Seattle is a leading progressive city.
This is what progressivism looks like.
One SoDo business says it’s had enough of Seattle’s problems and is moving out of town. Owner Mark Benezra claims that other businesses in town feel the same way.
“I’m moving my business out of Seattle city limits, not only because of the homeless situation, but because of a variety of factors; definitely the tone and tenor of the city hasn’t helped the situation,” Benezra told the Dori Monson Show.
The “tone and tenor” from Seattle officials, according to Benezra, is a toleration of the homeless problem and poor treatment of local businesses. He’s witnessed the homeless issue get worse around his business, Buffalo Industries, located in SoDo since the 1940s.
“I haven’t seen the area look as bad as it looks currently, the homeless problem has become an issue,” he said. “Not just for us, but for all the surrounding businesses. We also own some other properties, as well, down here and it’s a constant problem.”
At Buffalo Industries, people often sneak into the loading dock area where heavy machinery is operating, Benezra said. They go through the trash and he says they frequently kick people out. They also find discarded syringes on the ground.
“We periodically have people defecating in our parking lot; that’s always not a good look,” he said.
ht/ illustr8r
It was a shithole 20 years ago, I couldn’t imagine now.
Finally an example of a run down, shot-up, burned out, poverty-stricken, urine-soaked, rat-infested, crime-ridden, feces-friendly city run by democRATS actually delivering on their promise of Free Shit!!
I know it’s not not easy for businesses to move, but that is the only thing commie city councils understand. The entire day shift should take a dump on the steps of City Hall as they leave.
Seattle is weird as crap. All the freaks who were too weird for CA moved there so that should tell you something
Seattle is Typical of any city controlled by the left. Abhorrent public behavior has tacit approval if not openly encouraged. The streets become open sewers, the so called homeless migrate there because of lax conditions. The left never seems to see far enough ahead to envision the consequences of their decisions.
I lived in Seattle briefly 30 years ago. The homeless problem was big news then, too. I shudder to think how much worse the city has become in the intervening years.
During a visit to Seattle in 2007, I took a picture of a park in the Chinatown area without thinking about the fact there were three or four people (apparently homeless) in the picture.
One of them follows me down the block and into a restaurant where my wife and a friend were waiting to get a table and DEMANDS I pay him for taking his picture. (Now note, he was about 50 to 75 yards away from where I took the picture, there was no way anyone could tell who was in the picture.) He was even going to try and use the “I’m a veteran and you better treat me with respect” act until he noticed I too was wearing a veteran jacket.
He finally left after threatening me that if I published his picture anywhere he was going to come after me.
The homeless in Seattle act like they own the city and can shake down any tourist for whatever they want. Apparently they believe this because the city government encourages them to.
Hey Seattle…ever wonder if Amazon’s search for a “second headquarters” might really be a search for new “first headquarters”? Just a thought. But hey, if they leave, maybe you’ll get your “soul” back…
https://mobile.nytimes.com/2017/10/20/opinion/how-amazon-took-seattles-soul.html?referer=https://www.google.com/
Must be reaching some kind of tipping point. Businessmen who are good at “business” should have realized they were doing business in a declining situation long before now. Not being a businessman, I don’t understand what could induce one to hang on while the city, literally, turned into a vast toilet.
Sentiment, perhaps?
Don’t know if it’s a good idea to be the last human out.
izlamo delenda est …
strong virtues built a beautiful city.
strong values destroyed it.
As a former White Center ( affectionately known as “Rat City” ) resident, I had the sense to leave Seattle 30 years ago when the city was invaded by grunge rock worshipping heroin addicts and the Asian gangs murdered someone in front of my house in broad daylight… the writing was on the wall even then.
@Tim October 20, 2017 at 7:49 am
Usually it’s cost. Most businesses, just like most residents, are not Jeff Bezos. Many residents, everywhere, don’t have a minimum wage, national chain, job covering their expenses comfortably, while renting everything too large to personally carry. Moving, for residents, means securing a new, reliable source of income, to get completely “out”, or securing a “truck load” of money in the bank, to burn through to get completely “out”. Then walking away from any immobile “assets”. Most businesses run on even thinner “savings” (see “farmer rich”), need way more expensive “new digs”, and face an even grimmer market for their “old digs” than residents. So, many people, residents and businesses, hold out until they’re ready to throw in the towel, for good, not box it up to send somewhere “better”.
Can’t wait for those safe heroin zones to be implemented to solve these problems.
Seattle is a metaphor for the typical liberal. Upon first glance it is beautiful with its skyscrapers and the Space Needle gleaming against a mountain and Puget Sound backdrop but it is upon examination of its interior that exposes its rotting underbelly.
Seattle sounds quaint compared to San Francisco. Last time I was there I saw in a 5 block stretch: a guy smoking meth while driving, two guys shooting up and a woman shitting at the corner of a busy intersection. This a 4pm. What I didn’t see were cops. Not there fault, they are told to take care of the violence first- which is out of control too.
The city has become infested with rats. The homeless have set up camps in any space where a tent will fit & then turn the spot into a garbage dump. Every few month the city cleans them up & get this,they put the vagrants “stuff” in storage units for them. Usually within two days they return & put their camp back up. We now have the highest property crime rate in the country along with some of the highest housing costs in the country. The city has basically stopped enforcing any laws against the homeless & its quickly become a third world slum.
Seattleites control well over a trillion dollars and most of them are flaming, hard core, life long liberals. Nothing will change and a few whiney business owners leaving will never make a difference. Quitters will just make room for more squatters, druggies, and bums. Very sad. Portland is getting to be just as bad. Run by the same kind of people.
Homeless? I like the phrase my Dad used, “BUMS”.
I rarely go to any park in Seattle. The smell of marijuana is sickening, needled in the grass. As a kid, many decades ago, it was safe to run barefoot in any park. Not anymore.
Anonymous,
Thanks. Hadn’t thought of that.
But isn’t that sort of like a seller chasing falling home prices?
izlamo delenda est …
I still go to Seattle. I shop in Chinatown, eat at the restaurants etc. Visit the galleries and so forth. There are bad problems, but it is not nearly what some of you people who have never even been there think.
Pbird has blinders on. I’ve lived here for over twenty years. I’ve seen it go from homelessness,to homeless problem to homeless plague. Seattle is close to being a homeless version of the walking dead. The police have been told not to enforce or report crimes done by these people. I know because I’ve talked to sever Leo’s who told me so. The plan is to blame capitalism,enact socialist policies & when they fail,blame capitalism again in order to enact mor socialist policies.