Slog: News & Arts

RSS icon Comments on Windstorm '06

1

Chronically dysfunctional storm drains on East Madison Street—the subject of several complaints to the city over the years—may have caused the death of well-known voice-over actress Kate Fleming.

This also explains in part why housing there is so affordable. Structurally, the neighborhood and its homes are unsafe.

Posted by Gomez | December 19, 2006 9:45 AM
2

I have friends which have a house on the side of that bowl, last month I was joking during all that flooding in the rural/suburb area, that we would all know things were bad when that area of Seattle flooded. Damn.

Posted by Phenics | December 19, 2006 9:49 AM
3

Gee Dan, I'm suprised your crack team of reporters couldn't link this death to some form of racism.

You are clearly not looking hard enough.

Posted by Jeff | December 19, 2006 10:06 AM
4

This totally sucks of course, but doesn't the homeowner in this case have a certain responsibility to make sure their structure can handle this sort of incident? It is NOT like the 9th Ward, where EVERY house was affected by poor drainage and broken levies.

Posted by DOUG. | December 19, 2006 10:06 AM
5

She died because of George W. Bush I say! It's his fault, because he lied about WMD to invade Iraq!

Posted by Mapleleaf | December 19, 2006 10:09 AM
6

Well, Jeff... I can tie it to racism:

The neighborhood in which Fleming lived and died was once known as "Coon Hollow." Perhaps the neighborhoods drainage systems are in such disrepair due to decades of neglect—which was, perhaps, motivated by institutional racism.

In big cities all over the United States white neighborhoods tend to receive better city services—and have better sewers, drainage systems, lighting, sidewalks—than minority neighborhoods. When a neighborhood gentrifies and goes from predominantly minority to mostly white, the new white residents have to live with—and, it seems, die as the result of—years of racist neglect.

See? Easy—easy because it happens to be true.

Posted by Dan Savage | December 19, 2006 10:15 AM
7

Nature doesn't help either, Dan. That is a glacier-carved hollow and a former salmon stream. It's easier to drain Capitol Hill than Madison Valley. And not just because of wealth.

Posted by DOUG. | December 19, 2006 10:29 AM
8

Pathetic (as usual). You are making a huge leap. Don't bother with any actual facts or reporting, I wouldn't expect that from you.


Posted by Jeff | December 19, 2006 10:41 AM
9

Jesus, Jeff. Just keep your head buried in the sand and all the bad things will go away. Poverty is poor peoples' fault, there's no such thing as racism, and Santa comes down the chimney every christmas.

Posted by Mike in MO | December 19, 2006 11:04 AM
10

There is no conceivable human-built drainage system that will make that stretch of Madison safe. It's not a hillside; it's a viaduct, with a filled-in hillside underneath. The people at fault here do not work for the city today; they lived in the area a hundred years ago, and filled in that ravine, under the bridge that Madison used to be there. The only way to protect it now would be to completely fill in the hollow and raise it up to the level of the surrounding land, which isn't feasible, and probably wouldn't work, anyways. Gravity will out in the end. You can't fight hydraulics. And Strong's lawsuit will fail.

Posted by Fnarf | December 19, 2006 11:24 AM
11

"Easy—easy because it happens to be true."

Wow! Please share the smoking gun you have that proves a) this neighborhood has been neglected relative to others, and b) that racism was the reason for that neglect. (Rather than, say, other characteristics of the neighborhood such as lack of political organization, apathy among residents, a mistrust of government agencies, etc., etc., etc.)

Can't wait to hear the details!

Posted by Sean | December 19, 2006 11:28 AM
12

"When a neighborhood gentrifies and goes from predominantly minority to mostly white, the new white residents have to live with—and, it seems, die as the result of—years of racist neglect."

Wow. So it's racism because she lived in a poor minority neighborhood? What about all the poor minority residents that are driven out by gentrification?

Her death was sad and tragic and her partner has a case for a wrongful death suit against the city for mismanegement and incompetence. This much is true.

Posted by Jeff | December 19, 2006 11:29 AM
13

Proof of neglect? The city has never finished the storm sewer system for he neighborhood.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/296210_flemingside16.html

Posted by Steve | December 19, 2006 11:37 AM
14

I believe in Santa Claus AND Racism!

Posted by Soupytwist | December 19, 2006 11:47 AM
15

"Proof of neglect? The city has never finished the storm sewer system for he neighborhood."

No, proof of neglect *relative to other neighbhorhoods*.

You can find neglect in any Seattle neighborhood, whether it's potholes, lack of sidewalks, street lights that don't work, outdated fire/police equipment, etc.

