WSDOT blazed a trail through The Jungle in 2011
Jan 29, 2016, 6:08 AM | Updated: 1:23 pm
The trail on the western edge of I-5 through an area known as The Jungle remains clear on Friday morning. (Richard D. Oxley/MyNorthwest)
(Richard D. Oxley/MyNorthwest)
Ever since people began camping in what is now known as The Jungle in Seattle, government agencies have tried to clean up the region of illegal homeless encampments.
According to a WSDOT blog post, the state’s department of transportation made one attempt to clean up The Jungle in 2011 with the construction of a the Mountain to Sound trail. Despite the effort, and a much nicer trail, the area drifted back to its old ways.
“That trail itself was not just a WSDOT project, but it was in partnership with (the Seattle Department of Transportation),” said Travis Phelps with the Washington State Department of Transportation.
Related: A look at Seattle’s homeless ‘Shacktown’ history
Phelps said WSDOT partnered with the city to construct a trail that now runs alongside I-5, and through much of what is referred to as The Jungle. The process was documented on WSDOT’s Flickr page. Today, the city’s parks department manages the trail.
Fences and a wall separate the tree-lined trail from the area underneath I-5 where a fatal shooting took place this week.
In 2011, WSDOT had hoped the trail would usher in an age of beautification for The Jungle.
For Seattlelites, thinking about the ‘jungle’ might bring to mind homelessness, drugs, violence and crime. Until recently, a stretch of urban forest along I-5 and I-90 on Beacon Hill dubbed ‘the jungle’ was a community eyesore begging for a transformation.
Hopefully that negative image can be replaced with a positive one now that a multi-use trail and park has been carved out of the hillside known as the East Duwamish Greenbelt.
In Nov. 2011, Seattle City Council member Sally Bagshaw wrote: It will eventually run to Beacon Avenue South, go west on Holgate, and end on the waterfront trail. Most importantly, perhaps, is that the new trail will bring new activity and life to what is currently known as “the Jungle.”
It wasn’t just city and state government with high hopes. Crosscut wrote about the future park and trail in Aug. 2011: The current strategy, led by Deputy Mayor Darryl Smith, is to turn this neck of the woods into a positive place. It will require community ownership as well as a continuing city of Seattle and WSDOT presence: The police can’t do it alone. It may well become a model for Seattle’s environmental restoration. If all goes relatively well, it may give the Jungle a different history, and a new name.
Seattle Mayor Ed Murray recently told The Seattle Times that despite being around for years, The Jungle needs to be closed down, calling it “ground zero for criminal activity.”
Today, the trail begins with pleasant scenery, but quickly the scene turns into a graffiti covered pathway. Some areas boast benches and a dog park, but it is difficult to ignore areas where holes have been cut into fences along the trail. Beyond those gaps are tents and tarps of active camps. There are also remnants of old campsites where heaps of trash are left.
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