Washington 2020: The Calm Before the Drizzle

[GeneralMacArthur]

LOL the new DA(City Attorney) of Seattle maybe someone who tweeted this

It's funny if you don't live in Seattle but as someone who does live here and has to deal with crime run amok, the idea of us putting someone who wants to "abolish misdemeanors" in charge of our city's criminal prosecution system is a direct threat to my day-to-day life.

That would essentially be legalizing all the quality-of-life crimes that are rampant in this city.  Assault is a misdemeanor as long as it's not life-threatening.  Property destruction (which she celebrates) is a misdemeanor.  Smashing windows is a misdemeanor.  "Unintentional" arson is a misdemeanor.  Breaking into someone's car is a misdemeanor.  Burglary is a misdemeanor.  Package theft is a misdemeanor.  Harassment is a misdemeanor.  Domestic violence is usually a misdemeanor.  Indecent exposure is a misdemeanor.  And even the more severe versions of these crimes, which by rights ought to be felonies, regularly get downgraded to misdemeanors.

Yet if you look at her Twitter, she tweets out stuff like "picking blackberries is a misdemeanor, I think we should stop punishing misdemeanors" as though we're locking up people for picking blackberries.

F---ing DUIs are a misdemeanor in this state.  So it's no exaggeration to say that we have a city attorney candidate running on a platform of legalizing DUI.  Like what the f--- is wrong with this city.

[RI]

Cinyc has election night precinct maps of the Seattle mayoral and city attorney primaries up here. The map is making me feel a bit better about Davison's prospects in the general. It looks like Holmes won a bunch of precincts in Seattle's more diverse southeast, a big patch just north of Capitol Hill where Davison came in second, the south end of West Seattle, and a few other scattering spots. I feel all of those areas could potentially split more toward Davison than NTK, maybe?

[GeneralMacArthur]

Cinyc has election night precinct maps of the Seattle mayoral and city attorney primaries up here. The map is making me feel a bit better about Davison's prospects in the general. It looks like Holmes won a bunch of precincts in Seattle's more diverse southeast, a big patch just north of Capitol Hill where Davison came in second, the south end of West Seattle, and a few other scattering spots. I feel all of those areas could potentially split more toward Davison than NTK, maybe?

Yeah that's an interesting map.  It looks like there are a lot of Harrell/Holmes voters.  Maybe a lot of people just weren't familiar with the rather obscure job of city attorney and simply voted for the incumbent with a whole bunch of endorsements?  I really can't see the good people of Madrona, Laurelhurst, Leschi and Lakewood voting for someone who not only wants to legalize all property crime, but openly celebrates it.

I'm also hopeful thinking of the Wheeler-Iannarone race.  Sara Iannarone is my comp for NTK, and she lost to a man with a 26% approval rating.  A bonafide lunatic who worships communist mass-murderers was a bridge too far for Portland voters.

I'm sure the 43rd Dems, Union PACs and local alt media will be all-in on trying to portray Ann Davison as literally Trump because of the (R) next to her name.  She needs to get a lot of money fast so she can turn this race into a referendum on NTK, otherwise it will become a referendum on voting for a Republican.

[Interlocutor is just not there yet]

/snip

Anecdotally speaking, I'm looking at moving to anywhere in the Greater Seattle metro, with an emphasis on Olympia & Tacoma. I'm sure my list is very similar to other transplants.

Nice! Most California people I know looking to move are also looking at Seattle or the Seattle burbs I'm looking to go there too after I finish college which won't be for about another couple years or so unless I get into a school in Washington and am up for paying out of state tuition. But when I move I'm looking at Skagit and Whatcom Counties because I have deep family ties to that region I normally go up there once a year since I was a baby I used to go lobster fishing with my grandpa I love it there and the cities of Anacortes and Bellingham are really nice I'm not really a huge fan of the big city aesthetic so I'm probably gonna stay out of the Seattle metro but I also like how Skagit and Whatcom are positioned close enough to Vancouver Seattle and a couple of other big cities so its not far from a lot of em.

Having lived in SoCal all my life, I'm tired of the hustle-and-bustle and suburban jungle aesthetic. However, I'd still like to be near a big metro. Bellingham looks and sounds really interesting, but Olympia has the benefit (Or drawback to some folks) of being within 2 hours of Portland. No matter where/if I end up in Washington, I think it'll be a breath of fresh air (Figuratively & literally).

This is all talk though. I've never been to the PNW, though I'll be traveling up there for 2 weeks in August. I'll try and hit up Bellingham, but it may be a little too far out from my plans. It's also just as likely that I'll end up moving to Sacramento in leiu of Washington or Oregon. Either way, I don't see myself in SoCal 5 years from now.

Nice! Hope you have a fun trip!  WA is a really beautiful state also once you get out of Seattle the lack of traffic is going to feel amazing lol compared to Socal that's another reason I really wanna live their in Downtown Seattle the traffic is a little LA esique but the rest of the state has very clear roads. The Air Qaulity is also a lot cleaner than in Los Angeles. Let us know how your trip goes in August!

