Murray is notoriously petty disagreeable and thin skinned when the camera isn't on. Really a very unpleasant personality and no one most of us would want to spend social time with. Good thing he's got a husband for company.

Fine politician though. He's right on this issue too. The Jungle has been getting worse for a decade and a bunch of prevaricating city council members hasn't helped the situation. These days Ballard and Interbay are running a close second in unacceptability. Hard to believe the U District has been dethroned but it has. Don't see Council doing much about either neighborhood.

Murray was right to be angry. He stepped in to solve a problem and then Sally Bagshaw stepped in to run the plan off the rails. She did the same thing with the Sodo Arena.

If homelessness was really a longstanding focus of hers then she should have had the foresight to work on the problem years ago.

He threatened to stop having pigs terrorize poor people and destroy their things for no reason? What a fucking "threat".

Ed Murray is in way over his head. Can't wait for a successful contender to rip him a new asshole in the next election.

Let me guess how this article came together - Heidi did some public records digging to find the text message threat and (rightfully) wrote a good story about it. And then Ansel was all "hey that's great but we should really throw in some unsubstantiated character assassination from an anonymous source" and then slapped his byline on it.

I'm by no means a Murray fan, but this is tabloid bullshit, guys.

No Hutch. This is how Murray rolls. I didn't vote for Bagshaw, but I will next time because I'm deeply grateful for her leadership on this issue. Murray's "plan" consists of pushing the poorest, most disenfranchised people in our city around and trashing their stuff. Bagshaw doesn't need an expensive consultant to tell her that Housing First is a much better way to go. It will save lives and a lot of money. We need an immediate change of course.

http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/0…

One wonders what chance they have tackling the homeless issue when they can't even manage to communicate with each other. It seems that every problem the city faces becomes a drama production at City Hall rather than finding a solution.

Way to fuckin be, Mayor. I can't say I mind siding with you again.

Short-term feelgood measures to provide amenities to public campers is only going to create a long-term nightmare. I can't think of a better way to double the size of the problem than by sanctioning, encouraging, and almost promoting an influx of more campers into the area. There is a real irony in wanting to "help" today, while actually making matters infinitely worse long-term.

The finally-becoming-less-popular narrative of the single mom whose house was foreclosed on, forced to live in the station wagon with her two toddlers, is absolutely false. We're talking about people who have chosen this lifestyle. When Seattle is beginning to look like a North American Soweto, though, firm action is needed. Being "nice" about the issue has made Seattle a disgrace.

"Feelgood measures to provide amenities to public campers"? Perhaps you mean portapotties and trash bins? If there's nowhere else for Jungle residents to go, wouldn't it be better to have those "amenities" to keep the place clean?

"People who have chosen this lifestyle". Yeah, people choose to live on the street in constant fear of their lives. Only a literal dumbfuck or an actual Nazi would say that and expect people to agree.

What did the mayor expect after he declared a 2 week deadline to clear the Jungle and then left town for Asia? RIdiculous. Disappointing too, as it had been starting to seem like he had his tantrums under control.

Maybe the city could legalize the Jungle, hire some of the residents to manage the place, and provide trash, sanitation and drinking water. Don't create unnecessary rules, just what is necessary for basic safety and sanitation. Surely this is a better answer than putting up a Carlyle fence.

I think the camps in interbay and ballard has been a good solution but can someone explain how portipotties and trash cans will solve the violence? Is the jungle as violent as reported? Is there as many sexual assualts as the media/mayor clams?

Sounds like Murray was on a bender.

Our mayor is a mansplaining bully to women on the City Council.

"I have never yelled at you. I have been forceful in my profound disagreement with you."

Wow, I've got to try that line on.

Can Ansel or Heidi share how they got this PRR? What was the extent of the request? Are these private cell phones?

@13 - When it is an illegal encampment, nobody has the right to be there, so there is no law except force. If the campsites were legalized and assigned to specific people then they would have some control. Just like in any other campground.

The Seattle Times also obtained these texts via a public records request. Someone must've tipped off the press. I'm guessing Bagshaw's people.

@11, who, precisely, camps in the Jungle? Did they choose to make camp there, or were they force-marched at gunpoint? Reality: those in the Jungle are there for the lack of oversight - and all the good times that entails. There are indeed safe places in Seattle to put your head down at night, if that's actually what you want, but these places do not offer the fucked up, drug and general debauched perks of the Jungle. Pretending it's something it's not, solely because we'd prefer the sound of one narrative over the other, is how we got to this point.

And then we can talk about the roving under-30 tweekers infesting CH, Ballard, Mag, etc. Go offer them a bed and chance to get clean and get a job. See how that goes.

Who has been running this city/county/state forever? Republikkkans? Are they to blame for turning Seattle into Johannesburg?

@18 but is the jungle the right place for that? Unlike other encampements that are in lots, the jungle is miles of area under the i-5 and wooded area around it, making it harder for those causing harm to be removed. Putting in toilets and tash cans isnt going to stop the violence. It is another lazy half ass solution. Why not shut down the area and move people to safer locations. Theres more space that tent encampents could go and be much safer. Every neighbourhood in seattle should have a safe city sanction tent encapment.

Isn't this the mayor that Bagshaw wanted?

