As a former U District resident, what is the stranger's solution of the chronic mess that is the University District?

@1 - I'd like to know too. Catalina aint no bootlicker, save an occasional dollop of whipped cream on a stiletto.

@1: Solution? Why do you assume the Stranger sees a problem? Dear, the modern Stranger generously tolerates any amount of gun violence against Seattle’s residents; only violence by the police will raise the Stranger’s considerable ire.

Hahaha.

The Slog Dipshitistan Denizens just noticed that The Stranger are reporters and not policy makers.

There is nothing that will stop a young male with guns fever from driving his car into any neighborhood in Seattle and opening fire. There never will be, because that's how the Founding Slaveholders set America up.

"Emphasis" patrols won't hurt (Hannah, when's the last time SPD actually shot anyone?), but Brooklyn Ave. that far south of 45th is not where anyone should expect another U District shooting to happen. The drug action is, and will always be, at the Jack in the Box at 50th.

if everyone is getting so cranky reading The Stranger in the morning, perhaps check out one of the other websites on the internet? There are a few.

Y'all know what the brand is here. Are any of you doing anything to make your communities safer?

@4 reporters suggest solutions to problems all the time. It's called opinion writing and its what TS does except in their case they just love to shit all over proposed actions like a bunch of pigeons rather than contribute to the conversation in a meaningful way. After all that's what their base like Professor windbag wants.

@1-3 TS solution to the problem should be predictable by now given their endless op eds and political endorsements. Nothing short of replacing our current socio-economic structure with one based on "equity". "To each according to their ability, to each according to their needs". Anyone with an iota of education knows that is a fairy tale dream and thankfully most residents in Seattle want no part of their utopian fantasy so they'll just continue throwing shit at anything that is attempted to mitigate the violence and continue to blame everyone and everything but the actual perpetrators of said violence.

@9: The only commenter here who seems cranky is @4, who apparently has (yet again) seen his ban-by date expire, and will soon be (yet again) creating a new account here.

I doubt anyone here does as much as the Stranger to make Seattle more dangerous. Demanding defund of SPD, opposing hiring new officers, endorsing an abolitionist for City Attorney, even taking the side of an adult male* revenge-porn creeper** against his teenage female victim — there really does not seem to be a level of crime which might make the Stranger re-think any of this advocacy.

Not meant to imply there is ever any other kind of revenge-porn creeper.

** https://www.thestranger.com/elections-2022/2022/09/22/78516309/defense-attorneys-say-harsh-sentencing-decision-reveals-judges-bias/comments/11

@13: Building a better city (or world) definitely requires many different approaches, tools, programs, etc., but the Stranger’s absolutism on the police (always bad) fails to recognize we can’t eliminate violence in future if we don’t first curtail it now.

When the Stranger endorsed an abolitionist for City Attorney, they effectively demanded a stop to any police intervention in misdemeanor domestic violence. Domestic violence will tend to worsen over time if not treated, and can cause many ill effects far into the future as well. Putting the misdemeanor offender in jail and treatment not only reduces community stresses now, it can prevent another generation of domestic abusers. Yet the Stranger wanted this option removed for all cases. That is simply bad public policy, and one should be able to say this without getting attacked as some sadistic lover of police violence.

“Well, now two people have officially thrown their names in the hat to replace Councilmember Tammy Morales.”

Stranger staff, when it comes to politics, a candidate does not ‘throw their name in the hat’ - they ‘throw their hat in the ring.’

Oh yeah, the myopic "root causes" crowd cares nothing about victims of the present.

It's not just the U Dist - seeing the ID slide into an unsafe mess is genuinely heartbreaking. At least U W students go to U Village as an alternative. Many ID businesses simply close up shop and leave.

Pete’s taking his job very seriously which is admirable. You know, on a very shallow level, he was never gorgeous. I thought he was kinda cute in the way that a lot of young people are kinda cute. But the toll of his duties and parenthood are taking their effect. It’s not that, as in some cases with having children, he can no longer afford that tiny little tub of $65 moisturizer. It’s the 16-hour work days and the four hours of sleep and the worry of being responsible for the safety and well-being of your kids. But people say it’s worth it. Parents often will tell you that having children keeps them young. Feeling young maybe or young-at-heart, but I find it ages you like nobody’s business (if you’re good at it).

Fran Lebowitz, whom I mostly adore (if she’ll let me), never misses an opportunity, when asked, to tear a new one on Pete. She says she smells a Clinton. That may be unfair. She doesn’t like Bernie either because she just cannot fathom why a young Jewish man would leave New York City….for Vermont.

Anyway, I still respect Pete a great deal. Mr. Accomplishment. And Fran hates dogs. How can you hate a dog?

Ulterior motives? I don’t think the pro-choice movement is particularly interested in being bedfellows with Satanists. Looks bad on a flyer.