Given the mass hysteria that seems to have fermented in this thread, I take it now isn't a good time for my trip report where I have positive things to say about Seattle & the state of Washington?

[PSOL]

Dear god, please mummy Sawant lower those housing prices so I can be with my people.

[Canis]

/snip

Anecdotally speaking, I'm looking at moving to anywhere in the Greater Seattle metro, with an emphasis on Olympia & Tacoma. I'm sure my list is very similar to other transplants.

Nice! Most California people I know looking to move are also looking at Seattle or the Seattle burbs I'm looking to go there too after I finish college which won't be for about another couple years or so unless I get into a school in Washington and am up for paying out of state tuition. But when I move I'm looking at Skagit and Whatcom Counties because I have deep family ties to that region I normally go up there once a year since I was a baby I used to go lobster fishing with my grandpa I love it there and the cities of Anacortes and Bellingham are really nice I'm not really a huge fan of the big city aesthetic so I'm probably gonna stay out of the Seattle metro but I also like how Skagit and Whatcom are positioned close enough to Vancouver Seattle and a couple of other big cities so its not far from a lot of em.

Having lived in SoCal all my life, I'm tired of the hustle-and-bustle and suburban jungle aesthetic. However, I'd still like to be near a big metro. Bellingham looks and sounds really interesting, but Olympia has the benefit (Or drawback to some folks) of being within 2 hours of Portland. No matter where/if I end up in Washington, I think it'll be a breath of fresh air (Figuratively & literally).

This is all talk though. I've never been to the PNW, though I'll be traveling up there for 2 weeks in August. I'll try and hit up Bellingham, but it may be a little too far out from my plans. It's also just as likely that I'll end up moving to Sacramento in leiu of Washington or Oregon. Either way, I don't see myself in SoCal 5 years from now.

Nice! Hope you have a fun trip!  WA is a really beautiful state also once you get out of Seattle the lack of traffic is going to feel amazing lol compared to Socal that's another reason I really wanna live their in Downtown Seattle the traffic is a little LA esique but the rest of the state has very clear roads. The Air Qaulity is also a lot cleaner than in Los Angeles. Let us know how your trip goes in August!

Given the mass hysteria that seems to have fermented in this thread, I take it now isn't a good time for my trip report where I have positive things to say about Seattle & the state of Washington?

 
I think saying positive things about Seattle will be a welcome break from the hysteria lmao

[Xing]

/snip

Anecdotally speaking, I'm looking at moving to anywhere in the Greater Seattle metro, with an emphasis on Olympia & Tacoma. I'm sure my list is very similar to other transplants.

Nice! Most California people I know looking to move are also looking at Seattle or the Seattle burbs I'm looking to go there too after I finish college which won't be for about another couple years or so unless I get into a school in Washington and am up for paying out of state tuition. But when I move I'm looking at Skagit and Whatcom Counties because I have deep family ties to that region I normally go up there once a year since I was a baby I used to go lobster fishing with my grandpa I love it there and the cities of Anacortes and Bellingham are really nice I'm not really a huge fan of the big city aesthetic so I'm probably gonna stay out of the Seattle metro but I also like how Skagit and Whatcom are positioned close enough to Vancouver Seattle and a couple of other big cities so its not far from a lot of em.

Having lived in SoCal all my life, I'm tired of the hustle-and-bustle and suburban jungle aesthetic. However, I'd still like to be near a big metro. Bellingham looks and sounds really interesting, but Olympia has the benefit (Or drawback to some folks) of being within 2 hours of Portland. No matter where/if I end up in Washington, I think it'll be a breath of fresh air (Figuratively & literally).

This is all talk though. I've never been to the PNW, though I'll be traveling up there for 2 weeks in August. I'll try and hit up Bellingham, but it may be a little too far out from my plans. It's also just as likely that I'll end up moving to Sacramento in leiu of Washington or Oregon. Either way, I don't see myself in SoCal 5 years from now.

Nice! Hope you have a fun trip!  WA is a really beautiful state also once you get out of Seattle the lack of traffic is going to feel amazing lol compared to Socal that's another reason I really wanna live their in Downtown Seattle the traffic is a little LA esique but the rest of the state has very clear roads. The Air Qaulity is also a lot cleaner than in Los Angeles. Let us know how your trip goes in August!

Given the mass hysteria that seems to have fermented in this thread, I take it now isn't a good time for my trip report where I have positive things to say about Seattle & the state of Washington?

 
I think saying positive things about Seattle will be a welcome break from the hysteria lmao

It’s kind of funny. Back when I was in middle/high school, Seattle was largely unknown to a large portion of the population, or people would immediately bring up the movie “Sleepless in Seattle.” Then, from 2010 to 2015, everyone was raving about how Seattle was the best place ever and wanted to move there. Since 2015, though, people have been pretty much constantly s****ing on it, about how it’s the most intolerant, depressing, fake, and antisocial place ever (and, of course, many complain about its politics.) I wonder if there’s anyone who has a relatively neutral or mixed view of the area, lol.

Anyway, my #hottake is that the City Attorney race is at least Lean Davison, closer to Likely than Toss-Up. Kennedy didn’t finish that far ahead of Davison, and I have a hard time seeing Kennedy getting a majority of the Holmes votes, since even many fairly liberal people find her to be a bridge too far.

