SEATTLE NEWS ARCHIVES & FEATURES

City Hall as a homeless shelter epitomizes Seattle’s problems

Jun 14, 2018, 10:00 PM

seattle, HR department, shadow city hall...

(File photo)

(File photo)

Every day the City of Seattle has another insane idea. Now they want to turn the lobby of Seattle City Hall into a homeless shelter. I am not joking about this.

This is where the City of Seattle does business, and you want to fill it with sleeping bags and tents, so you have to step over people? What are you going to do about the drug addiction that is part of most of these lives? What about the encampment at the King County Courthouse, where homeless people throw feces at jurors?

RELATED: Most dangerous place in Seattle? The King County Courthouse

They spared little expense when they built this place, because of course our politicians have to have a palace to work in. It’s absolutely unbelievable that instead of saying they won’t tolerate vagrancy, they now want to trash this new building.

And what’s more, since the city has absolutely failed at dealing with this issue, Mayor Jenny Durkan’s idea is to have the whole region pay for Seattle’s failures. Now the Seattle government is just going to turn into panhandlers because they failed to get their life in order politically. They’re going to go hat in hand, to the other cities and counties and tell them to pay for Seattle’s mistakes.

Sally Bagshaw, the council member who last week suggested the city look into buying heroin for homeless addicts, is now alleging that Sea-Tac and Tukwila are driving their homeless people up here and dropping them off in Seattle. If they are, I don’t blame them one bit. Enforce vagrancy laws, get them out of your town. That’s public officials doing the right thing for their taxpayers. Seattle has just decided to allow vagrancy and drug use and people sleeping on the sidewalk — why wouldn’t Tukwila and Sea-Tac ship their homeless up here?

Seattle has created its own problems.

Mariners jimothy seattle...

Jason Sutich

Due to high demand, second ‘Jimothy Night’ for Seattle Mariners coming in August

The Seattle Mariners are hosting a second "Jimothy Night" next month after the first day themed around the celebrity raccoon sold out.

31 minutes ago

U.N. Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights Tom Andrews gestures as he answers to the ...

Associated Press

UN expert flags human rights concerns over Cambodia after talks with PM in Phnom Penh

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) — A U.N. official said Friday that Cambodia faces serious human rights issues, including people being displaced by armed conflict, human trafficking by cyberscam operators and the jailing of those exercising their freedom of expression. Former U.S. congressman Tom Andrews said he visited a relocation site on the Cambodian border where […]

37 minutes ago

blue angels the seattle times...

Charlie Harger

Harger: The Seattle Times wants to ban the Blue Angels. I’ve changed my mind. They’re right

Thanks to The Seattle Times' editorial board, I've changed my mind. The Blue Angels don't belong in modern Seattle. Not because they're loud. Not because they're military. Because they're just too exciting.

52 minutes ago

level 3 evacuation chelan county fire...

KIRO 7 News Staff

Level 3 evacuation orders issued for areas of Entiat Valley of Chelan County for Little Giant Fire

Level 3 ‘Go Now’ evacuation orders have been issued for an area in Chelan County impacted by the Little Giant Fire.

2 hours ago

fire weather eastern washington...

Chief Meteorologist Morgan Palmer, KIRO 7 News

‘Extremely critical’ fire weather concerns this weekend in central, eastern Washington

Several large fires are burning in central and eastern Washington as we head into the weekend, with most of them ignited by lightning around the middle of July.

2 hours ago

FILE - President Donald Trump answers questions from reporters during a meeting with the White Hous...

Associated Press

The Latest: Trump announces deal for Hamas to disarm in Gaza, but hurdles and uncertainty remain

President Donald Trump said Thursday that a deal has been reached for Hamas to disarm and Israel to withdraw its forces from Gaza, but many hurdles, conditions and long timelines remained to wind down the war in the Palestinian territory. A Hamas official said Friday that they did reach an agreement on disarmament, the most […]

2 hours ago

City Hall as a homeless shelter epitomizes Seattle’s problems