CONTRAST: Camping snowbirds and the homeless

About a million snowbirds in RVs invade the area around Quartzsite, Ariz. (population 4,000) each winter. Arizona’s 12 million acres of sunshine and free camping managed by the Bureau of Land Management attract northerners like a magnet. However, BLM advises that what they call “dispersed camping” is generally allowed on public land for a period not to exceed 14 days within a 28 consecutive day period. This rule keeps campers moving around and prevents “Blue Tarp Squatters.” It works out OK for the campers because two weeks is about all they can last without dumping the holding tanks and refilling the water tank in their RV.

Contrast that with the homeless encampments springing up around the country. These unmanaged congregations of transients have no limitation on stay length or sanitation rules. There is no holding tank to dump. In urban areas, the sidewalk frequently becomes the dump station and city crews are kept busy hosing it off. Where the refuse goes after it disappears through the sewer grate often remains a mystery. And when residents, local governments, and/or law enforcement officers attempt to dislodge homeless camps, cries of sympathy from the woke become deafening. Note the hue and cry following the clearing of the land behind Target in Coeur d’Alene and the ongoing controversy surrounding Camp Hope in the Spokane Valley.

In the first case, government and citizens work hand in hand to maintain a healthy landscape and relationship. In the second case, not so much.

BOB LaRUE

Hauser