Comments

1
Wow. How long was he at Seattle Pacific U and where did he live before? Sounds like he never made it very far out of his campus grounds.
2
We are on the tipping point of losing our vibrant downtown.


Jesus. That neighborhood in the 80's probably would have given him a coronary.

He's essentially been living in a gated community for nearly two decades, but citing the “Broken Windows” article makes it sound as if he's been living a bomb shelter.
3
Great research Dom. Now I hate a person who I never knew existed. Does anyone want to join my newly formed Hate Group toward this guy?
4
Isn't SPU the place where the students have to sign chastity pledges? Maybe President Jesus Freak should move to Bellevue? I hear the Lord has plans for the faithful out there.
5
Another shining example of how religion - in this case Christianity - pollutes minds & hinders critical reasoning.

A few years ago, SPU had a notorious incident where their student LGBT group was kicked off campus. Eaton - then university president - hemmed & hawed & spewed toxic biblical nonsense to try to justify his position. Students didn't buy it & forced Eaton & his evangeical administration cohorts to relent.

No wonder fewer & fewer young people are falling for the biblical babushka of bullshit.
6
The gum spots are everywhere and I wish people wouldn't spit loogies everywhere, it's seriously disgusting.

Not that this guy isn't a total douche.
7
Here's a great take on this I read this morning from Seattlish: http://seattlish.com/post/65053071480/he…
9
Phil Eaton was President of Whitworth for one (or was it two years?) while I was there. And let me just explain to you: wealthy white conservative Christians who come from educational environments are far more sheltered from reality than any other demographic in the country. That includes politicians and the corporate masters (Jamie Diamond and John Boehner are more in touch with reality than Eaton's kind)

He's very typical of the WASP Higher Educational system. I'm shocked he didn't complain that too many people wear jeans while shopping...seriously, I'm shocked he didn't mention that.
10
He should move to beautiful downtown Kansas City or Biloxi, Mississippi.
11
Pope: or i suggest sending him to sweltering Singapore, which does a fine job keeping gum & people-on-the-margins off the streets.
12
Naw, he doesn't have to go all that way - Broadmoor is only a couple of miles from downtown...
13
2, Fuck that, I remember Seattle as a kid in the 70's & I tell you, man, it wasn't pretty. The Pike Market was not a happy place to be. If you removed the poor people, hardly anyone would have been selling anything.

The thing that fascinates me is that our American Revolution got rid of the aristocracy, but it didn't get rid of aristocratic thinking. We have the same problem today, a few people w/ most of the money and no common sense or decency.
14
@4, the top of Queen Anne IS Bellevue, our own little slice of it.
15
GUUUUUM SPOTS. I looked up when it was that this couple moved downtown - it was four years ago, into a high-rise condo they paid over a million bucks for.

He's sharp enough to notice the explosion of interesting stuff to do, places to go downtown since he moved to Second Ave. But downtown activity of ALL KINDS has increased, both the yuppie fun stuff and the stuff that happens when you have a high concentration of unemployed. He thinks the unemployed he sees more of are threatening to keep him from making his ever-more-frequent strolls to the revitalized symphony. He wants to have his skyline-view cake and eat it too. Age gracefully, you coot.

Tipping point my sweet bippy.
16
I admit I could not make it through his whole editorial but it seems to me that this is a person who does not know what is important.
17
The second front is tough-minded confrontation of disorderly behavior. We need to empower and support our police to look the perpetrators in the eyes and say, “No more. This is not the way we do things in Seattle.”

Our police need to be able to step out from under the politicized scrutiny that makes them hesitant to fix the first broken window.


