Comments

104
If you don't want to see piles of shit in the street, DON'T oppose the installation of portapotties or the construction of public restrooms. Without toilets the homeless can get to, shit on the streets is unavoidable. And we all know it.

And no one is entitled to demand that the homeless be driven away. Yes, a lot of them have major problems and some aren't especially nice folks(none of us would be in their situation, for that matter). But with their flaws, with their weaknesses, with their bad choices in some cases, they are HUMAN BEINGS, and no one has the right to decide that another human being isn't entitled to live and be treated with dignity.

Denying people access to toilets solves nothing. Driving people away solves nothing. The drug issues are much more likely to be solved through legalization and the restoration of actual drug treatment services.

And it's best we all remember...with a handful of bad breaks, the most hard-working, rules-playing-by, most-unjustifiably-confident-of-one's-own-inherent-personal-superiority among us all could easily end up a homeless addict left to shit in the street. As Phil Ochs said, so many years ago now, "there, but for fortune, may go you or I".
105
#102 Actually Seattle taxpayers are footing the bills. We are paying very dearly. The reason why homeless people and section 8 voucher holders (and anybody who are living on the verge of homelessness) can't find stable housing is partly what the city gives away to developers. I thought with the MFTE (multi-family tax exemption) which developers get for 12 years, they have to build more affordable units for the most at risk. Nope! They just need to provide a certain number of units at 60% of Seattle median income (AMI) for that tax break. That means a single individual at 60% AMI makes $37,680. Not enough if you make $15/hr wage which is about $31,200 per year.

http://www.seattle.gov/Documents/Departm…

Most apartments aimed at 70-80% higher income rate and still get full MFTE. Here's the most recent list which shows that. That goes for apodments too.

http://www.seattle.gov/Documents/Departm…

Some of these apartments got dinged for housing discrimination in a city wide audit. So there's a reason we see what we are seeing. Why all the millions spent isn't moving people into more stable long term housing.

Seattle voters actually have voted for multiple housing levies. We are a generous bunch and doing our part.
106
One big distinction here, we are really not upset about the homeless camps, we are upset about the illegal ones where there is high crime. There are two types of homeless in Ballard, those who are down on their luck and want to better themselves, and those who are aggressive and methed out.

The crime is there. I've seen it. Bike thefts, bike cut shops, illegal dumping (try running the Burke Gillman trail, you'll see), open drug use and sales, human waste in alleys. I've seen it. I walk around it every morning and evening.

People here who pull the NIMBY card don't understand what's being stated. We have welcomed homeless into the area, go looks at the signs we hung at the one on Market. We have a new camp coming in on Leary. We welcome them. They already are in our backyard.

What we don't want is the illegal activity and feel the city is completely ignoring us. O'Brien is a confused leader who came to this townhall ready to talk, not listen. He's not a good representative of the general population he is supposed to care about.

Ballard has taken on it's share of responsibility. We have condo's stuffed into every corner. We have homeless camps, illegal and legal. It's time to share the load. I'm talking to you Queen Anne, Magnolia, Ravenna.
107
Betcha Hedi gets a bonus for this post.
Look at the hits!

(Hits = $$$)
108
Btw, how many incensed by what happened in Magnolia have taken in someone to your home? Even if it's just to sleep on the couch?

No many, I bet. (Hats off indeed to any who have.)

So to the majority of us haven't done anything but (maybe) pay taxes, WE ALL LIVE IN MAGNOLIA!

So no one deserves to be able to get high and might and moralistic.
109
I consider myself liberal leaning, but wtf does that even mean. Anyone can be blinded by ideology. Sure the people yelling things at the meaning are assholes, but people on here are speaking out of turn too.

You can't lump all of these people together, its a shame that The Stranger is using the world homeless so loosely. These are criminals. There is a growing culture in Ballard/Magnolia of crime and drug use directly related to these RVs.

