Cal Anderson Park in Seattle has been closed for the past six months. It sits adjacent to the former CHAZ/CHOP zone that was set up on Capitol Hill this summer and has become a staging area for protest gatherings in addition to being a home for quite a few homeless people. These images show what it looks like as of this week:

Cal Anderson Park Seattle pic.twitter.com/1vrSY0PsLP

— Dr. Murphy/ Biden Border Crisis Advisor🍇 (@Redx49) December 16, 2020

STROLL THROUGH THE PARK: Cal Anderson used to be one of the Crown Jewels of Seattle. This is what it looks like now. On the eve of an anticipated sweep, neighbors and business owners remain cautiously optimistic, because they have seen this play out before with the same results. pic.twitter.com/voRFPLolgz

— Jonathan Choe Journalist KOMO News (@choeshow) December 15, 2020

Instead of providing a benefit to local residents the park has become an eyesore and a source of trouble for neighbors and local businesses who sent letters to Mayor Durkan this week asking for help:

“The situation within the park grows worse and more unsafe by the day,” one key letter — sent to Mayor Jenny Durkan December 14th and provided to CHS this week — reads. “The park has now morphed into a safety concern for both the individuals within the park and the neighboring community. Violence, drugs, vandalism, and other harmful activities in Cal Anderson are adversely affecting our community members to the point where any park activation efforts cannot make any lasting impact.”

The letter went on to say that some of the people in the park are not homeless but “are treating the park as a base of operations for their occupied protest.” In other words, Cal Anderson Park is becoming CHAZ 2.0.

In addition to the problems involving locals, the city itself has been unable to maintain the park because city workers who show up are met with threats, making it unsafe for them to be there without police protection:

“Recent regular (Seattle Parks & Recreation) maintenance efforts have been met with threats of physical violence which is why SPR has had to request the assistance of the Seattle Police Department to ensure the safety of park maintenance and other City employees,” a Seattle Parks Department spokesperson said. “Individuals have barricaded a portion of the park and intentionally set a fire to a tent. SFD has reported five fires in the last month.”

For all of these reasons, Mayor Durkan authorized a sweep of the park this week. Signs were put up Monday morning warning that it would take place Wednesday, i.e. this morning at 7:30 am. A call went out to local anarchists asking them to show up to “do what’s needed.”

Autonomous groups are calling for a community mobilization in response to expected anti-houseless sweeps of Cal Anderson Park in Seattle tomorrow. #Seattle pic.twitter.com/LlNgReoiGW

— It's Going Down (@IGD_News) December 16, 2020

Here’s one of the signs calling on people to “stop the sweep.”

Last night a KOMO news crew went to the park to report on the impending sweep and were chased out by people in black bloc:

ABANDONING LIVE SHOT: A group of people in all black emerged out of Cal Anderson Park just before my 4:30pm live shot. They started throwing rocks at us. Now I know how @SeattlePD feels. My crew is safe. @SeattleParks will have hands full during Wed sweep. Update 6pm @komonews pic.twitter.com/3A9sExBGyf

— Jonathan Choe Journalist KOMO News (@choeshow) December 16, 2020

After dark, a reporter did go into the park and spoke to some of the people there. One homeless person suggested that the black bloc protesters actually make things worse by starting conflicts with police.

WHAT HAPPENED TO SWEEP? IS THIS NEW #CHOP? My colleague @mattmarkovich went in to the Cal Anderson Park encampment Tues night. Some of the homeless say they don't want the black bloc protestors there since that group usually brings violence. Hot mess.#SEATTLE #Seattleprotest pic.twitter.com/QRb9hvbFQ5

— Jonathan Choe Journalist KOMO News (@choeshow) December 16, 2020

Another local report made it clear the occupiers were closing off the park and getting ready for a fight:

THEY'RE HERE: Dozens of people dressed in all black have arrived to Cal Anderson Park. On the eve of Wednesday's planned homeless sweep, this group and others living at the park say they aren't leaving without a fight. #Seattle #CalAndersonPark #seattleprotest pic.twitter.com/7E8vxUg0JB

— Jonathan Choe Journalist KOMO News (@choeshow) December 16, 2020

So this morning finally came and police drove around the area but didn’t stop. No sweep took place. The city has decided to postpone it:

The City of Seattle has postponed their expected sweep to clear homeless campers out of Cal Anderson Park in Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborhood.

A Seattle Parks spokesperson told KOMO News they still plan to eventually reopen the park but the sweep that had been scheduled to begin at 7:30 a.m. would be postponed.

Police never entered the park but black bloc anarchists set a tent on fire anyway:

BREAKING: A fire has been set in Seattle's Cal Anderson Park as @SeattlePD move in to clear a homeless camp.
Developments unfolding now on @KING5Seattle. pic.twitter.com/VsvKaoTvpW

— Jake Whittenberg 🎥 (@jwhittenbergK5) December 16, 2020

And someone pointed a laser at a news chopper:

These people were mad that the media was covering the situation at Cal Anderson Park this morning, so they decided to point a laser at our chopper and endanger the lives of the two people on board. pic.twitter.com/PNJwMxqfCA

— Kendra Gilbert (@KLGnews) December 16, 2020

The delay gave the occupiers more time to set up barricades. It now looks just like CHAZ did this summer. All we need now is a new warlord and a few random shootings.

Antifa and activists are hunkering down at Cal Anderson Park in anticipation of SPD clearning the encampment.
Yesterday, they were just protecting their staging area for riots. Now it seems like they are making an effort to barricade the whole park pic.twitter.com/Akt88iQyaE

— Ari Hoffman (@thehoffather) December 16, 2020

So it appears the mayor saw what was brewing and backed down, just like Mayor Wheeler recently backed down and apologized in a similar confrontation in Portland. Of course that’s only going to reinforce the idea that all it takes to change the Mayor’s mind is a show of willingness to battle the police. The occupiers are once again in charge of a portion of Seattle.