Was that 60 year old crackhead lady who burned up her apartment with a flaming chopstick at the meeting?

She wouldn't want to have any crazy people living near her.

Give the little bastards a methadone clinic and a needle exchange instead. And a sleazy motel filled with sex offenders, while were at it. And some helicopters, lots of helicopters flying overhead in the middle of the night.

Oh, and an ugly homeless man picking his scabs at every bus stop.

A mental health diversion facility is too good for them.

Tough shit #3, you can't choose your neighbors.

People suck.

Damn fine reporting, Cienna. Reminds me of your coverage last year of Rev. Jeffrey's proposal to house released felons at 22nd and Yesler, where he also was having to do a Good Neighbor Agreement. I'm embarrassed to admit I've lost track of events - did anything come of that plan?

Would you believe that I just Googled the phrase "God hates NIMBYs" (in quotes) and came up empty-handed? Unbelievable.

Neighborhood: We don't want them here.
Service Provider: We'll make changes so it won't be so bad.
Neighborhood: We still don't want them here.
Service Provider: We'll pay a bunch of money to convince you.
Neighborhood: How much money?

Deal?

reminds me of the daryl smith led NIMBYs from mount baker who called CASA LATINA workers trash. people never change. they never will. nothing brings them together quicker than a proyect meant to help reduce the very things they are afraid of.

and yeah im a home owner so fuck yall NIMBYS.

@10 Jackson Place was the eventual location of Casa Latina and they have become the best neighbors imaginable. Dozens of their clients (is that the right word?) help with our neighborhood clean up day and they even throw the occasional community BBQ. If DESC is half the neighbor CL is we'll be thrilled.

I'm guessing Ms. Madrid doesn't own a home or live in Jackson Place.

"We don't dispute that the facility doesn't need to happen in King County," testified Carol Bennett, a Jackson Place resident. "I just don't want them here."

This what the NIMBY fucks always say.

Oh, and the idea that someone gets more say in what happens in a neighborhood because they're a homeowner and not a renter is the ultimate in horseshit arguments. And I say that as a homeowner. Several of my lowly renter neighbors have lived here longer than I have and will probably still be here when I move.

Since when does owning a home preclude you from caring about other people? It's not an excuse for being afraid of the "riff-raff." I live in Jackson Place, just three blocks from the proposed Crisis Center location. I can understand concern if you're someone who lives on the same street, but there are solutions to those concerns. And did we mention that it's HALF A BLOCK off Rainier? A block away from Dearborn? That the whole block is practically an industrial park? It's not nestled in some cul-de-sac of domestic utopia. Like the guy from the DESC said, these folks are in our community already. They need support and we're not supporting them with they system we have. This isn't about home ownership. This is about fear and dehumanizing those you are afraid of.

Why aren't more of these facilities built in neighborhoods north of the ship canal bridge, e.g., Wedgewood, Laurelhurst, and Maple Leaf? They rarely if at all get places for the mentally ill or drug and alcohol addicts constructed in those areas. It appears that these facilities are always being built in Central or South Seattle.

@#15 .. i think there are more services to treat & deal with these patients in town than there are n. of the ship canal.

The rich dump on the poor neighborhoods again and again and again. Magnolia gets everything it wants. The people being taken to this facility by police are going to be given a form, without the benefit of an attorney, that they have to sign to be admitted there instead of the jail which ADMITS THERE WAS PROBABLE CAUSE TO ARREST THEM. Good-bye suppression hearing. Good-bye the right to the advice of an attorney before you sign away a constitutional right. All in the name of some holier-than-thou liberal's adoration of innovative public services...as long as she doesn't have to live in the hood. We've got our share of police up and down the street already - chasing criminals. Take them to Magnolia. Most of the NIMBY haters on this site wouldn't feel comfortable hanging out on Rainier and Dearborn for more than 5 minutes. Now they want the neighbors to put up with that and DESC's new "hospital," which is what they're calling it to evade zoning requirements.

I'm a homeowner and there are two recovery-related rooming houses on my street. It hasn't stopped my property values from going up 50% in the last 7 years. The guys are all pretty polite, even though some of them are clearly lacking social skills. I have more complaints about the young married couple across the street who have loud, late night parties on weeknights.

