Walk report

Typically you hear our reports of the overwhelming number of empty cans and bottles that feed addictions, the drug paraphernalia and prescription pill bottles, graffiti, and other evidence of nuisance behaviors we find and document on our twice-weekly neighborhood walks.

But all is not bad. Our walks help to build a sense of community and seem to act as informal meetings where we discuss our community and brainstorm ideas as we explore the neighborhood in real time.

And sometimes there are surprises.

On Monday night, while exploring in Albert Davis Park behind the Library, picking up litter and looking for empty bottles and cans, we found a small nest with four eggs built in the grass, a sure sign that spring is upon us.

The mother bird chirped nervously while perched on a nearby wall as Douglas Park Cooperative members passed through the area.

A DPC member later returned with a small flag to mark the nest so it wouldn't be stepped on by someone else walking through the area.

Weekly Walk report - Thursday, April 26th

We started our walk out last night at Virgil Flaim Park. We found 18 empties ( including a Heineken Keg ) along the laurel hedge on the north. Earlier that day, a DPC member witnessed a drug sale in the park in the NE corner. He went over afterward and found about a dozen empty "dime bags" with white powder residue in them. He also had collected up 52 empties earlier that day in the park ( that is in addition to the 18 we found later that day. )

 We continued our usual route after that and found an additional 121 empties. The first photo includes (18) empties from the park + (121) from the route. The second includes (52) from the park earlier in the day + (56) collected from last Thursday.  That brings yesterday's total to 191 empties and the total since we started to 799 empties.

We are working on scheduling a meeting with representatives from Seattle Police, Seattle Parks and Rec, and Seattle Department of Neighborhoods to discuss the problems in Virgil Flaim and Albert Davis Parks. This meeting will be sometime in the next few weeks and we will post the time, date, and place as soon as we know.

Empties from Virgil Flaim Park

Found in NE corner of park

Found in NE corner of park

Weekly Walk Report - Thursday, April 19th

There was a light rain during yesterday's walk, so we decided to do a short litter pick up around Virgil Flaim Park. On Monday we found ~30 empties at the park and wanted to see what accumulated in the 3 days since. We found 56 empty alcohol containers, an empty Hydrocodone pill bottle ( with the name and addresses of the patient, doctor, and pharmacy ), a drug testing kit, and two makeshift heroin cook trays.

The park was empty except for a man drinking booze and hiding in the trees on the NE corner.

The glass bottles of Four Loko are new to the scene. We just started finding them. One DPC member confirmed that Grocery Outlet started selling these recently. Unofficial reports indicate that Grocery Outlet has been losing significant amounts of money to shoplifting which does not get reported due to a need to appear profitable to corporate. The cheap booze business model appears to be a viable option for those operating on thin profit margins - like gas stations and dollar stores.

Also on the topic of shoplifting, a DPC member recently talked with the manager of another large grocery retailer in the neighborhood to see if they were experiencing a shoplifting problem. The response was that the number of incidents was similar to the other store that he had managed, but that the items being stolen were very different in both price and quantity. They are stealing large quantities of high ticket items like batteries and laundry detergent ( specifically Tide. ) It was speculated that the volume of these items being stolen suggested there was an illegal market for them. Alcoholic beverages were shoplifted regularly and they installed cameras on that aisle.

The Voluntary Alcohol Ban that Deputy Mayor Darryl Smith is working on included working with businesses through the Office of Economic Development to develop viable business models that did not rely so  heavily on cheap booze as their profit drivers. No word as of yet when the Voluntary Ban will go into effect. We have sent requests to Darryl's office for updates and will post here as soon as we hear back.

Weekly Walk report - Monday, April 16th

We started our walk out last night going around Virgil Flaim Park. More than half the empties were found there. We found 51 empties total.  The rest of the route was the usual - 125th  > 30th > 127th > Post Office >  Parking Lot > 30th > 127th > 28th > Library. The amount of trash and empties has stayed relatively constant - no noticeable increase or decrease. Many of us since the beginning of the month have noticed a significant decrease in loitering in the business district.

Virgil Flaim Park has a nice children's playground, a 1/4 mile loop around the perimeter, picnic benches, a basketball court, and a large open area where people play soccer. It is a really nice park. As the weather gets warmer, we are going to start scheduling some neighborhood socials over there. Drop us an email if you are interested in helping out with this.

Drugs and more beer cans found on April 5th walk

A bag found in front of the Lake City Library with trace amounts of drugs still in the bag.

We found 18 empties last night and three drug bags. One of them was found in front of the library with trace amounts of cocaine still in the bag. We called it in to 911 and an officer responded.  During the course of the conversation with the officer, he talked about "the house."

The officer mentioned that they arrest people there and they are back out the next day. He also said that "the house" is known to be the primary supplier of crack in the area and that the majority of the car prowls in the neighborhood are from people living at or going to the house. He also mentioned there is a similar house in the University District that the community has had enough with and are in the process of suing the city to get it shut down.

The police are reluctant to make arrests when the courts turn them loose the next day. They are also reluctant to be proactive on issues like this as they do not want to act out of accord with the neighborhoods wishes. Working to form a closer partnership with officers may be helpful.

Monday Weekly Walk

Our Monday night route usually takes us about 45 minutes to an hour. During the walk we catch up on what we are working on in the community. The conversations are almost the equivalent of a community meeting. The advantage is that we are picking up litter while we talk.

One of the projects we are working on is the documentation of empty alcohol containers. We started in February. Our tally is up to 475 cans and bottles now. On a typical walk, we collect up around 30 cans. Some nights more. We found 44 empties last night.

