maladroit malactivists.

sorry i tend to agree that $210 million could be better spent elsewhere and still benefit the youth of the CD

I am intrigued by their presentation on "gorilla gardening". It's about time those lousy primates started tilling the soil.

Oh boy, theres that word again, gentrify.

"The plan includes building commercial spaces that will further gentrify the Central District."

Its like each of the pages on their 365 page "Word of the Day Calender" says Gentrification. Replacing last years calender, which said Police State.

Didn't vote for it.

Sorry, all tapped out on glitter and glam like the Billionaire's Tunnel.

The Libraries needed the cash.

@2 for the win.

the opposite of gentrification is slummification.

Living in squallor is my my culture! How dare you make any effort to improve my living conditions!

Actually, we want to abolish the entire prison industrial complex. Thanks for the usual snide (and inaccurate) dismissal, Dom.

@8: Making conditions worse for children is a great start!

@8 and have you guys figured out what to do about violent offenders once the prison industrial complex is banashed?

Cause it seems to me you guys have this idealistic view of society that "prisons make criminals!" and if they were gone, people would stop breaking the law...ever.

Idealistic bullshit is hurting this godamn country on both sides. Since when did words like "compromise" become evil? I learned early on that compromising is a part of being an adult, it's not a weakness.

@8: The prison-industrial complex benefits from shitty facilities like the current one. I'm sure those being disenfranchised by the prison-industrial complex are totally all about staying in this facility so you can feel real nice about yourself! Shit. The facility is publicly-funded (hence, levy!) and the new facility has less beds (hence, less money for Sodexo or whoever their food vendor is!) and has a greater capacity for non-detention programs like counseling (again, less money for asshole profiteers like CCA)! Go spend that time volunteering for Books to Prisoners or writing some kind of measure to increase rehabilitation programs.

The levy isn't more prison -- it's less prison, and the less prison treats prisoners at least a little more like humans. I don't like the prison system either, but I'm not going to make those that I'm claiming I'm "helping" endure the current facility for as long as it takes to dismantle the US prison system. Because that is privileged, entitled bullshit, sacrificing our city's youth for your politics.

Also, I really hope you're being specific about which Prop 1 it is (King County!) because the Seattle Prop 1 is libraries, which are super extra important.

How about some actual reporting before you snark? This proposition is a good time to discuss alternatives to the prison industrial complex, which is what the Festival of Resistance will focus on. Unfortunately everyone against this proposition is being strawmaned into favoring cruelty. Don't forget that the county is the one keeping kids in a decrepit jail, not prison abolitionists.

I am against King County Proposition #1 largely because some of the land will be sold to private developers to build condos on top of the juvy. This doesn't mean I believe in caging kids in a shithole (I'm generally against caging kids, period). I want a better proposal that doesn't involve more privatization. And I need to be confident that a jail with 50 less beds doesn't mean children will be shipped off to the Kent detention center or housed in adult jail.

I agree with @11 we need to be clear which propositions we're discussing. City of Seattle Proposition #1 is for libraries, which are good for communities. Unlike prisons.

@11: No, "privileged" and "entitled" would be saying "Hey! We bought this brand spanking new jail cell for you! Aren't you so happy we did that!?"

@8 Is the need to belong really just the want of not trying to understand reality? Your lifestyle choice is interfering with the lives and futures of kids. You can't rebuild the fucking boat at sea. You make repairs, correct course and hold fast to the helm. That's society, that's what we do. It makes it safe for you people to hold your prescious wrongheaded notions. But please do fuck off because you sure as hell aren't helping these kids.

@13: That sucks too, but about as much as stay-in-this-even-shittier-cell-until-we-find-a-solution-that-we-think-is-better.

After talking with a couple of friends on FB, it seems the real issue here is the land being sold for private development (as @12 said). Which is pretty fucking abhorrent. Let's look into that, eh?

Hey Dominic, how about some reporting? Here is the Seattle Times article on the city land to be sold to private developers: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/lo…

Translation: People voted for more Libraries.

Whiners whine about the fact they didn't want more prisons to provide cheap labor for prison industries.

@16 I was one of THOSE kids. I won't get into an argument on the fucking internet about the validity of these kids lives and right to health and happiness, two thing that were if not simply neglected were outright abused.

i voted against it! waste of money and resources in the middle of seattle. sell/develop that property and use the windfalls to build a reasonable facility in a different area of the county. that property and area deserves more than a juvie hall/court.

@12) If you want my reporting on it--and the last protest about it--read the article I linked to in this post.

you know what would really improve their conditions? LETTING THEM GO FREE.

you are a shitty reporter if you can't articulate positions you don't agree with. we are voting no on king co. prop 1 and/or opposed to a new youth jail because locking kids up doesn't keep people safe and further traumatizes already struggling youth. that amount money could be far better spent on social services and measures to curb social inequality, which is one of the root causes of crime. instead, the county wants to keep caging kids and bring in more condos.

it is unconscionable to claim that anti-prop 1 activists (some of whom have been incarcerated @ 12th and alder) are anti-youth. fuck you.

I take it the people saying we need to do away with the "prison industrial complex" are cool with hosting criminals at their house? Who's going to volunteer to take Isaiah Kalebu? I'm sure he'll be a good boy and not brutally rape and murder you.

@23

The brave revolutionaries opposed to the Prison Industrial Complex, and the Police State, and Hierarchy in general, actually do have a plan for dealing with those who inflict grievous personal harm on others. It's a simple, effective, community based system that requires only minimal resources: torches, pitchforks, a goodly gathering of able-bodied men in their prime, a bit of rope, and the odd lamppost or two.

But no, you sheeple cling to the barbaric system of Policing and Gulags, partly because you are continually bludgeoned with NewSpeak like "egalitarian system of justice" and "standard of evidence" and "rights of the accused," but mostly because you are all either very very stupid or totally brainwashed by The State and thus unable to appreciate the superiority of anti-hierarchical (or "anarchist") ideology, which is totally not dogmatic nor interested at all in rooting out and denouncing ThoughtCrime.