Cal Anderson’s grassy bowl (Image: CHS)
Complaints from a Capitol Hill mother of two about the population of people camping in Cal Anderson Park have the mayor’s office and the East Precinct’s attention. Now she just needs to get Seattle Parks in the game.
“There are a lot of families, and a lot of small children but sometimes the focus is not on the children. In some ways, they’re an invisible population,” advertising VP and busy Capitol Hill mom Laura Stockwell told CHS when we talked to her last week about her tweets to @mayormcginn and @seattlepd calling for more attention — and more policing — of what she says is a growing problem with homeless and other people hanging out and sometimes living in Cal Anderson this summer.
“Three people were sleeping in the playground. I heard a mom say ‘Don’t wake them up,'” Stockwell says of her decision that it was time to stop being nice and start asking for change.
“I had a woman say they were trying to use the bathroom and in the next stall somebody was shooting up.”
“Go find a family friendly place,” Stockwell said the mother was told.
“It’s gone from sharing the park to now I’m encroaching,” she says.
The result of Stockwell’s complaints has been a rapid response from East Precinct. According to operations head Lt. Joel Guay, his units already have increased their presence in Cal Anderson.
“It’s not that they’re there, it’s that they’ve overtaken it,” Guay said of the population of people who make the park their all-day and sometimes all-night hangout.
The precinct has asked its officers on patrol in the beat to check in on the park at least two times a shift and to do more than just drive by on 11th Ave — you should see more cops walking through or on bikes. Guay said part of the long-term plan is to simply make more contact with the people in the park and remind people that they’ll need to move along before the park’s official closing hour of 11:30p.
Guay said SPD had some requests for the Parks Department including increasing maintenance efforts for things like raking beneath bushes and shrubs where dangerous items like hypodermic needles might be discarded to keep the area more safe for children.
The East Precinct has also asked Parks to increase the presence of the city’s Park Rangers in Cal Anderson basically asking the department to deploy its Rangers to just be in the park more often.
Parks, at least in e-mail to CHS, wasn’t exactly receptive to the request:
Parks has received very few complaints about Cal Anderson Park. In the past three years, we have received one report of rats and one complaint about overflowing trash cans after an event. Parks’ security supervisor deploys the park rangers to Cal Anderson Park and other parks as he can. The rangers were hired to patrol in downtown parks as an element of a three-part effort to enliven them through physical changes, better security, and more programmed activity: http://www.seattle.gov/parks/downtown/, so that must be their focus. We do try to have them present at some events and situations where security may be an issue. They cannot routinely be at Cal Anderson Park.
As for the increased maintenance, Parks says after the ongoing reduction in budgets, there’s no money for increasing maintenance in Cal Anderson.
Parks also bristled at another idea being floated by East Precinct to deter camping out in Cal Anderson at night — increased use of sprinklers. The department representative we contacted said nobody has formally requested the sprinkler strategy be deployed but it wouldn’t work anyway because of Cal Anderson’s fancy irrigation system:
It is a state of the art computerized irrigation system installed in many parks. It measures how much water is needed at any given time and turns the irrigation sprinklers on and off at precise times, saving thousands of gallons of water per park each year. It operates only at night when the park is closed. The times are not predicable because of the sensors.
Beyond the intra-department squabbles about how to respond to complaints from those like Stockwell who feel that the park has taken a turn for the worse, the long-term story for the area is that is still much safer than it used to be.
Junkie kids present a dilemma. Just kidding, mom (Image: prima seadiva via Flickr)
In comparison to last summer, it’s not clear there is actually an increase in the number of homeless, panhandlers, skate punks, pit bull punks, druggies, junkies, meth heads, huffers and slackliners using the park.
One factor could be the closure of Bobby Morris for the replacement of its lighting system that has left the southern edge of the park encircled in chain link fencing that has pinched off some of the pedestrian activity in the area. There has also been a reduced schedule at the wading pool due to budget cuts that has cut down on park usage by families. And the seemingly neverending turf overhaul project also may have cut down on total pedestrian flow through the park.
But Stockwell who says she has lived on the Hill on and off since 1994 acknowledges this summer’s frustrations might be equally as much a product of her own growing family and their increased usage of the Hill and its resources.
In addition to her work to push for a safer Cal Anderson, Stockwell has also gotten involved with the design of the new FedRep Park which she was disappointed to find didn’t include any dedicated play elements for kids. She writes about both parks in this post to her Family Friendly Seattle blog.
Back at 11th and Pine, SPD would like to remind you of the bad old days of Pike/Pine to add a little perspective.
“Compared to the distant past,” Guay said, “the park is improved. I feel real good about the positive change we’ve been able to make over the time. People like Laura being real guardians and being real detailed about what they saw help quite a bit.”
Stockwell said one of her reports was an incident where a seemingly homeless man insisted on interacting with her three-year-old. “I leave them alone. I just want to be left alone. When I say don’t talk to my kid, I mean it,” Stockwell said. And this time she meant it enough to tweet the mayor — and eventually call his office — to ask for something to be done.
Maybe they should have the rest of their budget cut off and given to the SPD.
the park has gone from being what I considered the crowning jewel of the hill to just another place that the “homeless” can make dirty for the rest of us.
it used to be broadway, but now these butthead kids have grown tired of all of the construction. Now they havea new shiny park to shit all over.
the “i’m homeless” thing is has been old for years. it was tolerable when it wasn’t as aggressive. The hill has a serious problem.
We are talking about Cal Anderson Park. This place was amazing.
Will it just continue to decline until light rail opens, and then get a quick cleanup? Too late if that’s the case.
Stop it with the damn bike lanes and spend the money on things that everyone uses if money is so tight.
As far as I understand, the Parks employs only two rangers to watch over ALL the core city parks. There is no way they are going to spend more than an hour at Cal Anderson Park when you have more problematic parks like Occidental Park in Pioneer Square to manage. I’ve seen the increased homelessness and illicit activity at Cal Anderson, and the city does need to respond to that. At one of the outdoor movie screenings a few weeks ago, a homeless man drinking a liter of alcohol bereated the audience for nearly half the movie before passing out. Surely when a big group of citizens is gathered at the park, police need to be there to make sure there is some order.
