new terrain
Th ursday
Young Democrat could represent Ithaca’s student voice, page 10
Fall theater season brings to light three shows about the depth of human emotion, page 13
Bomber teams look to make a home in the new Athletics and Events Center, page 19
S epte m be r 2 2 , 2 0 1 1
new vision
Curtain up
The Ithacan
By lauren mazzo contributing writer
Jungle residents left in limbo as City of Ithaca decides their fate
Tom Purcell, a resident of Section One of the Jungle, stands by his tent Sept. 2. Purcell and about five other residents stay there during the winter. kevin campbell/the ithacan
staff writer
Walk along Route 13 south, right beside the train tracks until the railroad bridge crosses the creek by Agway. Cross the bridge. Balance on the steel tracks, hop from one railroad tie to the next. Hang a left. Snake through one of the beaten paths lined with leftover cardboard from a Keystone Ice case and broken bottles. Tents loom behind bushes. Carpet remnants blanket the ground. Several men are perched on the cement retention wall by the creek, rolling cigarettes into perfect cylinders. One man sprinkles some Doritos on the ground for a duck. On the pockmarked cement beside Gary Rohey rests a bowl full of apples, much like the fruit bowls that sometimes sit on kitchen countertops. He offers one to anyone who passes by. “Welcome to the Jungle,” reads a sign nailed to a tree trunk. “All friends are welcome, whores and bums are not. Thieves will pay the price.” The Jungle, home to about 50 homeless men and women living in tents, is a “problem” the City of Ithaca has been trying to solve for the last two years. It’s where the “misfits” of Ithaca’s homeless population collect — those who aren’t willing to give up Meow Meow the Jungle Cat, aren’t ready to face their alcoholism or don’t meet the requirements for admittance to Ithaca shelters. They don’t
Volume 7 9 , Is s u e 4
NY approves new policy on amnesty
Beating around the bush by taylor long
It ha ca , N . Y.
have anywhere else to go, and the city doesn’t know where to put them. Yesterday, city officials held a private meeting to discuss its plan for the Jungle’s future. Dan Hoffman, City of Ithaca attorney, declined to share the outcome of the meeting. The City of Ithaca gave the American Red Cross of Tompkins County a “draft eviction notice” in August calling for residents living in Sectors Two and Three of the Jungle, which rest on city-owned land, to either pack up by Sept. 15 or be arrested for trespassing. Sector One of the Jungle was not included in the eviction notice because it rests on land owned by Norfolk Southern Corp. railroad. Mayor Carolyn Peterson said the city plans to address Sector One after Sectors Two and Three have been evicted. It looked like a promise of eviction, but at the Homeless and Housing Task Force meeting Aug. 30, Peterson announced the city had decided to remove the Sept. 15 deadline from the notice. The date came, and no one had been evicted. Hoffman said complaints from local businesses, expansion of the Jungle and a series of health and safety liabilities brought the city to the doors of social service agencies about two and a half years ago, in search of suggestions on how to relocate the residents. “The city has been trying to get viable suggestions for years,” Hoffman said at the
John Wallis sits by the railroad tracks in Section One of the Jungle. He does not live in the Jungle, but often visits to see his friends. kevin campbell/the ithacan
meeting. “The city is very open to hearing ideas that people have.” But while willing to hear plans, the city cannot help fund the solution it calls for, he said. “The city is cutting back all of its departments right now,” Hoffman said. “We’re not in a position to take on new services, so somebody needs to be creative and take responsibility.” In the absence of a “creative solution,” Hoffman said, the city would have to enforce city regulations and evict the people who live in the Jungle. The city isn’t sure when that day will come. Hoffman said the decision to remove the Sept. 15 date on the draft eviction notice was made to give the mayor more time to consult with social service agencies.
NOT IN MY BACKYARD Peterson said three separate businesses have approached her with complaints about the Jungle, but she would not disclose what the complaints were or the names of the businesses. Though Andy Boerman, owner of the Agway near the Jungle, said he’s never filed a complaint, he has found residents relieving themselves on stacks of cement pallets stored near the railroad tracks. Walking through the Jungle, it’s evident where health and safety regulations are being
See jungle, page 4
From left, Jack Saunders and Penny Shaffer sit in Section One of the Jungle. Shaffer has lived there for about 15 years.
kevin campbell/the ithacan
f ind m or e. onl ine. www.t heit hacan.org
A new state law went into effect Sunday that will legally protect offcampus students who call for help in an alcohol or drug-related emergency. Currently, Ithaca College’s Medical Amnesty Policy protects students from being prosecuted when contacting authorities in an emergency on campus, but now with the new law, both off-campus students and regular citizens NISON said last who call for help year’s success with will be assured the MAP was a source of inspiration. same protection. The purpose of the law is to fight alcohol and drug overdose and convey the message that saving lives is more important than incriminating people. Senior Evan Nison, president of the college’s chapter of Students for Sensible Drug Policy, was a driving force behind passing the new law, known as the 911 Good Samaritan Law, as well as for a MAP last year. Nison said the success of last year’s policy on campus was a source of inspiration for SSDP’s legislative efforts. “We had a meeting at the end of last year with a bunch of school officials,” he said. “And pretty much everyone at the meeting seemed to agree that it was a success.” SSDP started front-end work on the bill before it was formally introduced to the legislature last year. They went to the Capitol with letters of support written by health staff from the college and Cornell University. Nison said the letters were helpful and played a large role in getting legislators on board. “The few people with experience with these policies already in the state supported it and had a really good experience,” he said. To back their efforts, SSDP supplied a Cornell study published in the International Journal of Drug Policy that demonstrated the effectiveness of amnesty policies in higher education. The results of the study were from Cornell’s own nine-year-old policy showing that while calls for help doubled, alcohol use had remained the same. SSDP was able to get the law passed with help from Senator John A. DeFrancisco, R-N.Y., Senator Kemp Hannon, R-N.Y., and Assemblyman Richard N. Gottfried, D-N.Y. “The leadership from the assembly and the Senate both really took this seriously and worked hard to make sure that it got to the governor’s desk,” Nison said. Mike Leary, assistant director of judicial affairs at the college, said it took
See amnesty, page 4