It's a shame they want to spend half of our property taxes from homeowners on a Downtown we don't want to go to, instead of our neighborhoods we do want to go to.

Like Ballard, Fremont, Greenwood, Phinney Ridge, Capitol Hill, and points south.

Remember: they want to INCREASE your taxes to provide police subsidies to "Downtown" that aren't justified and actually don't have a "crime wave".

"As the city continues to fail to adequately address crime, homelessness, and the root issue of poverty,"

Substance abuse, not poverty, is the root cause of homelessness in Seattle. (In a recent survey of Seattle's homeless population conducted by JustCARES, 88% of respondents asked for help with substance abuse.) The Stranger's chronic and ongoing failure to recognize this fact not only renders worthless the Stranger's statements on homelessness; it actively impedes Seattle's efforts to address the crisis.

Instead of whining about how business leaders actually want downtown free of tents, petty crimes, and drug use, the Stranger should look at itself, the candidates and politicians it has supported, and how those have contributed to failures of public policy.

I can imagine that going to a DSA gathering - indoors - with food and drinks - would seem like a circle jerk.
However, all the walking I’ve done in the last week from pioneer square to lower Queen Anne is a stark reminder of how badly downtown has been decimated. I can point to well over a dozen businesses and lunch spots I used to go to during or after my workday downtown. They are gone, never to return.

Oh Hannah, just wait till nibble at the superior hors d'oeuvres and enjoy the finer wines at GSBA functions.

the Activist Class
rubbing the Business
Class's poor noses in the dirt
like nobuddy's Bidness. oh the in-
Humanity of the Hideous Name-calling

when will they
Learn to Just
stfu already?

worse than
Crows!

"Kruse piled onto this victim-narrative, asking Nelson how she’d ever convince her colleagues to listen to downtown businesses."

Maybe cite the example of the Stranger's most recent endorsed candidate for mayor, then-City Council President Gonzalez? She snubbed the DSA, en route to her career-crushing citywide landslide defeat.

this city is for the poor and very rich now.

@9 -- yep.
you could even
swap 'city' for Planet.
gonna Need a
LOT More
Po-po.

Sleep experts agree year long DST is a disaster and that STANDARD TIME is the smart and healthy way to go
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2022/mar/19/daylight-savings-permanent?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

@6: Pure disingenuous malarkey.

Drugs. Say it. DRUGS.

The stranger's stance on supporting the homeless and rationalizing their every move -- while throwing out businesses -- is ignorant at best. YOU are the problem; the very perfect embodiment of it.

Journalists have the power to give a voice to the everyman in this city. You have the potential, the influence and reach, to bring real conversations to the table, to effect actual, needed change to Seattle. Instead, THIS is what you chose.

Good piece. You can tell that these business owners don't actually want to solve crime or homelessness. Their solutions are always self interested. Also, it should be pointed out, since commenters seem confused, that homelessness is highly correlated with the cost of housing and not with mental illness and drug use; both of which tend to come after long bouts of homlessness.

@17: Great! Hannah can at least reference your myopic remarks for validation.

Bigfoot… there are other places to live that have far fewer people that are homeless. My dad used to say never send a boy to do a man’s job. Hanna is a girl trying to do a woman’s job.

This Downtown Seattle Association group-grope is like diplomats holding a meeting in neutral territory to chew the fat, pat each other on the back and say, “please pass the shrimp”.

Not a very effective venue for crafting city policy or getting anything substantive accomplished.

Hannah Krieg performs good journalistic work, portraying the uselessness of this entire process, and we’re in Kamala Harris territory with the incoherent City Attorney Ann Davison remark:

“…The longer we ignore someone and the fact that something's not working for them, the longer we have a major pathway to help relationships to feeling like a sense of purpose to feel a person that they know is a contributing member of society. That is really the ultimate goal…”

How’s that for a serving of word salad?

Prolonged cow farts do not address city policy issues.

Interesting that she won the election over better qualified candidate Nicole Thomas-Kennedy, who had some real ideas for policy improvements to deal with crime and urban deterioration.

There is a theory in politics that voters tend to go with safe candidates who are more conservative and dovetail with established ways, no matter how ineffective, and the election of Ann Davison, who may in fact be mentally deranged, tends to reinforce that argument.

The real dilemma facing the City of Seattle is not so much crime and homelessness, but rather ineffective leadership, which may be the actual crime, as we see from these ceremonial gatherings that provide the illusion of pro-active city management, whereas the reality is everyone’s fluffing up their feathers, polishing their brass and not really accomplishing anything concrete.

One concern for downtown Seattle is the need for zoning to encourage businesses to locate there, so it doesn’t become hollowed-out like Detroit.

The city should provide tax incentives, so the downtown area comes alive again, particularly the Third Avenue corridor, which is the backbone of the downtown vicinity, and has lost numerous businesses of late, due to myriad issues like increased crime and homelessness, not to mention encroaching housing development, which serves a relevant purpose, but replaces independent businesses with antiseptic housing complexes.

We should make the downtown area user friendly again, so people will want to visit and spend money, which is good for the economy and reinforces the tax base.

Certainly Xanadu, the comic bookstore was outmoded by the internet, however certain experiences like art galleries and restaurants are irreplaceable, and Seattle should move in the direction of encouraging these establishments to proliferate.

Imagine a city like Paris, with the sidewalks alive and thriving with visitors interacting with each other and invigorating the urban landscape.

Oh yes, and spending money, which is good for the economy and expands the Seattle tax base.

One key ingredient for a happy, prosperous urban environment is the enforcement of laws and standards.

If a displaced person or transient is living on the street or engaging in anti-social or perhaps murderous behavior, as mentioned above, law-enforcement should escort them to the nearest charity or homeless shelter, where their basic requirements can be appropriately addressed.

Don’t let these lost souls roam the streets and wreak havoc, although their drug-dependency and poverty should be noted and respectfully addressed.

Let’s not be like city leadership and ignore this social decay because it is invisible from their homes in Portage Bay or Phinney Ridge, for example.

"My dad used to say never
send a boy to do a man’s job.

Hanna is a girl trying
to do a woman’s job."

bet your Daddy's
Proud as Punch
he turned out
such a nice
Bully.

wtgd

@22: That's not bullying.

nah. you're prolly right.*
just a little Mysogyny
nothing to See here

his Mom must
be So proud.

thnx! for clearing
that up dipshit

*your Batting
Avg is so
Stellar

@17: Since you seem confused, drug addictions, including opiate addictions, drove homelessness. Washington State was one of many states to sue Purdue Pharma over creating the opioid epidemic (e.g. https://www.atg.wa.gov/news/news-releases/result-ag-ferguson-s-challenge-sacklers-purdue-settlement-washington-will-receive). Note the amounts of money the state will receive are roughly equivalent to the amount of money which Seattle alone spends in just one year on homeless services.

You also might want to learn about how correlation does not imply causation.

@23, 24
apologies for the 'dipshit'
it was gratitutous and unnecessary

Hannah, it may have escaped your notice, but those business people create jobs and prosperity.

They are not the problem, but rather they are an integral part of the solution... providing jobs, help, support and opportunity. What they ask for is the rule of law on the streets.... which the vast majority seems to feel is quite reasonable.

I understand your "business people oppress the working class" myopic glazed vision doesn't allow an alternative thought process at this delicate time of your journalistic or rather prenatal slogistic development, but you really must try to see past this disabilty.