I was at Cal Anderson with my two small children yesterday and left after 20 uncomfortable minutes. Its a shame how scuzzy this park has become again. I made a mental note to not return. I’ve lived on the hill for over 25y, so I’m not new here, but this disuse of public space is intolerable.
and not as individuals, i’m going to side with homeless people rather than yuppie moms on the hill that always screaming about the perceived needs of their-selves put forth as needs of “the children”. Crime is frightening and it is a problem but the solutions aren’t going to be solved by a thuggish SPD coming in and kicking indigent ass which is all they are good for when it comes to dealing with anything. Someone that lacks the basics for a secure existence have far more need than those in isolated, secured buildings, moaning about everything not as pristine as their freshly Lysoled lifestyle in the comfort of their plush living rooms when they step outside. Beside that random jerk randomly macing people the other day (everyone is fine btw so it’s not like a knifing) the homeless aren’t out there stabbing babies so stop treating them like life threatening vermin to be kicked out of the hood.
I’d like to see an increased police presence all over the hill. It’s gotten to the point where I’m afraid to pull out my cell phone for fear that some thug is going to mug me for it. Walking up Pike the other afternoon, I was on pins and needles until I finally got to a safer part of the hill. I’ve never gone to Cal Anderson, personally, because it’s always seemed pretty sleazy and crime-ridden to me. I’m currently awaiting some pepper spray to arrive that I recently ordered… Not sure if it will help me to feel safer or not…
“This boy,” says the constable, “although he’s repeatedly told to, won’t move on—”
“I’m always a-moving on, sar,” cries the boy, wiping away his grimy tears with his arm. “I’ve always been a-moving and a-moving on, ever since I was born. Where can I possibly move to, sir, more nor I do move!”
“He won’t move on,” says the constable calmly, with a slight professional hitch of his neck involving its better settlement in his stiff stock, “although he has been repeatedly cautioned, and therefore I am obliged to take him into custody. He’s as obstinate a young gonoph as I know. He won’t move on.”
“Oh, my eye! Where can I move to!” cries the boy, clutching quite desperately at his hair and beating his bare feet upon the floor of Mr. Snagsby’s passage.
“Don’t you come none of that or I shall make blessed short work of you!” says the constable, giving him a passionless shake. “My instructions are that you are to move on. I have told you so five hundred times.”
“But where?” cries the boy.
“Well! Really, constable, you know,” says Mr. Snagsby wistfully, and coughing behind his hand his cough of great perplexity and doubt, “really, that does seem a question. Where, you know?”
“My instructions don’t go to that,” replies the constable. “My instructions are that this boy is to move on.”
Do you hear, Jo? It is nothing to you or to any one else that the great lights of the parliamentary sky have failed for some few years in this business to set you the example of moving on. The one grand recipe remains for you—the profound philosophical prescription—the be-all and the end-all of your strange existence upon earth. Move on! You are by no means to move off, Jo, for the great lights can’t at all agree about that. Move on!’
‘Bleak House’ Charles Dickens
“… sometimes the focus is not on the children” OH NOES!
I truly do not understand the Parks Department budget at all. They deny having the funds to do better basic maintenance at Cal Anderson, yet they are spending almost one million dollars to remodel a perfectly adequate play area in Volunteer Park.
I realize the latter is voter-approved funding (levy), but maybe Parks staff need to get better at prioritizing what they ask voters to approve….in other words, emphasize the basics and not the “bells and whistles.”
Pepper spray in many sizes and formats is super-cheap on eBay. I’ve got several (including one in the car). It’s sad to think it’s come to this when you really need to think about it, but it beats the alternative.
It is sad to me that this problem has gotten so out of control. Yesterday when I was walking downtown I noticed how many crack head types we have polluting our streets. They are here because we allow them to be if I were in Seattle on Vacation I probably would not only be disgusted but scared. Downtown is crawling with people asking for a hand out and Capitol Hill is worse I agree with other comments that I have to hold on to my purse tightly and avoid using my phone in public because you never know anymore. SPD needs to step it up and more then just in the next 2 weeks til Summer Ends.
Considered as individuals, I’ll a dedicated parent over a zombie junky who doesn’t care about anyone or anything, and who’s chosen a life that takes and takes but gives nothing back to the world.
I can only assume from your comment that you’ve never actually spent any time in the company of a junky, or a hardcore alcoholic for that matter. You should visit Cal Anderson Park sometime and invite some members of this “social class” back to your place for a BBQ.
Has no problem insulting everyone in the city and bulldozing over other people’s opinions to get her way. Her “involvement” in the FedRep Park consists of many irrational and insulting emails to a group of people who have worked very hard on that park. Laura completely ignores the preferences of the other people, in the majority, who do not have the same goals she does. She claims that FedRep, which the parks department has said is too small for a children’s play structure, MUST have one because the Volunteer Park playground will be closed for six months this winter for its $800,000 renovation. FedRep won’t be finished for at least two years, so it won’t make up for the temporary closure of the Volunteer Park playground in any way. In addition, she claims that the lack of a children’s play structure in FedRep is evidence that everyone in Capitol Hill hates children and that the neighborhood is child unfriendly, despite the fact that the Volunteer Park playground is about to have an $800,000 renovation. This woman is just a bully who treats anyone who disagrees with her like crap.
Oh, boo hoo hoo. The poor, unfortunate homeless. Macing random people isn’t so bad! They’re just expressing their individuality. Give me a break.
You sure make a lot of assumptions about the people who want the park to be safe and friendly (“Lysoled lifestyle”), but the thugs that hang out in the park can do no wrong, apparently.
What’s so thuggish about telling people “I’m sorry. You aren’t allowed to live in the park. That’s not why we built it”?
Years ago, when the park first opened, I witnessed a fascinating exchange.