The solution to the problem of TEENS is to allow police to operate with no oversight. Because too much police oversight is the real problem in Seattle.
18
Clearly he's out of touch, and you can usually disregard any opinion piece out of the Bellevue Times, but...dude's got a point that we actually do need to take a look at. Clearly we don't have a skateboard or backpack problem, but we do have a fuckton of crazies and addicts downtown (and Ballard, and Belltown, and Pioneer Square, and the U, and..) that are far out of proportion to the population. Seriously...how many times will you get hassled for a handout in NYC vs Seattle? The more charitable and dare I say "christian" way to look at this is not that our city is broken, but that our society's way of dealing with our most troubled is broken. And no, dear Trolly McTrollerstein, I'm not going to advocate for some kind of final solution to anyone I don't like looking at, but we really do need to consider why there are so many people down and out in our downtown and what can we do to help them out or prevent others from winding up there too.
19

So, this guy does everything you have been telling people to do (move to a dense urban core in The City) and he finds that he doesn't like it, and then you blame him. You are the same totalitarians who put a train on the ground in people's neighborhood and blame them for getting run over because it slows down those rushing to their apodments.
20
At this point, we'd just have to expect that the former CEO of AmeriKKKan Christian U would be calling for the mass extermination of the poor and the sick.
21
At this point, we'd just have to expect that the former CEO of AmeriKKKan Christian U would be calling for the mass extermination of the poor and the sick as a matter of course.
22
Ooooh.... SKATEBOARDERS!
23
Oh, and as far as broken windows go, as someone who saw his neighborhood go from small town charm to hellhole starting with the day he spied a single piece of graffiti where none had been before, your article has this to say:

Many critics state that there are factors, other than physical disorder, that more significantly influence crime rate

So they are not disputing it, but they think they have other answers.

collective efficacy, “defined as cohesion among residents combined with shared expectations for the social control of public space,”

Right, like this guy doesn't want garbage on the streets...or broken windows. Whereas the usual vagabonds do.

This policy targeted people in areas with a significant amount of physical disorder and there appeared to be a causal relationship between the adoption of the aggressive policy and the decrease in crime rate.

Sridhar, however, discusses other trends (such as New York City's economic boom in the late 1990s) that created a "perfect storm"—that they all contributed to the decrease of crime rate much more significantly than the application of the zero tolerance policy.


Oh good Lord...my parents had 3 cars stolen from outside their home in Queens during the so-called "economic boom times". And that was after the windows started breaking!

Though, a larger concern lingers in terms of whether the broken windows theory is virtually an accepted means of explaining social unrest.

It has nothing to do with "social unrest". It simply says that if there is a perception that you can get away with things, then people with try those things. It's like when crooks know that there is no burglar alarm versus a neighborhood that is patrolled day and night.
24
Dominic, You have to stop claiming that the broken windows theory has been thoroughly debunked, because quite simply it has not. The claim isn't solely that dealing with the petty crimes lowered the homicide rate, but that dealing with the petty crimes mainly lowered the petty crimes rate with some spillover into the next level of crime. The basic premise of the broken windows theory has been proven in studies where some trash on the ground caused people to toss more trash there vs the same area with no trash on the ground. That's just simple human behavior. The only criticism of the BWT that has any merit at all is about how much of an impact it can have on unrelated or more severe crime.
In downtown you may not consider drug dealing and aggressive mentally unstable people an issue, but the rest of this town that isn't crazy or buying those drugs consider it a real issue that isn't being dealt with. Sure, the stats on homicides look good compared to Chicago's, but we can do better. Not just for ourselves, but for the people who are wandering around off their meds threatening people (or smashing random people's skulls with hammers, or stabbing teachers in the neck after a Sounders game, or shooting bus drivers). Downtown can be a lot safer than it is.
25
@19 in case today's quota hasn't been reached yet: you are fucking dumb.
26
Hey, Philip.

Fuck you.

Signed,

Everyone
27
IT'S THE LEAD POISONING YOU FOOLS!
28
A few observations.

First, what is the first thing that the man in charge of a large religious organization says we need? More religious organizations! Shocker.

Second, the broken window theory? Really? So he wants the SPD to model itself after the NYPD? Let's start "randomly" frisking all the black people downtown! That'll really help us develop as a cultural Mecca..

And third, who does he expect to pay for all this? If he wants to donate a new flower pot to put in front of Macy's, I'm sure the city would allow a plaque.

