News Mar 4, 2022 at 10:14 am

We’ve heard from everyone in the city about the troubled intersection – except for the people who make a living there.

Comments

3

This article is just as stupid at KOMO's hysterical coverage. While I feel for anyone struggling with homelessness, mental illness, drug addiction, etc. at the end of the day it is up to them to seek out the help that is there (such as the EBT program that Nicole seems to think is handled by the office on 5th which it is not, she needs to go to the DSHS office on 2nd) and not get kicked out of public housing (she knows why).

If anything this article shows that you cannot reach some people and they will always choose to live outside of the norms of the rest of society. We can't keep throwing money away trying to reach the unreachable. We should focus efforts on people that aren't so far gone they don't care about themselves anymore.

4

Yep, now its time to hear from the down and outers, miscreants, bums ... what we used to call lazy people... the people who are breaking the law and creating the problems. Folks who have no control or ability to do better... all victims of the system, greedy developers, tech giants and people who work for a living.

Great article. Well balanced, thought out and so very ever "The Stranger".

Just a snap shot of the problem, and as ever ....never a workable solution.... just pity me pines excuses.

7

Thanks for this, Hannah. This is enlightening. The denizens are pretty much who I've always thought they were, and "Frank" makes a great point about the violence. Imagine having subsidized housing and not remembering why you were evicted. They do give you a reason, so she's either gaslighting you or too addled to remember. Maybe both.

If the City wants to put these folks to work, here's an idea: Seattle's parks look like shit, and they've always looked like shit. Roadsides and medians, too. Lots of invasive Himalayan blackberry copses to pull out. Most anyone can use a shovel and loppers.

9

Y'all apparently ignored me when I sent this message mere minutes after the THIRD shooting of the week, so I'll post it here instead...

I reach out to you out of desperation.

I live at a building called The Gilmore - a low income apartment complex located directly on the corner of 3rd and Pine. Our entrance is just two doors down from the McDonald's. We have now had three shootings at this location in just over a week. The last occurred just an hour or so ago, and I have been home for all three. Needless to say, the situation here has become as much of an emergency as it can possibly be. I have called everyone I can think to call and no one seems to care. I have called the mayor's office three times and have not gotten a response. I implore you, please help.

When people speak of the issues on this corner it is typically from a perspective that is completely removed from their everyday life, as a situation which always has been and will never, ever improve. But most people in this city don't realize that hundreds of low-income residents - including many families with ederly residents, disabled people, and kids - live directly above this corner. For me, 3rd and Pine is my home. And during the era of this pandemic, it is where I have spent the vast majority of my time.

During the past two weeks especially, the situation here has gotten quite dire. If I had to estimate the amount of people on this side of the street just today, I'd put it at about 65-80 total. At one point during the weekend, it was undoubtedly well over a hundred. My friend who visited recently went even further, saying he thought the total would be closer to 200. There's truly so many people at this corner at times that to come up with an estimate would be a futile endeavor.

I can only assume the increase in activity on this corner is due to efforts by the police department and the Downtown Association to push people away from other corners (which are mostly comprised of abandoned businesses that real estate companies would like to start leasing out), to 3rd and Pine. This feels incredibly unjust to me - both to the people of this building, and to the people living on the streets who are constantly being shuffled around. As of today, just take a look around this building and you'll see that every side of the street on the intersections of both 3rd and Pike and 3rd and Stewart are more or less devoid of these issues. But 3rd and Pine is jam-packed with people.

As such, the amount of drug use and criminal behavior on this corner has exploded. I see someone doing illicit drugs every single day. At times, I have even had to walk directly through clouds of drugs just to get in the building. I once came home to see someone staring directly into the reflection of the front door, injecting straight into their neck. I think it's safe to say I've seen it all living here, but the biggest change as of late is just how frequent it has become. It is no longer something I see maybe 2-3 times a week, but literally every single time I leave the house.

Goes without saying there is also a great amount of trash on the ground on this corner, more or less 24/7. Syringes, tin foil, food containers, feces, you name it. I'd also say roughly 2 out of every 3 times I leave the house/come home involve an episode where I have to actively prevent someone from following me inside. This sometimes even leads to direct confrontations. And to make matters worse - no matter who I call, whether it is 911, or the police non-emergency number, or the "Downtown Ambassadors," or someone else involved with the city, no one seems to do anything. No one seems to care. It truly feels like a helpless situation. Just today, I saw someone walking down the sidewalk cradling a long, skinny chainsaw against his shoulder like he was holding a rifle. There was a zoned out look in his eyes as if was both high and angry. I called the police. From what I understand, they did a quick glance up and down the corner and then left.

This corner is not safe. And yet, we live here.

