I live at The Joule – the apartment complex at 523 Broadway East, between Republican & Roy Streets.
However, my fellow tenants and I (many of whom pay nearly $3k per month) are not the only residents of our building.
The Joule is obviously well-known among Seattle’s (and Capitol Hill’s) increasingly menacing junkie community as a kind of heroin addict’s hostel — where they roam the halls, ride the elevators, sleep in the garage, and relieve themselves in the stairwells.
I do not make these statements lightly.
In fact, just last night, after escaping an assault by three junkies whom I asked to leave the building (I did call the police and a report with case number has been filed) I decided it might be best to present some plain-as-day, totally objective evidence.
Accompanying this article are photos I’ve taken on The Joule property – in just the past week alone.
I write this piece and post these pictures for three reasons:
• To alert my fellow residents – and to let those who have expressed similar concerns know they are not alone
• To ensure the city and the police know what’s going on at at this property
* To wake up the landlord (Essex Properties) and let them know that their lack of concern for their tenants is not acceptable. I don’t want to walk into the office again and be told that, in the lease terms, it states that the building is not obligated to provide security
Speaking of which…
After I called the police last night, I did call a new security line provided to tenants by the building. A while later two men arrived. I had to meet them in the garage as they had no keys nor access to the building. They said they had no parking access either so, upon departing, they were forced to ask a local merchant to validate their parking ticket.
Their parting word to me?
“By the way, if something like this happens again, don’t call us, just call 911.”
Yeah, thanks.
I wouldn’t count on the Seattle Police Department to do much in the way of helping you. I caught two transients in the middle of breaking into, and vandalizing, my apartment building – a block away from the Joule. In fact, the only thing I saw the cops do was give the assailant a “fist bump”, and me a bunch of excuses as to why they weren’t arresting the guy. There was one officer who clearly had an attitude problem, because he told me “not to tell him how to do his job.” This all happened a few hours after I was trying to walk my dog in Tashkent park where I watched four different transients beat another another guy until he was unconscious and bleeding from his head. The Seattle Police Department are good for exactly three things 1) beating up old men with makeshift canes, 2) never being of use, and 3) punchlines.