29
If you look at the history of Seattle through the decades you'll find that downtown has long been the home of hookers, druggies, sailors, speakeasies, etc. This idea that the city was once magical and clean is simply bullshit.
30
fletch,
Once I was downtown, and I spotted Dan Savage a half block away. For a few seconds all of downtown felt rainbow magical to me.
31
dom, where do you get the statement 'stunningly low unemployment'? from the number of unemployment claims, or actual numbers of people employed? not snarkin' on you, bubbeleh, just curious.
32
Have anxiously awaited Dom's post since I saw the editorial this morning. Exactly what I expected, "LA LA LA LA, there are no problems downtown." Yeah, it's not as bad as this guy makes it out to be but to pretend that there's nothing wrong is just as bad. Jesus, a security guard at Westlake Park got jumped by a bunch of kids at 7:00 pm in the evening and ended up with a broken arm and a concussion. I think we can do better than that.
33
SPG is occupying reasonableness today.

The rest of you appear to be twenty-two and callowly kneejerk-defending the only city you've ever seen.
34
Recently, we stayed on Pike for our vacation, we walked everywhere. The most exciting thing that happened was a goat on Friday night (and that goat must have made a fortune) and a window busted at the grocery store. From an outsiders perspective, you have a lovely downtown and, really, your street scene is safer than I'm used to walking down Market. This guy's clearly been in his ivory tower a bit too long and is looking for a platform. Anyone curious to see how long it takes him to run for something?

That being said, you're growing. This too will grow. So @18 makes some good points at the end. If you're smart, you'll start now to set the vision for how you want to handle the issues and how you want to handle people with problems before you have to do it. I wish that had happened better here.
35
"Uninformed blowhard?"
Dominic, you really want to call the former president of a major university an "uniformed blowhard?"
You, with your high-school diploma, is calling someone who probably has an IQ much, much higher than you, an "uniformed blowhard?"
I sense intellectual jealousy in your post.
Sad.
36
@35) I don't have a high-school diploma.
37
this guy is a douche, but don't take it out on Nightwatch or Union Gospel Mission, who actually do good work, and have been for years.
38
@35, I don't have a college degree, and yet I take a shit every day that has a higher IQ than you. Weird, huh?

I sense frog urine in your post. Sad.
39
Shorter Eaton: "Hey, you kids/poor people/minorities/mentally challenged - GET OFF MY SIDEWALK!"
40
lol. i’m about to move there from san francisco. when people ask me why, one of the reasons i cite is: “after coming back here from seattle, the bay area looks like a broken down 3rd world scene in comparison."
41
I'd like to see fewer human turds in front of my building, but I'm afraid that in saying so, I'll be misheard that I'm asking for my city to become a shopping mall. So, I guess I'll just keep stepping over junkie shits.
42
The Seattle Times put this turd's unexamined privilege up for the sake of traffic and Dom is hoping that this post will garner 100 comments.

Help Dom reach his goal. For the kids....
43
Fnarf: With every one of your posts, you indicate your ineptitude with the English language, your troubles with reality, and your inability to deal with other people. Please stay in your hovel, and try not to come too often. Really, no one wants to hear from you, so STFU! Plus, it's quite obvious you don't have a college degree!
44
I read the opinion last night, laughed my ass off. Wanting downtown to simulate an idyllic gated community that somebody else has paid for is so absurd.

I used to live in a nearby town where this guy would feel right at home, living a life uneffected by the differences the world brings. How boring, and depressing. When my 1st child was on the way my wife and I knew we had to get the hell out of there and move to civilization, dirty, varied, clean, old, new, angelic, devilish, civilization. I love Seattle, LOVE Seattle, and I can't imagine living anywhere else.

