Belltown in Beatdown Crisis

At 3 a.m. last Sunday morning, Daniel Stoy, a Microsoft employee from Fargo, in town for a conference, was beaten by five or six men "outside a bar" in the "Belltown neighborhood."

That's the P-I, with their view-from-30,000-feet-style coverage. Stoy was in a coma, but emerged from intensive care on Tuesday. A more forthcoming commenter says the attack happened:

...on 1st Ave, between Bell and Blanchard, in front of Bell Tower (which is Seattle Housing Authority Low Income Public Housing Apartment). Also, it just happens to be the same block that was made famous by the Belltown Crime YouTube videos.

This comes after May's high-profile attack on a doctor, which in turn came on the heels of an April attack which left a woman with a crushed eye socket, and broken cheek and jaw.

The Belltowner blog says Belltown's "major drug problem" is no secret, excerpting Robert Jamieson's article on the area's woes. Belltown's beginning to sound like San Francisco's Tenderloin, a "herding" enforcement strategy and a concentration of social services creating a de facto dumping ground for people who struggle with addiction, mental illness, homelessness, and joblessness. Nothing we've read indicates that street people jumped Stoy, by the way. But where there's an "anything goes" environment, "anything goes" people of all sorts tend to congregate.

There are a lot of solutions to the problems of urban life, but one immediate safety and security addition to any troubled area is an old-fashioned beat cop. Not a patrol car, and not a Segway-riding parking enforcement officer, but an officer walking the beat. We learned this from The Wire, so we know it's true.

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By MvB in News on July 30, 2008 1:50 PM

Comments [rss]

Troy Morris

I do have to say it's a remarkably simple solution. A few beat cops a heartbeat away from the Central Station would do wonders.

However, as a resident of Fuck head and Fuck off central, I have to say the folks that patronize the bars on First Ave are more trouble than the bums and drugs dealers.

Anecdotally, in the last 18 months I have witnessed one bum fight and about 8 yuppie fights. Trust me when I say those yuppies go for blood.

Some people and alcohol just don't mix. Sad.

jwhieger

I find it hard to believe that even the scuzziest of frat boys would spend money on a street walking Belltown prostitute. We're talking about borderline, walking corpses here, I'm sure frat boys are more resourceful then going after the pathetic and downtrodden American street walking hooker.

Maybe I'm being generous but that characterization seems misplaced and hell bent on belittling everything frat.

aja

@MvB: In my own blog, I did say that I was mistaken in saying "frat pack", and defined what I meant by such. Mostly because after my initial gut reaction I had to grudgingly admit that I was doing my own generalizations, and declaring them to be A-OK because I was picking on a group that I do not see as being voiceless or disadvantaged. Which at the least is impolite of me, and at the most if terribly un-PC.

I understand what you were getting at, and I support the general theme of what you're saying. I do stand by my initial take in that while I think what you're saying is well intentioned, the phrasing of the original article is skewed towards the idea that it is the less advantaged that are creating this scourge in Belltown, and not the apathy with which that population is met. If the article had said something closer to what your comment to me did, I wouldn't have assumed that was your message. But, it didn't.

MvB

@aja: you know I was really hoping that people would not make the automatic assumption you just did--that's why I wanted to make it clear that I wasn't implicating street people in the attack. By "anything goes" I was referring to the alleged policing strategy (where criminal activity is herded into a particular area), and the fact that crime tends to flourish among populations who, for a host of reasons, don't have the police at their beck and call.

That said, police reports don't indicate that the majority of crime in the Belltown area is frat-related.

aja

"Belltown's beginning to sound like San Francisco's Tenderloin, a "herding" enforcement strategy and a concentration of social services creating a de facto dumping ground for people who struggle with addiction, mental illness, homelessness, and joblessness. Nothing we've read indicates that street people jumped Stoy, by the way. But where there's an "anything goes" environment, "anything goes" people of all sorts tend to congregate."

The only people I've ever had real trouble with in Belltown have been the frat packs trolling for hookers. But way to generalize the poor and ailing. I mean, homeless or jobless or even addiction is definitely a secret code for "anything goes".

jwhieger

I didn't say anything is wrong with seedy, early morning liquor.

ruffhauser

The 5 Point isn't that bad. Most/all of the early morning drinkers are graveyard-shift workers who'd like to have a beer after they get off work at 8AM.

Can't say that I blame them.