I should note that I am nothing but sympathetic to those who are homeless. This is an issue I care about deeply, and from a perspective which is filled with empathy. I formerly worked for a non-profit which directly provided services to homeless youth, and I myself have experienced housing instability. I am a die-hard progressive, and have nothing but love for those who are on the streets. It certainly seems the easiest thing to do to solve this problem would be to give people housing and money, but we all know that isn't going to happen any time soon.

At a very minimum, in my opinion, we desperately need a mobile police precinct on this corner to ensure the safety of the people who live here. Part of me feels bad for even suggesting this, but in the interim, I sincerely cannot think of anything else which would immediately improve the safety of the many people living on this corner. I have been reading The Stranger for years and I know there are a wealth of intelligent and empathetic people on your staff, so I'll leave it up to you to decide what needs to happen on this block. But please, I beg you, do not ignore my plea. Someone needs to do something, and fast. I have evaded gunfire a total of five times now while living on this corner, and three of those times were in the past ten days. I know that I am absolutely not the only one who is terrified right now, and needless to say, most of us do not have the resources to quickly leave.

So please. Say something. Call someone. Push someone to make a change like you have so many other times in the past. I don't know who else to turn to.

Thanks again for all your hard work, and for being so caring in your response to these issues.

Sincerely,

A person of 3rd and Pine

PS- Thanks for ignoring me.

11

^ I sent the following message to three different Stranger-affiliated e-mails on the night of the third shooting and never got a response. Thanks again, guys.

12

Flipped merchandise is quite the euphemism for stolen goods.

14

@12 - Beat me to it.

Nor is selling STOLEN merchandise a job.

The article started off quite well, but then Hannah worried about meeting her snark quota.

15

Selling stolen property is not an "informal job," it's a crime, and handling stolen property either directly or indirectly drives up the prices of not-stolen goods, which hits honest poor people the hardest.

'“Large numbers of people are now stranded in the illicit economy… and there’s not an obvious way for them to cross over to a lawful income source,” said Lisa Daugaard, the executive director at the Public Defenders Association.

'Daugaard suggested either a guaranteed basic income or a WPA-style jobs program to give sellers like Andre an alternative.'

There are signs everywhere asking for workers. Anyone without a job is either not capable of working, or not interested in working. The former need our help for their issues, and the latter don't need our charity.

16

Back in the 80's & 90's people would gather on 3rd & Pine for family reunions, picnics, and sell crack...this is not a new story. This block has been a shitstain on downtown Seattle for decades.

My solution is we find a group of people to walk, or patrol, the area. Some should be dressed in a similar uniforms and others perhaps wear their regular, or plain, clothes. Some can be on foot and others on bikes. They can be backed up by the less healthy in SUVs that we buy them. They can detain the people committing the crimes and put them some where until someone can determine if they committed the crime and what the punishment should be. We can pay them over $100,000/yr and they will make the place safer.

17

@11 Thanks for providing some actual insight into the reality that exists downtown. Sadly I'm not surprised TS ignored you because telling your story does not fit their preferred narrative that all of this is some sort of failure of capitalism that could easily be fixed if we just taxed Bezos his "fair amount". Its stories like this that need to be told and retold until the people elected to maintain this city start doing their job and that includes enablers like Daugaard and Kandelwal. No one is trapped in an illicit economy and providing a guaranteed basic income is only providing guaranteed drug sales. FFS Andre is housed and when asked what more could be done he wants to shoot hoops. Hardly someone looking to work.

19

Thanks for enlightening us to the fact that the current policies of giving these folks free housing is a complete waste of money. If people are selling drugs, or stealing shit to buy drugs, those things are illegal. Jail is free housing, and there's a lot of land in Eastern Washington for new jails.

People who want help should obviously have access to it. But from this story it looks like none of these people do.

20

"Flipped merchandise" a term that may follow Hannah for a while.

21

The victim that @9 mentions was sleeping in a doorway when he was stabbed this morning. Allowing crime to run rampant does not serve the unhoused either. Police presence is the humane approach right now.

22

@3: "at the end of the day it is up to them to seek out the help that is there"

The reason these people find themselves in their predicament is that they don't have the capacity to seek out that help. Needs are immediate (booze, drugs and even food) and once satisfied, they'll just walk away from a job. Until they are hungry or going through withdrawal. Then, boosting some merchandise and reselling it at 3rd and Pine will satisfy the immediate need. Universal income won't work because there isn't a capacity to plan two weeks ahead when the rent and utilities are due. Same holds true for employment or a WPA program. The need is now. Not when the pay envelope arrives.

No matter how bad institutional life sounds to us, it has the advantage that the residents don't need to plan. You will be woken up on a schedule, marched down to the cafeteria at a set time. Recreation hours are predetermined and so is lights out. No planning skills are needed and nobody has to go hungry or freeze on a park bench due to the lack of foresight.