If you don't like where you live, and you have the means, just move, dude. 3 people will be coming to take your place.
45
Damn it Dominic, the stranger publishes great piece after great piece on how the mental health system and social support network is grossly under funded, partially due to Washington's tax system. These are are great prices that get to the root of the homeless/mental health/drug issues in Seattle. But why is it anytime a right wing douche rants about the homeless/mental health/drug issues in Seattle the typical response from the st staff is "fuck you, we don't have that bad of a problem so get the fuck out of our city if you don't like homeless people you fuckheads...move to Bellevue". The correct response should be yep we have homeless/drug/mental health issues, so lets talk about how to fund the solutions to these problems and make Seattle even better city, one where you don't see drug deals/drug addicts all over belltown/downtown/cap hill, cause we'll improve the social safety net. By saying fuck you to these right wingers you loose the chance to point out how destructive their polices are.
46
Bah sorry for any spelling/grammar mistakes, I was typing on my phone.
47
@45 that sounds like the Times' editorial board's job. I know, I'm a dreamer..
48
@47 it's both. Could you imagine the field day Goldy/The Stranger would have if someone like Richard Colins said "We need to remember that this is a city with chasms of disparity between riches and poverty, accept this is a diverse city" when talking about the homeless issue in Seattle?
49
"Before I say anything else: Sometimes downtown is unsafe and feels unsafe. That bus driver really was shot last month. A 16-year-old boy was stabbed on Second Avenue last Friday night. Meanwhile, there's been a 60 percent spike in domestic violence cases in Seattle over the last four years, which the SPD says it cannot explain. Many tourists are also appalled by vagrants quaffing beer in Victor Steinbrueck Park, and locals feel uneasy about street kids getting high in Westlake Park. These are problems that can be—and absolutely should be—mitigated. In particular, I have advocated heavily the last three years that we appoint more foot patrols to the city's 5 percent of hot-spot blocks (like around Third and Pine), which account for one quarter of all crime in Seattle, and expand programs that target high-rate offenders for treatment. More park rangers and public restrooms would also be helpful. The problem is that the city has limited money." - http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/crime…

Great argument made by Dominic Holden on how sometimes Seattle feels unsafe and that we don't have the money to address these problems. Why can't this be the response to right wingers who ran about crime in Seattle? Why can't The Stranger start a dialogue other than "Fuck you right winger, move to the eastside, we don't have a drug/crime issue, fuck you".
50
Bah Fuck *rant about crime...
51
Pioneer Square is a beautiful and interesting area with many great places to eat and great galleries, and it has become unpleasant to visit because of the smell and presence of human waste and hundreds of homeless people, leading to the closing down of several of these places. It is a tragedy that these people are there and living in the situation that they are, and there is much that should be done to mitigate that. But it is silly to pretend that it does not affect the life and feel of the neighborhood. Our family was thinking of moving down there, but we have kids, and after looking at a number of places and realizing what the vibe is day and night, it is just not tenable.
52
@35 Having met the presidents of several major universities my quibble with Domonic's description of one as an uninformed blowhard would be that he left out a very important word. That word is willfully, as in Willfully Uninformed Blowhard. That would be the most likely description for ANY university president.

And if you want to insult my IQ level go ahead. The very last time I had to take an IQ test and take it seriously (sort of) resulted in me having to take 3 different ones (with the same results) before I simply decided to make mistakes and get a score (161) that they would accept. IQ scores are massively over-rated and mostly meaningless. And that is from a guy who can (when motivated) routinely score higher than the any IQ test can accurately measure.
53
j2patter (@45) said this: "But why is it anytime a right wing douche rants about the homeless/mental health/drug issues in Seattle the typical response from the st staff is 'fuck you, we don't have that bad of a problem so get the fuck out of our city if you don't like homeless people you fuckheads...move to Bellevue.'

Spot on. Get out of our city if you don't think exactly like we do. It shows up in these pages over and over. And here's the answer to j2patter's question: Stranger staffers (especially Dominic) can't bear the idea that people they disagree with most of the time might have a point now and then, even if the Stranger has made similar points in the past.

It's called bullshitting to avoid consensus, and it's a specious, Tea Party tactic. So Eaton becomes a rich fuck who's "disgusted by the sight" of the poor (though he said nothing of the kind) and he wants to (in Dom's smeary, cherry-picked paraphrase) ' "reclaim our city" from THOSE PEOPLE' though that's not what Eaton said, either.

So again, bullshit. And so very, very easy to hide in the cloud of confirmation bias. You know what would take some guts? How about Dom goes and interviews the guy? Awkward, sure. Uncomfortable, no doubt. And maybe Eaton would refuse - and then Dom could say so. But at least he couldn't be accused of throwing bombs from a secure location and patting himself on the back, which is all he's doing right now.
54
You would think that "uninformed blowhard" would be able to get his secretary to register an account for him. But I guess he was too busy consulting with realtors about all the street crazies wandering around Broadmoor.

