LOL people that write this stuff must think everyone is an idiot. There couldn't be any OBVIOUS reason why property in Laconia is not terribly desirable.

Still wondering what you suggest specifically to remedy the drug / homeless problem.

What "little things" should be enforced?

I think you are being purposely obtuse. Being homeless is a crime -- most communities have laws preventing people from trespassing and sleeping on public or private property. Either move along or get arrested. As a society we are tolerating abnormal and illegal behavior. Enforce the laws. Arrest the drug addicts, imprison them. Try to get them help, but the onus is on them to either get in line or live a life of misery. Once we agree that we are not going to tolerate this type of behavior things will get better. As Joey stated, NYC is a great example.

I know one thing, if I make a misstep I will be punished to the full extent of the law. The sad truth is that our police don't want to deal with this BS, and it's easier to turn a blind eye. I'm not blaming the police, but it's easier to deal with a law-abiding citizen than someone who is not complying to societal norms. I can give you countless examples.

One of my law partners just got Orion as a client. Great, great company, and quite a success story. It would be interesting to find out how Orion came about choosing the Laconia Industrial Park, and what incentives it received for making the investment. Maybe it can be replicated?

That is an excellent constructive idea!!!! Thank you for getting away from the negativity and let's figure out plans to move the city forward, you cannot change the past (Although some try, lol)

Really?

So then,are are you saying that the way to solve the homeless problem is to build more jails and prisons?

That philosophy didn't work for the so-called "war on drugs" and it won't work for the newly-coined"war on the homeless."

I share your seeming dislike and frustration with homelessness, but I disagree with your belief that punishing people for their failure to succeed in life is a viable solution.

A guy flames out, burns all his bridges, has no home, no support system, no family to care about him, and he hits the streets: the dregs of humanity, total losers.

What to do?

I really don't know but I am searching for a viable solution.

Sorry if my genuine curiosity comes off as being "obtuse."

"Move along or get arrested" that's not a solution to the problem. The homeless have no where to go so that's just pushing the problem to another community. You may help the problem in Laconia but another community will be the recipient of that problem. But I understand, "out of sight out of mind" problem fixed, NOT!

You know the government can be blamed for some of this. If they didn't make so many darn rules and regulations, rentals would be more affordable. I remember hearing about a homeless shelter in NY that could not be approved because it didn't have the elevator and all the required things. I guess nothing is better than something a little sub standard-if you can call it that. Truly housing would be more affordable if the gov. didn't need to save ourselves from ourselves. People need a little responsibility to feel good about themselves and if they don't have anything in the world to worry about, they can't feel that. Or maybe not.

You are making my point. Either you conform or you get arrested. We can provide some limited assistance, but ultimately the homeless or drug addled person involved is responsible for his own life. If, as a community, we vigorously enforce our laws against homelessness, drug use, drug sales, etc., we will be much better off for it. The homeless/drug user will then be faced with (1) conforming with societal expectations, (2) remain in a cycle of being arrested, imprisoned, set free, arrested, etc., (3) or move to a community that tolerates the behavior. I think we can put together a collection to buy one-way tickets to Los Angeles, San Francisco, Portland or Seattle. It appears that these communities tolerate if not embrace this type of behavior. Let them deal with it.

This is just another case of "not in my back yard". Push the problem along on someone else.
As far as homeless go, getting arrested is like giving them a hotel room and a free meal for the night. You think that's going to make them conform? That's never worked.

I see nothing wrong with a community standing up against bad behavior. You either live by our rules, or find a place that will tolerate it. It has nothing to do with one's backyard. It has everything to do with what you want to be. One thing I know, we do not have control over the individuals involved. The choices are theirs alone. After some effort to help, I have no interest in finding out what works versus what doesn't work. I would rather focus on things that can be fixed and improve our community.

Since NYC is used as an example it should be pointed out that NYC has an extensive shelter system where about 70,000 people are housed and cared for every night. That system was built over many decades. The west coast cities that are now becoming overwhelmed with homeless were not so well prepared and instead just removed the laws preventing people from living in your park or on your sidewalk, which is also their bathroom. That has become a nightmare for both residents and the environment.

Does anyone know that capacity of the shelters in Laconia and how many homeless are now living in Laconia?

My guess is around two dozen or so. We have Belknap House, Carey House, Salvation Army (although I am not sure they can bed people). It's not a lot.

