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George Bush said he wanted to be the education
president
and the environment president.
So it's
surprising that we keep reading of special campgrounds for
homeless people -- after all, Bush never said he wanted to
be the housing president.
The long-term campsites are fairly primitive in Oregon, with water some distance away, and no privies, just pit latrines. But in affluent Marin County, Calif., the homeless camp is patrolled by a security guard and offers color TV, a VCR, tents and Hard Rock Café T-shirts.
Poverty increased by 31.7 in Colorado percent during the
prosperous
years of Reagan and Bush, so we certainly
need such campgrounds. How can Colorado catch up to this
trend?
We have thousands of campsites in the national forests, but these wouldn't work. For one thing, they cost $7 a night, or about $200 a month. If you've got that kind of money for housing, you could probably afford to rent a shack or a room in a flophouse. Either is an improvement on camping -- fewer bugs and fewer drunks with chainsaws and bonfires at 2 a.m.
For another, the regular campsites attract money-spending tourists. If the campgrounds are occupied by poor people, we won't have room for tourists, and our fragile economy would collapse.
And even if there were a limit on poor people at a campground -- say, 20 percent of the campsites would be long-term and free for those whose luck had run out -- we have to face certain facts.
Prosperous, respectable tourists from Illinois or Texas will not want to park their $35,000 Winnebago next to the low-life Joads, who will be fishing for dinner, not recreation. People go on vacation to get away from problems, not to be reminded of them. It would not be wise to let reality intrude into the Colorado Experience. Tourists would just get disgusted and leave before spending all their money.
So existing campsites are out. There are intriguing possibilities in the city. Stapleton Airport and Lowry Air Force Base will both soon be available, and either could easily put Marin County's upscale homeless campground to shame.
But neither prospect is under serious consideration; instead, Denver will destroy its current homeless campground -- the railroad yards along the river -- and has announced no plans to replace it with a new facility.
Which leaves us with old mines, among them thousands of tunnels which would meet the criteria -- an open portal, and a stretch of at least 50 feet or so before any cave-ins. That's a lot more shelter than even a Sharper Image tent would provide, and let's see Marin County match the natural air-conditioning of a year-round 55 degrees.
Further, most old tunnels come equipped with running water, dripping from the roof and flowing along the floor. Sewage wouldn't be a consideration; the water is already polluted when it emerges from the adit.
And by designating old mines as homeless
campsites,
the state would avoid the federal mandate to
seal them off, and thereby save millions of dollars while
preserving our heritage from those safety-conscious
do-gooders.
So we could save money, protect our legacy, shelter the homeless and outdo California. Doesn't anybody else ever think about these things?
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