I applaud Tim Higgins and Hilton for bringing to the ShoWare Center an impressive event such as Skate America. Such high-caliber performances bring much needed revenue to the city of Kent and surrounding areas.
What is inexcusable is the fact that hundreds of homeless people were evicted/evacuated prior to Skate America.
I attended a seminar last Saturday titled Beyond the Band-Aid, which addressed the issues of homelessness and offered a panel of professionals to offer greatly needed resources for our burgeoning homeless population in Kent.
Mayor Cooke requested that that Rev. Jimmie James read, to all those attending, a letter written by her stating that the evictions at Mullen Slough “was about people’s safety in light of the Green River’s flood threat.”
My impassioned response to Mayor Cooke is this: If the city of Kent was so worried about the risk of flooding that it held a public meeting with a panel of speakers Oct. 3, 7 in 2009 at the ShoWare Center, why were no homeless evicted at that time?
The Green River was at its highest at 11,100 cubic feet per second on Jan. 9, 2009 and again at 10,400 cfs on Jan. 18, 2011. Why were no homeless evicted at that time?
When Kent hired contractors to place 20,000 giant sand bags along 12 miles of the Green River, why were no homeless evicted at that time?
If there is such a high risk of flooding now, why did the city recently remove the giant 3-square-foot sandbags weighing 3,500 pounds each at great expense to the city?
Mayor Cooke’s claim that homeless people were evicted for reasons of safety and not for cosmetic reasons prior to Skate America does not ring true to most of the homeless population in Kent, to many of the surrounding churches who work with the homeless, or to many political activists who have seen an escalation in anti-homeless policies perpetrated by Mayor Cooke, the Kent City Council and the Chamber of Commerce.
How many homeless people will die this winter in my City due to these evictions?
– Vira Salinas
Talk to us
Please share your story tips by emailing editor@kentreporter.com.
To share your opinion for publication, submit a letter through our website https://www.kentreporter.com/submit-letter/. Include your name, address and daytime phone number. (We’ll only publish your name and hometown.) Please keep letters to 300 words or less.