There was an indigent man on the next bench over. A couple police officers walked up and asked what he was doing. The guy looked surprised and said he was just hanging out. That’s when it got interesting. The conversation stopped, and the officers just stood there with arms folded looking at the guy while the tension built up. Eventually he left. The message was clear… we can’t make you leave, but we can make you very uncomfortable.
I was pleasantly dumbfounded. Finally, the police were taking a stand… this shiny new park is for the tax payers, not for the freeloaders. Good on ’em.
Haha, yeah, intimidation is the best!!!!1!!!
Yeah, cuz I really want to see the cops mowing the lawns.
(on the other hand….that could be hot…) :-Þ
SPD East Precint is a block away, within eyesight of Cal Anderson Park. It should be the most-Policed safest crime-free part of the Hill. What the fuck SPD? Too busy hanging out in the Greek church parking lot on 15th E, or what??
This whole thread makes me kind of sick. Is Capitol Hill really the kind of place where people refer to the visible poor as “thugs” “disgusting” and “freeloaders”? Is Capitol Hill Blog that kind of place?
I live four blocks from Cal Anderson, spend time there at least twice a week, and have never felt unsafe. Actually, I don’t think I’ve ever even seen anyone sleeping there. Let’s try to have some perspective here, people. We live in a city. Unemployment is higher than it’s been in decades. There aren’t nearly enough shelter beds to accomodate everyone in Seattle who doesn’t have a place to sleep. And shelters close during the day anyway.
Glasses has it right – move on, but where?
I agree, and it seems it’s only going to get worse if “They are here because we allow them to be…”
Crime in Cal Anderson is extremely low. Yes, many people who don’t have permanent homes hang out there, but why shouldn’t they? They’ve always been friendly to me or left me alone entirely. Why should we discriminate against them just because their economic circumstances aren’t the same as ours? Just because they don’t have homes doesn’t make them criminals or dangerous people.
I have lived within one block of Cal Anderson park for many years, and I do appreciate the improvements made to the park over the past decade. I do not, however, feel safe walking through the park any longer. As I don’t take unnecessary risks, I avoid the park, which is so sad, because it is a beautiful park!
Speaking of the Parks budget, which is my current primary motivation for commenting here, why the heck are perfectly adequate lights being taken down in order to put up lights that will “leak less light” into the surrounding neighborhood? This, to me, even if it saves a few KW hours in cost, is a huge waste of money, and didn’t need to be done. The lights are usually off by 10:00 or 10:30 at night, thus not a problem at all to those who live around or near the park (myself included). Is it the ppl living in the new, expensive apartments and condos that border the park? If it is being changed due to their complaints, I now have my answer. Another improvement being made because those who have the $ to live in the new residences are complaining, and their voices are the ones our city politicians respond to. Whew. I’m done for now :)
I live in an adjacement building to the park. It really has gotten out of control. Even outside the park on the benches along Pine, its like a permanent shelter. You have to wade through people’s shopping carts just to get to Broadway.
Other than senior citizens getting beat up, open drug dealing and using, numerous robberies, and vandalism yeah I guess you’re right – crime in Cal Anderson Park is really low. Ras, are you sure we’re talking about the same place?????
The lights are not being changed because of complaints.
It had to due with the lights being 50 years old and the structure outliving its life. There was money allocated specifically for these improvements, they couldn’t have spent it on something else.
Reducing light leak and energy effecicency were just two of the benefits of the replacement that parks has cited.
If you look at crime stats, the park is actually quite safe. I did hear that there was a robbery there a week or so ago, but I haven’t heard about any others. There was also a robbery on the Seattle U campus within the last month; does that mean the Seattle U campus is too dangerous to go to?
I also have lived directly above Cal Anderson/Bobby Morris for the past year and a half. I can attest to the fact that there are always people camping out in the park, especially in the corner of Pine and Nagle. While it doesn’t bother me personally and I haven’t complained, this summer it has gotten totally out of control to the point that it has become an encampment. This morning there was someone sleeping in the middle of the dodgeball tennis courts. I’m not saying what, if anything, should be done, but it is significantly worse this year.
It’s a public park. Why aren’t they allowed there? Unless they’re actively doing something criminal, there isn’t any reason to kick them out.
1. wow e-thug; Quite the slander for an anon message board. You must be very brave. What’s the point of the personal attack, exactly? Oh yeah, bully pysch 101- it makes you feel better about your own sad self. Well, good luck with that.
2. missing from this story is the flasher that accosted these kids and the several sexual offenders spotted here at Cal Anderson. Homeless is one thing, sexual predator /pedophilia is another.
3. volunteer park , and all the other playgrounds in driving/walking distance, have nothing to do with fedrep’s design development, as the PARKS DEPT already classified FedRep, based on acreage, as having an 1/8 mile service area (look it up – it’s on the park website). This means this park should serve a very local, likely pedestrian, neighborhood area & population NOT the entirety of Cap Hill. (Volunteer park and Cal Anderson have a service area based on the idea people will use cars and transit to go to these ‘destination’ parks). It’s an apples & oranges situation, since parks development isn’t based off use and other uses in the area, but rather use is based first off park classification.
The biggest public issue with Fed Rep lacking play areas should be the immediate demographics of that 1/8 mile service area — there are more kids in that zone that ever, and it would seem, kid-friendly or not, that the Friends Of Fed Rep Park and the landscaper they hired both have somehow ignored
the census,
the school district population reports (200+ more kids coming into Lowell this year),
and even just neglected to look around that area to see all the damn kids, especially younger ones.
Also it’s worth noting that Spring Street mini park is the same size as that new park lot, and they’ve got a lovely play ‘climber’, so you can’t really tell me it’s “against code”, or “it’s too small” for a play area.
It appears to this outsider that maybe they avoided a play area to avoid the cost of that over-expensive playground gear. They’re also seemingly catering to gardeners who have more grants programs (free money for compost! shocking!) available.
Fear of a demanding budget is no way to design a park – parks will be here forever, and the ecomony will always change.
Everything I said was true. Laura has been writing harassing emails to everyone on the FedRep park listserv for weeks, insulting everyone in Seattle in the process and responding to polite discourse with vitriol.
