Happy Fourth of July from Seattlest
Seattlest Pix: 09Jul04
Seattlest Pix: 09Jul05
Seattle Int'l Beer Festival Ends at 7 p.m.
Have you been following the Belltown crackdown on crack "controversy"? Guy named Brett Paulson, barman at Txori, thinks it's so bad that the mayor needs to call in the State Patrol. We're not saying that the corner of Second & Bell isn't a bit, well, dodgy, especially in the wee hours, but c'mon, gang. The last person killed in Belltown was a tourist who got flipped out of a runaway pedicab and run over by a minivan, nothing to do with crack, but the vigilantes would have you believe there's gunfire nightly.
So there was a meeting last night, everything but pitchforks, as the tee-vee cameras noted who said what and the earnest KING 5 lady wondered whether the answer could be found "in time."
Somebody had to call bullshit, a job that fell to Alex Mayer of the dead-tree Belltown Messenger and the live blog Belltown Dispatch. Hizzoner is so proud of having cleaned up "downtown" after dark, as if downtown stopped at Virginia, but that's only going to squeeze marginal people into the margins, and Belltown's where the toothpaste comes out of the tube. The cops, for their part, act all defensive, too busy to actually get out of their cars after midnight. Mayer's the one calling everyone's bluff.
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Belltown Dispatch is now, btw, Downtown Dispatch
http://downtowndispatch.com
You've got the right URL, wrong brand. Pertinent, I guess, given your line about where downtown starts and stops.
I think Txori should just adapt and start serving crack sandwiches.
Things will be even more fun for them with McLeod gone and consequently less people keeping the sidewalk lively next door.
I'm sorry now that I didn't go. It seems to me that the Belltown drug trade creates more fear than risk of harm.
I think the bigger problem is the bars letting out late at night. Bunches of drunk folks out on the streets at once seem to be more of a problem than the street drug trade.
After living on the corner of Elliott and Bell for three years, I can say there is a huge drug problem and drunk problem in that area. I had a beautiful view of "crack alley" between Battery and Bell. Easy to shoot up, pee, and grab yourself a prostitute. The whole area there is filled with them. Drive by anytime of day and they will be there. And once the bars let out it only makes it crazier.
Seattle is tame though. Most of the users and dealers are basically harmless. As a woman though, I would never walk that corridor late at night alone. I've seen enough other women harassed.
On halloween I was a half block away from the shooting. I don't appreciate that shit.
I understand Belltown isn't Compton but the fact that violence persists in one of the most affluent and prominent tourist areas in the city is ridiculous.
If there's going to be violence, the city should at least manage it to the fact that it isn't scaring off business in a tourist zone.
I understand violence in depressed neighborhoods, I don't understand it, regardless of history and tradition in a neighborhood that people actually want to spend money in.
Whether you think it's overblown or not doesn't matter as much as the fact it has a bad reputation that seems to persist. The city needs to manage its image better.
"We're not saying that the corner of Second & Bell isn't a bit, well, dodgy, especially in the wee hours, but c'mon, gang. The last person killed in Belltown was a tourist who got flipped out of a runaway pedicab and run over by a minivan, nothing to do with crack, but the vigilantes would have you believe there's gunfire nightly."
That is entirely offensive to A) The entire pedicab incident and B) Each person that has been harmed in Belltown recently.
You do not live in Belltown. My guess is that you are out in Bellevue watching us on the news wondering what the problem is. I've been a resident here for years and instead of posting here what will help my beautiful neighborhood, I simply wanted to let you know that with this article you gave me and every other person in the neighborhood a good fucking reason not to read your articles
Thanks for writing, LincolnAbbieH. For the record, I've lived in Belltown since 2001. Often walk the streets at night, find that it's more dangerous at 3rd & Pike at midday than at 2nd & Bell at midnight.
In my opinion (and blogs are all about personal opinion) our "beautiful neighborhood" is imperiled less by a handful of mentally ill vagrants than by the misunderstanding, fear and defensiveness they generate.
Drug deals? Sure, get the cops out of their cars after midnight and onto the sidewalks. Don't bring in the State Patrol, bring in the Mounties ... those horses are pretty damn intimidating.
Guns? A much bigger issue than Belltown. But the fewer drugs (again, in my opinion), the less need for residents and dealers alike to holster up.
The last person killed in Belltown was a tourist...
While this might be technically true... the woman that was shot on halloween is brain dead... which you could easily argue she is not technically alive...
All I am asking for is more police...
What good would police have done in the latest case? It was her boyfriend who shot her. Last I heard, he was having a drunken pissing match.
Just as I'm convinced that guns are not the answer (and in fact may contribute to the problem), I doubt that more police (with their own guns) will solve the issue. Living in Belltown can be frustrating, but there's a vibrancy here that you don't find in Medina or even Madrona. That's the trade-off.
Before the halloween shooting, there was another one the previous week just a few hundred yards away in the same alley, but the other entrance. I am not saying more police would solve all problems, but would you whip a gun out with a cop only a few yards away?
I love Belltown and agree with the vibrancy comment, btw, but the trade off is not feeling safe outside of the confines of my concrete home?
Beat police would help, but this city isn't known for doing the smartest thing. The police chief is a smart cookie (I heard him on NPR last night speaking about guns and crime), but the mayor is a lot out of touch.