By reporter Steven Smalley

With the impetus coming from two meetings of emotional ? occasionally angry ? area residents, the City of?Seattle, including the police, got the message: Clean up illegal camping on local streets. Message received. With?new marching orders, the edict rolled into the laps of the rank-and-file cops. Magnolia Voice got an inside look into?what happened next.

Sergeant Paul Gracy, Sergeant-in-Charge of the West Precinct Community Police Team, is the genial face of?Seattle Police Department?s effort to keep the peace (among other duties) between parties regarding the issue of?illegal squatters. What initially began as vociferous complaints about heroin-dealing occupants in an RV parked in?the industrial part of Magnolia (read story here), quickly transitioned into an endeavor by SPD to move them out.
?We started out with 25 RVs between here and Queen Anne,? Gracy says. ?We were able to get a location?down by the armory for the RVs to park. We were able to remove all but three; two are [Magnolia] residents. They?keep moving every 72 hours, and one truly homeless gentleman who is living in an RV near Tent City.?
Following a drive around Magnolia, The Voice found that the troublesome RVs are gone, a cluster of which was?formerly parked off 20th?Avenue, Commodore Way, and other streets. One new RV was spotted on Thorndyke and?residents have already complained. For the most part though, the vehicles have decamped.
?They came up with the decision to move everyone onto Armory Way,? Gracy continued. ?We towed a couple?of vehicles that wouldn?t move. They weren?t operable. Then we started putting 72-hour stickers on the ones that?wouldn?t move. I would say [to campers] ?Look at this mess [you?ve] created here. It?s a safety issue now. What?can we do to assist you to better your position here???
Gracy explains not all want to change their lot. Many state their intention to stay in their current arrangement.
?One of the campers said he did not want to go live with the other RVs and campers because they were ?selling?drugs and stealing property.? He didn?t want to be in that environment.? Gracy says.
Other illegal campers have different reasons to stay put.
?The shelters have rules, and these folks don?t want to abide by the rules,? Gracy says. ?You have to be in and?out by certain time, you can?t have pets; they want to come and go when they want. They want to drink and do?their drugs. A lot of the shelters aren?t going to allow that.?
Meanwhile, following the clean up and evacuation of the illegal squatters from under the Garfield Street Bridge,?Magnolia Voice wanted to see where they went. It didn?t take long to find numerous campsites five blocks away in?the Kinnear Park greenbelt behind Taco Time on Elliott Avenue.
As Sgt. Gracy leads the way, beneath the trees we discover the same man who witnesses say was responsible?for the mounds of garbage under the bridge, pursuing identical behavior in his new home. After only a few days, a?new heap of trash piled up.

?Some of the folks at the tents and the RVs are what I call, ?shelter resistant,? they don?t want to go to shelters.?They want their own space. We ask them what their situation is, what their story is, what it is we could do to assist?them?? Gracy says. ?They need life coaches, someone to say, ?You?re not making good decisions.? You can eat for?free, you can sleep wherever you want, you could get your medical up at Harborview for free. There?s no?motivation. So that?s the big secret, how do you motivate these people? I got one gentleman motel vouchers for?two weeks. Then he got himself kicked out because he started having parties there all the time.?
Some say Seattle makes it too easy to live on the street. Gracy has seen it all.
?What?s the saying? If you build it they will come?? he says. ?The word is out on the street. Seattle is probably?one of the most homeless-friendly cities in the country. Is that good? Or is that bad? I?m not the judge of that. I?caught one girl shooting-up in a stairwell. I asked her what?s her plan? She said, ?I don?t go hungry. There?s no?way you could go hungry in Seattle.? I?m sure there are some groups who would be satisfied with that, but at what?expense??
What if Seattle stiffened its political will? What if the City took a harder line?
?Honestly, if you stopped providing services to them, they?ll go where they could get the services,? Gracy?says. ?Services like the feeding, we have two methadone clinics, places to sleep if you want to sleep, the freedom?to pitch a tent wherever you want. Let?s talk about the Jungle. There are 400 people now who made the decision?that?s where they want to reside. We?re going to go under there and take 400 people and say we are going to?sweep and clean the area and you can?t come back. ?Have a nice day?? You whack a mole here and it pops up?there. If I were king of the world I would put a dumpster down there and some Port-a-Potties, then do a real?intensive outreach and try to pluck people out of there a couple at a time.?