[Secretary of State Liberal Hack]

Cinyc has election night precinct maps of the Seattle mayoral and city attorney primaries up here. The map is making me feel a bit better about Davison's prospects in the general. It looks like Holmes won a bunch of precincts in Seattle's more diverse southeast, a big patch just north of Capitol Hill where Davison came in second, the south end of West Seattle, and a few other scattering spots. I feel all of those areas could potentially split more toward Davison than NTK, maybe?

Yeah that's an interesting map.  It looks like there are a lot of Harrell/Holmes voters.  Maybe a lot of people just weren't familiar with the rather obscure job of city attorney and simply voted for the incumbent with a whole bunch of endorsements?  I really can't see the good people of Madrona, Laurelhurst, Leschi and Lakewood voting for someone who not only wants to legalize all property crime, but openly celebrates it.

I'm also hopeful thinking of the Wheeler-Iannarone race.  Sara Iannarone is my comp for NTK, and she lost to a man with a 26% approval rating.  A bonafide lunatic who worships communist mass-murderers was a bridge too far for Portland voters.

I'm sure the 43rd Dems, Union PACs and local alt media will be all-in on trying to portray Ann Davison as literally Trump because of the (R) next to her name.  She needs to get a lot of money fast so she can turn this race into a referendum on NTK, otherwise it will become a referendum on voting for a Republican.

Can't she just switch party and claim to not have voted for trump ?

Dear god, please mummy Sawant lower those housing prices so I can be with my people.

Imagine simping for a communist.

[Continential]

Dear god, please mummy Sawant lower those housing prices so I can be with my people.

Imagine simping for a communist.

PSOL is a socialist.

[PSOL]

Dear god, please mummy Sawant lower those housing prices so I can be with my people.

Imagine simping for a communist.

PSOL is a socialist.

I understand my interests and don’t want my @$$ evicted.

[GeneralMacArthur]

It’s kind of funny. Back when I was in middle/high school, Seattle was largely unknown to a large portion of the population, or people would immediately bring up the movie “Sleepless in Seattle.” Then, from 2010 to 2015, everyone was raving about how Seattle was the best place ever and wanted to move there. Since 2015, though, people have been pretty much constantly s****ing on it, about how it’s the most intolerant, depressing, fake, and antisocial place ever (and, of course, many complain about its politics.) I wonder if there’s anyone who has a relatively neutral or mixed view of the area, lol.

I moved here in 2013, and people constantly ask me what I think of Seattle.  And of course my family always asks me when I'm going to move back east.  My opinion of Seattle is pretty mixed.

Pros:

• No income tax!
• Weather is amazing
• No mosquitos means you can actually enjoy sunny weather!
• Easily walkable
• The food is so f---ing good
• Excellent bars, nightclubs, events, wish the art scene was less edgy but it's nice to have one
• As a major west-coast cultural hub, there's pretty much always something happening, and every musician includes Seattle in their tour schedule
• Easy access to beaches, islands, mountains, forests, lake resorts, hiking, skiing, beauty
• Beautiful parks and bodies of water, especially on sunny summer days!
• Utilities are low-key really good, excellent water quality, no dead zones for cell phones, and you're not stuck with TWC or Comcast for internet/cable like in most southeastern cities
• Almost all interests are indulged here, so whatever you're into, there's probably a scene for it

Cons:

• It's really far away from everything and everyone, you may as well be on an island
• City is successful in spite of local politicians doing their utmost to ruin the city
• Absolutely disastrous drug + mental illness crisis
• Crime openly tolerated and not prosecuted, you just have to hope you don't draw the short straw
• Incredibly antisocial climate, it's always culture shock going back to the south and having people be super-friendly and want to talk to me, you just get used to keeping to yourself and socializing through your phone all day
• Young people in search of an identity care way too much about eye-rolling performative left-wing politics
• Housing is outrageously expensive relative to the quality of house you get.  Even for $600/sqft you're looking at a Sears Catalog house from 1914 that requires constant maintenance
• A lot of the city infrastructure is really old and nonsensical and the city has no plan to replace it (you find this out when you own property).
• Traffic/commute is utterly miserable -- try to get a job you can walk/bike to
• Extreme overproliferation of a certain type of tech guy -- not "tech bro" (those are all in SV), but more like, bland, boring, socially-awkward skinny white guys who don't know how to have a conversation that isn't about beer, weed, bitcoin or Tesla, but will still make small talk with you in the elevator once and then spend the next year smiling and waving at you in the hall like that makes you best friends.
• Extreme overproliferation of white girls who don't know have a personality outside of wine, Netflix, their dog, and pretending to like the outdoors.

Basically, it's a beautiful paradise with wonderful amenities, but I wish I didn't have to share it with a bunch of nitwits.

[PSOL]

Ok, the absolute hysteria about Seattle has gone long enough. The hand wringing about Antifa and a city about to be taken by raging Marxists is clearly untrue and the product of the deranged ramblings of GMac. First things first, we need to talk about Kshama Sawant and Socialist Alternative.

