I was at the Highland Park Action Committee meeting last night (the one JoB referred to in her "I forgot to make my point" post). I'm posting these comments separately for reasons of clarity.
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The HPAC meeting demonstrated once again how futile Seattle politics can be. It's no wonder some Highland Park residents are upset about Nickelsville, given that it appears to be in a permanent state of limbo, somewhere between "jungle camp" and "decent place to live."
After 8 months, people are getting fed up and are starting to vent their frustration on both politicians AND Nickelsville residents. A common theme from the residents at the meeting was "It's time for OTHER parts of the city to bear their share of the burden."
If this state of affairs continues, we will no doubt see another mass eviction. Bummer.
Unlike some HP'ers, I don't blame Nickelsville or the people who live there. But I DO blame the politicians. There's been an appalling failure of political leadership here, both from the Mayor and the City Council.
At last night's meeting, Deputy Mayor Darryl Smith said, "We're not going to evict people at Nickelsville." At the same time, however, he would not commit the Mayor's office to trying to formalize Nickelsville at its current location or deliver any utility services there. Nor could he offer any ideas for where Nickelsville could relocate to – other than "churches and non-profits" which is obviously not a long-term solution.
Apparently Mayor McGinn had only one trick up his sleeve (the Sunny Jim site) and the Council quashed that, so now it's like the Mayor's washed his hands of it.
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Tim Rasmussen was there too. He agreed with the Highland Park folks who wanted Nickelsville out of Highland Park and off city property. But just like Deputy Mayor Smith, Mr. Rasmussen did not offer ANY alternatives. In regard to the Sunny Jim proposal from the Mayor's Office, he said that the property would have needed to be rezoned before even a temporary occupation permit could have been granted. Ergo: It was an illegal site (as if the current one isn't!) Ergo, the Council vetoed it.
Note that Rasmussen was also one of the councilmembers who voted AGAINST Seattle Public Utilities setting aside money ($39,000) to hook Nickelsville up to water and sewer services. Licata, Bagshaw and O'Brien voted for this proposal. All other councilmembers were against.
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I'm still waiting for someone from either the Council or the Mayor's office to start proposing ideas for where the residents of Nickelsville can stay PERMANENTLY. Failing that, they could at least have the decency to say: "OK, let's get some water and services to those folks while we figure out what to do."
These are human beings living at Nickelsville.
How can we say to them: "We don't know what to do with you exactly, but no, we're not going to give you a warm place to sleep at night. And no, we're not going to let you have safe water to drink or wash in."
For God's sake, people! We treat our motherlovin' PETS better than this.
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