Late last year, a group of neighborhood volunteers announced the formation of the Friends of Meridian Park (FOMP), an officially sanctioned “Friends of” of the Seattle Parks and Recreation Department. They’ve been meeting and pulling together a set of recommendations and are hoping to get some public input on priorities. Would you mind taking this short, five question survey for them?
From what I can tell, the big challenge with Meridian Park is the same one facing open spaces around Seattle: a growing homeless population, many of whom have mental and substance abuse problems, with nowhere to go except into the same public spaces that families seeking safe, comfortable outdoor recreation are using. I know that the bushes around Meridian were cut back some time ago to reduce the areas where intravenous drug users could use out of site (better than doing it plain sight, I guess), and the covered picnic area is often occupied similarly. Like everyone else, I don’t have any answers, but I encourage you to share whatever experiences you’ve had with FOMP, so they can put their minds to it.
(Photo by CAJC: In the PNW)
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Up until last year, I used Meridian Park for my weekly soccer team practice for my daughter and her friends. Vagrants would often camp in the southwest corner of the park right by where we’d practice. I got pretty sick and tired of having to scour the playfield for needles and having to tell the girls not to go chasing the ball if it went into their camp area. Every couple of weeks I’d have to file a new Find It Fix It report and hope the city would deal with it.
I also heard there was a fatal OD in the bathroom last year.
The city should have zero tolerance for this crap where our kids play.
I had a Pea Patch there for years. We constantly had produce stolen. One year we were advised about going alone or in evenings. When I worked in a summer kids camp I sometimes came early and noticed leftover stuff from night camps. The City
has let our beautiful city be destroyed by drug users( yes I know they have a disease etc etc). ( c re c)
Drug users are not a new thing. The price of housing is. If billionaires paid their taxes, things might be different.
Things would be different, but not that different. The years of 4% annual population growth surges have done what they will do. The only real remedy follows from that, but it would take a really drastic population turn-around to bring rents back down. Rent was not too bad back in the ’70s.
There is no need for drastic population turn-around. There just need to be more houses. As I said again and again, Tokyo housing price has been going down despite population growth. Most people in Tokyo, even pretty rich ones, don’t bother buying houses because it’s not a good thing to put money in. And with the housing price in control like that, they see reduction in homelessness.
I just marked my “tj mentions Tokyo” square on the Wallyhood Bingo card
Bwahaha!
It’s sad because there are so few success stories outside of Finland and Japan. It’s a really serious problem and I am not sure you’ll bother to read this:
https://www.economist.com/special-report/2020/01/16/housing-is-at-the-root-of-many-of-the-rich-worlds-problems
I don’t think tax would fix it. It’s the housing policy. I think a couple of issues ago Economist talked about how the rich world in general has failed housing policies that spurred the homeless crisis. And the base problem is lack of new build ups.
https://www.economist.com/leaders/2020/01/16/home-ownership-is-the-wests-biggest-economic-policy-mistake
You do not need more tax money to solve the problem. You just need to lower the barrier for build up and stop the existing homeowners dictating the policies that help both increase their home value AND increase homeless problems.
How about you do your part and make sure your wealthy YIMBY friends pay their fair share on their “unearned equity” 😉
Well, it’s either death penalty or giving those people some other options. Zero tolerance policy itself isn’t a solution, unless it’s truly extreme like killing. Think about stray pets and what not and you can understand.
Right. Because there are no other options besides the death penalty. Because letting criminals with dozens, even hundreds of convictions for theft, assault, etc walk the streets with no fear of consequences has been working out so well.
There are tons of policy options, but zero tolerance ain’t one.
I’m not sure why you keep pushing this “zero tolerance” angle. But since you keep bringing it up, let me ask you, just as an example, how do you think we should have dealt with those two dirtbags BEFORE they shot up downtown on Wednesday?
You do understand that these gangbangers had dozens of arrests and multiple felonies for weapons violations, a drive by shooting assaulting women, etc and were well known to the cops.
So your “other options” would be…….
hugs, cookies, AND milk!
Don’t forget peace circles and “restorative justice.”
tj has gone radio silent
Because I got off work. 😀
You were the one who brought up zero tolerance angle. And it’s actually really obvious why in the US people re-offend so much: because they weren’t offered much other option to have a life, so they always have to go back to the same bad and risky things that they are familiar with.
Actually you can think about it yourself: if you were them, what would you have done and what are the barriers?
You seem to be opposed to punishing g and locking up violent people, and you absolve them of any personal responsibility for their actions. So other than continuing to let last weekend’s killers roam the streets, what are these “options” you think we should be offering those who hurt and even kill innocent people?
there are options – shelter beds rather than camping in a park. public parks/places are for all but not to the point where you are living in one – and especially not if you are trashing it shooting drugs or selling drugs. the greater good of public safety is more important than service resistant vagrants. simple. i’m sure that is mean or something in your strange world view.
So you don’t support zero tolerance policy then? I think we’ll be in agreement for that.
Is Meridian Playground approved for regular team sports practice? Did you reserve the space like at Wallingford Playfield?
Is that a serious question? All kinds of sports teams practice there, year after year. It’s flat, it’s got got lots of space and grass. In other words it’s great for kids, not for vagrants.
Given other posts in this thread, it sounds like scouring the playfield for dog poop is sound practice anyway before practice, fear or needles or no.
Isn’t there one at Woodland Park less than a mile away?
Or you could conclude that whatever nearby legit options may exist, they’ll just use the closest available park. I wouldn’t expect a dog park at Meridian to make a very noticeable difference at Wallingford Playfield.
They should put a Wallingford off leash area at Gas Works. There is a barely used portion of the part on the north end, by the parking lot. Already has some concrete walls. When I raised the issue with the City 20 years ago, the idea was rejected because an off leash area wasn’t part of the architect’s original plan in the 1970s. Of course, there were no leash laws or off leash areas in teh 1970s, so it’s not like the architect would have considered and rejected the idea!
Some of us proposed that a green lid be provided at the new transfer station to be used as park space or OLA… did not get any traction, so to speak 🙂
I am there every day, multiple times a day. Conditions really vary depending on how many and what kind of people are spending the night. Right now it’s quiet and there’s nobody scary. Bad weather does that. I talk to almost everybody, except for the guy who wears the red sleeping bag as a cape. I recommend not engaging with that person.
If you avoid the brushy perimeter nothing bad is going to happen to you. At the P-Patch we have a sharps disposal box, but you have to talk to one of us gardeners to access it, and there’s a procedure to follow. If you find a needle, you can let one of us know. There’s almost always someone in the garden.
pathetic… “just avoid that one guy, the perimeter and the needles” – simple law enforcement would go a looooooong way.
Just wear your Docs when you want to tiptoe through the tulips, it’s all good!
The actual name of the park is “Meridian Playground” so the group is “Friends of Meridian Playground.”
There is a big off leash area at Woodland Park by the way.
Don’t forget to make your concerns official by completing the survey by midnight Friday, January 31. https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/NVRT73R