Dozens of visitors – many also with cameras and notepads – are at the West Seattle homeless encampment that calls itself “Nickelsville” right now (Terminal 107 Park), for a “1st birthday” open house presented by its residents and sponsors, also intended as a fundraiser – a rep from the sponsoring organization Veterans For Peace told visitors it takes $1,000/month just for the portable toilets they rent. (We’ll add video later.) You can see them in the background of this photo we took today:
After a few speeches, including reminiscences about the past year since more than two dozen people were arrested at the encampment’s original site on city property at Highland Park Way/West Marginal Way, there was a slide show with photos and newspaper clippings telling the same story:
The encampment has been at T-107 Park, which is port property, for two months (here’s our story about their arrival). The port says time’s run out and they need to clear out by Wednesday; encampment organizers say they won’t go. Perhaps as a hint of what’s to come, we saw two port officers walking the periphery just as we arrived a few minutes after 3:
As far as we could see, they stayed outside the orange webbing that surrounds the encampment; we didn’t see them in the group that gathered to listen to speeches and watch the slide show. The event is expected to continue for the next few hours if you want to go see the encampment for yourself.
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