Most of my posts are concerning sustainable design, solar energy grants, that kind of stuff. Here is a MAJOR (yes caps) multi-decade horror story of unsustainable community design that rips any attempt at constructive placemaking in the CD to shreds. Regular readers have seen posts about gentrification, how the CD is a containament zone, and ongoing arson and violence. What you see below touches all of these. So, readers this is an election year, how should we as a community address this Parnells issue. The question is asked, so read below.
Date: Wed, Aug 14, 2013 at 7:01 AM
Subject: Re: Please help our neighborhood
To:, [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected],
I would like to take a moment to solidly concur with every single thing Grace has written (below). The situation along the Dearborn corridor, but particularly around Parnell’s Mini Mart, has become intolerable.
Last night, we were witness to open-air drug dealing, public drinking, public urination, minors using drugs and alcohol, money and drugs changing hands, people sitting in their cars and raking out and snorting lines, and one very suspicious vehicle that had its license plates removed.
We called this in. Here’s what the police did: nothing.
Sunday, I saw two girls (about 13-15 years old) come to Parnell’s and wait on the curb. They didn’t have to wait long. A man approached them, they handed the man two ten-dollar bills. The man met briefly with a confederate and returned to hand the girls a small drug baggie. The girls slipped off to the cul-de-sac at the West end of Dearborn to share their purchase. I saw all of this from the roof of my garage. I could not have had a better view of what was going on if I was standing right next to them.
I called this in. Here’s what the police did: nothing.
This is not an occasional thing. This is every single night, rain or shine. And it has been going on for eleven years (per my personal experience) and has been going on since the 1980s according to longer residents. We complain. We have community meetings. Representatives from government and law enforcement show up and eagerly take notes as if they were hearing all of this for the first time.
And here’s what happens: nothing.
We have all been told “be sure to call these events in,” but I am here to tell you that endeavor yields nothing. I have dealt with everything from indifference to ridicule when calling police dispatchers. No one (except the residents) appears to take any of this seriously.
The re-striping and re-curbing of the parking lot at Parnell’s Mini Mart has not made the drug dealers and chronic public inebriates go away; it has simply moved them across the street, where they hang out next to a vacant building with apparent impunity. Parnell’s continues to furnish them with cheap alcohol, and they continue to break the law. When a police cruiser does come by, it keeps on moving.
And here’s what happens: nothing.
I am confident that I am sharing nothing new here. But I am sick to death of this situation, and I want to know what steps are going to be taken to alleviate these problems and make this a neighborhood again. And I hope your advice is better than “keep calling dispatch,” because I have lost all faith in that approach. The people on the other end of the phone make it abundantly clear that they aren’t interested.
The lawlessness and unsanitary behavior around Parnell’s Mini Mart and the vacant building across from it needs to stop.
Sincerely,
–Kevin Boze
—–Original Message—–
FromTo: matthew.york <[email protected]>; ron.wilson <[email protected]>; nick.metz <[email protected]>; john.hayes <[email protected]>; sally.bagshaw <[email protected]>; stan.lock <[email protected]>; Dan.Okada <[email protected]>;
Cc: Sent: Tue, Aug 13, 2013 10:57 pm
Subject: Please help our neighborhood
Good evening, although I am actually not having a very good evening. Here’s why:
How would you like to have a constant block party going on right outside your back door every day? Complete with hookers, drug dealers, drunks peeing on the sidewalk, firecrackers, piles of garbage and empty bottles, blaring offensive music, people yelling and screaming, and more than just occasionally, gunfire. I bet you wouldn’t like it just as much as I don’t like it. How about the three guys who camp out on the sidewalk every day and night for hours, drinking and selling drugs? They bring chairs! We’ve tried asking these people to be quiet, to move, to pick up their garbage, to use a restroom to relieve themselves instead of using my garden. But drunks and stoners and criminals don’t seem to care. I thought that the city did not allow homeless encampments on public property, but that is essentially what we have occurring on our block. Yesterday, I watched yet again as one of these men unzipped his trousers right in front of me, in broad daylight, pulled out his penis and urinated on a street tree outside my garage. This was less than two hours after I had asked these gentlemen personally not to use the street as a restroom.
