Seattle dismantles BLM garden after rampant homelessness, drug use create 'public health and ... safety issues'

The city of Seattle has dismantled the Black Lives Matter Memorial Garden after rampant homelessness and drug use overran the area, posing significant risks to the public.

In 2020, amid heightened racial tensions and anti-police fervor, Seattle activists established the garden in Cal Anderson Park, located in Capitol Hill, the home of the infamous former Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone. Organizers of the garden claimed it was intended to memorialize victims of police violence and to provide organic food for underserved communities.

However, seemingly from the beginning, the garden has been plagued by violence and filth, creating significant "public health and public safety issues" in the area, a statement from Seattle Parks and Recreation claimed. According to the statement, members of Seattle's Unified Care Team have conducted 76 tent encampment removals in just the past year alone "to keep public spaces clean, open, and accessible to all."

The garden has also become a hotspot for illicit drug use, creating other issues for area residents. Other problems in the garden include "vandalism of Cal Anderson public bathrooms" and an infestation of rodents, the statement said.

To alleviate these problems and to begin much-needed maintenance projects, such as "reseeding the area and turf restoration," the city decided to remove the garden entirely.

Early Wednesday morning, parks and rec officials and a team of Seattle police officers cordoned off the area and began removing the garden. Black Star Farmers, the group that has been entrusted with maintaining the garden for the past three years, briefly filmed the removal process and urged followers to "come to the garden now" and denounce "the violent destruction of this beautiful garden."

The parks and rec department defended the removal decision, calling the garden "temporary" and "makeshift" and insisting that officials had been "in frequent communication with community activists since 2020 offering alternative locations for a garden, both within Cal Anderson Park, as well as in other Seattle parks," to no avail. The department had intended to remove the garden back in October but delayed the move after receiving serious pushback from groups like Black Star Farmers.

While BSF has claimed that removing the garden is yet another example of "egregious exploitation" foisted on the world by American "neoliberal free trade policies and excessive militarism," according to the parks and rec statement, other so-called black activists claimed they didn't even know the garden existed and claimed that BSF had been "hijacking" the BLM "movement."

"I wasn’t aware that there was a garden in remembrance of victims of police use of deadly force, which makes me wonder if this garden is truly reflective of impacted families," said Katrina Johnson, a cousin of Charleena Lyles, the pregnant mother of four who was fatally shot by police in 2017.

"To make a garden without reaching out to families and even letting them know about it tells me that this is not about our loved ones but about folks hijacking the movement and trying to make a name for themselves off of our pain and that is simply not OK," she added.

Darrell Powell, the president of the Seattle/King County chapter of the NAACP, expressed similar sentiments. "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," he said. He also characterized the garden as "another example of white co-opting."

Seattle Parks and Recreation indicated that Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell will partner with black leaders to "conceptualize a new commemorative garden at Cal Anderson Park." It is unclear when construction of such a new garden might begin.

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