Are they Stalinists about to lay siege to Seattle?

The answer is no, no they are not. So Socialist Alternative technically is a moderate splinter of a more radical, scandal driven party from the 80s. Generally they agree with the theoretical contributions and opinions of Leon Trotsky, someone who can be described as a hard social democrat who before becoming a Bolshevik member was apart of the less revolutionary Mensheviks, who held relations with other less radical Labour parties. Now in terms of governance Leon Trotsky was apart of the Left opposition to Stalin, but that is not carried into the mild SAlt, whose sister parties elsewhere just join other Labour parties and are the left faction to them. Specifically, SAlt commemorates the 1970 Polish strikes and does not like the Soviet Union.

Generally, SAlt is less revolutionary than Trotsky, being a “democratic” socialist party in all but name, like the UK Labour’s Momentum implicitly is. However, SAlt takes it one step further in not really calling for nationalization of primary industry or the transition to a classless society, but having reforms such as affordable housing and free healthcare be the end goal in its advertising—similar to basically all other center-left parties in Europe. They generally treat the theoretical writings of Marx in the same manner in practice but not in open position.

Are they ideologues destroying the city

Nope, and I don’t know why this lie keeps getting promoted given that the other Democratic councilors voted unanimously for the $15 minimum wage and affordable housing initiatives agreed upon to the council floor. Outside of a few votes for virtue signaling, Kshama Sawant has enacted policies that most progressive Democrats want and that politicians say they are for, only for her to go beyond and keep more promises to more than just her voters. Unlike other councilors, Kshama Sawant’s office is open to anyone in the city, leading to a lot of connection building

All I am saying is a lot of Democrats in Seattle also like her. On those voting no on the recall that are Democrats include; the 43rd District Democrats, former colleague in the council Mike O’Brian, and King County State Senate member Kirmay Zahilay.

Unions endorsing Kshama Sawant include the 117th Teamsters and 4121 UAW members alongside basically every other public union in Seattle

She even has business ties through the endorsement of Andaluz Jewelry and business owner Saba Tebke among others.

Is this the same out of touch ideologue stereotype seen in Lee Carter? No, in fact this is the work by a smooth political operative with a well-oiled machine to serve not only her district, but the whole city.

Ok but Antifa

Anti-fascism is a reasonable position to have, but ok.

More seriously, Socialist Alternative is not a violent party, and it’s direct action consisting of yelling outside some rando’s house isn’t that different from what the Progressive Democrats of America did when they were founded. Difference is that the old strategy is more effective, as politicians will not listen to working people and most of them don’t even know what the voters want. Through actually listening to grassroots networks of immigrant communities, working class organizations, and the real Seattle small business community—Kshama Sawant has done a good job. This leads us to

Kshama’s Protégés

Nonexistant given all of the people GMac is rambling about are DSA members or regular Democrats. Kshama Sawant is a DSA member and has good relations with the Seattle and national organization, but neither the other candidates beside her are SAlt members and she isn’t a democratic candidate (but she basically caucuses with Democrats and gets her party members to phonebank for Democratic candidates against Republicans 🤔).

But much CHAZ

Kshama Sawant voiced approval of being frustrated with police brutality and empathized with CHAZ participants, but she was not involved with CHAZ and SAlt saw the would-be commune as a bunch of cringe anarkiddies.

Furthermore she was against any criminal saboteurs taking advantage of the situation. It’s all very funny when you consider SAlt’s official position on the police basically mirrors Elizabeth Warren’s position, that there could be some redistribution of funds to municipal programs.

In short GMac is a looney person with absolutely no idea what’s going on in his city. Now, I admit that it’s pretty funny going with his delusion as reality, but it’s important for the unadulterated facts to be present.

[kingcharlesvii]

I'm quite happy with the results of the primary, some exciting news out of Everett with a similar situation to Seattle in 15 & 19 where we saw a whole new council. In Everett it appears that three Rs on council will be gone (since none of them are running for re-election)

I also think it's notable that alot of hullabaloo is made about a "backlash" to "radical" seattle politics but year after year we just don't see it. I don't personally agree with so much of what Sawant does and says, but at the end of the day she has survived numerous electoral challenges and I really don't foresee the Recall against her being successful.

People forget that the low approval ratings for Seattle City Council aren't just folks thinking the council has gone too far left, but also folks that believe it hasn't gone left enough

[GeneralMacArthur]

Sawant doesn't actually accomplish anything since she is just one vote, she is just a really terrible person.  Her main impact on the council is to piss everybody off by constantly reciting speeches that have nothing to do with the topic at hand, and waste enormous amounts of time on publicity stunts.  She's also ruined all the public comment segments by packing the hall with her paid supporters.  I am represented by her and can confirm that her office does absolutely nothing for the district and couldn't care less if you're dumb enough to call them and ask them to help with some D3-related matter.

Tammy Morales is Sawant's protege.  She was campaigning with SocAlt and SocAlt was promoting her and Sawant as the SocAlt duo.  Then her focus groups told her that D2 isn't D3 and doesn't want a Trotskyite communist as their representative.  So she got rid of all that stuff, ran as a Democrat, and accused anyone who brought it up of lying.  It worked, she got elected, and now she votes with Sawant nearly 100% of the time.

