The Telegraph - The so-called "wet-zone" would allow problem drinkers to be given somewhere where they are free to consume alcohol without fear of being moved on by police, but away from shoppers and tourists. The zones are popular in cities in the United States where they have been used successfully to keep drunks away from areas that are popular with visitors. In Colchester, Britain's oldest recorded town, the drinkers have already been moved on from the grounds of the historic 11th century St Botolph's Priory but have started gathering again just a few hundred yards away. One drinker who has been targeted by police in the town said: "I suppose we can be quite intimidating if we're standing having a drink but we're not bad people. "Although we drink, we do have respect for people. "The police come down, take us off, take our cans away, pour it in the bin and we get moved on but we'll come back down about three hours later."
Is it just me or did everyone else just assume the homeless were allowed to drink where ever they wanted anyway? I can't remember ever seeing a drunk bum being hassled by the police. Dude is homeless. I thought the only benefit to being homeless was you were allowed to get bombed wherever, whenever (well that and the freedom of public urination).
I would love to see the idea of bars for homeless though. Just a cardboard box building, few stools made out of milk crates, kind of a social experiment to see if they behave like we do. See if the older more hardened bums are jealous of the more recently homeless and their relatively clean shaven look, attracting all the female vagrants. Would there be beer snobs amongst the homeless? Is the guy drinking Bud Light going to look down on the guy with only enough change for Keystone? Stuff like that.
And what's all this business about this being popular in the states? They're certainly not talking about Boston, unless our policy makers don't consider the Garden or Fenway, Fanueil Hall and the subway as popular with visitors and tourists. Guys are everywhere. And I'm not really complaining, again, they're homeless. I think the least we can do is just ignore them and pretend they're not there while they're rambling on in their drunken stupor (unless of course you're the assholes that piss in the parking garage stairwells and elevators, that shit is just gross).
PS: Yes this is an overly insensitive post. I'm not really that cold, I always feel terrible when I ignore their requests for change on the street, a couple of drinks later I'm usually over it though.
