fentanyl

Click below to listen to Jonathan Choe discuss the changing journalism landscape, crime in Seattle and the failure of “defund the police,” Seattle’s stalled revitalization efforts, and the fentanyl epidemic with writer and foreign correspondent David Josef Volodzko.

Back to California. Maxim Gorky’s The Lower Depths, first staged in 1902, focuses on run-down people living in a flophouse: Vaska the thief, Nastya the prostitute, Luka the tramp, and Kvashnya the meat-pie seller, along with a downwardly-mobile baron, a suicidal actor, and others equally miserable. But in the play, at least temporarily, they are alive and conscious. If fentanyl had hit Russia then, even famed Moscow Arts Theater director Konstantin Stanislavski would have been stymied in creating some dramatic action: Users of the synthetic opioid are often inactive, with stiff limbs. Gorky portrayed lower depths, but fentanyl drops users in San Francisco’s Tenderloin district into the lowest depths, close to death. I’ve walked many crime-ridden areas by day, but Read More ›

They’re Already Back Late last month, Mayor Bruce Harrell (@MayorofSeattle) sent in crews to clear a massive drug den along I-5 in downtown Seattle. Authorities say a DRUG TURF WAR fueled by a revenge plot and homemade BOMBS rocked this notorious encampment. Less than two weeks later, several people have already broken in and are now setting up shop. When I showed up Sunday morning, the entrance to the fence along Yesler Way wasn’t even locked. Not sure who is running point for security on this WSDOT (@wsdot) property, but it might be time to invest in better locks and more fencing. Taking Matters into Own Hands On July 27, this encampment was “deemed an emergency,” so the city took Read More ›