Seattle (still) looks awful (Vancouver, Bremerton: real estate, apartment complexes, foreclosed)

[thatguy950]

https://komonews.com/news/project-se...omeless-crisis

But there’s a new sheriff in town


New boss is the same as the old boss. Really disappointing to see the continued downward spiral…more tents, crime, tweakers and needles everywhere, and boarded up windows of once-thriving businesses downtown

Guess the deliberate destruction of America is still going as planned, and what’s left of Seattle is at the epicenter

[TheTimidBlueBars]

It is unfortunate what the pandemic has done to a lot of businesses.

In retrospect, I think the shelter-in-place orders were a bad idea. Maybe the city/county/state government should have subsidized stuff like heatlamps and outdoor heaters to let restaurants stay open without having superspreader events. But I think a lot of the economic decline was inevitable --- with businesses operating on such razor-thin profit margins in a high-COL area already, they really could not afford the hit.

[uniquetraveler]

I seriously don't understand how some of the largest and most developed cities in US (Seattle. San Fran, Los Angeles) have such a huge homelessness issue.

From most of the posts in the forum and news media, it seems that the primary reason for this is the progressive lefts running the cities. But I have been to Canada, Norway, Sweden, New Zealand and many other countries that are much more left leaning with scores of social initiatives like free healthcare, high minimum wage, gun control etc. but none of those have such issues with homelessness, graffiti, trash, tents etc. Even crime is very low in all those nations. In fact our neighbor to the north, Vancouver BC is run by a Mayor from New Democratic party (which is to the left of the Liberal party), but the city is so beautiful, clean and nice! So what gives?

[Arcos]

Originally Posted by uniquetraveler

I seriously don't understand how some of the largest and most developed cities in US (Seattle. San Fran, Los Angeles) have such a huge homelessness issue.

From most of the posts in the forum and news media, it seems that the primary reason for this is the progressive lefts running the cities. But I have been to Canada, Norway, Sweden, New Zealand and many other countries that are much more left leaning with scores of social initiatives like free healthcare, high minimum wage, gun control etc. but none of those have such issues with homelessness, graffiti, trash, tents etc. Even crime is very low in all those nations. In fact our neighbor to the north, Vancouver BC is run by a Mayor from New Democratic party (which is to the left of the Liberal party), but the city is so beautiful, clean and nice! So what gives?

Those other nations have high taxes and they spend the money on their people. We have low taxes and we spend more than we can afford on our military, as well as entitlements. Both that I am against entitlements, I’m for them, but we don’t tax enough to pay for them.

[87112]

Originally Posted by uniquetraveler

I seriously don't understand how some of the largest and most developed cities in US (Seattle. San Fran, Los Angeles) have such a huge homelessness issue.

From most of the posts in the forum and news media, it seems that the primary reason for this is the progressive lefts running the cities. But I have been to Canada, Norway, Sweden, New Zealand and many other countries that are much more left leaning with scores of social initiatives like free healthcare, high minimum wage, gun control etc. but none of those have such issues with homelessness, graffiti, trash, tents etc. Even crime is very low in all those nations. In fact our neighbor to the north, Vancouver BC is run by a Mayor from New Democratic party (which is to the left of the Liberal party), but the city is so beautiful, clean and nice! So what gives?

We are extremely lucky to live so close to Vancouver BC, good lord aside from maybe worse traffic and higher COL than Seattle that city is head and shoulders above Seattle in livability. You just have really only Lower East Side there as the only ugly bad of the city with a homeless problem, trash, graffiti, tent issues. I can see why it's such a destination city for wealthy Asians from China.

I would like to live in Burnaby BC if I could. Best place to live in that area.

To compare Seattle and Vancouver BC is not even a contest. One city you live there because you have no choice you have to make a living , the other is because you want to.

[Scarsarecoolerthantattoos]

Arguing that Vancouver is head and shoulders above Seattle on homeless issues is weird. https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/vanc...isis-epicentre

My company is based in Vancouver and I've been there before. It has a lot of the same problems as Seattle. And higher COL is a big issue in Vancouver. Have you actually looked at housing prices there (which is also likely contributing to their homeless problems)?

Our problem in the US is that we've set up a system that really is incapable of solving the problem, and then we've dismantled many of the programs over the last 40 years that prevented much of the problem. Much of this stems from our lack of strong federal programs. We rely on the states/cities to deal with the problems too much, but they are national problems.

[rkcarguy]

Originally Posted by uniquetraveler

I seriously don't understand how some of the largest and most developed cities in US (Seattle. San Fran, Los Angeles) have such a huge homelessness issue.

