Our phobia about the homeless threatens to hold downtown Columbia back

During my three months (and counting) in Columbia, it’s been great to end each day feeling like I learned something new about this city.

And here are just two of the early lessons that have resonated with me:

▪ A lot of people in this city tend to overreact when the USC football program has a lousy season — even to the point of acting like braying donkeys.

▪ A lot of people in this city tend to overreact when it comes to the homeless in downtown Columbia — even to the point of mindlessly moving downtown benches around like oversized street chess pieces.

Fortunately, USC didn’t give in to the hee-hawing mob that wanted the school to fire head coach Will Muschamp and use millions of taxpayer dollars to buy out his contract.

Instead the university eventually chose reflection over overreaction.

It chose looking at the big picture over being shortsighted.

But why is it so hard for us to do the same thing when it comes to the homeless in downtown Columbia?

It’s a question worth asking — yet again — after the recent controversy that saw a local church abandon a plan to convert a 5,000-square-foot vacant lot into a small downtown park and event space.

And why did it do so?

Well, the church backed away from the project because opponents of the proposal — including another nearby church — were concerned that if the empty lot were transformed into a little park with some seating, a stage and a gated entrance, the whole place would be overrun by the downtown homeless.

Now let’s ponder that for a moment.

When given a choice between a) having a gravel lot in downtown Columbia remain an empty, uninspiring and largely dormant site or b) turning that space into an active, functioning park area, a vocal segment of people loudly and successfully demanded that “(a)” happen — because they feared that “(b)” would become a magnet for homeless individuals who would set up camp and hijack all the benches.

(Ah, yes, the benches obsession again.)

When you break it down that way it sounds pretty ridiculous, doesn’t it?

Yes.

Because it is pretty ridiculous.

And it also makes you wonder.

If the knee-jerk phobia about the homeless in downtown Columbia has truly reached the point where folks would rather have a vacant gravel lot in the heart of this city than a potentially vibrant park area, where’s the ending point for this raging state of paranoia?

What’s really preventing it from running so deep that it begins to hold back the potential of downtown Columbia — and keep downtown from being all that it should be as the center of our city?

For example, if a celebrity chef wanted to take over an empty storefront in downtown Columbia and turn it into a chic restaurant, would a vociferous group of naysayers rise up and fight against it — out of fear that the eatery might become too popular and attract homeless people panhandling the patrons streaming in and out of it each night?

You laugh.

But I’m serious.

Just how far are we willing to go with this lingering, stubborn phobia about the downtown homeless?

Better yet, can’t we just avoid having to answer that question?

When it comes to addressing the issue of the homeless in downtown Columbia, it’s time for more measured breaths of reflection and fewer hyperventilating fits of overreaction.

Let’s not reach the farcical stage where we have a downtown Columbia that can’t have nice things because we’re obsessed over whether they’ll be “ruined” by people who literally have nothing.

Opinion Editor Roger Brown can be reached at (803) 771-8464 or rjbrown@thestate.com. You can follow him on Twitter @RBrown_SCOpin.

This story was originally published January 8, 2020 at 5:50 AM.