Belltowner takes action against the neighborhood drug problem

This person using the word "bum" to describe other human beings. I hope they realize that this YouTube page puts them under media scrutiny. I'll ask Tim Harris at Real Change what he thinks, then start digging for information about this cowardly, racist, anonymous poster.

I don't interpret the anonymous video poster's intent as anything cowardly or racist. I see them as one individual who feels like many of us in the neighborhood that this illegal activity is not being dealt with consistently. I realize living in the city exposes us to an unfortunate side of society but what's wrong with trying to make our neighborhood a safe, clean place to live?

Alex Mayer sounds like a big baby who has nothing better to do than some internet detective work to find out who someone trying to clean up their neighborhood is. I'm sure he wouldn't be singing the same tune if these bums and degenerates were doing crack and shitting on his front lawn. Stop being a troll . There also was nothing racist about any of it.

We need more people like the Belltown resident who posted these video's. I'll let Tim speak for himself. I'm the property manager where this kind of activity takes place 24 hours a day. We're sick of it. I'm all for it.

Alex - Are you blind, or do you just live in the burbs? Come down to Belltown at 4pm one afternoon and bring your three year old niece that is visiting you and explain to her why that man is giving himself multiple shots in the arm, when she asks, "Why isn't he getting shots from the doctor?", like she does. Three year olds, or any of us for that matter, should never witness grown men shooting heroin in front of our home.

Also, why are you even stating racism? I do not see anything racist about the videos I watched. Is that just a keyword you use to get more hits on your comments?

Alex-- Expand your Vocab. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/bum

Pay attention to definitions 1, 2, 4, 8, 9, 10, 11.

Humans act in a humane way. Bums act like bums.

To anonymous responders on the anonymous Belltowner.com blog:

I talked with Tim at Real Change yesterday and he wasn't offended by the word "bum." He says "it's in the vernacular." I trust him on these things.

Remind me to not post to this blog without having had my coffee.

These voyeuristic crackhead videos on YouTube are nothing new. I enjoyed the seamy, exploitative coverage on the local TV news. The condo videotapers should get Michael Powell's classic film "Peeping Tom" on NetFlix.

Oh, and I live in the suburbs, in Seward Park. Our editor, Clark, lives in Belltown and he'll be better equipped to deal with this issue if he wishes to do so.

I have connections in the Belltown "crackhead" community and just may start work on a story. I'll be actually face to face with these people, so we can get their side of the story as well as that of the residents.

In most major cities, people smoke crack in alleys. Some people videotape this activity from the safety of their condos. I find it all rather unsavory and fascinating.

I'm glad people have started posting comments to Belltowner.com!

Cheers,

-Alex

I was born in Seattle in 1959, and have been a member of Seattle's crack community for about twenty years. We have always considered Belltown our home: a safe, open environment in which to practice our lifestyle. In the 1990s Californians and other yuppies looked longingly on our 'hood and therein built concrete fortresses rising up into the sky. Then, suddenly, and with shock, they noticed there were people already living there. These denizens -- call us, say, Injuns, or pick your own analogy -- are unsavory to yuppies. Now, armed with video cameras, they aim to drive us out. Where to, Queen Anne? Might as well send us to Lubbock, Texas, for all the hospitality we could expect there. If I had a video camera I'd record you not picking up after your dog, trolling for hookers in your Beemers, insulting the waitstaff at Mama's. But I don't own a video camera. Tell you what. Next time you spy on me, give me a whistle and I'll flash you a moon. You'll be a YouTube star.

JDW,

Yes, me not picking up a dog turd is just as offensive as you lighting up and smoking crack. Well, I don't think the law sees it that way. We don't want you to go to Queen Anne -- we want you to go to jail (or at least to rehab)! It's that simple!

I'll gladly turn myself into the local police station for not picking up some dog poop and you can turn yourself in for smoking crack. Let's see who ends up with a ticket and who ends up in jail.

You don't have a right to practice crime in any neighborhood in the city and kudos to the people in Belltown fighting against you. If the videos on youtube are bringing about change from the police/mayor/city council, then keep 'em coming.

I think these videos are horrible.

The lady videotaping should be ashamed of herself.

The people she is taping are the most desperate and vulnerable people in the city, and she is exposing them to the wrath of the police.

What did they ever do to her? (besides lower the profit for her overpriced condominium).

These are her neighbors. She is a peeping tom.

Good for her. Anyone has the right to live without fear and intimidation, and having crackheads in your ally is just that.

