Concern with homelessness and their extracurricular activities at Legacy Park in Venice
Francesco Abbruzzino, The Uncensored Report, LLC
This was originally just posted on Facebook and had several responses with an engagement of about 10,000 people in the 6 hours prior to me putting it on this website. Most of the comments are under the Francesco Abbruzzino – the Scoop page. The embed below is from my The Suncoast News and Scoop page where this was originally posted and then shared.
Anonymous
Do you know what’s up with all the homeless people basically living at Legacy Park in Venice (next to train station)? I can’t take my kid there anymore with all the homeless guys smoking weed, blasting music, and sleeping in benches… This is on the toddler section it sucks
I have gone three times with my two year old and air smells like weed, people blasting music and a lot sleeping in floor and benches
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COV response
From Vice Mayor Pachota.
Thank you for passing this on. I went to the park today and observed some of the issues identified. The City Manager, Assistant City Manager, and VPD administration are aware and are working to resolve the issues. This was actually one of multiple complaints they received. While I know people have their reasons for remaining anonymous, please impress upon the individual making the post that one of the best ways to catch the activity while it is happening is to notify the police immediately, they can still remain anonymous but it gives an opportunity to stop the behavior while in action. The VPD non-emergency line is 941-486-2444 and of course if they feel that there is an imminent threat to safety they should call 911.
I will follow up with city staff over the course of this week to see what progress has been made and e-mail you with any future developments.
Frankie, again thank for passing this on to me so that I could bring it to the attention of city staff.
Happy New Year!