Yes Ras, Seattle U does have a crime problem in and around campus. There have been recent muggings, car jackings etc.
Like you, I’ve never really had a problem in Cal Anderson personally. I go thru there every day. I don’t usually get fucked with anywhere in Seattle. But that doesn’t mean I can’t recognize the problems, and that fact that SPD should be doing a much better job of Policing their own East Precinct front yard!
Parks exist to provide an urban space for CITIZENS WHO PAY TAXES TO SUPPORT THEM, not for bums and junkies.
Round them up and truck them back to portland and San Francisco
They aren’t allowed there because they don’t pay taxes, don’t work, don’t contribute to the community, and are mostly criminals. They aren’t part of the ‘public’ population. They are parasites.
That’s why.
Legally, that’s not how it works. It’s a public park. They’re allowed.
Ever been laid off? Ever been really sick beyond affordability?
Or are you independently wealthy?
Must be nice.
judge for yourself – here’s a map below.
in case you don’t know the seattlecrime.com map colors:
purple = sex crime; black with grey ring = narcotics; red = assault; bigger red = assault with weapon; green = fraud; cyan blue= theft/burglary; paleblue =medical or other minor call; brown = intoxication/warrants/noise disturbances. the dark red on 11th ave was a strong arm robbery on aug 11.
http://seattlecrime.com/911/map?ne-lat=47.626644665549385&ne
Yknow whats most sad about this:
“At one of the outdoor movie screenings a few weeks ago, a homeless man drinking a liter of alcohol bereated the audience for nearly half the movie before passing out.”
Not one wannabe alpha male or masculine female in a whole crowd of capitol hill yuppies or “eclectic types” would walk over to that man and tell him to shut the fuck or make him shut up under threat of violence. The gentrified population of this neighborhood is completely juvenilized by the patriarchy and has forgotten how to stick up to assholes. That’s how you take back a park, by showing that you stick up for yourselves.
You can beg for the cops to stick up for yourselves if you like but I don’t think you’ll like what happens if they have to hire a million cops to wipe your asses for you.
How very stupid – you go somewhere else who can stand you fascist inhuman thinking mode.
By the way, screw loose, how do you avoid sales tax in Washington? Poor or rich we ALL pay it in equality.
Duh.
If you have been to the park recently you will know right away that these are not just homeless people looking for a place to hang out. I actually don’t have a problem with that. These are mostly people that are high, or doing drugs right there in the park, getting in to fights or shouting matches (cursing a blue streak). The SPD has said that these are not homeless people that accept help when redirected to shelters . . . it is a good sized population (20 or 30 people the last time I was there) that is largely looking for a place to get high. That is the problem, not the fact that some of them are homeless.
You may believe those facts are true, and your feelings toward this person speaking up may be in fact true, but your characterization is tabloid material.
For all to make their own conclusion, and apologies to Laura for not checking with her first, but here’s one of Laura’s latest so-called “harassing” & “insulting” emails:
“Can someone point me to where the past meeting notes are and where the survey results are?
Thanks!
Laura”
and this SCATHING RANT of an email:
“I have been on this email list and following the discussion from a far. We’ve also been by the space quite a bit … and it’s exciting to see the garden and people beginning to spend time there. First of all, I wanted to thank everyone who has been so involved. I know a lot of work was put into the planning!
My involvement has been minimal–I’ve written a few emails, and have filled out a survey or two–but I have not attended a meeting in person. That is because I have [2 young kids] …and believe you me, you don’t want them at the meetings :) We are also typically eating dinner and getting read for bed between 6-8. My guess is that there are lots of other parents who are in the same spot.
I was so sad to see that there is no play area included in the design. This is so very disappointing. I know the design is baked, I just wanted to express my feelings. I do know that other parents feel the same–this park has been on the discussion list for the Capitol Hill parents group numerous time, including this morning.
Just to clarify, I in no way thought the entire space would be devoted to children’s play, and I know that things such as swings require a great deal of space, however, I was just hoping for a small area, maybe a little climbing area or even a small sandbox like the one in Roanoke Park.
Capitol Hill is challenging for families. We choose to live here because we appreciate the city feel (moving here from the East Village) and the diversity of the neighborhood. Unfortunately, it’s very hard to live in the neighborhood with small children.
If there is any way to make a final modification, please know that there are many parents and children out there who would be so incredibly appreciative!!!
Best,
Laura”
Yeah. She’s a terror. /sarcasm
I totally agree with you Alice.
Look around, if you lost your job tomorrow what would you do? Bad things can happen to anyone, just like anyone can do bad things and to call people parasites is just sad. All of this hate and no solutions? A large percent of homeless have mental deficiencies and can’t just “get a damn job and out of my park” hell I have friends with degrees that can’t find work. There has to be a middle ground where people (yes I’m including the homeless) can feel safe.
It’s refreshing to hear someone give a rational reason, rather than just making derogatory comments about taxes and thugs.
There were also the emails in which she accused the planning committee of discrimination and said that polite responses to her emails constituted “railroading” (her word).
Homelessness IS NOT the problem related TO THIS ARTICLE. It’s a lively tangent and gets people riled up, but please, STOP ALREADY.
Unchecked crime and squatting on parks areas that have been designed with a specific use : THAT IS the problem.
Regardless if you’re homeless or a rich yuppie or a highrank city official, if you choose to use the playground’s bouncy bridge as a place to nap or light up a smoke, I’m going to tell you to piss off and find somewhere else to go. The playground is for kids*.
Likewise, The playfield is for sports. And the bathroom is for peeing, pooping and washing hands. We all pay (to various degrees; through taxes, time or loss of open space) to have these parks spaces have these particular uses. Selfish individuals of ANY income or class should not be able to subvert the public facilities so become their PERSONAL park space.
Likewise, you can’t decide to just have your wedding in the middle of I-5 because it’s “public land”. It has a USE that’s been agreed upon. Anything else SHOULD be discouraged, and if selfish jerkoffs ignore that, they should be treated as nothing less than criminals.
