The June Queen Anne Community Council meeting last Wednesday night was highlighted by a visit from Seattle Police Department’s West Precinct Captain Joe Kessler and Sergeant Paul Gracy – both natives of the Queen Anne/Magnolia area.

The crime rates in Queen Anne remain relatively low, said Kessler.

“Overall Queen Anne is one of the safest areas around,” said Kessler.

Violent crime rates are down only a little from the same time last year, but Kessler said they weren’t that high to begin with. Car prowls and car thefts are down significantly from the same time last year. Burglaries, however, are up slightly.

“Burglaries are one of those tough ones for us,” said Kessler. “Personally, I hate burglaries. Short of a violent crime, I think one of the worst things that can happen to you as a citizen is to have a burglary.”

Burglaries tend to come in bunches and are often perpetrated by the same individuals, so that once a burglar is caught it often brings the number of burglaries down, said Kessler. The SPD has been working with the prosecutor’s office extensively to  target repeat burglars under the Repeat Burglary Initiative.

“We’re concentrating on the prolific guys that need to be in jail for a substantive period of time,” said Kessler.

Concerns over budget cuts and staffing were also discussed. The number of department staff is expected to remain stable despite budget cuts, said Kessler. SPD is firm on not cutting any of their patrol officers, and the current numbers are the highest they’ve ever been, said Kessler. However, increases in overall officers, like they’ve seen in previous years, is likely to stop.

The Crime Prevention Coordinators, who coordinate block watches and other neighborhood actions, may be phased out at the end of this year, said Kessler. It hinges on what the budget looks like for mid-year, but those positions will probably disappear, Kessler said.

“They do an incredible service, and they help the officers out tremendously,” said Kessler. “It’ll be a difficult thing for us to replace that … I don’t know how we will.”

It was encouraged by Kessler and Gracy that residents take advantage of the SPD’s online resources, in particular the SPD Crime Blotter for the West Precinct and the crime statistics on My Neighborhood Map. The King County online sex offender search was also mentioned.

Council Chair Ellen Monrad brought up the issue of the 7-Eleven the sells high-octane alcohol drinks on the hill. Gracy said officers have met with owner to discuss the problem, as well as notify the liquor control board. Stings to try to catch staff selling alcohol to minors have been performed, and they are working on an operation to address homeless buying alcohol for minors, said Gracy.

A few councilmembers discussed the problem of car speeding and drag racing along 10^th Avenue West late at night. Gracy said they would make local patrol officers aware of the situation, and it was recommended that residents petition SDOT for a mobile speed monitor.

After the talk by Kessler and Gracy, the council discussed briefly the elections coming up in September, and Councilmember Nicole Pastarnack volunteered to be chair of the elections committee.

The committee reports followed, including:

Appropriate to the recent “green” holidays, the May Queen Anne Community Council meeting dedicated much of its time to guests speaking on behalf of trees and forests last Wednesday night.

Kay Napton, a member of the Seattle Planning Commission and FOLKpark, spoke on the need of FOLKpark to raise money to fund their $1.5 million project.  The amount raised from grants, about $850,000, falls well short, said Napton. She asked the QACC to help broaden FOLKparks breadth of contacts, such as leaders in the community and environmental groups, that can help raise the remaining funds needed to renovate Lower Kinnear Park.

Plant ecologist Michael Yadrick spoke about the Green Seattle Partnership and their efforts to enhance the tree canopy across the city. He said the organization was six years into its 20-year plan to reforest 2,500 acres, which include the Northeast, Southwest and Kinnear Park Greenbelts. Much of the work is done through volunteers, and Yadrick said Green Seattle Partnership will be looking to engage and recruit citizens in the area to be involved in the reforestation process.

Queen Anne resident Judy Leshner spoke about her development of Queen Anne tree tours based in part on the work of Arthur Lee Jacobson and his book “Trees of Seattle.” Leshner has created five self-guided Queen Anne tree tours to date, but still needs to finalize the tours by verifying some of the information with an arborist.

“I wanted to come up with something that was of interest and use to the Queen Anne community,” said Leshner. “As a former school teacher, I thought would be interesting to school children … and to those in the community and outside, who may go to businesses once they’re here.”

Greater Queen Anne Chamber of Commerce Director of Marketing Mary Chapman said she was interested in putting Leshner’s tree tours on her organization’s upcoming “Visit Queen Anne” website. She was also given ideas by council members on grants and city and organizational contacts.

Apart from the Earth Day and Arbor Day concerns, the transportation committee report headed by committee chair Glenn Avery discussed two letters addressed to SDOT and other interested parties that was passed in a vote at last week’s transportation committee meeting. Both letters were also passed by the council.

