Community & Editorial
Crack crackdown
If it takes a village to raise a child, then perhaps it takes a neighborhood to raise a racket. That might be why several hundred Belltown residents have put their names to a petition asking to rid local streets of crack users and dealers.
Actually, the petition — bearing the headline “Crack out of Belltown” — seeks more than an end to what’s dubbed an open-air drug market. It wants surveillance, provided by the Washington State Patrol.
Brett Paulson crafted the petition. Paulson, 34, a barman at Txori, located at Second Ave. between Blanchard and Bell Sts., says the number of people using crack on the street has gotten out of control. “We try to shoo them away,” he says, “but they come back.”
In talking to the Seattle police, Paulson says he’s been told they’re understaffed, a point he mentions in the one-page document. And while appreciating Mayor Nickels’ efforts to rid the ’hood of drug use on the streets, the petition calls on Gov. Chris Gregoire to deploy the Staties. “Every activist I’ve talked to,” says Paulson, “said they’ve never thought about doing that.”
And if it’s a novel idea, it appears to be an appealing one. Paulson says he’s placed 43 petitions in residences and building in the Belltown over the past month. So far, he says 500 people have signed in agreement and that’s just on the forms he’s collected. Many, he notes, are still waiting to be picked up.
While awareness of drug activity in Belltown isn’t new, crack use near its condos got a big hit earlier this year when a woman, using the name “BelltownCrime,” posted videos to YouTube. Filmed from her window, she documented drug use, urination, prostitution, and more, giving them titles like “Smoking Crack in Seattle.” Some applauded the videos; others found them racist or lurid (YouTube wouldn’t host one of them). After a couple of weeks, the videographer pulled the footage off the Web.
Newspapers and TV gave those videos ample coverage, and local TV networks have featured Paulson in at least three reports this past week. He hopes the attention will make it easier to accomplish his next goal: to take the petitions to Gov. Gregoire herself.
He says he’s already called her office, though he’s yet to speak to her personally. No matter. He’s planning to stop by, he says, some time in mid-October.
“I’m coming,” says Paulson. “With a bunch of signatures.”
Comments
The end of the crosstown bus route is right under my windows 000-973 dumps, and I used to hear the busses idling, or shutting off then starting up again with a huge whoosh NS0-153 dumps.
Come to think of it I haven’t heard that lately.
Maybe it’s because now I’m awakened the first thing every morning by the sounds of dogs barking loudly while being walked by the attendants of the 352-001 dumps just across the street.
Commenting is not available in this weblog entry.
Search Our Archives
Real Change Blog
Our economy, explained in song
Thursday, December 15 at 6:20pm
How would you balance the state budget?
Monday, November 28 at 5:49pm
Did you hear that?
Wednesday, November 23 at 10:29am
Come be a Part of Surviving the Streets!
Thursday, October 27 at 12:28pm
Summertime
Thursday, October 6 at 1:05pm
The Courage of Our Convictions
Tuesday, October 4 at 1:48pm
Reflection on the Blessing of the Totem Pole
Wednesday, September 21 at 5:12pm
Real Change on Facebook
Real Change on Twitter
Subscribe to Real Change News