There are a lot of local politicians who would rather be on Sawant's good side, or are similarly extreme and just not dumb enough to characterize their extremism as Marxism.  Lorena Gonzalez and Teresa Mosqueda both endorsed her against Egan Orion, for instance.  It's very much not surprising that a loathsome dips--t like Mike O'Brien is backing her.  I expect Mike McGinn, Cary Moon, Dan Strauss and Andrew Lewis will back her as well if they haven't already.

Being a part of the Recall campaign feels very similar to Biden 2020 where the other side is just constantly abusing every vector possible to try to cheat, lies without shame, breaks all sorts of laws, and just always seems to get away with it.  It's very frustrating.  And adds weight to the effort because it feels like this election is a mandate on lying and cheating -- if you can do it to such an extreme degree and be rewarded by the voters, that's just going to be every election from this point forward.  Very similar to how weighty it felt battling Trump in 2020.

The fact remains that she broke the law and deserves to be recalled for it, just like Trump or any other lawbreaking politician.  That would be true even if she weren't an outrageously awful human being.

[PSOL]

lmao Gmac, just lmao how you could be so delusional.

But for real, it’s amazing how a party with only one elected member that has basically relegated themselves to be a regional branch of the DSA could cause people to delude themselves. Granted Sawant has a lot of street cred for her excellent service to her community.

I encourage everyone to dispel the lies made against Sawant through excellent reporting by The Stranger. They have an excellent series dispelling the mythical reality Gmac lives in, divorced from the reality his city is in.

[GeneralMacArthur]

lmao Gmac, just lmao how you could be so delusional.

But for real, it’s amazing how a party with only one elected member that has basically relegated themselves to be a regional branch of the DSA could cause people to delude themselves. Granted Sawant has a lot of street cred for her excellent service to her community.

I encourage everyone to dispel the lies made against Sawant through excellent reporting by The Stranger. They have an excellent series dispelling the mythical reality Gmac lives in, divorced from the reality his city is in.

I don't even know what part of my post you're replying to.  I said Sawant doesn't actually get anything done, but your point about her being one party member of a regional branch seems like you're replying to someone who said she does have power.

It's more akin to those poor Democrats in Georgia who have Marjorie Taylor Greene as their representative.  Yes, she's powerless, so she's not really capable of actively harming them.  But it still really sucks to have such an awful person as your representative in Congress, and it would be nice to replace her with someone who actually cares about the district and is effective enough to advocate for its interests.  There are legitimate parochial issues in D3 that Sawant doesn't have a clue about, and probably sound trivial to talk about on here, but matter quite a lot to those of us who actually live here and walk these streets every single day.

Also hilarious that you posted an article by Nathalie Graham (who just got fired from The Stranger -- but you have no idea who this person even is) of The Stranger (which has a reputation as an extreme radical left publication, and loves Sawant to death -- but you have no idea what this magazine even is) that was written a year ago, as though that's somehow credible.  Want to post Charles Mudede's thoughts on the Recall as well?  Or Rich Smith?  All very credible and non-biased voices in the Seattle ecosystem!  But you don't have any idea who any of these people are.

You live 2000 miles away so I don't know why you're trying to lecture me about the city council representative for the seven square miles that I happen to have lived in for most of the last decade, lol.



Also, you're wrong about SocAlt and CHAZ.  When CHAZ first started, Sawant went down there and tried to pull some "our movements are one and the same" malarkey, and had her paid cronies all out there gathering phone numbers and pushing a petition, basically her usual shtick to try and adopt the CHAZ movement as her own movement and put herself on top so she could take credit for what other people were doing.  The CHAZ crowd wasn't having it and she got booed.  Want to know how I know this?  Because I live here and saw it in person, lol

[kingcharlesvii]

It still just amazes me with Sawant how I constantly hear from center-left to right-wing folks that Sawant doesn't care about her district and how people in her district hate her. Hell they'll even say that about more than half the council, yet she routinely wins re-election. I really think part of the tension we see with people like gmac is the Seattle City politics of 20 years ago are long-gone, hell even looking back at the council in 2010 feels like a life-time ago.

Seattle has changed and the people within it want this new direction, and honestly so far as the fastest growing major city in the country (with over 100k new residents arriving between 2010-2020) as well as being the new mecca for the tech industry. I just fail to see how the new change in direction is disastrous. Having myself been homeless in the seattle metro region in the early 2010s the homelessness crisis isn't new, hell there's an almost live skit from the 90s regarding having to jump over panhandlers on your way to work.

[GeneralMacArthur]

OK long post about how Seattle got to where it is today incoming:

Seattle has changed and the people within it want this new direction, and honestly so far as the fastest growing major city in the country (with over 100k new residents arriving between 2010-2020) as well as being the new mecca for the tech industry. I just fail to see how the new change in direction is disastrous. Having myself been homeless in the seattle metro region in the early 2010s the homelessness crisis isn't new, hell there's an almost live skit from the 90s regarding having to jump over panhandlers on your way to work.

