SEATTLE NEWS ARCHIVES & FEATURES

Dori: Dow Constantine creates homeless problems, demands we fund solutions

Dec 12, 2018, 3:13 PM

Dow Constantine, arts tax, SeaTac, King County...

King County Executive Dow Constantine. (KIRO 7 image)

(KIRO 7 image)

We’ve got the drug vagrant crisis around our region, and we’ve got politicians like King County Executive Dow Constantine who not only are not interested in real solutions, but actively work to make the problem much, much worse by turning us into one of the top destinations in the country for the homeless.

We have had so many violent attacks on women, and in almost every one of the cases, these are men who have come here from other parts of the country. And while our local politicians are trying to tell us that these drug vagrants are the people we grew up with who have just fallen on hard times, anyone who knows the reality of this situation can see that we are bringing these people in from other parts of the country.

Neighbors are having their homes and cars broken into. The business community is having trouble with burglaries and assaults and defecation right outside their doors. They’re not NIMBYs. They’re just realists. And they are tired of this happening again and again.

RELATED: Politicians who attract drug vagrants put Seattle’s women at risk

In Lower Queen Anne, many business owners are upset because they weren’t told about a new low-barrier homeless shelter — meaning the people staying there don’t need to be sober — that is being built in the neighborhood. KOMO 4 News did a great story on this and talked to Constantine about the issue. Just look at the disdain he has for the business community.

“Sometimes you just have to do what you think is right, and that’s why I was elected, and we have a crisis around homelessness,” he said.

It doesn’t matter, then, if the taxpaying neighbors and business owners are upset by something that will be a nightmare for their community. He was elected to just do “what is right.” But Dow has been a huge part of this entire homelessness crisis. When we do things like planning to put heroin death sites in King County and effectively legalizing small amounts of drugs by not prosecuting possession of them, we create this problem.

What he says is also delusional. The reason you were elected, Constantine, is because you have a “D” next to your name. You weren’t elected because you’re some brilliant statesman. You had some name recognition and you’re a Democrat, and that’s all it takes here. And that’s to the shame of the voters, that that’s all it takes. But it gives these politicians an inflated sense of self-worth.

Dow, your ‘flying by the seat of your pants’ approach to this crisis has been a huge part of why we have such a huge homelessness problem in the first place. So don’t tell us that you’re some brilliant mechanic who is going to figure out a way to get this mess solved. You’ve been one of the architects of the destruction of this region, in regard to the drug problem.

Now, if we’re talking about a smart approach to this crisis, the Union Gospel Mission in Pioneer Square has the right idea. They give people a free bed and meals, but it’s all on the condition that the people being helped stay sober. The Union Gospel Mission wants to change lives. They want to turn lives around, not perpetuate a problem. They don’t want to give addicts a taxpayer-funded place where they can slowly kill themselves. And that’s what these low-barrier shelters are doing.

But Constantine is on it. He was elected, you know, so sometimes he has to do unpopular things.

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Dori: Dow Constantine creates homeless problems, demands we fund solutions