Elliott Bay Brewing Co. opening Monday, DPC raising a pint

After what seemed like a long wait for anxious members of the Lake City community, Elliott Bay Brewing Co. has announced that they will open for business on Monday, March 26th at 11 a.m. And that night, members of Douglas Park Cooperative plan to raise a pint to our neighborhood after our Monday night walk.

The much anticipated business has been the talk of many neighbors that have been hoping for a family-friendly establishment like the brewery in Lake City.

Some got excited Thursday night when they passed the new business and saw a full parking lot and dozens of people inside the building. Turns out it was a private event.

After our weekly walk on Monday night, Douglas Park Cooperative members will stop by and raise a pint to the new neighborhood restaurant. Our walk starts at 7 p.m. at Virgil Flaim Park, SE corner of 26th Avenue NE and NE 125th Street. After the walk we will gather at the Brewery at 8 p.m. to raise a pint to our community. Please join us.

A sign on the window of Elliott Bay Brewing Co. announces the opening.

Reminder - Monday Weekly Walk

We will be meeting tonight at 7pm at the corner of 125th and 26th for the Monday night walk. 

In the coming weeks as it gets lighter out, we will be looking into working with Seattle Neighborhood Group to evaluate our neighborhood using CPTED criteria. Deputy Mayor Darryl Smith spoke highly of this program and it sounds like a great way to help reduce nuisance behaviors by making alterations to the built environment. More on this later.

Thanks to everyone who has helped out with this. See you tonight.

Nuisance behaviors in our neighborhood, visual proof

As Douglas Park Cooperative members do our twice-weekly walks we encounter many dangerous, disgusting and downright destructive things done by people in our community that either do not seem to have a stake in our community or do not have respect for our community —and often respect for themselves.

We have taken to documenting some of the things we encounter. These photos are a small sampling of some of the things we have seen in recent weeks. There are many, many more but we do not photo document everything. We also realize that taking pictures of chronic inebriates or drug users could lead to confrontation that we have deemed is wise to avoid.

Below is a sampling of what we regularly see. Keep in mind that we conduct two weekly litter patrols and folks at the UGM shelter also conduct one per week. Other neighborhood groups also conduct patrols and find similar things.

Likely one of the most disturbing was when we found at least four unsecured hypodermic needles in the parking lot of the Seattle Gymnastics Academy, a place that students are likely to run barefoot to their cars after class.

The focus of DPC from day one has been nuisance behaviors, not the often troubled people that are known to do them. That responsibility is more in line with what the Seattle Police Department contributes to our mission. That is why we are pursuing the Alcohol Impact Area as a small part of the complicated puzzle that will better our community.

We potentially have a great neighborhood and DPC wants to help everyone succeed in reaching their potential and overcome their struggles. However, these nuisance behaviors and their results bring down everyone.

 

Needles outside Cedar Park senior apartments

One of the dozens of hypodermic needles found in the neighborhood

A collection of empties on the street

Scene after a stabbing at the 99¢ Etc. store

Shoplifting suspects captured by camera at ACE Hardware

Elliott Bay Brewing Co. is welcomed to the neighborhood

Graffiti in front of Seattle Gymnastics Academy

Another needle in a neighbor's hedge

Shopping cart full of trash and beer cans

More vandalism at the dead end of 28th Ave NE near Seattle Gymnastics Academy

Four Loko cans in Elliot Bay Brewing doorway

Bag used for drugs

Truck vandalized with pink paint stolen from shed at Seattle Gymnastics Academy

Loitering, drinking with about 6 empties at the Chevron gas station

Warning: After this point the images become quite offensive and disgusting. Continue at your own discretion.

Vandals break into Seattle Gymnastics Academy storage, paint car pink

A Toyota pickup was splashed with pink paint Sunday night after vandals broke into the SGA storage shed.

Vandals broke into a storage shed at the Seattle Gymnastics Academy and Seattle Preschool Sunday night. Nothing was noted to be missing from the storage, aside from a few gallons of bright pink and blue paint.

The vandals threw the paint on a pickup truck parked at the dead end of 28th Avenue NE, near NE 130th Street. The paint was also thrown on the street in front of the facility.

By day the dead end on 28th Avenue NE is home to the preschool and the gymnastics school and light indusrial and auto shops.

However at night, it becomes a hangout for drug users and chronic inebriates. People live in cars there at night and are asked to be gone by the time the school starts in the morning.

During recent walks there Douglas Park Cooperative has found hypodermic needles in the parking lot of the school —an area where students are likely to run barefoot to their cars after class.

Graffiti on a fence in front of SGA

Human feces and toilet paper are regularly found there are as high volume alcohol containers, used condoms, trash and graffiti. A fence in front of the SGA property has long had graffiti on it.

The City of Seattle recently replaced the 'Road End' and 'No Parking' sign at the end of the street after is was reported by DPC to be graffiti-covered and falling over.

Weekly Walk Report 04: December 5th

This week's walk went well. It was very quiet on the streets.

We picked up litter as we traveled the usual path. One of the two memorials ( the one in front of the future Elliott Bay Brew Pub ) was gone. At that location, there were a few plastic shopping bags tied to the hurricane fence with empty cans in them -  a makeshift trash container. They were filled, so we took them down and put them in our trash bag. The other memorial at the NE corner of 127th and 30th is still there.

By the 99 cent store, we heard kids singing Christmas songs as a family walked through the space between Cedar Park and the Panos building.