Predictably, the Lake City Chamber of Commerce is angry at the city for springing Nickelsville on them—just as the SoDo business community was disgruntled about it last week. Money quote from the Seattlepi.com:

"This is another example of the mayor just thrusting something on Lake City without consultation," Peter Lukevich, president of the Lake City Chamber of Commerce, told seattlepi.com. "I have put a call into Deputy Mayor Darryl Smith, I have not yet received a call back. The initial reaction by business leaders in the area is negative, both from a process point of a view and the City of Seattle's inability to deal with the homeless situation."

Here's the thing that business leaders like Lukevich won't tell you: Lake City has hosted tent cities for the past eight years without incident. Tent City 3, operated by Seattle Housing and Resource Effort (SHARE), has camped at both the Lake City Christian Church and St. George's Episcopal Church on multiple occasions and with very positive results (and no apparent problems). In fact, it's been both a positive experience for both campers and local residents. "I never heard a negative comment about Tent City 3," says Renee Staton, a former blogger for community blog Pinehurstseattle.org, who both wrote about and volunteered with the encampment when it was based at St. George's in 2007 and 2009. "What we heard was 'what do they need and where do I take it?' so both times we put up lists [on the blog] of what was needed in the camp. People were so supportive, it made me really proud."

Nickelsville, like the SHARE-run tent cities, has a great track record with the communities they enter. Clearly city officials are doing something about Seattle's homeless situation and that's what Lukevich has a problem with.