23

Close the McDonald's. Close anywhere that this crowd is hanging out.

24

“That’s an awful lot of beer and toilet paper,” the cop said of the very normal amount of beer and toilet paper. “You wouldn’t be trying to sell it?”

make me an
Offer copper

imagine including
ALL Stakeholders
in this America
Big Media.

that's some Scary Shit.

dynomite shit Hannah.
Well Fucking Played.

25

@23 -- Close
EVERYTHING
the Rich ain't got
a Firm Grip on. That'll

learn 'em.

26

@25 - no, but close the place that has attracted this criminal crowd for years.

27

@23: It's a cheap place to eat and serves its purpose despite the location and is convenient for the people that who there, and everyone else. That's the first and primary consideration.

28

'We’ve heard from everyone in the city about the troubled intersection – except for the people who make a living there.'

I guess we can see why that is. You interviewed a fence, someone who doesn't know why she got kicked out of her housing and is trying to buy stolen stuff, and a drug dealer. It takes a huge amount of disconnect to think this would go over well. I will say, it is an interesting perspective, so from the point of view of covering the story, it's a good piece.

30

How many people who live in the letter writer's affordable housing building are also some of the criminals that are outside the building? All you have to do is go outside for a smoke and you get harassed, whether it's downtown or Lower Queen Anne by the Space Needle. If low income housing has to be built in high crime areas, all we're going to be hearing forever are people complaining about the high crime outside their doors. Companies like Amazon and Facebook build playground type offices for their employees, why can't affordable housing builders do the same for the working poor? A safe indoor area (with BB courts) and ways to come and go without feeling like you have to duck bullets. And NO the shoppers are not safe when assholes think it's easier just to shoot someone instead of just arguing over BS like drugs/girls/money like any sane person could do without murdering someone.

31

A very earnest attempt to explain stakeholder needs. But then ‘Earnestness is just stupidity sent to college’.

33

I haven't visited this comment section in so long and it seems like a good choice. A bunch of short-sighted authoritarians with no solutions, just the hysterical hunger for retribution. You all suck and you're the reason everything is terrible. I wish you would just move to Indiana or something where there's no opiates or crime. You don't have the vision or constitution to create a great city to live in. Go live in the 'burbs, you dicks!

33

So they cleared 12th and Jackson a few weeks ago and now 3rd and Pine is suddenly much more dangerous and full of stolen merchandise? Quelle surprise!

36

All of this is Police Theatre.

It was ever since the 1960s, pretty much constantly.

Newspapers used to write about it, TV stations would panic the non-Seattleites, and nothing would ever really change.

I used to catch a bus every morning down to Kent Space Center East next to it, back in the 1980s (let's just say I know way too much about cruise missiles, drones, and other systems), and it was the same then.

It was the same in the 90s.

It was the same in the dot com 00s.

It was the same in the 2010s.

And it's the same now, other than we have homeless tents actually on our streets because the politicians refuse to allow housing construction (hint: build MORE than the number of people moving here, no excuses).

38

@20,

"Flipping merchandise" as a euphemism for selling (or more accurately re-selling) stolen goods has been around for decades. It won't follow her around any more than the pictures that @34 uses to fulfill his fantasies will.

40

@9

That is an incredibly interesting, and unfortunately heartbreakingly sad perspective, but I'm not sure what you were expecting the skeleton crew who runs the blog to accomplish on your behalf. It's not like the crime riddled narrative hasn't been put out there and propogated by all the mainstream institutions. It'd have been nice for someone at the paper to have responded with an acknowledgment of your submission, but I think it's probably pretty naive to think they'd have had the power to foment some sort of meaningful change based upon it.

41

This is one of the ugliest comment threads I’ve ever seen on The Stranger. Sorry for all these assholes, Hannah.

43

@1/2:

If these "deadbeats" were the scions of a multi-billion dollar pharmaceutical giant we'd call them shining examples of the American Dream. But, because they deal in nickel-and-dime street sales of addictive opioids they're the scum of the earth. I mean, it's one thing to berate the undocumented immigrant, but I note you specifically don't single out the employer exploiting their undocumented status for some cheap labor as part of your critique - that's just "smart business" amiright?

So much for the Right's perpetual "pull yourself up by your own bootstraps" mantra, because that's exactly what they're doing - trying to survive however they can given their extremely limited circumstances and opportunities.

45

@41,

Yeah, I may have contributed to the trash heap w/ my comment. Just Another should be reported for banning.

