So potholed gets 26 comments in 2 hours and the homeless get none in2 hours. Self absorbed are we sloggers?

alas, that is exactly what happened. Tom "Tunnel" Rasmussen and Sally "Hedge" Clark were doing nothing more than obstructing McGinn, attempting (successfully) to pave the way for Murray. If a couple dozen homeless people die, no problem. Good riddance to these sclerotic gasbags.

Dear Sally Clark: As a non-contender in the next election, you're probably still wondering whether secure, well-managed, self-governing encampments with modest sanitation facilities could have saved hundreds of lives during the time you've been in office. Thanks so much for for spending years looking into best practices for meeting the basic humanitarian needs of the most destitute people in our city. I heard that awhile back you mustered up the courage to visit one of Seattle's tent cities, but still didn't come up with many answers. Presumably you did meet with at least one family with with small children, and had someone tell you that half the residents have jobs. This anecdotal evidence seems not to have altered your careful, slow course of deliberation on this issue. And why should it? Other jurisdictions such as Salt Lake City have embarked on Housing First programs that reduced homelessness by up to 74% and saved tons of money, while homelessness here more than doubled over the past ten years. But hey--Seattle is obviously not Salt Lake City. We greatly appreciate how, thanks politicians like you, it can take up to a decade just to approve a new dog park. After all, charettes can't be accomplished overnight. Thank heaven incentive zoning and lifting those pesky height limits proved to be much more of a no brainer, because we certainly wouldn't want to offend the engines of our vibrant local economy. While a lot of Seattleites are actually OK with having encampments in our increasingly affluent, whitebread neighborhoods, we respect that that our elected leaders must continue to proceed incrementally in order to carry out lengthy and thorough public outreach efforts. I wish you all the best in your future career presiding over focus groups, or whatever. I don't expect you to go into rehab for your process addiction, but a bright future could be in store for you consulting for the movers and shakers who are pushing the U District's massive new tech hub. What a great way that would be for you to hone concrete action skills instead of continuing to preside over studies that wind up being quietly shelved. I also sincerely hope the door doesn't hit any of your delicate, confused feathers on your way out.

thank you Mud Baby! That was excellent.

Gee, there are enough homes sitting empty for all the homeless to have a manged place to live. Perhaps the city could think along the lines of relieving the banksters of some of the excess housing inventory on their books in a creative manner.

The city could ask the Canadian owners about purchasing the Seattle Times building that seems to be such a problem for them, and get the people already living there, and other homeless people who want to live there, and the Habitat for Humanity people, church and community volunteers to help fix it up for an indoor "encampment", and get people inside during the wettest, coldest months coming up. Maybe some persuasive high school students looking for community credit/college application booster), or college student looking to build resumes can call and pitch to those people who do those dream homes for poor families reality shows. I have no idea if that would work, not my field, but there must be knowledgeable people with ideas other than yet another study or committee!

We were outside last night for a couple of hours, with our expedition-grade coats and hats - we were still very glad to come back inside; and some of us have spent months in Antarctica/rain forests/middle of oceans/scaling up mountains etc. It isn't the cold and wet that's so daunting, as much as the uncertainty of being able to get out of it, or ever seeing an end to the not having a place to get out of the weather. You can put up with a lot of discomfort when you know there's an end to it, but not to know - that uncertainty must be unbearable, esp. for people with children.

To those creepy people who've been trolling Slog lately (what happened btw? Did Seattle Blech multiplied like earthworms or leeches?) who're going to spout idiotic crap about the inferiority of the poor and how homelessness could never happen to captains of industry such as themselves: yeah, tell that to the relatives of those stockbrokers who killed themselves when stock markets dive, and the banks' victims from the mortgage crisis. Saying stupid shit like that just makes us think you must be those lame dudes who live in their moms' basements, and have no idea what life is like because you've never had to support yourselves!