For weeks Wallyhood has been hearing reports of deer spottings. This morning I became one of the lucky few to see our newest resident. During a 7:30 morning coffee run to The Essential Baking Company, I spotted this gal munching on some goodies in my neighbor’s vegetable garden.
Is it the vacant lot on our street that attracts her here? Apparently she’s been spotted there a few times just hanging out. Her presence is certainly welcome.
It would be slightly more convincing if you extended your welcome after watching her eat your own garden, but anyway … I wonder if you’d consider getting this article pulled? Plenty of people know about it already anyway, and remarkably it hasn’t become a tourist attraction like the Fremont troll, but it has a little of that potential. The more know about it, the worse for everyone, particularly the deer herself.
Donn, I’m seriously considering your comment as I respect your opinion. However, may I digress?
It is a weird thing this community the unspoken agreement in this community to be silent on certain topics. I wish I were a better writer to explain what I’m talking about but it comes up occasionally.
Last winter my street collectively decided to keep silent about squatters living in a soon to be re-developed house for over a week! I couldn’t fathom why no had told me. Maybe they didn’t want to have a HALA conversation or be accused of saying anything bad about the homeless. However, it turned out to be very relevant because the occupants were stealing from us.
But back to the deer. When I snapped the photo I thought that surely other people have taken photos. This couldn’t be newsworthy since no one had reported it. But you are right, “everyone” knows they just aren’t saying anything.
I mentioned to Katy our editor for the week who I ran into at the park that I had got a photo and she thought it was newsworthy. So I put it up. My Ballard once reported a snowy owl in the neighborhood. A lot of people came to see it, and I don’t think the snowy owl came to a bad end.
Finally, this is my first post in over six months. I’m shaking my head in disbelief that right off the bat I get called out. For being insensitive to my neighbor’s vegetable garden. I have a family. I have a full time job. I wrote this up fast because Katy and I thought it would be interesting to the neighborhood, and there was no other scheduled post.
If I took as much time researching the posts, and accommodating the various voices of the neighborhood as some of our commenters demand, I would never ever finish a post, and our readers would have nothing to read. At least from me.
Just an aside, I don’t speak for the rest of the writers. As you can see they devote a lot more time and energy to this blog than I do.
If you feel “called out”, I’m sorry about that. I’m sure everyone feels the same urge to share these interesting matters with their neighbors, and in fact it has come up here, just not as a blog post. The point is about consequences, not your motivations or sensitivity or what consequences may have ensued from other different instances of neighborhood reticence. My only object in writing was to take some of the publicity pressure off the deer and neighbors, which I think would be good for everyone.
YIKES!!! how about the consequences of having a citywide Neighbors Night Out ?
I appreciate the underlying motivation here, to avoid harassment or exploitation of the critter and the folks setting the buffet table for it. But somehow, I don’t think people will be actively flocking down to lower Wallingford for a chance to catch a glimpse of a deer like they might if it were, say, an ivory-billed woodpecker. I for one am somehow comforted by the fact that vestiges of wildlife can still be found in city and am happy to leave it at that. I would be way more concerned about news and occurrences being withheld or suppressed because a well-intentioned person thinks I’m going to act or react in an ill-advised way.
Thank you for speaking up about snarky attacks. I’m sorry that happened to you. Also about efforts to stifle contribution, or suppress information. In this case, it turns out, deer in the city is not a topic news crews are racing around to capture.
On a recent volunteer shift at the Seattle Animal Shelter I had the opportunity to talk directly with an Animal Control Officer about our deer experience on Woodlawn and asked if I should report it. The officer asked if the deer is injured (no) or if it seems a potential danger to others (no), and offered, “There’s no need to call it in. There are hundreds of deer living in the city of Seattle.”
Oh deer. Someone’s feeling cranky today!
8/1 Tues. 6:00 pm
Seattle Night Out
all over town (Seattle)
Block parties all around Seattle. Part of a national event “designed to heighten crime prevention awareness, increase neighborhood support in anti-crime efforts, and unite our communities.”
#Community
Okay, I’ve just about had it with these Controlling Comments. This is a Blog about what’s happening in our neighborhood. News is news. Stop trying to control it by telling folks to keep quiet about Wallingford happenings. If you’re concerned about consequences, then start a thread about that and advise the rest of us on how we should behave in reaction to said news (don’t harass the deer, please write to the City about the homeless thievery, call a meeting of Interested People, etc.). But to censor our neighborhood news on Wallyhood out of fear for consequences is really troubling to me. Aren’t we all adults here? Can’t we all think for ourselves? Isn’t there a more constructive way to urge neighborhood behaviors? I mean, you don’t see the government trying to censor the news, do you? No wait. We do. And if you’re as outraged as I am at the White House vs. Press battles, then how can you condone it at any level? Even here on Wallyhood?
There’s a lot that goes on, in our neighborhood and elsewhere, that no one would ever think of writing up for the entertainment of the masses. Household disputes for example, however dramatic – we don’t need to know that stuff so badly that it would be worth the cost. It wouldn’t help to enclose a disclaimer instructing people to view this information in the right light and offer nonjudgmental support to your neighbors etc. We don’t need to go there in the first place, so we leave it alone. That technically is censorship; it’s also discretion.
Pretty extreme example, there, donn. Aside from the National Enquirer and celebrity brawls, I know of no publication that describes household disputes. So you’re right about household disputes not being part of the Wallyhood blog: because they do not impact the neighborhood. When I look back on stories posted here, they are stories that address issues and information about Wallingford as a community, not about individuals or individual households that, if reported, would have no impact on the neighborhood.
And I’m a little taken aback that you misconstrued my point. I said that if you disagree with the posting of a story out of fear of what others might do, that instead of “pulling the story”, you might start a comment thread of concern that outlines your fears. I never said anything about a “disclaimer instructing people to view this information in the right light”. Who am I, and who are you, to dictate or instruct other adults as to how to interpret and react to information? And just what, exactly, is “the right light”? All we can do, as readers here, is describe our own concerns. Good grief, donn, we’re all grown-ups here, and none of us require instruction, nor do we desire censorship.
How do we come to be all grown-ups here, how does that work?
Never mind anyway, because that wasn’t really the point. Wallyhood readership is small and unlikely to have much direct impact on anything, however adult and/or responsible we may be. My concern was more that the publicity could spread beyond people who read about it themselves in Wallyhood.
But don’t worry about it, the hysteria that seems to arise from this is totally out of proportion to the concern. Deer are certainly not any kind of endangered wildlife, and if the neighbors aren’t concerned then it’s nothing to me.
jeepers, chill. How long have you lived here? Or posted relevant, helpful info or ideas?
ummm whose controlling comments? Mine- for Night Out?
No, not at all. More addressing “donn”‘s comments on this article.
Right! Right?
Thank you, Seattlekit. Think I’d like to meet you. You sound very nice.
This is a nice posting about an cute animal in the neighbourhood.
I just want to say that I have appreciated Donn’s comments over the years, and I value his opinion. The day of this post, I told Katy about the concern over the welfare of the deer. We still agreed to keep the post up.
Here is an interesting article on the topic of suburban deer in the Washington Post. There are many viewpoints about this topic: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/capital-weather-gang/wp/2017/08/03/oh-deer-what-should-we-do-addressing-the-suburban-deer-dilemma/?utm_term=.c544be4431d7