Representatives from the mayor’s office told a crowd of business and community reps that public safety initiatives are working — and more are coming (Image: CHS)
Deputy Mayor Tim Burgess says a city pilot could bring surveillance cameras to Cal Anderson and Pike/Pine and that measures including a new service center for the city’s CARE mental and behavioral health emergencies team inside a former bank at Broadway and Pike are also hoped to help make Capitol Hill a safer neighborhood in 2025.
“We know the police can’t solve all these problems,” the close aide to Mayor Bruce Harrell on crime matters told a group of Capitol Hill business and community representatives at a public safety meeting organized heading into the Thanksgiving holiday by the GSBA.
“They do a great job. We need them. But these other investments are critically important, especially if we were to talk about some of the root causes of why people get involved in criminal behavior later in life. That’s on all of us as a society to address,” Burgess said, flanked at the session by Natalie Walton Anderson, Harrell’s Director of Public Safety, Davonte Bell of the city’s new CARE Department dedicated to crisis response, and District 3 representative Joy Hollingsworth.
The meeting came as part of what is planned to be a new series of gatherings involving the GSBA chamber of commerce and Hollingsworth who has pledged to hold quarterly public safety meetings like it beginning in January.
At the November gathering held at Broadway’s Stoup Brewing, Burgess praised initiatives shepherded by Hollingsworth through the city’s 2025 budget process that will bring new spending on Capitol Hill public safety initiatives including $125,000 for a new Capitol Hill community safety coordinator position with the GSBA beginning in 2025 and $150,000 to support a new street Ambassador Program in conjunction with the chamber group on Capitol Hill in 2026.
Hollingsworth budget wins also included funding for a bathroom attendant to help keep the Cal Anderson restrooms usable as well as money to support a Capitol Hill art tour of the neighborhood’s robust collection of murals.
GSBA officials say they and Hollingsworth have also begun preliminary discussions around the creation of a new Pike/Pine Business Improvement Area. A Broadway BIA funded by property assessments handles issues around graffiti abatement and street and sidewalk clean-ups in that neighborhood’s core. The Pike/Pine BIA would fill a similar purpose.
Last month, Burgess said the mayor’s office is also considering adding the area around Cal Anderson and Pike/Pine identified by SPD as a trouble zone for drug crimes and street disorder to an anti-crime camera system pilot currently being rolled out in the area around Aurora Ave N, the International District including Little Saigon, and the 3rd Ave corridor downtown. The pilot is creating a new Seattle Police Department surveillance system combining Closed-Circuit Television Camera systems above the city’s streets with “real-time crime center” software. Burgess said in the public safety meeting that expansion to Capitol Hill could include the return of a camera to Cal Anderson Park.
Burgess said other expansions of city efforts to address street disorder downtown are also being considered for Pike/Pine, saying his office was “in talks” with neighborhood businesses about stringing more catenary lights in an attempt to brighten darker areas outside the Pike/Pine core.
CHS reported here over the summer on efforts to address safety issues around Cal Anderson including the deployment of the catenary lights above Nagle Place. The relatively affordable and easy to deploy light strings are an increasingly popular feature around the city though it is unclear how much they do to deter crime.
City representatives said they are also working to address continued complaints of safety and cleanliness issues related to unpermitted food vendors who proliferate outside popular Pike/Pine nightspots. Officials told the crowd that the county health department is hoped to lead the way on more enforcement to shut down the hot dog vendors and taco stands operating without proper paperwork and procedures in the Pike/Pine core.
More effective could be the establishment of a Community Assisted Response & Engagement station on the street level of the Harvard Market shopping center in a space left empty when Chase Bank departed the challenged corner.
Bell announced the new center being planned to the group along with another important announcement: He is now a First Hill resident living only a few blocks away.
SPD CRIME STATS FOR THE BROADWAY AND PIKE/PINE CORE — through October 2024
All Crime Categories
Violent Crime Categories
Property Crime Categories
The ongoing effort to shape the city’s response to public safety in the Pike/Pine/Broadway core has grown from the results of a neighborhood tour this spring that gave Hollingsworth and officials from Harrell’s office and the East Precinct a first-hand look at the challenges neighborhood business and property owners said are the result of open drug dealing and drug use and street disorder in the area surrounding Cal Anderson Park and the Broadway and Pike QFC.
