Results tagged “homelessness”

WSDOT is giving Nickelsville three days' notice to move the camp from its current location at Second and W. Marginal Way. According to the Nickelsville website (yes, they have one), the move followed action by the city government against the state. In a message yesterday, the operators of the website stated, "Nickelsville remains determined to remain until another permanent site is secured."

The slope of Queen Anne between Westlake and Dexter is a jungle. Again. In June, parks employees denuded the hillside, exposing and clearing out the makeshift homes hidden in the overgrowth. Workers tore down the illegal encampments and in some cases threw away the belongings--or was it trash?-- they found. We run by nearly every day, and stopped to read the signs, which were also in Spanish, that warned people what was to come. Aviso, they said. The ivy is back now and so are the campers. Last night we stepped over a telltale tarp that had slid down the hill and onto the sidewalk. The rustle of leaves is like someone closing a curtain. There are people who no longer ask anything of this world but to be left alone in it.

In 1964, most of Fort Lawton's land on the Magnolia Bluff was declared surplus by the U.S. military. That's when locals first banded together to voice their concerns over the future use of the area, forming a group called Citizens For a Fort Lawton Park and ultimately attracting the attention and support of a U.S. Senator in their efforts to prevent the government from turning the land into an ABM base. By 1971, the land was in the hands of the City of Seattle, and Discovery Park was formed.

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• WaMu really can't catch a break. The Belltowner and PhinneyWood report that their neighborhood WaMu branches were robbed over the weekend.
• Mid Beacon Hill explores "cheap South End fun," including a place that should be on the hipster street-of-dreams, and the Museum of Communications. Being a tourist in your own city is totally fun, so the idea of being a tourist in your own neighborhood strikes us as completely delightful.
• So that's why we didn't have power on Saturday night in the CD. Of course, since we had no power we couldn't log on to check Central District News for updates, but it's nice to know now.

Nickelsville has moved for the third time in about as many weeks, this time setting up camp in the University District. The homeless encampment has moved from Discovery Park to a parking lot owned by the University Christian Church on 15th Avenue Northeast. Organizers are hopeful this will become a more permanent home for the encampment, but as with the camp's previous incarnations, the city most likely has other plans for Nickelsville. Plans which seem to involve forcing the camp to move week by week to opposite ends of the city, with the constant threat of arrest for campers and organizers, despite the fact the city has no better housing option for residents.

• The Magnolia Voice wonders if Nickelsville organizers will still face fines regarding the encampment, despite reaching an agreement with the city.
• MyBallard is still a reliable source for all things quirky and Scandinavian; so we trust them when they say that today is Leif Erickson Day and the appropriate way to celebrate is by donning some sort of Nordic sweater.
• Franklin High School's football team was robbed during a recent match at Rainier Beach High School. Not like robbed on the field of a win, but robbed like their personal property was stolen. The Rainier Valley Post has all the details.

• Kapow! Coffee, inventors of the Ride the S.L.U.T. t-shirts, the proposers of a 300-foot Paul Allen statue, and the makers of the best espresso in the Cascade neighborhood, are looking for a new home after their landlord decided to open up his own coffee shop in the location.
• Capitol Hill Seattle gets a little snarky about John Curley and we love them for it.
• The Belltowner has the scoop on the sudden closure of the McLeod Residence. The building isn't up to fire code and the entirety of Seattle's hipster elite are in mourning.

• West Seattle Blog has the latest update on Nickelsville. WSB also pointed us to a Nickelsville Google Group where residents and supporters are posting updates and minute-to-minute news.
• MyBallard has photos of hygiene stations planned for neighborhood homeless car camps. Maybe Mayor Nickels could talk to some Ballard community activists about options for homeless residents, at least Ballard seems to be dealing with the issue in a humane way.
• The most interesting meta post we've seen in an eternity: the strange (and occassionally yucky) search terms that lead folks to Tacoma's crime blog, Lights & Sirens.

• We would go to this new West Seattle restaurant for the name alone: "OK Corral Sam'mich Slingers." Also the words "pulled pork" and "sammiches" are featured largely on their "sammich"-board, so we are 100% sold.
• Our friends at the Rainier Valley Post had an epic day of blogging yesterday, covering everything from the ongoing violence in the Othello neighborhood to updates on Nickelsville and "The Jungle" (two of Seattle's homeless encampments) to a call for volunteers for a Seward Park clean-up this weekend.
• Seattle Metblogs answers a plaguing question brought to us by a distressed reader yesterday: the Alibi Room is a pizza joint now? Sorry, jessejb, but it seems to be true.

• The Slog, with the help of the McLeod Residence, is debating if grilled cheese will be what brings foodies around to American cheese. The McLeods assert that American cheese is the unquestionable king of grilled cheese--we're not so sure. Sure, American cheese melts like plastic, but we've always actually found that a bit telling. Give us Tillamook sharp cheddar any day of the week.
• The Kirkland Weblog complains that an outbreak of local graffiti is making Kirkland look like something straight out of The Wire. We highly doubt that. Highly. In reality, Kirkland looks a bit more like Agrestic from Weeds, if we're going for cable show comparisons.
• Capitol Hill Seattle is feeling a wee bit concerned about the increased number of both abandonded buildings and panhandlers on Broadway.

A second Aurora Avenue Motel has been declared unsafe and unsanitary by the Washington State Department of Health. Today, residents of the Seals Motel are facing a state-sanctioned ouster, while just two weeks ago it was residents of the Green Lake Motel who experienced the same. It would seem the Department of Health could have just photocopied the report against the Green Lake Motel and changed the name, as the findings are identical.

"Troubled Today" by Seattle Daily Photo

Real Change is setting up camp at City Hall, to protest the city's handling of homelessness and new policies regarding homeless encampments. The planned protest is scheduled for March 13th, with Real Change encouraging supporters to "bring a tent and a friend" down to City Hall.