Comments

1

You didn't have to use the phrase "narc on" in your headline, The Stranger.

That phrasing kind of concedes the anti-homeless brigade's argument du jour, doesn't it?

2

Well, that's an interesting anecdote. Are you sure Charles, that no restaurant in Seattle also doesn't do the same? If not, then why bash Seattle?

Data is never the plural of anecdote.

4

It’s like finding a baby seal on the beach. Leaving alone, it’s natures job to deal with it.

5

What an awesome app! Thanks for the heads up on this. Just installed the app, lets make Seattle green again! Report the lawbreakers!

6

@1: They did it just to needle you.

7

@6 I guess I've built up too much of a tolerance, I didn't even feel it.

8

No doubt. All those junkies under bridges and along I5 need to be left alone. Put up a high fence and let nature run its course.

10

@7: And yet, your comment complained about it, less than fifteen minutes after the article was posted.

Sounds like it really got under your skin!

11

@10 A little pinprick maybe, I can hardly remember... but you're starting to seem kinda jumpy yourself, there, man. You need a little something to take the edge off?

12

@11: “A little pinprick maybe, I can hardly remember...“

Those two just couldn’t be related, now could they?

Good to see your upset @1 quickly found a salve.

13

@12

Aw come on man, you dropped it.

I know you can't keep going back to the same comedy vein forever, but next time just pass and let someone else hit it when you feel yourself starting to nod out.

14

Great idea! Let’s make Seattle great again!

15

@13: Im sorry I dinged the point. To me, you've always been a hero, in that you've really got your method 'done'. My apologies for any symptoms you might feel from my withdrawal.

16

@14 (& no doubt plenty of others),

What good does it do? Like, do you think these folks are really just gonna get so tired of, and inconvenienced by being forced to pick their crap up and relocate a couple blocks away every couple days that it'll be the impetus needed to get a decent job, turn their lives around, and rent themselves a nice little apartment in an affordable neighborhood? Because that seems hilariously naive.

I don't know what the solution to the crisis is, but I'm quite certain that this ain't it.

17

Don't get all worked up. The app has existed for a few years now. I've used it to report burned out street lights, leaking water mains, burned out walk signals, and homeless tents that pop up n city parks and on sidewalks.

The response to the street lights, water mains, and walk signals is actually impressive with action usually within 24 hours, or maybe 48 hours.

The response to tents in parks and camps is less impressive.

Evidently allowing junkies to wallow in their own filth is the woke response. Who knew? Filth is woke!

18

Filth is woke, woke is filth!

Kinda catchy. I wonder if we can get Sawant's minions to chant it at the next council meeting.

19

I didn't know about this app and now I can use it to keep the sidewalks and parks clear, creating a negative incentive to use city shelters and other resources. Thanks Stranger!

20

Over the last ten years I've spend roughly 200 hours and $10k helping the homeless. Less than some, but more than most, and probably more than most of the supporters of the current situation. Over that time, the only thing that has happened is things are a LOT WORSE. There are a lot of contributing factors here, but I've realized I share some of the blame. I've spent my spare resources helping the homeless meet three basic needs: food, shelter and safety. What that's done is enable my fellow humans to spend their own resources (time, money) to pursue chemical highs. We cannot continue to meet the basic needs for people who value that chemical high more than anything else. Our resources should instead be focused on compassionate but mandatory drug rehabilitation programs and providing employment. Enabling people to "be free" isn't compassionate.

21

I found a family with small children living in a tent on our street. It's one thing if a grown adult wants to live on the streets - it's another if you're a young child. I reported it using the Find it, Fix it app. "Take 30 seconds to think about what the fuck is wrong with you". I think it's pretty inhumane to not report small children living on the street.

22

I keep getting my car broke into by the junkies who live nearby in camps. Thanks for letting me know about the app so I can get rid of them.

I had compassion once. Then my stuff got stolen again and again and again. Throw them all out. I don't really care where.

23

First hit on search for “Seattle/King County Coalition on Homelessness”:

“Join the campaign to win an automatic adjustment for inflation for Human Services Contracts.”

She’s a member in good standing of our Homeless-Industrial Complex. Every homeless person who gets off the street is a threat to her job. Little wonder she has nothing but bile for anyone who helps, even a little, in doing so.

24

A couple of questions: this article uncritically posts a tweet from "Emerald City Antifa". Does this account support the domestic terrorist Willem van Spronsen, who attacked the ICE facility with a rifle and incendiary devices? Secondly, does the Stranger approve of homeless people raping women in Ballard, and stabbing people in front of Nordstrom's downtown?

26

THIS is a wonderful idea. I like the fact citizens can help make Seattle clean up the mess that the local elected officials have allowed to fester and get worse over time. BRAVO!! #ProudToNarc

27

Perfect! Downloading the app right now. I would have not cared so much but they don't give a fuck if they trash the city, assault people, or harass regular citizens. So why the fuck should I? Get them out of here.

Also, fuck Emerald City Antifa! The domestic terrorist cuck organization needs to be dismantled along with their fascist ideology.

