@1 is not from here, it was much much worse then

cognitive dissonance-correcting glasses
oughtta be Required Safety Wear
for the Entire Electorate
BEFORE Voting

or commenting here.

Good thing I don't need 'em!

[sounds like the same guy on the DVD
'Children of Men' with his most ex-
cellent commentary on the Fil-lum]

Zizek's "forced to be free" argument is an interesting one to consider. The revelatory spectacles were found by John Nada in an abandoned church. I can think of no better example of the deleterious consequences of forcing freedom on people than the decline of religion as a dynamic social force in modern US America. I can already hear the vanguard retort, "but our freedom is true freedom, so we are justified in forcing it on the masses". Good luck with that, we will no doubt be rummaging through your abandoned closets looking for the remnants of your truth someday.

@12 please re-read my comment, I think you have misunderstood me. My point is that once upon a time churches claimed to have a truth so powerful and liberatory that converts should be made "by force". Zizek (if you are familiar with his writing beyond this YouTube clip) routinely suggests making converts to socialism (read - "freedom") by force. I am arguing that no matter how good the soup is if you force people to eat it, they will get sick. I'd prefer if you engaged my arguments without insulting me, thank you. I make no claims on superior intelligence.

In the 70's, downtown was amazing: Lots of big stores (including the World's Largest Penney's!), What is now Westlake Park was a huge monorail station, and First Avenue was a wonderland of sketchy bars and porno theatres.

In the 80's, the construction of the transit tunnel was a major disruption. The monorail station went away, and lots of new construction came in, replacing a lot of the funkiness. But it was still a pretty interesting place.

In the early 90's, Frederick & Nelson, I Magnin, and Klopenstein's all closed within a few years of each other, and Macy's began their systematic destruction of the Bon Marche. Downtown was a little tired and a little seedy, but soon Nordstrom moved into F&N, and things started looking up.

But downtown was never that bad, and it's not all that bad now.

Oh Raindrop, how you do prattle on. I was just commenting on the conditions downtown, not the widespread problem of homelessness, which seems much worse in other parts of the city.

City Hall Park has been a disgrace for decades, but I blame that on the concentration of social services in the area - where there's a lot of poor, desperate and/or addicted people, there will be a lot of people who will prey on them.

In my opinion, the missions and other "ministries" in Pioneer Square and the ID need to give up all that lucrative real estate and be scattered throughout the region, so that we can get some tax-generating economic activity in the area around the courthouse. Turn the Frye and Morrison back into hotels, and let McMenamins take over Lou Graham's old brothel. (After building modern and appropriate housing for the people who inhabit those buildings).

As I often say, the problem of the homeless is a national problem that the cities are bearing the brunt of. But even out by Grand Coulee - which is the essence of the "middle of nowhere" - there are homeless people.

I call bullshit on many parts of this article. I think everyone understands there are plenty of systemic issues that cause homelessness and crime. But ol Chuck Mudede seems to think that these systemic issues absolve these wretches of wrongdoing. At some point one does choose to smoke Fentanyl or peddle stolen goods, or peddle stolen goods so they can buy Fentanyl. There are plenty of individuals who have had trauma in their lives or have been screwed by the system or had shitty home lives. Many of those folks choose to better themselves by working a job they don't love, or by being a good neighbor, or by simply choosing not to use illegal narcotics and devolve into a life of petty criminality. It's these folks who shouldn't have to deal with assholes smoking fentanyl on their doorstep.

There's no reason why the city can't work on fixing the long term problems of homelessness and addiction while also dealing with the short term problem of dealing with the criminal class in this city who have escaped consequences for their actions for far too long.