BTW, #35, I, too, have known a number of university presidents and, with the exceptions of James Conant (Harvard) and George Beadle (U of Chicago), they were all hard-core long-term alcoholics.
55
Ooops! I meant #52. #35 is delusional, drunk, or both.
56
Well that also. But my comment was about the uninformed blowhard part. Being drunk just makes it easier to stay uninformed.
57
"We are on the tipping point of losing our vibrant downtown"

Nonsense. Even Seattle in the 70's, when the economy tanked, was - God, I hate the word - "vibrant" (if you ask me, it was a lot more vibrant back then, but that's another story.)

I do feel we have too much concentration of social services downtown, but my objection is much more for the clients of those agencies, who oftentimes have to travel in from the outlying districts to receive the services, and the tendency of a lot of those agencies to push the troublemakers out on the street rather than deal effectively with them (although that's not always the agencies fault)

But our downtown is in a lovely natural setting. It's now getting residents, and is becoming a neighborhood with clout. It's not going anywhere.

58
And since when is SPU a "major university"? I'm sure that one can get a quality education in whatever it is they teach there (which seems to be Business, Teaching, Nursing, Theology, and what we used to call Home Economics) but it's no Stanford.
59
So if Murray wins will he listen to this guy?
60
I was a little freaked out by the hordes of junkies in your downtown and I'm from the dreaded Chicago.
61
Downtown has definitely been improving, but getting followed to your car by an aggressive panhandler (to cite a recent personal example) is not just unpleasant, it's intimidating. I can understand why people would want something done about that.
62
Dominic,

You provide no actual evidence that the BWT is actually debunked (because it's not- it's controversial, sure, but not debunked. There IS a difference) and also NO evidence to support your claims of what an awesome city Seattle is (job development, unemployment rate, etc.). I can make up facts too- everyone is Seattle has a pony, no one uses heroin and upon moving to Seattle, people begin shitting rainbows. See? Easy. Provide evidence or it's not true; you should know that.

Anyone with an ounce of realism knows that Seattle has a LOT of problems that no one is addressing. The cost of living is outrageous (http://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/cit…) compared to income [women are still making substantially less, despite Seattle's claim of being progressive, as well as being incredibly white] and the homeless population is ridiculous. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographic…) Not to mention the addiction rate! (http://seattletimes.com/html/localnews/2…) These ARE real issues that need to be addresses and ignoring them is just plain stupid.

Note to others: stop telling people who don't agree with you to "get out of my city." It's childish and, frankly, the mark of a small minded person who simply cannot think of a better argument. I mean, I get it- Seattle is ALL about homogeny. But instead of getting needlessly defensive, perhaps it would be much more productive to LISTEN to what others have to say. Seattle is FAR from perfect. It's about time people realized it. How else will the problems be fixed? Just because it's "better than it was in the 70's" doesn't mean that's good enough.
63
@62) I recently covered--at length--data on the Seattle economy, employment, population growth, and crime rates, along with the best research to date challenging the Broken Windows Theory and my concerns about legitimate problems downtown, over here.
64
@59, don't give Dominic any crazy ideas.
65
@63, yes you did, why can't you point out your concerns when people bring up the "Seattle is a homeless druggy crime land" rant, instead of just saying "Fuck you, Seattle's great"...How does that help Seattle? You yourself said Downtown feels unsafe sometimes and more police are needed, but more funding in general is needed. That's a 100% better response to right wing rants then this post. Why not use these rants as an opportunity to point out how destructive our current tax structure is to Seattle, instead of just a silly childish personal attack.
66
What @65 said. And Dominic, why don't you show some backbone and interview Eaton instead of smearing him?
67
I hate to break it to this guy, but social services are broken pretty much so everywhere. Even here in the other Washington, where we spend boatloads of money on social services, these "problems" (some legit, some not) persist. Our main library is still filled with the homeless every day, the areas around service agencies are still rife with loitering, drug use, public urination/defecation, and the like. We still have panhandlers and homeless folks sleeping in parks. It's better than the "old" Washington, visible only 10 or so years ago right downtown, right on the National Mall, right outside of lobbying firms on K St., where I saw more than a few folks who had died from exposure overnight being hauled away on my way to work in the morning. But it AIN'T cheap to improve, and it's nearly impossible to completely fix without MASSIVE spending increases.