But what is more outrageous is that this poor tree, and more than 30 other trees on Dearborn Street between 23rd and MLK, all were planted as part of a neighborhood improvement project that I helped organize back in 2005. We got trees donated by the city, acquired some grant money to remove concrete filling the parking strip and hire local teenagers to help, then planted trees and ground cover along three city blocks. All this was accomplished with the help of dozens of neighbors who came together to work on improving the streetscape to deter crime. Now, to watch these chronic public inebriates killing the trees with their beer-laden piss is an incredible insult to our neighborhood. As well as being illegal.
I called 911 to complain around 9:30 this evening (Aug. 13) and the dispatcher said she would pass on the information, but we didn’t see any police units come by on our block. Would it be possible to find out if any record of my complaint exists?
This is just the latest in 11 years of complaints to the city about the crime occurring around Parnell’s Mini Mart at the corner of 23rd Avenue South and South Dearborn. And yet the party continues in the street, right outside my door. Can any of you do anything to deter this illegal activity that does so much to damage the quality of life in my neighborhood?
I certainly understand that the Police Department has more important crimes to worry about, but thank you at least for reading this complaint.
Sincerely,
Grace Reamer
—
Stephanie Tschida
206-579-3538
I live around the corner for 14 years. I moved 8 years ago. Nothing has changed. Parnell’s is still as it was and no one does anything about it. I gave up and moved only slightly north, less than 2 miles, and it’s like another world. My old hood, where I grew up and raised my kids for a good time, is truly a containment zone.
To answer Grace’s question yes, there is a record of your call. You can request an event report via public disclosure. Google [email protected] for the form to fill out, or just email that address and ask for a record of your call (an event report) and any info generated by your call(s).
I used to preach that the cops would do something if you put the situation in proper context. I was wrong. The CD is a containment zone. CDN blocked my name for speaking frankly. Citizens of the CD and Seattle defend this activity and are unable to see the connection to the rampant robbery and rape in the city. I left and now enjoy peace and safety on the east side.
Your comment is awaiting moderation. I used to preach that the cops would do something if you put the situation in proper context. I was wrong. The CD is a containment zone. CDN blocked my name for speaking frankly. Citizens of the CD and Seattle defend this activity and are unable to see the connection to the rampant robbery and rape in the city. Sad but Seattle citizens think they are helping save the world. There just blind fools.
These letters should be forwarded to the local news media. Maybe they can publicly shame the city into actually doing somethin. This is just b#llsh#t.
I was hoping that this story would not be on page two but on the main blog as it is a very important issue.
These letters disgust me. There are certain types of people who move into gentrified areas, most of them left leaning, progressive, and college educated. Knowing that fact, the level of ignorance permeating from these letters is revolting. The word gentrification is thrown around as if it something that just happens by chance. Never by the leftist leaning, supposedly socially educated, is it discussed in terms of the economic, social and politically oppressive acts that make it possible. See all the behaviors you are complaining about, made it possible for you to pay $300,000 for that $600,000 home (value not by condition but by location) 10 minutes from downtown. Be honest with yourself. You have happily benefited from the very conditions that you now are complaining about. Oh… but when it affects you, “the police should intervene” “something should be done” “this is outrageous”. I do not support any of that madness, but don’t you ever wonder why it is happening? I personally don’t think you do, because if you did, I like to think you would protest about that. You would write and call your councilman about that. You did all your partying, getting drunk, peeing outside, smoking weed, talking loud, and playing loud music, on or near a college campus; but the fact is, you did it. Too bad not everyone is afforded that same opportunity. Unforfunately, they are living their college life on the corner instead of a frat house – minus the education. And you want them to go to jail and have criminal records and their lives be ruined? All you got was a scolding from your parents and possibly a disciplinary infraction from your Dean’s office. GET REAL!!!! Change the way you think.
exactly <3
Obviously you have never been to school beyond high school and your used to living in a lawless containment zone where you are used to getting away with this. You drove the black middle class out of the CD and feel a false entitlement to criminal behavior. time to change or face real jail time. It only a matter of time before Parnells is shut down through a court case.