Have any of you seen these RVs for yourself? Nobody is blowing this out of proportion. There is literally a chop shop on wheels that moves from block to block, WELDING at night different bike parts together. Now, you are going to say this these 20-30 year old in shape guys running the chop shop are a sob story? That you and I should go hug them and invite them into our home? Are you kidding me? Not to mention blatant selling of hard drugs from these vehicles. The police are doing nothing about it.

You guys are just as bad as the assholes condemning the homeless at the meeting. Why attack a neighborhood for wanting to keep its safety?
110
Wow, do you even try to be objective? Were you even at the whole meeting? Check this out for what REALLY happened!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pnDj2Kgf…
111
I can't believe anyone would say this meeting was full of civility and compassion, or anything of the sort. Thankfully (after watching the videos) I did not attend, but thank you for posting a link to the videos.

People were talking and yelling while our elected officials were trying to get a word in edgewise. No one wanted to hear what they even had to say. So nasty to Mike O'Brien from the get go. The attendees also showed no respect for the city employees who attended to represent the City. So much anger in the room. Please angry, privileged Seatteites: go focus some of your negative energy on making a difference in our community. Vote for increased affordable housing levy funding. Write to your state legislator and tell them we need more money in the Housing Trust Fund. Collect the litter strewn around your streets that you hate so much. Do something other than pick on poor people, please.

This meeting was just sad and makes me embarrassed for Seattle.
113
Marcie dear, I was not commenting on the relative merits of the "deal" the city got on the Yesler Terrace redevelopment. I was correcting your assertion that the city, Vulcan, etc "got rid" of Yesler Terrace. The newly developed project will replace all of the existing units (although I will note that they aren't replacing the units lost when I-5 came through, and I'm not sure if they are replacing the units that were condemned a while back), and in total house three times more lower income people (traditional SHA + people who do not qualify for traditional SHA housing) than it currently does. Could they have done more? Surely. But it's not going away.
114
Catalina, we've somehow has gotten into a wrangle since the FDR internment exchange. Much of what I write here comes from the belief the city negotiates and gives away to developers doesn't give Seattle citizens (taxpayers or not) a fair ROI. It's too little and too, too late. It does relates back to the situation at hand. If Seattle can rid itself of the poor (and the numbers of FRL kids in SPS are declining), we don't need to build more. Many poor and low income working people are priced out and have moved OUT of the city. I see this in my work. The demographic stats reflect this. When the YT deal was being negotiated, it was clear the city needed more housing stock for the poor making less than 60%AMI. With gentrification, the city may see a decline, but given the number of homeless increasing, that's not so promising.

This city is losing affordable housing stock with the tear downs and new builds. Those affordable units are not being replaced. The city can't keep up before and most certainly can't keep up now. Sawant proposed a terrific idea to the city to take inventory of our housing situation to get a better idea of what we've lost, are losing, and will gain. Can't seem to get city council or mayor to pick this up. Too much transparency.

The road the city seems to be going, at least the actions seen thus far, is for more short term solutions like tent city, shelter beds, declaring a crisis when it's too obvious to ignore, politician talking about new classwar (based on this article?) on the homeless and looking at new housing levy (again too late when those developers tax breaks aren't doing the job). It's curious the city didn't grab the old fed building and negotiate a deal. There's always a reason to say our hands are tied, except when the right few come by and then it's amazing how certain issue and deal get fast-track off camera.

I like solutions. I don't like it when our elected leaders play us. I don't like using class warfare as if this issue is a battle between the rich and the poor. That's crap, but very effective politically. People can vent, get mad and be absorbed by the emotion. We'll still have the same problems. Except worse in this case.

There's a huge stench here and it's not the poop piles.

115
Marcie, I don't disagree with you. Yesler Terrace is a missed opportunity of epic proportions (and that's probably intentional) but it isn't "gone". Small distinction perhaps, but the situation is bad enough without inflating it.

