Sarah Weddington was 27 when she argued Roe v. Wade — the youngest person ever to win in the Supreme Court. Today is the 45th anniversary of the landmark case that legalized abortion in the U.S. Young people have the power to change the world.
Yes but also it’s okay if you do not save the world by age 27. You’re still great.
Local news is doing its best to whip up the masses and get some torches lit by desperately trying to spin the results of a survey to confirm the worst stereotypes about unsheltered folks.
ECB pointed it out on Twitter:
Now, of course, the alternative headline could be “Over 87% of homeless surveyed are locals” but that’s not quite as exciting. And it doesn’t play into one of the ugliest stereotypes that people who don’t like the idea of using tax dollars to help people who are down on their luck: That providing services actually beckons people into the city.
If you’re new-ish in these parts, you may not have caught wind of the idea of “Freattle,” which is a disparaging name people call the city when they’re trying to shout down attempts to help the homeless. But indeed, a whole lot of folks (mostly homeowners, mostly those who were able to buy their homes back when housing was cheap, mostly Boomers) reject the idea of providing services because they think it’s a Field of Dreams kind of situation.
Time and again, though, the data has refuted that idea. And, really, it shouldn’t fucking matter, anyway.
Time and again, though, the data has refuted that idea. And, really, it shouldn’t fucking matter, anyway.
We have seen substantial year-over-year increases in homelessness in large part because housing prices have soared and a lot of people aren’t benefiting from the tech and building booms. And these numbers indicate that it’s not because people are flocking to town to take advantage of our cushy services—they indicate that a lot of our neighbors are in trouble. And even if they were new to the region, so are a lot of people and also human beings deserve to fucking live indoors regardless of where they’re from.
70% of people said the last time they had stable housing, it was in Seattle.
14% were veterans (and most were fully unsheltered)
23% had a history of foster care.
40% of the people surveyed had some sort of job.
Almost ¼ attended college.
Most that moved here did so because they had friends or family or because they had a job.
Here’s a quote that was collected, which MyNorthwest did not choose to include:
“When I was younger, for a couple of months I lived at a bus stop. This life is what I know. When they put me in foster care for a couple of years, I didn’t do very well. I’m not used to having a room and a place like that so I was always running away.”
The unsheltered community represents a cross-section of some of our biggest social failures, the places where we collectively have allowed holes to form and remain agape.
The idea that people living outside are somehow fundamentally different from us or the people we know—that they aren’t just like our own kids or friends or family—makes it a lot easier to sleep in our warm houses, knowing that they’re out there, wet and cold and lonely and lost and trying to stay alive. But it’s a false narrative that we tell ourselves and the numbers show it.
Transit lanes are a great idea in theory, because they help move buses more quickly through the city. However, like so many other things, they are hard to enforce and people will just fucking drive in them in their cars because YOLO.
This week, though, the City (and SPD) will be beefing up transit late enforcement, so now’s a good time to brush up on the rules.
Monday through Friday from 6 a.m. to 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. to 6:30 p.m., 3rd Ave becomes a bus- (and bike-)only corridor, intended to move transit riders around during peak hours. About 45% of downtown workers commute via transit, so moving them quickly in and out of the city is a key component for keeping in-town congestion at bay.
And yet, on any given day, there are oodles of cars sitting on 3rd during rush hour.
SDOT and SPD will also be warning and citing motorists who “block the box,” i.e. do that fucking terrible thing where they creep into the intersection and block it and completely fuck with the flow of traffic AND put people’s lives at risk.
“Blocking the intersection enforcement helps address vehicles that illegally stop in the intersection impeding traffic, and safe pedestrian crossing. This effort is a part of Seattle’s Vision Zero plan to end traffic deaths and serious injuries by 2030,” explains the City.
Do not do this thing. It’s an asshole thing to do.
The City does these enforcement pushes fairly frequently; last month, they focused on Pike Street’s BAT. Because, though money for enforcement is tight, keeping a constant reminder that there are rules and that they exist for a reason seems to be enough of a priority to keep it going.
Yes! Almost every time I ride the bus home I get stuck sitting in 3rd a block from my office for longer than it would take me to walk home because of jerks who block the box. So I usually walk unless it’s well after 6, even if it’s raining fairly hard. I won’t be able to do that when I move to Ballard. I’m probably not going to ride my bike in the winter when it’s gross and/or dark, let’s be real (and safe).
Because everyone I know and my mom will see it. But this is what I just wrote and didn’t post:
I have really mixed feelings about Facebook memories. Sometimes it shows me great memories with people I love and miss. Sometimes it shows me stuff that doesn’t make any sense out of context and I wish I could see related posts. Sometimes it shows me stuff from periods of time when I was a horribly embarrassing and awkward person. A lot of the time it shows me memories with people that I loathe for good reason but still feel nostalgic about, or people I really miss but I click on their names and their profiles show that they are still bffs with a terrible dude who doesn’t care that his friend and guest sexually assaulted someone in his house. Or, you know, other people from that time period/friend group [read: college] who did and said terrible, misogynistic things when I was too dumb to know better than to hang out with them just because they were clever. And it makes me SUPER UNCOMFORTABLE.
People are so funny. At the height of summer’s hot, sunny days we long for cool rain, and in the middle of our dark, rainy falls we crave the sun. Today was the first day in a very long while that it’s rained in Seattle. And everyone flipped out.
But also, we don’t have air conditioning. We do have heat. And sweaters.
I’ve been leaving two bowls of water out this week because it’s been so hot and two dogs apparently drink way more than one. Tilly just drank out of both, as if to see which one tasted better. So cute! She really is a good dog.
I can’t wait until she leaves and Dobby and I are alone again, and someone owes me 10 days of dogsitting. I am a bad person.
