A Sweep

Dear Diary,

Over the past couple of weeks, some rocks have been made safe.

I've been taking S King St as my main route from the International District-Chinatown station of the light rail to my work, and back again, since late September.  This means I've been walking between the halves of a pretty large encampment for months.  The northern half were camping on a berm between a parking lot and the sidewalk, but the southern half, across the street, were camping on those rocks and others like them, which must have suffered terribly.

On the morning of Tuesday, December 7, there was a big gap in the southern encampment.  I spoke briefly with a resident, and at greater length with an outreach worker, but since I didn't tell her about you, dear Diary, I'm not going to quote her.  I will, however, say that publicity, to the effect that what was going on at that place at that time was a newfangled kind of sweep in which desirable alternatives are offered the campers, seems to have been substantially correct.

By the evening of Thursday, December 9, there were a dozen tents left.  They remained there for several days, so I think the newfangled kind of sweep had by then concluded.  Some of the people using those dozen tents had probably been there already, and resisted their options; others had probably arrived too late to get those options.

On one of too many days when I've reached work really late these past weeks, Monday or Tuesday, the 13th or 14th, I saw a garbage truck pulled up, being fed, as I walked past, a blanket, which seemed likely to be followed by the tent it had come from.  I didn't take any photos and certainly don't know whether the tent had still been in use, or was known to have been abandoned by a since-housed person.  I saw a Seattle Department of Parks and Recreation truck there at the time; since parks department employees are now again those the city calls upon to physically perform sweeps, it seems reasonable to assume at least some of those involved were sweepers of that kind.

I saw notices on the morning of Wednesday, the 15th:

The notice is dated December 14, and announces a sweep as of December 16.  At one time there was a legal requirement of three days' notice for non-emergency sweeps.  Obviously, this requirement wasn't met in this case.  The magic words that turn this sweep into an emergency one are right at the start of the notice:

"Materials in this area are an obstruction of the intended use of this property, are in a hazardous location or present a hazard."

Now, I'm a little perplexed.  What is the "intended use" of a half-acre or so of rocks in an underpass?  Or even of a berm outside the fence of a parking lot?  We'll come back to this question.

What about "in a hazardous location" ?  Well, maybe if the campers were barefoot; I didn't take my shoes off to test whether the rocks are sharp.

But "present a hazard".  This leads back to the issue I raised in a recent part of my series of appreciations of the parks of Seattle's downtown.  All of the campers there were criminals.  They were trespassing, after all, like, ultimately, all homeless people.  In addition, any number of them lit fires, though from what I saw mainly for cooking purposes rather than for warmth, but all surely illegal.  Well, homeless criminals must be assumed to be desperate and daring characters, ready to eat babies at a moment's notice, and therefore everywhere they sleep presents a hazard.  Which is why almost none of the sweeps done since mayor Jenny Durkan took office have obeyed the three days' notice rule.

Anyway, here's another shot of the rocks, and to be fair, two of the berm.

I usually walk on the south side, and here are the uses of the rocky area I've observed since the 16th.

Twice, I've seen a young couple at the back of them.  Once sitting side by side, once entwined (though still fully clothed).

Once, I saw some guys standing around - my guess would be, construction workers (Marpac Construction is nearby) on a smoke break.  One of them, seeing me put food in my mouth, amused himself by asking how I was doing, then answering the reply question I hadn't asked, "Fine, thanks."  This is the only time I've been harassed in any way by people in that rocky area.

And tonight I saw someone in a wheelchair, also at the back, not especially close to the couple.

I find it hard to believe that any of these are the rocks' intended uses.

So I've concluded that the intended use of that area is as a sort of retirement home for rocks.  A place where they can be mostly free of human intervention.  A place grievously violated by those inconsiderate campers.

As Christmas approaches, it's good to know that the city cares so much about the welfare of rocks that it's willing to sacrifice the welfare of humans.  That shows a very unusual kind of heart, doubtless worth treasuring.

I hope tomorrow night to tell you further reflections on these topics, dear Diary, and have little doubt that on Christmas Day itself I'll draw my conclusions.  Until then, a good night and good day.