Seattle dismantles BLM garden that attracted homelessness and drug use

Officials removed a garden dedicated in the name of Black Lives Matter in Seattle after it became a haven for crime and homelessness.

Cal Anderson Park had its Black Lives Matter memorial garden on display since July 2020, featuring amaranth, corn, strawberries, currants, calendula, and nettle plants. Since its removal, volunteer farmers from the group Black Star Farmers, which headed the project, were able to extract some plants. Seattle’s Parks and Recreation Department plans to reseed the area and restore the turf.

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“In recent months, the temporary garden has created unsafe conditions for all park users, including the vandalism of Cal Anderson public bathrooms, public drug use, unauthorized camping, and a significant rodent problem, along with other issues,” according to a statement from the department. “In partnership with the Black Farmers Collective and leaders in Seattle’s Black community, Mayor Harrell and the City will conceptualize a new commemorative garden at Cal Anderson Park.”

So far, “good faith conversations have not produced an alternative location,” per the department. It also implied that it had suggested a relocation as early as 2020.

The park is about two-thirds of a mile in circumference and is located in the city’s eight-block autonomous zone known as the Capitol Hill Organization Protest. It also has features such as a fountain, several pools, promenade paths, a plaza, a playground, a lighted sports field, and giant chess boards.

“In my role as the Environmental Climate Justice Chairman for the NAACP in Washington state, I’ve stepped into the Black Lives Matter Memorial Garden on numerous occasions, only to be confronted by a disheartening reality,” Jonathan Jones-Thomas said in a statement. “Amidst the sacred grounds meant to address the atrocities inflicted on the African-American community, I’ve witnessed not only drug activity, violence, and a proliferation of rats but also a disconcerting misuse of the memorial’s focus.”

NAACP Seattle-King County President Darrell Powell also criticized the garden. He said in a statement that an alternate garden would be a better solution.

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“The Black Community is unaware of the existence of the garden, and the garden does not represent in 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.”

This Seattle-King County area has a reported 14,149 homeless people living there, the third-highest homeless population in a single region.