Economic Development
 

It is clear that Laconia is in need of an economic turnaround. Historically, the city benefited from tourism especially in the 80s. I think that we are going through a bit of an economic and cultural shift as millennials are much more urban. Companies are drawn to locate where they have competitive advantages, this could be access to talent, colocation to universities, or inexpensive labor (depending upon the model.)

Right now access to labor is difficult (as many of the seasonal businesses have indicated), we don't have strong university ties and talent (tech in particular) is limited. It is a little bit of a chicken and egg problem.

Jetskier:cool:

https://sites.google.com/site/belknaphousenh/photos …… gosh ….. and holy shazzammm ….. it looks neat, clean, uncluttered, and very nice ….. I just wish my mega-million dollar cottage on Winnipesaukee was just half as neat, clean and uncluttered as this here Belknap House homeless shelter …… and, oh yeah …. it has a mega million dollar view, too! …. :eek: …. plus the homeless shelter probably has Laconia town water and town sewer!

So, when can I move in?

Do they have a ping pong table? …. :laugh:

Looking at the above website photos; Belknap House has a Gilmanton Room, a Laconia Room, a Center Harbor Room, a Sanbornton Room, a Barnstead Room, and a Tilton Room ……. but what ….. why no Meredith Room?
…….

Say hey ….. here's a thought ….. maybe the homeless could be used to get out into the community and go plant linden trees all over Laconia as their way to contribute …… and make them dig the hole in the ground using a $10.95 long handled garden shovel from Walmart as opposed to a dpw John Deere back hoe …… and dig the tree hole the old fashioned way ….. by hand ….. which still works … and it gives people a sense of accomplishment ……. there, we just planted a linden tree ….. good to grow for 250-years.

It should also be noted that on the west coast, every city that is overwhelmed with homeless has openly advertised they are "sanctuary" cities, all but begging to be overrun with illegals crossing the borders and bums from all over the country. Once there are promised and often times get lots of "free" stuff, and minimal, if not outright guarantees that law enforcement will not hassle them or any of their extra curricular activates.

These cities have created this problem by making themselves a magnet and now in all their glorious virtue have created a major mess and of course have no solution for it and I question if they even give a damn. Think Nancy Pelosi for example has a clue what is going on in her district? The woman can't even come up with two back to back coherent words never mind a rational thought. This is a self inflicted problem and it's sad, in fact it is a tragedy yet those responsible smugly look on and do nothing or just point the finger at somebody else if they even choose to acknowledge there is a problem in the first place.

The solution to the issues that Laconia faces is easy enough to solve, but the overly sensitive public is to afraid to face the reality that not everything can be solved with rainbows and unicorns feel good theories of utopia coming out of the mouths of all these politicians. In other words somebody has to put on their big boy pants and actually SOLVE the problem, not study it, throw money at it or deny it is even a problem. So far the only things I have heard is lipstick on a pig.

This. Every article you read about homelessness starts out with "affordable housing" But the guy on the corner wearing 6 pairs of pants and yelling at the stop sign is not a rent payment away from the American dream. The mental hospitals were just transferred to the prisons. It's sad, we spend plenty of money but most of it is directed at encouraging the problems.

Most of the east has less of a problem with vagrancy simply because of the climate

It's tolerated every day. From last weeks LDS, 40 indictments for drugs -

https://www.laconiadailysun.com/news...af4e3c806.html

And in anther month or two you can read all about the suspended sentences / released with time served / $620 fine suspended on condition of one year of good behavior.....Etc.

For fun - Google the first five names on the list and see if you can count the times all of them have been arrested previously - I won't waste the time beyond the first five, but I bet every single name on that list has no fewer than three prior arrests. Most will have more.

I would be chastising the judges to start tossing maximum sentences around. No problems solved, but it gets rid of the person for a couple years, and noone was solving the problem anyways.

Punishing / jailing people merely for being homeless is borderline insane.

Best attack the cause of the problem:

1) mental illness. Lots of these people don't take prescribed meds, which leads to homelessness. Perhaps Big Pharma could figure out a way to time release meds such that they need only get a shot once in awhile; keeping them medicated will help.

2) family. Consider changing the law to require family members to take in and take care of their adult progeny who would otherwise be homeless.

3) jobs. This is a tough one: create jobs for homeless people: yeah, I know, easy to say, hard to do. Maybe a program akin to Job Corps, to train and house them til they are able to get to work.

