To the editor:

When I read Friday’s article on homelessness in Lawrence, I thought of Mike Wildgen’s campaign this August to destroy campsites in the woods near the river. If homeless people are not allowed to live peacefully in out-of-the-way places, no wonder they’ve ended up downtown. Where else are they supposed to go? Would the upset business owners prefer to have them sleeping in alleys in residential neighborhoods?

In my 18 years in Lawrence, I have never experienced “aggressive panhandling,” though I worked and spent time downtown almost every day for years. I am dismayed that business owners have such little respect and tolerance for the members of our community who are most in need.

What’s the true “menace” here: homeless people who are having a hard time, or greedy business owners who have no sense of charity even in the season when their businesses are thriving?

Jesse Dutton Miller,

Lawrence