The city’s renewed exclusion zone laws will include the Pike/Broadway core in the Capitol Hill “Stay out of Drug Area.”
Total crime in the core of Capitol Hill as reported by SPD statistics shows 2024 totals mostly in line with recent years with a big spike in September driven by a surge in reported property crimes. That surge settled in October, according to the department’s reporting.
The mayor’s office representatives told the business and community members in attendance last month the process of community meetings led by the GSBA and Hollingsworth were having a real impact on addressing the area’s public safety issues with the raft of legislative items now voted on approved by the council ready to be supported by new initiatives lined up by the mayor’s office in 2025 including the possible surveillance camera system pilot expansion and the new CARE facility.
“Our approach to public safety is holistic. It’s not just police,” Burgess said. “As important as their role is, we still want to do these other things because that’s critically important as well.”
Hollingsworth, meanwhile, told the crowd she hopes to shift her public safety priorities for “more focus on preventative side in 2025.” Part of that, Hollingsworth said, is an increased focus on young people and providing more support to community and efforts for teens and young adults. “They’re not bad. They’re bored,” Hollingsworth said.
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GOOD. DO MORE. Just focus on criminals – the rest will figure it out itself. Remove criminals and homeless from the streets.
Stop posting this every day on here, it’s annoying
You’re more annoying if you don’t realize this is a daily struggle.
Naw….you simply have an agenda that forms your opinion. It has everything to do with you and not much else.
But what E15 says makes sense.
No more annoying than you guys treating these people like they have no personal agency and should be allowed to get away with worse behavior than you’d accept from an inebriated frat bro.When I see those guys in front of Jai Thai who are cognizant enough to harass me on my way to work, I see a bunch of 20-somethings who’ve grown up seeing what drug addiction did to their peers and chose to go that route anyway. And they can blame their parents all they want, but as someone who was raised by a mother who grew up poor and abused by both parents but made the choice to be better than that and worked her butt off to do so with help from no one, I don’t have a lot of empathy for these dudes. Especially when they deliberately enact their messed up personalities on me while I’m just trying to live my own life.
Crime rates go up as inequality goes up…look around at the glory of capitalism. If your solution is to only address crime you will never solve the problems you’re upset about. I’m sorry you’ve experienced those things, but crime is a symptom of the material needs of some citizens not being met. Blame your politicians for not raising taxes of those people with “messed up personalities” experiencing mental and physical health issues.
And yet we had majority Progressive leadership for years (which I voted for repeatedly) and they did nothing to address the underlying issues they ran on. Homelessness has only increased. And, no, I’m not out “looking for trouble.” Progressives like to lecture people on blaming the victim, yet here you are doing just that. I’m simply a small woman who relies on public transit and foot to get around everywhere and thus has had to deal with being an easier target than you, I’m guessing a younger white guy. Yeah, when I walk around with my husband, it’s a different story. But this isn’t the 50s and I feel I should have the right to walk alone without being physically assaulted or threatened. I can’t even go out with girlfriends at night anymore because doing so means walking home alone down Broadway and being afraid I’m going to be followed and harassed, which happens more than you’d think these days.
I’m guessing that he finds crime and disorder quite annoying.
Do you even walk down Broadway? how about try walking down Broadway and Harrison or Broadway and Thomas in the evenings? I do as it’s my route home and so many drug addicts are strung out on the sidewalk on fentanyl and meth, especially around the corner from the QFC on both sides of the street.
It’s sad and depressing, and poses a public safety risk but they need to be in rehab, not on the streets b/c someone or some harm-reduction org wants to see them out there on the street.
