From Nick Johnson

Seattle is just out of control. Can it even be fixed at this point?

There’s a reason people call it Freeattle. Free tents, free drugs, free money free medical care, free reign. What began as a sympathetic and civilized agenda has exploded into a crisis. All over Seattle are signs of misfortune and tragedy. And despite a lot of money and platitides, the catastrophe here is only getting worse.

So on a chilly day in late October, I drove all over the city to see the extent of it all. The goal was to check out Seattle's newest plan - a series of tiny temporary villages that the city thinks will help alleviate the number of people living on its streets. And along the way, I got just a small glimpse into just how bad things in Seattle have become.

A big part of the problem here is drugs and mental illness. While the cost of living has put hundreds, if not thousands of Seattleites out of their homes, it’s the city’s policy on drug use and law enforcement that has really made the problem here so bad. The city tolerates drug abuse, and even encourages it. Police officers complain they can’t enforce drug laws or property crimes. It’s a broken system here and residents are fed up. Many feel the city caters to it’s growing homeless population, and even encourages more of this through its lax policies. At this point, it’s hard to tell if Seattle is the infection or the host.

Because of all of this - property crimes in Seattle are the highest they’ve ever been. Smashed windows, stolen cars, stolen bikes, home robberies, muggings, vandalism, arson, rapes, assaults - it’s appalling. Of all major US cities, only San Francisco has more property crimes. And for the same reasons..

The city removes encampments all over the city, but all that does is spread people around - into parks and playgrounds on sidewalks, in nice neighborhoods, on hillsides, on access roads, and under bridges. It’s awful. And it’s sad.