"There's no ordinance in the city about living in your car," says Seattle Police Officer Joe Osborne, of the East Precinct.
Those loose parking rules--coupled with the park's green space and portable toilets, and a church offering lunch across the street--made 11th Avenue a haven for people living in their cars. But in the end, the car campers irked neighbors. Just over a week ago, in response to neighbors' concerns, Seattle Transportation and the Parks Department authorized new signs along the park, turning the unlimited parking into a three-hour-only zone between 7:00 a.m. and 9:00 p.m.
"We were responding to the community's desires," says Billy Jack of Seattle Transportation, "[or] at least the people who were most involved, and attended many meetings."
The change was pushed by several Capitol Hill community groups, which saw the encampments as public safety hazards. The Capitol Hill Safety Coalition (CHSC) detailed the hazards in their April 2001 Survey of Problem, citing public inebriation, drug sales and use, discarded needles, and harassment.
"In just five minutes, observers saw... [people] drinking beer on the steps of the Central Lutheran Church, [and] someone clearly high on drugs, reeling along the sidewalk, mumbling and shrieking."
Unfortunately, the CHSC report fails to outline the connection between park problems and car camping. Just two blocks away on Broadway, for example, drinking and drug use are rampant--and there's no free parking. The report's list of safety concerns is actually a laundry list of widespread Capitol Hill problems, which can't necessarily be linked to car campers.
But despite the vague connections between park problems and campers, several neighborhood activists think they can clean up the reservoir by imposing parking restrictions. "Outlawing homelessness" isn't a new thing on Capitol Hill--after the Capitol Hill Youth Drop-In Center on Broadway closed last fall, the CHSC objected to the city's attempts to re-fund it, and wanted a hand in determining how the center would be run. CHSC also took the lead on organizing the new parking restrictions on 11th.
"There's been a trend of making it more difficult [to live in your car]," says Scott Morrow, of the homeless advocacy group SHARE/WHEEL. "The same thing is happening near the Ship Canal Bridge."
There are a few other scattered unofficial encampments around Seattle, Morrow says: under the Alaskan Way Viaduct, near the I-5 Ship Canal Bridge, and in the industrial area around the Duwamish River. Capitol Hill's reservoir was one of the most centrally located camping spots--until last week.
Despite the supposed consensus that car camping is detrimental to the neighborhood, the CHSC wasn't entirely inclusive when deciding on the 11th Avenue changes. Many were surprised by the new restrictions, including those who parked in the morning and returned in the afternoon to find the new signs. Important stakeholders--like the parking enforcement police and Central Lutheran Church on 11th--were left out of the discussion too.
The Central Lutheran Church helped make 11th a desirable place to camp out--it offers a lunch program several days a week, and many of the people who eat there used to stay in their cars along the street for a few days.
"They didn't tell us about [the parking changes] until they did it. We wouldn't have supported it," says Shannon Anderson, Central Lutheran's pastor. "People lived in their cars." But the church's voice wasn't weighed too carefully in the parking change process, she says.
Anderson wasn't the only one taken by surprise at the change. Parking enforcement cops weren't told until late in the process.
"I was notified of this change kind of at the 11th hour, by some folks out of the mayor's Strategic Planning Office," says Lt. Ronald Rasmussen, head of the Seattle Police Department's Parking Enforcement division. "They put the restrictions in place and I did not get any additional staff."
