City of Grants Pass OR

GeoBoy wrote:

JimK-NY wrote:
We are talking about Grant Pass Oregon. The ordinance and overnight parking prohibition is posted in the Walmart parking lot. They are attempting to regulate parking on private property not just on city streets.

I can understand resort communities that need to restrict parking. So the community does not want cars or RVs clogging up the streets day and night. Yes they can prohibit overnight parking but only on public streets. The prohibition has to be evenly applied; i.e., residents would not be allowed to park on the streets either. BTW, Grants Pass is hardly a vacation mecca and certainly not a resort community. I passed through a couple of months ago and it was more congested and uglier than ever.

You might think it is a good idea to outlaw sleeping in a car or RV even if it is legally parked. Sleeping in your car or vehicle if legally parked is legal and know it all local city governments do not have the right to prohibit this activity! We still have some freedoms in the country. BTW why would you want to prohibit sleeping in a car? Because you do not like the lowlifes? Did it occur to you that some people are struggling to get by. I have met quite a few people sleeping in their cars. Many were trying to work jobs and to get out of poverty. Maybe instead of trying to dump on the unfortunate, the city of Grants Pass might consider offering some assistance. Plenty of people deserve and could use some help.

No one is dumping on the unfortunate, that’s why we have shelters to help the homeless get back on their feet.

I'll dump on the unfortunate. The fact is there is a direct relationship between poverty and both violent and property crimes. Also, mentally ill make up a much larger percentage of the homeless population than exists in the rest of society. Inviting the homeless into your neighborhood by relaxing laws does not help the homeless, but will make your neighborhood statistically less safe.

However, this thread wasn't ever about the homeless. It was about a guy who didn't like a law that apparently wasn't a problem for the vast majority of the people in the town. You can't even make this a private property rights issue, like so many threads regarding HOAs try to do. He was trying to live on a city street which is using public property for a purpose it was never intended and he found out that not only was it against city ordinances, but also that those ordinances are enforced. It really doesn't matter that it is in front of his mother's house, or that it was somehow the best solution for him.