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The Story That Disappeared
Yesterday, in the middle of a very busy day, on a break, I noticed a story on the KOMO Seattle Web site with a title somewhat like this:
King County Council Member considers Leaving Seattle Over Crime Issues
Backstory: The King County Administration Building (headquarters) is in an area of downtown Seattle especially prone to street crime and filth brought about by the high number of homeless people and tent camps. County employees have been assaulted on their way to and from work. If the Council has been discussing the possibility of moving headquarters out of Seattle, I could certainly understand.
When I returned home after work, I went back to the KOMO Web site looking for the story, and it had totally disappeared without a trace. I searched all over the KOMO site and found nothing. Hmmmm… I wonder who objected to that particular story? And why?
Published in Politics
To get the station to pull the story, there must be some backstory there.
So much for an informed electorate. Journalism is dead.
Was it an earlier version of this:
https://komonews.com/news/project-seattle/king-county-council-member-proposes-moving-courthouse-out-of-seattle-cites-crime-issues
Yep, that’s it. I knew someone else would be able to find what I could not. Thanks!
If you ever run into a news story that you think may get memory-holed, you can usually save it on the wayback machine:
https://archive.org/web/
see “save page now” option.
I note someone (intentionally or unintentionally) saved that page yesterday. It does not work with sites that forbid it (usually paywall or other protected sites).
The headline could have been in the Babylon Bee. The only way it could have been better: “Seattle considers leaving Seattle over crime issues.”
Normally, when I see a story like that, I email it to myself to make sure I can still find it. I was not in a position to do that yesterday, however.
I just found it in a Ducky-Wucky-Go-Go search, on KOMO website, and the link worked.
https://komonews.com/news/project-seattle/king-county-council-member-proposes-moving-courthouse-out-of-seattle-cites-crime-issues
The county courthouse is only a couple blocks walk from Pioneer Square and all its problems. I can’t believe they couldn’t find some safer place in all of Seattle that wouldn’t be an improvement, and still have reasonable access to highways, parking and public transportation. I wouldn’t expect the homelessness and drug problems would automatically follow the courthouse to wherever it relocated, to answer concerns of other neighborhoods objecting to building a new courthouse near where they live. I think the impetus of getting out of Seattle reflects recognition of a broadly accepted premise — that Seattle police do not have the will to do what is necessary to keep public order not just in the vicinity of an essential public institution, but anywhere else within the city.
Maybe they were just fixing something (spelling, punctuation, the dreaded two spaces after a period) in the original version. Articles posted in the Member Feed can go into limbo while they are in the process of being promoted.
I saw it on KOMO news at 5pm. They should move it up to the Bothel area or maybe out east of Redmond. There’s lots of land east of Lake Washington.
Maybe to save money they could just rent an Airbnb in Anchorage?
I can see their potential new neighbors going all NIMBY on this. They seem to attract bad elements.
It used to be wallowing in your own filth was a powerful motivator to want to clean up. Now it looks like at least one council member says, “We should move the courthouse”, thus avoiding having to deal with the problem. Has it ever occured to him that’s the same idea some Seattle residents have? Move somewhere else, somewhere outside Seattle?
Somewhere not likely to be in the city’s tax base?
I used to like Seattle a lot. I almost took the Surgery residency in 1967 and thought about retiring there some years ago. I had 10 acres on Vashon to build but eventually gave up and sold them. Why ruin such a beautiful city? It’s just sad. San Francisco was fun to visit but didn’t want to live there.
King County is quite large. There are plenty of other cities and towns within its borders, plus unincorporated areas. I had jury duty at the King County courthouse in 2011, and I did not feel safe in the area, except in a large group, even then. Conditions are much worse there now. If I were called to jury duty at the KC Courthouse now, I would try everything I could think of to be excused. I fully support doing my civic duty, but not while having to put my personal safety at undue risk.
wow