Sure, religious orgs can play a role in this. I don't like that a meal often comes with a sermon, but if he really wants these people off the street, then he should be donating to and volunteering with organizations that provide meals, shelter, and other help, so that "these people" have something better to do than loiter, and don't need to panhandle to eat. And he should be lobbying for better mental health services, since, many times, the most problematic folks suffer severe mental illnesses and won't go to the help themselves, even when offered. I hate to tell him, though, only the government can really organize mass social service efforts, and I'd wager an increase in taxes to pay for it would be labeled "theft" by him.

As for the skateboarders and loitering kids...lol, get over it. If they're jumping people, police patrols should be enhanced to prevent that. If they're hanging out and eating convenience store fare, well, there's not much that can be done about that. Trust me - WE'VE TRIED. We have rec centers EVERYWHERE. We have tons of sports and arts and other organizations for youth, and they only make a small dent in the number of kids hanging. Put out lots of trash cans, hire people to sweep up, and get over it. It would be lovely if every child had parents who cared and made sure they were doing something productive, but that's not the case. It'll only help a little, but, again, actions speak louder than words and he should be donating to and volunteering with youth service organizations if he wants to reduce this problem - mentoring, coaching, tutoring, whatever. Also, IMHO, the kids who are hanging at Gallery Place and skateboarding on Freedom Plaza are at least less - and in less - trouble than some others. The "others" are less visible, but far more likely to be out breaking into homes, mugging people, running drugs, tagging, running with gangs, and otherwise causing *real* trouble. I once had a kid who was skateboarding cuss at me because I wouldn't give him a cigarette...and, uh, that's about it. They're too busy worrying about their tricks or impressing some other kid to give me passing by much of a thought.
68
Dominic, your response to my comment pretty much contradicted everything you wrote in your original post. Just saying. I mean, the things I brought up- those things (at least in my opinion) are just the tip of the iceberg of the definition of "broken." Don't forget the social issues in Seattle [Freeze much, anyone], the abhorrent lack of social services, the incredibly racist and corrupt police force, not to mention the things other people have brought up. Turning a blind eye to these things just because you feel some misplaced need to defend your home city every time someone makes a negative (really, though, it's not negative; it's simply realistic. You Seattleites simply MUST learn the difference between negative and realistic). Perhaps Eaton was a bit hyperbolic in his Times pieces, but that is no reason to sink to his level and then some.
69
@62, anyone who uses Wikipedia as a reference is an idiot or in high school. Or both.
70
@69, since Dominic cited Wikipedia in the post that sparked these comments, perhaps you'd be willing to tell us if your cheap snark extends to him.
71
Pioneer Square is not a safe place to live for children, and the commenter above who considered it and was heartbreakingly disappointed when they actually looked at the place is just plain dumb.

The other end of downtown, where this SPU bigot lives, is not safe to stroll late at night with the aponymous "my wife", and anyone who believes the developer BS that it is is also just plain dumb.

Seattle's a great town and downtown is where you can see art and hear music, but it isn't where you should live. That's true in every other city in America. Paying a lot of money for a condo doesn't change that. Seattleites are naive.
72
I'm with @13. When I first started going to Seattle in the early 80s, it was much worse than now, and according to my husband and his brother, when they used to go to Mariner's games back in the 70s it was even worse than that.

We could and should be doing a lot more to deal with things like homelessness and drug addiction, but I don't buy for one minute a declensionist narrative for Seattle's downtown.
73
@67 Religious orgs should help with social services by first, and foremost, PAYING TAXES. Until you force all of them to redistribute a small part of their gains, the US social services will be broke.

Oh, and charity that comes with a sermon is not genuine charity. It's buying believers. Prozeliting. You name it. But charity is one-sided giving, not an exchange a la "soul for food".

Remember it's the Devil who buys souls by wordly presents, such as a good meal.

Please wait...

Comments are closed.

Commenting on this item is available only to members of the site. You can sign in here or create an account here.


Add a comment
Preview

By posting this comment, you are agreeing to our Terms of Use.