As for CM Sawant's request, that's probably in DPD's records, or could be compiled from those records fairly easily. Certainly, there's demolition permits that state how many units are being demolished, and construction permits that state how many units they are being replaced with. From that there's probably a way to glean what was affordable by looking at the tax records. It's all public record, if someone wanted to take that on. My guess is that DPD knows all that, and would be happy to share it. CM Sawant has a bad habit of making everything seem like it's some big mystery or conspiracy, and of making grand assertions with little to go on.

The migration of the poor and lower income from the city has been going on for decades, and has been accelerated the last ten years or so. Affordable housing is now a regional issues, as is homelessness, but it seems particularly acute in Seattle because its so much more visible. Yet, we tend to treat it on a city by city basis.
116
Complaining about losing a dive bar on the hill and your seen as fighting to preserve the neighborhood

Complaining about the raising rates of property crime and garabage in your neighborhood and you are a horrible nimby.

http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archive…
117
There are two Seattles

1- The well known, pot enthusiastic, progressive, 'nerdy', high tech, modern city full of diverse cultures and peoples that all pat themselves on the back for how tolerant they are and proudly stand up as the 12th man for their local sportsball team.

2- The real seattle. Classist assholes who vote against funding schools or healthcare but vote in favor of discrimination. People who will use the region they live in to demonstrate how tolerant they are before making a xenophobic comment about arabs or mexicans, or a racist comment about blacks or asians. Seattle is basically San Franscisco's prudish little sister, with all the dickbaggery, classism, denial and hate masked via cognitive dissonance through regional perception from people who dont live here.
118
Glad I did not waste my time attempting to reinforce the need for a greater police presence in neighborhoods that are being treated as cash machines for a few RV residents.
For me it isn't the garbage or even the shit, but knowing that when burglaries occur in homes and businesses, nothing is done, even when the police find the RV residents in front of the crime scene in possession of the stolen goods, " when they didn't see it happen".

I realize that this is not the only neighborhood that is being preyed upon by opportunistic ne'er do wells. But when police time and energy is spent pulling over 63 yr old black men for failing to signal a lane change on a deserted street Christmas Eve and making them get out of their car so it can be searched, instead of responding to calls for help, I wonder who get the benefit of their pledge to " protect and serve".
119
Although I am not a resident, I expect the taxes paid to services received in Magnolia is probably among the highest in the city. It is not unreasonable for residents to complain about human waste, needles, trash, drug dealing, and bicycle chop shops. Conflating these with a refusal to support services for the homeless is inane and insulting. No wonder O'Brien was shouted out of the room. What a jerk.
120
Wow, this is a totally unbiased article (and way off target). This meeting was about crime & safety, not to vilify/target the homeless. The Stranger hit a low mark here. I've lived in Seattle (Ballard/Fremont) for 23 years and what's happened here and in many parts of the city in the last two years is just out of control. I was at this meeting and yes, a few people yelled out some crass things against the homeless but so did a few homeless advocates yell out a few things unrelated to the meeting, and in both cases, they were not what the meeting was really about. Those few comments and people were a drop in the bucket compared to the ~300 people there. As much as I like The Stranger (which I've read since I moved here), this piece was just that, a real "piece" so to speak. Want to fact check it? Go right ahead, watch the meeting in its entirety. It was filmed in three parts. O'Brien is highlighted more in Part 3. Part 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=keDTm7eY… Part 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7CRTvFOd… Part 3: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pnDj2Kgf…
121
I meant to say biased in the above comment.
122
Fear conquers compassion in our current climate. And these Magnolia people are some of the most fearful, crouching, Gollum-types in our cities. They have the most to lose. So they live in a mental bunker that colors everything they see.

Frankly, this constituency has a track record of lip-service and not really willing to do anything about it when it comes to the urban problems of the rest of this city, followed by massive overreaction and NIMBY-ism when it affects them.

I've lived in this city for 30 years, and it has ALWAYS been this way.

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