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Is Seattle Completely in the Toilet Now?

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washingtonbound

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I went to Seattle University from 2013-2014. Back then I would say the city had an intriguing drug culture that wasn't necessarily detrimental for those involved. I mainly circulated with people who frequented raves and mostly took LSD and MDMA and MDA at those events. Drugs like DMT and ketamine were a lot harder to come by in those days. Weed obviously was like water, and a lot of people I knew were into foraging for mushrooms around town. I even came across a few people who used heroin, although I never partook myself, and they were functioning members of Seattle University. Point is, there were a lot of drug users who didn't look they just walked off kensington ave. Now what I understand is that the city is awash with meth and fentanyl, same story I guess with a lot of places. Major homeless problem as well, with more aggressive types now. The vibe appears to have changed a lot, I was wondering if anyone living there can attest to this? Is Seattle basically doomed?
 
Personally, I think that any city with a view of a magnificent 14,000' glacier-covered mountain ( well, not when it's cloudy) is always going to be a place to want to live. Mount Rainier, the Olympic Peninsula, North Cascades...and an interesting city. I'd take it over most places in the US, imho.
 
I watched this documentary a couple years ago after visiting Seattle for the first time.

Certainly makes you think.

 
IDK but while I was there they gave me free health care. Although I was eternally grateful for the Washington state apple health plan , I could guess that many people might take advantage of those programs.

I. E. There's no such programs in much of the South or Midwest. So if I'm a homeless drug user from Texas, I'm thinking " well I might want to move to a place that has more programs for me to utilize. As long as I didn't make more than 1800 a month I have free healthcare. So I made 1750 a month, got ahead of my bills, saved and got back on my feet in a year.

However there's plenty of guys I witnessed that didn't work, and just used drugs 24/7. They had access to the same free healthcare and no real want to change.

Seattle spends hundreds of millions on homelessness every year. But is that part of the problem? Is it a target for people that want to use the social welfare programs but not put back into the economy?

I don't have the answer, all I can see is other similar size cities across America that don't have these programs that also don't have to massive homeless population....
 
I also never witnessed anyone go to jail for drugs while I was in Washington state. I was there for about 2.5 years.

So you essentially have a population of individuals who have transplanted to the city. Who are never taken to jail for drugs, aren't required to work, and are essentially paid by the state because they're poor. Why would anyone want to go straight.

They have access to good quality cheap drugs in a place that will never hold the accountable for bad behavior.

The costs are out of control. They have to keep raising minimum wage to try to out pase inflation, before you know it you're paying 50 bucks for a cheeseburger. But the price for an 8ball of meth is the lowest in the country. The cause and effect of all of these things combines for the perfect storm that is modern day Seattle life.
 
crazyhairman said:
IDK but while I was there they gave me free health care. Although I was eternally grateful for the Washington state apple health plan , I could guess that many people might take advantage of those programs.

I. E. There's no such programs in much of the South or Midwest. So if I'm a homeless drug user from Texas, I'm thinking " well I might want to move to a place that has more programs for me to utilize. As long as I didn't make more than 1800 a month I have free healthcare. So I made 1750 a month, got ahead of my bills, saved and got back on my feet in a year.

However there's plenty of guys I witnessed that didn't work, and just used drugs 24/7. They had access to the same free healthcare and no real want to change.

Seattle spends hundreds of millions on homelessness every year. But is that part of the problem? Is it a target for people that want to use the social welfare programs but not put back into the economy?

I don't have the answer, all I can see is other similar size cities across America that don't have these programs that also don't have to massive homeless population....
Click to expand...
What many don't utilize, is Medicaid and for many years I was broke, and paid nothing for Healthcare, even hundreds of dollars of prescriptions a month were free, well at least to me. Now as a taxpayer, I have to pay alot. But I did get to use a social safety net when it was needed.

You are right about so many things, about people abusing what should be a social safety net and not a lifestyle of just getting high and abusing the system. Also, the price of fast food is getting ridiculous and food and other things were relatively cheap until recently in Michigan where I live.

Your perspective on the situation out there is very good and so are your conclusions and obsevations.

And no I don't have a political agenda, this is an every partisan problem or problems.
 
Not trying to hijack the thread, just throwing this situation out for relevant comment, but - I'm imminently homeless, staying with some family while I try to figure something out, but that rope is at its end, and so it's my stay, but here is my question: what about someone who actually WANTS to get back on their feet, desperately so - would Seattle be a good place to do so? Are the resources readily available for individuals actually *wanting* to climb up and out of the gutter? I'm on the east coast, so it'd be about as far of a hall Mary as I could throw, but I'm an able-bodied, upper thirties white male, I'm reasonably physically fit and I know what's going on around me, only hurdle being that I'm on methadone. I have enough family support that I *might* get a plane ticket over a bus, which would be pretty much a no go unless I got travel doses from my current clinic, but I won't know more about that possibility until tomorrow.

Fwiw, I'm not unaccustomed to homeless life, I've done it before; 6 months in Durham, NC, over a year on the streets of Asheville. So I'm not a total new jack to that lifestyle, but I know Seattle is another animal altogether. Hence... I ask lol.
 
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