@17 speaking as a present renter in Magnolia (with no long-term lifetime commitment to living here) could it be that Magnolia is a shitty place to build a lot of facilities because

A) Virtually all of the land is tiny single-home parcels. There is almost nowhere to build anything big but Discovery Park itself, which I will admit is a ridiculous treasure, to have a literal forest in the middle of a major metropolitan area.

B) Look at Magnolia again on a map and be reminded how it's geographically the most isolated part of the entire city, despite being a fart's distance from the Central Area. You put core services--usually, right?--in the core and where's it easily accessible. We have two streets into Magnolia that are known--Dravus and the Bridge--and a lonely one that's even cab drivers forget exists sometimes, speaking from experience.

C) The local Magnolia community group--forget their name--is REALLY good at cohesively organizing and filing time-wasting lawsuits? Every neighborhood should have a unified front as tight as these guys do!

D) If you're talking about the facility that was going to be built for low income people in Discovery Park, the City did screw up there by deciding to play fast and loose with Environmental Impact Studies and so got pounded in court over it legitimately.

I can understand their concern. I had a FWB who lived on Summit across from two "facilities" that were a joke: screaming and fighting all night long, with middle-of-the-night ambulances common. And the area around the Downtown Emergency Service Center is full of obnoxious people, although that's not just their fault - the Frye Hotel, Union Gospel Mission, Lazarus Center, Courthouse, etc contribute to that mess.

But this is essentially a private hospital facility, which is different. We have a recovery facility just a few blocks from Chez Vel-DuRay that never causes even a hint of a problem. Neighbors sometimes get freaked out because people sleep in their cars around it, but that is mostly relatives of people who are staying there. We saw the same thing when it was a rest home.

On a side note, If it were up to me - and it's probably a good thing it's not - I would fund a recovery facility out in the middle of nowhere, where people could have a chance to get clean far from the influences of areas like Pioneer Square. Then, we could maybe sort out the confusion and get the mentally ill and the "clean-and-healthy, but down-on-their-luck" people the help they need.

So this project is really so worthy that normal public process should be short-circuited? That is what the majority of the questions were about -- the PROCESS. The JPAE (you call it small...I would say a turnout of 100 people or so, most in support of the JPAE is not small, especially for a little neighborhood like this on a winter Monday, with less than a week's notice) is focused solely on PROCESS. Yes, there were some NIMBYs in the crowd, but it sounds like Cienna wasn't even at the same meeting as me. The city, county, and DESC were asked about inaccuracies and inconsistencies they have presented to the neighborhood and they repeatedly backpedaled and stumbled over their own words. Like last time, it was an example of them giving the answer that was convenient for the moment.

The city and county officials who were there were horrible. They were rude, deceptive, and ran the meeting in a way that simply tried to brush aside the concerns of the people they invited to discuss the issue.

I was at that meeting and I did not feel that the message was not in my backyard. I think one lady at the start said it but the rest of the questions were toward procedural/legal issues. I still think this facility is unprecidented for its location and nothing said by the King County, City Council or DESC answered anything and most of their comments were flat out lies. For example screening procedures are still not in place (according to public records) as of 3 weeks ago and we were reassured that they were in place for months at this meeting.

As a member of the South Seattle community I heartily endorse the placement of this facility in Jackson place.

Also, I understand that this is liberal media and everyone is entitled to their opinion but the spin that Cienna Madrid has put on the meeting would make Fox News envious. I was there, I didn't storm out of the meeting, in fact I had several calm and reasonable conversations after the meeting with DESC Staff, the facilitator of the Good Neighbor Agreement and City Council members. I personally feel that this report was unfairly biased and did not represent a true cross section of the people at the meeting, I don’t feel the questions that 3 or 4 people out of probably over 100 is representative of everyone. I think we have questions that we deserve answers to and until I hear an appropriate response I can't get behind this facility. I advise readers to actually attend these meetings and judge for yourself in the future before criticizing Jackson Place Residents.

Cienna Madrid - You should be embarrassed to call yourself a reporter. Your level of reporting and fact finding/checking is comparable to the National Inquirer. Your story is chalked full of assumptions without basis for merit. I see you have quotes from audience members and the DESC. Why did you not interview someone from the JPAE? Oh wait - this is a one-sided story without any REAL facts.

