SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- In downtown Syracuse Wednesday afternoon, George Betts watched firefighters hose blood off the sidewalk.
The blood had come from a friend, 47-year-old Tom Campanie, who had been assaulted by a homeless man on the sidewalk on Warren Street. Campanie, the director of downtown security, had responded to a report of three disorderly males. From the assault he suffered a severe head laceration and facial fractures.
Thursday, along the 300 block of Warren Street, workers reflected on the incident, on homelessness in Syracuse, and how, if at all, it affected their own sense of security in the neighborhood. If there was any consensus, it was that the issue is not easy to deal with.
"My biggest concern is for him (Campanie) and his ability to recover from this physically," said Betts, manager of M. Lemp Jewelers, across the street from where the incident occurred.
Lemp Jewelers has been at the corner of Warren and Fayette streets 43 years. The business has no plans to leave downtown, said Betts, who noted that the neighborhood was in "much worse condition" when the Centro bus transfer station was half a block away.
Homeless people have become more conspicuous downtown as the area gets more gentrified with apartments and offices, Betts said. He noted that places like New York City have pushed loitering and panhandling out of places like Times Square, but that only masks the problem.
"If I'm sick with cancer everybody shows compassion and there are types of treatment," Betts said. "But if I'm mentally ill, you're looked upon in a whole different light. There's a breakdown someplace. Where do these people go to deal with these issues?"
News of the assault troubled Janice Smith some, but doesn't change the way she views the neighborhood, she said. Smith is a cook at Soup R Salads.
"I was a little scared (after learning about the assault), because I walk to the garage," Smith said. "Normally I don't worry. I go into that garage by myself. I'll hit 'em with my purse if someone comes up to me. I'm not afraid to come down here."
Sean Fish, a cook at Pavone's Pizza, said he's seen an increase of people on the street who seem mentally troubled.
"I've seen a lot more people - not so much homeless but people who are not all there - talking to themselves all the time. In my opinion a lot of it has to do with that spike stuff that everybody's smoking."
"Spike" or "spice" is a form of synthetic marijuana that gets you high like cocaine and methamphetamine.
His remedy would be more police on the street to take homeless or mentally ill people somewhere else, he said. He didn't say where. As he spoke he looked across the street at the plaza outside the former offices of Blue Cross Blue Shield, where men were sitting.
"I've seen downtown security go in there where homeless are smoking that stuff," he said. "They just tell them to move on. It's not helping anything because then they (the homeless) go on to the next block and do the same thing."
Emil Rossi, a local attorney, who has an office in the neighborhood, at 307 S Townsend St., said he encounters panhandlers every day.
"I have never found any of them to be in any way menacing," Rossi said. "It's a relatively new phenomenon. It can be a little disorienting. I don't see it as a major problem at all."
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