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I was going to tell you all that after so many months of lay off's accidents , illness etc many many job apps that he finally got not one but TWO job offers in one day one in Portland one back at the place that lays folks off every 15 minutes back up in Everett .
However .
Yesterday he escorted our now 16 year old and her longtime friend ( both ladies underage ) to the Vans Warped Tour for her ( our daughters ) birthday . This is not their first one and they always have a great time . We usually go to 10-15 concerts every year but I cannot make the day long ones right now - too soon since my surgery.
Anyway we haven't been downtown in awhile - last Sep for a Seahawks game and Oct hosting family from Holland . Nightime for the Hawks . Morning to mid afternoon for the family visit which did include the waterfront .
They got home late last night and he told me the homeless population has exploded since we were there . That it was severe -probably the worst he has seen in any city - he claims I would not believe it ??? Actually I do believe it but the next was ...
RATS : he said when they left at first they say 3 then more more and MORE until he said it looked like medieval Europe ( where he came from ) He thought they were stray CATS until his eyes got used to the light/dark ratio away from the Clink then he saw HUNDREDS . He said they were large , had zero fear of humans and were quite comfortable . Several came up to them looking for a SNACK They had to walk some blocks to the alternate bus stop due to construction and the rats were everywhere . I do not recall this leaving the clink last Sep in the night . Just a couple ( 2) years ago we would leave the pubs and clubs, band crawling, way after 1 am and I never saw rats like this
This is not good . I like pet rats just fine , but this kind in that amount is going to make people sick . I realize the camps and being close to the water helps this along but he is not prone to drama at all & said the amount of rats were more shocking than the amount of homeless.
Last edited by DutchessCottonPuff; 06-17-2017 at 09:28 AM..
Reason: Spelling but I am tired so I'm sure there's more typos :/
Last time I went to Seattle was early May and I was taken back by how much the homeless population had grown. I think if you're a daily commuter (as my husband is) you become desensitized, but I only go once every month or less.
There are parts of Seattle that are just now completely overwhelmed and disgusting. Why the hell the city tolerates any of this is beyond me. Each time I go over it becomes more and more ridiculous. To the point where the tent city near the 90/5 interchange has it's own banquet-sized tent situated in the middle of it... what is that, like their own community center or something?
I hope the rats and diseases come. I hope they make everyone who lives and votes in Seattle sick. I hope the city council members and the mayor come down rabies, hemorrhagic fever, bubonic plague and fleas and parasites.. and I hope tourists get sick... whatever it takes to make. this. stop. Take the tents away. They turn homelessness into urban camping. Time to make things a little less cozy for rats and humans alike.
The rats are likely an effect of the clearing and cleaning out of the major homeless encampments along and under I-5 and I-90, which, without sanitation or garbage removal, were perfect breeding and feeding grounds. They're just spreading out (in Sodo, etc.) in a desperate search for food.
As to the explosion in homelessness, I don't doubt that is a combination of:
1) Local renters who - through job losses, health crises, addictions come to a head, collapsing families, and/or usurious rent hikes - can no longer afford current rents, but lack savings/assets/resources to relocate to more affordable cities/areas, even if jobs might be available, getting stuck here with nowhere to go. Some are simply increasing fallout due to the economic/social unsustainability of the "gig" work culture, a rising tide of failures to "make it" from paycheck to paycheck. This is one example of when not having a car/vehicle can be a drawback - even so, you still need to afford gas in order to "escape". Foreclosures also continue apace, with squatting leading to eviction to homelessness.
2) A stream of migrants ("voters with their feet", ala Reagan), from regions hollowed out by globalization, automation, downsizing, social/cultural/ecological depredation/degradation, etc., whether grubbers or dreamers, attracted to a "job mecca" or the "last great place" (an "American Valhala"), but most short the bankroll to actually get established here. A fatal combination of "live your dream" romanticism and diminishing prospects in the wake of an age of collapsing frontiers.
