The Jungle is a greenbelt on the western slope of Beacon Hill in Seattle that is known for its homeless encampments and crime.

Location and ecology

The Jungle grows on the steep northern slope of Beacon Hill near the south-end of Downtown Seattle

Downtown Seattle

Downtown is the central business district of Seattle, Washington. It is fairly compact compared to other city centers on the West Coast because of its geographical situation: hemmed in on the north and east by hills, on the west by the Elliott Bay, and on the south by reclaimed land that was once...

. Being bound by Interstate 5

Interstate 5 in Washington

Interstate 5 in Washington is a highway in the U.S. state of Washington that extends from its border with Oregon to its border with Canada...

 to the west and Interstate 90

Interstate 90 in Washington

Interstate 90 , a transcontinental Interstate Highway from Seattle, Washington, to Boston, Massachusetts, crosses the state of Washington before crossing the Idaho state line between Spokane and Post Falls...

 to the north, the land is primarily managed by the city and state departments of transportation. The thin tract of land is about 100 acres and extends south to the Georgetown neighborhood. The wooded area can be entered through Rizal Park

Rizal Park (Seattle)

Dr. José Rizal Park is a 9.6 acre park on the west slope of Beacon Hill in Seattle, Washington. The land, condemned by the city in 1917 for engineering purposes, was acquired by the Parks Department in 1971, and the park was dedicated eight years later...

, highway maintenance roads, or residential areas on Beacon Hill.

Thick blackberry bramble

Bramble

Brambles are thorny plants of the genus Rubus, in the rose family . Bramble fruit is the fruit of any such plant, including the blackberry and raspberry. The word comes from Germanic *bram-bezi, whence also German Brombeere , Dutch Braam and French framboise...

s and vines grow among maple

Maple

Acer is a genus of trees or shrubs commonly known as maple.Maples are variously classified in a family of their own, the Aceraceae, or together with the Hippocastanaceae included in the family Sapindaceae. Modern classifications, including the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group system, favour inclusion in...

 and other trees in the urban forest

Urban forest

An urban forest is a forest or a collection of trees that grow within a city, town or a suburb. In a wider sense it may include any kind of woody plant vegetation growing in and around human settlements. In a narrower sense it describes areas whose ecosystems are inherited from wilderness...

. Various rodents—including rats—and numerous species of birds are common.

History

Homeless people may have used the area as early as the 1930s. It gained notoriety in the 1990s when the city began began razing the encampments. In 1994, about 50 campsites yielded 120 tons of trash. Seattle's organized tent cities for the homeless are offshoots of illegal communities that formed after squatters were forcibly removed from The Jungle. Periodic bulldozing since the '90s by the city or state department of transportation has led the homeless to complain that the city provides little to no warning before enacting cleanups.

The Jungle increasingly became a haven for criminals in the 2000s. Criminal activity has included assaults, rapes, prostitution, and murders. Residences in the Beacon Hill neighborhood have been burglarized by those staying in The Jungle. Gang members basing drug trade in the woods also became a concern. The Jungle is generally considered unsafe at any hour. Weapons, used drug paraphernalia, presumably stolen goods, and human feces are typically seen during the city and state sweeps. In 2007, criminal activity increased when the city suspended sweeps of The Jungle based on criticism of clean-up operations in another neighborhood.

There have been many deaths in and around the greenbelt. Between September 1997 and February 1998, the bodies of three women murdered by a serial killer were found in the area. There have been numerous lower-profile murders. Transients have been killed attempting to cross the nearby freeways. A homeless man was inadvertently killed in June 2007 as workers were mowing a blackberry thicket he was sleeping in.

Future development

The city has announced plans to revitalize the greenbelt with an extension of the Mountain to Sound bike corridor through The Jungle that will open in the fall of 2011. The trail will feature a paved path, lighting, and fences.

External links

• The Beacon Alliance of Neighbors, from the City of Seattle