Homelessness blamed for demise of iconic coffee shop – KIRO 7 News Seattle

SEATTLE – An iconic café in Lower Queen Anne has closed its doors.

The owner of Uptown Espresso says homelessness problems in the once thriving neighborhood forced him to quit.

He says the conversion of The Inn at Queen Anne from a hotel has brought more ex-homeless people to the neighborhood.

He and his neighbors, around the corner from The Inn, say the ramifications of that decision are being felt right here in Lower Queen Anne.

“Right now it’s a pretty bad situation to be a coffee bar dealer at the foot of Queen Anne Hill,” said Paul Odom.

The longtime owner of Fonté Coffee Roaster doesn’t mince why he closed the Uptown Espresso flagship location after 37 years.

“People have to step over corpses that are in front of the door,” he said. “Or sometimes they poop in front of your door, in the shop.”

Still, Odom says he planned to renovate the Climate Pledge Arena in anticipation of the opening.

Then, in May, King County announced it would buy the hotel around the corner as part of its strategy to “That was the decision to close,” Odom said.

“Well, it’s pretty bad,” said David Meinert, who owns the Mecca Café, across from old Uptown.

“In this street you can see that nobody is sitting outside here,” said Meinert. “And that’s because of the homeless situation. You cannot put up seats here. When you’ve done that, people camp in it, sit in it. You can’t get rid of it. The police won’t do anything about it; can’t really do anything about it. “

It is up to him and his employees to do something about it.

“We clean human feces every day,” says Meinert. “It’s part of my manager’s job, it stinks.”

As for change?

“Oh, with the Seattle politics?” Asked Meinert. “No, I have absolutely no hope when it comes to politics in Seattle. No. All of this is getting worse, and maybe we’ll choose some people to do something about it. But the current city council, the current mayor, everyone running for mayor, I don’t think they’re going to change anything. “

Odom says things have to change to prevent this in other neighborhoods.

“I think the city needs to get together with the business community and come up with a different plan because what they did is not working,” said Odom.

“Homelessness is the biggest crisis our city is facing,” said Andrew Lewis, a member of the Seattle city council that represents the neighborhood, in a statement. “The answer is to scale the shelter to meet the crushing demand.”

Odom does not rule out a return to this place.

But for now, he’ll be running the seven remaining coffee bars he has in other locations.

He might even open a couple of new bars, but says they won’t be here.

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