Seattle man horrified after hosting company BBQ at Woodland Park

A Ravenna resident and business owner recently wrote to the Seattle Parks and Recreation Department detailing his experience at Woodland Park. He wrote to convey his concerns over the impact the homeless are having on the park, and to relate a horror story he experienced when he hosted his company BBQ there.

The city’s response did not satisfy him.

The letter’s author, John (his name was changed to protect his identity) says he wrote it because he’s passionate about Woodland Park. It’s the main reason he bought his Ravenna home.

“With dogs and an active lifestyle, that’s been the place where I’ve run and biked and had picnics for years and gone on walks in the evening with my girlfriend and it’s just kind of always felt like our backyard,” he said. “(It’s) a space that we get to share with everyone else in the community, whether they be people who live in the community or people who drive in just to enjoy the park.”

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But over the past few years, John has watched conditions at the park degrade.

“In Woodland Park, I’ve had human feces on me on three different occasions,” John said. “Twice it was because someone defecated in the middle of a walking trail and then I rode through that walking trail on my bicycle and my front tire sprayed it all over my face and body. I’ve also had issues where my dog, unbeknownst to me, rolled in the feces and then came up and wanted to get pet or jumped on me and got feces all over me.”

Despite his concerns about the park, he still rented out shelter space for his company’s annual big summer BBQ this year. He invites his 46 employees and their families.

“Everybody respects and knows how to enjoy themselves at the park,” he said. “If we did it at a restaurant or a bar certain people — maybe people who don’t drink or people who don’t want to bring their kids to a restaurant, or bar, or people who have dietary restrictions — they’re not going to be able to enjoy themselves the same way. But when we have these get-togethers at the park, it’s a perfect location for it.”

Company BBQ at Woodland Park

On the day of the BBQ, John arrived early to Woodland Park to check out the shelter space. He performed a 50-yard perimeter sweep of the area.

“As a business owner, if I hold a company party and a child shows up and that kid gets pricked with a needle or that kid steps on a piece of broken glass or a knife, all of which are things that we have found there, then that’s on me and all of a sudden I’m being sued and I’ve got an issue because of the failures of the Seattle Parks (Department) and the Seattle council to protect us from these types of hazards.”

But when his party arrived, they were shocked by the conditions at the shelter.

“There were people in the shelter, we had to ask them to leave,” John said. “Their belongings were in the shelter and they didn’t remove them. So, like on the top of all the posts and all the beams there were bags, there were backpacks, there were toiletry bags, there was garbage bags with food items in there. It felt like we were having a party in somebody else’s living room.”

During the party, John says they had uncomfortable interactions with the campers who kept asking the group when they were going to leave. One camper proceeded to wash her hair in the sink. Others washed dishes and clothes during the cookout. John was horrified when people in his party had to leave.

“I was flipping cheeseburgers and one of my friends came up to me and said, ‘Hey, you know my dog just rolled in a whole bunch of human waste and now it’s on my son and now we’ve gotta go.'”

The city charged John $300 to rent the park facility, but he says this isn’t about the money. He’s frustrated and angry that more isn’t being done to protect Seattle parks.

“There’s feces, there are needles,” he said. “I’ve been down there other times and there have been needles and throwing knives just in the grass.”

The bigger issue for John is how he is required to pay hundreds to use the facility.

“And 29 other nights out of the month that same shelter is populated by people who are pooping in the bushes, in the grass. People who are drinking, excessively, people who are starting, burning fires.”

“Why is that okay?” he said. “I think it gets to the root of this issue. The city of Seattle has decided to use public parks as a place to house the homeless and I think we are being held hostage.”

John’s conclusions

John believes part of the solution would be to remove public parks from the city’s Multi Departmental Administrative Rules or MDAR.

“Essentially, the MDARs say that the only way that people can be notified that they have to leave is through the Navigation Team and then they must be given a 24-hour notice.”

Then the campers’ property has to be collected and stored by the city.

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“It’s usually not precious property that they come back to claim,” John said. “But then their property has to be stored for a long period of time at the city’s expense and they have to have access to it. Effectively, that has resulted in council members like (Mike) O’Brien and (Lisa) Herbold and (Kshama) Sawant limiting the funding to the Navigation Team to basically stop the sweeps and reduce the speed in which sweeps can occur. I want parks out of the MDARs.”

John says the Navigation Team is severely hampered by the bureaucracy and the parks terrain.

“And in these areas where there’s no vehicle access, it’s incredibly difficult for them to get in there and remove these tents because they need heavy duty trucks to go in there and get rid of the waste,” he said. “Get rid of the garbage. They have to bring chippers in and cover this stuff with bark and with wood chips. So what essentially has happened is the homeless have found nooks and crannies all over this city where they can kinda live for long periods of time unencumbered by law enforcement, the Navigation Team and the parks department.”

John says the situation is sad because he’s noticed his neighbors aren’t using the park because of the poor conditions. He warns that if you plan to rent a shelter from the parks department this summer — be prepared.

“So it puts everyone in a position if they want to use that picnic area they have to actually move these people out themselves,” he said. “The city isn’t doing it, SPD isn’t doing it, and parks isn’t doing it.”

He says the city’s approach at managing the parks is encouraging homeless people to camp there.

“They seem emboldened. They seem like this is the status quo and we can all just go to hell if we don’t like it.”

Seattle Parks Department responds

John did receive a response to his letter from the parks department, but John says it felt like officials blew off his concerns. He was told that parks employees would would work to better keep picnic areas free from litter, and garbage from camping. The response stated parks employees would try to keep the areas free from campers.

“But then they go into the usual nonsense about working with the Navigation Team which everyone knows takes weeks to months to actually make it out to a call, assess the situation, offer services, post at 72-hour removal notice before coming back to clean up,” John said. “At that point, two people have usually moved 50 to 150 yards away, set up camp in another location or they just simply wait for the cleanup to take place before returning. There is no mechanism to keep people out of Woodland Park at night or make sure that people aren’t camping long-term.”

“This angers me because it is totally hypocritical when you take into consideration the fact that both Golden Gardens and Alki are swept every night to make sure no one is camping in them,” he said. “Why is that not also done with Woodland Park? I believe the answer is because it’s hidden and out of sight and to an extent, the political appointees at the department are tacitly or explicitly using the park as a place for people to live until we have enough housing.”

A Seattle Parks Department official told KIRO Radio:

(The parks department) regularly monitors and cleans all park spaces including picnic areas. As the summer months are upon us we increase the cleaning of our picnic shelters in order to avoid situations like the one that happened last weekend.

Our staff regularly work alongside the Navigation Team to remove illegal encampments from park spaces. We ask the public to alert the city to any illegal camping using the Find It, Fix It app or call 206-684-CITY. And we ask that if you experience any harassment in a park, or other dangerous illegal activity, please call 911 right away.

“If I had a dollar for every pile of poop I’ve taken a picture of to report on the Find It, Fix It app, I would have a lot of dollars,” John said.

Thanks to Safe Seattle for assistance with this report.