- Tom Douglas to the rescue
After some heated conflict earlier this summer, local chef Tom Douglas has invited the city’s homeless leaders to do their own fundraiser next to his salmon bake at Victor Steinbrueck Park this Saturday afternoon.
Proceeds from Douglas’s event, expected to be held at the south end of the park, will go toward improving park security and the Pike Place Senior Center. The hot dog sale, which will take place at the north end, hopes to raise money for homeless shelters. The senior center and the Downtown Food Bank will be giving out free meals to those who won’t be able to afford Douglas’s $15-a-plate salmon, courtesy of Starbucks.
The contentions arose in May. When Douglas, a big supporter of a controversial aggressive-panhandling bill that never got enough support to become law, announced that he wanted to raise money to reduce the presence of thugs and panhandlers at the park, the homeless community panicked. Some thought that Douglas was trying to chase them away from the park, a refuge for many of them. Homeless advocacy group SHARE (Seattle Housing And Resource Effort) applied for a permit to hold a hot-dog roast on the same day as the salmon dinner in protest but was denied a permit (Seattle’s Parks and Recreation Department doesn’t issue two permits for the same park the same day).
Pamela Hinckley, CEO of Douglas’s restaurants, got wind of this and invited SHARE over for a discussion. “SHARE thought we are the ones preventing them from holding the wiener sale,” Hinckley said. “I told them that they would be welcome to share the park with us. Our intent is to make the park safe for everyone.” Ultimately, park officials agreed to make an exception and issued two separate permits.
Jerry Thomas of SHARE told The Stranger that Douglas’s initial comments about bringing in security guards at the park had been hostile toward the homeless. “He may have had a change of heart since then,” Thomas said. “We believe that providing homeless people shelter and a place to sleep is a greater form of security than renting security guards.”
Eighty percent of the salmon bake proceeds will fund increased park security.
I love your headline! Another might be “Attention Whores Reach Detente.”
For the record, I dislike the outdoor seating for Seatown Snack Bar (the new Tom Douglas place at the corner of Western and Virginia, right across the street from Steinbrueck Park).
I will dislike it less if they remove it during the winter months.
Will the hot dogs be organic, cruelty free and local?
@2, a friend went there for a glass of wine the other night and came away with the impression they hoped to attract a better class of person than she.
Tom Douglas did not “let” SHARE sell hot dogs. The City gave SHARE a permit. As far as I know, Tom Douglas not have the power to issue permits.
#3: It’s not very easy to make pig corpses “cruelty-free.”
The problem with the park isn’t “homeless.” That’s actually kind of patronizing of SHARE to assume everyone in the park who is a problem (drunk, stinking, stinking drunk, hostile, aggressive) is homeless. No one has a homeless sticker on them, and if you can’t complain about behavior because an unknown (even if large number) of the people who are behaving inappropriately in public spaces may be homeless, then you’re saying, “We’re downtown San Francisco.”
In a day and age in which I can type some random nonsense into a machine which can then be read by others, at the same time, a person can be forced to:
sleep outdoors in a random place because there’s nowhere else they can go.
Wow.
What year is this? What decade is this? What century is this?
Talk about flying cars and moon stations… and gourmet salmon… coincides with talk about people who live on the streets in cardboard boxes. That is amazing to me.
The human race is advanced? Really? Are we an advanced species? We certainly have more technology… does that mean we’re advanced by default?
The inhumanity of man towards man is astounding. It always has been, and it continues to be so.
Sorry…I’m ranting here, but the human race has a long way to go. A really, really long way to go, before I would consider it advanced. We’re barely past the jungle. Barely. I’m not even really convinced we actually ARE past the jungle.
@9: How would you know? You’re an alien.
SWEET! Several animals consumed in one location!
Kudos to Chef Douglas AND to SHARE for coming to consensus! And blessings to the animals that sustain us!
Pamela Hinckley is great, I’m glad she came back from Theo Chocolates. We’ve enjoyed all of our interactions with her as happy customers. We like Tom a lot too, but are really glad Pamela has his back.
Tom Douglas never threw up on someone’s shoes in Victor Steinbrueck Park.
The homeless never named, and would never name, a pizza restaurant “Serious Pie.”
It’s a tie.
@8: Anyone who says that humans are advanced, special, made in God’s image, or whatever, is full of shit. We’re just another sort of animal, and understanding ourselves as such is the key to improving our condition.
Do not want homeless wiener.
I always find it ironic that the homeless can apparently organize an advocacy group to defend their right to camp in parks, but can’t get their s*** together enough to make a living and pay for a place to live. Of course, I use the term “organize” loosely, as SHARE didn’t seem to understand the concept of an event permit or understand that the city wasn’t so much oppressing the poor in denying them a license as it was following its own simple rules. Of course, I didn’t say they were an *effective* advocacy group.
Also, @5, I think Tom Douglas is allowing SHARE to share his existing permit. At least, that was my read of the article. So in that sense, yes, he is permitting them to hold a wiener sale.
Not that I’m defending Tom Douglas. I find it unsavory that some guy who caters to people who can afford super-expensive food essentially wants the undesirables to stop messing up the view from Etta’s. Class warfare much? Inviting SHARE to the party is either a very constructive move or a self-serving attempt to mask his real intent by draping his salmon bake in the flag of “safety.” But then it’s a tried and true strategy. Just ask the the Nazis or Bush Jr. – “safety” and “security” were the buzzwords they both used to disguise their misanthropy and bloodlust. Why shouldn’t Tom Douglas use it to put a shine to his banal commercial self-interest?
15 – It’s unfortunate you open your comment with tired and ignorant drivel like “Get a goddamned job, homeless!” It sounds just as “compassionate” as Bush and friends.
I think a better headline:
“Tom Douglas Lets Homeless Sell Wieners Next to His Fish”
@18, I think Tom Douglas sells a spice rub for that very purpose. Check your nearest Metropolitan Market.
Hmm, should I go for the cedar planked (or grilled) wild salmon from the James Beard award winner or the Oscar Meyer wiener from the guy with Hepatitis who smells like pee? That’s a tough call.
@18 & 19
Too marinated in cheap alcohol and shit for my taste.
Actually, It was the CEO of Douglas’ Corporation who said enough-let them sell their wienies..
Let’s eat the rich. Taste better.