47

Great quote: ‘'A bunch of short-sighted authoritarians
with no solutions, just the hysterical hunger for retribution.’'

like ol’ Kavanaughtius Maximus
but less well-connected
after a 3-day bender

and
‘Earnestness
is just stupidity
sent to college’. [sic]

did Hemingway
go away to
school

52

@50 - the individuals described in the article don't really seem to be the sort that would be willing to actually show up for said jobs cleaning up the city. You know, Andre has hoops to shoot and all.

54

"Andre lives in an apartment thanks to a city-run housing program, but he doesn’t have a job other than selling flipped merchandise. Over the last two years, the government has forked over financial relief to taxpayers with formal jobs, but people like Andre, who work informal jobs, have not seen such benefits."

"People like Andre have...not seen such benefits." How is a free downtown apartment not a "benefit"? This report doesn't do much to support the Housing First narrative. And I say this as a liberal who agrees that people need a minimum amount of immediate stability to gain long-term stability. It's hard to maintain a job when you lack a shower and a safe, warm, dry place to sleep. But when you are given these things--free, courtesy of working Seattleites (ahem, those with 'formal jobs')--and you choose to do nothing with this windfall but hang out on 3rd & Pine selling stolen lighters for drug money...WTF!?

55

I'm a Ceasar Chavez leftist. You can labor organize until the cows come home but it's for naught as long as unchecked illegal immigration undercuts low-income wages (and puts upward pressure on low-income housing). Pseudo-leftists (and the Koch Brothers) ignore this, declaring that illegal aliens only wish to spend their lives harvesting lettuce. (And granted, most economic migrants do grate crash hoping for fair wages for fair work.)

Enter Frank. He came here to get rich, and when that didn't work out, he turned to selling meth and heroin. This does not make him a victim.

56

"Nicole used to have an apartment through a city-run housing voucher program, but she got evicted last month. She said she didn't know why..."

No one is fired from a job or evicted from (a free apartment, in Nicole's case) without being told why. Why not a little more journalistic inquisitiveness here Hannah?

57

The Stranger was, for a quarter of a century, one of the finest alternative weekly newspapers in the nation. The Stranger produced hip, funny, insightful--and proudly non-PC/woke--content on schedule. And now...as goes Seattle, goes the Stranger. RIP.

58

Would you please interview someone that works at McDonald’s for their take. Then interview the owner of that McDonald’s. To only interview the people you did makes this the far left version of Fox News. How does any business advertise here for the “news” opinion that is helping destroy the city?

59

Kudos to Hannah for going out there and doing some real reporting on a story. Unfortunately it doesn't paint a very favorable picture of the people out there. :(

60

@33: "You all suck and you're the reason everything is terrible."

People commenting on a blog = the reason everything is terrible.

People firing weapons in a crowded intersection = not a reason everything is terrible.

What will you tell us next -- there's no opiates or crime in rural America?

(Wait, what?!?)

61

“Maybe build a basketball court? Somewhere to shoot hoops?”
Excellent solution from Hannah "informal job of flipping merchandise" Krieg

62

@41: No, the commentary have all been mostly reactions of moral clarity following one of the ugliest post in The Stranger's history.

65

Not an easy way to transition from stealing shit for a living to the normal workforce? Ummmm...fill out an application.
What in the actual fuck did I just read?

Also, who smokes? It's 2022.

67

so When
we gonna
Send the Bill
to the Billionaires?

68

Kristofarian
is hands
down
the dumbest poster
here and the
stupid way he formats
his
comments
makes his idiotic
shit
almost unreadable

69

While I commend the attempt to get all perspectives, it is attitudes like this stranger writer has and the apologetic tone for crime this particular article demonstrates that causes normal people to roll their eyes and vote republican.

70

@69: At the least it's disingenuous (an overused word for sure, but in this case it really fits) to anyone who wants to live in a civil society where individual rights and public safety are respected.

Crime is antithetical to democracy.

71

Look at all the regular right wing turds sucking each other off.

73

@71: I don't see any feces doing fellatio, right wing or left wing. My what dirty eyes you have.

74

@ le oft-
banned boi

[you did good
Pwoggy!]

and
yet you
Suffer so
to 'make sense'
of i. Touching, that

'member:
when you see the
tree feel Free to flee &
just scroll Merrily right on by

those Anguished minutes
you Save’ll likely Keep you outta your
Grave & ya don’t even gotta Thank me

75

@62,

"...one of the ugliest post in The Stranger's history."

Holy hyperbole, all she did was go down to a part of town that's been in the news to interview some of the locals for their perspectives. I don't even really begrudge you for being put off by or disparaging the subjects themselves, but getting a glimpse into their day-to-day lives is potentially interesting and worthwhile. Or if you don't share that sentiment, then I would highly recommend finding some other source of news to read, or maybe even a hobby to pass the time.

@72,

Or maybe, like 34 million other Americans, she occasionally smokes. Funny joke though, for real. You ever try your hand at stand-up?

