Business owners on the Downtown Mall are demanding that Charlottesville City Council clean up the mall’s image. At a Council meeting Monday City Manager Maurice Jones will present a report that aims to provide a solution for disruptive behavior on the mall.
Every day shoppers pass the homeless sleeping on the mall, sitting on the mall and panhandling. City business owners say this behavior needs to change to foster a business- and patron-friendly environment.
The proposals include the creation of two new City ordinances that would prohibit sleeping on the mall and sitting or laying down on the mall within 10 feet of a building.
In addition, Council would establish a Street Outreach Coordinator who would work with local and state organizations such as Social Services to help provide additional social services to the individuals affected by the ordinances.
The changes are in part designed to improve safety and foot traffic flow and to improve business conditions, Smith said.
“We have certainly received complaints from business owners, especially the outdoor restaurants,” Smith said. “We want to encourage business on the mall — it’s part of what makes our city special and economically successful.”
The City has already taken steps to address some of the concerns that will be discussed at Monday’s meeting. In the last year it has increased the police presence in the area and created a Downtown Mall Ambassadors program.
“The Ambassadors meet and greet individuals and show them where they should be,” Charlottesville Police Lieut. Ronnie Roberts said. “They can also keep an eye on the area for the department.”
There are also measures already in place to manage panhandling, Roberts said.
Council members in the past have discussed imposing an ordinance that would ban vulgar language on the mall, but the measure has since been discarded as unconstitutional.
These new proposals also present concerns about equal enforcement and tricky gray areas of when they apply.
“Some people misuse these behaviors, but other times they are quite legitimate, making it hard to deal with,” Councilor Dede Smith said. “It is very common for people to sit and wait on the mall for a concert, or even the Barack Obama speech. We have to decide at what point we are stepping on civil rights.”
No Council vote has been scheduled at this time.
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