Underneath the I-5 highway in south Seattle, Isaac Palmer had found a spot to sleep. Hidden away from public view, Palmer likely thought he had found a bit of safety in a city where many homeless people die, often as a result of hypothermia, illness, drug overdose or violent attack. But while tucked in his sleeping bag on June 3,… return to article
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Reader Comments (6)Page 1 of 1 pages“unidentified, 61-year-old homeless man”
This i s a minor point, bow can we know his age if we do not know who he is?
More to the point, the problem of homelessness is a serious one. One approach might be to round them up and “take care” of them in facilities. What should society do with those who do not and typically *cannot* take care of themselves? I dare say no one wants them in their own neighborhood, for many very good and valid reasons.
Posted by wolf on Mar 27, 2008 at 7:38 AM Is there an agenda at work here, or are you all on vacation in Portland, taking in the microbrews and Indie rock and need to figure out a way to write it off as a business expense? Siljaja and Sasha both need to do a little more digging before trying act like they know what’s going on in the NW, but I do hope they enjoyed Beulahland.
“Boasting one of the highest national per capita rates of resident millionaires, the Puget Sound’s overpriced housing has forced many low-income and middle-class residents to make sacrifices to their economic stability.”
In addition to millionaires, Seattle also boasts one of the highest homeless populations. And that’s in addition to one of the most vibrant music and arts scenes, farmer’s markets, writer’s communities, and a thriving urban core. It is also about as far left as a city can be.
The weather, which in this article is considered harsh, is actually quite mild in the winters compared to other US cities and so Seattle, Portland, and San Fran are overrun with homeless people. (Which our far left politics support with numerous government services that make places like Dallas far less desirable) The article seems to assume that the homeless are mentally capable individuals sleeping in a construction site because the land values in Puget Sound are “overpriced”. In the case of Oregon, federal funding was cut for caring for the mentally ill under Reagan and it is now up to 501’s to do what the federal government will not.
What would you say if we rounded up all the homeless, drugged them, and locked them up for their own good? Because really, 24 hour care under the supervision of Dr.s and trained professionals is what many of these people, who’s issues often include PTSD or schizophrenia, need. The obvious infringement on their civil rights ties the hands of those who imagine something more comprehensive.
As far as land values are concerned, the Puget Sound’s “overpriced housing” is overpriced compared to what? Compared to Portland, where housing in Multnomah County starts at $450,000? Compared to San Fran? Compared to L.A? Or San Diego? Or is it it the whole West Coast that is “over priced” What is it worth to wake up in a progressive community that supports the environment, the arts, farmer’s markets, etc? The east coast has nothing like it so let’s put Harris’s quote in context: “Cities like ours are reinventing themselves to feature urban living as an amenity,” I ask the author, should we be living like Detroit? Is fear, filth and crime what living in a city is supposed to be like because it supports “affordable” housing? These “overpriced” cities are imagining something better than that.
Not that Seattle doesn’t have all of the above. Seattle is only second to B.C. to the number of junkies hanging around on street corners, of which the article makes no mention. Drug use is, in fact, ignored all together in the heroin and meth capital.
This article fails to even consider the incredible number of homeless shelters, support groups, soup kitchens, and community organizations that exist for Veterans, teens, gay teens, trans-gendered teens, mothers, families, immigrants, alcoholics, etc. To write an article totally devoid of the rich cultural context of Seattle and paint the city as a group of uncaring elitists is absurd.
Posted by skidmore212 on Mar 27, 2008 at 8:52 AM Wolf, you’re right. The man was *unnamed* while the authorities attempted to locate his family before releasing the name. Thanks for pointing that out.