Wow. That’s quite a compelling argument you make there. Obviously something I said rings true since you are unable to counter with anything other than petty uninformed insults that have no connection to my statement or reality. “False entitlement to criminal behavior?” Please do elaborate. Since you just made that up, I have no clue what you’re talking about. I know you have been watching lots of FOX and you think you are really informed, but you might want to polish your argument.
No CD 1940not2000 the only thing that you have written that rings true is that you “have no clue of what I am talking about”. Clueless, and socially ignorant is no way to go through life or to be seen as an example for neighborhood youth.
@Krikky1234 – the quote in the first email sounds much like creative writing to me. There may be truth in the statement however the creative and colorful way that he paint the scenario, indicates to me that there may be some other exaggerations there. How exactly does he know the age of the girls, how does he know the exact denomination of bills, and furthermore what in the heck is he doing on top of his garage. Picture that location, where in heck does he stay, let’s be real. Also I am not trying to disregard your experience but being poor and white is very different than being poor and black. This has been proven over and over. Social mobility in this country is extremely difficult but even within those small margins there is still statistical disproportion along racial lines. The very fact that you use NIMBY and gentrification in the same sentence tells me we are talking about two entirely different issues. I do not insinuate or believe anyone would chose to live that life, in fact, that is my point exactly. My family came to the central area in 1940’s and owns a great deal of property. My grandparents and their siblings started black little league, open the first black beauty to promote economic independence, started the black debutants and a whole host of other community enrichments. And they did it without the help or hand or white people. My parents moved from their house in the central area to the Mt. Baker neighborhood in the 1970’s, that where I grew up. They still own property and I have other family members who are still there. I have a rich understanding of the dynamics of the black community in Seattle and know from laps I sat on not strolls through the Heritage Museum. I come from a family where everyone born after 1940 is college educated and possess advanced degrees and I am telling you, you are wrong. You don’t have to worry about my children. If your neighbor’s children see someone doing something wrong and because they saw someone do it, believe that it is right than your neighbors are doing something wrong. And finally @Pinebeetle – what you first must understand , the conversation taking place in defense of the black community is very different than the conversation taking place within the black community. How dare you insinuate that I am promoting hopelessness or defeatism? As I said originally, gentrification doesn’t just happen; it is not a natural phenomenon. I encourage you took at Iran Contra affair and government released documents concerning the crack epidemic. It is no coincidence that the very same area’s impacted by the crack epidemic and now areas that have been gentrified. Not just in Seattle but in Chicago, in Los Angeles, in Portland, in New York and many other cities. This did not occur by accident. And just as we all have benefited from small pox laden blankets given to Native Americans, white people living in areas of gentrification, are today benefiting from a crime against humanity. To continue the perpetuation of that crime by calling for the crimination, incarceration and removal of these people instead of calling for changes to the system that created this situation, is selfish and not progressive in thought. PERIOD.
@ Eyes – You offer nothing of value to the disscussion. Go away!
@ CD 1940not2000 no not going away, I am here to stay. Your rant smells of falsehoods, doubt you really have those CD ties but you have copied from other long term residents that have written in the CD to give a false impression of your self. I have been here for a long time. Your delusional paranoid conspiracy theory is old school Farakhan crap. The issue is Parnells and the multi decade criminal element that is contained there. Yep, your self entitlement to be lawless, kinda opposite of what my middle class black neighbors in the neighborhood feel.
Read more, assume less.
“The Social Impacts of Urban Containment” by Nelson, Sanchez, Dawkins
“Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion” by Gary Webb
“The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness” by Michelle Alexander
http://www.justice.gov/oig/special/9712/ch01p1.htm (government site)
zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz, yawn, zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
lol… I never did any of that stupid stuff in college or otherwise…… and I wouldn’t appreciate or tolerate the behavior if it were a bunch of college students doing it next door to me either. Read some of the stuff about problem houses down by Seattle U sometime – their neighbors are no more happy about the situation and don’t hesitate to call the police on them, white college kids or not.
I think maybe you are missing my point. My point is they are young people acting stupid like young people. The students down by SU, I doubt are being referred to as criminals. In many ways, you make my point. It is not about whether you did it or I did it, it is about how it is being seen differently because these are young black people. Students at SU have something to lose, something greater than simple freedom from incarceration. They are there working to build their futures and as a result can do a cost benefit analysis in deciding whether what they are doing is worth risking their future. Young black men, whether you want to face it or not, have very different futures to look toward regardless of how hard they try, and that is the problem that needs to be fixed. I mean, you have to admit, to act as though someone peeing on a tree that the neighbors planted is going to destroy it, is ridiculous. Trees have been around longer than indoor plumbing. It is the tone, the lack of historical context, the voidness of empathy and the venomous distain that I take issue with.