This afternoon I was walking through Belltown on the way to MarketOptical only to see a bum drop his pants and take a dump in middle of sidewalk on 1st ...

A group of tourists from Europe could not believe their eyes.

Couple of points. Yes, we are disgusting. We find ourselves disgusting. It's understood that if you go into a downtown alley in any large city except, say, Pyongyang, you will find disgusting people. Why doesn't our young videographer understand this? Maybe it should be taught in prep school. Secondly, I know I don't have the right to smoke crack. I can't help it. But it's not clear to me that anyone has the right to videotape strangers in a public place, post it, and call them crackheads. I suppose it's okay if they're committing crimes. But in many of the young lady's videos not much is happening. Example: "Crackheads playing football." No crack in evidence. No crimes. In one video a girl pees, a misdemeanor. The vid is called "Hooker pisses." Hooker? What? Yeah, we're disgusting, always have been. But there's a special room in hell for the preening, mocking, self-congratulatory, disgustingly anonymous crackhead voyeur who cranked out this porn.

In Hooker Pisses, she is a hooker. I live in Belltown and have actually seen her perform
"services".

It is unlawful for her to be audio recording these people without their consent under Washington law. She can video tape them all she wants in a public place, but audio conversations are different.

Aside from that, I think she needs to realize she lives in Belltown and get over it. Her comments comparing Detroit to Seattle prove to me she never lived anywhere in the city limits of Detroit, this sort of stuff wouldn't even get a second glance in The D. Don't compare your youth in Harrison Township to inner city life.

Wow, AFF. You're a dumbass. Your comments prove to me that you've never been to the City of Detroit. Good job on using google maps to find a suburb of Detroit though. If you knew anything about the Detroit area you would have said Birmingham. Oh, and the last time I checked and alley was a public place. Just because you don't want to be seen, doesn't mean you're not in public.

MCB, I spent time on the street in Detroit as a kid and my reaction to the videotaper's Detroit roots was much like AFF's, only like you, I thought of Birmingham. Maybe she figured life in almost overwhelmingly gentrified Belltown would be easier than trying to join the fledgling gentrification effort in Detroit. From what I've seen over the past 25 years here, our dopeheads aren't usually as heavily armed or as quick on the trigger.

On a more serious note, as a city, we've retreated from providing resources to those who need them most (housing, treatment beds, etc). We've failed to put money into adequate levels of policing. We don't even provide public restrooms in most of the city. So why does any of what we see on these tapes come as a surprise? This is the city we've created.

AFF, RDV,

actually she went to wayne state. she was semimisquoted i think because what she said to me was that she felt safer on campus because the cops would actually come when we called and campus was very safe, so was our apartment (trolly plaza for those of you that know). we actually felt very safe as two woman in detroit, we never had a problem or an issue and the few times there were crack smokers and drug deals we would call the police and they would come asap.

i know she wasnot happy about the news taking the twist that detroit was safer. detroit has 300 murders a year we know that. but DOWNTOWN detroit is much much safer and you rarely see crimes or crackheads and same with wayne states campus. both areas are heavily policed and when you call the police for crimes like prostitution and fights the police would respond. also you would see officers all the time either walking on campus or downtown patrolling in their cars.

i think you are naive if you believe everything you read in the news and even the quotes are not correct and somehow paraphrasing what someone says and putting quotes around it is ok?

one last thing... i visited her in seattle a month back and walking back from the bars where she lives is freaking scary!

here is proof of detroits safety!
http://www.scribd.com/doc/334555/Reality-vs-Perceptions-An-Analysis-of-Crime-and-Safety-in-Downtown-Detroit

Next stop:The Twilight Zone?

That's what the bus driver said when we were going to get to the stop on 1st and Bell a little over a year ago when I first moved here (Belltown) from PDX. I think that's been one of the best names I've ever heard for Belltown, and that's because the kind of things you can witness in this colorful neighborhood. For instance if you adventure to go through the alleys you might find "crackwhores" on action, or maybe "crackheads" smoking crack, or even creepier, if you look up you could see someone who has a thing for "crack" users and likes to film people while smoking or going to the lowest because and for crack.

Please don't kill Belltown's folklore!!

The opinions are divided about this situation. Thus I propose something that might not fix the problem but could make a profit. Let's put all the homeless in the alleys across the hood! this is how it works:

Homeless people are aware that they are disgusting so if they are in the alleys no one gets to see them so more tourists would come and even the local people would like to go out more often and spend money. For the condo owners this means that they have access to prime time reality entertainment with live shows such as the "Ultimate Bum Championship" or "American High-dol"... Just imagine all the condo prices would raise like a rocket taking-off to the space.

