Trigger warning: Threats of violence, profanity. This article contains actual threats made to the school board president and her family that are both violent and profane.
Out of 107 Seattle Public School sites, two had unhoused people living on or near them with students set to return for hybrid, in-person learning last month. This was during an ongoing pandemic that has increased the number of people living outside in tents by 50%. One encampment was at Meany Middle School on Capitol Hill at the edge of the Central District, where 41 unhoused people accepted referrals for temporary housing in April. The other camp is at Broadview Thompson K-8 in the North End, where about 50-60 tents are currently set up on the other side of a recess yard fence, spread out in clusters down a slope towards Bitter Lake.
KOMO’s Eric Johnson released his Fight for the Soul of Seattle, a follow-on to his earlier Seattle is Dying. For 90 minutes, Johnson alternates between his narration of scenes of people in crisis on our streets and interviews with people who support his overall thesis that drugs — and our laissez-faire approach to addressing their impact on the residents of Seattle — are the problem.
By now, you’ve probably seen or at least heard about KOMO 4’s “Seattle Is Dying” documentary — it gained more than 4 million views online alone. The hour-long documentary is plagued with sensationalized claims, like “We don’t have homeless crisis, we have a drug crisis” (in one of the most expensive rental markets in America), and a menacing soundtrack that rivals Law & Order: SVU.