CD1940, your message is destructive and badly skews the truth of racial bias in opportunity. Nobody can dispute added obstacles to black people. They do exist and I don’t argue that. Racism and race bias are here and likely will remain for quite sometime.
However the damaging thing you say is: “Young black men, whether you want to face it or not, have very different futures to look toward regardless of how hard they try….” That statement is a most horrible kind of bias. I know you do not mean it to be so wrong and biased. But you have set a limitation on young black men that no matter how hard they try they will have a lesser degree of freedom than other peoples. That right there my friend evidences racism in the institutionalized and undlerlying form.
I do not mean to call you out as racist or anthing of the sort. I to am fully endoctrinated in racism. Virtually all of us are – whether we understand it or not.
For folks that want to be on the YBM’s side – you must not beleive that no matter how hard a YBM tries he cannot succeed. I know I come off as mean and racist alot of the time. But, I strongly beleive that nearly all humans have strength to win out over adversity that they face.
We can all fail. Perhaps the greatest cause of failure is the belief that you will fail. There are billions of positive examples of people struggling and winning out over their own adversities.
Again, I know you don’t mean to, but please do not so blatenly condem and entire race of men to certain failure. That is just a wild and terrible thing to say. Try again.
I’m trying to understand CD1940not2000’s letter. What I’m getting from it is that people have been living like this for years, and we “leftist leaning, supposedly socially educated” interlopers shouldn’t be concerned about the lives of those who are intentionally destroying themselves and their community. Also, we should be ashamed of ourselves for having pride in our property and not wanting people to pee and vomit all over our yards.
Some of this (peeing on trees, loud music and talking) pales in comparison to what I find most disturbing.
The thing that makes my stomach drop is the quote in the first letter: “…I saw two girls (about 13-15 years old) come to Parnell’s and wait on the curb. A man approached them, they handed the man two ten-dollar bills. The man met briefly with a confederate and returned to hand the girls a small drug baggie. The girls slipped off to the cul-de-sac at the West end of Dearborn to share their purchase.”
This is light years away from partying at college–this is involving barely teenage CHILDREN in drug trafficking and god knows what else.
If I twist my brain, I can get your “youth partying on the streets=frat house partying”. I did my fair share of drinking and drugging in college. But I also 1) held a 20-hour a week job; 2) graduated in 5 years with a 3.5 GPA; 3) partied in dorm rooms and/or apartments–not in broad daylight on a public thoroughfare; 4) didn’t sell drugs; and 5) didn’t involve minors in my nefarious activities.
I think your assumption that those of us who attended college are “privileged” is way off base. I am from a very poor, economically depressed community. In my family, few even finished high school (I was considered insane for going off to college), and today many of my family members are meth heads and/or alcoholics living on SSI. What you should get out of this is: my family has no money; there is no privilege; people are living dead-end lives in my hometown. I applied for student loans and grants to get myself through school; I worked to cover my living expenses.
So–while I hear your excuse that “too bad not everyone is afforded that same opportunity [attending college]”–it falls flat for me. First of all, you’re making an excuse to reinforce the validity of choosing to live a dead-end, harmful existence. Second, you’re assuming that people really enjoy living such a terrible life–who wouldn’t choose to live a life of peeing on people’s trees, getting drunk in public and dealing drugs? Who looks forward to that sort of life? Who wants that life for their loved ones??
I think you can blame this on “gentrification” and NIMBY’s until you’re blue in the face. The issue is that NO ONE wants this sort of life for their loved ones. I don’t want to see this for my own children, and I certainly don’t want to see it for yours.
And in response to your comment regarding cheap real estate and “happily benefit[ting] from the very conditions that you now are complaining about”…I didn’t buy my house in the CD because I appreciated how drug dealers devalued my property so that I could afford it. I stayed here because I love this neighborhood (having rented here for 20 years, then buying 2 years ago). I feel really invested in this community. My kids go to school and have friends here. I have friends here.
