On August 11, 2026, the Carbondale City Council in Carbondale, Illinois passed an ordinance banning sleeping and camping on public property within city limits.

This new ordinance prohibits all forms of camping on public property including sleeping outdoors, camping, and sleeping in vehicles overnight for two or more hours. Violators of the ordinance are subject to fines with the possibility of paying off said fines through minimum-wage labor (public service cleaning work) for the city.

The online City Code of Carbondale hasn’t been updated yet to reflect this new ordinance. However, the full unamended text of the ordinance is available on the Agendas and Minutes page of the city government’s website. The Council passed the ordinance with an amendment to eliminate the text about the city seeking to incarcerate people who fail to pay the fines.

Local responses to this ordinance have been mixed, to say the least. Some people support it as a public health and safety measure while others oppose it as an attack on our unhoused neighbors. As a long-time Carbondale resident, I want to share my concerns, analysis, and recommendations.

The people of Carbondale, Illinois are having some serious and often contentious public dialog about homelessness in the city. The current conversation centers around the future of Good Samaritan Ministries. 

Good Samaritan Ministries provides transitional housing, food, and emergency shelter and assistance to people in need. They’ve been offered the gift of a large new facility on the edge of a residential neighborhood at the corner of Oakland and Freeman. This building is the soon-to-close University Baptist Church building that they currently use as a food pantry. 

In order to use this building to serve the homeless, Good Sam will need to apply for zoning variances. They will be presenting their case to the planning commission on Wednesday, October 29 at 6 pm at the Carbondale Civic Center.

I’ve been a Star Trek fan for as long as I can remember. I’m the one who convinced our family to start watching Star Trek: The Next Generation when it premiered. When I was in high school, I wore a Starfleet uniform to school for Halloween. My Data cosplay even made it into our high school yearbook.

As an adult, I eventually got around to watching every official Star Trek episode, film, and short ever made.

I’m also a Star Wars fan. I’m not nearly as invested in the Star Wars franchise, but I would qualify as a Star Wars fan by most standards. I’ve seen the nine main movies plus Rogue One. I had a few of the earliest Star Wars toys back in the day. Every empty paper towel roll or wrapping paper roll I get my hands on becomes a lightsaber.

And I recently watched Andor. It took me a while to get around to it because it wasn’t Star Trek and I tend to prefer Star Trek. But I eventually heard so many good reviews that I decided to give it a try.

Andor is a thought-provoking and inspiring work of antifascist cinema. Where is Star Trek’s modern response to the rise of real-world fascism?