City officials should stop trying to squeeze roundabouts into old neighborhoods, and the city should provide a “hand up, not a handout” to homeless individuals, City Commission candidate Greg Robinson said Tuesday.

Robinson made his comments during a Journal-World online chat. He said he supported the concept of roundabouts but said they only should be used in new areas of town when they can be built as part of the original construction.

“I do not support roundabouts in old development as the current scheme attempts to shoehorn modern techniques into old design situations,” Robinson said.

Robinson, a former Lawrence police officer and attorney, said he believed Lawrence was becoming a destination for homeless individuals. He said when he was a police officer, homeless individuals told him that they came to Lawrence because of the “great services” the city offered.

He said he would support services to those truly in need, but that any homeless program should be carefully structured to assure it was not abused.

“I will support only those programs which make accountability a main focus of its mission statement and ones that subscribe to the philosophy of hand ups and not handouts,” Robinson said.

The candidate also said he would:

l support allowing businesses to receive a variance from the city’s smoking ban, if businesses can prove through certified accounting documents or tax returns that their sales have suffered and if the businesses install an air-handling system that “immediately removes” smoke from the premises.

6News video: School board race narrows Transcript of chat with Greg Robinson, city commission candidate (02-15-05) More in Election 2005

l support removing the ban on fireworks to allow people to shoot fireworks in the city limits during the Fourth of July holiday.

Robinson is one of nine candidates seeking three at-large seats on the commission. The primary election on March 1 will narrow the field to six candidates. The general election is April 5.