Chali Pittman
St Vinny's Donation Dropoff
St. Vinny's closed immediately after Corey Ruiz was killed July 22, and reopened July 31. Encampment members have moved their barricade so patrons can access the thrift store's parking lot.
Before 8 a.m. on July 31, a truck full of inventory for St. Vinny’s rolls up on Willy Street, the first delivery to the thrift store since Madison police shot and killed Corey Ruiz on July 22.
Soon after employees hold a private prayer before reopening the thrift store, 10 days after shutting down. The move, St. Vinny’s says in a social media post, “restores access to affordable shopping and to clothing and furniture vouchers while helping support the pantry, pharmacy, housing assistance, and other programs our thrift stores make possible.”
A protestor barricade on Willy Street blocking vehicle access to the Corey Ruiz vigil area has been moved closer to the intersection, allowing people to park in the Vinny’s parking lot, and at other nearby businesses (barricades remain on all four sides of the intersection). A few customers arrive to browse through clothing racks and shelves of home appliances. But it’s “pretty slow,” says one worker, and the slow drizzle of rain “very much reflects the mood” inside, chimes in another.
Outside, the tone of the encampment itself has shifted. There are fewer volunteer helpers and protestors, but dozens more tents. As the encampment enters days in the double digits, some are out of patience with the disruption and impacts.
In a long open letter sent July 30 to Madison officials and media, resident Sarah Larson criticized the city for allowing the encampment, not doing enough to address the root causes that sparked it, and shifting the consequences onto the neighborhood.
“When a city fails to provide sufficient emergency shelter, addiction treatment, psychiatric care, crisis response, supportive housing, and outreach, people in crisis naturally congregate wherever help can be found,” she wrote. “That is not a failure of the people seeking help, nor of the nonprofits trying to provide it. It is a predictable consequence of government failing to build a system capable of meeting people's basic needs,” she said.
“Instead of investing in that system, Madison has effectively concentrated its social safety net in one neighborhood and then expected that neighborhood to absorb the consequences.”
Some businesses remain closed on Willy. A fundraiser to support businesses and workers affected by the encampment has raised a fifth of its goal; the Williamson-Marquette Business Alliance says it will directly match up to $5,000 in donations.
One resident, who declined to be named and lives just up the street on Jenifer Street, is out for an early morning walk. He says his decades working in mental health programs for the state has given him “perspective” on mental health needs, systemic racism, and re-entry to society.
Still, he has two kids at home, and the constant noise from the vigil area is keeping them up, and interrupting work calls. He’s heard “hate speech” coming from the site and has seen people defecating outside the Willy Street Co-op. He worries about someone getting assaulted or overdosing.
“It’s just gone on too long, and I feel strongly about improving these intervention tactics. I feel strongly about dismantling systemic racism. However, my professional and personal opinion is that this has become counterproductive.”
He says he was assaulted last Saturday, after he’d had a couple of drinks, as protesters were on their way back from a sit-in at the state capitol. He says he “nicely” approached a man with a megaphone, asking if he planned to “keep shouting through that thing all night long.”
“And he goes, ‘fuck yeah!’ And I said, well, being part of a community means being responsible. And he says ‘No, I’m going to keep shouting as long as I want.’ And I said it’s not really cool, you’re causing problems. And bam! He hit me so hard on the head that it cracked the megaphone. And it was just out of the blue.” He says he filed a police report, because “accountability matters for everyone,” and has since talked with a deputy mayor.
Roman Bullock, a resident on South Baldwin Street within the barricaded zone, has a different view. He’s feeding the birds and taking out his garbage on Friday morning: drop-off is easy, as he dumped his own trash bin into the garbage trucks blockading the street just outside his door. He says the encampment doesn’t bother him. In fact, “I hope it lasts until they prosecute the guy,” he says, referring to the officer who shot Corey Ruiz.
Bullock’s lived here for decades, but grew up in the Bronx, and has no problem with the protest’s inconveniences. He doesn’t find the music too loud and says the protest’s been safe. The only inconvenience is getting his car through a volunteer-managed barricade. He’s had no trouble with that, and has even given the volunteers who moved the barricade a $5 tip.
But Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway, among others, is calling for the encampment to end. “What's happening at the intersection of Williamson Street and Baldwin Street is not sustainable or safe,” she wrote in a July 30 update. “There are a number of immediate public safety and public health concerns that must not be ignored.” The next day, she again called for the blockade to end: “It's time for the barricades to come down."
Christian, a volunteer with the encampment who has been here since the day Ruiz was killed and who declined to share his last name, says “we are working on being more organized and structured.” He’s out in the drizzle on Friday morning, helping to erect a canopy “dry zone” to prepare for heavier rain.
When asked about the nighttime noise complaints, he says it’s been an “ongoing issue” that encampment organizers are trying to “tamp down.” The group has voted to end loud chanting and the use of loudspeakers by 10 p.m., and to replace the kind of music that is played at night from rap to mellow R&B and soul. “But not everybody is on the same page,” says Christian. To nearby residents, he says, “We are sorry” about the noise. “We are aware, and we understand.”
