By Peggy Sturdivant

I remember warning a young parent that from the time your child starts kindergarten time speeds up. The days that seemed too long walking back from Ballard, pushing the empty stroller and balancing groceries and giraffe toy while the toddler examined every blade of grass, you’ll miss them.

How did life get so busy I wondered? How did life and politics in Ballard become so hectic? I’ve stopped trying to pinpoint the moment of change. I used to wonder, was it that New York Times article? Was it Amgen’s campus? (Okay, is it the change to district elections?) It doesn’t matter anymore because we are changed. I asked myself this last crazy week, bouncing from one crowded meeting in Ballard to the next, did the circus come to town? Or are we the circus?

Last year I was just trying to figure out how to transform one former substation into a public space that would honor Sunset Hill’s past, and it once-resident artists. How did that get me into the thick of VFW Post 3063’s July social? Why am I crawling over people’s knees to reach an open chair in the back of the Nyer Urness meeting room at the monthly Ballard Community Task Force on Homelessness & Hunger while a cameraman scans the crowd? And why am I upstairs at the Sons of Norway Lodge when there’s an accordionist and food downstairs in the Kaffe Stua?

Ballard’s not in kindergarten anymore and its grown-up problems are part of the daily news cycle. The July 20, 2015 Seattle Times headlined, “Ballard deli owner standing his ground despite string of two dozen burglaries.” Steven Saleh was also the victim of a hate crime in 2007. One of the break-ins last week was at his 2804 NW Market location, just one building from the city’s proposed transitional encampment at 2836 NW Market Street. No wonder that Pete, the Real Change vendor whose spot is by the Ballard Post Office told a regular that he feared for the individuals and families at the potential shelter.

In non-Ballard news on Tuesday, July 21st Mayor Murray addressed a conference at the Vatican on climate change and human trafficking, discussing Seattle’s effort to prepare for and adapt to climate change. On Thursday the Nickelsville camp operators presented their thoughtful intake and governance policies to the packed room at Nyer Urness. However my climate action alarm bells sounded at juxtaposition of substation that provides electricity to Metro buses to the need for generators (crossed with climate change conference).

The week also delivered the Housing Affordability and Livability Committee’s report to the City Council on their 65 recommendations. One of their recommendations would extend the urban village boundaries, which could mean allowing more and higher buildings on lots that are currently zoned single family. There was a heat advisory in place even before they released the report.

Meanwhile the countdown of days to the primary election continued, July’s potentially record-breaking heat continued and at least one news station per day did interviews in Ballard about the transitional encampment site. So the stage was set for KUOW’s summer roadshow, broadcasting “Week in Review” live from the Sons of Norway Leif Erickson Lodge on Friday, July 24th. I went so I could sit quietly in the audience and collect my swirling thoughts.

I’d met Veterans who wish they had been consulted about the use of the site adjoining their parking lot. I’d been in contact with the couple that started the “Speak Up Ballard” petition. I’d struggled through the small print I had been reading on the mayor’s ordinance authorizing transitional encampments, the HALA recommendations, the websites on loopholes exploited by developers to build unaffordable housing, the statistics on those without shelter (2813 on the One Night Count) as part of some 10,000 estimated to be homeless in King County on January 23, 2015. So I simply listened as KUOW’s Bill Radke introduced two local residents with differing opinions on what the recommendations for increased density could mean for Ballard.

I let the week’s opinions and statistics settle inside me, cooling down as outside light rain finally…finally began to fall. For a few minutes I was calm and then certain of a few things from the three-ring circus of July. The drug- and alcohol-free homeless who will be “allowed” a city-sponsored shelter without electricity on Seattle City Light property deserve better than choices in industrial/commercial zones, between a tavern and a smoke shop. The renters directly above the site, many of whom couldn’t afford Lockhaven after its sale, shouldn’t have generators below them, or be unwillingly infringing on the privacy of those who need shelter. Based on my own week in review I had on one conclusion as voiced from the stage: we all need to slow down.