After weeks of rioting, looting, and general mayhem up on Capitol Hill I was dispatched (by myself) up there to stake a line between two homes where the owners have been, lets say arguing, about a trees location.?ÿ Now I know this neighborhood is like most, a mix of residential and commercial that the broad stroke of the news brush had painted as unruly bunch of anarchists governing, and riot police firing a mix of rubber bullets, gas and riot shields. In fact, if you listen to the news, I should have expected to be run over by an ambulance, shot by a radical, or gassed by the police. At least I would have had my florescent paint confiscated I thought.?ÿ ?ÿ
It was a sunny Monday, my day for field work, my partner and I donned our ronee-masks and departed the office in the suburbs. Our trusty Nissan urban assault survey van which can fit into the tightest of parking spots carried us down arterial after arterial toward the war zone.?ÿ We breezed through neighboring burgs including the University, where you know who lives there, without a slow down, something pre-covid would have take twice as long. We dogged several road blocks due to construction and arrived on-site to find not only one NV style parking spot but several, in the shade.?ÿ We hopped out of the van, and I spied an independent coffee shop across the street which I made a bee line to in order to sample a mocha and muffin (outdoors only) and they let me use the restroom.?ÿ We carried on, measuring around the block while chatting with passers by all donning their masks. Dog walkers, runners, bikers with their spandex sped by, a few kids down the street were playing some sort of hide-and-seek, and a guy on his deck over the alley having a telephone conversation with his contractor. We met the two neighbor's who were more pleasant than expected and when we set our stakes, they didn't seem surprised and peace was made. Well, I guess that 32" hemlock is toast but that's not my job.?ÿ ?ÿ
The point of this is that we are all okay here in the war zone. Life goes on and we are learning to cope with the difficulties that are before us as we always do.?ÿ I hate wearing the damn mask but so does everyone else, but I wear it like others, to protect them from me. Being cooped up in our houses, they call it sheltering in place, working from home too, is giving everyone fits but we are coping.?ÿ
Tonight we are going to a virtual battle of the bands. I bought tickets, ordered take-out, will pack a cooler of Freemont Sky Kraken ale. We will arrive at city hall?ÿ parking lot at half past 7 for an 8 pm show. It will be in our car, watching a big screen and listening on our radio.?ÿ Such is life now, that this sounds like fun.?ÿ ?ÿ
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I am from Seattle but living in Cleveland, I have had multiple inquiries about whether my family is safe out there or not. lol
I had to look up ronee-masks.
When I first moved to the Seattle area, I ended up in Capitol Hill, within walking distance of Cal Anderson Park. It was quite the adjustment after living in Anchorage for five years, but I really liked being in a walkable neighborhood. In fact, it was awesome.
Cap Hill was a busy and rowdy place before the CHOP/CHAZ/whatever came along. There were already regular protests (against all sorts of strange things), hard partying, random oddballs preaching at passersby at the busier corners, more homeless than in the suburbs, fights outside of bars really late at night, and more crime than in less-populated areas. If I didn't go out past 11pm, I never saw any of the awful things that were supposedly going on 24/7 there. Even late at night, I think the worst I saw was a couple of fights and an arrest or two.?ÿ
All that stuff is typical in a dense, diverse urban area with an active nightlife. Then again, I lived in New Orleans back before Katrina, so maybe my view is skewed...during "normal-people hours" those places are usually great to live in.
It's really strange to see people on the other side of the country freaking out about it. Heck, even here in Everett, just 30-40 minutes north of downtown Seattle, people are convinced that the city has been overrun with anarchist revolutionaries, long after the bulk of the (largely non-violent) protests are over, and nothing will convince them otherwise. We never stopped working in the city and haven't heard of any crews having problems outside of having to wear the darn masks...
Glad to hear all is well on the ground.?ÿ
@rover83 One Saturday morning about 25 years ago my family was visiting my mother in law at Swedish Hospital, I took my then three year old daughter for a walk and we came upon the annual gay pride parade. A scene that took some splaning, and is still remembered by her today.?ÿ ?ÿA colorful neighborhood for sure, but completely normal to most of us.