OK, must chime in here. Born and raised in Birmingham (Michigan) but managed to escape the attitudes that permeate the area and experience some of the rest of the world. I've lived in some of the largest and crime-rich cities around including Flint, City of Detroit, Houston, Chicago, DC, etc. I moved to Seattle about 8 years ago and spent time on the east side (Kirkland) and out in the boonies (Snohomish), moving to Belltown almost 3 years ago.

I worked in Pioneer Square for the first year and a half of my downtown living. I encountered bums (I don't know what the PC term is - not all were homeless so it's "bum" or "vagrant" here to describe the various characters who ask for everything from money to food to cigarettes to sex) daily down in PS. And you know what? Only once...ONCE...did any of these bums get nasty or violent. Most were relatively polite, sure some were wackos, but I really never felt much danger in my daily interactions with them. Not like what I experience up here in Belltown. Around here, I am afraid to lift my eyes and look around sometimes, seriously. I hear fights, yelling, sirens, on a daily basis. The standard "hey baby" type behavior around here gets nasty and aggressive and just about every weekend, I see an RV style paddy wagon from the SPD parked in front of the crack park.

What's the primary difference between this area and Pioneer Square? I don't think there's one specific element. Perhaps it's the additional resources for those struggling to get well around here - you've got the Recovery Center, the YWCA (which is also lovely to walk past), some low cost medical care (wasn't there a shooting there not long ago?), WorkSource...options available. And then there's crapholes like Kelly's Pub which, imho, plays a major factor in this. It seems to be open about 20 hours a day and it doesn't matter what time you walk near that area, there are scaries hanging around outside.

Would I take downtown Detroit over Seattle? Hell no. All you have to do is have your car break down in Cass Corridor or over by Marygrove/U of D as a single pale woman once to realize how fast your life can flow from your body. But the difference is that you don't have vast amounts of wealth within a couple of blocks of these areas.

And anonanon, you're a nitwit. She videotaped them, just as I photograph them, to show how obvious, how oblivious, and how widespread this problem is. I don't take the photos for kicks, I do it because I simply can't believe what I'm seeing. It's not because it lowers the value of my apartment, it's because I'm positively floored that people in this town get tickets for jaywalking and yet this goes on in broad daylight.

I have worked in Belltown for over ten years, and am completely familiar (much more, seemingly, than Mr. Mayor) with the horror that has become this neighborhood. Here's a few items:

1. It is beyond me why there are folks protesting the woman for videotaping The Episodes In The Alley. What she did was not illegal. The illegal part was when the people smoked crack, peed and screwed in the alley. All she did was expose this to those who might not know it existed to the extent that it does. For those who just want to point their fingers at the woman taking the videotapes, why not instead recognize that there's a huge problem and set about doing proactive things to try and solve it? Which, in my opinion, is EXACTLY what this woman has done. At the very least, it's a step in the right direction.

2. I think some people might be seeing her videotaping as more of a voyeuristic exercise instead of what it is - physical evidence of how bad things are here. If the crime in Belltown didn't exist, we wouldn't be seeing videotapes of it on You Tube – it’s as simple as that.

3. You can't know how bad things have become in Belltown unless you live/work here on a daily basis. If you don't live/work here, you can't properly understand what's happening. This is what makes it so difficult to get the message out about our neighborhood’s decline.

4. On a personal note, I wish I could say that I felt more affected by the footage in the videos. I don't, not really, and this saddens me more than anything, because it makes me see how accepting and jaded I've become. In the last 10 years, I've seen people having sex, smoking crack, taking dumps in my work parking lot in the middle of a week day, fights, drug deals, drug deals gone wrong (two different things), a woman in her early 20's collapsing by my boss's car because she had slit her wrists with a piece of broken glass, people sitting on the sidewalk with a pile of garbage they've just scooped out of the dumpster, picking through and eating wet, mildewed bread, crack whores screaming insults at each other while the frightened two-year-old daughter of Crack Whore A. stands helplessly off to the side.......I've seen all this and more, and the one thing I want to see is something I'm finally starting to see: action towards stopping all of this. Getting involved, for me, is the only way to get me out of my jaded attitude. I applaud the woman who took the videotapes for her intelligence and guts. I just wish more people did the same.

First the Pearl district in portland and now this. When will these yuppie bastards end. Fascist pigs should have gone out with Hitler Or they should go live in Disneyland and let the rest of us get on with our lives.