In 2020, it was a woke symbol and now what’s left of it is getting leveled. Seattle’s Cal Anderson Park is getting remodeled.
Cal Anderson Park, located in the heart of Seattle, Washington, was a focal point of community activities and events. However, in 2020, it turned into CHAZ and became the center of a controversy.
After things at the park calmed down, part of the “garden” turned into a homeless encampment, which troubled the leaders of the Seattle area youth soccer league, who started putting pressure on city officials.
The Seattle-area youth soccer league leader has had to cancel the remainder of their season. The reason? Concerns about a nearby homeless encampment. It’s a decision that’s put the spotlight on city officials, with the league leader pointing fingers at Democrat officials for the situation.
This past Wednesday, members of Seattle’s Parks and Recreation department, along with city police, removed a community garden planted in Cal Anderson Park. This garden was part of the Black Lives Matter protests back in 2020. According to city officials, the decision to remove this “makeshift,” temporary garden was due to public health and safety concerns. They also cited maintenance reasons, including the need for reseeding and turf restoration.
CHAZ garden video I took in 2020
Garden was torn down today
This meth head later beat his girlfriend to death in CHAZ and killed himself in a vat of bleach in the park toolshed pic.twitter.com/oooUeMooGz
— Jack Poso 🇺🇸 (@JackPosobiec) December 29, 2023
The city has quietly started to make changes. So far this year, Seattle’s Unified Care Team has cleaned up encampments at Cal Anderson Park 76 times. City officials have stated that the temporary garden has created unsafe conditions in the park, listing issues like vandalism, public drug use, unauthorized camping, and an increasing rodent population.
However, there’s been significant opposition to the removal of the garden. The Black Star Farmers, a group of far left wing radicals, gathered over 5,000 signatures against its removal. They argue that the garden honors Black and Indigenous people killed by police and provides a space for community joy and healing.
Seattle Parks maintained that the garden needed to be removed for other uses of the park. As construction vehicles, guarded by park rangers and police, began the removal process, supporters of the garden were present, with some attempting to save plants.
How bad has it gotten in Seattle? Even the president of the NAACP in Seattle wasn’t upset to see the garden go.
“The Black community is unaware of the existence of the garden, and the garden does not represent any meaningful sense, the vast number of Black lives extinguished by police violence,” Powell said. “The Seattle-King County NAACP stands with Mayor Bruce Harrell and his administration in establishing a true representation memorializing the Black Lives lost due to police violence.”