* Other cities actually have laws that say if you’re not a kid of a certain age range, or accompanied by a child of that age range, then you are breaking the law by entering the marked boundaries of a parks playground space and you will be cited or arrested. I think we now may be getting to be a big enough city to add this law to the books.
What’s funny “duh” is that you put “alpha male” and “capitol hill cinema” in the same story together.
;)
Yeah, there’s an entitlement line that becomes fuzzy with a laziness line: there are people that feel they should get involved or are scared to start something, or otherwise will cite “that’s what we pay cops for” and then there’s the urban folks who speak their minds like they do in real cities : because population density = you have to actually interact & deal with the mob around you.
It’s big-girl-pants and big-boy-pants -time, kiddos.
Best part is that PC seattle homeless are going to be equally blown away by directness – as much as the sheep who are trying to carefully pretend that mental health issues / homelessness / meth epidemic don’t exist
Julian’s a troll who may (probably) cheats his taxes, so, according to his fictional logic about parks, he’s equally to blame for low parks budgets and all these problems.
The reality is, parks are paid for in more ways than money. By having a park here, on a real-estate level, we miss the opportunity for true open space, or further development, or even, say, a potential homeless shelter. Parks take time and resources to build – and so we’ve “paid” in that way too, by sacrificing those (natural resources, time that could spent otherwise bettering humanity) to make this public sharable space. We have to measure out what park gets what portion of the parks/city budget, and so by funding Cal Anderson, we have perhaps cut the budget elsewhere (wading pools = best example). We as a city have to employ a troop pf people – also takes more than money, it takes responsibility and fairness to make that work. We also lose right of way that could provide easier passage of cars, peds bikes and shipping, and so even further time (in the form of traffic) and business success (in the form of missed opportunities from streets deadending at the park) might be sacrificed in order to “pay” for having this park here. We all PAY. (I’m sure given enough research, you could draw a line from parks to being a partial CAUSE for homelessness if you wanted to get really crazy)
In any case, YOUR taxes that you begrudge so much DON’T pay for this public park. Our entire city does. Our Earth does. Humanity does.
If someone is causing a problem (drinking, doing drugs, harassing or intimidating people) then I have no problem whatsoever with the police cracking down on them. I have no problem with vigorous enforcement of the 11:30 closure (which they clearly aren’t doing.)
But I have to say, I read so many comments here of the form “I went to Anderson Park once and felt really uncomfortable and I’ve never gone back” kind of perplexing. Because I walk through it damn near every day (often multiple times), I bring my dog there on occasion, and I even cut through at night going to/from Pike/Pine. And while I’ve certainly seen plenty of homeless people, and the occasional potentially shady character, not one person has ever bothered me, ever. No one has looked at me crosseyed. No one has bothered me for money (which I can’t say about many, many other places in the neighborhood).
Maybe I’m just throwing off an awesomely effective “don’t fuck with me” vibe. But I can’t help but wonder if *some* people’s threshold for discomfort is just absurdly low for an urban environment, here.
My experience at Cal Anderson has been identical to yours. I live two blocks away and walk through the park multiple times a day.
It sounds like some Mom or Dad should take Parks officials over their knee and give them a good spanking or wash their mouth out with soap!
Or at the very least a few officials should resign for sheer insensitivity and communication stupidity.
While Parks budget is no doubt challenged, and some perhaps more than other departments, their response and relying on a completely complaint-based system is anchronistic and reactive rather than proactive.
I think there’s an inclination to accuse the woman who made the complaints of being classist, or hogging the park, or being selfish, or to accuse anybody who doesn’t like the current environment at Cal Anderson of being anti-whatever.
I love Cal Anderson there and in previous years I have liked the sort of camping out atmosphere there in the summer. I’m aware that it’s not all fun going on, but the people tend to be friendly and everybody just seems to live and let live. This summer, though, seems different. I noticed a few weeks ago that there seems to have been a subtle shift in the feel at the park, one that makes me less comfortable to walk my dog there at night. No more happy hippies with guitars and dogs out on the green, it’s significantly less friendly and more sketchy.
I can’t say if police will help or hurt the situation, but something needs to be done before the park stops being a place everybody on the Hill can enjoy.
My daily experiences in Cal Anderson have been fine too. But I’m not there with small kids, and I’m not old or otherwise vulnerable. Just because we (I’m assuming, but I think we’re talking about dudes) aren’t usually targets for sketchiness doesn’t mean other people aren’t. Also, I would never go into those bathrooms, because it’s Junkie Central Headquarters in there.
I’m one of the people who said that they were uncomfortable in the park yesterday and that it isn’t a good place for children. I’ve been living on the hill since 1985, so I’m not simply a recent Bellevue transplant clutching my purse in terror at the sight of a mowhawk or drunken vagrants. If anything, my “threshold” is likely increased by familiarity. That you have had no negative experiences in the park doesn’t mean others haven’t.
Yeah fuck that guy sitting on a park bench! I mean what an asshole!
Sorry, but I’m not going to get into it with a drunk jerk when I’m sitting there with my wife and two small children. Call me wimpy or a scaredy-cat if you want, but that IS what we pay the police for.
I think I added enough disclaimers to make clear I don’t assume my experience would be shared by everyone. And that I acknowledge the park is not without its problems. I just see a disconnect between the dire picture *some* people are painting and what I see daily, with my own eyes.
(And yes, I am a dude, and a reasonably well-built one at that. I’m sure that has a great deal to do with being left alone.)
Chris, I don’t think anyone’s questioning the accuracy of whether you’ve felt uncomfortable in the park.
I share with others who have also spent a good amount of time in Cal Anderson, and frequently walk through it, day and night. While I have seen homeless/ punks/ drunks/ pot-smokers, I have *not* seen anything to make me feel even slightly unsafe. The bathrooms are super nasty, but I’ve never seen a needle in there or anywhere in the park (ickkkkkkk, thank God!!)