That picture of 3rd and Pine is both very sad and beautiful. The beautiful part makes me homesick. Seattle is such a gorgeous city. I wish people could bring themselves to respect it more.

Hannah is engaging in some hysterics over this Shot-Spotter thing. We had that in Dallas, and it is utterly worthless. It will not lead to increased police shootings. It will lead to flushing money down the shitter to pay for it, but that's it. The cops in Seattle, like every other city that has bought into this boondoggle, will realize it's a waste within a week.

Shot-Spotter calls will be viewed in the same way that Burglar Alarms and 911 Hang-up calls are viewed, over 98% of which are false (in Dallas anyway). I mean, you have to be mildly alert when responding, as it "could" be a real deal, but the source of the shot-like noise will be over and gone before the cops get there, even if they're only a block away. Shooting a gun is something a cop usually has to see firsthand, since the gun can be put away or the shooter can duck outta sight in seconds. We loved getting a gun off the street, put those pesky shooters are hard to catch!

Saturation Patrols, or whatever Seattle calls them, do actually work...as long as they're in effect. Sometimes the criminality disperses into other areas, sometimes the crooks just lie low until the heat is removed and usually it's a mixture of both. The effect can last a while after the saturation patrollers have moved on, as their presence helps cool beefs in the area...sometimes not, tho. That's a jump-ball.

In my opinion, SPD is wickedly understrength for the size city it is and due to it's convoluted geography. Most staffing formulas commonly accepted by other municipalities and LE generally would have SPD staffed with several hundred more officers. Given their limited manpower, they naturally cannot sustain saturation patrols for long or in more than a couple places. Local hoods can be surprisingly attuned to their PD's staffing, so yours probably know just to sit it out, and the patrols will be moved to the next "hot spot" soon enough.

@20: If you’re attempting to continue our dialog in @13-14, I’m pointing out that your sweeping generalization, “[a]t best the police only deal with crimes that have already been committed, & only reduce crime insofar as they can actually solve them and temporarily take some criminals off the street[,]” is wrong. Careful application of the criminal-justice system can prevent violence both now and in future, and therefore the Stranger made a serious mistake when it endorsed an abolitionist for City Attorney. It’s an example of the Stranger’s dogmatic approach to public policy actually harming efforts to reduce violence, which is the main topic in this thread.

@21: Morty: good to see you again! From what little I’ve read about Shot-Spotter, the more it seems like an overpriced version of a project some senior-level engineering students could create for far less money. Even though $1M will barely buy a pilot test program, the Stranger rants as if SPD will soon erect one on every street corner in the CD, and use every report as justification for going in guns a-blazin’.

Your thoughts on saturation patrols helped as well, especially noting that the SPD cannot sustain such efforts without hiring many more officers. Of course, the Stranger also opposes hiring more officers, so the Stranger gives us yet another example of an arsonist whining about the high cost and ineffectiveness of the fire department.

I was on The Ave the evening of the shooting. It was fantastic. The street was packed with people because it was closed to cars for a $4 Food Fest. Seattle should pedestrianize The Ave permanently.

"...It's called opinion writing."

AHahaha.

This dipshit doesn't know the difference between a reporter and an editorial writer.

@27 oh man, i guess you really got me there. I'm glad to see you are starting to show your true colors again though. As @12 noted I'm sure you'll be earning yourself another ban in the near future.

@26 that is the ultimate irony isn't it? Those comrades just assume once the system is changed all will be good for them and they'll be the ones making the rules instead of whoever they blame for their lot in life. The sad part of course is more often than not their lives are made worse and all they have succeeded in doing is boxing themselves further into the proverbial corner.

Damn! (And I use that word quite deliberately here.) I clicked through to that story about The Satanic Temple suing Idaho, but there was no quote from the temple's cofounder and frequent spokesman Lucien Greaves. Mr. Greaves's remarks are often beautifully mocking of the Temple's opponents, who richly deserve it.

Obviously the SpotShotter needs to be located in Magnolia.

Too many times I see fireworks get set off there, and nothing like an SPD team descending on their houses to stop those firestarters from waking everyone up at 1 am, if you get my drift.

@21 Morty: It's wonderful to see you again, contributing to the comment thread!

@29 seadawg: I'm really sorry that's happening in your neighborhood. We have been having to deal with meth-crazed vagrants where I live, too. It's not fun. Too many neighbors have had their cars vandalized for no valid reason whatsoever--just the sheer desperation of drug addicted transients who have no concern for other people's property. The useless Washington State law that passed about drug use being a misdemeanor has got to be revised. It's preventing police officers from prosecuting addicts with long histories of drug and violent crime. The lack of jail space is exacerbating these problems. Cops have their hands tied, and too many repeat offenders are just allowed to roam free. This bullshit has to stop.