76

but Does the so-called 'right'
even Have a sense of humor?

here's my ol bud HST on it:

Richard Nixon has never been one of my favorite people anyway. For years I've regarded his existence as a monument to all the rancid genes and broken chromosomes that corrupt the possibilities of the American Dream; he was a foul caricature of himself, a man with no soul, no inner convictions, with the integrity of a hyena and the style of a poison toad.

The Nixon I remembered was absolutely humorless; I couldn't imagine him laughing at anything except maybe a paraplegic who wanted to vote Democratic but couldn't quite reach the lever on the voting machine.

77

@71: Careful, Professor: your Hiztory is showing.

Surely, you regard Andre's story as a triumph of a "Housing First" policy, no? Having your friendly, local neighborhood fence housed at public expense means there's one less homeless criminal living on Seattle's streets. (And, given Seattle's abundant supply of affordable housing, it's not like Andre occupies a living space many locals would love to have.)

78

@75: You're right, I should have clarified. Attempts to elevate crime to normalcy or acceptability is ugly.

79

"Attempts to elevate crime to
normalcy or acceptability is ugly."

a million Souls
living on the Street
in thee Richest Country
in the History of this Planet

is what's Ugly.

and all the crime and the
drugs and garbage that
comes with it is what's
Obscene. the further
we're divided 'tween
the Haves and the
haven'ts by a sys-
tem that favors
Mass accum-
ulations of
MONEY

the further
we get from
our Humanity.

just think how it's
gonna Be when there's
only ONE Trillionaire and
the rest of us are just Game
to be Harvested like feral hogs

and when you have the Temerity
to Question the Status fucking
Quo & they call your ass a
Commie and you'll be
the first one on the
Spit at least you'll
be plenty Warm.

80

"The most essential gift for a good writer," Ernest Hemingway once explained, "is a built-in, shock proof shit detector." He also asserted that a "writer without a sense of justice and injustice would be better off editing the yearbook of a school for exceptional children."

81

No need for the juxtapositions as they're both ugly.

82

Kristafarian clearly puts in as little effort as possible and then makes excuses why he can’t afford a decent apartment. I have news for you… the rest put in a lot of hours.
We
Work
Hard
And
You’re
Lazy.
Sometimes
You
Need
To
Work
40
Hours
A
Week
To
Succeed.

83

The Stranger should change its name to Real Change.

84

Stud's Terkel would be proud. Good article. It gives a voice to those not heard without pander.

87

So 5 to 7K per day walks out of my place of work, with or without security..Hours are reduced for employees to compensate, Prices go up, to compensate, and some employees are fired for confronting these thieves as day after day of watching the theft chip away at our hard work you eventually, as an employee " lose it" and these thieves are given free and or reduced rent?. Seattle is paying for these opportunists to thrive in the city while hard working retail employees lose their hours and patients and in some cases their jobs? tip of the iceberg no doubt.

88

ok jakkkay: speak-
ing of candles:

“When you’re [sic] possessions... “

which somehow All happen to fit in a shopping cart
[see also: Cormac McCarthy’s Brilliant ‘the Road’ for more Shopping Cart adventures]

“… are suddenly gone . . . before you even realize there [sic] gone, you've just been [Swept] . . . the Homeless Tax.”

“You have not experienced a robbery, you've just been [Swept]. The Homeless Tax.”

good.
Cuz they clear-
ly haven’t Suffered
Quite Enough quite yet.

oh and dewey
if’n when you Dis-
cover the dif ‘twixt ugly
and Obscene I shall tip my hat

hint: one‘s got Nuthin’
to do with cussin’.

89

one more Jakkkay:
“Anyway the rest of the
Country would love to get
the great Tax Breaks the [Bill-
ionaires] get! Wow! Tons of Cash!

Just Follow the Money!!!”

Unwittingly, you’ve just
Hit On what’s making Ameica
Suffer so Much: far ‘right’ judicial
Extremists/Activists on (what usta be)
OUR USSC have legalized the Buying of
(what usta be) OUR democraticly-elected
Law makers. And they (Orwellingly) call it Free
Speech. Hint: it’s only ‘Free’ if you can fucking AFFORD IT.

I challenge YOU:
To Follow the Money

butchya Won’t
cuz it’s like The Movie
says: Do NOT Look UP.

90

hey
is that
an Asteroid?

91

@87: Our little pumpkin spice going down cozying up for fencers flipping stolen merchandise for a snark story isn't pandering?

92

I hope this type of clickbait pseudo journalism doesn't become the norm but it's already too late for the Stranger. It's too bad you couldn't take the time to interview the workers at McDonald's or any other business in the area where people are trying make an honest living. You never once acknowledge the folks that are hurt by those flipping stolen goods. We should have empathy for those in need but enabling them isn't the answer. I can't change the Stranger but I can choose to stay away from this drivel. Peace out.

