Chinatown cleanup going smoothly

UPDATE 3/24/2016 5 PM:

A different day, a different outcome. Contracted crews are making headway cleaning Chinatown, the largest homeless encampment in Salinas. The peace and progress comes one day after protesters blocked the main entrance into Chinatown, forcing crews to turn around.

“There were no fights,” Chinatown resident Sonny Patterson said. “Not like the other day when they were protesting on the corner. It’s actually been alright.”

On Thursday, people began packing their belongings, taking down their tents and leaving. Plastic bins were brought in to help people store their personal property. Crews began picking up trash to clean up the encampment that has grown over the years to an estimated population of 300.

“In 2013 we had 20 tents in Chinatown and three years later, we have hundreds of tents in Chinatown,” said Public Works Director Gary Petersen.

As it has grown, so has the criminal activity.

“We know there are some bicycle theft rings in there,” Petersen said. “We know about the drug dealing that goes on. Crime spills over into the rest of the city.”

Cracking down on crime starts with cleaning up. It’s a process made more difficult by the filthy conditions.

“This is so far beyond that,” Salinas Police Commander Vince Maiorana said. “This is buckets of excrement, of human waste. There’s trash down here that’s just so over the top that it’s taking the workers with tractors and cleanup crews wearing full biohazard suits to clean this mess up. And it is a very serious biohazard problem down here or cleanup and getting to where it’s a safe environment for people to be around here.”

While the city knows what needs to be done, the same can’t be said for some of the residents.

“What was going through my mind was, where am I gonna go?” Mary Ponce asked. “And number two, what am I going to do with all these things that I have?”

While there’s no official timetable, the city of Salinas hopes to have everything cleaned up in 30 days.

UPDATE 3/24/2016 10:56 AM:

The cleanup of the Salinas Chinatown area is underway. Salinas police said there have been no scuffles, and area residents are cooperating with cleanup crews that are removing trash from the area’s large homeless encampment. NewsChannel5’s Mariana Hicks will have more tonight at 9:00 PM on KION, your Central Coast News Source.

UPDATE 3/24/2016 7:47 AM:

The cleanup of homeless camps in Chinatown has begun Thursday morning. Salinas Police is on scene. KION is on scene and this article will be updated.

PREVIOUS STORY:

A small victory for people living in a large Salinas homeless encampment. The Chinatown crackdown was delayed on Wednesday after a scuffle between a cleanup crew and protesters. But the fight over the encampment isn’t over with both sides refusing to back down over the encampment that some say is filthy and full of drugs.

Salinas City Council Member Jose Castaneda was among the protesters who have been guarding the entrance to Soledad Street. They’ve been fighting a new ordinance that lets the city give people a 15-day notice to pick up and move their property.

“You have children out here, you have single mothers out here as well,” Castaneda said. Single men that are pretty much part of the farm workers.”

Many in Chinatown feel the ordinance will leave them with nowhere to go.

“But people around here don’t have places to go and where are they gonna go?” Cedric Campbell asked. “I don’t know. It’s terrible.”

It’s a task made even more difficult for people with pets and children.

“There’s a lot of people that live here, only I live here alone,” Juanita Aceves said. “All I have is my pets, so if I lose that, then I lose a big part of my family.”

The city’s public works director says this is the worst he’s ever seen Chinatown.

“We do need to clean Chinatown, it’s a threat,” Gary Petersen said. “No one should live like that, it’s a threat to public health and safety. It’s never been this bad. I’ve been working on cleanups in Chinatown for over five years, and it’s appalling, no one should live like that.”

Residents say if they are forced to pick up and leave, they’ll relocate to different parts of the city. One of them is a park off of Sun Way in Salinas. Others plan to camp out at Salinas City Hall at an area they’re now calling “Guntersville,” because they’re no fan of Salinas Mayor Joe Gunter.

But it doesn’t solve the problem of homelessness. Assembly member Luis Alejo said he met with city leaders to let them know he disagreed with the ordinance. He is pushing for a temporary solution like opening an organized encampment under the guidance of a nonprofit.

“Being the largest city in the Monterey Bay, it has no year-round shelter, it has no women’s shelter,” said Assembly member Luis Alejo. “They’ve only opened a winter shelter for the last three years and it’s only for a few months.”

And while it may take years, the city is trying to address the problem.

“We know beds are the answer,” Petersen said. “We know getting people off the street is the answer. We just need to focus really hard on making that happen. We continue to build housing around Chinatown, as we have for decades with all of the Haciendas 1, 2, 3 and 4. There’s senior housing going up now. There’s going to be family housing going up and in about two-three years there’s going to be housing with services going up, right around Soledad.”

Petersen said the city will take its time to decide when to go back to Chinatown. If cleanup crews face resistance like they did on Wednesday, Petersen said he thought at some point it could become a law enforcement issue.

ORIGINAL POST:

The scheduled cleanup of homeless camps in the Chinatown area of Salinas didn’t go off as planned Wednesday morning. City officials decided to delay the project after cleanup crews encountered resistance from area residents.

Mariana Hicks spoke with city officials and will tell us how the city plans to move forward. The story is tonight at 5:00 and 6:00 on KION, your Central Coast News Source.