The first letter stated several points, including: QACC’s approval of SDOT’s alternative 5 for West Mercer Place; that the project be done this year; that the BAT lane south of West Mercer Place on Elliot Avenue West be converted to general traffic; and that SDOT conduct studies when finished extending the turn lanes on Elliott Avenue West to find out whether the desired results were achieved.

The second letter addressed West Mercer Place and the Mercer West Project more generally. It asked for comprehensive planning for pedestrian safety and movement throughout the Mercer/Roy corridor, as well as planning for parking requirements to sustain area businesses; the incorporation of crosswalks and traffic lights at Fourth Avenue West and Mercer Street and other corners where needed; three lanes each way on Mercer Street under the Aurora Avenue North underpass; the exclusion of in-lane bus stops on Mercer Street unless there are additional unblocked lanes; no construction to take place while the Alaskan Way Viaduct Replacement, including the Viaduct demolition, is underway; and comprehensive review of the project when it’s finished to find out whether it’s working or if it needs changes.

In addition, another “stronger” letter specifically addressing parking in Uptown with respect to the Mercer West Project will be written.

Councilmember Kirk Robbins also spoke about the possibility of Lake City’s temporary tent city moving to one of two sites in the Magnolia/Queen Anne area. The mayor convened a panel that picked seven possible sites for a permanent tent city, said Robbins, including one at the West Yard down on the waterfront and another on a Seattle City Light site in the West Dravus Street area of Magnolia. All of these sites are “back on the table,” and the evaluation process by the Seattle City Council was extended into July, said Robbins. QACC Chair Ellen Monrad said that they will continue to monitor the city’s decision making on the permanent tent city, and council members floated the idea of writing a letter.

If Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn has his way, it appears that Nickelsville and other homeless tent camps around the city will find a permanent home in South Seattle instead of Interbay and Magnolia. Tonight, Mayor McGinn wrote on his blog that he wants the former Sunny Jim peanut butter factory in SODO at Airport Way and S. Snoqualmie Street to become the site of a permanent homeless encampment on city owned land.

Nickelsville camp currently in the U-District

The Nickelsville camp that spent the past three months in the U-District is scheduled to move out on November 15. Potential sites for a permanent camp included a location under the Magnolia Bridge next to the playfield (1451 23rd Ave W) and the Interbay substation at 3222 17th Ave W. But Mayor McGinn plans to hold a community meeting in SODO in support of his favored location in the next few weeks.

The Nickelsville homeless tent camp is supposed to move out of its current location in the U-District on November 15. But instead of being forced to find another temporary home, it could soon have a permanent one in Interbay or Magnolia.

Nickelsville camp currently in the U-District

A citizens panel appointed by Mayor McGinn recommends that Seattle put a permanent homeless encampment on city land within a month and open up parks and the basement of City Hall to people with nowhere else to sleep.

KING 5 and our news partner the Seattle Times report the potential sites include two in the Magnolia/Interbay area. One location is on city property under the Magnolia Bridge next to the playfield (1451 23rd Ave W) and the other is the Interbay substation at 3222 17th Ave W.    The remaining sites are in Haller Lake, West Seattle, and South Seattle.

The citizens panel will now look over the list and make its recommendation.  We’ll continue to track developments and bring you reaction throughout the week.

At around 8 p.m. last night some 40 homeless men and women set up camp outside Seattle City Councilmember Tim Burgess‘ Upper Queen Anne home in peaceful protest. They are members of the homeless-advocacy group SHARE/WHEEL (Seattle House and Resource Effort and Women’s Housing, Equality and Enhancement League), the same group that protested by sleeping outside Mayor Greg Nickels’ West Seattle home on Monday night as a plea for additional funding for their program.

SHARE is local non-profit that helps 500+ homeless people find housing every night at one of their 14 self-managed shelters and two Tent Cities, providing services like Metro bus passes so that members have a reliable and safe means of transportation from shelter to shelter or to and from their work every day. The organization had applied to the city for $50,000 in additional funding to support the bus tickets, but said their application “Mysteriously disappeared in the Mayor’s office and never made it in front of the City Council to be voted upon,” in a press release earlier this week. Without additional financial support SHARE said it must take “direct action” to keep the shelter program alive, and has pledged to continue their protests on a nightly basis until their “financial crisis has been solved and the solution of purchasing bus tickets is found.”

Despite the rain, participants lined up on the grass beside the sidewalk and built beds out of mats, tarps and plastic garbage bags used to cover their belongings and keep them dry through the night. Most of the protesters settled on the opposite side of the street, although a few set up in front of the homes on either side of Burgess’.

The majority of the protesters are from Tent City 3, a temporary encampment of up to 100 homeless people that began in 2000. TC3 is currently located at All Saints Episcopal Church, located at 5150 S. Cloverdale, in Rainier Beach. (Last night and tonight members of different shelters have taken turns protesting. Last night’s camp out was comprised of primarily Tent City 4 residents, which began in 2004 on the Eastside). Steve Friberg, Thomas Bolander and Darlene Kembitskey (pictured below, left to right) are all TC3 residents who were participating in last night’s camp out.

