Mariner Talk Chat Forum

No one here is old enough
to remember "Hooverville".
It was where the tracks are
in Interbay, Seattle.
People down on their luck
built shacks out of scraps
of wood and made a little
community . I remember
seeing it quite often as I
lived near Fort Lawton as
a child. I guess I should
write a memoir about it.

There were hundreds of Hoovervilles nationwide during the depression. I thought there were only a few in some of the largest cities. I read that Seattle had eight of them.

In 1930s Seattle, homeless residents built eight Hooverville settlements. The city’s largest “Hooverville” was on the Seattle tide flats at the old Skinner and Eddy Shipyard. The site is now occupied by container shipping terminals.

From a History Link site:

"During the fall and winter of 1931 and 1932, unemployed workers established Seattle’s "Hooverville," a shantytown named in sarcastic honor of U.S. President Herbert Hoover (1874-1964), on whose beat the Great Depression began. In October 1931, an unemployed lumberjack by the name of Jesse Jackson and 20 others started building shacks on vacant land owned by the Port of Seattle located a few blocks south of Pioneer Square.

Within a few days, they built 50 shanties. After the squatters were brought to the attention of the City of Seattle, the Seattle Health Department posted notices on every shack to vacate within one week. Seven days later the Seattle Police arrived with cans of kerosene and burned down the shacks.

The squatters immediately rebuilt. About a month later the city burned down the shacks once again. This time the residents burrowed into the ground and constructed roofs made of tin or steel. The city relented and allowed them to stay on the condition that they adhere to safety and sanitary rules."

https://www.historylink.org/File/741

The new "Hoovervilles" should be called either Bidenvilles or Insleevilles. I'm partial to the latter.

ddraig wrote: ↑

Fri Mar 10, 2023 10:48 pm

The new "Hoovervilles" should be called either Bidenvilles or Insleevilles. I'm partial to the latter.

There has been a homeless population growing for decades, but it really got steam during the Obama Administration.

The economy was screwed under Bush. But really in the simplest terms it's a function of real estate value isn't it, getting priced out of the housing market.

Like they sing at Disneyland: Its a small small world. Todays homeless camps are ruled by drug dealers down the chain of the Mexican cartels. They serve up, among other things like crack, meth and strong weed, fentanyl from China to addicts living in tents made in China.

Hoover got the wrap but the Depression was the effects of the formation of the Federal Reserve under Wilson. Wilson, in all of his intellectual glory, handed over control of the currency, plunged us into foreign war and established the income tax....a veritable pawn of the central planners who to this day destroy in the name of progress.

Not to mention the guy was racist as hell. He segregated the military, which set back race relations for decades.

Donn Beach wrote: ↑

Sat Mar 11, 2023 4:34 am

The economy was screwed under Bush. But really in the simplest terms it's a function of real estate value isn't it, getting priced out of the housing market.

It wasn't good during the Bush 8 years. But the downturn actually started during the Clinton Administration.....caused by the government trying to "take down" the tech industry causing the "dot-com bust".

Thanks for the feedback.
I didn't know about the fires
of the shanty's.
Just saw a picture of the
Ballard Park that they got
rid of the homeless tents.
They finally took it back and
now (for how long?) it's back
to a nice park, right in the
business part of the neighborhood.