Homeless Camp Under Marquette Interchange Shares Space With New BMX Park
Crank slide, double peg, tail whip, and bar spin aren’t new terms heard in tent city under the concrete sky of the Marquette interchange, but these days they mean entirely different things.
Gone are the tents, burn barrels and endless amounts of litter, now it’s ramps, burn barrels and endless amounts of litter. The smell of juicy vapes and the sounds of bikes wizzing back and forth over the the plywood playground fill the air. Brown paper bags concealing cheap beer have been replaced with colorful Monster Energy Drink cans. Teenagers and adults, showing off for each other for the most part getting along well. I did witness a guy on a Razor scooter trying to grind in the vert ramp get knocked down and have his shoes stolen, but the poser deserved it.
I was curious what happened to the former tenants of tent city and it seems they found shelter under the Hoan bridge. The new mood lighting creates a soft glowing ambiance that makes life on Mayor Barrett’s skid row a little nicer.
I hung around till dusk when the temps started dropping and the kids started scattering back to their broken homes, but a few of the older riders hung around passing a bottle of cheap whiskey. I helped them finish the bottle and after I passed out, they stole my Toyota Corolla, but thankfully I still had a twenty dollar bill in my sock so I was able to Uber home. Seems like a winning idea for the city to not only keep the homeless moving on, but also keep petty crimes and underage drinking to one localized area.