All three said that they hoped to have the opportunity to discuss the vital role bus tickets play for homeless men and women with Councilmember Burgess.

“It’s really important because a lot of people are trying to find jobs and housing and you can’t get around without it,” Bolander said.

“He said that he’d be more than happy to speak with a couple of members,” said, Friberg, who is the Camp Advisor to Tent City 3 and serves as liaison between the SHARE staff and the five TC3 committee members. According to Friberg, although the protesters were around 40 at the beginning of the night, they were anticipating the arrival of another group in the event that they were unable to find a ride to their shelters.

“We’ve approached the bus drivers as a group and asked for rides,” he said. “If the bus driver says yes, they get on the bus and ride. If the bus driver says something else, they get off the bus and call us up and we arrange a ride to get them here.”

Friberg is just one of many who can attest to the need for SHARE’s shelter program. He joined SHARE two years ago after breaking his ankle, an injury that rendered him unable to work until healed.

“If it wasn’t for Tent City, I’d be bad off. They took me in. I’m back to the point where I can work, but unfortunately I’m a carpenter, and there’s not a lot of work for carpenters right now,” he said. “Without additional funding, we won’t be able to purchase any more tickets.”

And so, with no bus passes to help him look for work, Friberg is protesting. And he is not alone. 45-year-old Irish Kelly, a native or Orlando, Fla., had a place to stay tonight, but instead he chose to weather the wind the rain with other protesters for the second time (he also participated in Monday night’s protests).

Kelly (speaking about his experience in the above video) is an activist with Food Not Bombs, an international grassroots movement that aims to feed the hungry and protest war. He has been living in Western Washington for the last four weeks. Kelly stays at one of SHARE/WHEEL’s host churches in the University District and says the accommodations are both safe and comfortable.

“We’re in by 7 [p.m.] and out by 7 [a.m.] and we leave the place exactly the way we found it,” he said. “Every day I get a bus pass to get to and from.”

Kelly said he plans on staying in SHARE shelters, if he can, until he leaves Seattle in two months. He believes so strongly in the program, he thinks the city should not only find the money to support it, but that it should be expanded to the rest of the country.

“It’s great! They don’t have this on the East Coast,” he said.

And waiting to fund SHARE with money from the 2010 budget won’t help the 500+ members who are on the streets today.

“They wanted to give us money from next year’s budget, so these people would have been out here anyway,” Kelly said.

Lantz Rowland (above, left) has been a TC3 resident for years. Unlike protest opposition who have said the camp out is invasive, he is of the mindset that a peaceful protest, where participants are making a conscious effort to call attention to their cause without disturbing the neighborhood, will help garner support.

“This isn’t about causing trouble. It’s a civil protest,” he said. “SHARE’s indoor shelters are the cheapest and most cost effective, and we’re housing more people than anybody else…It’s SHARE’s indoor shelters that we’re supporting here. At SHARE shelters we always promise that we’re going to leave the neighborhoods in the morning, and to do that the bus ticket is critical.”

The $50,000 the organization is asking for, would break down to around $100 a person, a small price worth fighting for for the hundreds of lives it improves daily.

“Share is all run by participants. The staff in SHARE can’t vote and can’t veto votes,” Rowland said, explaining that Tent City and shelter participants protest because there are very few bodies who will speak for them.

Tent City 3 will move from its current home in Rainier Beach on Saturday, October 24 to the new site across town at St. George Episcopal in Lake City. Rowland is currently organizing a Facebook campaign to gather support for housing TC3 at the University of Washington Seattle campus in the future, a push supported by student organization Students for Civic Engagement on Homelessness. And, with locations changing every 90 days, SHARE’s need for reliable transportation is only greater.

“Our budget didn’t have any fat to be cutting off,” Rowland said. “We don’t have a $120,000 a year director. The money we use goes to where we need it.”

Among the protesters present last night were three legal observers wearing bright green hats with the words “National Lawyers Guild Legal Observer” printed in large type on the front. They declined to comment, saying they were not supposed to speak with the media.

SHARE staffer Carolyn was passing out large pieces of paper that were slightly damp from the rain and markers, encouraging protesters to make signs and hold them up as cars drive by. “You could write ‘I’d rather be in my shelter tonight,’ or ‘Am I not worth $100?’ she suggested to one young woman, named Elise. When asked if she was staying the whole night, she responded “For the most part.”

In the morning, she and the other protesters will pack up and leave. According to Friberg, SHARE’s committee members, who are all democratically elected amongst the homeless community the organization serves, will meet tomorrow to decide the next course of action and if, and where, the next protest will be.