Therefore, I don’t want my neighbors’ 13 year old girls feeling that it’s OK to buy drugs at Parnell’s. I can only assume that the letter writers are sick of watching people getting looped into this dead-end game.
I have spent a great deal of time investigating the current activities at Parnell’s. The activity does not consist of YBM’s sowing wild oats. What is consistently present is older men and women engaged in drug sales and drug use. They do in fact use children and young adults as mule and also sell to young and old alike.
These are not happy young folk excersizing their freedom. The are drug dealers, sex traffickers, and associated people that leave needles in the park. This is not something that should be allowed in any neighborhood. It is really gross and something you do not want to see, but, you should spend some time looking at Dearborn Streat between Judkins Park and 24, and note the comings and goings.
It is not healthy.
@Krikky1234 – the quote in the first email sounds much like creative writing to me. There may be truth in the statement however the creative and colorful way that he paint the scenario, indicates to me that there may be some other exaggerations there. How exactly does he know the age of the girls, how does he know the exact denomination of bills, and furthermore what in the heck is he doing on top of his garage. Picture that location, where in heck does he stay, let’s be real. Also I am not trying to disregard your experience but being poor and white is very different than being poor and black. This has been proven over and over. Social mobility in this country is extremely difficult but even within those small margins there is still statistical disproportion along racial lines. The very fact that you use NIMBY and gentrification in the same sentence tells me we are talking about two entirely different issues. I do not insinuate or believe anyone would chose to live that life, in fact, that is my point exactly. My family came to the central area in 1940’s and owns a great deal of property. My grandparents and their siblings started black little league, open the first black beauty to promote economic independence, started the black debutants and a whole host of other community enrichments. And they did it without the help or hand or white people. My parents moved from their house in the central area to the Mt. Baker neighborhood in the 1970’s, that where I grew up. They still own property and I have other family members who are still there. I have a rich understanding of the dynamics of the black community in Seattle and know from laps I sat on not strolls through the Heritage Museum. I come from a family where everyone born after 1940 is college educated and possess advanced degrees and I am telling you, you are wrong. You don’t have to worry about my children. If your neighbor’s children see someone doing something wrong and because they saw someone do it, believe that it is right than your neighbors are doing something wrong. And finally @Pinebeetle – what you first must understand , the conversation taking place in defense of the black community is very different than the conversation taking place within the black community. How dare you insinuate that I am promoting hopelessness or defeatism? As I said originally, gentrification doesn’t just happen; it is not a natural phenomenon. I encourage you took at Iran Contra affair and government released documents concerning the crack epidemic. It is no coincidence that the very same area’s impacted by the crack epidemic and now areas that have been gentrified. Not just in Seattle but in Chicago, in Los Angeles, in Portland, in New York and many other cities. This did not occur by accident. And just as we all have benefited from small pox laden blankets given to Native Americans, white people living in areas of gentrification, are today benefiting from a crime against humanity. To continue the perpetuation of that crime by calling for the crimination, incarceration and removal of these people instead of calling for changes to the system that created this situation, is selfish and not progressive in thought. PERIOD.
The Iran Contra affair was 30 years ago. I heavily discount the total impact of goverment drug dealing as compared to commercial black market drug dealing.The impact is small and irrelevant to todays topic. Blankets to Native Americans – come one. We have all moved passed our guilt over having killed off the Native American population. It’s a done deal. Nothing significant can or will be done about it. Same as there will never be any significant reparations to desendants of slaves. Unlikely to even be a token. I want reparations from the public schools for wasting 12 years of my life. Not going to get it. I went on to college and learned something, not because fo the college, but because I applied myself to the material.
See same thing. I can stew about the failure of K-12 publice schools, or, move on and build a life. Stewing about blame for America on every issue is not productive for anyone. Grow up.
Clean safe neighborhoods are important for all to thrive, young and old, rich and poor. It is a social justice issue. Those within and outside the community should respect and take pride in the neighborhood. Yes, the neighborhood needs to organize, but the individuals need the support of public crime prevention dollars. It is these ongoing frustrating situations that can cause tempers to flare or general depression to set in, which often lead to much even more serious situations.