This is an excellent article. Every person in PA and Clallam County should read this. There are so many misconceptions about the homeless. It takes articles like this to open people's eyes. As a father of 3 adopted children who have all experienced homelessness, I commend you.
I just want to say thank you for treating this subject with dignity and respect for the people most impacted, the people on our streets. I've grown so weary of the hate, vitriol, and blatant lies from ccwatchdog. Your writing is honest, fair, and seems to come from.a place of compassion and empathy. We need more of that right now. Thank you.
Thanks Vanessa. I believe it's important to have honest dialogue, and even to debate policy, but at the end of the day we're all human, and everyone deserves respect. This issue is a sensitive one, and I believe it needs to be approached with compassion and empathy, but also honesty around the challenges. I look forward to diving in deeper and hopefully creating more positive dialogue around the issues that result in better results and steps to addressing homelessness.
Thanks for writing this up. One of the most shocking data points I heard was from Chief Smith. He said we can’t trust the crime statistics in Port Angeles because we have a very low ratio of officers per capita. I think he said we run at half the ratio of other states. His conclusion was that if he had MORE officers, we would have HIGHER crime statistics. That just proves the level of lawlessness not addressed or unreported in our community. It also matches a theme that Prosecutor Nichols suggested when he hinted many citizens have lost faith in the system and increasingly don’t even call to report crimes. This level of futility scares me - yet with unreliable statistics, I don’t even know how fearful I should be. How will we ever really know if things are getting better or worse?
Indeed. We talked about budget constraints and limited officers. I’ll go into that in future articles. One interesting item was a partnership with (I believe but will need to check the transcripts) either the water front district or the business association where they provided a portion of funds to get an extra officer to be downtown. If our budget can’t get straightened out I feel that we will need to find creative ways to fund more officers to help address this.
One piece of hope, Chief Smith highlighted that our community has a higher than state average of resolved cases. But still troubling that we don’t have enough officers to address all of the crime.
Please come to the monthly Elevate PA meeting on Monday. The Waterfront District Executive Director gives updates on everything going on - including Winter lights, Haynes Viewpoint, Main Street program, PBIA area and funding, Fall Crawl, Plucking Posse, Lot B plans, Street Banners, Hanging Flower Baskets, Murals, upcoming events, vacant properties, new businesses, and much more. The Downtown Resource Officer from the police department was recently changed. He usually attends as well. Many of the local business owners show up. It is a good place to meet leaders like you.
Thanks Steven, unfortunately I’m out of town for a few days. Can you email me details on when/where it usually is? I’d love to add it to my calendar and join next month!
This is an excellent article. Every person in PA and Clallam County should read this. There are so many misconceptions about the homeless. It takes articles like this to open people's eyes. As a father of 3 adopted children who have all experienced homelessness, I commend you.
I just want to say thank you for treating this subject with dignity and respect for the people most impacted, the people on our streets. I've grown so weary of the hate, vitriol, and blatant lies from ccwatchdog. Your writing is honest, fair, and seems to come from.a place of compassion and empathy. We need more of that right now. Thank you.
Thanks Vanessa. I believe it's important to have honest dialogue, and even to debate policy, but at the end of the day we're all human, and everyone deserves respect. This issue is a sensitive one, and I believe it needs to be approached with compassion and empathy, but also honesty around the challenges. I look forward to diving in deeper and hopefully creating more positive dialogue around the issues that result in better results and steps to addressing homelessness.
Thanks for writing this up. One of the most shocking data points I heard was from Chief Smith. He said we can’t trust the crime statistics in Port Angeles because we have a very low ratio of officers per capita. I think he said we run at half the ratio of other states. His conclusion was that if he had MORE officers, we would have HIGHER crime statistics. That just proves the level of lawlessness not addressed or unreported in our community. It also matches a theme that Prosecutor Nichols suggested when he hinted many citizens have lost faith in the system and increasingly don’t even call to report crimes. This level of futility scares me - yet with unreliable statistics, I don’t even know how fearful I should be. How will we ever really know if things are getting better or worse?
Indeed. We talked about budget constraints and limited officers. I’ll go into that in future articles. One interesting item was a partnership with (I believe but will need to check the transcripts) either the water front district or the business association where they provided a portion of funds to get an extra officer to be downtown. If our budget can’t get straightened out I feel that we will need to find creative ways to fund more officers to help address this.
One piece of hope, Chief Smith highlighted that our community has a higher than state average of resolved cases. But still troubling that we don’t have enough officers to address all of the crime.
Please come to the monthly Elevate PA meeting on Monday. The Waterfront District Executive Director gives updates on everything going on - including Winter lights, Haynes Viewpoint, Main Street program, PBIA area and funding, Fall Crawl, Plucking Posse, Lot B plans, Street Banners, Hanging Flower Baskets, Murals, upcoming events, vacant properties, new businesses, and much more. The Downtown Resource Officer from the police department was recently changed. He usually attends as well. Many of the local business owners show up. It is a good place to meet leaders like you.
Thanks Steven, unfortunately I’m out of town for a few days. Can you email me details on when/where it usually is? I’d love to add it to my calendar and join next month!
I think it is usually the last Monday of each month. Make sure you subscribe at https://www.portangeleswaterfront.com/