Update: City clears Camp Long homeless encampment

Just in from city Parks Department spokesperson Dewey Potter, who had most recently said the clearing was likely to happen Monday:

I have just learned that the encampment has been removed and that our crew delivered to our warehouse the belongings that appeared to have any personal or monetary value. The cleanup took place after outreach workers notified our crew that they had completed their efforts to notify the people there.

We first told you about the encampment on Monday; WSB contributing photojournalist Matt Durham had been monitoring it for more than a month.

MsElanious May 2, 2008 (5:12 pm)

Great! Glad to know it is gone.

rjb May 2, 2008 (10:20 pm)

I don’t think it was necessary for the exact “address” of the encampment to have been given out on this blog. To blog about the exact whereabouts of this site… well, I think that was really uncessary. It wasn’t in a place that 99.9% of Camp Long visitors visit.
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You don’t know who reading this blog could feel like they should vigilante the whole thing. And by reading the thoughts that people who actually left a comment had… Just, please, in the future, don’t do all but give directions to something like this…

WSB May 2, 2008 (11:07 pm)

I appreciate your comment but respectfully disagree. For one, it’s public land owned by every one of us who live within Seattle city limits, and we have the right to know what’s happening on our land and where. That was my very first question when I first heard from Matt Durham about this – where at Camp Long? For two – there have certainly been exceptions in my 25 years in journalism – but it would be extremely dangerous for the news media to routinely censor itself out of speculation about what readers/viewers/listeners might be thinking.

old timer May 3, 2008 (7:07 am)

Thank you WSB!

TheHouse May 3, 2008 (7:48 am)

RJF, I respectfully barf.

ashamed to read these threads May 3, 2008 (9:37 am)

Great! Glad to know it is gone. I hate homeless people!

(And a side note to the homeless people reading this from the free computers at the library: GET A JOB!!!)

I hope we can eventually send all the homeless of West Seattle back to where they came from, or at least in jail!

Thank you WSB!

WSB May 3, 2008 (9:55 am)

“Ashamed,” if you are trying to suggest our reports led to the camp’s clearance – as reported in our first post last Monday morning, the city had put up a sign six days earlier — April 22nd — saying the camp would be cleared. They were already well aware of it. Our first inquiry was to ask why a sign that went up April 22nd was dated April 17th, since the new “three-day warning” itself had been a source of some controversy. As it was, the clearing yesterday was 10 days after the signs were posted.

ashamed May 3, 2008 (10:19 am)

No, I was sarcastically quoting ‘old timer’. I got nothing against WSB, love you guys. Just can’t believe the attitudes of so many of your readers. I’ve recently moved to west Seattle and am surprised I’m surrounded by so many ignorant and uneducated neighbors. Feel like I’m back in Spokane. Ugh.

Hamilton May 3, 2008 (1:14 pm)

Well, now its my turn to feel insulted – what do you have against Spokane, you arrogant jerk????

J May 3, 2008 (4:49 pm)

What do you have against arrogant jerks, you ninny?

Frank May 3, 2008 (7:49 pm)

What do you have against ninnies, you schmuk?

whatever May 3, 2008 (11:04 pm)

are you guys kidding! grow up! while you are sitting in your warm computer chairs, in your cozy heated house there are some people out there less fortunate then you and instead of sitting here slandering them you should be greatful for what you got!