SEATTLE — Seattle city officials swept out an encampment at Cal Anderson Park on Dec. 18.
Now, just three weeks later, another encampment seems to be growing less than a mile away.
Some neighbors worried about this, even as they watched as Cal Anderson Park was cleared out last month.
This was the reception: At Pendleton Miller Playfield this afternoon, a man shouting and threatening, much of it too profane to air on television.
Now those fears appear to have come true.
But this, according to some officers, is an example of those living here now — often violent campers who once called Cal Anderson Park home.
“It was kind of feeling creepy,” said Renee Winget.
She lived for three months in the homeless encampment at Cal Anderson Park. She said she watched it deteriorate.
“I met a lot of nice people here,” she said. “I just don’t like drug activity. Yeah, the drug activity bothered me. And people breaking bottles and stuff. I think that’s rude.”
It was the drug and other illegal activity that had neighbors pleading with the city of Seattle to remove the encampment from Cal Anderson.
But this mobile camper that drew a whole host of complaints there appears to have moved less than a mile to Miller Playfield.
Still, when asked about their reaction to the sweep, those who live on both sides of Capitol Hill said they are ambivalent.
“It’s a complicated question,” said resident Melissa Plummer. “It’s complicated because you know the city needs to do better at providing shelter for the unhoused. But it also wasn’t a very safe place for them to be.”
“I can understand how it would be disruptive to the neighborhood,” said resident John Marrin. “But at the same time, you have to recognize that those people are our neighbors, too. And we need to help them as best we can.”
At the very least, Cal Anderson Park appears to be returning to a semblance of normalcy. A pickup soccer match was being played in the driving rain on Saturday night.
As for Winget, hers appears to be a success story.
She did find housing after the Cal Anderson encampment was swept out. She said she moved into a small, eco-friendly housing project in South Seattle on New Year’s Day.