As for skid’s strange assumption about my lack of knowledge about the Pacific Northwest: it would only take a cursory search of my bio (or google) to figure out that Seattle is, indeed, where I live. I’ve been a permanent resident for a decade and in that time, I’ve won 12 regional awards for excellence in reporting from the W. Washington Society of Professional Journalists. I was a Rocket writer, specializing in the area’s hip-hop and reggae scenes (you remember the now-defunct, legendary music publication, I hope?). I became the only staff writer at ColorsNW Magazine, devoted to reporting re: communities of color, immigrants, and multicultural issues as a whole. I was a monthly columnist at the former Evergreen Monthly, where I tackled local social justice issues, including the reflexive defensiveness that seems to pop up when we try to talk about bigotry, xenophobia, homelessness, and rampant racial profiling in our otherwise “progressive” city. I’ve been a resident of Seattle’s Central District for half a decade, and have personally seen the housing prices here rise to the extent that a historically vibrant (and yes, sometimes troubled), predominantly African American neighborhood that gave birth to the Seattle Black Panthers, Jimi Hendrix, amog others, has been completely shaken by hyper-gentrification. An exodus has ensued: working-class folks, artists, musicians, can’t afford it here anymore.
To be even more specific, I’ve been a regular visitor to and dweller in Seattle since 1983, around the time that my father became the concertmaster of the Seattle Symphony. (Note: I have nothing left by way of respect for the Symphony’s administration, much less their outright embarrassment of a conductor.) Culture is what I’ve soaked up here, and it’s been what keeps me here, in addition to the natural beauty here.
I’ve seen and lived the changes here, and this was a piece that was long overdue. The overpriced housing market here isn’t a matter of speculation.Yes, our housing market is finally slowing a bit, but the small dip in sales doesn’t amount to relief for all of us out here struggling to make ends meet. Our homeless population is growing, month by month, year by year, and it’s no surprise: The ACCRA Cost of Living Index--regularly referenced by Forbes, the U.S. Census, etc.--ranks Seattle as the 10th most expensive place to live in the United States. The calculation isn’t just based on the average cost of a house in King County ($435,000, as of January 2008), but on numerous other variables, including the average hourly wage, the cost of food and fuel, etc.
As for this bit about microbrews and writing that off as business expense, I have to tell you that I got a good chuckle. Who do you think would be writing those kinds of checks? In These Times? If you know anything about the state of independent journalism and magazines like ours, you’d know that even the draft beers I love aren’t being reimbursed by anyone. Indie rock? Another chuckle. So, *who’s* got an issue with Seattle stereotypes? You won’t find me listening to anything of the sort. I’m the one skanking on stage at a Subhumans show; renting a tile at a reggae night with Zion’s Gate DJs; or watching some of the nation’s most talented breakdancers in the Circle of Fire.
As for my colleague, Sasha Abramsky, well, I want to make this much clear: I have to stick up for investigative reporters who are unwilling to do “drive-through” journalism. Abramsky is a kick-ass journalist and colleague. Like me, he lives and breathes his stories. All power to him, and all the other writers who give a damn about ethical, engaged, immersion journalism.
Posted by Silja J.A. Talvi on Mar 28, 2008 at 4:15 AM “I’ve been a resident of Seattle’s Central District for half a decade, and have personally seen the housing prices here rise to the extent that a historically vibrant (and yes, sometimes troubled), predominantly African American neighborhood that gave birth to the Seattle Black Panthers, Jimi Hendrix, amog others, has been completely shaken by hyper-gentrification. An exodus has ensued: working-class folks, artists, musicians, can’t afford it here anymore.”
Then is your article about homelessness or gentrification? Or is it about the historically black neighborhood? I responded to the article by criticizing the absence of any talk about the social services the city and the community provide, the historic role of drug use, and the more pervasive and complicated problem of mental illness.
You rebut by responding that you are often out skanking at the reggae shows and that the black neighborhood is falling apart. Your rebuttal infers that there is a connection between homelessness and African Americans.
Is your logical conclusion that if housing prices rise, or as the result of heightened housing prices, deaf middle class families are sleeping off I-5, unable to hear the oncoming construction vehicles?
