Homeless people are whiny entitled assholes who don’t feel any sense of obligation to the people around them. They only care about other people when it’s convenient to their selfish interests. Otherwise, they just trash public parks and turn down turn shelters because “they don’t work for me.”

But most homeowners are just as selfish, take up even more space, create even more trash. It’s a fight between the insufferables on all sides in this selfish excuse of a “society,” which is probably why we have a homeless problem in the first place.

Until we’re willing to look ourselves in the eye and see ourselves for who we really are, we’ll just keep having the wrong debates, turning over all the wrong rocks for a “solution” we don’t really care to find.

In the meantime, sorry you have to go find some other gap in SRC to pitch a tent in, and hey “respectable” ballardites, still no park for you! Everyone loses. Yay.

Great article. For a little kid, you are fast becoming one of the best reporters on the Stranger. I'm joking, of course, but the profile pic (and description) makes you look like you are 14. I suppose in some newsrooms (back in the day) they would say things like "good job, kid", and I concur. The Stranger (and Seattle) is lucky to have such an outstanding young reporter like you. This is a complex subject, and you treated it with all the nuance and care required.

It is poetic that the Park Closed signs looks identical to the Sawant campaign signs. She has grown the crisis resulting in the destruction of our park for years through poor leadership and potentially on purpose. Sawant has used homeless people as props for her Revolution and encampments in parks as a means to punish the bourgeoisie for the last 7 years. If you want more dystopia and suffering like this, than vote to retain Sawant. If you are tired of the lies, ethical violations, divisiveness and cronyism, vote her out.

The camp along the Lake City on-ramp appears abandoned and is strewn with trash and shredded tents; can that be cleared next?

Old white home owning boomers (like me) "are whiny entitled assholes who don’t feel any sense of obligation to the people around them. They only care about other people when it’s convenient to their selfish interests. Otherwise, they just let their dogs trash public parks and turn down civil society because “it doesn’t work for me.” "

Oh, wait, sorry, let's NOT build more mixed income residential housing than the people moving into Seattle and just pretend the Great Trump Fairy will solve all our problems by dousing us in COVID dust and take us down to the fiery pits of "Heaven" ...

" “Why don’t they come up with a solution that actually makes sense?” one of those residents said of the City."

It's hard to get things done when the decision makers are a mix of well-meaning but incompetent and callously regressive - and the voters have the attention spans of a fruit fly.

If you are trying to generate sympathy for the homeless, you could do better than to use as examples a petulant guy who just doesn't like rules and a violent criminal. I'd be willing to bet there was at least one person in that camp without a history of violence and who is willing to live by the rules.

'Unhoused residents' is an oxymoron.

Are they allowed to vote? Then they are residents. They're just not your type of resident.

reaaaally hard to feel bad for the dozen people who think the shelter they were offered had "too many rules".
good for the other 60 who chose to move, I hope they find success in whatever is next for them.

What @2 said. Nice work, kid.

“I’m invested here …”

You can’t make this shit up.

Mein tent! Where will I go now, to shoot up in peace, unhassled by police? I would like to extend my sincere thanks to Dan Strauss, the most useless, incompetent councilperson ever, for hand-wringing and virtue-signaling, for talking loud and saying nothing, for being a man whose only action is inaction. He allowed this problem to get worse, and now, it's over! Just like that, his homeless party is done, everyone has left the commons, and now, he has nothing.

The homeless on Ballard Commons are not residents! They are illegally squatting on public property... so lets quit trying to recast this as something its not.

Their situation is deplorable and we as a city have spent millions and provided many alternatives. At some point in the conversation, one that has gone on and on, too long I might add, we need to hold those responsible both those who chose not to accept viable alternatives and those in government who fail after that to do absolutely nothing.

This undesirable condition is only encouraged by the city counsel, and our local representative Dan "do nothing" Strauss who weakly laments the situation.

Once we finish off Sawant, its time to look at the rest of these council members and begin to "thin the herd" of weak, ineffectual do nothings.

We could re-zone the areas in front of our city council member's homes as a "safe zone" or designated homeless encampment area.

Yes, lets start a citizen initiative fashioned along those lines.

Let our leaders embrace the problem up close.

--I'll donate water hoses so they can tap into the water supply of the city council members homes.
-- Maybe provide some gas grills
--Provide a few hammers so they can smash windows to "steal items so they can resell them for food" due to the lack of food banks around town... ja!
--Pull up a couple of those vans so they can shoot up in complete comfort and safety.
--Eliminate the trash cans... it helps the endangered rat population recover
--Finally lets reduce the police force down to critical levels...so they don't have protection.

Yup...that will about do it.

@ 19 ---The virus tends to target weak and vulnerable groups.

Having been fully vaccinated with a booster, perhaps it will focus on say poor specimens, not unlike yourself.

The world will be a much better place and... we could rejoice that we would have at least one redeeming act from this virus.

19 sounds like a spoiled little brat who has had to learn what 'no; means for the first time. Aw, sorry snowflake, too bad you suck little booboo! Go back to your gluten-free oatmilk latte.

Professor, your hiztory is showing. Go pull another one of those turds out of the ice tray and suck it.

23, say what you want, with all the vitriol a 12 year old can muster but guess what? They still cleared the commons, so whatcha gonna do?

@27 - My guess is that Mr. Boar's love of freedom may also extend to being free of rules like "show up at work."