As a custodian of building downtown, I have witnessed 5 or 6 overdoses out front and missed a few in the alley. It is tragic.  When they conk, friends call for narcan, or the EMTs arrive to administer.  It's magical. They stand up within a couple minutes and start looking for the stash they dropped demanding, "that's mine!"

The building has an awning which is used as a public shelter, even though the right-of-ways are private property subject only to an easement for public passage. Nevertheless the authorities will not generally "move them on".

The building also has alcoves. One large entry became a public campground and toilet. I had to board it up. 

"Services" come by and supply snacks and beverages. The litter is left behind and beverage containers are emptied and filled with urine.  In the alley it is worse. The dumpsters provide a lot of food and drink, and cardboard for resting pads.  Congregators are adept at removing resources from dumpsters but never put it back. This is a significant recurring burden rife with direct and general health risks.

There need to be places for people to camp, park their cars and rvs, tiny home transitional resources and more housing resources such as mobile home parks. Housing presents a cliff  to those without a first, last, damage deposit and appplication fees.

living outdoors without facilities makes people crazy and drives them to drugs  I talked to a nice looking young man who arrived for the Alaskan Ferry only to learn his job had evaporated. He was stuck without money and started using meth to stay awake because, "otherwise people will steal your stuff".  So tragic  

I have become a hard case because I don't want their trash and excrement, and want to discourage the behavior. That's tragic, too.

The idea that our water resources are undepletable is overly optimistic. Indeed, they are dependent upon our cursed climate, which can change, and especially the glaciers thus created, which are in notable decline. 

The point is whether water is a shared resource and, if so, why it should be reserved for those lucky enough to arrive first and stake their claim. Indeed, our waters were being used long before we immigrants arrived to impose our concepts of property and law. 

Go to mudbaycliffs.org for updates

Just ICE is not Justice

The City’s substantial Mud Bay holdings are subject to an Olympic oyster recovery project shoreline permit.  Odd that they would not consider the impacts of this proposal to that investment. 

 

https://www.whatcomcountymrc.org/projects/pilot-olympia-oyster-restoration/

That's not how global economies work!