Comments

2
It seems totally appropriate for SDOT to put bike racks at this location to provide a public amenity, activate the space and discourage herroin junkies from camping and creating a public health and safety problem. That sounds like a great use of taxpayer dollars. When is Mike O’Brian up for re-election? It is time to get some leaders on the council that have the political will to address the homeless crisis and other city problems with compassion and commmon sense. Instead we have a bunch of clowns that are trying to demonstrate to the activist class that they are the most ideologically pure. It is not working. We need some adults in the room.
3
it's not spoken publicly much but there are many people that know and dislike corny virtue signaling wastes of money and time when they see it
4
Because of call-out culture and public shaming of those with nuanced rather than ideologically pure views, we don’t seem to be able to have constructive public discourse any more in the city. Durkan beat Moon, because the silent majority are tired of this crap and want somebody with the political will to provide more housing/services AND enforce the laws that make the city functional.
5
Will the manager who approved the installation of these racks and theft of funds from the bike infrastructure fund be required to pay back the money they stole?
6
“The solution to homelessness is not going to be achieved through making life more miserable for people that are struggling,"

So then... The solution to homelessness IS going to be achieved through making life more COMFORTABLE for people that are struggling????

Or maybe, more probably.... The solution to homelessness is going to be achieved through making life more miserable for people that are NOT struggling? The more hobo encampments we have to fight our way through to get from our homes to our jobs and back again the better??? (That seems to be the Seattle "solution").
7
Will Mike O’Brian be required to pay back taxpayers for removing bike racks that are well sited in an underutilized area out of the rain so he can grandstand about how compassionate he is and frame everyone that disagrees with him is a monster?
8
Man...the lefties sure have done one fucking bang up job here in Seattle. It's a fucking socialist paradise!

Oh wait: does that mean they need to blame someone else except for the boneheaded "feel-good" policies that don't work?
9
Putting bike racks seemed like a smart and cheap solution. Even if they're not used that much for bike racks who cares? It's a non-threatening way to deter sidewalk camping. Will the Councilmember also propose removing the small barriers on public benches that prevent lying down? These types of benches litter the plaza surrounding City Hall. Mike O'Brien is smart, but he is increasingly a one-note shill for the "progressive"-socialist complex. I wonder if that jibes well in his district. I worry it might.
10
Dosey-doe and away we go!
Liberals spending that taxpayers dough!
Swing those bike racks to the left
Charge that city - it ain't theft-
Promenade those bikes to the right
We don’t want no tent city blight-
Allemande back---
To the Dosey-dooooooooooe-
11
10 little curmudgeons, all in a row. Slog 2018 in a nutshell.

Keep the racks, remove the racks, it matters not. That underpass is going away when the Viaduct comes down in a few years. Then you'll have nothing to complain about!
12
"O'Brien cited the broader issue of hostile architecture—including the bike racks and benches with arm rests in the middle to prevent sleeping—"used to specifically make life more miserable for people that are experiencing homelessness."

benches are NOT made for people to sleep on — how is this fact making life more miserable for the homeless? i'm about as left as you can get on most issues and do have sympathy for those less fortunate, but the constant enabling of the homeless to do whatever the hell they want in this city totally confounds me.
13
Thank you, Heidi, for making our city just a bit more expensive, hesitant, and unclean.
14
I agree cho_kettie. I am also a liberal, but the left in Seattle has jumped the shark, particularly on this issue. There is nothing like this outside the west coast cities of the United States. It is illegal to camp in most cities in the world, and they enforce it. Homeless are taken to shelters, travelers are told to move along, and criminals are arrested. Here we make up a lot of excuses. You can’t give people the option to set up a tent on public property, shoot up Heroin, throw needles and garbage everywhere, steal bikes, and wait for a van to come by and bring them a meal or they will never get off the street and stabilize their lives. It is absurd that the Council (and Heidi Grover) don’t seem to get that.
18
O'Brien wants to stop spending on things that don't make sense (which is pretty rich...Pronto, Mike?), but Sawant wants to spend more on things that don't make sense (ineffectual programs defunded through the recent outcomes-based budget allocation process). They agree on this much: Never let an opportunity for political theater go to waste. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the Gilbert & Sullivan of civic cluelessness.

