Rantz: Eco-business ditches Seattle over crime and human waste, declares ‘this is not OK’

The exact kind of business that seems perfect for Seattle is ditching the city, fed up with the rampant drug use, human waste, and vandalism found at their business.

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Impact Bioenergy, a zero-waste micro food digesting company, complained multiple times to the City Council and Mayor’s office about their experiences. They barely got a response from one councilmember. And, unfortunately, the Seattle Police Department isn’t allowed to do their job.

“This is where we started, but we’re just gonna have to take a time out until there’s some sort of ability for the police to do what they want to do,” Jan Allen, president of Impact Bioenergy told The Jason Rantz Show on KTTH. “There’s no real sense of behavioral limits. It seems to be getting worse and we can’t deal with it.”

Their property keeps getting stolen and vandalized. They regularly find human waste and needles. Allen attempted to get his complaints addressed by the Council, but after a couple conversations with Councilmember Mike O’Brien, he was left dejected, not feeling like his concerns were being heard.

“I think there’s no path forward at this point,” Allen told me. “There was a little bit of discussion about policing, but I feel sorry for the police department. I don’t think being a police officer in Seattle would be very easy because the sort of lack of behavioral limits. There’s not any consequence if somebody steals something.”

This sentiment is echoed by thousands of Seattleites, tired of a Council and Mayor’s office refusing to let police do their jobs and tackle the criminals ruining life in the city. And even if they were more supportive of reasonable policing, the Seattle City Attorney, Pete Holmes, refuses to prosecute a large portion of the criminal referrals his office receives.

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“My feeling is that the leadership of the city needs to be more courageous about recognizing that… there’s some folks that are in the city that are just taking advantage of the city’s soft touch on on street crime,” Allen says. “And it’s really difficult for the business community. And also residents, people with children, that have to be concerned with the kind of things that we got confronted with. So, whether you’re a business or family with children, or anybody really, it takes some courage to say this is not OK.”

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