More Belltown Violence

PBR is tired of the violence in Belltown.

On Sunday we drew chalk peace signs and wrote "stop the violence" on the corners of Fifth & Wall where the latest Belltown shooting took place.

We drew them in support of the residents on the block.
We drew them to show that we noticed.
We drew them to show that we care.
We drew them to ask people to stop the violence.

Our chalk art made it on TV...
http://www.komonews.com/news/local/96845574.html?tab=video

Peace, Belltown. Peace.

Historical Crack Market and the Decline of Jooze

It's been a while since I have posted an update to our People's Belltown Republic (PBR) group effort of making our little slice of Belltown paradise (On 2nd between Bell and Blanchard).

If you haven't heard yet, Seattle has been a hotbox. We had a week of record heat in the nineties and reached a record high at Seatac of 102. Our little block has been sweltering and the soil in the flower beds on the corners are dust. Every plant we put in our beds is pretty much dead. Despite the heat, we've managed to get out there every Sunday and work.

Our big realization is that the smoking ban has been bad for salmon. Smokers throw cigarette buts into the gutters and planters on our street. They end up washed into the Puget Sound, so we kind of think we have a population of nicotine addicted fish. We spent one afternoon cleaning butts out of the gutters. We hauled four full garbage bags of butts and it made a huge difference to the way the block looked. We were all pretty amazed by the work we did.

Anyway, we noticed waaaaaaay more cigarette butts in the planter on the corner of 2nd and Blanchard since the Crocodile reopened. We talked with the manager, and they graciously added the cleanup of the street and flowerbed to their nightly checklist. Thanks Croc! You guys rule.

As far as our trash tally goes, things have been pretty quiet lately in the flowerbeds. I found a pair of dirty pants last week (ewww), a needle (eee!). There's definitely an uptick in beer cans being stashed in the bushes. Searching for and dealing crack can work up a thirst. On an interesting note, the consumption of Jooze is down and Busch Light is up. Dealers must be going for a more refreshing, summer time flavor.

The crackheads are also big into noticing who is a cop or part of Belltown's Citizens on Patrol. Recently, we were picking up trash in front of the record store near a group of people who appeared to be doing a crack transaction. One of them yelled out the alarm to the others: "C>O>P! Citizens on Patrolll!" I said: "No. We're picking up garbage."

On another note, I watched another crack deal outside my building on Saturday morning at 9AM in broad daylight. I watched a gentlemen in his sixties take money from a guy in his twenties and give him a rock. Then, I watched the younger guy light up and walk away. It was pretty brazen but not surprising.

I have a theory that our block is like a historic crack hunting ground. I base this on the book: Emerald City. The Environmental History of Seattle. In the book, the author shares that Belltown has always been one of the city's "centers of sin." If Belltown has always been a center of sin, then perhaps our corner is a historic center of the drug black market passed down from one generation of users to the next. Perhaps my corner is the epicenter.

Who knows. I do know, however, that we're in the center of Crackville USA and it's not getting better.

The Yellow Belt Movement and Seed Bombing

People's Belltown Republic is coming along nicely. A big part of our success is that together we've built great community. Some of us are good at sweeping, others at picking up trash, some have an eye for finding weird stuff and others are good at planting. It's been a lot of fun to discover each other's gifts. It's key to give each other room to discover our gifts, too. We all work hard, though, to make sure that no one feels guilty if they don't make a Sunday. There's nothing better to screw up a group than guilt. Forget that.

On the planting note, a few Sundays ago, we planted a bunch of seeds on the edge of the vacant lot on 2nd and Bell. I have seen other plants there. Someone had already planted a bunch of butterfly bushes. We added a few nasturtiums and Cosmos. I also heard that there was another seed bandit who threw wildflower seeds into the lot this week. We are becoming a neighborhood of guerilla gardeners.

The daffodils are coming up in full force on the corners of 2nd and Blanchard. They looked so lonely before, but we received some plant donations, and now we have added plants to the beds. We have pink, blue, and white plants of different varieties. The neighborhood is noticing and it's causing quite a stir. People are volunteering the help more, now that they see we're not just picking up trash. We have been receiveing offers from all over to help, so we must be on the right track.

In trash news, it seems that there is a lot less trash being dropped in the areas that we have pruned up and planted. I think people are finally getting that we care. I like to think that, anyway.

I keep thinking of Wangari Maathi, Nobel Peace Prize winner and founder of the Green Belt Movement, who started by planting trees. They are the Green Belt Movement.

We started by planting Daffodils. We are the Yellow Belt Movement.

Cool.

xoxo
~b

Urban Daffodils?

So, 2nd Avenue residents don't know it yet, but there are 200 daffodils planted along 2nd Avenue between Blanchard and Battery. Some are already starting to come up in the bed in front of the Crocodile Cafe. I can't wait to see people's faces when they bloom.

Tales of The 3:00 Cleanup

We're in our second month, and People's Belltown Republic is still going strong. We have two new regulars who have been working with us every Sunday. They're two other women who are really committed, smart, and just crazy enough to get along with our group.

In trash news, we found a Gideon's Bible, two more credit cards, a wallet, and a cell phone. Oh, and a crack pipe fashioned out of a beer can. We still continue to find empty cans Icehouse Beer. We seriously should be sponsored by them.

The folks on the street seem to be getting used to seeing us cleaning up. This week, two men who hang with the crack crew on the corner saw us coming and said: "oh it's the 3:00 cleanup." Another woman from the same group told us we sure were doing a nice job cleaning up. That's cool with me--maybe they're getting the point and throwing their trash away? Or maybe they take pride in the trash? I am going to talk with them next time and try to find out what they think. Dialogues are good.

