HomeMy WebLinkAbout2/2/2021 Item 11, Hamblet
Wilbanks, Megan
From:Karissa Hamblet <
To:E-mail Council Website
Subject:PEOPLE over pickleball and police sweeps
Dear SLO City Council,
I am deeply disturbed to hear you are even remotely considering putting in MORE pickleball courts in San Luis Obispo.
Seriously, are courts at two different parks in SLO not enough? I didn’t realize San Luis Obispo was attempting to send
rich elderly white people to the Olympics to compete in pickleball.
Police raids and sweeps on our houseless neighbors in Mitchell Park have made it crystal clear what the city’s priorities
are during COVID— dehumanizing and displacing houseless people at all costs. Your consideration of these new
pickleball courts at Mitchell Park is only further affirmation of this.
Have you spoken to and gotten to know community members who have been forced to take shelter at Mitchell Park and
other locations around our city and county? This is not a rhetorical question, I am genuinely asking. Because if you got to
know people individually, instead of just as a nuisance you want to do away with by putting up pickleball courts, maybe
you would find enough empathy to make the real, necessary changes to protect our community members. How many of
our houseless community members do you know by name? You theoretically were elected to make real, sustainable
change that values ALL members of our community— if you aren’t here to protect the most vulnerable members of our
community during a PANDEMIC, why are you even on the city council in the first place?
I need you to care, and care deeply. It’s not that hard, I promise. I invite all of you to mask up and come down to meet
some of our neighbors, and start learning who you need to be fighting for — the wealthy white population of SLO will
survive without yet another pickleball court, but to be honest, I’m not sure how many more sweeps and forced removals
our houseless population can handle.
When police sweeps happen, often ALL of people’s possessions are thrown out in front of them. This means any sort of
protection from the elements they had, they have had stripped from them. I recently met a man who was displaced
after the camp by CHP was swept. It was raining hard that day and he didn’t even have long pants or close-toed shoes
because the police had taken ALL of his possessions. No pants, no sleeping bag, no tent, no shoes. When a houseless
person dies in San Luis Obispo, how do you handle their funeral? Do you just throw their body into a mass grave like Los
Angeles? Because this is what you are pushing people to by not taking immediate action; unnecessary death. I need you
to understand just how urgent the needs are of our houseless population.
We need to do better. If there is a budget to put up decorations in Mission Plaza, if there is a budget to entirely
restructure downtown with bike lanes, there MUST be a budget to care for our houseless community.
Do better.
Karissa Hamblet
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