So true. I have contacted Joy Hollingsworth on the situation at QFC 400 block Broadway but so far no response. I remain hopeful as she has responded in past. But if you have concerns about the *developing * drug scene at the QFC on 400 block Broadway, I urge you to contact CM Hollingsworth. This could easily become the same as what’s at 12th and Jackson. Especially with the SODA law likely pushing them north from Cal Anderson and the Harvard QFC. This area left out of SODA. What did they think would happen? Not that I’m a big fan of SODA…
I also wrote to Joy about that situation, and did not hear back. Disappointing.
They simply pushed them away to other peoples store fronts.
I had a date night with my wife on Friday evening and Broadway was pretty normal…walked all over cap hill in the spooooky dark (which I call nighttime)…seemed pretty normal too, just like every time I walk around. Sometimes I wonder if people who complain this much about crime are just constantly looking for it. Play stupid games, win stupid prizes I guess.
I do however want to pull my hair out every time I see people speeding 50 in a 25, which is virtually impossible to avoid in this car sewer of a city we live in where cars get more free right to shelter than humans.
But in regards to people doing drugs, though not ideal, they aren’t ever bothering me to the point of safety. Same with everyone I know here…funny how that lines up with violent crime rates being down nationally. Not that you’d hear that narrative on KOMO lol
Ask your wife to try walking down Broadway alone after 10pm any night of the week. I’m sure her experience will be quite different.
Well we all have our experiences … and while I certainly have seen Broadway “pretty normal” after dark occasionally, the other side is also true – you sometimes can’t walk through that stretch next to the 400 Harvard QFC on Harrison without bumping into one of the drugged out zombies – I’ve literally seen the sidewalks and street completely blocked by them, several times! This is not a non-problem simply because you have only seen it when it wasn’t. So I recommend to not invalidate other people’s observations and concerns simply because for whatever reason you choose to elevate your own experience, limited as it is, as the sole truth.
Yes!
You obviously have a duty to the city to follow through. Submit a detailed plan for implementation because I imagine this is such a novel concept that no one has even proposed it.
BTW, resitdent? Is this someone who’s against teeth and spellcheck?
It’s no use that person isn’t serious, spelling or otherwise
love this “solution” of “remove the criminals and homeless.” remove to where? a magic box that holds unlimited people and gives them food, shelter, and treatment? You realize the courts and jails are overcrowded and backed up, right? You can’t put homeless people and addicts in a pokeball for safe keeping. they take up real space and have real needs. I’m not saying oh let’s get them a hotel – i’m saying you are not making a serious contribution to solving the problem.
“love this “solution” of “remove the criminals and homeless.” remove to where?”
The Nazi solution…Bus and one way ticket after separating the families. Keeping the kids in cages. And parents on busses.
Broadway between John and Mercer is the worst I’ve seen it in 12 years here. You have large groups of very, very addicted people roaming around and taking over entire bus stops, stoops, etc.
It has to stop.
The city still has way too much tolerance for this crap. Apparently it is progressive and compassionate to let addicts destroy the city then die on the sidewalk.
Well not sure who you think is progressive here…certainly not the mayor or city council or state or federal government? All the good stuff we got happened under Kshama Sawant and the actually more progressive city council…no one to blame now but the business backed conservatives in power.
Progressive polices include raising taxes on the wealthy and funding housing and treatment programs…which we’re NOT doing now. We should start if Joy would side with the poor and not the rich business bosses.
How about this…we could actually try progressive solutions, and then you would be able to stop complaining…but you gotta vote for it…deal?
Stuff was so good they raided the Amazon tax they voted against. Now take credit for “balancing the budget” a “Sensible plan going forward”
AKA simply use it as a slush fund forever till 2040 for literally anything. EXACTLY like the business superior sociopaths and functionally illiterate that are just a clear and present danger to America now.
Good things under Sawant… in her last few years on the council things reached the apex of awful… Some of the massive mess she left is finally cleared away from the outer edges of where it had spread too. Broadway is still bearing more than its fair share of the brunt.
Agree. I avoid Broadway now when possible. People openly doing drugs (one friend was surrounded by a group of these folks who blew smoke in their face and laughed), openly urinating or defecating on the sidewalk, leaving their trash everywhere. Makes me grateful my parents are dead and don’t have to see all the squalor.