Had you done any REAL digging into this story, you would have found documents on the King County Mental Health, Chemical Abuse and Dependency Services website under Crisis Diversion Planning Archives. One in particular called the MIDD 10b Final Strategy Report 062509 http://www.kingcounty.gov/healthservices… spells out EXACT what the DESC has in store for the Crisis Solutions Center.

Pages 4 and 5 list in detail what medical services the CSC will not be providing - these are the most basic forms of care and treatment any REAL hospital would provide to their patients. Pages 6 and 22 state that individuals who are brought to the facility by police arrest will be held up to 48 hours by a Police hold. Yet the DESC tells the public their clients will be free to go at their own will. I tend to believe what's written on a paper - particularly if it's labeled Final Status.

Cienna Madrid - You should be embarrassed to call yourself a reporter. Your level of reporting and fact finding/checking is comparable to the National Inquirer. Your story is chalked full of assumptions without basis for merit. I see you have quotes from audience members and the DESC. Why did you not interview someone from the JPAE? Oh wait - this is a one-sided story without any REAL facts.

Had you done any REAL digging into this story, you would have found documents on the King County Mental Health, Chemical Abuse and Dependency Services website under Crisis Diversion Planning Archives. One in particular called the MIDD 10b Final Strategy Report 062509 http://www.kingcounty.gov/healthservices… spells out EXACT what the DESC has in store for the Crisis Solutions Center.

Pages 4 and 5 list in detail what medical services the CSC will not be providing - these are the most basic forms of care and treatment any REAL hospital would provide to their patients. Pages 6 and 22 state that individuals who are brought to the facility by police arrest will be held up to 48 hours by a Police hold. Yet the DESC tells the public their clients will be free to go at their own will. I tend to believe what's written on a paper - particularly if it's labeled Final Status.

hey nimbiys you live off of rainier av! wtf
so you dropped 200k, due diligence dumbasses.
"we did'nt know"
@3 repeat---you live two blocks off of rainier av!
you speculated you lost, live with it or leave.

@30 And what's the problem with Rainier Ave?

Sounds to me like just condemning them as NIMBYs is a bit harsh. They have some legitimate complaints - the existing DESC facilities get a lot of police incidents involving residents acting out just outside the facilities. That's not saying this facility can't be sited here, but they need to take the residents' concerns seriously and maybe make some alterations to the current plans, which they're trying to force through. The residents will need careful supervision, and the neighborhood needs to be assured that there is a better program for identifying appropriate candidates for this facility (in other words, there needs to be something better than a quickie assessment by the patrol cop that, 'oh, this guy's no danger' to screen out the truly violent and belligerent).

I don't think calling those with valid concerns names is particularly helpful to the process. Yes, there may be some NIMBYism going on, but you don't calm that down by accusing people of being uncaring rich fucks who are probably closet racists, which is pretty damn close to what some people are doing.

The two you interviewed are biased and one is a paternalistic political baffoon who tries to stop anything the residents want or that is good for the neighborhood. The JCPP residents who do not want it were quoted out of context. Yeah, Fox would be jealous, so would Rush.

So sorry to read all the name calling by all, but why does "The Stranger" do it? You could try make your points more poignantly without all the shouting. I can't hear you for all the noise.

@cd and south cd have done their part - do yours!-This is pretty funny, the reason they are located there is in the neighborhood's name. CD= central district. Placing programs like these in a central area of town just makes sense.

FINALLY, someone telling it like it is
http://www.nwasianweekly.com/2011/03/com…

Well now we know what happens when you give a chimpanzee a word processor. I would think a screaming liberal would recognize blatant civil rights violations when it sees them. I've been to two of the meetings King County and the city Council referred to this has nearly $7 million "free money". The project is funded by the state and federal governments. As long as there's free money involved King County is about as motivated to end homelessness as a pharmaceutical company is motivated to actually cure a disease. basically the city wants to stuff an Andy of Mayberry style drunk tank in the middle of a residential neighborhood to bring in some fast state and federal money. Ultimately the system will only add to the homeless numbers. 7 million this year 10 million next year 12 million the year after. Trampling on civil rights and property values in the process.

JPAE submits opening brief in legal petition regarding the siting of DESC's crisis diversion facility
http://www.jpae.org/latest-developments