(Images with permission to CHS)The Black Lives Memorial Garden has been cleared from Capitol Hill’s Cal Anderson Park.
Seattle Police blocked off streets as city crews cleared the garden’s structures and plots from the fenced-off area on the south end of the park on Wednesday morning of the quiet holiday week.
There were no reports of garden supporters or protesters during the work and no reported arrests. The garden was established by volunteers and demonstrators during the Black Lives Matter and CHOP protest in the summer of 2020.
In October, the parks department pulled back on plans to remove the garden as crews faced off with garden supporters and the Black Star Farmers organizers.
Seattle Parks has maintained the garden needed to be removed for a planned “turf restoration” project in the park’s grass bowl area that officials said is needed “to host gatherings and large events” as part of its “intentional design as a natural amphitheater and proximity to electrical and water hook-ups.” Seattle Parks says it has offered to work with the group that helped shape the initial garden and that stewarded the space over the years to relocate the garden in the park or move it to another location including a space behind the Rainier Community Center.
(Images with permission to CHS)Black Star Farmers said the garden should remain where it was created in June 2020. “Forceful displacement of community projects like BLMG is consistent with violent state projects like imperialism, colonization, and gentrification,” the group said in its “call to action” asking for public support against moving the garden.
Earlier this month, two people were reported arrested in a conflict with police as a homeless encampment was cleared from the other end of the park. In November, cops and a clearance crew moved campers out of the Black Lives Memorial Garden area.
Community groups involved in reshaping Cal Anderson’s uses in the wake of CHOP have spoken out against the city’s decision and the Cal Anderson Park Alliance community group says it did not ask for the city to restore the amphitheater bowl grass.
UPDATE: The parks department has issued a statement on the removal and says encampments were also cleared:
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Just last night there was a fight that took place between the two small buildings adjacent to the area. A group of unhoused people were beating up on another unhoused person when another party who was there on their motorcycle maced them and drove off though the park on their vehicle and then drove around the neighborhood a little bit. The people responsible for the garden definitely encounter the unhoused to congregate there so I feel like that incident was squarely on them.
These organizations who are so quick to say they didn’t ask for or want this sure will be quick to use the space for other purposes, though, I’d bet.
Wait, are you saying that a fight between two groups of unhoused people in the middle of the night and a random motorcycle attacker, that was just generally nearby, is “squarely on” the volunteers who maintained the garden? In what way?! East precinct police HQ is one block away, within earshot and direct line of sight!
The Garden staff have encouraged squatters in the park. They have actively encouraged it despite the community making it clear they didn’t want that. So yes, they are responsible for what transpires on the land that they have seized from the public and made their own.
I think it’s more so the homeless people that have trashed the park and set up a summer camp that are the problem. Nobody cares about the garden
They don’t have bionic hearing over at the precinct, and it is NOT direct line of sight (the Richmark label production building is in between). I’m thinking you don’t know the neighborhood or you are prone to hyperbole. And yes, ‘squarely’ on the virtue-signaling, Jew-hating gardeners who encouraged the homeless encampment there and made a bug fuss every time the police even came near.
because they encouraged a surge of camping near the garden, which you dodged in your reply. Wonder why?
They’re a crank, plain and simple.
Looks like my previous response was up and taken down? In short, yes – they are to blame. They encouraged the homeless encampment. I’m guessing they tried use the homeless as a deterrent to anyone approaching the plot. Also, maybe get to know the area more? The precinct is neither within hearing distance nor in direct line of sight of the location I described. Not even close. There’s a huge building in the way (Richmark label manufacturing).
you are simply wrong..
Who are you trying to convince – me or you? Which part of what I said is wrong? Your statement is so vague you might as well have said nothing at all…which I guess is what you really did.
Would be interested in what the black decision makers in Parks (only found 1, so far) feel about this.
Why does it matter?
Wondering why one bureaucrat’s skin color is any more qualified over others to make either strategic or tactical decisions about an illegal taking of park property.
Are you black?
King Harrell is the biggest loser in all of Seattle. Why did they waste money doing this? The garden was fine and not causing any problems at all.
The garden was disgusting and had no place in the park, I’m so thankful King Harrell had the spine to follow through and clear it.
lol, it was fine, take your concern trolling elsewhere. Spine? Harrell is the biggest coward there is. Durkan had more of a spine.
