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Friday, June 19, 2009

Boom / Drugs Needle Exhange Moving to Belltown

Posted by Dominic Holden on Fri, Jun 19, 2009 at 10:36 AM

Reports Lynn Porter at the DJC:

The Robert Clewis Center, which includes a needle exchange program for drug users, is moving from its longtime location near Pike Place Market and the downtown shopping core to the more residential Belltown.

It will be open for business next Wednesday in space at the Downtown Public Health Center on the southeast corner of Fourth Avenue and Blanchard Street, said Matias Valenzuela, a spokesman for Public Health-Seattle & King County.

I'm sure a few "Not Behind My Condo" types in Belltown are going to lose their minds. Those same types are already celebrating the move from downtown.

William Justen, who was involved in the recent development of Opus Northwest's nearby Fifteen Twenty-One Second Avenue condo high-rise, said having a needle exchange in a tourist area doesn't make sense.

“It doesn't feel like a very desirable area to be in when you see the needle exchange and you're a tourist from Minnesota and you just got off a cruise ship,” he said. [...] “I am just thrilled to see this connection between the retail core and the market get better,” Justen said.

But did the downtown developers push the needle exchange out of the downtown core—and into and into another neighborhood? "This was a planned move for some time now," public health spokeswoman Nicole Sadow-Hasenberg told me this morning. "We have been consolidating our services so there would be better access to other public health services at the same time." But now Belltown neighbors will, no doubt, be lamenting the needle exchange's proximity.

Realistically, nobody wants to live next to, or hang out near, a needle exchange. Junkies can be disgusting. But considering that Seattle's rate of HIV infection among drug users is among the lowest in the country because of the availability of clean needles—and thus we save huge sums that would otherwise go to emergency health care for infected junkies—no sensible person would want to live in a city that didn't have needle exchange.

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I think we can do one better. The city should buy a few acres of very cheap land East of the mountains. Build a big fence around it, and stock it with endless free, clean needles and free dope. Maybe throw in some free Sparks too. Offer junkies free one way bus trips there. The problem will sort itself out.

Posted by john cocktosin on June 19, 2009 at 10:44 AM

Good post. When I lived in Belltown I went to a community meeting where the chief of the Metropolitan Improvement District arm of the Downtown Seattle Association pitched us on having the neighborhood join their weird taxing authority and get the benefit of their bum-rustling services. We declined sort of politely, but I remember him saying his biggest pet project was to do everything he could to get the needle exchange out of his "jurisdiction."

I have not idea if that shitheel and the DSA are behind the move, but they've sure gotta be tickled over this. And Belltown is paying the price (probably happily enough, they're not so easy to scare over there) for keeping clear of the MID.

Posted by gloomy gus on June 19, 2009 at 10:50 AM

The needle exchange is no big deal. I've lived just down the street from the needle exchange (2nd & Pike) for the past eight years and have never had an issue with it. Far less annoying than the random crack whores, dealers and users in the neighborhood.

Posted by JohnnyC on June 19, 2009 at 10:51 AM

Now those tourists from Minnesota can look at all of Seattle's strip clubs when they get off their cruise ships without the hassle of all those junkies. Those druggies were really detracting from the giant jumbotron displays of the buy-2-get-1-free anal porn DVD sales.

Posted by Wicked Virgin

on June 19, 2009 at 11:08 AM

But what about the tourists from Minnesota who are getting off the cruise ships and need to exchange their needles?

Posted by Gus on June 19, 2009 at 11:35 AM

Why can't they just move the exchange to SODO? I have no problem with using my tax dollar to provide services to these worthless fucking parasites, but Christ, move em on down the line.

Posted by Rotten666 on June 19, 2009 at 12:05 PM

Should be in Bellevue where the drug addicts are.

Posted by Will in Seattle

on June 19, 2009 at 12:14 PM

They sail cruise ships from Minnesota?

I can do you one better than a needle-exchange; at the end of my alley is a mental health/substance abuse drop-in center. I think we all know what "Harm Reduction Day Treatment" means, and would probably scare the shit out of the condo owners across the street had the condos come before the center.

Interesting thing is, of all the issues affecting our alley, the center's presence is the cause of very, very few of them.

Posted by Dougsf on June 19, 2009 at 12:29 PM

@ 6) I feel your sentiment, but you've got to place needle exchanges in the locations where the junkies go--or where they can be reasonably expected to travel using public transportation. SODO is practically just outside of Mazatlan. If you don't make them accessible, then you don't really have a needle exchange and you aren't stopping the spread of disease.

Posted by Dominic Holden on June 19, 2009 at 12:30 PM

@9 Damn you and your "logic".

Posted by Rotten666 on June 19, 2009 at 12:38 PM

Needle exchanges = evolution in reverse

Posted by Stupid White Man

on June 19, 2009 at 12:44 PM

No one seems to be freaking out here in Belltown. It wasn't even mentioned in the community meeting earlier this week. We're already used to addicts being down here, so what's the use of complaining about a program to keep them cleaner?

Posted by BTP

on June 19, 2009 at 1:04 PM

The 2nd & Pike location also has a small clinic in the back, a satellite of the Pioneer Square Clinic. The providers there are experts at wound care (for abcesses, etc.) and are extremely friendly and non-judgmental. They even have vein care experts come in periodically.

I wonder if the medical care will be absorbed by the Blanchard location, or if they'll go to Pike Mkt clinic and PSQ directly. The atmosphere is much different at the Blanchard clinic and probably will not be as welcoming. (This is not to say they're not competent, but I've worked at both locations and there is a difference. Blanchard serves a wider range of people including families, and the NX was dedicated to the needs of their clientele.)

I haven't worked there in almost 5 years now- but I had the pleasure of working with Robert Clewis for many years, and I'm happy to see they've named that space for him (he was taken from us suddenly and far, far too soon: a brain aneurysm in December 2000.)

Good luck to all at the new location.

Posted by misanthropia on June 19, 2009 at 3:47 PM

All of the services currently at 2nd and Pike will be moving to Blanchard. My understanding is that the Robert Clewis Center will be functioning separately from the Blanchard clinic.

Posted by gnossos on June 19, 2009 at 5:59 PM

For what it's worth, the Tacoma Catholic Worker house on hilltop actually did request the Pierce County needle exchange be on their street. Nobody loves junkies like Christian anarchists love junkies.

Posted by joshuadf on June 21, 2009 at 8:36 AM

I don't see the logic in the City allowing the needle exchange to move one block from where they plan to build the new Bell Street park/boulevard. Belltown residents should be completely freaked out. It will work just like this: Get needle - go to park - shoot up. Anyone from the proximity of the old needle exchange will tell you that the junkies don't wait long to inject.

Posted by Seattle Boy on July 7, 2009 at 2:58 PM

I live across the street from the former location and frankly I find William Justen and his appalling 1521 more offensive than any "junkie" hanging around there.
I have never once had a problem with any individual going in there.
They come and they go. I never witnessed any drug use around there.

Posted by Tacky Justen on July 10, 2009 at 11:30 AM