During sunny weekend days, you can find tons of people laying out in the grass, people playing catch, hoola-hoops, playing music/ instruments… and it genuinely feels like a good community space that doesn’t need more policing.
I’m sorry to hear a few people have recently felt less safe, but that’s not a feeling that I, or any of my friends share in.
One thing that’s confusing me is I don’t see much difference in Cal Anderson today than any time before in my experience. I’ve been here 12 years. It’s always been a bit sketchy, as sketchy as Cap Hill is. There have always been junkies in the bathrooms and dealers hanging around, as well as raving drunks, tweakers, and mental cases.
And sometimes hippies! The horror!
If you lived anywhere near this park before they revamped it you’d know that it was a horrible place where the only people ever in it were junkies, homeless, crack head and the like. It was dark and seedy and squalid. It was scary to the 10th degree. When they made it over several years ago it was the best thing to happen to this area hands-down. It was almost magical what they had achieved. I still live in the same place just down the street and in recent months have noticed a resurgence of the old park patrons. It would be a terrible shame if this beautiful place becomes what it once was and the neighborhood stops coming because they’re scared and it just gets taken over like it did before. I love it here! It is one of my favorite places but it used to be one of my least.
AW – the revamp of the park was a great improvement for The Hill, I agree. It’s a beautiful place.
But from what I’ve seen everyday it’s now just a much nicer park for the same old crowd to hang out in.
Go be poor somewhere else.
I’m not a troll, I just don’t agree with your neohippie ideology. I 100% stand by what I said, and I’ll say it to anyone. I work my ass off every day, and yes I HAVE been homeless. I was homeless for two years, but I did something about it after the economy took a shit all over itself in the 2000’s. I got a series of any job I could, and worked my way back solvency. I was never a vagrant and a traveler like these people are. The majority of them live this way because they choose to, wriggling by on the good graces of the people who foolishly support them. There’s nothing ‘fascist’ in expecting other people people pay their due to enjoy public resources.
Julian’s argument is based entirely on his vanitym bullying, and self-importance. HE knows what each of these strangers’ lives are like. HE knows they can lift themselves up by their bootstraps. HE was homeless (but not a vagrant or traveler) and now HE’s not. HE’s good; the homeless are bad!
He’ll go on to tell you how HE did it his galtian self; no help from anyone (including the folks who gave him a job or let him couch surf, or his family, I’m guessing). HE’s always been self-reliant, see? (‘tho not so much that he doesn’t need you to be impressed by his self-reliance- and thereby buy his argument).
Individual homeless (or gay, or young, or Mom-ist) people bother YOU? How about treating them as individuals like you demand we do of YOU, Julian.
Nappy,
Seems you need to remove your big asshole pants.
The only reason I sometimes avoid Cal Anderson with my kids is how close it is to Molly Moon’s and I don’t want to feed them ice cream all the time. Yes there are “sketchy” people that hang out at the park but I’m far more worried about vapid consumerism than avoiding homeless people. (In fact I’ve found many homeless people to be far friendlier than uptight parents.)
On the FedRep issue, keep in mind that fancy dedicated play structures actually inhibit play in some ways. Imaginative kids find some dirt and rocks perfectly acceptable for a lively playtime.
@ wave & @dd
totally agree.
@mappy
you must have been wearing your dumbass pants when you posted that. confronting some drunk, possibly psychotic asshole is what gets you maced, knifed or worse.
yeah, if you don’t pay taxes then you should just crawl in a hole and die; because we can’t legally execute you and you have no business being in polite society.
*end sarcasm*
@seattlebrad
that’s how you sound when you write comments like that. PUBLIC means free to EVERYONE, not just those who pay taxes.
…is it don’t matter what the fuck your stoopid opinion is about whether the homeless are smelly and bad or the homeless are next to godliness or… Law sez no sleeping in the park. No doing drugs (in the park or otherwise). No… If you’re doing any of the “no”s and you smell bad or you’re a hipster or you’re a yuppie or a mommy or… it shouldn’t make a fuckin’ difference – get the fuck out of my park.
I was so amazed at the transformation of Cal Anderson park. But that has faded a bit with the recent infestation of the park with drunks and drug addicts. (And i’m not talking about the bulldog punks and slackliners. Although the slackliners are a bit unbalanced.)
I hope SPD can do something about it.
I love Cal Anderson, I lived a block away from the park for years. And when I moved back to Seattle in May my wife and I moved into a house 2 blocks from the park. I go there everyday, and have for years and never had a problem. Sure, the homeless population aren’t very pretty to look at, but they never bother us. Bathrooms, not too bad at all (ever been to Carkeek Park? Nasty). And we love laying in the grass and having a coupke beers or some wine, does that make us scumbags? You people sound like a bunch of suburban pussies yelling “GET OFF MY LAWN!” at everyone who isn’t just like you. You live in a fucking city. Move to Mercer Island, or Kirkland or something.
You know you else shouted “GET OFF MY LAWN”?
Hitler.
Clint Eastwood shouted “get off my lawn” but not Hitler.
Yeah, cuz 15 homeless people camping out on a bench and deterring people that actually pay for the park from going isn’t intimidation?
LMFAO.
Vapid consumerism is sooooo much worse for our community than 50 homeless people shooting up in our parks and getting drunk in public and macing people.
Seriously the homeless “problem” (or whatever you hippies want to call it) on the hill is getting out of hand. I can’t walk down Pine at 4 in the afternoon without seeing at least one past out drunk laying on the sidewalk. That’s fucking disgusting, for one, and I don’t understand how even the most ridiculous of you hippies can justify that in your community. I literally have multiple pictures of the SAME FUCKING GUY passed out on pine, usually on the sidewalk next to that parking garage by Hot Mama’s, in the middle of the day. Or around the corner from that bodega next to Linda’s.
Something definitely needs to be done.
It’s often not safe for homeless people to sleep at night because they’re more likely to get attacked after dark. Some people consider it good sport to beat up homeless people for the fun of it. So, many sleep during the day when it’s safer for them to do so.