Me too. I walked by today and it already looks better.
It was a weedy, barely maintained junk pile until its existence was threatened and the organizers deigned to clean it up a bit and removed all of the signage indicating that it was only for certain people….
Happy to see these latest squatters in the park gone.
And that didn’t last.
Just yesterday I hung out for a bit and watched some ultimate being played on the playfields. I was forty feet from the “garden” for ten minutes.
Calling it a garden is most definitely stretching the concept (or, in the parlance of the group that wrote the quoted statement, “doing violence” to it).
It was a pile of trash. Again.
Harrell was elected 58-40 in 2021 running on a platform that included “Fund police and sweep the parks.” Harrell is doing the will of a significant majority of Seattle voters, who also voted for 5 out of 7 Council in 2023 running on “public safety” which included D3’s winner Hollingsworth.
To sum up: Your idiotic revolution is over, you lost, get out and stay out. Signed – everyone in D3 and Seattle who isn’t a dead-end Socialist cult member.
Here, here!
In your dreams buddy.
The garden was always a muddy mess that no one was maintaining. Even after the attempt to make it look maintained it went back to not. It didn’t grow anything substantial, and where it was growing isn’t the healthiest soil for it. The offer to move the garden elsewhere more appropriate should be taken up and the space hopefully used to make something that all people in the neighborhood can enjoy, with a memorial in place.
However, it is nonsense that people seem to think the garden somehow made the unhoused congregations more prolific. Before the pandemic there was just as many folks camping near there, since that’s where the bathrooms are. I don’t know what magic force they think the garden held.
well I hope the people that just had to have their precious “movies in the park” are happy. Even though there was literally a million plus to build a new amphitheater at Volunteer park for this purpose.
Mark my words, they are going to go after the mural next.
Thanks, I am quite happy the trash-strewn dead plants are gone.
You’re acting like they took a bulldozer to the Japanese Garden.
Why are you so hateful about it? Movies in the park bothers you that much that it can happen in multiple locations? What’s your problem? “Precious” really?
The only people who could ever see the mural were the people who worked at the Stranger and they moved and that building has been empty for years. The mural obstructs traffic and literally can’t be seen from any vantage point where a person can take the thing in and actually see it or read it. Leaving it there is an empty gesture. That said, I’m for anything that slows traffic down and the mural does a pretty good job of that, by narrowing the street. So leave it there.
I still think it’s hilarious that the bike lanes there got removed because of the mural, and no one thinks they can complain about it. The cyclist community not exactly known for holding back…
If you mean the graffiti on the bathroom, they should…
Graffiti is no big deal, get over it for real
Good riddance. That garden has looked like a dump for months. They want to have a garden yet don’t trim and clean it up in the winter. Nobody wants a pile of dead plants taking up space. If they care they would’ve spent time maintaining the garden.
Yep! The garden was clearly the problem. Still waiting on all those shelters Harrell promised! I agree that he’s the biggest loser in the city.
Welcome to a civil society. Even the Seattle NAACP said this pile of dirt had nothing to do with honoring Black people. It was absurd performance activism and outrage, mostly from white people who want to be seen.
Oh yes obviously a couple of unauthorized plants and some gardeners were definitely the cause of all of the problems at the park
Since the “gardeners” living there weren’t a problem would you like to drop your address for them? I hear they’re looking for a new place to trash, start fires, fight, and shoot up.
Welp, that’s the end of another season of Portlandia.
What invented problem will they think of next?
“Community groups involved in reshaping Cal Anderson’s uses in the wake of CHOP have spoken out against the city’s decision….”
Well of course they have. The question is where did these community groups get the authority to reshape Cal Anderson in the wake of CHOP? Why is it that some incident of police brutality on the other side of the country results in a public park being taken over by private citizens with a stringent political agenda. Furthermore, given that the BLMG social media sites have come out supporting the massacre of Jews in Israel, a position that they defended when taken to task about that in person, of course they should not be given public land to steward anywhere. Why is it the city constantly panders to activists who are clearly not respectful of the communities that they colonize?
Since you’re asking about this specific bit of reporting, I want to lay out the definitive case why it’s bullshit now that this story is over.
The parks process was illegitimate & went nowhere
The answer is that Durkan set up a slapdash process to de-escalate in the wake of CHOP and then it fizzled out because the immediate crisis was over. This was never legitimate and we’re not bound to whoever these groups are.
