As another Capitol Hill green space remains fenced-off by the city due to “bouts of negative park activity,” City Council president Sara Nelson is taking credit for the approach she says saved Capitol Hill’s Miller Park in her campaign to retain her seat at Seattle City Hall.
In a story reported by the KING 5 television station, Nelson credits her approach to addressing addiction treatment and homelessness leading to the clean-up the park and community center next to the Meany Middle School along Capitol Hill’s 19th Ave E.
“This is a microcosm of what you would see across the city is actually the restoration of our parks and playfields for their intended use,” Nelson says in the interview. “We did make progress and we have to keep going.”
CHS reported here in 2021 as encampments were cleared from Miller Park following months of complaints as pandemic restrictions on clearances slowed the process.
Nelson took office in 2022 but tells KING 5 Miller Park is representative of her efforts at City Hall.
“For families, the field is more than just grass and fences,” KING 5 reporter Alex McCloon said to wrap the piece amid clips of people playing pickleball and playing on the field. “It’s a sign, they say, of what they hope can happen at other parks across the city. Three are closed due to encampments, increased drug use, and violence.”
At Seven Hills Park less than a half-mile from Miller, halfway through a “60-day rest” that closed the Capitol Hill green space over complaints of encampments and crime, the Seattle Parks Department and City Councilmember Joy Hollingsworth have not publicly announced progress on plans to improve the fenced-off space.
2016-debuted Broadway Hill Park is also being considered for anti-camping modifications as is Tashkent Park on Boylston Ave E, the parks department has said.
Nelson, meanwhile, is facing a serious challenge to her Position 9 reelection from nonprofit executive and former community organizer and policy advisor Dionne Foster after a terrible showing in the August primary.
At a candidate forum hosted jointly by community councils from Capitol Hill and Eastlake two weeks ago, Nelson sparred with Foster over her lack of experience — especially when it comes to homelessness.
Voters should “not be satisfied with candidates just repeating the question” when it comes to Foster’s answers on the unhoused and service providers, Nelson told the crowd at the forum.
“Things are getting worse out there not better,” Nelson said.
Foster said her efforts for the city working with low income populations and her time at nonprofits lobbying for stronger social services have prepared her for taking on issues around homelessness and for office at Seattle City Hall.
As for Miller Park, the playfield, popular pickleball courts, playground, and area around the community center remains free of long-term encampments.
UPDATE: Nelson scored a win Tuesday as the Seattle City Council approved her legislation to apportion 25% of a planned tenth of a cent sales tax increase authorized by the state legislature for cities to pay for public safety services to be earmarked for “addiction treatment services and recovery-based supports.”
CHS reported here on the Nelson proposal.
Mayor Bruce Harrell has included the planned tenth of a cent sales tax bump in his 2026 city budget proposal along with hopes for revenue from the proposed overhaul to the city’s B&O tax system that must be approved by voters in November. Legislation to secure the sales tax increase will need to be approved by the council.
The state’s sales tax currently weighs in at 6.5%. Seattle’s local additions currently round out at a total 10.35%.
While Nelson has championed preserving and sometimes growing spending on social services including homelessness outreach and addiction treatment, she has also embraced a wider spectrum of contract providers including organizations like Evergreen Treatment Services, the Downtown Emergency Service Center, and newcomers like The More We Love and We Heart Seattle.
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Sara, we want shelters, not whatever this performative crap is that only rich people who voted for you want. Have you checked your polls lately? Maybe stop doing things…
Yeah the people camping in a city park and doing buckets of drugs really want to go to a shelter….
Yeah Derek has no clue, as always.
Yes…they do actually. Not like you ever talk to them to find out.
Huh… odd then that 54% of people offered shelter by the outreach team refuse it then..
The premise is NONE want shelter. You proved James right by trying to prove him wrong.
Yes, a housing first shelter in which they can continue to abuse drugs, live indiscriminately, and debase the existing neighborhood.