3) A rising national tide of permanent transients, a mobile army, locked out of society (housing and jobs) due to bad credit, evictions, criminal records, addictions, mental illness, sexual offenses, etc., drawn to Puget Sound, up in the Far Corner, the last stop on the American map (unless they manage to make it down to Aberdeen, where Greyhound no longer goes, but with the same result), coming from areas either way too hot or too cold for part of the year, drawn to a Goldilocks clime habitable to living outside, in a tent, year-round. The last time this happened was at the end of the medieval warm-period, with the flotsam and jetsom of overpopulation being ejected and bounced between communities on "ships of fools", both real and figurative, with that seminal event, the Black Plague, carried by rats, not uncoincidentally, just over the horizon.
Last edited by CrazyDonkey; 06-17-2017 at 12:44 PM..
The rats are likely an effect of the clearing and cleaning out of the major homeless encampments along and under I-5 and I-90, which, without sanitation or garbage removal, were perfect breeding and feeding grounds. They're just spreading out (in Sodo, etc.) in a desperate search for food.
As to the explosion in homelessness, I don't doubt that is a combination of:
1) Local renters who - through job losses, health crises, addictions come to a head, collapsing families, and/or usurious rent hikes - can no longer afford current rents, but lack savings/assets/resources to relocate to more affordable cities/areas, even if jobs might be available, getting stuck here with nowhere to go. Some are simply increasing fallout due to the economic/social unsustainability of the "gig" work culture, a rising tide of failures to "make it" from paycheck to paycheck. This is one example of when not having a car/vehicle can be a drawback - even so, you still need to afford gas in order to "escape". Foreclosures also continue apace, with squatting leading to eviction to homelessness.
2) A stream of migrants ("voters with their feet", ala Reagan), from regions hollowed out by globalization, automation, downsizing, social/cultural/ecological depredation/degradation, etc., whether grubbers or dreamers, attracted to a "job mecca" or the "last great place" (an "American Valhala"), but most short the bankroll to actually get established here. A fatal combination of "live your dream" romanticism and diminishing prospects in the wake of an age of collapsing frontiers.
3) A rising national tide of permanent transients, a mobile army, locked out of society (housing and jobs) due to bad credit, evictions, criminal records, addictions, mental illness, sexual offenses, etc., drawn to Puget Sound, up in the Far Corner, the last stop on the American map (unless they manage to make it down to Aberdeen, where Greyhound no longer goes, but with the same result), coming from areas either way too hot or too cold for part of the year, drawn to a Goldilocks clime habitable to living outside, in a tent, year-round. The last time this happened was at the end of the medieval warm-period, with the flotsam and jetsom of overpopulation being ejected and bounced between communities on "ships of fools", both real and figurative, with that seminal event, the Black Plague, carried by rats, not uncoincidentally, just over the horizon.
And yet we're told that the unemployment is around 4.7%.
And where the families of these individuals? My uncle had a life-long mental health condition and lived with my grandmother until she was nearly 90. It was only at that point they moved him into a halfway home. My grandmother was widowed in her 60's. She had a very modest, but presentable home.. the same home she had lived in since she was married.
Maybe as a society we need to rethink the eschewing of intergenerational dependence. I'm certainly not going to expect my kid to live on his own if he doesn't have the money to do so.
And yet we're told that the unemployment is around 4.7%.
And where the families of these individuals? My uncle had a life-long mental health condition and lived with my grandmother until she was nearly 90. It was only at that point they moved him into a halfway home. My grandmother was widowed in her 60's. She had a very modest, but presentable home.. the same home she had lived in since she was married.
Maybe as a society we need to rethink the eschewing of intergenerational dependence. I'm certainly not going to expect my kid to live on his own if he doesn't have the money to do so.
Which doesn't include the habitually unemployed or unemployable, whether outcasts or the caretaken...
Families have been imploding for a long time. Less than half of children now live in a traditional family. This trend is only accelerating. It won't be long before the majority of children will have single parents (primarily female). Part of the problem is increasing numbers of poor adolescents who "age-out" of state care and/or benefits.
Yeah , my sister ends up out on the street in SF when the "Patient Advocates" tell her she doesn't have to take her Schizophrenia meds and it is a HEADACHE.
Thankfully her husband helps me and he loves her so thank the stars but she will still get away from us sometimes - for months , and sometimes different states. Ick.