The “community groups” aren’t real
Go through the past reports on this site and note that the community groups are literally never named, nor have we been given links to see what they’ve said or who composes their membership. It’s just “community groups have spoken out”, without quoting anyone.
It’s also funny to me because capitol hill is not known for its civic engagement and these groups aren’t mentioned in any other context, but somehow, for this one issue, their vague general sentiment is really crucial.
I assume we’d instantly tell these groups don’t represent the neighborhood if they were identified and I assume the reporter is aware of this perception. CHS is experienced & smart enough to know that anonymously attributing sentiment to unnamed groups is bad journalism.
Cal Anderson Park Alliance restarted a year before CHOP, is barely off the ground, and has not supported the garden
The one group that is named, Cal Anderson Park Alliance, is a volunteer group so we’re not gonna be mean-spirited. It was just re-instituted in 2019 to activate the park and ensure it’s “safe and welcoming for all”, and then pandemic hit, then CHOP. They haven’t really been doing much that you can see on their socials, mostly dormant expect for the annual garage sale.
Yet, they are being dragged into this story by CHS despite not taking a position on the garden. That is consistent with how the reporting is worded, though this is misleading in totality:
This is carefully worded. This second half of the sentence says the Alliance did nothing, and how is this related to the first part saying groups have spoken out? Here’s one person who was mislead: Crosscut’s reporter makes a false claim citing this exact sentence:
Astroturfing
I’ve concluded this is a bit astroturfing to spin the removal as out of step with the majority view, when the opposite is true. Talk to people, read this thread, check every Seattle social platform you can think of. It’s clear where the overwhelming majority of people in the neighborhood stand.
Any word on clearing out the pump house area so people can walk there w/o being in a drug deal?
The garden was run down and poorly maintained. It served a purpose. Now it’s an eyesore and not indicative of a proper memorial. It’s a park space we all get to use. Nobody should be able to permanently take over an area w/o prior authorisation.
YAY!!! Get your phony garden out of our city park, Antifa. And stay out.
Now, maybe the city can do something useful with the space, like turn it into a fenced dog run. That might keep the vandals, drug addicts, and graffiti “artists” away from the bathrooms and keep dog owners from letting Fido pee on the astro-turfed soccer field.
About time. Return the commons to the people. Too many small cliques claiming swaths of public land for themselves.
Finally this barely-maintained, eyesore that was a private taking of public land has been resolved. No more wet, decomposing cardboard.
I’m sad that the plants were apparently destroyed. The city had offered to relocate them months ago. I don’t want to celebrate destruction rather than creation, but at a certain point we must draw a clear line.
The recent uptick in activity just resulted in copypasta spray paint on public property and encampments to stand watch. Many commenters are spinning this reality to suit their ideological allies, who don’t represent the neighborhood. A small number of vocal activists don’t always get their way, a lesson that had been forgotten. All hail the king!
It’s hilarious to read this from the statement. “Forceful displacement of community projects like BLMG is consistent with violent state projects like imperialism, colonization, and gentrification.” They didn’t live in communist state, if all of these looks so violent for them.)) I lived in one, it was enough to appreciate the country I live in currently. I just wish I didn’t have to deal with all this, so called”progressive ” nonsense.
On general, Cal Anderson needs plenty of improvements. I hope that city will really pay attention to the park and to capitol hill in general. Recently, capitol hill looks more like an open air mental hospital for the most disturbing patients and addicts. I’m not sure how anyone can enjoy it and accept this horrendous situation.
There is nothing to be proud of what happened in Capitol Hill, including Cal Anderson during “Summer of love”, chop events.
It seems that those chop activists are now busy screaming for Gaza. They need to get busy with work and studies on schools and colleges or with volunteering in schools in minorities neighborhoods.
How about keeping unleashed dogs off the lawns now that the Parks Department is apparently trying to return the park areas to their originally intended uses? Does not seem fair to enforce rules against one group, but not another.
Totally agree. I won’t argue for keeping the garden but its presence never bothered me. The dogs do.
This is an important point. Last time the city temporarily closed the park and had police officers there to enforce the selective closure, dog owners were regularly seen with their dogs (illegally) on the Bobby Morris Playfield as well as the grass area adjacent to the fountain. Why is the destruction of turf and fields not important when it is happening from dog owners and not from people involved with the protests or without housing?