OMG people, we are in a double dip recession, is there any wonder why we see an increase in homeless? It’s rough out there, and this points to a larger, more societal problem. The “won’t someone think of the children” crowd needs to get a grip. The SPD isn’t going to solve this, but as a society, we can in the long term. In the meantime, try to think beyond the inconveniences you face from the homeless, and do something to actually help!!!
As an eighteen year capitol hill veteran and a mom of two little girls who live 2 blocks from Cal Anderson I have to say it’s not our park of choice, and hasn’t been for the last two years. When the park was redone back in 2005(?) I was alternately psyched and aggravated. Psyched because the new design was and is gorgeous and aggravated because they had FAILED to move the playground. Ya see there’s a church on 11th that serves free lunch a few times a week and it’s right across the street from the playground. Now I’m all for serving a free hot lunch; but let’s be HONEST, often people who need a free lunch also need mental health help, have addiction issues, etc. And the people waiting for the lunch cluster under the trees right next to the playground where my kids and I have been party to 1. raging fights 2. multiple drug deals 3. and creepy guys leering at us. They’ve also stepped in human feces, and we have definitely found needles in the bushes. Now like I said I’ve lived here my entire adult life, I know the hill, I love the hill, I expect some grit, and I like the park; but putting the playground back in the same sketchy problematic corner was a fail on the part of the park designers. I think spending $800,000.00 to “fix” the Volunteer Park playground is ridiculous, how about moving the Cal Anderson one instead? I get that we can’t all be perfect, upstanding, employed, non-addicted, non-pedophiles (and no once again I’m not saying everyone who needs a free meal is a pedophile, etc.) But have you ever tried to explain to a 4 year old why a man is screaming at a telephone pole and trying to take off his pants? It’s a hoot. And who do you think are using the bathrooms on a regular basis. Yes the kids with tiny bladders who have to go nowwwwww. And no the bathrooms aren’t the worst I’ve seen by a long shot but they could be better… at least no ones been murdered in them in quite a while. And for full disclosure I was beat up on the hill in 1997 by two guys who jumped me; and I’m not sure if it’s being a mom or what but I really feel like the hill has become a more dangerous place in terms of muggings in the last few years than it was back then. I know CHS stats don’t agree, but it just feels more…aggressive, angrier, sharper.
You carefully explain the truth in accurate factual communication …. cause kids aren’t blobs.
“Missy, some of the people we see there waiting to eat lunch at the church have some problems getting focused. But they are people and so we need to be kind to them. I sure appreciate the church helping them with free food.”
Missy will think Jesus is real, and her mom a kind person.
Get a clue. You sound like someone who need a bit of help, your imagination runs wildly with all sorts of invented stuff.
And remember if your world collapses, the free food is there for you and your kids too.
Ras-I would be delighted to have this conversation with you :) Please either post non-anonymously, as I have done and will continue to do, or feel free to email me on the FedRep list and let’s have a public debate. I stand by everything I have said on the email list which is why I always post my name. I have every right to my own opinion (as do you). I do not feel like that space is in the best interest of the children in the neighborhood and someone has to say something. If not me, who? Also, I never meant to insult anyone-I am just trying to get real answers to my concerns (and the concerns of many parents who are not comfortable to speak up, possibly because they will be berated by anonymous people on email lists…I’m not naming names or anything ;) Take good care.
First of all I am so grateful for the coverage of this issue by the Capitol Hill Seattle blog, the debate and conversation here is fantastic. My one major hope is that Cal Anderson can be for everyone–homeless, yuppies, everyone. My main concern is that I have been approached numerous times by people and made to feel unsafe–yet I have never gone up to anyone in the park and told them to leave or made them feel uncomfortable. Why do I not get to be in the park? Why don’t my children get to enjoy the park? In these instances my response has been quite firm, I can hold my own, but it is ridiculous that I can’t enter Cal Anderson without being verbally assaulted. Again, my belief is that the parks are for everyone, it’s just that now, Cal Anderson is “owned” by a group of people who want to keep others out and are aggressive in defending what they perceive to be “their” space.
Your normative conclusions about your experiences in the park doesn’t mean that there isn’t a crime problem there. Women should be able to go the park with their children without having to worry about being harassed.
I think you feel any inter action with someone whom you have snap jusdged as inferior, is some conjectured form of assualt. Jut cause the use the park too.
That is stupid. Asked for money, I say no, simple, works.
You have not been assaulted. You dislike some people for being.
Others have a right to use the Park space, even if they did not just have their hair and nails done, or have cute just so kids.
Half the park is fenced off, that too might be part of the problem.
In my opinion, “crime statistics” paint a very distorted view of what actually is going on in Cal Anderson…they under-represent the reality, because they depend entirely on citizen complaints and/or 911 calls and/or response by the SPD. The statistics do not represent the myriad of dysfunctional/illegal behaviors that are rampant in the park…drug-dealing, fighting, loud arguments/profanity, defecating/urinating, open alcohol and drug use (including shooting up),camping overnight, etc. The vast majority of these things do not appear in any crime statistics, yet they are a major problem and the reason law-abiding people avoid the park.
Most reasonable people, me included, would say that the homeless and other “street people” have a perfect legal right to hang out in the park (before 11PM), as long as they don’t engage in any of the illegal activities. But there’s the rub…almost all of them do, to one extent or the other.
I’m not sure why this topic has appeared here, because the subject of this post is Cal Anderson Park. It would be better, and a more productive dialogue, is a separate post was made for FedRep Park and the issues there.
if this guy bothers or intrigues you so much then why dont YOU do something to help him? please dont complain about something you see everyday and then sit around and wait for someone else in the neighborhood to fix it. this is exactly how so many people end up on the streets in the first place.
I love Cal Anderson, spend lots of time there napping and reading, agree that there have been more drunks hanging out in the park lately- although I personally have not seen or experienced any problems w them as they are usually to inebriated to do much.
how about we stop complaining and start talking about how we, as a community, might work together to address this problem in a way that will improve the safety of the park while also helping these people who obviously need it.
maybe you can think of a creative way to use those many photos you have collected of said “problem”?
thank you. I agree.
