SEATTLE NEWS ARCHIVES & FEATURES

Dori: Why can’t Seattle refuse to coddle drug vagrants like San Diego, Denver?

May 21, 2019, 6:28 AM

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Needles in a pile. (FORTOP5)

(FORTOP5)

We talked a couple of weeks ago about how Denver voted overwhelmingly not to allow drug vagrants to sleep outdoors. They no doubt have seen how bad things have gotten in Seattle.

This may be another example that along with San Francisco, we may be the most radical place in the country when it comes to dealing with this drug crime plague.

Now in San Diego, they’ve passed an emergency ordinance to do what we should be doing here in the Puget Sound. The city has banned people from sleeping in their cars overnight.

Granted, with the military presence and many retirees, San Diego is a more conservative city than Seattle. But Denver is a very liberal city. They legalized marijuana at the same time that we did, and have even legalized magic mushrooms now. And even they said no, they’re not going to let people sleep in the parks or on the sidewalks.

Legit RVers must pay for Abandoned RV Disposal Fee

In the early days of the RV/drug vagrant crisis, a business owner in Magnolia provided us with surveillance video of an RV selling drugs. After buying the drugs, people would walk across the street to their cars, shoot up, and then drive away, endangering the lives of everyone with whom they shared the road. The business owner told us that despite the fact that they had video proof, the cops wouldn’t even come out to the scene.

There is no rational explanation for what has happened with political leadership around here.

I’m so tired of hearing the drug vagrants say they have “nowhere else to go.” I am sorry to be so blunt, but we provide so many tax-funded places where people can go if they want to get clean. Even if they don’t, we also provide wet houses (which I think is an insane idea). We are spending $100,000 per homeless person per year. Most of it gets eaten up by the bureaucracy of the homeless-industrial complex.

This is not about not having enough resources. This is about a lot of people who have decided that they want to make drug use and street vagrancy their lifestyle.

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Dori: Why can’t Seattle refuse to coddle drug vagrants like San Diego, Denver?