Posted by Sean | December 19, 2006 11:55 AM
16

The rain storm taht hit Thursday evening was more like the monsoons common in Arizona.
A very large volume of water within 45 minutes.
You should have seen all of the drains overflowing in downtown Saettle. There were lakes on our main streets and avenues (where the BIG business interests have their offices). Seattle is out to screw them too......
The Stranger has been pretty pathetic over the last few days.

Posted by What? | December 19, 2006 11:56 AM
17

Idea for new liberal parlor game: Everyone takes turns picking a random word from the dictionary. Then they have to tie that word back to racism, sexism, or Kevin Bacon.

Posted by Sean | December 19, 2006 12:03 PM
18

back on topic, our friend Tom Nissley blogged on Amazon about Kate Fleming, who was a prolific audiobook recorder (by name Anna Fields).

http://www.amazon.com/gp/blog/id/A287JD9GH3ZKFY

Posted by Scott | December 19, 2006 12:19 PM
19

Fnarf is, once again, correct. You can't put a storm water system in place in this area to handle what happened, which the City stated on Friday.

As far as neglect, the City has tried to improve the system for many years - as far back as the failed Forward Thrust bonds of forty years ago, so I don't see how you can say the problem as been ignored.

Posted by kb | December 19, 2006 12:23 PM
20

Thank you, Fnarf, for confirming what my topological intuition had always suspected. That basin has a huge drainage, not just from the east and west, but the south too, from as far back as Cherry or even Yesler.

But my question then becomes, why can drainage not be added? If you can fill a valley in beneath a bridge, surely you can retrofit a culvert?

Posted by boyd main | December 19, 2006 2:36 PM
21

html>

http-equiv="content-type">



As someone in Madison Valley whose basement was flooded with 4 feet of
water, I can say that although the city's two projects built to address
the flooding problem here couldn't handle the torrents of water, the
city has been incredibly responsive and helpful to residents here.
They've already sent out claim forms and it's quite possible the city
will take responsibility for all of the flood damage--since no one here
bought flood insurance, mostly because of assurances from the city that
they were fixing these drainage issues. Call me pollyanna, but I would
bet the city will be working out a settlement in the case of the
Strong/Fleming household.

Kate Fleming was a victim in many ways, one of them being a victim of
climate change. We in the valley have seen two 100-year rain events in
the last 2 years. Two major floods lashed Northwest mountains in the
past 3 years. glaciers in the Cascades are href="http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2002034050_glaciers13m.html">melting
at an alarming rate. And the folks in New Orleans' 9th Ward now
know that hurricanes are href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/15/AR2005091502234.html">increasing
in intensity and frequency. We can continue to fiddle as Rome
burns. Or we can acknowledge that global warming is real and people are
dying because of it. We can build all sorts of new drains and overflow
facilities, but in the end it's the larger problem of our impact on
world climate that will have to be addressed.



Posted by Andrew | December 19, 2006 3:58 PM
22

i just got my power back on. i live in west seattle. thank fucking god. times like this seem to illuminate people's true nature...i'm finding myself really annoyed with certain folks who seem to be fucking clueless (blissfully ignorant?) that there are still lots and lots people without electricity, heat, or any way to cook. i am disturbed by how many people seem to be so fucking out of touch with what is happening right in their own communities. how far up your own ass can you be? i am kind of saddened and disappointed that some of my close friends did not attempt to check in with me and my young child, and seemed surprised to learn we (or anyone else) had spent 5 cold nights in the dark. but of course, the dissapointment of seeing such self-centered "not my problem" behavior from some peers is tempered with the kindness and compassion of other friends and complete strangers. who seem to be capable of thinking of others. this shit isn't over yet. if there is anyone you can think of (even if they are "rich eastsiders") who might still be without, call and check up on them. don't be an asshole.

Posted by chee | December 19, 2006 5:00 PM
23

Did you say "very 9th Ward?" in the same manner one might say "very Andy Warhol" or "so last year?"

Blech.

Posted by wha? | December 19, 2006 5:26 PM
24

I know Seattle well enough to know that the Harrison/Denny Blaine neighborhood is hardly the center of poverty. This is where Courtny Love had her mansion. Not trying to be disagreeable, help me out here

Posted by Jeff Muller | December 20, 2006 11:54 AM
25

I know Seattle well enough to know that the Harrison/Denny Blaine neighborhood is hardly the center of poverty. This is where Courtny Love had her mansion. Not trying to be disagreeable, help me out here

Posted by Jeff Muller | December 20, 2006 11:54 AM
26

I know Seattle well enough to know that the Harrison/Denny Blaine neighborhood is hardly the center of poverty. This is where Courtny Love had her mansion. Not trying to be disagreeable, help me out here

Posted by Jeff Muller | December 20, 2006 11:55 AM
27

jonny843

Posted by jonny709 | December 25, 2006 5:42 AM

Comments Closed

In order to combat spam, we are no longer accepting comments on this post (or any post more than 45 days old).