28

@22,

One would think a rational person who has had his car broken into repeatedly might take a few simple steps to disincentivize this behavior, but then I'm admittedly not entirely familiar with the specifics of your situation. For example, it occurs to me that you may not have arms and thus not be able to carry said items into your residence upon completing your trips. But further analysis of the situation seems to render this unlikely, as you'd probably have a difficult time driving sans arms.

Is there some other issue that prevents your employment of common sense to your situation I've not had my car broken into in nearly two decades.

29

Will definitely use that app. Tired of getting harassed and finding needles outside my apt. If they don't value their well-being, why should I.

32

@16: “Like, do you think these folks are really just gonna get so tired of, and inconvenienced by being forced to pick their crap up and relocate a couple blocks away every couple days that it'll be the impetus needed...”

In some cases, it might be. Some addicts must truly “bottom out” before they make the decision to accept help. Making everyone move repeatedly at least limits the damage any encampment does to any one site.

@28: In twenty years on Capitol Hill, I had one visitor suffer a break-in to her car. The thief stole the factory-installed stereo from her bog-standard, mid-range family four-door American car. Was it her fault she never acquired the tools and training to remove this system every time she parked somewhere?

33

The Stranger: Your home for 12 year-old "cool guy" journalism. Just as dumb as the city you love, and just as a fake liberal.

35

Sour the milk, get the homeless off our streets and public places. Such a small number of people shouldn't be able to hold the city hostage. Cities should be for the people who pay the taxes to maintain them. Such bleeding hearts would have all of us suffer because they think a drug addict shouldn't be held to the same standards as the rest of us.

36

Though your first reaction might be to think this is horrible and inhumane... take a moment and realize that this is the perfect solution for entitled tattling toms who need to complain but can't be bothered to actually work to solve the problem.

Why? Because Find It Fix It in Seattle is basically shouting into the void. I mean, why would the government respond to a third party app but literally nothing else? (Answer: they don't.) This isn't just about homeless. Try reporting an overgrown sidewalk, or a road that needs repair, or... anything the app should actually be used for. Into the void!

This will be great. People will be asked every three months if their problem has been resolved (it hasn't, but they should go check) and nothing at all will be done. Oh, someone at the city will probably "look at the report". Hahaha. Sure. Meanwhile busy bodies will have "done something". Eventually maybe some other process will actually help these people off the street. Wins all around.

37

@34 cool, cool. Soooo, should we also execute the drug company execs and owners who knowingly got people hooked on opiates, and close the doors on those businesses? Should we execute anyone who ever sold tobacco, or more than three drinks to one person in a night? What about the people who were involved in the draft, or write regressive taxes or subtly fail to hire minorities, people with disabilities, or people with health problems?

And when we are done should we feed all the corpses to obvious trolls like you?

39

F-ck Seattle Democrats and their ongoing war against the poor and homeless. And f-ck Seattle voters who just can't seem to quit the Democrats, no matter how much they act like Trump.

Be a dear. Download the app and start making FALSE reports of homeless encampments at places where Jenny Durkan gives press conferences. Start making false reports of homeless encampments every time you see a Starbucks. Overwhelm the app with false reports and we can render it useless.

And once f-ck Seattle voters who claim to be progressive yet are willing to tolerate reactionary policies just because it's the Democrats pushing them.

40

I have known way too many of my elderly gay neighbors who have become homeless and are too humiliated to ask for help. I have known way too many disabled people who have become homeless while waiting for SSI. You f-cking anti-homeless Seattle trash are just as bad as the Trump supporters who push xenophobic lies about immigrants.

41

Dear Seattle Democrats,

What do Jeff Bezos' balls taste like?

42

How about we "leave them the fuck alone" when the druggie vagrants leave us the fuck alone.

Deal?

44

@43 I do have to agree. After spending the last 20 ish years traveling the world for work and play, I do get surprised by how heated this debate gets. But really...travel a little people. You’ll see this doesn’t happen elsewhere, unless it’s a true shanty town/favela in a particularly destitute part of the developing world. And even there, it isn’t just drug addicts and psychological illnesses.

I don’t have a solution, but similarly to the health care debate: I don’t need to. It’s clearly being managed elsewhere in the world without allowing people to camp in the street. Let’s learn from them, take the best practices, and stop virtue signaling about our tolerance of what should be considered intolerable in the richest country on earth.

45

Counterpoint to the author:

Homelessness isn’t a ‘choice.’ It’s a marker of the biggest type of failure a modern, rich democracy can make. Therefore, the “find it, fix it” app is both the most valuable chronicler of this failure and potential tool to help fix it. It is the ideal way to nonjudgmentally request help for real live humans and for our city. It’s perfect.

46

A couple things worth saying.

1) The app doesn't work for removing tents. They'll just send someone out to take a look, mark it as "not high-priority", and leave. The only tents the city cares about removing are "obstructions." Tent on a sidewalk? Move it onto the lawn next to the sidewalk. Our work here is done. As you'll discover when you ask different organizations and city services how to resolve an issue, the sole way to get a tent removed is for the Nav Team to come remove it, and the Nav Team is unaccountable, unreachable, and totally mysterious in its ways. You basically just have to get lucky.

