Downtown Merced needs effort to feel safe again, business owners say

City leaders have proposed ideas to strengthen a sense of safety for downtown Merced in response to complaints from businesses and homeowners who say panhandlers and others are creating an threatening environment.

The sight of panhandlers on Main Street is nothing new to visitors or to members of the City Council, but discussion during a special session on Monday led city leaders to consider suggestions to improve the district.

The ideas included assigning a police officer to patrol downtown on foot, boosting code-enforcement efforts, improving lighting, providing transportation to encourage students to visit, and implementing a mobile outreach unit for the homeless.

Aggressive panhandling was the most common complaint. “It seems the people we’re dealing with are not afraid of being arrested – are not afraid of the police,” said Mike Siegel, owner of Cigar Monkey on Canal Street.

The city implemented a panhandling ordinance last year that regulates the activity at certain busy intersections. The ordinance does not affect people who ask for money downtown.

Mike Greenberg, who owns Cold Stone Creamery on Main Street, said he finds two or three people sleeping in the store’s doorway every morning. He said he often has to clean human waste off the building as well.

He and wife, Carol, also live in the downtown neighborhood north of Main Street. She compared running into staggering drunk people and being cussed at by panhandlers as feeling like she was in the horror movie “The Night of the Living Dead.”

“I don’t go anywhere anymore without carrying a personal alarm,” she said.

The Merced Main Street Association is doing some of the work necessary to improve downtown, said member Robert Matsuo, co-owner of 510 Bistro on Main Street. The association this year started programs that give an incentive to groups that plan an event downtown or to owners who make improvements to the facade of buildings.

Members of the Downtown Neighborhood Association also have made it their goal to put pressure on absentee, out-of-town owners who do not maintain their downtown rental space. Blighted areas are known to attract criminal activity, law enforcement officials have said.

Councilman Kevin Blake said the city needs to figure out what draws drug users or people with mental health problems to the downtown before deciding how to remedy issues.

Renee Davenport, a local homeless advocate, said the city has done little to address homeless issues. Pushing people out of the area for aesthetic reasons doesn’t improve the situation, she said.

“The simple thing is they don’t have a shelter or place to go,” she said. “This has to be a community effort.”

Ultimately, the council asked representatives from the United Way of Merced County, the city’s Economic Development Department, Merced Main Street Association and Merced Police Department to give reports on the feasibility of the ideas from the council. Those are due back at the Dec. 7 meeting.

This story was originally published November 17, 2015 at 1:13 PM with the headline "Downtown Merced needs effort to feel safe again, business owners say."