It?s clear the answer to illegal camping in Seattle isn?t as easy as telling them all to leave. Especially when the will to implement something that drastic isn?t in the cards downtown.
?People say, ?You cleaned up the Magnolia bridge,? Gracy continues. ?Yes we did. That?s what the community?wanted, they wanted immediate results. But we created another problem in the greenbelt by the park on Queen?Anne.?
Now it?s your turn Magnolia. Suggestions?
Our thanks go out to the Seattle Police Department and Sgt. Paul Gracy for their time.

By reporter Steven Smalley

For the 88th year in a row, the Ballard First Lutheran Church, led by Pastor Erik Wilson Weiberg, joined politicians, fishers, and community members Sunday afternoon to bless the commercial fishing fleet based at Fishermen?s Terminal.

?They bless one fishing vessel in honor of all of the fishermen who go out for the season,? says Julia Weisenburger, a member of the church choir. ?We like to think that God will watch over them and keep them safe.?
This year the vessel to receive the blessing on behalf of the entire fleet is the Sea Gem, owned by Captain Chris Cornwell of Bainbridge Island who was there with his family and crew.
Of the blessing Cornwell said, ?With the low prices today, it?s not a bad thing. We need all the help we can get.?

Also in attendance were King County Council Member Jeanne Kohl-Wells, who replaced the now retired Larry Phillips; Seattle Deputy Mayor Kate Joncas; Ross Perry, Port of Seattle, and many others.
The blessing was held in front of the bronze Seattle Fishermen’s Memorial at the docking facility. Dedicated in 1988, the plaque states: ?? As a tribute to the men, women, their families, and the members of the fishing community who have suffered the loss of life at sea.? The website for the memorial says it?s for ?The families of more than 675 local commercial fisherman and women who have lost their lives pursuing their livelihoods since the turn of the century.?

Kae Ellingsen was standing in the back of the event when she spoke with Magnolia Voice.
?My cousin?s name, Leroy Hansen, is on the wall over here,? she said. ?He died in 1983 on The Traveler. ?The Deadliest Catch shows what happens up there.?

By reporter Steven Smalley

An act of assault alleged in a complaint by Andrew Harris, a long-time employee of Magnolia 76 in the Village, got police involved Wednesday morning following a confrontation with a Central Protection security officer.
While Harris was sitting in his car around 11 a.m. just off Commodore Way, James Toomey, a security officer in his Central Protection vehicle, pulled up to Harris?s car and began pounding on the window, according to Harris.
?He said I was parked illegally, I was going to jail, and I was a criminal,? Harris alleges. ?I was doing nothing wrong, my car is legal. I was parked legally. I was licensed. I told him I felt I was being harassed for no reason.?
The trouble really began, Harris says, when he asked the security officer if he could ?record the conversation? with his phone.
After receiving the okay to record, Harris says, ?He slapped the phone out of my hand. The phone fell on the ground and shattered. I got down on my hands and knees to pick up my phone that was under the car, and he took out a can of pepper spray and started spraying me in the face with it. He chased me back to my car where he sprayed me seven or eight times. He handcuffed me and took me back to his SUV.?
The Fire Department arrived and washed off his face and rinsed out his eyes.
That?s just the beginning of the sticky part, according to Harris.
?He told me he was going to lie to the police,? he alleges. ?He said he was going to lie to the police and say I assaulted him.?
Seattle Police were eventually dispatched, which in turn got a supervisor called to the scene, followed by the on-duty sergeant, according to Harris.
Reports from Seattle Police were not available at this writing. No independent confirmation of this incident could be obtained. Magnolia Patrol Association (MPA), the local organization which contracts security services from Central Protection, was informed.
?I did receive the [Central Protection] report and all I can tell you is it?s a different version of what happened,? says MPA?s Joe Villarino. ?There?s no witnesses, so that?s why I think [Seattle Police Department] decided to forward the report to the prosecutors about [Harris?s] version of being pepper sprayed and handcuffed. Our policy is ?observe and report.? Our understanding is that [Toomey] observed and reported and then called the police.?
Calls and messages to Central Protection were not returned.
Harris wasn?t through with his story.
?Apparently, the police officers wanted to arrest the security guard. The officer said [the security guard] hit your phone so hard it flew all the way under his car to the other side,? Harris said. ?Everybody had seen the phone on the ground. Then [the security guard] left in his SUV, and my phone was gone.?
No one has seen the phone since.
?Honestly, I?ve always felt very safe in Magnolia,? Harris says. ?I felt afraid. It was the first time. I felt afraid in this neighborhood, and it doesn?t feel good. It makes me feel sad.?

