Hours before the South Grand Community Improvement District apologized for its letter asking businesses to stop giving water to homeless people, about twenty people demonstrated outside the group’s headquarters on South Grand Boulevard.
The protest was an expression of outrage and outreach. Cases of bottled water, bags of ice, bags of chips and hygiene items were stacked around tables outside the CID’s office. Even with the temperature in the 90s, people had shown up to distribute aid and support the street’s homeless population.
It was also a chance to direct their anger at the source of the September 11 letter, which, in addition to its water-related directive, had also encouraged business owners to film people sleeping in public and to provide that evidence to police…