Protests over the removal of a homeless encampment ahead of Major League Baseball's All-Star Game failed to materialize, despite activists' promise to "make sure all [the city's] work was for nothing."
Seattle welcomed thousands of visitors to the city on Tuesday as All-Star players from the American League and National League went head-to-head at T-Mobile Park. The city forced homeless people living in RVs near the area to move ahead of the multi-day festivities and police maintained a heavy presence around the stadium and tourist hot spots.
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That directive apparently set off a firestorm among activists, with flyers distributed around the SODO neighborhood urging those with RVs to move closer to the stadium at midnight Tuesday in protest.
"F--- baseball. F--- this mayor. F--- this city," the flyer read, according to the Daily Caller. "Let’s f--- their day up."
"They’ve been pushing us around for months hoping to clear us out of sight for the MLB All-Star Game on July 11 – Let’s make sure their work was for nothing!" the flyer continued.
However, the area was quiet overnight Monday and into Tuesday. Concrete blocks stood along the stretch of Third Avenue formerly occupied by RVs and closer to game time fans parked their cars and walked to the stadium.
"This was all done for the All-Star Game to make it to make it look clean for the visitors that are coming in for the game," Pat Robbins told Fox News.
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Robbins works near the area where the RV encampment previously stood and said he hopes "the city stays on this process and keeps it going," but realistically he expects the RVs will return sooner or later.
The mayor's office told Fox News last week orders to move the RVs had nothing to do with the big game and instead were a planned "remediation" in the SODO neighborhood.
"The city’s homelessness response has had a steady and consistent focus on SODO over the last year and a half due to a high concentration of RVs and tents. We have not changed this process or approach in the lead up to the All-Star Game," the mayor’s office said at the time.
Acts of protest appeared limited to chalk-scrawled messages on city sidewalks reading "sweeps kill," and a handful of protesters who held signs outside T-Mobile Park on Tuesday afternoon.
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"I want the homeless to be helped and not to be arrested and locked up," Christopher told Fox News. He held a sign reading "if everyone can't afford the rent, they shouldn't f---ing take our tent."
Another protester handed out pamphlets accusing the city of budgeting $20 million this year for displacing unhoused people, but she declined to be interviewed.
Seattle has struggled with homelessness for years, and the problem only worsened during the pandemic. In 2020, Seattle and King County ranked third in the nation for most homeless people, recording roughly 11,700 people living on the streets.
This is not the first time the All-Star Game has turned political. In 2021, the MLB announced it was moving the game from Atlanta to Denver in response to a Georgia law that Democrats and activists slammed as a way to suppress Black voters accessing the ballot box.
