“Nickelsville” organizers say the camp’s moving tomorrow night

| Highland Park | West Seattle news | West Seattle politics

Posted tonight on the Google mail group for the homeless encampment at West Marginal/Highland Park Way: They’re planning to move again at 10 pm tomorrow, but they won’t say till possibly the “very last second” where they will be going. They also say the city has threatened to fine the state unless it gives the campers the boot from the WSDOT land they’ve been on since last Friday afternoon’s city sweep of the original “Nickelsville” site next door. Just an hour before this update was posted, we’d asked the mayor’s communications director Robert Mak if there were any new developments, and he had said no, aside from the city maintaining its stance that the camp was a land-use violation.

JanS September 30, 2008 (10:28 pm)

am I missing something here? the city is going to sue the state because? what? the city has jurisdiction over state land? can someone smarter than me explain?

Kat September 30, 2008 (10:39 pm)

Good point JanS. Also, it is interesting to note that the city doesn’t seem to mind that the JAIL it is proposing is also a land-use violation… Oh wait, when it is something THEY want, they can just disregard change the zoning in some back room somewhere… Charming.

WSB September 30, 2008 (11:05 pm)

From talking to various parties, it seems to be: The city maintains an encampment like this is illegal, period – in this case, because it’s on industrial land. So anyone who allowed it would be subject to fines for land-use violation. The city owned the original site, so it cleared the encampment off that site – then the state said “hey, you guys can stay here for a few days” but it’s within city limits so the city is telling the state “you’re violating land use laws if you don’t get these folks out of there.”

mimi October 1, 2008 (8:00 am)

They are not only violating land use laws, which the City of Seattle has every right to enforce, they are in violation of a 2002 Consent Decree that the individuals/group (SHARE/WHEEL) running Nickelsville signed only allowing for one tent city within Seattle.
The 100 (?) people that are making up the current Nickelsville are homeless individuals that were living at Tent City 3 & 4 and other SHARE/WHEEL shelters. The majority were brought over from those shelters to make this political statement in an attempt to extort public land to replicate the Dignity Village model in Portland.

acemotel October 1, 2008 (9:49 am)

nothing wrong with a political statement! more power to them. Homeless people have the same right to empowerment as anyone else, including civil disobedience if they so choose.

Jo October 1, 2008 (12:17 pm)

I’m not familiar with Dignity Village in Portland.
Can someone enlighten us.
And, why would it be a bad thing to replicate the Dignity Village model.

freeman October 1, 2008 (1:48 pm)

The Mayor needs to do some looking ahead and reasoning back. Not a good idea to trash people who bring democratic spirited order to the dog-eat-dog existence of homeless. Demonstrations of expertise at doing that are community assets, not expressions of neediness. (pure John McKnight, for all you Obama fans)

Hard times catch up to Bend

mimi October 1, 2008 (6:31 pm)

If the homeless individuals of SHARE/WHEEL and Nickelsville spent as much time energy and effort into finding jobs, as they do setting up illegal encampments in an attempt to extort public land then they would not be living there in the first place.
When you have so called “homeless” like Leo Rhodes of SHARE/WHEEL who is quoted here http://www.realchangenews.org/2008/2008_05_21/nickelsville_v15n22.html
as having been homeless for the last 20 yrs, then there is clearly a problem.

acemotel October 2, 2008 (2:05 am)

part of the motive is to bring publicity to the issue of homelessness, and in that they are doing a brilliant job. It’s very easy for people to criticize and condemn the individuals, but when homelessness is an epidemic there is a systemic problem. Focusing attention on any one particular person does nothing to aid understanding or move towards solution.

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