Homeless/Drugs question (Seattle, Republic: neighborhood, to buy, camps)

[elkotronics]

Thx - 1138 - are you saying that when you're in downtown Seattle you really don't notice the homeless and their camps? Because that's sending me confusion in light of the KOMO piece 'Seattle is Dying.' I find it hard ta believe that Eric Johnson just made up drivel to sell video hits for KOMO on YouTube. What d'ya see out there?

[Thx-1138]

Originally Posted by elkotronics

Thx - 1138 - are you saying that when you're in downtown Seattle you really don't notice the homeless and their camps? Because that's sending me confusion in light of the KOMO piece 'Seattle is Dying.' I find it hard ta believe that Eric Johnson just made up drivel to sell video hits for KOMO on YouTube. What d'ya see out there?

I saw one tent in Chinatown under a freeway...


Again, use Google Earth, the "street cam" function, I don't really see a bunch of tents pitched on the sidewalk.


That Komo doc, it seemed to concentrate on two things: that area where the freeways meet by Dearborn Ave that has had campers since my time, it's always been trashed, then they concentrate on that one loser by the Westlake Mall, and a couple people having some kind of withdrawal symptoms...


Back in 1991 you could find people like that around Westlake... Let's not forget the crack and meth epidemics.


I believe the problem has gotten worse since the opioid crisis, but not as bad as that doc tries to make it seem, ALL of society has gotten worse since my time.


In some ways the city has improved since 1991, we used to live in Belltown and that has really come a long ways.


Thx

[Thx-1138]

I guess I am one of those "rainy day people" because I always get glum when I see clear skies like right now.


I would have to take some exception with the notion that it "rains all the time."


It drizzles much more often than it rains, and it certainly doesn't drizzle all the time, not even close.


But, one might make the case that we have cloudy skies "all the time," and be more accurate.


We must realize though, that it is our clouds that give us cooler summers and mild winters...


When they have an inch of ice on the trees back east making power outages, we got 68 degrees... when the southwest is burning up with drought and record heat, we got... wait for it... 68 degrees.


You can't have this without WATER!





We are very blessed here, I've been around the whole country and I wouldn't live anywhere else.


Thx

[elkotronics]

Reading your comment two posts above reminds me of the time in I believe November of 2017 Mrs. elkotronics and I drove over the mountains to head to my sister's place in Bothell and then downtown. We were living in Manson on Lake Chelan at the time. I told my older sister that I wanted to drive us all to the Dick's Drive-In at the Seattle Center and have a burger together.

We got there, ordered, sat down and then started noticing debris on the floor. I recall one of us dropped something and I reached down ta pick it up. It was then that I noticed that no one had swept the place out for a...while.

And shortly thereafter I started noticing what looked ta be homeless types working feverishly on something outside. We brought our Pomeranian and Chow Chow with us and left them in the car. The dogs were a real hit with one of the homeless women. "Cute puppies!" she said more than once.

I then started seeing homeless all over the Dick's Drive-In property and going back and forth to their restroom in the back that faces an alleyway there.

Ya know, Thx- 1138, I really mean no harm to the homeless and wish it wasn't that way for them. I do know that it can be a cold, cruel world out there for many, many, people. And for many, many animals. The fact that death ends creature suffering is a hopeful but sad view of the situation out there for thousands.

[Thx-1138]

Originally Posted by elkotronics

Reading your comment two posts above reminds me of the time in I believe November of 2017 Mrs. elkotronics and I drove over the mountains to head to my sister's place in Bothell and then downtown. We were living in Manson on Lake Chelan at the time. I told my older sister that I wanted to drive us all to the Dick's Drive-In at the Seattle Center and have a burger together.

We got there, ordered, sat down and then started noticing debris on the floor. I recall one of us dropped something and I reached down ta pick it up. It was then that I noticed that no one had swept the place out for a...while.

And shortly thereafter I started noticing what looked ta be homeless types working feverishly on something outside. We brought our Pomeranian and Chow Chow with us and left them in the car. The dogs were a real hit with one of the homeless women. "Cute puppies!" she said more than once.

I then started seeing homeless all over the Dick's Drive-In property and going back and forth to their restroom in the back that faces an alleyway there.

Ya know, Thx- 1138, I really mean no harm to the homeless and wish it wasn't that way for them. I do know that it can be a cold, cruel world out there for many, many, people. And for many, many animals. The fact that death ends creature suffering is a hopeful but sad view of the situation out there for thousands.

Yes, I remember you saying that in another post about Dick's and the homeless in the parking lot.


That is appalling, I actually have little tolerance for homeless that interfere with business or just the city as a whole.


I was one of those "invisible homeless," I came up here from So. Cal expressly for the trees and places to camp and still wide open spaces everywhere you look.


(I ended up settling down in Issaquah () hey, rich people have bushes too and it's just as illegal to trespass on the rich side of town as the poor.) (It's actually easier in rich areas, people don't expect to see you, and often don't see what they are not looking for in the first place.)


