>
>Seattlites&Portlanders:
>
> Recently spent a couple of days in Seattle and Portland and was
>surprised at how gentrified the downtown areas have become, especially
>Pike Place and Belltown (site of the original "grunge" scene) in Seattle
>and the area around the bus station in Portland. Very few people on the
>street compared to a few years ago. Have Seattle and Portland become
>targets for zero-tolerance/quality of life police campaigns or has the
>low unemployment rate decreased homelessness etc.? The old grunge bars
Totally - in Seattle they've passed a number of laws such as $200 fine for postering on poles (a friend of mine is trying to get that repealed on a citizen's initiative), and sitting on the sidewalk or aggressive panhandling, or excluding people from city parks for several months if they get ticketed for sleeping there. The city Attorney, Mark Sidran, is famous for his 'broken window theory' approach to law enforcement. They kept closing down bars with minority clientele, and someone on the Supreme court finally put a stop to that recently. It's nearly impossible to put on music shows where people under 21 can attend.
There really are a lot more people and tourists downtown at the Nike town/Pacific place mall/Spielberg's Gameworks side of town, and businesses in Pike Place and Pioneer Square are suffering quite a bit. Christine
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