Blog: Homeless Panhandling Alcoholic Davisites & Trains Don’t Mix

A new issue of The Spare Changer is scheduled to be available Saturday morning at the Farmers Market. 

Call it philosophy. Call it fact. Call it policy in Our Little City...

Last week, in my first blog ever, I questioned the usefulness of a “safe” railroad crossing between Olive drive through that privately owned property to the south west side of the tracks, into downtown and beyond.

True, we need one. And true, the fence must be impenetrable. It must be on both sides of the track and it must go for at least a mile I either direction. Still, this won’t stop suicides or careless alcoholics from getting killed.

Careless alcoholics Like Danny “Santa Dan” Ferguson.

In my humble opinion, addressing train deaths by building a safe crossing, and even a fence, cannot begin to address the problem this city’s chronic homeless finding death there; dropping like flies seemingly, and doing so with predictable regularity.

Danny would still be alive today had it not been for that train one could say, sure, but that would be saying much too little and much, much too late. Besides, Amtrak service is here to stay, so the onus is to house the Danny’s of our community first, then deal with their depression, their substance abuse, and their disenfranchisement.

Remember, Santa Dan was a near daily panhandler on E street-in front of Chipotle. Most people know that, but what most people don’t know is that Danny slept less than 30 yards away from where he was hit, if the photos I’ve seen of the tracks are accurate.

This strike by train took place around 9:30 am by most accounts. Just the time Danny would be rolling up and out to the liquor store. He was smart enough to always have “wake-up” money just to get himself going for another day of panhandling. He would then return across the track and get to the nearest — and cheapest — liquor store around. Olive Drive Market.

Great people by the way, and great prices too. Only trouble? The liquor store is a straight shot to that private property, which is a well-travelled route across the tracks. Once across the tracks, it’s another straight shot to those Snake-motif resting areas where many drinkers often drink, despite award winning Davis Police Department Officers and Amtrak employee efforts to discourage them.

Shut them both down and the railroad problem is solved, as it pertains to the homeless and the drunken. House these people and they may die of something else true, alcoholism and complications from it likely — without intervention.

But when is the community going to recognize the need for a special tax for local homeless substance abusers? Failure to do so is just a form of community neglect. Aren’t we better than that? Aren’t we The City that Knows How?

Thinking back, it seems to me Danny isn’t the first death-by-train victim within the local homeless community.  Just last year another homeless panhandling alcoholic got killed. It’s unknown if it was a depression fueled or “courage in a bottle” motivated suicide, or just an “accident.”

Word on the streets is that they found his wallet in San Jose and part of his a-- cheeks in Salinas. He was a panhandler outside IN-N-OUT Burger, which is also a few yards from the same liquor store. A full-on alcoholic with no plans to change.

Other homeless alcoholics have died recently as well: Paula before him, Sal, John-John, Montana Ron, Big Jim, (another IN-N-OUT Burger panhandler,) Dave Van Buren, “hung himself in a single cell while he was ‘on on,’” all the way back to Wicks.

Although these were not train deaths, they were alcoholic homeless who more likely than not would be alive today had they been housed. At the very least, they would not have died homeless, and that is saying something.

Lose the liquor store. Step up to the plate Amtrak, and lose the snake benches. Step up to the plate Davis taxpayers and tell Our Little City government to add a specialty tax for this local demographic.

Trains and alcoholism don’t mix, and they never will.

Read about more homeless issues, many written by members of the homeless community on thesparechanger.net.