From most of the posts in the forum and news media, it seems that the primary reason for this is the progressive lefts running the cities. But I have been to Canada, Norway, Sweden, New Zealand and many other countries that are much more left leaning with scores of social initiatives like free healthcare, high minimum wage, gun control etc. but none of those have such issues with homelessness, graffiti, trash, tents etc. Even crime is very low in all those nations. In fact our neighbor to the north, Vancouver BC is run by a Mayor from New Democratic party (which is to the left of the Liberal party), but the city is so beautiful, clean and nice! So what gives?

I do understand. We have a revolving door justice system and these US cities that have gone soft on crime and drugs and defunded the police now have a drug and thug problem. It's that simple. Washington has plenty of safety net for these people, but the druggie/violent, and mentally ill ones get tossed out of the shelters and those are the ones on the street....nearly all of them.

[Diana Holbrook]

Originally Posted by uniquetraveler

I seriously don't understand how some of the largest and most developed cities in US (Seattle. San Fran, Los Angeles) have such a huge homelessness issue.

An unwillingness to declare drug addiction and debilitating mental illness enough of a public health emergency to actually do something about it.

And as if that wasn't enough, now we've added crime to the issues the government is refusing to deal with.

It's not because we can't afford it. It's because they have a messed up idea of what true compassion is.

[Ruth4Truth]

Originally Posted by uniquetraveler

I seriously don't understand how some of the largest and most developed cities in US (Seattle. San Fran, Los Angeles) have such a huge homelessness issue.

From most of the posts in the forum and news media, it seems that the primary reason for this is the progressive lefts running the cities. But I have been to Canada, Norway, Sweden, New Zealand and many other countries that are much more left leaning with scores of social initiatives like free healthcare, high minimum wage, gun control etc. but none of those have such issues with homelessness, graffiti, trash, tents etc. Even crime is very low in all those nations. In fact our neighbor to the north, Vancouver BC is run by a Mayor from New Democratic party (which is to the left of the Liberal party), but the city is so beautiful, clean and nice! So what gives?

Homelessness isn't due to anything "the Left" is or isn't doing. Much of the homelessness is generated by Wall Street investing in housing, bundling it up into investment packages, and selling those on the stock market. Voila: the Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs).

They took over most of the foreclosed properties after the mortgage loan bust in 2008, they've been capitalizing the construction of rows of cheap-looking apartment buildings in boom cities like Seattle, then charging what they deem to be "market rates" even though many of their buildings remain half-empty, they've been taking over the last bastion of housing affordable to those pushed out of REIT-acquired apartment complexes: trailer parks, and are pursuing their formula of cutting services and raising rents in that environment. And now they're building housing developments in places like Bremerton and Seattle suburbs, and presenting the homes (with minimal yard space) as high-end rentals. When they over-invest in an area, as they did in Seattle, where you can see in some corridors block after block of their junky-looking apartment buildings lining both sides of the street, mysteriously, rents don't come down to reflect the glut of apartments they create. They disregard the basic law of supply-and-demand, keeping rents high, because they have hordes of investors depending on their earnings.

As to Vancouver BC, the city notoriously condemned several buildings of subsidized housing to make room for their Olympic facilities, then handed out tents to the displaced residents, and changed city laws to allow them to set their tents up in parks. What happened to those tent cities, I don't know. It seems like they'd be hard to miss. Maybe a later mayor figured out a solution. Or maybe they were moved to parks in parts of the city where visitors rarely go.

As to why a significant segment of the homeless are mentally ill, you can thank President Reagan for that. He closed the mental health hospitals, then failed to approve sufficient funding for community mental health clinics and affordable residential facilities or subsidies for the patients told they would be living independently thenceforward.

You can't compare the US to highly-taxed nations like Scandinavia and Canada. And Norway is floating on oil money, in addition to tax revenues. The US, meanwhile, keeps cutting taxes to people who don't need tax cuts, and closing down entire government functions, or cuts them back to the point of near-uselessness. Yet, the Right blames the Left for the resulting fallout, while the Right laughs its way to the bank as the nation crumbles.

You can't solve homelessness, reduce fire risk on federal lands, build an infrastructure that can withstand destructive weather phenomena and move existing roads out of the way of coastal tide surges and rising seas, with an ever-shrinking federal budget.

[rkcarguy]

Originally Posted by Diana Holbrook

An unwillingness to declare drug addiction and debilitating mental illness enough of a public health emergency to actually do something about it.

And as if that wasn't enough, now we've added crime to the issues the government is refusing to deal with.

It's not because we can't afford it. It's because they have a messed up idea of what true compassion is.

What I'm seeing is gov't won't hold PEOPLE accountable. Druggies and criminals aren't so, they are "victims".
If they are truly going to deal with it, jail and institutions are the answer. These people do not have the right to continue to destroy our cities and be a menace to the public and themselves.