All for hearing real ideas on how to fix the homeless problem, but I won’t be looking for those answers from the blog known as MyNorthwest or its affiliated radio stations.
Dor Monson is a right-wing radio guy who is gets (justifiably) suspended a lot.
Never heard of him, and that article doesn’t say much anyway. Until recently I worked in Downtown Seattle, throughout the pandemic, and the city has gotten crazy. I didn’t feel safe going to work. Heck, I didn’t feel safe driving to work for a while thanks to the rock throwers in the camps. And now the camps are popping up closer to where I live in the suburbs. I don’t have any answers, but something needs to be done. I used to have some compassion for the homeless, but I lost it after working downtown for 2 years.
Dori Monson is a piece of shit, but the homeless issue in Seattle and Tacoma is nuts.
Sorry for that source, I only picked up that article randomly after googling “Seattle lawnmower man” after being told about him by a person who actually lives in Ballard.
That crazy dude does in fact live there, less than a mile from her house, and it’s in fact fucking shit up for people who live there.
I had no idea who that particular article author was.
This one is just from Seattle’s abc news affiliate, right?
KOMO is the local Sinclair channel, so you can’t win.
You can’t talk about the homeless situation in Seattle, if you do you must be a conservative wing nut. See Reddit’s r/Seattle vs r/SeattleWA Reddits.
That’s a beautiful image you painted for me LeeAbe - in my mind it speaks to the strangulation of the possible, when homeless and mentally ill throw rocks at the passerby wealthy without asking any questions, while the wealthy sit silent as rocks pelt their cars without any answers.
Oh you can talk about it, what to do about it is the question of the thread title.
Enforce laws? If we don’t have laws that say it’s illegal to set up a camp in public parks, maybe we need some?
Both of these statements are true. When I first moved to Seattle, Monson was a center-right commentator who seemed quite sane and focused on local issues. When I moved back three years ago, he had morphed into a Trumpy mess.
I walked from the ferry terminal past Westlake a couple of nights ago and no way would I do that as a woman walking alone. It’s gotten very, very scary on a few of those downtown blocks. I don’t know the solution, but I’m confident this isn’t it.
So, I fill up the jail with’em, then what?
They get out and we’re back where we are now.
I don’t know. How do the cities that aren’t covered in homeless people manage it?
The law in its majestic equality, etc.
Harsh winters.
I don’t care about equality. A meth head wants to set up his tent in the park, tear it down. A crazy guy walks around the city carrying a large pole threatening people, put him away. Make the city inhabitable to them, tear down their tents where ever they set them up. I really don’t care anymore.
I have lived all over the country, never seen anything like Seattle. How does NY stop Central Park from being a meth encampment? How does Chicago have a gorgeous downtown area where I never felt threatened? Some cities seem to able to manage it, I am not sure why Seattle can’t.
At assume point, you can’t just say, “too many people are breaking the law, so we can’t enforce it!”
That attitude is very clearly not working in Seattle.
The answer to, “what do you want to do, put all these meth heads in jail?” is, “yes.”
I mean… That’s obviously what you need to do.
The homeless shouldn’t be persecuted for being homeless, but they cannot be made immune to legal prosecution.
winters that get lethally cold.
Like for real that is one of the biggest differences.
Yeah, places with more moderate weather tend to have larger homeless populations, because it’s easier to be homeless there.
A better question might be, “why wasn’t it like this in Seattle in the past?”
Obviously because they threw everybody in prison.
And what would that prosecution accomplish? If “build jails for everyone our society has left behind” is your solution, I don’t think it’s economically feasible or scalable.