Yep, and there was the SPD "Under the Viaduct" skit from the early 90s as well.  When I moved here I had heard for years about the notorious Jungle on the side of Beacon Hill.  The thing was, yes the Jungle was a national embarrassment and a hotbed of crime, but it didn't really affect the rest of the city.  It sucked big time for Beacon Hill, and nobody wanted to live there because the crime was so bad, but nobody was walking from the Jungle up to Capitol Hill to steal a bike.

My understanding is that Greg Nickels periodically swept the Jungle to clean it up and arrest the obvious big-time criminals, so people would disperse to other areas of the city and set up cities, but the law enforcement was very vigilant about those, so those people would move back to the Jungle as soon as they could.  And there was a constant struggle between law enforcement and homelessness activists who wanted to protect these ex-Jungle folks and let them keep living in Green Lake or wherever.  Most of those big activist names from back then are today running "homelessness services" or organizations like SHARE and WHEEL, and receiving millions of dollars a year from the city council to try things their way.

Then Mike McGinn took office, he didn't care about the Jungle, and everyone was able to live there without fear of law enforcement.  I arrived in Seattle at the tail end of the McGinn administration so this was all mostly before my time.  When I first got to Seattle, there were isolated tents under bridges downtown and in SODO, and Pioneer Square was considered really dangerous because addicts would hang out there all day waiting for the shelters to open, but it was absolutely nothing like what we see today.



From my perspective, what made things really bad was a combination of local and national factors.

Nationally, the opioid crisis exploded in 2013, with opioid overdose deaths tripling nationwide between 2013-2016.  Methamphetamines also exploded around the same time, with overdoses doubling from 2013-2017.

Locally, this meant the drug problem was getting worse, and so the number of homeless addicts was increasing.  Ed Murray and the city council didn't know how to handle this, so they started letting those activists and their organizations handle things, pouring millions of dollars into the creation of tiny house villages and other such pop-up shelters.  They also turned a blind eye to the inevitable crime and damage that would result from building these tiny house villages in neighborhoods.  Of course if you build a tiny house village in Licton Springs, then you have drug addicts wandering around Licton Springs day and night, not only making the neighborhood unsafe but also stealing anything that isn't nailed down so they can sell it for drugs.  The city council and their allied activists didn't want to acknowledge that this was a problem, so they started using a lot of far-left language about the crimes actually being a good thing, or a necessary evil, and we have to accommodate everyone's lifestyle, and so on.  So every year law enforcement would be restricted more and more, and the city administration was totally uninterested in actually prosecuting any of these people.  I don't know how this permissive culture developed, but it did seem like every six months we'd hear about the city council making things more permissive.

In 2015 a crazed junkie on a city bus tried to assault me.  The city arrested him but didn't prosecute and he was released back out onto the street with no consequences.  Since then I haven't used public transit.  From what I hear, it's gotten a lot worse.  That was when I became very interested in this issue.  I learned that this was a regular thing, that police can't arrest anyone for open-air drug use, harassment, or otherwise being an obvious danger to themselves and those around them.  They have to wait for them to actually do a crime, and even then only from a very specific short-list of crimes that they're allowed to arrest for.  And even if they do arrest people, they just get released.



The permissive culture acted as a magnet, drawing in junkies and transients from all around the country.  Nice weather, easy access to drugs, no laws, and you can live where you like with no trouble, what's not to like?  So we started getting more and more homeless.  The perception that we had "better services" also meant that other cities, who were also struggling with the opioid/meth crisis, would buy their addicts bus or plane tickets to Seattle.  Every time some crazed junkie made the news, they would never be from Seattle.

But the city council and mayor didn't want to acknowledge this failure, so instead they said that all these new homeless were folks who'd been priced out of apartments by rising rents thanks to Amazon.  That political message became the new norm, and between 2014-2020, every election here became "the homeless are Amazon's fault and we have to attack Amazon to fix the problem."  People love to hate Amazon so the politicians kept getting elected.  This even though it was extremely obvious that most of the new homeless were lifestyle transients who were pros at what they were doing and part of a thriving drug scene.  Meanwhile the council was trying to fix the problem by making the culture more permissive.  Lisa Herbold wanted to open up safe injection sites in residential neighborhoods close to the new encampments.  Sally Bagshaw thought we should just hand out free drugs.  Mike O'Brien introduced legislation to legalize camping in public parks.



So those are the factors that led to the situation continuing to deteriorate every single year.  But I think the problem really came to a head in 2016 when there were a series of shootings at The Jungle and Ed Murray swept the entire thing and shut it down.  This was basically the equivalent to releasing everyone from prison, because all those former Jungle folks, the most hardened Seattle criminals and drug addicts, dispersed throughout the city.  Many of them settled in the existing tent encampments or villages.  Some of them took their former social circles from the Jungle and just created a new encampment with that same group, so that a chunk of The Jungle was suddenly in your neighborhood p-patch.

