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I’ve worked with (very loosely) Friends of (Seattle) Street Ends: https://www.streetends.org/ I found out last year there are 142 Seattle street ends that are public property in Seattle, but about 2/3s are either not suitable for visit (full of invasive weeds) or are fully or partially encroached upon by neighbors. I took a picture of a few of them. Did you know that area under University Bridge, the beach is public? It sure looks like someone’s private property, but no. By encroached, I mean either fully fenced off, used as parking or storage, or marked with intimidating signs saying “Security Cameras in Use” etc. I marked this as Community but in reality it is a political problem as the City of Seattle has sort of tried to shy away from tackling the issue. Dealing with dozens or more lawsuits to settle issues of encroachment would be pretty ugly. It’s being dealt with incrementally, but it’s not easy. Of course, formally opening up public land without consideration for issues of erosion or consideration of the neighbors leads to problems. Seattle Parks already have a squatting problem. People are sensitive about cars parking in front of their houses, etc. Anyway if you’re interested in participating in protracted, ugly political, legal, and ecological battles it’s an area to watch. And don’t go on a crusade just yet. submitted by /u/genman |
