Attacking the chaos and crime at Rio Grande was an absolute necessity, and it took the gravitas of the state’s political leaders to cut through the inertia and get on with it. But this moving through the phases of the plan in 12 weeks looks like political posturing. All three phases — enforcement, treatment, employment — are the right things to emphasize, but this was never something that was going to be solved with a one-time blitz.
The three-step plan is really three prongs, each needing years to produce sustainable results. The enforcement phase pushed many problems to other parts of the city, and the treatment phase is still starved for money and beds.