From my perspective, 2016 is when the problem really got out of control and we just had complete chaos.  At least before 2016, your neighborhood could get screwed over by SHARE deciding to turn a parking lot into a drug bazaar and the city telling you to suck it up, but there was some order and control to it.  The transients who couldn't get into the villages mostly stuck to SODO and Georgetown which were always a wasteland.  After 2016, we just had the worst of the Jungle setting up wherever they pleased -- Green Lake, Ballard, Capitol Hill, any green space in random residential neighborhoods -- and nobody could do anything about it.



Prior to 2017, the SR 99 tunnel had been the main source of political polarization in Seattle.  But by 2017 the project was nearing completion and nobody had strong opinions about it anymore.  Homelessness replaced SR 99 as the new source of political polarization in the city.

One the one side, you have this ideology that says "all of this is the fault of Amazon and the tech bros for making property unaffordable, and these people are just victims.  Enforcing laws is just punishing them for being homeless.  We have to let them do whatever they want until we can build enough affordable housing to shelter them."

And on the other side, you had people like me who said "the laws should apply to everyone, having tents in parks is not an acceptable replacement for public housing, and these people are victims of the opioid crisis, not of rising rents."

And that's where we are today.  My side won the 2017 mayoral election, and the other side won the 2019 city council elections.  So far things aren't looking good for the 2021 elections.



One last story.  In 2019, there was a vacant lot a few blocks from my house that some local women's group decided, with the city's permission, to turn into a park.  They worked all throughout the spring to plant seeds and plants, added a few structures, and so forth.  I thought this was a wonderful project and came out to help them on a few weekends.  This was two blocks away from a school, and after the park was finished, teachers would take their kids to run around and play there.  It was really nice and emblematic of the sort of community culture and creativity that makes people want to live in Capitol Hill.

But you can probably imagine what happened next.  After a few months, one tent moved into the park.  Then that guy was quickly joined by his friends, so you had more tents.  I never saw the children out there playing ever again.  One of the women who had been building the park was a neighbor of mine and she was extremely upset about it but said she'd called SPD and they said they couldn't do anything.  I couldn't believe this and was very upset as well so I called SPD and got the same story -- unless you have evidence they committed a crime, we can't do anything, it's perfectly legal for them to camp in your little park.

Today you would have no idea that place used to be a park.  It's just an empty lot with a dozen different tents and garbage everywhere.  And there's been a corresponding uptick in crime.  During the day we see shady characters wandering the street.  One time a women walked down the street, totally naked, just screaming AAAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAAAAA.  You take a walk down this garden-lined street, where children play, and you're guaranteed to find a couple little orange syringe caps.  At night my cameras catch car prowlers all the time and it's always one of 3 different people, one of them I know for a fact lives there.  I used to have people come try my back door late at night to see if I'd left it unlocked, but I installed some motion-sensor floodlights and they stopped.  My car was smashed into once, not because there was anything to steal, but they just wanted to rummage through my glove compartment and see if I was hiding any valuables in there.  I told the police and showed them I had footage of the entire thing, but they had no interest in checking out the encampment to see if the culprit lived there.  I also used to lose packages regularly until I started adding delivery instructions telling the mail carrier to hide them inside my bushes.

And that's just, you know, day to day life in this city.  That's the real life consequences of all this high-minded rhetoric about our "houseless neighbors" and "crimes of need" and "lack of affordable housing." 

[Interlocutor is just not there yet]

/snip

Anecdotally speaking, I'm looking at moving to anywhere in the Greater Seattle metro, with an emphasis on Olympia & Tacoma. I'm sure my list is very similar to other transplants.

Nice! Most California people I know looking to move are also looking at Seattle or the Seattle burbs I'm looking to go there too after I finish college which won't be for about another couple years or so unless I get into a school in Washington and am up for paying out of state tuition. But when I move I'm looking at Skagit and Whatcom Counties because I have deep family ties to that region I normally go up there once a year since I was a baby I used to go lobster fishing with my grandpa I love it there and the cities of Anacortes and Bellingham are really nice I'm not really a huge fan of the big city aesthetic so I'm probably gonna stay out of the Seattle metro but I also like how Skagit and Whatcom are positioned close enough to Vancouver Seattle and a couple of other big cities so its not far from a lot of em.

Having lived in SoCal all my life, I'm tired of the hustle-and-bustle and suburban jungle aesthetic. However, I'd still like to be near a big metro. Bellingham looks and sounds really interesting, but Olympia has the benefit (Or drawback to some folks) of being within 2 hours of Portland. No matter where/if I end up in Washington, I think it'll be a breath of fresh air (Figuratively & literally).

This is all talk though. I've never been to the PNW, though I'll be traveling up there for 2 weeks in August. I'll try and hit up Bellingham, but it may be a little too far out from my plans. It's also just as likely that I'll end up moving to Sacramento in leiu of Washington or Oregon. Either way, I don't see myself in SoCal 5 years from now.

Nice! Hope you have a fun trip!  WA is a really beautiful state also once you get out of Seattle the lack of traffic is going to feel amazing lol compared to Socal that's another reason I really wanna live their in Downtown Seattle the traffic is a little LA esique but the rest of the state has very clear roads. The Air Qaulity is also a lot cleaner than in Los Angeles. Let us know how your trip goes in August!