About time. Next, clean the graffiti off that building, and make plans to do the same to the street.
Graffiti is fine, we’re a city. Way more important things to worry about
Ever heard of the “broken windows theory”? It’s real!
And ask business owners if graffiti is “fine.” They spend lots of money cleaning it up, and so does city staff.
Not a moment too soon…..
Together with the garden removal the statement above says this was the 76th sweep at Cal Anderson in 2023….that does not sound like a working approach to me. It makes the garden removal more of a sideshow or an opportunity to score political points.
One could also mention that SPD employees clocked in $36m in overtime (OT) in 2022 (10m over budget) ..so one could again ask if city resources are spent effectively. (there was a heavy police presence today).
Just the SPD OT budget is bigger than the budget of most city departments….below are some more details.
If you made it this far here is a link even if it is from 2020.
You want to see cops making less overtime?
Let’s hire some more cops.
Fun fact, even when we had a fully staffed department there were still cases of overtime fraud from SPD.
Wanna hire more cops, fine. I want a forensic accountant first to do a review of their books from when they were put under the consent decree to current.
Thank you for making the point! We should not make the mistake of the past, by not hiring enough police officers we create the environment where accusations of “overtime fraud” can be made.
Glad it’s gone. Pointless mess.
Weird to fake care about it so much
“Forceful displacement of community projects like BLMG is consistent with violent state projects like imperialism, colonization, and gentrification.”
hyperbole /hī-pûr′bə-lē/
noun
In rhetoric, an obvious exaggeration; an extravagant statement or assertion not intended to be understood literally.
“Forceful displacement of community projects like BLMG is consistent with violent state projects like imperialism, colonization, and gentrification.”
LOL…. yeah, I’m sure there’s some Gazans losing sleep tonight over the plight of a disused muddy garden plot in Seattle and those poor (mostly white) college kids that stood up for it….
The Black Community is unaware of the existence of the garden, and the garden does not represent in any meaningful sense, the vast number of Black lives extinguished by police violence,” added Darrell Powell, president of the Seattle-King County NAACP, saying his group stands with the Harrell administration in working to establish a better memorial.
Gardens are for all
What a maroon!
Not a moment too soon. The “garden” was a mess of litter and junk. Well done, Seattle Parks.
Y’all really could not resist doing a little fist pump over this, could you?
The one thing I have learned about Seattles mood with black folks, and as a black and a gay Seattle is not friendly at all. Yeah sure a few white folks tokenize us to look the dei part, but in the end. We are not welcome. It’s all tolerance with out the internal work that needs to be done. For me to not see this removal of the garden as Seattle sentiment to the black community, is for me to pretend that I’ve not seen this before, and again and again.
One dude cannot just set up an anti-capitalist performance in the middle of a park and say it the represents whole black community. I can now see it’s more inconsiderate, because it has people like you attaching their identity to something that was destined to fail. Sad all around.
I doubt the change you’re looking for is a half-assed garden infested with rodents in every neighborhood. This was never your fight man and its loss says nothing about you
I hope you consider the range of black voices in this release https://parkways.seattle.gov/2023/12/27/statement-on-the-removal-of-the-cal-anderson-garden/
A real banger:
“Black Star Farmer’s abstract agenda of anti-capitalism, food sustainability, land stewardship, US neoliberal free trade policies, sweeps of unhoused neighbors, and solidarity with the Palestinian people’s occupation are not efforts centered on the lived experiences of impacted families and our loved ones’ fatal encounter with police. Our concern with this Black Lives Memorial Garden is the failure of the collective to engage, support and get consent from surviving family members right here in our own city and state.”
… this mess will not be missed …
I’m glad something was finally done about this. The city needs to maintain a look so that we can keep tourism high. Tourism is what allows us to pay for a lot of community programs and maintain mom and pop shops(many which have closed due to vandalism or thefts).
In all my time of seeing the garden, I’ve noticed white or light skin people tending to the garden which really speaks on how white savior complexes demolish public spaces in the name of poc struggles.
BLM would thrive with a community that focused on maintaining real and fundamental things unlike a garden which I doubt fed anyone and could be tampered with by any outside source.
Mom and pop stores are closing due to things like rent, not vandalism and theft. Those impact profit, of course, but renting a small space in a run down building for 8000 a month is the true culprit.