At the October 28 Greenbelt City Council meeting, Councilmember Jenni Pompi requested that council discuss removing armrests on four benches clustered around the Municipal Building, where the armrests were used as dividers to prevent anyone from lying down. Councilmembers Amy Knesel and Rodney Roberts agreed with removing the armrests, with Roberts feeling that if the armrests are kept on those four benches they should be on all the benches and that targeting a few benches doesn’t solve anything.
Mayor Emmett Jordan and Councilmember Silke Pope were able to provide a historical context for the placement of the armrests: a person had been using those benches as a bed for over a year, they said. Attempts by city staff and Greenbelt CARES to provide resources to assist this person were rebuffed. Ultimately, the situation became violent and the individual was jailed, said Pope, and that situation was the reason for the armrests, a decision, she said, that was “very difficult.”
Councilmember Danielle McKinney was grateful for the context and wondered if there had been any feedback from the community since council has begun discussing this again. In September 2020 council voted down a similar motion put forward by then-mayor Colin Byrd, who reported receiving complaints about the armrests. City Manager Josué Salmerón said he had not heard from many people but a few residents wanted the armrests to stay because they were useful in helping seniors stand up from the bench. The end result of this discussion was that council voted in favor of removing the armrests from the benches (Jordan and Pope voted nay).
As of Tuesday, November 5, the armrests are gone.