And if the issue is really housing insecurity, why not mention homeownership rates, the breakdown of community, and the racist legacy of the Central District, as the “coral” for the black folks in Seattle? Perhaps that would give away what is happening all over the cities that aren’t suffering white flight-- the upper class white kids are moving in, pushing up rents, and pushing out blacks, breaking down communities and robbing the next hipster wave of their moral superiority.
Posted by skidmore212 on Mar 28, 2008 at 6:50 AM Hipster wave? Oy.
I was making fun of your microbrewing/indie rock comment. It’s just silly to put stuff like that out there, and to presume that I couldn’t possibly be a Seattle resident, and you deserved to be called out on that. I’m no more a hipster than I am a hippie, which is to say I’m neither. You’re trying to throw a dart at the wrong dartboard. Back up your accusations and ease up on the stereotypes. You can engage in constructive discourse without resorting to those things, and coming across as a passive aggressive Seattleite. (I know, those stereotypes aren’t fair, are they?)
If you know what skanking is, then you know there is no logical link there to African *Americans,* for goddsake. Not did say “the black neighborhood is falling apart.” There is no one “black neighborhood” anymore than there is one “white neighborhood” in Seattle. What’s happened here in the CD is that a historically Black neighborhood is changing rapidly because of hypergentrification. Black neighborhoods exist all over the place, but they’re reforming in South Seattle, Tukwila, Rainier Valley, Renton, etc.
Is there a link between homelessness and people of color, specifically African Americans? There sure as hell is. By and far, the single most overrepresented ethnic group/demographic on the streets of Seattle are African American men and women. This is also true for, and connected to, the most disproportionately represented demographic group in our jails and prisons.
Do you mean “corral?” Yes, there’s great truth to this, as there has been in any area in the US (and across the world) where people were forced to live in shtetls, “ghettos,” housing projects, etc., because of racism,
xenophobia, poverty, urban design and intent, or, as was the case in Seattle, housing covenants that existed well into the 1970s prohibiting sales of homes to “Negroids, Semites, and Mongoloids.” (The CD originally stood for the “Colored District.")This was a short news piece, and I stand behind all of the reporting that I do. If you can point to factual errors, please do. In lieu of an factual correction, perhaps you’d like me to point you toward some other longer pieces I’ve written on the subjects you mention, and others you don’t:
* “The Real Enemy?” http://news.newamericamedia.org/news/view_article.html?article_id=6902e3a58cd217 72f2d70ce933d1f8bc5
* “No Roof Over My Head” (people of color as the homeless majority in the US and in Seattle):
* “Refusing to Hate” (about racist attacks in the PNW after 9/11, and the remarkable coalition built up in response to those attacks): http://www.alternet.org/story/14859/
* “Smack Down” (heroin use, diminishing social services in Seattle):
http://www.seattleweekly.com/2000-11-15/news/smack-down.php* The New Face of African America, (re: the Central District, African immigration, and African Americans):
http://www.colorsnw.com/absolutenm/anmviewer.asp?a=66* Border Crossings (interviews with GLBT people of color):
http://www.colorsnw.com/absolutenm/anmviewer.asp?a=48Oh, and it’s snowing here in Seattle right now. Would you like to see my Washington State ID, too?
Posted by Silja J.A. Talvi on Mar 28, 2008 at 2:53 PM You dont have to by a socialist or a communist, just an down to earth humanist will do, in a country as the U.S.A. to see people who take enormess amount s of money home, to see people living on the other side of the possible human line, to not losing your dignety, in an land where political spinners burn millions of $, to show of how good they are, they have found an very short way to make from a normal citizen, suckers, and from sucker to geth where this homeless people are, its done in a blink of the eye, bye a house losing your work and you are allmost their, or fight in Iraq and come home, no body is helping or even interested, and their they go our proud soldiers, its every body for him self, and god for us all, the Americans must reed more of Kurt Vonnegut his books, he was one of the great eye openers, with the music of Pete Seegers, that are the values to learn and live with, you can be proud clean and friendly with out money, don’t lose your humandignety, and don’t let you put down by bureacratic powers, you have to fight theme, they think you are there fpr them, no they are there for you.
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