Seattle leaders could learn a lot from the suburbs

Things just seem to be getting worse and worse in the Seattle area.

There were two more shootings Wednesday night: three guys hit in North Seattle and a Tukwila man found shot in his own backyard.

That had me thinking about two emails I got from listeners. The first came from Troy in Puyallup, who wrote how lucky he feels to not live in the Seattle city limits, but that, unfortunately, he has to work in and drive through the city at times. He’s embarrassed and disgusted by what he sees.

And he’s right.

I’m known for being a cynic and critic of government when it’s justified. But the little suburb where I reside, Lake Forest Park, they’re fantastic. The cops are awesome, they take care of and move along problems that exist. And we’re one block away – literally — from the city of Seattle. Step across the street and you’re there.

Related: Where is Seattle Mayor Ed Murray?

My town is not alone. There are a lot of little suburban towns around here that are doing things the right way. The difference is that the suburban council members don’t make any money. They actually do the job because they want to be part of a good, healthy, thriving community. I don’t think that is true of Seattle politicians.

It’s pander, pander, pander… then angle for climbing the political ladder. Everybody on the council wants to be the mayor; get an appointment in Hillary’s administration. Plus, they make more than $100,000 a year, so holding onto the power that comes with the job is also pretty financially rewarding. But the only way you can survive as a politician in Seattle is by sucking up to all of these special interest groups who have no concern about community or cohesion. All they care about is their politics of division.

That leads me to an even sadder email from a listener who was visiting my former neck of the woods – the mean streets of Ballard. And I say that ironically because Ballard was pretty placid when I was a kid. But those are mean streets now that the homeless have completely taken them over.

Ryan Johnson told me Thursday about what should have been an innocuous trip to return a book to the library. He searched for a parking space and finally found one near Ballard Commons Park. But there was a homeless person on the green strip, near the sidewalk, in a chair. Ryan thought twice about parking there but figured it was an in-and-out trip. What could go wrong?

“I pull into the spot, step out of the vehicle, and as I’m stepping out, I can see out of the corner of my eye, a large rock being thrown from the St. Luke’s property and misses me just barely,” Ryan told me. “It hits the windshield of my vehicle and left a big spider crack in the front. I immediately jumped back into the vehicle. I had a 5-year-old in the car and got out of there. It just wasn’t putting myself or my son in danger.”

Ryan said he didn’t get a look at the person who threw the rock but that the guy camped near his car even seemed taken aback.

“But it certainly felt like they were saying ‘get out of that spot, that’s for us,’” he told me.

Of course, this all happened at a classic time for trouble — 9:30 a.m. He should have known better than go to a park during the witching hour.

It’s just unfortunate that law-abiding library patrons are being threatened and the homeless population is being encouraged to thrive.

As Johnson told me: “It’s creating a dangerous situation for everyone.”

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