That’s not how it works. Why keep saying it?
“Maybe stop doing things.” That is a great approach……. not.
He’s right, the person about to be elected out with horrific appeal should not be doing things
Taking credit for so-called positives yet accepting no blame when, to quote her from this article: “Things are getting worse, not better.”
Got it.
Lulz. Leave it to Sara to take credit for other people’s work, then say it’s getting worse while she’s in office as an attack on her opponent.
I wounded I’d Cm Nelson is a “Singles” fan. It’s ironic the park next to the singles house was overrun with the homeless population growth the light rail Brought to cap hill.
What does some 90s movie nostalgia dorks in Seattle like have to do with anything you said?
Yes. First time I have ever agreed with Derek!
One of the plot points is the main character trying to get a light rail in Seattle. Have you seen the homeless and junkies coming out of the cap hill station cause it’s happening in present day Seattle.
The city has not handled the growth of cap hill that the light rail has caused. That also includes the amount of drunks who come here to party
Homeless and the train sub plot of Singles have nothing to do with each other. Thanks for playing. Hope this helps.
there was a train?
THERE WAS NO LIGHT RAIL WHEN THE MOVIE WAS MADE.
It would be a big mistake to replace Sara Nelson. She is a solid, experienced councilmember and is committed to continued work on the homeless/camping problem. Progress has indeed been made, but ongoing attention to the issue is important to prevent backsliding.
Nope
nice burner account, Sara
Homeless people ruined that park. I’ve walked by it nearly every day for two years and it’s obvious to anyone who is actually from capitol hill (I suspect many here are not).
Treatment centers for drug addicts, period. The virtue signaling of so called ‘do gooder activists’ who wave their finger, dragging up the bullshit excuse of ‘rich people’ not having compassion, while enabling sprawling encampments to ruin public spaces, people’s lives, and the public’s good will adds to the civic negligence. The city is not moving fast enough. There has been enough outcry, enough pain and suffering, enough obvious need. That the city (and in general, people’s apathy) has kicked the can, playing ‘whack-a-mile’ has only exasperated the situation.
‘whack-a-mole’ has only exacerbated
You are not doing yourself any favors.
We need to whack the moles much harder. Drug vagrants and criminals from across the country should not be able to camp on Capitol Hill or in Seattle. They should be swept immediately.
So they swept Cal Anderson then tents appeared at Miller.
They swept Miller and tents appeared at Seven Hills.
They swept Seven Hills and now there are tents at Broadway Hill.
Wonder where they’ll pop up next? Nelson and Harrell seem very committed to continuing this endless, expensive, and inhumane game of musical chairs, You promised us more chairs! We don’t care if the existing chair owners don’t want sit next to poor people.
There have been very few tents at Broadway Hill Park over the past year or so. At present there are none.
We end up with a fence around every park in the city. That’s the only way the clowns running Seattle can keep the tents and fenty out.
More treatment services are needed. Its so so difficult to get willing folks into treatment let alone the kinds of wraparound services needed to get others to a place of seeking treatment for substance abuse and underlying mental health issues. What doesn’t have many barriers to get? Meth and fent.
Sara made a new slush fund…neeto
This was an easy one to clean up, because it’s right next to a school. As per usual, they only do what’s easy for them. Seven Hills? Cal Anderson? They just aren’t interested……
So tired of the dialog that rich people are the ones bothered by the homeless, crime and drug problem. Rich people just drive by it with their $80K+ cars. Thier biggest issue is nudging people out of the crosswalks. It is the middle, lower liddle and poor people that have to put up with this problem, Have to ride the bus that reeks, is trashed, step in human waist, get yelled at and sometimes assaulted…. These are the people that would like to have nice clean public parks, public transit, public sidewalks. The rich don’t go to these places. They have Broodmore country club, the arboretum at there door step. The arboretum has not had these problems….. It is not the rich vs the homeless, it is those of us that do not have the luxury to drive our cars past the rest of us.