Potemkin Villages, Blue State/European style

off for a weekend around the corner

Just like San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Paris did in preparation for their own events drawing international and national visitors, Seattle has (temporarily - they come right back) kicked its bums down the road while the World Cup is in town. Message: “We care”. Uh huh.

Ari Hoffman, NY Post:

Socialist Seattle mayor’s World Cup cleanup is a world-class fraud

Seattle cleaned itself up to host the World Cup the way a child cleans his room before his parents come upstairs: by shoving the dirty laundry under the bed and stuffing everything else into the closet.

Socialist Mayor Katie Wilson herded thousands of drug addicts away from the SoDo neighborhood’s Lumen Field football stadium and nearby Downtown’s hotels, then bragged that “Seattle is ready” for the massive influx of international visitors.

But walk just a few blocks, and the truth crowds the sidewalk — hunched over and smoking fentanyl.

This week I joined Jonathan Choe, senior fellow at the Discovery Institute, and Andrea Suarez, founder of homeless outreach group We Heart Seattle, for what we called a “Doom Loop Tour” through the parts of Seattle that officials hope World Cup visitors never see.

It was just a few hours before Monday’s Belgium-Egypt face-off, the first of six matches to be held in the Emerald City.

At 12th and Jackson, in the Chinatown-International District that overlooks the stadium, hundreds of people clustered on corners to openly smoke fentanyl and staggered through the streets like a horde from “The Walking Dead.”

Drug deals went down in plain view.

Minority business owners, especially the district’s Asian shopkeepers that have been abandoned by the city for years, were left to fend for themselves.

Many had boarded up their storefront windows.

One had to intervene to stop a drugged-out vagrant from breaking into his car while we watched.

A pair of people who we took to be charity workers distributed food to the addicts.

But when we tried to speak with them, the reality became clear: The food appeared to be bait to draw in new customers for their illegal drug sales.

We spoke with a dazed-looking girl who looked no older than 15, wearing a loose-fitting bra and torn, unbuttoned jeans.

In one hand she held a straw. In the other, fentanyl foil.

Suarez, who personally interacts with homeless people on the streets and gets them into housing and treatment without the city’s help, told me she believed the girl was a victim of trafficking.

The teenager declined her offer of assistance, but accepted a hug.

Next we attempted to walk through Lewis Park — a natural area with a hiking trail that’s become a no-go zone.

In the twilight, I could make out the flicker of dozens of lighters burning fentanyl along the path.

Suarez called out to see if anyone needed services. 

Addicts pelted her and Choe with expletives and half-eaten pints of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream in response.

A few of those wandering nearby warned us not to go farther in, saying it was too dangerous: Honduran drug gangs are said to operate inside the park.

Outside the park we came across a mostly naked, emaciated body on the ground. I could not tell if it was a man or a woman. Suarez immediately called 911.