Comments

2

Welcome to serf status, Seattleites!

You now have to show your Papers to use things.

It's exactly like 1933.

We're Hong Kong now.

4

Can we just agree that everyone involved in this is an asshole? From the police to the mayor to Sawant to CHOP "residents" / "security" who ruined the original intent to The Stranger who is quadrupling down on a ridiculous spin to the commenters including myself who have nothing better to do than bitch at things that dont matter. Let's all just treat this summer experiment like Ghostbusters 2 - it never happened and we can move on.

7

@4: Sounds good.

14

Durkan got a shout-out from Bill Barr, so there is that.
I guess bi-partisanship is not dead after all!

16

'For her part, Best said she was "just stunned by the amount of graffiti, garbage, and property destruction" she witnessed on her walkthrough of the area this morning,'

Chief Best needs to accompany the Navigation Team more often, methinks. Long before Durkan's sweeps, my bike commute used to pass Spokane Street Viaduct, First Ave. South Viaduct, and within sight of The Jungle. Cal Anderson Park can't look worse than did those places.

21

Yeah, the whole thing ended like we thought it would, and it definitely could have been worse. Honestly, I think it was an ok ending. A point was made, Trump got an anerysm (always funny), the BLM got a little experience in how hard it is to try and be a cop (I support BLM, but I think being able to see things from the other side was quite educational for a few folks), and once the whole thing got too messy, it got cleaned up with reasonably minimal casualties, all things considered. I think the government was right to let it run its course a bit, and right to see that about now was when they needed to wrap it up.

For the actual homeless losing a tent, I'm gonna have to agree with guesty @13 - CHOP was intended as a protest occupation, not a homeless shelter. If you were a homeless person who decided to stay there, fine. However, the government gave full advance warning that they were tearing this place down, so if you were just there to live, you knew it was time to move on. If I decide to take out my grandmother's china to have a picnic in the middle of a protest I don't get to complain when a few of the teacups get broken.

22

"I live here for work reasons and that is the only reason why."

So.... are you on some sort of reality show that requires you to live in a specific unit or something? Apartment building manager? It's a big town, after all, and if your delicate sensibilities are offended, you can always move to Issaquah or Kirkland. I hear Woodinville is lovely.

28

Over the last few days, I've talked to a bunch of people who were involved in CHOP.

All agree that it was time to go. All agree that it was a beautiful thing when it started.

But the consensus is NOT that gun violence ruined CHOP. That's the media narrative. The consensus is that the homeless ruined CHOP.

It started as a bunch of people working together to teach, heal, learn, make art, make music, and create a loving community space. But the lack of police presence lured all the vagrants, junkies, career criminals and degenerates. They parked all their shit in Cal Anderson and set about turning first the park, and then the rest of CHOP, into the same kind of miserable shithole they created in the Jungle. And the same kind of miserable shitholes they've been creating in neighborhood after neighborhood all around the city. Filth, drugs, crime, violence, insanity, rape, kidnapping, people just being horrible to each other. That became the daily CHOP experience as they had to deal with all these people.

Boy did I have to hold my tongue. 100% of CHOP voted for Sawant in the last election, where dealing with this exact same crew of homeless was a key issue. In that election, those of us who made the EXACT SAME COMPLAINTS were painted as a bunch of hysterical, conservative Karens. In fact The Stranger still regularly paints us as such. Usually the renters, safe in their 5th-floor-apartments behind building security, don't have to worry about any of this. And now that CHOP is gone, they can go back to their apartments and forget about it.

It's left to those of us who own property to deal with this problem. Day after day, week after week, year after year. You think having a bunch of vagrants move into CHOP and pull this shit was bad? Imagine paying tens of thousands a year in property taxes, only for the exact same group to set up camp in front of your HOUSE. And they never go away. And the city refuses to remove them. And if you complain, you get labeled a Republican and targeted by activist groups. And Sawant runs for election on a platform of claiming this is a GOOD thing.

29

@25:

That's all just part of the "vibrant urban lifestyle setting" you were promised in the real estate brochure...

30

Downfall dear, don't be so touchy. I just asked a question about why you stay on "Cap Hill" when it is obviously so distasteful to you. But your reply tells me that you are one of those people who love to wallow in self-pity.

For the record, as someone who has lived on Capitol Hill and has worked in all parts of the city for the last thirty years or so, there's lots of places in Seattle that are certainly more affordable than the Pike/Pine corridor, and just as central for whatever Terribly Important Thing that you do.

But I'd advise you to stay far away from North Beacon Hill - it's a dystopian urban hellhole, full of completely dreadful people.

35

@28 I like your honesty and passion, and I'm confident many agree and sympathize with your perspective. Consider copying your blog post and emailing it to all nine council members and the mayor. They genuinely need to be inundated with your kind of honesty. It's likely only a staff person would read it, and it probably won't make too much of an impression, but you might be surprised. I've received personal responses from council members before regarding email messages I've sent. And, again: you have sympathizers here in reader-land, and the city council in particular needs to understand your thoughtfully expressed anger. And all best wishes to you. Many of us share your exasperation and are profoundly unhappy about some of the media and administrative spin on CHOP.

39

@30: "But I'd advise you to stay far away from North Beacon Hill - it's a dystopian urban hellhole, full of completely dreadful people."

Except for a beloved tacky couple we know, with a fondness for wigs, bric-a-brac, Monarch vodka, and corgis.


Please wait...

Comments are closed.

Commenting on this item is available only to members of the site. You can sign in here or create an account here.


Add a comment
Preview

By posting this comment, you are agreeing to our Terms of Use.