(Just joking here, I never camped on someone's property.)


I remember that Dick's around 1991-1993 or so, it certainly wasn't like that.


I've been in Auburn the last week, driving around I don't see any tents, there is one place on Main St. where you see 3-4-5 kids squatting overnight... no tents, but they are homeless for sure.


If it's all over downtown I'm not really seeing it, even in Chinatown...


Thx

[elkotronics]

Thank you for your response, Thx - 1138, the KOMO piece really does drive home the nastiness of the situation. I would hope that it's not totally a political sniping thing and holds mostly truths in it, but, I really don't know for sure. I do know that Eric Johnson honed in on some of the exact areas that drugs are sold and/or consumed, and detailed several personal drug/alcohol abuse stories during the 'Seattle is Dying' video. He certainly "brought the dire situation to life" in his video.

[Thx-1138]

Originally Posted by elkotronics

Thank you for your response, Thx - 1138, the KOMO piece really does drive home the nastiness of the situation. I would hope that it's not totally a political sniping thing and holds mostly truths in it, but, I really don't know for sure. I do know that Eric Johnson honed in on some of the exact areas that drugs are sold and/or consumed, and detailed several personal drug/alcohol abuse stories during the 'Seattle is Dying' video. He certainly "brought the dire situation to life" in his video.

The examples they show I'm sure are real, but why do they only concentrate on the Dearborn Ave area and Westlake? (And I don't believe I saw any tents around Westlake in the vid, just that one loser kid, they sure got plenty of mileage out of him.)


What about Chinatown, City Hall park, Pioneer Square, Occidental Park? You might see a tent or two and a couple passed out drunks, but "tent-lined" streets, no. (edit: Now, I haven't been up on Capitol Hill in decades, so can't say there...)


How about just taking the camera up First Ave, if there are tents lining the streets, why didn't they show them?


The one place I have seen that has dramatically increased was under the West Seattle Freeway, yes, that has multiplied manyfold, but I'm not seeing tent-lined sidewalks downtown and what is depicted in the doc is no worse than 1991...


They should show what Belltown was like back in the 90s and what it is like today, always several cranes on the skyline at that end of town, it's the snazziest part of downtown Seattle now.


Thx

[barbiloo]

My husband is from the Seattle area, we visited there last month and went all over the whole Puget Sound area. we haven't been there in a few years, we were totally disgusted with the filth and homeless druggies in the every nook and cranny, lawn, doorway you name it, in Lynwood, Marysville, Stanwood, Auburn, Kent, Seattle...and all the expensive food everywhere we went was overly expensive, gas, you name it, the most disgusting thing that we experienced was when we were going to go on the ferry at Mukilteo, we thought we'd grab one of our favorite meals, Ivars fish lunches there at the dock there was so much of a stench of urine when we walked up to the counter that I had to turn around and Barf, it was that bad! where somebody is going to order food no thank you, we left early and I don't know when we will be back.

[maribroto]

I moved from Southern Oregon (Ashland) in February, 2018, and have been traveling all over the world and the US, using my daughters apartment in the Queen Anne area as a base.

I've lived in Portland, San Fransisco, San Diego and Sacramento. As much as I love this area, I have never seen a city as nice as this with so much crime, the homelessness, the drugs, etc. etc. My daughter has a $2,900 a month apartment, and my car is parked on the street. I have found needles, used condoms, pipes, etc. I know all the neighborhoods that you speak of, and they are all nice, but I'm sure they experience some of the same things I've noted above. This population can get out and about. And I too, don't want to come off as insensitive, since I am a psychotherapist that worked for the government for many years helping people. Seattle has a budget currently of $90 million dollars for the homeless.

I have spent quite a bit of time researching this, and I will not be living in King County-but instead Snohomish. Probably Edmonds for sure. I really like Mill Creek, but even for me it was too suburban.

I don't know where your coming from. Have you thought of Oregon, specifically Southern Oregon. Great place to live. They too also have similar problems, but smaller cities, smaller problems.

You should come out and see for yourself. It is an amazing place to live, and the people are great!

[elkotronics]

maribroto - yeah, I agree, go north. I can't imagine Edmonds or Snohomish or allowing the same mess going on with Seattle in their municipalities. Yikes. Clean it up! I grew up in Edmonds and I loved growing up there. We were up north, look up Olympic View Drive. From the west and north sides of our house we could see the Puget Sound, freighters way off heading towards Whidbey and sailboats and luxury yachts, etc. What a place!

But the downtown part of Edmonds was always clean. I can not remember ever seeing the downtown with debris all over the place, much less homeless people living in tents downtown. Homeowners and business owners would be up in arms over that. It needs to be shut down in Seattle. I don't know why this isn't obvious to Seattle leadership...oh. Oh that's right. Politics again!