And so the community continues to be a diverse community.  But there is tension.   And as the balance has shifted from a majority poor community with people from many different ethnic and racial backgrounds to a community with a higher median income, the level of communication between people from different backgrounds has declined. And at least one aspect of tension felt by people who have been able to stay is an attitude that they are not welcome, experiencing this in part through structures like the CAPS program. Requiring conflict resolution and diversity training of beat facilitators and D.A.C. members would give these volunteers tools they need to engage the full breadth of voices in our many diverse communities.

As we prepare to enter the 21st century we face a challenge on every level of government to find balance in our policies. We have again and again institutionalized a prosecutorial approach to our problem solving. It is much easier to punish than it is to prevent the need to do so. We are as guilty of this failure on the local level as our state legislature has been or Congress has been on the federal level. We all can agree that when laws have been violated there needs to be an appropriate response. But if all our focus is on reacting after a harm has been done, we are choosing a path that perpetuates itself. We have to be able to walk on two feet. We have to be able to act to prevent the harm before it occurs.

Our budget for health and human services remains proportionately non-existent among our priorities. For another year, just 4% of our budget is allocated for this category of expenses. Our Health Department Budget is not quite keeping up with inflation and yet objective conditions require continued and more resources for our health and mental health clinics. We have ongoing and new needs for AIDS education and health delivery, but our budget allocation does not adequately reflect this. The 1999 proposal to address homelessness includes new emergency crews and a new level of coordination with the Health Department. To do so will mean staff from the Health Department being reassigned to work in some fashion with DHS, and yet there are no additional slots allocated for this in the budget, meaning they will come from already under-staffed activities. And if we make changes in our requirements for posting of information regarding inspections at restaurants, as has been proposed today,  we can’t responsibly do so without providing additional staff to the Health Department and increase the frequency of inspections.