4) Purge Day: once a year it's "open season" on homeless, with no limit (just kidding, but I know some of you will slam your beer down and yell "Yeah, baby!"

...... Aaaa-men to the Belknap homeless chain gang
 

While getting two new tires at the VIP auto store on Union Ave this afternoon, I got lucky and caught a rerun of the October 3, Belknap County Commissioners' meeting. It is definitely worth watching!

Did you know that by a vote of three to zero, with all the three county commissioners voting yes, the county wants to establish a Gunstock Mountain snow grooming crew that puts the homeless from Belknap House on the slopes, and grooming the snow.

Here's the plan. Anyone age 18 and older, who stays overnight at Belknap House as a homeless person will, on the next morning at 7-am, be locked into a six person chain gang and transported to the Gunstock ski slopes for 8-hours, 8am-4pm, of chain gang snow grooming where he/she uses a hand held rake, similar to a golf course sand trap rake for smoothing and shaping the ski slopes.

As a middle of the road NH Republican, I say that after they do the slopes, the chain gang should get transported to the middle of the County Complex in Laconia and do a second 8-hours of snow removal work for the county.

All those here in favor here ...... please say thank-you to the Belknap County Commissioners for instituting this new plan!

Hip hip hooray for renewing that chain gang from long gone, 60 years ago ..... it's back to the chain gang for the Belknap County homeless here in 2019 .....

Amen, and maybe some women, too.

This logic, nonsense and distraction is why nothing gets done :(

#4, sad but true. It's called "thinning the herd". :(

.... between cigarettes, drunk driving, motorcycles, and old age .... there's plenty thinning the herd happening ..... with old age finishing last. The D.O.T. sign on Rt 93 on the Campton flats says 83-NH road deaths, so far in 2019.
.................

.... and, going from Oct 10 to Oct 23 the D.O.T. sign now says 89 NH road deaths, or six deaths in 11 days which is a much higher rate than usual, probably a lot of deaths happen with cars not merging into flow of traffic when they get onto Route 93 ...... like enroute to one of the many fine retail stores in Tilton or Laconia ..... is so sad ..... r.i.p.

I don't think Andrew Hosmer has anything to do with the dealership any longer. From an outsider's perspective, it appears that he's had a hard time sticking to any job, whether it be an assistant district attorney, an auto dealership executive, a consultant, etc. At a minimum, one would think they could concoct a do-nothing job at AutoServe for him. It appears he's doing this because he's bored.

My vote is for Spanos. At least he brings some level of fiscal responsibility to the council. Also, he's a proponent of the tax cap.

There was a debate October 8th and another will be October 21

Yep DeBlasio is a complete Disaster in NYC his liberal policies are bringing NYC back to Dinkins era which was terrible all the hard work that Giuliani did to clean up NYC are now out the window. We need workfare for welfare as well as a way to help prevent and curb this drug epidemic. Andrew Hosmer is NOT the answer for Laconia he wants more "affordable housing" and more "government control" The only person that can help make Laconia Fiscally responsible and has the tools to help clean up Laconia is Peter Spanos!!!

The political signs around the city appear to be equal. Just my observation. But, the locations are not. Signage for Hosmer show up on more business locations and Spanos individual homes and open fields. Again, just my observation. Does it mean anything, can’t tell you. Just saying. Hosmer now has one on the Lakeport Opera House. Guessing he is supports the individual looking to develop it and the surrounding neighborhood. He must also support taking the kids park for additional parking


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I will not vote for Hosmer.... I was on the fence with his background, Autoserv, Lobbyist, Navigating Recovery. But then I went through his twitter account! YIKES!

https://twitter.com/SenatorHosmer

https://twitter.com/SenatorHosmer/st...61396679061504

Woodsy

Thank you for this information


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This seems a little dramatic
 

Wow...I for one am thoroughly confused by this. Why be so cryptic - tell us what you really think.

Wow Hosmer is even scarier than I thought after looking at his Twitter feed. Him and I have no where near the same values or vision not only for Laconia but for America!! It is time to put Peter Spanos in the Mayor's office!!!

He was the ward 6 liberal rep and will be the tie breaker on a few issues. Those that think the Mayors position has little power need to look again


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Being I am not living up there yet (still waiting for house to be finished) I probably shouldn't comment but I will.:D

Laconia to me has a lot of potential. It reminds me of Newburgh, NY in my neck of the woods. Newburgh used to be awesome back in the old days but as the riff raff began to invade it- drugs, prostitution, crime, etc. - it went way down hill. Welfare city with quite a lot of poverty. Illegal immigrants everywhere. Some homeless people. Over the years a lot has been done to try to reverse it. Nice restaurants on the waterfront, breweries, some renovations of older homes, new businesses coming in. Some long time businesses hanging in there.