93

"Hannah Krieg is a staff writer at The Stranger covering everything that goes down at Seattle City Hall. Importantly, she is a Libra. She is also The Stranger's resident Gen Z writer, with an affinity for Tik Tok to match."

Jesus fucking Christ, how are you not embarrassed by that pure cringe?

94

speaking of Jesus fucking Christ:

About suffering they were never wrong,
The old Masters: how well they understood
Its human position: how it takes place
While someone else is eating or opening a window or just walking dully along;
How, when the aged are reverently, passionately waiting
For the miraculous birth, there always must be
Children who did not specially want it to happen, skating
On a pond at the edge of the wood:
They never forgot
That even the dreadful martyrdom must run its course
Anyhow in a corner, some untidy spot
Where the dogs go on with their doggy life and the torturer's horse
Scratches its innocent behind on a tree.
In Breughel's Icarus, for instance: how everything turns away
Quite leisurely from the disaster; the ploughman may
Have heard the splash, the forsaken cry,
But for him it was not an important failure; the sun shone
As it had to on the white legs disappearing into the green
Water, and the expensive delicate ship that must have seen
Something amazing, a boy falling out of the sky,
Had somewhere to get to and sailed calmly on.

from ‘Museum of Fine Arts’
by W. H. Auden

95

@91: The 'pumpkin spice' was sexist and I take it back.

98

Kristofarian's posts are fucking annoying and he's no longer invited to the party.

99

It seems Lucretia knows the word "lumenproletariat" , and used a variant of it just to show everyone how educated he/she/IT is.

What does it mean to be but "done with the bourgeoisie and techies"? I'm hoping you're not moving. How will I learn new words.

101

“…Lifetimes spent on the streets of a city; make us the people we are…” to quote King Crimson.

Here we see the pathology of drug abuse and poverty laid bare before our eyes.

Seattle, in her bewilderment, is beginning to endure big city problems like rampant crime and street camping.

The idea of helping these people lead more meaningful lives is noble and has real merit, however, these people are on a downward spiral and lead an existential life of mere survival, looking for a restroom or place to sleep, and are so dissipated by their unfortunate choices that they probably cannot appreciate or properly receive medical or psychological help.

As another poster cogently proffered, it would be nice to have street ombudsmen like the Red Berets, a movement founded by Curtis Silwah, that advocate on behalf of the displaced and drug dependent, assisting them in their predicament by guiding them to the appropriate service provider, a drug rehabilitation clinic for example, in lieu of getting thrown in the pokey and ultimately tossed out on the street once again, leading to further desperate and incoherent behavior.

This comment thread is panoply of regrettable Scandinavian behavior, what with Hannah Krieg bashing and holier-than-thou denigration of indigents who live on the streets, even complaints about fast food pricing.

Remember, we’re not discussing the merits of a Netflix movie or video game, these people are out there camping for real and are desperate for survival, so we should do what we can to help.

We shouldn’t throw stones at that which we do not understand.

Also, let’s not attack McDonald’s for having the nuts to stay in that location, plywood window-coverings notwithstanding.

We need to increase the lifestyle options for these denizens of the street, with expansive public housing to accommodate their basic living needs and aggressively fund behavioral support and drug rehabilitation services.

The theory here is that if these dislocated people have somewhere to go, they won’t hang out on the street or use the alleyways for latrines.

In this light, the concept of moving public resources away from law-enforcement and into rehabilitative services has real merit.

One aspect to this discussion is the capitalist obsession with self and the almighty dollar, even in the civic sector.

It appears that city leadership wants to expand the bureaucracy with ever-increasing taxation and promises of a new dawn for Seattle, as we got from Mayor Harrell, and nurture these societal problems through neglect, take long and resplendent vacations, vote themselves heady pay increases, recheck the ongoing crisis level, and not really do anything at all.

This is how we reached this point of desperation for all concerned.

104

apologies -- shouldda been a break between

the torturer's horse
Scratches its innocent behind on a tree.

&
In Breughel's Icarus...

105

“… nobody
in their right
mind would defend
thieves and criminals.”

you mean Poor
thieves and criminals
and yet Public Defenders
Do defend them all the time

how many Disciples
does the Front Runner
of the GOP have? millions?

were trumpfy out on the Street
a madman like him’d likely have
Zero Followers unless he was
dripping Russian Ca$h

Unbridled Capitalsimi’s what
brought US here and the
stratification of the
Citizenry’s only
Gonna get
Worse.

oops!
Caveat Lector!
too Late?

106

Unbridled capitalism is based served lightly sautéed in socialism.

