SEATTLE NEWS ARCHIVES & FEATURES
Seattle trash: Longtime resident calls city a dump in a less PC way
Mar 21, 2018, 2:54 PM | Updated: Mar 22, 2018, 7:29 am
Garbage pile on a city street in Seattle. (MyNorthwest file photo)
(MyNorthwest file photo)
The name of Richard Paddon’s Seattle-based Facebook page can’t be written here. Let’s just say he believes the city he’s lived in his whole life isn’t pleasing to the eye.
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Paddon notes a “downward spiral” in the city’s overall state of cleanliness.
“My biggest concern is seeing the filth,” he told KIRO Radio’s Dori Monson. “There is an attack on it by the city, county, and state. But it needs to be far better and far different and thought of in ways outside of the box that I have not seen happen in 24 years.”
Dearborn Street, Paddon says, is an example of what he’s talking about. Filthy water washes into drains and out to Elliot Bay.
“Where are all the kayaks protesting that,” he asked.
Paddon says there is a reason for the growing piles of garbage. The homeless population is one contributing factor. However, he isn’t specifically blaming homeless people for the issue. He says there is a general unwillingness of leaders to take action is another.
Seattle trash
It’s not a problem that is being totally ignored by the city, however. Last year, for instance, Seattle was trying to fill three positions dedicated to cleaning up garbage along the city’s streets and around unsanctioned encampments. More recently, the city began erecting fences under bridges to keep people from camping below them and accumulating garbage.
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During his brief time filling in as Seattle mayor, Councilmember Bruce Harrell noted that the city was filthy. He said he wanted to the city to begin a clean up program.
The state, too, cleans up greenways and open spaces along I-5 and other state-operated roadways.
They are notable efforts, with crews sometimes hauling away thousands of pounds of garbage and debris.
Still, more can be done, Padden says.
“We’re all going to go downhill together unless we make a solid turn in this.”
Listen to the entire conversation here.
