West Seattle Mutual Aid Party

Last night I did a very un-Seattle thing: I participated in a @weheartseattle panel discussion about some of Seattle’s most polarizing, hot button issues - homelessness and addiction - with people “on the other side” with whom I substantively disagree on some important and consequential things. I feel like we dipped below the surface of what divides us as we talked about seemingly incompatible approaches like “Recovery First” vs. “Housing First,” which has some value, but even better I also think we just scratched the surface of where we actually (in some instances surprisingly) converged towards some important and potentially consequential opportunities to find common ground. No doubt @lisadaugaard and I will take some flack for engaging in good faith dialogue with, rather than condemning, San Francisco-based recovery advocate @Twolfrecovery and Washington Policy Center’s Eric Zimmerman, at an event organized by @weheartfounder Andrea Suarez no less, and moderated by @KIROCharlie Harger, but I’m glad I did it. Naive fool and unrepentant sellout that I am, it seems to me we would benefit from more of these sorts of nuanced and sometimes fraught conversations, rather than dining out yet again on the oh-so-satisfying empty calories of self-righteous condemnation and tribal self-congratulatory groupthink that still dominates much of the menu of Seattle’s civic discourse these days.

Stephenie Turner testified before a grand jury about her missing friend Elizabeth Gibson, who authorities say was killed by Jesse Calhoun in 2022. Two days later, the city impounded her motorhome and car.

‘Boy in the tent’ enters school for the first time at age 10: ‘I want to go back’ kiro7.com/news/local/boy-ten…

There are about 42 states that DON'T have this problem so there is another way just visit any non sanctuary state or states that actually put things in action and not just empty promises and you'll see.

How about you spend just 2 days, matching Andrea hour for hour on the street, and then report back to us. The homeless are given free housing, free drug paraphernalia but you don’t seem concerned with how they pay for their drugs. Theft, prostitution, dealing etc..

A late night trying to get this 18-year-old girl — arrested for fentanyl possession — into a safe stay, medical detox, and recovery path. The plan was ready… until LEAD (Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion) had to get involved. She took off. This is why we keep losing kids to these streets. We need treatment FIRST not more programs that let them walk away. Watch how the system breaks down. 😰 @SeaCityAttorney @MayorofSeattle There has to be teeth to these diversion programs.