107

JFC, I choose today to look at Slog to burn time on a long flight home and I'm treated to the dumbest, most credulous piece of written garbage I've seen in...forever? I hope this is the last thing The Stranger ever publishes before it ignominiously folds and sends its team of goonybirds to the four winds.

108

FDR didn't De-
Stroy Capitalism he
fucking Saved it from itSelf

maybe why he got
Elected FOUR TIMES?

Overturn 'Citizens
United'* or BUST

*yet
another
Orwellian
masterpiece

109

Perhaps someone can explain why SPD can't keep three blocks safe on 3rd Ave between Stewart and Union for the past 40+ years.

Can you please answer SPD?

110

There are lots of commenters bemoaning the quality of this story yet it has generated over 100 comments. When is the last time that happened? TS and Hannah’s goal is to generate clicks to sell ads. By that measure it was a successful story. It’s too bad media has come to that but that’s where we are nowadays.

116

@110: I'm glad the Stranger published this story, as it brazenly contradicts the Stranger's editorial stance on homelessness. For years, the Stranger has insisted economics alone drove Seattle's homelessness crisis, rarely if ever mentioning substance abuse. We've been told that Seattle's taxpayers should provide housing for the homeless by taxing 'the rich' or 'billionaires' or 'Bezos' or 'Amazon.' What does this article give us? Three anecdotes about how drug use, theft, and homelessness all intertwine, and especially how providing homes did nothing to stop criminal activities.

In both substance and style, the story reads like an extraordinarily witless attempt at satire on Seattle's liberal policies, concocted at an all-night dorm drinking party attended only by members of the College Republicans and the Campus Objectivist Club. Illegal (and presumably dark-skinned) alien dealing drugs? Check. Formerly housed person buying drugs? Check. Person in publicly-subsidized housing selling stolen property to buy drugs? Check. Reporter euphemistically referring to trafficking in stolen property as an 'informal job'? Check. Bleeding-heart liberal government officials proposing yet more taxpayer money should go to criminals? Check. I don't think the author missed so much as a single item. (Congratulations, I guess.)

We can't generalize from a few anecdotes, but to the extent the source material can, it contradicts and invalidates most of what the Stranger has been telling Seattle for many years.

117

"In both substance and style,
the story reads like an extraor-
dinarily witless attempt at satire... "
--tentsore

@98 -- damn Shame
I wouldda Enjoyed
your Berating
every thing
under the
Sun.

say that reminds me:
have you invited
tentsores?

118

Please, please, please, re-run this article as-is just prior to the next primary election.

Is the author and editors at The Stranger so far up their own ass that they fail to see how incredibly unsympathetic these three are and how it invalidates so much of what progressives have been claiming is The solution to homelessness? If this wasn't on The Stranger, I'd assume it was satire.

The Stranger has been beating us over the head that homelessness is primarily due to housing prices, that crime/drugs/mental health are mere side effects and not root causes, and that what these people really need is Housing First (and all else will follow). So you managed to find 1) an unemployed, former drug dealer that now sells stolen goods who lives in subsidized housing, 2) a victim of abuse with severe mental health issues that was kicked out of subsidized housing, and 3) an illegal immigrant who actually is a drug dealer. Bravo! Were these the only people interviewed or were these three somehow thought of as the most sympathetic to the cause?

If KOMO/Sinclair ran this article and just changed "his day job" to "dealing drugs", and "He doesn’t have citizenship or a work visa" to "He is an illegal immigrant", and "he doesn’t have a job other than selling flipped merchandise" to "he sells stolen goods on the street" we would be seeing multiple op-eds about how this is evil right-wing propaganda.

119

Terrible, terrible take by Hannah Krieg, who apparently doesn't see the many perfectly ordinary middle-class working Seattleites whose lives have been made more dangerous due to the unchecked criminality on 3rd Ave between Pike and Pine. I've worked downtown nearly all of the 20 years I have lived in this city. Spent almost four as a security officer at Century Square. That area has always been sketchy, just like how there are areas in every city where one should keep their guard up. What has happened this past winter is unacceptable. The fentanyl addicts add nothing of value to this city, they leave their filth behind them everywhere they go, and the black market of stolen goods only helps to perpetuate the violence.

The SPD mobile precinct has been there since Thursday, and the area has been blessedly free of the danger that led to 3 shootings in 10 days and 2 people (one of which was a 15 year old boy) killed. I have not seen these SPD officers flaunt or abuse their power in any way, and I am glad they are being proactive in approaching folks carrying large amounts of obviously stolen goods (no homeless person has a need for Costco-sized rolls of toilet paper, power tools, ten pairs of jeans, or electronic gadgets hooking into a home wifi system). There is palpable relief for the first time in a long time in the area.