Daughter just reported in about the rats walking along with her from the North side of the Clink to the stop at 2nd and Yessler .. what dad did not tell me was while they were waiting to get into the bus a bad fight broke out amongst 3 homeless people beating the &#^% out of another homeless person in a WHEELCHAIR and then more people tried to stop them and it was a bloody MESS.
She just wanted them to stop beating the man in the wheelchair who was crying for help .
I hate this .
They so badly need to divide the 3 types . She did say that this was the first time in her life here - about a decade- that the area smelled like a sewage treatment plant . I used this to illustrate WHY when dad got laid off then sick I would move us out of here back to the dreaded south to avoid living like that .I will fight it to the end we are sooo close since all this happened . She is going into 11th and loves her school and is a mentor to the younger incoming students , loves her drama class , is in a band - her guitars are her world.. but I won't live like that .
Crazy D I am still following your instructions to stay put until lease is up . I am plugging along . Not sure which job he will take. .
The rats are likely an effect of the clearing and cleaning out of the major homeless encampments along and under I-5 and I-90, which, without sanitation or garbage removal, were perfect breeding and feeding grounds. They're just spreading out (in Sodo, etc.) in a desperate search for food.
As to the explosion in homelessness, I don't doubt that is a combination of:
1) Local renters who - through job losses, health crises, addictions come to a head, collapsing families, and/or usurious rent hikes - can no longer afford current rents, but lack savings/assets/resources to relocate to more affordable cities/areas, even if jobs might be available, getting stuck here with nowhere to go. Some are simply increasing fallout due to the economic/social unsustainability of the "gig" work culture, a rising tide of failures to "make it" from paycheck to paycheck. This is one example of when not having a car/vehicle can be a drawback - even so, you still need to afford gas in order to "escape". Foreclosures also continue apace, with squatting leading to eviction to homelessness.
2) A stream of migrants ("voters with their feet", ala Reagan), from regions hollowed out by globalization, automation, downsizing, social/cultural/ecological depredation/degradation, etc., whether grubbers or dreamers, attracted to a "job mecca" or the "last great place" (an "American Valhala"), but most short the bankroll to actually get established here. A fatal combination of "live your dream" romanticism and diminishing prospects in the wake of an age of collapsing frontiers.
3) A rising national tide of permanent transients, a mobile army, locked out of society (housing and jobs) due to bad credit, evictions, criminal records, addictions, mental illness, sexual offenses, etc., drawn to Puget Sound, up in the Far Corner, the last stop on the American map (unless they manage to make it down to Aberdeen, where Greyhound no longer goes, but with the same result), coming from areas either way too hot or too cold for part of the year, drawn to a Goldilocks clime habitable to living outside, in a tent, year-round. The last time this happened was at the end of the medieval warm-period, with the flotsam and jetsom of overpopulation being ejected and bounced between communities on "ships of fools", both real and figurative, with that seminal event, the Black Plague, carried by rats, not uncoincidentally, just over the horizon.
And some of those renters used to be homeowners, until 2008. The rental market nationally exploded after that, becoming hyper-competitive, because of all the families who lost their homes.
Why do most cities ruled by radical liberal governments seem to turn into garbage dumps? It took a total right-winger (a guy who I don't actually like BTW) Giuliani to clean up New York and turn it back into a respectable city after being a molding garbage dump for so many decades.
I mean just look at it, all the radically liberal ruled cities are becoming sewage pits that are overrun with drug addicts, homeless people, disease, rodents and garbage.
Many of these were once thriving and beautiful cities , a few come to mind:
Detroit
Philadelphia
Newark
Baltimore
San Francisco (Despite its scenic beauty and nice areas, SF was rated to be the city with the high concentration of human excrement littering the streets/alleys/garbage bins in the entire USA.)
Los Angeles (Los ANgeles is now suffering from an extreme homeless and garbage epidemic in the city center, like Seattle)
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They had to walk some blocks to the alternate bus stop due to construction and the rats were everywhere . I do not recall this leaving the clink last Sep in the night . Just a couple ( 2) years ago we would leave the pubs and clubs, band crawling, way after 1 am and I never saw rats like this 
It's Century Link field! The Clink is the nickname.