The block seems to be staying cleaner throughout the week, too. We used to haul four bags of trash each weekend, but now we're down to about two. The bed in front of the Crocodile Cafe, from which we've hauled about eight full bags of trash, is looking great. Trimming the bushes so that you can see under them seems to have helped immensely. It makes them a bad place to stash stuff (like the pair of smelly pants we found under the Rosemary bush one day).

The group is getting antsy to plant some plants and do more gardening--especially since our trash haul is decreasing. We've put in some daffodils (about a hundred), which should come in the next few weeks. We still need to put in some pretty perennials, but so far it's been too cold to plant. We're considering some art projects to tide us over...

The Trashman Cometh: Week One

The day of our first meeting came. The minutes counted down and I went outside to see if a crew showed up. To my surprise, people did!

We decided as a group that we would walk the block and pick up trash. Then, we would work on a project. We chose the flowerbed at Second and Blanchard in front of the closed Crocodile Cafe as our first project.

After filling two large leaf and garden bags with trash, we began to work on the Croc's flower bed. We started by raking the trash out of the bed. Note that we raked all of the leaves out before we touched them--needle sticks are a definite possibility in an urban garden.

While we were cleaning the bed, we made up a game to see who could find the best trash. I forget who won, but on the first day we carried out a total of five bags of trash, including:
* Two crack pipes
* A syringe
* Six lenses from broken sunglasses (now you know where those hide).
* Many broken lighters.
* A bunch of beer cans, particularly Ice House and Joose.
* A crapload of plastic wrappers from cigarette packs.

Our hour was up. We spent way more time gathering trash from the bed than we thought it would take, and there seemed to still be more layers. Maybe we would be able to trim some of the bushes next week.

Guerrilla Gardening: It's Peaceful

So you're probably asking: What the hell is guerrilla gardening? Lemme explain.

In every urban area there are patches of dirt that are left up to the city or landowners to maintain. Some cities do a great job of keeping these areas neat and tidy--they've planted colorful plants, tend them regularly, and keep them free of trash. Conscientious landowners maintain their property. There are always exceptions, however, to this rule.

These exceptions are those plots of land that have been abandoned, used as trash heaps, and are painfully neglected. For some reason, the city doesn't have enough resources to maintain the plot of land or the landowner has long since moved away. The residents of the neighborhood, meanwhile, are left to deal with a messed up plot of land.

The real tragedy is not that the land is somehow not being used for production of food or isn't pretty. Non-verbal communication is the problem. Abandoned plots of land morph into trash heaps. These trash heaps tell everyone around that no one is paying attention. No one cares. Do whatever you want, and while you're at it, steal my purse and throw it in the trash heap.

The same principle applied to the subway in New York. In Malcom Gladwell's book, The Tipping Point, he shares how New York City reduced crime in the subway simply by ensuring that every car left the Subway yard free of graffiti. I am a fan of artistic graffiti, but by removing territorial graffiti, crime was substantially reduced on the subway.

We figured that maybe by tending the flowerbeds on one of the worst blocks in Belltown, that we could do the same thing. We could demonstrate that we love our block. We could show we care. We could provided an opportunity to build our community by getting out of our houses and doing something positive.

What is People's Belltown Republic?

Belltown is my neighborhood. It's one of a handful of residential neighborhoods in Downtown Seattle, and is kind of like where all of metropolitan Seattle goes to party. Good suburbanites come to Belltown on the weekends for a nice dinner at one of our many restaurants, have a few drinks at our local bars, and watch live music. Bad Suburbanites come, drink too much, puke on our doorsteps, have drunken fights on the street, and drunk drive home. I enjoy the restaurant and bar culture on the weekdays in Belltown, so I forgive the Suburbanites for their weekend transgressions.



On the weekdays, however, there is a seedy side of Belltown that most of these Suburbanites don't see. Belltown has been an open-air crack market for the last twenty years. Recently crack drug arrests have gone up, drug dealers have seemed to be more brazen, and some residents have reached a boiling point. Some residents have been talking to the city for years about the crack problem, and have gotten nowhere. Some residents feel disenfranchised from the existing governmental system and don't even bother. Some residents watch the "crackheads" fight with each other and view it as entertainment. Some residents live so high in their ivory tower on First Avenue that they couldn't care less. Most residents are simply at a loss about what to do. Most of us have thrown up our hands in resignation.


The city of Seattle really doesn't seem to care about Belltown. The police do, they're working hard to do what they can with the resources they have. Governmental officials, who promised us a Community Center, have done nothing to help. They talk and talk and politic, and like every other topic in Seattle, seem to do nothing. At least we don't see any improvement. Mayor Nickels sits in West Seattle in his nice warm suburban house while we get stabbed, threatened, and intimidated by people who are in a horrible situation themselves--they're hooked on one of the most addictive substances known to man. Nickels doesn't seem to care about the crack addicts, and he sure doesn't seem to care about us.

I was at a loss about what to do myself. I talked to neighborhood leaders from every background (punks, businesspeople, drunks, barflies, restauranteurs, politicians, and activists) to obtain as many perspectives as possible. Still nothing came to me. It seemed as if everyone had done something already that hadn't worked. People were depressed.

I sat with the problem for months looking for a way to heal the situation. Then, one day over a glass of wine, it came to me.

We can't fight violence with violence. It simply doesn't work. Residents getting upset with the crack addicts will only make things worse. We can't use our hands to fight, but we can plant. We can express our love of our neighborhood by maintaining the neighborhood. We can be guerrilla gardeners.

People's Belltown Republic was born.