Murray's turnaround on the "compassionate"-but-only-two-week outreach by UGM was a little confounding. Thanks for digging up the backstory, Stranger. Both Murray's and Lindsay's comments are offensive, Murray's for his money mindboggling threats and Lindsey's for his sexist "protection" of Sally Bagshaw.

@17: https://aclu-wa.org/blog/state-supreme-c…

Bagshaw needs to go. Clearly clueless from North Seattle.

Love him or hate him, I do have to commend Murray for finally being the first Mayor to do something and take action about the Jungle. It was an inhuman place for anyone. From every person or expert I've heard about homelessness, there are no easy answers.
Perhaps its time for a "Tough Love" Mayor and City Council.

Two Seattle Sallys, throwing handbags from 20 paces...

"Text me, bitch!"
"I'm waiting."
"No, you text ME."
"Okay, I'll make her ass wait, then text."

Silly.

Meanwhile, downtown smells like a puddle urine, the buses smell like BO and cheap wine, and not a damn one of them is prepared to the necessary ass-kicking.

McGinn 2018!

@21 - I agree with your plan, let's set up safe encampments in every neighborhood. Then I would not disagree with closing the Jungle.

Similarly, if Seattle had the housing density of a modern city then there wouldn't really be any need for Magnolia. So after we scale up housing we should be able to expand Discovery Park to include all of Magnolia.

If I'm reading this right, Heidi Groover went from being Erica Barnett's lapdog to a frothing at the mouth NIMBY all within the span of a month? This is hysterical!

The Housing First program would provide decent housing and social services to all who have fallen down the black hole of economic deprival, addiction, alcoholism, mental illness and abuse. its a proven program (e.g. Salt Lake City’s experience) and is very cost effective.
Its compassionate and provides dignity to the disenfranchised. Sending in cops to throw people and their stuff away is not and never will be. Many people are damaged by this system and many people in the jungle HAVE JOBS but cannot afford housing.

About the mayor: Humpy Dumpty sat on the wall, Humpty Dumpty had a great fall, All the king’s horses and all the King’s men couldn’t put Humpty Dumpty together again.

For all the haters of the poor and disenfranchised: No we will not settle for a fourth reich. The third reich ended over seventy years ago. Perhaps you do not recall what happened to Mussolini and Hitler and friends?

Your arguments are very similar to the proponents of slavery in the nineteenth and previous slave trade centuries when those like you tried very hard to convince yourselves and others that people who were not white were inferior to yourselves. Or during the industrial revolution when the upper classes insisted that the working class was inferior to them to justify their abuse of working children, women and men.

@9: The police have three options for clearing the Jungle, or any illegal gathering:

1) Writing tickets (which won't get paid) and hoping that people move on of their own accord to avoid getting tickets which they have no means or desire to pay.

2) Arresting everyone who doesn't vacate by a deadline. Which means spending a lot of money housing, feeding and providing medical care to the detained while they're in jail, and expensive hazmat cleanup of the mess left behind--human waste, sharps, etc.

3) Gassing, beating and shooting the everyone until they leave or die.

Which of these are you suggesting is needed for "firm action"? Note: #3 has significant legal issues which will result in expensive legal proceedings against the city for years.

@35, do you think #2 means life in prison? They leave, by force if needed; the area is secured and patrolled; nobody put in jail.

And re: #3, that didn't take long. Basically, anyone who thinks the city needs to stop coddling and promoting further campers/junkies and actually proceed with removing/stopping them from trashing/shitting everywhere, is a Nazi. I did Nazi that coming.

@35, no I was thinking a few days in county lockup when they refuse to leave their tents/shacks. Because if they refuse to leave and the cops just pick them up and carry them out of the Jungle and set them down on the sidewalk, they'll be camping illegally somewhere else that night. Some of them will make it difficult to carry them out, or just refuse and they'll get arrested and detained for some period while they're processed, during which they'll need to be housed, fed, and if the underfunded wheels of justice turn with their usual slowness, medical issues will have to be dealt with.

Regarding "secured and patrolled"--how's that going to work? A barbed wire fence around the entire area and cops patrolling the area...in perpetuity? $ound$ really workable. We've got the spare cops to do that babysitting detail for months a time, for sure. The displaced Jungle residents will just move around town like all the other homeless campers by the freeway or any undergrowth area. In the meantime, there'll be that huge garbage cleanup project for the new barbed wire Jungle zone.

More punitive suggestions regarding people that have fallen down a black hole. Jailing people? Is that all you have? Pathetic, heartless and so stupid. Can’t you think critically? Don’t you know about positive solutions?

Housing First! Housing First! Housing First!

@38 Fining and jailing are the only options *the police* have.
They're there to keep the peace and enforce laws. They're not social workers.

Our elected officials and the government they're running, *they're* the ones that should be providing positive solutions. Even once those are provided (rent-free government housing, health care, food, job training, etc.), there are still going to be some folks who will need to be incarcerated, either in jail, involuntary mental health hospitalization, or allowed to live on the streets, because they're the difficult edge cases.

All of this will cost money, and take time. But folks calling for "firm action" against people who have "chosen this lifestyle" need to be specific about what they're hoping for, because otherwise it just sounds like a call for the cops to bust up camps and tell the homeless to be out of town by sundown.