We were hit hard in?yesterday’s storm.? Here are some pictures of the damage.

This 70 foot tree narrowly missed a house near Met Market

P.Scott Cummins sent these to us from the Discovery Park Loop Trail

This chicken was lost and found in the storm.

A tree fell on the power lines on 40th. For awhile the street was?closed to foot traffic. In the “Cutest News of the Day” category, a mom sent this in:

A tree down snapped electrical wires – they weren’t letting traffic (or the school bus) through so?our son?got his first ride in a police cruiser. I thought he was still on the bus as it left! Then I hear from an approaching cop car’s speaker? “Don’t worry mom, I’m coming.”

You can send us your stories and pictures at tips@magnoliavoice.com.

King County Executive Dow Constantine and Seattle Mayor Ed Murray are bringing together a wide range of experts to recommend immediate actions to confront the region’s growing heroin and prescription opiate epidemic. From the announcement:

More people in King County now enter detox for heroin than alcohol. In 2014, opiate overdose deaths were the highest ever recorded in King County — more than triple the number of deaths in 2009.

“Addiction to heroin and prescription pain killers is devastating families in every one of our communities — sparing no age, race, gender, neighborhood or income level,” said Executive Constantine. “Our region has a proud tradition of working together across disciplines to achieve a common goal. It’s now time for us to apply that same sense of shared purpose to confront this epidemic.”

“I have declared a State of Emergency to address homelessness, but I am told by our outreach workers and officers that hundreds of the people who live on our streets are struggling with addiction,” said Mayor Ed Murray. “If we are ever to get people into permanent housing, we must do more on chemical dependency treatment. That means asking the tough questions about how we improve our response to the national heroin epidemic and resulting property crime and disorder.”

Magnolia has been affected by?homelessness and addiction on our own streets.

You can read more about the plan here.

From instructor Laurie Sterling:

Have you been feeling stuck in your current life and wondering how to make a change in 2016 that sticks? Learn the top 4 reasons why new year?s resolutions fail and how to get past them and on to creating the life you love. Do you have a pretty good life yet still feel like there must be more?? That you don?t get to spend your time doing and being what you truly love?? That something is missing? Would you like to increase your success and stay in complete harmony with your highest values and spiritual beliefs? If these questions resonate for you, then you are going to love this seminar!

Details:

Tuesday, March 1st, 2016?? 6:00-7:30pm

Magnolia Branch Library

FREE

You will learn:?Two essential keys for tuning into your purpose.?A 5-point test for determining whether your dream is right for you.?Simple thinking-strategies that will guard you from fear, doubt and worry.??What wealthy people do that creates sustained success.??The number one factor that causes people to lose steam when going after a dream, and how to?stay motivated and override it.?A proven method for dissolving resistance you may have to prosperity so you can attract higher levels of results and abundance.?The 1 critical thing you must give up in order to reach your dream. And much more!

About Laurie Sterling:

Laurie has a masters degree in social work from the University of Washington and is also a Licensed Independent Clinical Social Worker.? She has worked with clients from all walks of life for nearly 30 years and helped them with creating happier, healthier lives.? Laurie is committed to helping you discover, build, and bring to life your dreams, so that you can live a life you truly love.

For more information:

Email: lauriesterling@gmail.com

360-908-0031

lauriesterling.DreamBuilderCoach.com