Downtown Seattle needs 24/7 police presence. If you go to Times Square in NYC, you see police patrolling the area. The same type of response here was long overdue. My only question to Bruce Harrell would be if a man was shot in the head on President's Day why did it take an additional 9 days plus people being killed to respond in the proper fashion. Those two bodies are on Harrell and his inaction.

120

@109: Because we're not a police state.

122

@118: "Were these the only people interviewed or were these three somehow thought of as the most sympathetic to the cause?"

Scary thought, isn't it? From what I saw during my many years in Seattle (most of which were spent living within walking distance of 3rd & Pine, sometimes with daily commutes on foot, bike, or bus through there) these three persons profiled might indeed be the most sympathetic of the entire lot. And the Stranger wonders why it can't berate the rest of Seattle's citizens into buying homes for this population?

Seattle now sits in year seven of a Homelessness Crisis, a crisis driven primarily by substance use disorder and/or mental illness. For all of those years, the Stranger has peddled the flat-out lie that economics alone drove hard-working locals into the streets. Thus, Seattle has yet even to begin the civic dialog a democracy needs to address the real roots of homelessness. The opportunity for such dialog now may have passed, and Seattle's citizens might now take a "clean them out and let's focus on other issues" approach. If so, we can count on the Stranger to wail about how inhumane and cruel such a policy would be, without acknowledging the large role the Stranger itself had in driving Seattle toward such a policy.

123

That has been a "troubled" block for at least 40 years - and Frank was right that Hannah wasn't in any danger. Starting at about age 13, I used to take the bus in from the suburbs and switch to the Queen Anne bus near that intersection. If I had a few bucks I would pop into the McDonalds or the Woolworths that used to be on 3rd and Pine. Or I would use my babysitting money to go clothes shopping in the bargain basement of the Bon Marche. There were dealers and homeless in the neighborhood back then too, but as a teenage white girl from the suburbs minding my own business, I was never in any danger. Last October I was back in Seattle with my 13 year old. We caught a bus on the same street corner - the corner hadn't changed much - and we still weren't in any danger. (Note unlike me, he wasn't wandering around the city alone at 13 - norms about that have changed substantially in 40 years.) Also changed is the rest of downtown is now higher rent, full of new tech money and property developers. So I guess that corner being what it's always been isn't OK any more.

124

I'll take the people of 3rd and Pine over these sockpuppet shitheads any day of the week

125

@123: "...and Frank was right that Hannah wasn't in any danger."

Unless The People of 3rd and Pine start cranking off rounds at random, at which time anyone within range is in danger. This has happened repeatedly over the past few years (and weeks). Time to shut that nonsense down, and "higher rent" has little to do with it. Will this merely move criminal activity to somewhere else? That's fine, as almost anywhere else in Seattle will not have such a large number of random targets moving through and around it.

@124: You can have them, thank you; good luck with them. (Which commenters do you accuse of using multiple accounts in this thread?)

@117: Sad to see you squandered your lifetime supply of wit on one silly piece of name-calling; perhaps Andre would sympathize with your display of life skills? (Also, what exactly is your problem with my words that you quoted. Hint: "billionaires" probably does not apply.)

126

@120...today's word is...hyperbole

128

@127: Are we reading the same comment thread?

"Thanks for this, Hannah. This is enlightening."

"Thanks again for all your hard work, and for being so caring in your response to these issues."

"Thanks Hannah for making things clear..."

"Its stories like this that need to be told and retold until the people elected to maintain this city start doing their job..."

"Thanks for enlightening us ..."

"...it is an interesting perspective, so from the point of view of covering the story, it's a good piece."

"This is very interesting. [...] It gives me hope."

"Kudos to Hannah for going out there and doing some real reporting on a story."

Perhaps you might pause from relentlessly telling Raindrop, "nobody cares what you say," and actually care enough to read what other commenters really say?

129

"you squandered your
lifetime supply of wit on
one silly piece of name-calling"

so you
Liked it?
thnx tentsore!

130

ol' tentsasaurus's
Baiting you shoobopsy

and you know what they say
about getting horizontal
with the porcine
right?

131

@103: "the people she talked to have or had free housing so you can throw that excuse away"

This, exactly. There's a whole lot more to teaching the down and out living skills than giving them a warm place to sleep. That's not to say that a warm place to sleep isn't necessary. It's just not sufficient. But if we are going to teach living skills, what's to keep the students from skipping class? Where are the truancy officers?

It's also interesting to note that Curtis Silwah's Red Berets are a volunteer organization. Not a publicly funded member of the Homeless-Industrial Complex. Their success is measured by the number of people who volunteer for their help that eventually pull themselves out of poverty. Public assistance programs, like public schools, get sent those who want help and those who just want to cut class.


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