On September 13, police commanders and the mayor went to tour the park and listen, once again, to the complaints of neighbors of Capitol Hill’s Cal Anderson Park. Homeless men on benches, drug users in the bathrooms, and a spate of violence in the summer months led to a frenzy of demands for official intervention. Most specifically, they were upset that a 65-year-old man was stabbed in June and another man allegedly pepper-sprayed strangers.
Park rangers attribute the violence to an influx of out-of-town drifters. In response, city officials have begun sweeping the park’s two square blocks at 6:00 a.m., and despite a tight budget and fewer staff, parks maintenance crews changed public bathroom lights to discourage drug use (some bulbs hide veins, making it harder for users to shoot up), enhanced the lighting in the Bobby Morris playfield, cut hedges to remove hiding places, and made plans to remove some benches where homeless people congregate.
But the underlying tension between residents and city officials was over how to homeless-proof the park rather than just make it safer.
“I am not some anti-homeless yuppie,” said Laura Stockwell. She repeatedly told the story of a man who spoke to her kids even though she didn’t want anyone talking to her kids, and how she found a homeless man sleeping in the playground on a Sunday morning. “In New York, playgrounds are typically locked up,” she said.
Kay Rood, a board member of the Cal Anderson Park Alliance, noted during the tour that a power outlet was being used to charge a homeless woman’s phone, saying the power outlet “shouldn’t be there, I think.”
“We need to draw a distinction between being homeless and being uncivil,” cautioned Lieutenant Joel Guay. “Being homeless itself isn’t the issue—being homeless in a park is not a crime.” 
i have lived on the Hill for 26 years. Things spiraled SLIGHTLY out of control on the hill.. STOP the freak-out!
Leave the benches and the power outlet. Let the homeless sleep to a decent hour.
Patrol the park for CRIME. Open containers and drugs. Empty the trash.. cut back the bushes.
We raised our teen here. He learned to live amongst the hipsters and yupsters and know it alls and YES, the homeless. STOP the Freak-out!
I like Joel Guay here … he seems to have his head on straight.
There’s a plethora of commentary and background about this issue on the Capitol Hill blog. Just a bit of that background to give some context to Stockwell’s concerns: the men were asking to touch her children besides talking to them. Can’t imagine many folks, especially parents, wouldn’t be too hip on a stranger touching their child.
i moved off capitol and never looked back. what a sh*t hole.
@4 ditto
Parks close at 11pm and if your there you are wrong? If we need to raise a tax or make a new tax it would be to address the homeless in a real manner.
people don’t get any better sleeping in parks and doorways and its about time congress stoped sending your money overseas to fuel civil wars and pay for half assed military investments in oil and freedom by fire power?
What the hell can your federal and state government do?????
they let the church protect the poor and hopeless homeless and “still” in 2011 even are just pissing your tax money into the pockets of oversea fools?
as it is they are going to kick the criminals out of prison and they are going shut down western state hospital and loose the insane into the mix?
I mean I love our Sea hag Governor and am so damed proud She has the brains to bail out of this nightmare called Washington state government (some freaks just stay in politics way to long until you gag just to look at them)
It gets to the point where the conductor must tap his baton and wait for everyone to pay attention before the new music starts?
the police can take their $9000 pocket cameras and their $22,000 car cameras and their entire ball of shit to a honey bucket if there is no point of arresting criminal?
@9 Are you talking about the “hag” that pushed/helped close down all the mental facilities for the unstable? I hope you are not seriously giving that one any amount of respect.
As for government run shelters, been in one, it was a massive failure, the privately operated ones have a huge level of success in getting the homeless off the streets in comparison, though a few need to stop discriminating the majority do quite well. SHA is about the only government run organization that’s doing something right about the homeless … honestly. Government run shelters are not interested in long term solutions at all, creating the revolving door homeless who get into permanent housing but fail to stay there because they have serious unresolved issues. Some of the private ones work with the homeless to resolve their issues first (or allow them to resolve their issues on their own if the case calls for it).
Police cams are a mixed blessing, yes, but they do serve a purpose for the general public. The fact that they cost so much is really a financial problem, idiots buying the equipment picking a company based on who owns it instead of one that they can afford. Instead of ditching them, they could replace the car cams with $20 web cams of the same quality.
One of the other factors you fail to see is that many homeless avoid government run facilities because of a fear of being “tracked” … these aren’t the crazy ones just standard level paranoia that many people seem to share. There are several that live in the shelters simply because they don’t want to give their information, and the private run shelters don’t require all that. This will eventually fade though as more people become comfortable with the power and blessings of technology instead of fearing it.
The Reality is necessity is the mother of invention so I am not interested in wild card politics or jokers who don’t want to give a name or Social Security number for a helping hand up.
I’m not into paying $300 for a toilet seat or a million bucks for a stainless steal self cleaning honey bucket?
I got the huddled masses poor and hungry and needing medical attention and the forecast has been predicting the same shit for forever and a day.
I grew tired of house wife politics long ago as priority politics is always a good bet to pay back.
The priority is these huddled masses are in need of a Government that is not a one trick broken down pony.