Maybe it should become a quiet place of contemplation for all the people who were shot and killed there.

Hopefully the city has the political will to start enforcing the no camping ban, otherwise, what is the point of investing in a park that is just going to be trashed by drug addicts? Instead the idiots on the Council are creating a right to privatize and destroy public spaces to placate a fringe group of activists. This is not compassionate, it is just stupid.

@3:

Maybe we could do with them what we used to do before Republicans decided human beings with substance and mental health issues were simply disposable "surplus population" - ?

Give me a break. Just because somebody points out Seattle’s homelessness response is a total disaster, doesn’t mean they are dehumanizing the homeless. Letting people set up camp and throw needles and garbage everywhere for years while they slowly lose their minds and die isn’t working for anyone. Seattle has become a magnet for lost souls. The more we spend on homelessness without rules to maintain a functioning public realm, the worse it gets. After 10+ years of pouring money down the drain, it is time for a change including state mental health, drug treatment facilities, places for people to go that reuse treatment, and enforcement to keep people from self-destructing in parks and green belts. This is a unique west coast problem. It is not like this in other cities and countries because they have common sense. Seattle leaders are brained washed or paid off by the people who profit from this situation. There should be an investigation.

Ideologues can’t govern, because they don’t deal in reality. Extremism thrives in the reality vacuum because purity is valued over compromise. Social media fuels the mania. This has been a problem in the Republican Party for years, reaching its peak with Donald Trump. Sadly this same downward spiral has formed in Seattle leftist politics In response to the alt right. It is peaking with the current city council and movement politics around abolishing the police and decriminalizing crime. The cause is just, but the ideological extremism around these issues, including homelessness, is destroying the city. Unless enough progressives find the courage to push back against the tea party left, Seattle is going to be a very dystopian place.

@9 You make a lot of claims that could be backed by data but aren't. I mean, sure, they all work together to form a coherent story, but without some kind of evidence its just more idiology.

@11 A questions like "what's the appropriate level of taxation" and "how much should we spend on public works" (the only theory I can think of that I've mentioned here recently) normative: on the ought side of is/ought. But the historical correlation is just a google search away.

"Seattle has become a magnet for lost souls" is a very specific (and very familiar) claim but its a just so story. There was that article in the Seattle Times a while back with a lot of ambiguous data and that's it (far as I know). How do we categorize people who moved here and then later became homeless? I don't know what percentage of the city's residents are from someplace else but it sure seems like a lot. Seattle a magnet for all kinds of people - not just lost souls and therefore not for lost souls in particular.

@13 Why should I do that when you're so diligent and effective? ^_^
tweaked out, untreaded

"tweaked out, untreaded" is a fragment of a further comment that I decided I didn't want to do but failed to delete. Please ignore.

That area is a disgrace and misuse of public lands. I didn't vote for some stupid tree stumps in a circle. Art? Give me a break. Fumigate it and make it usable again.

@17 I didn't vote for a tunnel under Alaskan Way but here we are with a tunnel under Alaksan Way.

@16 - One of the reasons homelessness is apparently intractable is because people think there's a single answer to the wholething and, when that answer doesn't end up being, you know, the answer...people throw their hands up and say, "Oh well! Nothing to be done!" It also opens politicians who espouse these one note symphonies up to (deserved) ridicule by voters who eventually just give up and disengage from participating in what sure looks like a failed democracy. None of this helps strengthen our community.

The fact is, a lot of those people in tents couldn't afford a house if it was $5 a week. Some of them couldn't find the front door to walk in. Profoundly addicted and mentally ill.

To the extent your argument could be construed to mean we must build appropriate forms of shelter and service for the wide variety of homeless, I'm onboard. But dude shooting junk down on Shilshole with my bike next to his tent isn't there because houses cost too much.

@22 -- Enhanced supported housing. It's a good thing. I'm hoping it happens. Don't stop DEMANDING it from our feckless city council.

Like #1 said, I hope the BIPOC committee that decides what to do with the remnants of the CHOP creates some kind of memorial for the POC kids that were murdered inside of it.