay in Chapel Hill.”

Why move Ben & Jerry’s?

The current location of the store, just a few feet from Chapel Hill’s main downtown intersection of Franklin and Columbia streets, would seem an ideal location for an ice cream store. But the benches out front of the store have become a loitering spot, sometimes for homeless people and panhandlers, sometimes just for people who spend hours at a time there.

“That little section of Franklin Street, as much as we love being there, it’s just not worth all the grief it’s giving us,” Healey said.

The reporter (Beth Velliquette) observed that

On Monday around 2 p.m., a middle-aged woman and an older man sat under a tree on one of the four benches, chain-smoking cigarettes and talking and listening to music. They didn’t appear to be going anywhere soon. At one point, the woman began discussing drugs, and she cursed loudly using the f-word several times.

I work just down the street from Ben & Jerry’s and walk by those benches nearly daily. At times these benches (and others along Franklin) attract groups of raucous, sometimes vulgar, folks.

Just yesterday, for instance, I spoke with a few young guys yelling lewd remarks across the street at some women exiting the Franklin Inn. I thought if they knew someone was paying attention to their bad behavior they might knock it down a notch. It seemed to work, at least as I made my way past Vespa and out of earshot.

That they listened, if even a bit, is probably because they recognized me as well as I recognized them as frequenters of the same stretch of pavement. Heck, I bet I know, at least by sight, the “f-word” woman referred to in the article.

My concern, beyond Ben & Jerry’s and other businesses moving away, is that these types of bad behaviors are associated with all the folks lingering around Downtown. The way some folks speak of Downtown one would think the complete population of loiterers are thugs, drug addicts and downright dangerous miscreants.

From my perspective this is just not the case. Yes, there are some loiterers, panhandlers and homeless persons Downtown whose behavior is, at least, socially unacceptable and, at times, threateningly criminal.

That is not the whole population.

There are some long term lingerers that are generally innocuous but have mental or drug problems – problems they manage, I believe, within a socially acceptable manner. And then there’s folks just waiting for the TTA or their ride from work. When it comes to “managing” Downtown – responding to calls for greater crackdowns, less patience – I hope our leadership well remembers the diversity that is reflective of our society and creates a set of solutions relevant to an individuals actual – not perceived – behavior.


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7 responses to “Downtown Not So Sweet”

  1. Xan Gregg Avatar

    With your “not so sweet” title, I thought you were going to comment on the smell, which is also a problem sometimes with that area. It seemed to be especially strong in the morning, strangely enough, when I used to walk that way from the bus to the office.

  2. Administrator Avatar
    Administrator

    Xan, what do you think of the new TTA routes? Are you using them?

  3. Xan Gregg Avatar

    I’ve only seen new ones from Chapel Hill to downtown Raleigh. If only there was a stop in Cary …, but I’d stick with the direct vanpool as long as we can keep it going.

  4. Terri Avatar
    Terri

    I am totally impressed if someone sitting on the benches out front of Ben & Jerry’s was able to see anyone exiting the Franklin Inn well enough to harass them. 🙂

    I don’t think the complaints about downtown are about lingering–it’s who is lingering. My friends and I used to linger downtown for hours and no one complained.

  5. Administrator Avatar
    Administrator

    Guess I wasn’t too clear on where those guys were… They were sitting at the nice cluster of benches across from the Franklin Inn. They were yelling “hey baby” type stuff.

  6. Administrator Avatar
    Administrator

    BTW, this spring I saw an incredible display of “group” bad behavior. I was on Franklin St. late one night and saw a group of 12-15 young men that were drunk, rowdy – possible excusable but also rude and vulgar – which definitely wasn’t. They formed an impromptu gauntlet making folks walk through a narrowed path on the sidewalk. I imagine pretty damn intimidating.

    As I approached they staggered off to console one of their members who was throwing up his early evening repast and have a group pee back behind Porthole Alley.

    I’ve spent quite a bit of time Downtown over the years and have seen some pretty bad behavior – it’s not isolated to any particular age, gender, race. It really bugs me that some of the critics of how the Town is handling the issues Downtown seem to quickly narrow the scope to a particular group.

    I wonder whom they imagine when they describe the urine stained walls of our Downtown alleys. Is it a group of young college guys?

  7. Terri Avatar
    Terri

    Oh no! You don’t think a group of frat boys or athletes would pee out in public do you? Heavens Will…you’re just getting a bit too radical.

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