In this video, I toured Riverside Park in Grants Pass, Oregon to take a look at the state of the park since homeless campers (and drug users) have been moved to other locations in town.
Grants Pass has been at the epicenter of a Supreme Court fight (Johnson v. City of Grants Pass–which it won on June 29, 2024) to retain its right to ban overnight camping in public places.
The city has been inundated with homeless–a large percentage of whom have issues with drugs, for the past few years. The situation has been exacerbated by the State of Oregon’s decision to de-criminalize hard drugs. This policy has been a disaster, and even the Democrat-led State Legislature has been forced to re-criminalize hard drugs.
While the City of Grants Pass has banned overnight camping in its parks again, it has created four sites that are allowing camping for a limited number of nights. Will drug use be tolerated at these sites?
Many Grants Pass citizens are fed up with the degradation of their parks and city, and some are helping to clean up.
Park Watch is a group that is helping to clean up the parks in Grants Pass.
See my podcast interview with Oregon Eagle Editor and Publisher Richard Emmons (“Is Grants Pass OR Solving Its Homeless Crisis?”)