Hospital went through a massive renovation years ago to address the fact that people did not want to go downtown out of fear. They built a huge parking garage and so forth as well. Merged with a NYC hospital to improve it's reputation and survive the health care environment.

But- with the riff raff still hanging around it puts a limit on how much can be fixed. To this day, I try to avoid going there as much as possible for fear of being a crime victim. I don't like to even drive through it.

I asked our son about the current WOW trail as I would like to use it for exercise once up there. He said there are parts that are sketchy to walk through. Feels it is safer on a bike (of which we do not have). Other parts he says are ok.

Just don't write off Laconia as of yet.

My wife and I invested in a second home in Laconia a few years ago with a goal of making it a retirement home.

We often discuss the huge missing potential we see with the city and the missing leadership that must have enabled this situation.

Why hasn’t the city leveraged its most precious natural resource when compared to Meredith, Wolfeboro, Alton, Center Harbor? Laconia resides over so much more water.

Lakeport and the east side of Paugus Bay is an incredible missed opportunity. Just think of what the area would transform into if every commercial property had provided public boat access and the WOW trail extended up the east side to the Weirs and into Gilford.

The real estate in the Lakeport area would improve so much that the welfare seekers would either join the growth or move on to the next depressed area.

We will never totally eliminate homelessness, drug addicts, sex offenders; but, why enable a safe haven for them to thrive and recycle the next generation?


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The WOW trail is a huge waste of tax dollars and it will never bring in the money our tax dollars are wasting on it!! If the WOW trail would or could be used for ATv/snowmobiles this would help supplement the money being spent on it! Sorry bicycles and walking will never help pay for this and why dont6the taxpayers have a say?? I see so many up I arms about a trail that is costing a fortune and will never do anything for the good of the community except cost the taxpayers

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Not trying to be rude so sorry if the tone comes off wrong, but your comment provides nothing but further evidence to write off Laconia. You stated Newburgh was like Laconia, once bustling and a vibrant place to be back in the day. Newburgh fell apart with poverty, drug attics, illegal immigrants, crime etc. A ton of money was sunk into its revitalization (where that money came from is irrelevant), new restaurant's, new businesses, new hospital etc and it is still a dump that you don't even want to drive through.... But we think Laconia has a shot and shouldn't be written off yet? :emb::laugh:

So doing all of that is going to do what for the city of Laconia if we don't solve the actual root cause problem? Nothing.

In a small way you are correct. We must stop throwing money at what we precede to be the problem and identity one issue that that can be fixed, fix it and move on to the next. But, you can never get multiple individuals to agree on what the first issue is, they always want to fix everything at once. Today, the first issue would be complete the major roadwork the entire city appears to be under. The Police and Fire appear to be well funded. The DPW could use a look at.


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Laconia's leaders made the problem worse. It decided to pursue the short-term money created by greenlighting Section 8 housing projects and drug rehab centers on every corner. We are actually attracting the drug addicts to come here, above and beyond what a normal community would have to deal with. The quality of a community is defined by the quality of individuals that inhabit it.

Given this backdrop, Laconia is not worth investing in.

I guess my post did not come off the way I wanted it to. I too agree the root of the problem has to be dealt with as opposed to trying to work around it. I did not mean to imply that what was done in Newburgh should be done in Laconia, but as an example to learn from.

The thought process for Newburgh (and other cities like it) is always build it and they will come. That is only true to a certain extent. Nothing wrong with these improvements but the underlying problems still need to be dealt with.

Indeed.

How to get people to care, to be engaged in what goes on around them, to give a good damn about their surroundings and themselves?

People do drugs for different reasons, but one big reason is a lack of belief in themselves.

People are social creatures, generally we want to belong.

Many of the poor, the chronically unemployed, and those from chaotic broken homes soon conclude that they haven't any value to give to the world around them, that there's nothing here for them to do that is worth anything, and that they are worthless..

It's the same dynamic that causes generations of blacks in the ghetto to fail, to attack their own and those around them: if you're told over and over that you're no good you soon come to believe it and conclude "Why bother?"