Given the mass hysteria that seems to have fermented in this thread, I take it now isn't a good time for my trip report where I have positive things to say about Seattle & the state of Washington?

I think saying positive things about Seattle will be a welcome break from the hysteria lmao

Lol true. But I think I'll stand by until my wall of text doesn't get buried by a certain someone's even longer wall of text.

Whenever that day comes, I guess.

[PSOL]

The very fact that Seattle is crazy is why people vote for SAlt, they’re entire advertising schtick is providing stability and peace in the city. They do want to solve homelessness and stop the junkies by giving them a place to stay and have professionals treat them to get on their feet.

Of course given you are blind to reality and are dismissive of run of the mill Seattle residents and their viewpoints on how to solve the cities problems, I see the problem may be you being such a giant square.

[GeneralMacArthur]

The very fact that Seattle is crazy is why people vote for SAlt, they’re entire advertising schtick is providing stability and peace in the city. They do want to solve homelessness and stop the junkies by giving them a place to stay and have professionals treat them to get on their feet.

Of course given you are blind to reality and are dismissive of run of the mill Seattle residents and their viewpoints on how to solve the cities problems, I see the problem may be you being such a giant square.

You say these things and then you don't respond to anything in my posts.

You don't even live here.  Have you ever even visited Seattle?  Like seriously go find another thread do post in.  Don't sit there 2000 miles away and tell me that I'm blind to things I can literally look out my window and observe.  Don't degrade me for writing long posts explaining the situation here, and then claim I'm the one who doesn't know what's going on in my own city.

It's hilarious that you can say something like "SocAlt's entire advertising shtick is providing stability and peace" with a straight face, and then turn around and say I'm the delusional one.  You don't know this since you don't live here, but SocAlt goes out every week and plasters every lamppost in Capitol Hill with their big red posters.  Not once have those posters ever said anything about "peace and stability" it's always radical change, us-vs-them, fight fight fight, overthrow capitalism, down with the landlords, everyone who opposes us is a right-wing billionaire Trump supporter.

[kingcharlesvii]

The very fact that Seattle is crazy is why people vote for SAlt, they’re entire advertising schtick is providing stability and peace in the city. They do want to solve homelessness and stop the junkies by giving them a place to stay and have professionals treat them to get on their feet.

Of course given you are blind to reality and are dismissive of run of the mill Seattle residents and their viewpoints on how to solve the cities problems, I see the problem may be you being such a giant square.

It's hilarious that you can say something like "SocAlt's entire advertising shtick is providing stability and peace" with a straight face, and then turn around and say I'm the delusional one.  You don't know this since you don't live here, but SocAlt goes out every week and plasters every lamppost in Capitol Hill with their big red posters.  Not once have those posters ever said anything about "peace and stability" it's always radical change, us-vs-them, fight fight fight, overthrow capitalism, down with the landlords, everyone who opposes us is a right-wing billionaire Trump supporter.

I'm actually gonna have to agree with gmac on this, Sawant and her crew such as Nikkita Oliver and Jess Spear have always tried making their candidacies and political projects about class and the need for radical change. It's honestly how incendiary their rhetoric is (and some of their more unfeasible policies) that makes me hesitant to directly support them. I've never honestly seen any of the SA folks talk about bringing "peace and stability" to the city, typically those that believe the city needs those things are the peeps supporting Kate Martin, Art Langlie and Sara Nelson tbh

[PSOL]

The very fact that Seattle is crazy is why people vote for SAlt, they’re entire advertising schtick is providing stability and peace in the city. They do want to solve homelessness and stop the junkies by giving them a place to stay and have professionals treat them to get on their feet.

Of course given you are blind to reality and are dismissive of run of the mill Seattle residents and their viewpoints on how to solve the cities problems, I see the problem may be you being such a giant square.

It's hilarious that you can say something like "SocAlt's entire advertising shtick is providing stability and peace" with a straight face, and then turn around and say I'm the delusional one.  You don't know this since you don't live here, but SocAlt goes out every week and plasters every lamppost in Capitol Hill with their big red posters.  Not once have those posters ever said anything about "peace and stability" it's always radical change, us-vs-them, fight fight fight, overthrow capitalism, down with the landlords, everyone who opposes us is a right-wing billionaire Trump supporter.

I'm actually gonna have to agree with gmac on this, Sawant and her crew such as Nikkita Oliver and Jess Spear have always tried making their candidacies and political projects about class and the need for radical change. It's honestly how incendiary their rhetoric is (and some of their more unfeasible policies) that makes me hesitant to directly support them. I've never honestly seen any of the SA folks talk about bringing "peace and stability" to the city, typically those that believe the city needs those things are the peeps supporting Kate Martin, Art Langlie and Sara Nelson tbh

Know I talk to the local SAlt branch leader here, and I’ve seen them do their phone banking and heavy lifting in the Chicagoland DSA chapters. Internally they are more chill in the upper management positions. Must be different by location too.

[RI]

Trump endorsed Joe Kent over JHB.

[Utah Neolib]

Inslee is going to run again in 2024 for another term