Some of us happen to think that tents surrounded by garbage, needles and human waste are hostile architecture...for the people living in them, as much as surrounding neighbors. Where's Mike when we need to put shelter-building into hyperdrive?
19
How is it that all the wrong-wingers are up in arms about ppl taking their own initiative to pull themselves down by the bootstraps they don't have?

I thought you ppl were all about teh individualisumz?

Let's see, you don't want them in the streets, but you don't want your precious, precious tax dollars going to pay for shelters.

If you don't like living among people exercising their Gawd-given right to live as they may or may not want to live, why don't you move to your mythical, off-the-grid, off-the-publicly-funded-roads, not-beholden-to-any-gubmint-at-all, shack in the woods?

Or Somalia.

It's only American individualism when it's you and your cronies, isn't it?

Fuck off and die.
20
The bike racks are doing a good thing by stopping homeless from camping right next to the street. It's a busy street right next to the freeway on-ramp and high risk for accidents. People shouldn't be camping there. The fences they installed near Ballard Bridge cost $100,000.00. These bike racks are much cheaper and are doing the same thing while still allowing people to walk on the sidewalk and under the bridge. I see no problem with these bikeracks except that they are not getting used much. Perhaps they could replace them with some large planter box dividers like they used on the 2nd Avenue bike path downtown.
22
"O'Brien cited the broader issue of hostile architecture—including the bike racks and benches with arm rests in the middle to prevent sleeping—"used to specifically make life more miserable for people that are experiencing homelessness.""

First of all, so-called "hostile architecture" doesn't make their lives more miserable. THEY are the ones making their lives more miserable. And all these measures do is say to them, "No, this is public space that belongs to ALL of us. You don't get to take it over for your own personal use and trash it and exclude everyone else." It's also keep them from camping in unsafe places, like areas with car traffic nearby.

Second, when it comes to the subset of the so-called "homeless" who are really just addicts and criminals preying on others, we SHOULD make their lives more miserable. If you're stealing from innocent hard working citizens to fund your drug habit, or assaulting other homeless people or civilians, or turning our city into a trash heap and leaving your dangerous needles everywhere, I WANT you to miserable, because you deserve it. If you're a thieving junkie, it's SUPPOSED to suck.

And you know what? Making them miserable to the point they can't take it anymore will convince some of them to turn their lives around, because they've hit bottom. Every recovering addict I've ever known says hitting bottom is what made them change. It's too bad the city council doesn't understand basic human nature. As long as we allow them to camp where they want, they will, and they'll have no motivation to change. As for the rest, if they don't want to get clean, with any luck they'll move on to and become some other city's problem instead.
24
Hostile Architecture? Is this now the new buzzword?
Seven homeless individuals have died in 2017, many hard-working citizens have been attacked - and that is only what was reported in the news. Minors have been raped, toddlers have been found wandering in filth and completely uncared for. And THIS is the best grandstanding these City Council "leaders" can do?

You all spend millions upon millions to the Homeless Industrial Complex with no results and over 130 uncoordinated "service providers" who are all scrambling for their piece of the taxpayer-funded pie. More spin and more lies - while you conflate those truly needing and wanting help with the moochers, felons, sex-offenders, and "service resistant" people. All the while Sawant puts out calls to "Pack City Hall, stop the sweeps"! Citizens try to speak at these meetings and are shouted down by the Sawant followers.

Sure - go ahead, blame Amazon or those "wealthy homeowners" or insert-your-next-target-here... all the while rubberstamping unchecked growth and raising taxes - what... seven times to pay for more 'services' - displacing even more people (yes renters, you pay property taxes too). Have you seen a 'sweep'? It's the Navigation Team compassionately offering assistance over and over and over before an area is cleaned up of human waste and needles. How about pragmatic solutions to the homeless issue - or is that beyond the Council mindset?

Perhaps if fewer people were homeless, there would not need to be so many service providers pulling valuable tax dollars with no oversight. We - the rest of the Seattle citizenry - are tired of the waste and grandstanding. Seattle is getting destroyed by utter incompetence

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