2) The homeless living in tents are NOT people who got forced out of their apartments by rising rents. Those people moved to the suburbs or to worse apartments.

You don't skip the "live in a cheaper apartment" step and go straight to living in a tent next to the highway surrounded by your own filth and drugs.

3) The homeless living in tents are NOT people who got kicked out of their apartments by a spouse/significant other, or had some other financial/life situation happen to lose their homes. Those people use the city services available, go to city shelters, or rely on friends/family.

You don't skip the "use the resources available to you to overcome this hurdle" step and go straight to living in a tent next to the highway surrounded by your own filth and drugs.

4) The homeless living in tents are, by and large, NOT from Seattle. This is a myth propagated by the "one night study" which A) marked people who refused to answer as being "from Pioneer Square" which was just a straight up lie, B) asked "where were you when you last were sheltered", not "where are you from", and counted people anyone who had ever been in a Seattle homeless shelter as being "from Seattle", and C) took people who are obviously incentivized to lie about where they're from at their word with no verification whatsoever.

We've had article after article after article with police telling us, and the homeless themselves telling us, that most of them came here from somewhere else. We've also had tons of cases where other cities are busing their homeless to Seattle and leaving us to deal with them.

5) Sweeping a tent, even if the person moves somewhere else, is an accomplishment. The tents accumulate filth, trash, needles, and other debris in a steadily-increasing impact crater and don't stop until they're swept. You can go to Georgetown or SODO and see what happens to encampments that don't get swept -- they eventually overtake entire blocks, entire sections of the neighborhood. A sweep is basically a reset button.

6) There are a lot of political organizations and publications, including The Stranger, that have a vested interest in denying the above realities and promoting an agenda of basically letting the homeless do whatever they want, in order to maintain political power and standing in the far-left community. For this reason you will see myths like "the homeless are all from here", "rent control would fix homelessness", "sweeps are cruel and accomplish nothing", etc. repeated over and over and over and over by the usual suspects. Repeat a lie until it becomes the truth, that's the Rich Smith strategy.

48

@28- I thought victim blaming was a no-no.

49

@48: Like The Stranger and all other self-appointed “homeless advocates,” that commenter believes in one set of (very strict and costly) rules for law-abiding citizens, and absolutely no rules at all for thieving junkies.

49

@28 Since when do you have to leave stuff in your car for it to get broken in to? I've had my car window smashed twice in the same year with nothing in my car to steal, just parked outside my apartment. That was Cap Hill. I now live in Green Lake and one night a friend visiting had his car smashed and broken in to while it was parked on the street near my place, nothing was taken.

50

Let's all be honest about the purpose of that poster. No matter what you're opinion is of the homeless issues in Seattle or how to solve them, this poster was not created for altruistic reasons. It was not created to actually help homeless people. It's simply an attempt to subvert the initial purpose of that app for dickish self-gratification. This was not an act of kindness nor was intended to actually help anyone.

51

@50: Let’s all be honest about unsanctioned encampments: each and every one of them is a threat to public health. Every last one needs to be swept, as quickly as possible. Therefore, reporting each one, whether via “Find It, Fix It,” or other means, is an act of good citizenship.

While we’re at it, let’s agree to reserve “dickish” for things like tearing down posters we don’t like, and advocacy of same.

52

@51 You're not convincing me the purpose behind these posters isn't dickish. There are any number of ways to help the homeless situation in the city. The people who made these posters did it out of act of superiority and self-gratification. They're pretending to be concerned citizens, but really they're just privileged assholes who think they're so cleaver.

The issues with homelessness are incredibly complex and nuanced. Every human being who finds themselves without a home has a different story, and for different reasons. Demonizing all homeless people doesn't solve the underlying problems. It takes a lot of hard work, professionals working at homeless organizations, working with law enforcement and city officials able to create real and effective solutions. There are no short cuts.

53

Thanks for publishing this article so more people know how to report the urban campers. You can tell where they have built their nests by the piles of garbage that litter the entire fucking area. I wonder what the traffic on I-5 thinks when they drive through Seattle and see the piles of tents and crap lining the freeway. Report and clear. Eradicate the vermin.

54

@52: I had no intent of convincing you of anything. I was merely stating our public-health need to remove encampments. This is a perfectly legitimate use of the “Find It, Fix It” app, even if writers at The Stranger hate it. If you want to pretend you can read the minds of the creator(s) of the poster, and then call them schoolyard names because of your pretended knowledge, that’s your problem, not mine.

We citizens of Seattle have spent tens of millions of our tax dollars, year after year after year after year, to house our homeless population. After all that money was spent, the living conditions of our city have visibly declined, because the homeless have still not been housed. If you believe we still don’t deserve safe, clean streets, that is again your problem. The rest of us disagree, and we’ll take whatever lawful actions are required to obtain the safe, clean streets for which we have paid.

55

Funny that Charles doesn't mention what his Communist heroes would do with the homeless: ship them off to Gulag.


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