@JS
“Yeah, cuz 15 homeless people camping out on a bench and deterring people that actually pay for the park from going isn’t intimidation?”
IS IT intimidation or just some people sitting on a bench? what if they were white and wearing polo shirts; would that be intimidation too? and @SeattleBrad commented on ONE homeless person on a bench. the last time i walked through the park there were at least eight benches to sit on. and none of them were marked “for taxpayers only”, you ass. whether it’s 15 people or 1 those benches are first come, first served to EVERYONE; not just taxpayers.
you want your own private little reserve, safe from anything that’s not disney/pollyanna, that fits your perfect little white-bread life? then move your ass to medina. then you can have your own private security team (nazis?) scare off “undesirables”. of course, that would likely mean your ass too, as you’re probably too poor to afford a life in medina. sucks to be you.
Parks are for everyone to enjoy…as a park – not as a place to live, pandhandle, shoot up drugs, and threaten others.
Ha, Karen, maybe part of the problem is the three drunk guys I just walked by who were sleeping fifty feet from the playground, or maybe is was the guy who was shooting up in the stall the other day. Maybe just a little bit of it could be the dope dealer who gives me the nod whenever I walk by. But you’re probably right, the problem is probably mostly women and children at the playground.
Kids aren’t blobs?
My point is proven. I voice concern, I get sarcasm and hostility.
And what part exactly is invented? Scraping human crap off your kids shoe? Pointing out to other parents the needle in the bushes? Watching guys hand each other paper wrapped packages? Watching a group of guys have some sort of profanity laced screaming match 15 feet away from the playground in the middle of the day? Unfortunately in the last year it’s all happened. The south end of the park has changed and not for the better.
Why is it that so many on Capitol Hill will defend until death the disenfranchised but refuse to be realistic about the needs of kids? I’m not asking for favoritism. I’m asking for a place in a public park for a group of people (kids) to feel safe. EVERYONE deserves to feel safe in a public park in the middle of the day. I don’t mind people sleeping in the grass, I don’t care if people are hanging out talking in large groups, but I’m pissed that I feel like I’m being aggressively driven out of our local park. I don’t think we’re going to be mugged but I get tired of feeling harassed. And I’m sort of mildly stunned by all the vitriol…
Not in my backyard. I refuse to acknowledge that the recession, financial crisis, and both political parties are causing tremendous human suffering, including a rise in unemployment and homelessness. I don’t give a shit about other people. I just want MINE. Move those homeless people into concentration camps because OUT OF SIGHT, OUT OF MIND.
B & John, I think you’re both on to something there with you having a “don’t fuck with me vibe” and the experience of feeling safe. I don’t speak for all women but I gotta say that I sure didn’t feel comfortable there the last two times we visited. It may very well be that being a woman with small children *by circumstance* makes me feel more vulnerable. Its sort of my job to be on alert when I have small children, and boy on Thursday, it was a really sketchy scene there. That’s why I said plainly that it isn’t a park for children, not that it isn’t a park to be enjoyed…that it isn’t *for children*.
Men probably feel safer because, well…you’re men. Sorry if this sounds like a woman whining about not feeling safe, but that was my gut on my last two visits. Something has taken a turn there this year.
Karen, I am referring to two incidents where drunk grown men attempted to touch my child. When I told them not to they were offended that I would even speak back to them, as if moms (or maybe it’s just all women) should keep their mouths shut. I do not believe they were homeless. I have every right to stick up for myself. Again, and let me stress this, I was simply walking by them in both instances. I was leaving them alone, but for some reason leaving me alone was offensive to them. This has happened to countless people (parents, non parents, young, old, poor, rich, etc.) at Cal Anderson. It’s not about socioeconomic class, it’s about a number of people who have overtaken the park and are now bullying people not like them. They are the ones pushing people out, not me. As I said, park should be for everyone, or at least that’s my opinion. By the way, I am very tattooed and I don’t have my nails done. Please don’t presume you know who I am.
I come from a good Catholic background – and the words Charity And Love seem very absent here.
Laura, glad you live in such self purity, complete with tats to prove it.
Your kids are not in danger. Neither are you. But you exaggerate for attention very well. Why do sleeping people in a very big park compete with your needs? Oh, they need my permission to sleep and where to sleep on summer days. Sure Laura.
Laura try some Love and Charity. Good lessons for you kids as well. Your kids will live in a modern urban era, even with black people and asian people, and tons of open queers.
They will cope even if old mama can’t.
Ella, Cal Anderson is NOT downtown. Years ago, First Ave. was lots of whore houses and bars. Not much has changed, except the whore houses are hard to find.
The last two posts are pretty out of bounds. People have the right to be left alone, even on Capitol Hill. “Xavier” and “Capitol Hill is for snobs”, you seem to be the only ones invoking ideals of discrimination and elitism. If civil society is too complicated for you to grasp feel free to un-join the human race. If the two of you are such egalitarians maybe you’d consider the feelings or rights of women with children being harassed by aggressive people (whatever their residential status) in the park.
Wow it is scary to read people’s comments on homeless people. Some people even think they are sub-humans, parasites. How about a little bit more compassion huh?
Also I have been in Cal Anderson Park since it has been build, and did not notice any increase in homeless people count. Though there are more townhouses, apartments in the area…
Unfortunately, I can’t help these fine folks in need of some assistance, since I don’t have any meth to spare today.
Yes…we should be angry at people buying homes near the park, instead of people living in the park.
How dare those people buy homes (and pay property taxes) to live near a nice a public space, and then have the audacity to be upset when drunken bums harass them and their families for having the entitled attitude to try and walk through it.
The parks are there so the bums have a place to live, and engage in whatever shady activities they want to. Its just hard to keep sight of that at all times with these horrible yuppies.
I think that the vast majority of those causing problems in this park were homeless/dysfunctional/drug-alcohol addled long before a few years ago when the recession hit. Please stop excusing their many antisocial behaviors on the basis of the current economic problems.