Posted on 06/24/2018 6:42:14 AM PDT by Libloather
**SNIP**
We have a similar lack of leadership at home. From the Seattle City Council head-tax debacle, to the growing lack of safety and now a mayor’s trip to protest at the border with a U.S. Conference of Mayors delegation. If all were well at home, we could applaud this effort. But that isn’t the case.
Mayor Jenny Durkan flew away from 180 unsheltered children and 1,000 unsheltered young adults. Violence and crime are on the rise alongside tent encampments, including an attack on a tourist near the Space Needle and a rape in a Ballard car-dealership bathroom.
(Excerpt) Read more at seattletimes.com ...
Maybe one suggestion - <,>PHOTOS: DNC erects four-mile eight-foot tall fence around Philly convention site http://www.theamericanmirror.com/dnc-erects-four-mile-fence-around-philly-convention-site/
I love how the homelessness crisis was ignored with obama was president.
This was a letter to the editor.
The Seattle Times “news” and editorial department is too busy Trump-bashing and virtue-signaling to worry about actual local issues.
Figures the Democraticparty party Would Make a wall to keep USA citizens out. The mayor of Searle cares morethan aboutthe foreign invaders than the people of her city.
Forget the demented urban liberals concentrated in urban centers. They will continue to elect idiots like Durkan. The real battle will be in forty Congressional districts and twelve Senate contests. There it must be explained to the voters in no uncertain terms that a vote for the Democrats is a vote for open borders and the ultimate disintegration of the American nation and its culture. That is the hard truth and what is at stake.
The homeless usually do not vote.
But illegals with their multiple fake IDs vote multiple times.
Next, they stack the deck against landlords with things like rent control and so-called rights for tenants.
“a vote for the Democrats is a vote for open borders and the ultimate disintegration of the American nation and its culture”
That is EXACTLY what is at stake
Seattle council member to fight crime with Ping-Pong balls
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BY JASON RANTZ
JUNE 22, 2018 AT 7:24 AM
Sally-Bagshaw_Seattle-Channel_620.jpg
Sally Bagshaw. (City of Seattle)
The area surrounding the King County Courthouse in downtown Seattle is dangerous. Crime is rampant. Homelessness is out of control.
It’s not safe to visit as a juror. It’s not safe to work in the buildings nearby. You can’t even walk around the neighborhood without olfactory offenses, human waste everywhere.
The solution? Ping-Pong!
Seattle City Councilmember Sally Bagshaw says that she’d like to bring a host of amenities to the area as an “inclusive” way to make the area safer. She’d like to see Ping-Pong tables, seating, and food trucks come to the area.
“This could be a place where we bring tables and chairs like we did at Westlake and Occidental,” Bagshaw told KING 5. “When there are places to be, and there’s food, and they can sit, then [the park] gets activated and there’s space for everybody.”
There doesn’t yet seem to be much support for the idea, certainly not from people most familiar with the area.
“Playing Ping-Pong isn’t any more of a diversion than placing Volleyball nets up,” one Seattle police officer told me.
Indeed, this area has seen a remarkable amount of a crime. Former King County Sheriff John Urquhart was confronted by a homeless man with a knife.
Things got so bad several months ago — with jurors and a half dozen courthouse employees being assaulted — that two judges spoke out.
Crime aside, the area smells of human feces and urine. Take a stroll through the blocks surrounding the courthouse and you’re likely to see someone using the nearby park or a random sidewalk as a toilet. Could you imagine eating a grilled cheese from a nearby food truck in a neighborhood like this?
Bagshaw says other nearby areas have benefited from the amenities she’s talking about. She points to Occidental Park, which has seen a decrease in the types of behavior we experience near the courthouse. She’s right, we have, but the context is so remarkably different. It makes a comparison a bit disingenuous because, she claims, her move wouldn’t displace the homeless folks who are near the courthouse for services.
Occidental Park is surrounded by businesses catering to tens of thousands of people visiting the area for Sounders, Seahawks, and Mariners games. During game days, they absolutely displace the homelessness population. And they don’t have to be there for access to services. The courthouse? They need to be in that spot for access to the services provided. And does Bagshaw realize many of the people who are living on the street and committing these acts of violence are living with an untreated mental illness or addiction? Access to a Ping-Pong table won’t stop them from acting out; treatment would.
Perhaps — and stay with me here as I’m about to unveil a radical and controversial idea — we continue to increase police presence and — wait for it — enforce the law.
People feel inherently unsafe when you let crime and homelessness envelop a neighborhood. Perhaps the council should give officers the green light to actually do their job and we can, for once, stop the shouts for affordable housing and, instead, call for treatment on demand?
No, it’s not as fun as Ping-Pong, but it might actually save lives.
I wasn’t aware of the pong ideas. Thanks for the post. Seattle is about a 2.5 hour drive from where I live near the coast. I like absolutely nothing about Seattle, so other than (some) medical expertise, I seldom go to that dump.
I don’t have any idea where these figures come from or exactly what they mean.
If they are intended to represent the population of homeless in Seattle I suspect that they are low.
My wife and I and two other couples just returned from an Alaska cruise (our first cruise).
We flew in to Seattle to get on the ship and the ship dropped us in Vancouver.
There we rented a SUV and drove down the coast back to Seattle. The drive in to Seattle was eye opening. It seemed that every bridge on the interstate had a homeless encampment under it.
If this highway is representative of the rest of Seattle I think that the estimate of the homeless population must be extremely low.
The quote is for children and young adults (I’m just guessing - but young adults are 18 to 25??). Most of the homeless I see in Seattle and the suburbs are much older than 25.
They do an annual count in Seattle. Here is just for the city of Seattle:
On January 23, 2018, the street count of homeless individuals was 6320, the number of homeless individuals in Emergency Shelters was 3,585, and the number of homeless individuals in transitional housing was 2,285, for a total count of 12,112 homeless people.
Thanks
But the editorialist comment is still to be dealt with.
We have an obligation to bring people inside and give them a chance to get on their feet. But our mayor must confront the fact that homeless campers are taking up residence in growing numbers on our streets and creating an unsafe environment.
I don’t see a city being able to afford to do what this fellow thinks should be done. Not for any appreciable time
And the trouble with dealing with homelessness by giving them rooms, etc. - it just attracts more homeless!
I’m all for helping people out, and give to several charities in Seattle and the suburbs that deal with homeless folks. One is for young adults, and along with a bed for some, and a “drop in” center for laundry and counseling, and now they have a coffee shop to give the kids some skills. Also the Union Gospel Mission for men that want help, and other Christian organizations.
I’m not saying they can all get a bed at night, but anyone that wants help of some sort can get it. Of course at most places that means abiding by their rules (no booze, drugs, etc.)
Several years ago, I was fascinated with a true crime author, Ann Rule, who wrote books about...well, true crime.
I was intrigued by the fact that there were so many crimes committed in “King County” only to learn recently that the area is FILLED WITH WEIRDOS who are maniacal criminals.
Now, reading about the odd behavior there makes more sense.
I haven’t read Rule in years. It’s too spooky.
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