成人X站

As Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell continues to shuffle homeless addicts from one neighborhood to the next to mask the depth of the crisis, one area is under siege. In Belltown, workers and residents are being assaulted, forced to clean up human waste, and now keep their doors locked during business hours鈥攆or safety.

Walk down Blanchard Street between Second and Third Avenues at any time of day, and you鈥檒l see the decay firsthand: open-air drug deals, addicts smoking fentanyl, and mentally ill homeless people wandering naked or sexually harassing women. Trash lines the sidewalks. The once-popular fenced-in dog park is now virtually unusable. At the nearby bus stop on Third Avenue, commuters cling to their belongings, heads on swivels, waiting for a bus to get them out of there.

But for the people who live and work in Belltown, there is no easy escape. They鈥檙e desperate for the city to intervene. Instead, officials have let the neighborhood spiral into the dangerous mess it has become.

“It can be very stressful… just turned the corner every day and wondering what’s going to be outside your business today, whether it’s going to be safe, whether you’re going to get pepper sprayed, whether you’re going to have to clean up human feces or get piles of garbage, fentanyl leftovers, all kinds of garbage that’s left behind,” the manager of a business on 3rd and Blanchard explained exclusively to “The Jason Rantz Show” on KTTH. (Note: I am a customer.)

Homeless addicts knock out, pepper-spray random passers-by

The business manager asked for anonymity out of fear that she would be targeted. She also lives on the block, so she experiences the harassment, drug use, and criminal behavior daily.

“Some of our employees have been physically attacked,” she explained. “One was knocked out, and then picked off the ground and hit repeatedly by somebody who thought they were looking at them the wrong way, and that was someone who was just walking into work. That person was quite a small person, and they were badly injured, concussed. We’ve been pepper-sprayed by people. We’ve had people break windows, which was a great expense, and actually took away a key component of the business.”

She said she’s forced to keep her door locked at all times to keep her staff and clients safe.

The neighborhood has been under siege for over two years and is part of an area of emphasis for Seattle Police and the city’s Unified Care Team. Despite their efforts, the situation isn’t getting any better, and Mayor Bruce Harrell’s office isn’t responding to requests for comment on what can be done.

Seattle Police making a dent, but benefits don’t last

The Seattle Police Department (SPD) has been more focused on the neighborhood in the last several weeks.

“SPD routinely arrests suspects during narcotics operations throughout the Downtown core, Belltown, and the Chinatown-International District. West Precinct officers also proactively make arrests during their regular patrol shifts every day,” an SPD spokesperson explained to “The Jason Rantz Show” on KTTH. “SPD also participates in the Downtown Activation Zone with other City departments. Narcotics operations and arrests often occur during these cleanups.”

While the Belltown business manager said the SPD makes a difference鈥攊t’s ephemeral. After recent undercover operations that arrested suspected drug dealers, the problem has returned and even worsened.

“We got to know them [the drug dealers who were arrested] and they tend to almost be helpful, the ones that were there in the beginning,” the manager explained. “It’s kind of a funny coexistence, but they know that keeping people off our business front is better for them. The more noise we create, the worse it is for them, so they were actually helpful.”

After the arrests, new drug dealers came into the area, some of them look as if they’re addicts themselves. They’ve not worked to keep homeless addicts from interfering with the business she manages.

CARE Team to the rescue?

Dr. Amy Barden leads the city’s Community Assisted Response and Engagement (CARE) team, which is tasked with managing community crisis responders and behavioral health specialists as they offer services and assistance to the area’s growing homeless population.

In an interview with “The Jason Rantz Show” on KTTH, she said the area is in an emphasis zone that the city remains hyper-focused on, but acknowledges the region doesn’t have a comprehensive strategy.

“You can connect people to services, but then we need a system to refer to. We need 24/7 detox,” she said, explaining that regional crisis centers will be helpful once fully operational.

“You need a really good place-based strategy that’s more comprehensive,” Barden explained. “I feel like until we get to a place where we consistently have all the helpers, where you have adequate police staffing. We do need CARE responders, and we’ve got the and folks like that. But I’m always saying…I don’t have a system to refer to. So officers can make an arrest, but then if that person doesn’t get booked or if they don’t come into services, it’s not really doing anything. It’s not that I don’t think you should at least signal that this [open drug use] is not lawful. I appreciate that we’re doing that, but I think with drugs like fentanyl, I’m not meeting people in recovery who are saying, ‘Yeah, the arrest alone was a deterrent to break the cycle.'”

What about employees and residents?

As understaffed city agencies tiptoe around enforcement, Mayor Bruce Harrell has once again refused to lead.

Rather than focus on the core responsibilities of his office, Harrell delegates the heavy lifting to his deputy mayors while he bounces between dinner parties and public appearances. He continues to downplay the city鈥檚 worsening homelessness crisis. His biggest 鈥渁ccomplishment鈥� downtown? Hanging a block away from where a large homeless contingent once stood. The kicker? The city didn鈥檛 even cover the electric bill鈥攐ne struggling business owner was unknowingly stuck paying for the power.

Now, half the homeless population that once filled downtown has simply migrated to Belltown, where they spend their days openly smoking fentanyl. The other half has trickled back into downtown, but are now spread out, avoiding concentrated visibility, giving off the impression that the mayor has been effective on tackling homelessness. He has not been.

The manager in Belltown says she has little hope that things will improve. Just days ago, there was another shooting. Cops pass through but rarely make arrests, even as addicts use drugs in plain sight. And those addicts? They鈥檙e not getting help鈥攖hey鈥檙e being abandoned to die in public while city leaders pretend their plan is working.

“It’s kind of terrifying when you see how people are reacting, people with open sores on their bodies, and they’re taking their clothes off when it’s raining or cold outside,” she said. “So it’s kind of terrifying. We’ve seen deaths out front. There have been a couple of people who have died and overdosed. And it breaks your heart when you see a young person out there overdosing. And it’s not once a week, it’s several times a week.”

Listen to The Jason Rantz Show on weekday afternoons from 3 p.m. 鈥� 7 p.m. on KTTH 770 AM (HD Radio 97.3 FM HD-Channel 3). Subscribe to the聽podcast here. Follow Jason Rantz on聽,听,听, and聽.