I can remember quite vividly the first time I saw a homeless person in Ballard; it was May of 1989. We have always had our share (perhaps more than our share) of drunks and “bums” here, but these people had homes, many in SRO rooms on Ballard Avenue.

Most people moved to Ballard because it was a nice, quiet, family-friendly neighborhood. I would bet that most people who bought homes here didn't think that they would have to run the gauntlet of the homeless, the drug addicts and alcoholics in every public space in Ballard when they moved here.

I'm not a social worker and I don't have an answer, nor am I required to. What I do believe is that as a long term resident and taxpayer, I , as well as every other resident of Ballard is entitled to enjoy the parks in tranquility and safety, without having to deal with drunks, drug addicts, vagrants, and panhandlers.

Tacoma has outlawed panhandling, and it has solved their problem. I've no idea where those people went (here, perhaps?) but that is not our issue. I'm sure that they will find another community to “enable” their lifestyle.

Yes i encounter a few panhandlers and the occasional stinky folk, but I agree with stopthebuzz. no point in not using the parks or walking around ballard, just because of these people. Are people walking around with big signs that say “bother me now!” to get the kind of treatment I've seen described on this blog (not in this thread in particular, but in general.)

Was trying to address a few thoughts on the thread at once, but did not articulate who suggested what.

Not sure some of these ideas will address the lady (mentally ill) living on the curb by OfficeMax, or the other lady folks know of on Market Street who won't accept help. There's others like this around Ballard.

Cracking the heads of crazy people probably doesn't help, moving elsewhere simply leaves the problem for others, and I can't fathom any single solution that would really take care of the issues.

Criminals, the mentally ill, and decent folk who lost their jobs all need different things to help them (or deal with them).

Yet again, I wish we had better solutions.

Sucks for people to deal with crazy a**holes and predators, sucks for old folks down-and-out, sucks for the homeowners and neighborhoods. Sucks all around. And there are decent folk who end up homeless. There's no single category.

Where can we find a set of solutions that really address all this? Maddening!

It's not really an issue of where they go, but what they do when they get there. Drinking, fighting, aggressive panhandling, intimidation, pissing in the street, dealing drugs, that's the problem. If they didn't bother anyone, who would care?

Poop in my kitchen? you can try and I can assure you that I sure as hell won't run away and hide while you do try. Just as with my home i feel ownership of my local parks. I'd certainly love to see a solution to the problem, but my point above is that i sure as hell don't stay away. At the same time I'm not nursing the drunks and singing campfire songs with them either.

Please give me further details on this plan of yours. Do they get loaded up in a van and dropped at the city limits? Do you have a specific place in mind?

The obvious retort is to ask if we should live in an iron fisted police state, to which I should say don't be ridiculous since we have laws and rules that are accepted by the majority of the citizens to ensure each others safety and well being. Where things have fallen apart here in Seattle is that the police are either unwilling or unable to enforce these laws and so we have to deal with this BS.

As far as an increase in numbers in Ballard from downtown, wasn't the catalyst the banning of malt liquors etc. in downtown? I think it's worth looking at doing the same thing here.

The drug dealing will – or already has – create a distribution syndicate that will have money and reason to fight for their turf. The park where my kids play is probably the worst place to see this play out.

*Though most bums are homeless, not all homeless are bums. There is a difference and we're talking about the bums here.

I don't think I'm a very naive person, yet I regularly take my family to whatever park with complete disregard from whatever homeless are there. they don't drive me out of anywhere. if anything, my false sense of entitlement might encourage me to give them some dirty looks.

The Friends of Bergen Park who maintain that park routinely pick up needles, and wash down human vomit, urine, and feces. Does this encourage people to use the park?

For some of us, the parks ARE our backyards. The huge influx of condos and apartments in Ballard means that those people don't have to luxury of a backyard to have a barbeque, a picnic, sit and read a book in the sun, or play with their dog anywhere except the parks. So, if you found homeless people drinking, doing drugs, fighting, and peeing and defecating in YOUR backyard, you might think twice about a laissez-faire policy of ignoring the problem.

It is each one of us tax payers who make the parks possible. And if the parks become over run by people who are doing illegal activity or even making that park their home and undesirable for us to use, we have a right to speak up.

Feels like whack-a-mole. Sad we don't have a society than can address this problem; we end up with unwanted people, problems, and worried citizens wondering if they are safe.

Where would we put these people if we had a choice?

There's a few categories of homeless, and probably different solutions would work with different groups.

The more criminal/predatory types are the chronic problem folks, followed by the mentally ill, and then there are many more categories beyond that, all the way to a down-and-out family living in their car, looking for employment and housing.

With a broad spectrum of problems, ideally a broad range of solutions would be available. Yet again, sad we do not have this.

The couple that harasses folks all the time (“can I ask you a question?”) need to be dealt with very differently than the mentally ill lady living by OfficeMax.

I wish we had better solutions.