Richard Hogan: A city in crisis must help the most vulnerable

Cement barricades are fortified with chunks of concrete and tarps in Seattle. Picture: AP Photo/Ted S. Warren

America is a concept. A place where dreams and fortunes can be made. You can go bust and just dust yourself off and go again, with none of that credit history malarky we love so dearly in Ireland. It didn’t work out, go again.

Things aren’t just big, they’re super-sized — cars big as bars and rivers of gold.

My grandmother was born in Portland, Maine, in 1912 and moved to Ireland several years later after her mother died from the Spanish Flu. So, it’s a country I feel connected to.

I think most Irish people feel connected to it — like a big brother we admire, but ridicule while he’s not watching because his size intimidates us — and we love our US presidents. Well, most of them. It’s hard to remember a better reception for a politician than Barack Obama’s College Green appearance. The first black Irish president, our greatest coup.

I’ve been here many times and I lived in Providence, Rhode Island, for a year in 2004. However this time, being here with my family and working in a university, things feel different. I haven’t been in the US since 2015, before Trump took office. As Bob Dylan says, and he is rarely wrong, “things have changed”.

Washington is an incredible state. It has everything. The landscape is magnificent, horizons stretch out beyond what the eye can see.

Seattle is a hip town, too, with so much to offer. It’s industrial and yet somehow very cool, the home to so many famous start-ups; Microsoft, Amazon, Starbucks, Boeing, the list could go on and on.

However, it is in crisis. As an interloper, you cannot but be struck by the homelessness and drug crisis ripping through the city. It is something my daughters have found difficult to comprehend.

Heavy drug use is in open view. There is no shadow play here, needles are discarded on main streets.

It is hard to describe the scene as you walk through a busy street. The incongruence of shoppers and restaurant-goers amidst heavy drug use and homelessness is quite jarring.

Businesses are struggling to get back on their feet after being knocked down for so long. The fact that tented encampments are on main streets and drug use ubiquitous in daylight must affect the decision of the denizens of the surrounding areas to come into the city. There is a very real sense that nobody knows what to do. But something has to happen. A city can’t be left to die like this.

Seattle is considered a liberal city, which feeds into the reason why people come who are struggling to find shelter. The climate is temperate and the people are compassionate.

However, it struggled during the George Floyd riots last year. Six blocks were overtaken by protestors. The defund the police movement seems to have really damaged policing in the city. In fact, the first female black police chief, Carmen Best, resigned because she felt the cutbacks the city council proposed ($4m cut from budget and over 100 officers cut from service) made it impossible to police the city so that citizens would be safe.

Now what seems to be a residual from all that chaos last year is that police are disempowered to the point where they do not take action against criminal behaviour. The city is overwhelmed by issues it never had to deal with before, but doesn’t have the resources needed to make any meaningful improvement. All of this leads to an all-time low in police confidence.

It really feels like the city is at a crucial point in its history. Someone needs to stand up for the city. Being liberal means we take all points of view into consideration and, in our solutions, are compassionate and empathetic while safeguarding all inhabitants. A family should be able to walk the street, feel safe and not have to avoid used syringes on main streets. I don’t think that’s an unrealistic expectation for citizens.

A strong politician not bent by zeitgeist or political base needs to step up and make difficult decisions that are both compassionate to the homeless while also attempting to keep the city from collapsing to the ravages of drug use and lawlessness. A city cannot survive while its main shopping district is overrun by drug use.

When businesses pull out and people stop coming into the city, what will be left? This incredible city faces many challenges, but they are not impossible to overcome. It requires a systemic shift, a belief in policing and a belief in community. Those struggling with mental health issues need to be able to access services to can get the help they desperately require and not left to roam the streets. Those with addiction need access to treatment centres and help to get their lives back from addiction.

Turning a blind eye should not be an option.