The Dispatch got this email today from bartender and community organizer Brett Paulson. In my opinion a racially charged issue like "CRACK OUT OF BELLTOWN" is not appropriate on a special day like today. Brett, we'll get back to you on Wednesday.

Hello Belltown folks,

Now that the holidays are over and we have had our fill of snow, the next big meeting from the Belltown Community Council will be on WEDNESDAY, JAN. 21ST @ 6:00 PM IN THE BELL TOWER @ 2215 1st Ave. in the COMMUNITY ROOM.

This is a crucial meeting, guys. I have to tell you that after my
"ride along" with SPD last month, you really do realize that we have no Police Officers to spare and how terribly understaffed they really are. I recommend to every person who was as angry as I was @ the last huge turnout, to sign up for one of these. That being said, some of us have been working with the City of Seattle, SPD, King County Prosecutors Office, and The City Attorneys Office for a few weeks now, to come up with viable solutions for Belltown.I'm going to put this as plainly as I can: THEY ARE NOT GOING TO COME IN TO RESCUE US FROM OUR DELIMA. We have ,however, already put in a grant request from the City to form a NEIGHBORHOOD WATCH type of patrol. That's it. WE ARE GOING TO HAVE TO TAKE BACK OUR NEIGHBORHOOD OURSELVES, FOLKS. The SPD has been very supportive of this idea(as you might have heard about it on KUOW on Dec. 10th, I believe). The SPD is willing to attach a CPT officer to these patrols here in Belltown. That means that we will have a Police presence,at least some of the time, for our Citizen's Squad. At the lead off, this would be to confront and discuss with people, whom are not from the neighborhood, what, in fact, they are doing to our community. We should also be able to offer them alternatives, such as shelter locations, drug treatment, and educational tools already in place, to help these folks. I foresee this as turning into neighbors meeting neighbors in the same building, community clean ups ( such as the Humphrey folks do with their block every Sunday), graffiti removal, and dog walks. I will be discussing all of this at the meeting. The fact of the matter is that this is Belltown and this is where you live and work. If you want to make this a better place, then we are going to all have to put in our time ad effort and volunteer in some way or another. Come to this meeting. I will be available afterwards, as well. One last thing, in regards to the petitions for getting "CRACK OUT OF BELLTOWN", I think I am pretty close to taking these to Olympia, so if you have any extra petitions or know of any floating around, now would be a good time to start collecting these and sending them my way.

Thank you all and let's get our neighborhood back.

Sincerely.
Brett Paulson
brettworld@comcast. net
Txori bar
206-204-9771
Cell# 404-786-7385