There’s no way this is true lol. They formed a circle and peed and pooped on your friend????
Who thinks people choose to live like this when they have better options??? The truth is…they don’t have better options!
Complain to Joy and the other conservatives if you wanna actually do something other than yap in a comment section.
yeah def no better options than killing themselves on the street with fen, it’s all the fault of others
The hell they don’t! They are called “shelters.” Ever hear of them? And please don’t repeat the excuses that homeless people cite when refusing shelter/services.
They aren’t generally “choosing” to live this way. its the effects of the drug addiction. You could give each of the street people a SFH in Madrona and they would not suddenly behave like you do (well).
Sometimes reading comprehension pays off – OP didn’t say anything about their friend being peed and pooped on. And the blowing smoke into other people’s faces, whether intentionally or not, is a real, daily thing. And they absolutely DO have a choice to not do effing drugs, come on!
Stop the constant gaslighting here.
no sorry. Never happen. Why? Drug users and homeless try to avoid attention. Lay as low as possible because as long as they mind their business? Nothing ANYONE can do. Which is what you did. Nothing. So who’s lost all credibility here Boo?
You don’t get out much these days? Drug users don’t seem to give a flying f*ck who sees them using or nodding these days.. some hide a little… like the pair with their foil along the back entrance to the Harvard Market.. But… I actually went into work late one day because I was making sure that the person who suddenly nodded on the sidewalk in front of my house got back up again, before I either called 911 or left the house…. Just today I was walking down Madison when two people who had just taken something slumped over, one dropping (I think) a spoon or at least something metal just as I walked by. Or how about the woman sitting on the sidewalk across from Uwajimaya gushing blood because she’d just hit an artery with her needle… This is our new normal and it’s not a good normal.
chh and smooth- you guys are completely out of touch and need to stop trying to create a narrative violation force field for any and all reports of disorder on Capitol Hill. None of these reports are unbelievable in the least.
Just do the lecture about raising income taxes instead of gaslighting people
It is not that bad lol…. you were not here in the 90s, or the 00s, or the 10s I guess
This is such a lie. I’ve lived on Capitol Hill since 1995. It was never this bad. I used to be able to walk home at 3am and feel completely safe. Now I can’t even walk to the dentist in the middle of the day without some dude screaming at me. Not only are there more of these guys, but the drugs are different. The drugs now are making these people way more aggressive and way more of a safety risk.I can list at least ten run-ins with these guys in the last few years where I’ve been threatened or physically assaulted, stuff that never happened in the 90s or 2000s.
Totally agree.
I’ve been here since ’94 and no, no it was not like this then. There would be some kids hanging out pan handling on a few street corners, but absolutely nothing like what’s going on today, wherein one has to wade through a mass of addicts passing around foils while sitting on a pile of their stolen goods, to get into the grocery store..
I’m much more nervous around drivers in this city than vulnerable homeless people and addicted folks, both of whom have been constantly let down by society…what are entitled drivers’ excuses??? They kill and maim people left and right, and yet we have an entire DOT dedicated to coddling them as their cars pollute our environment and wreck their own infrastructure faster than any other form of transit. The funding to help these homeless and addicted folks is tied up in all our “American innovation” in the form of convoluted tax dodging schemes for the rich and military degeneracy. And all we end up doing is say “hey! guy with a green mohawk, meth scabs and no house!!! f off my friggin cafe patio!!!”
Meanwhile, Elon, a man cripplingly addicted to Ketamine, is shaping our public road system into a private self-driving AI hellscape. Point being, there are larger-order problems at hand than the poor destitute people that unbridled capitalism will obviously create due to massive inequality.
You’re older than me so you’ve seen this city for longer than me, but please try to look at systemic things that could be changed and improved instead of proposing the functional strengthening the poor peoples’ bootstraps so they can go ahead and just pull themselves up by them. We really, really need to start demonizing the tax hoarding elite who keep pushing this burden onto us, the citizens of US cities.
Hyperbole much… I bike commute. I know exactly what it’s like out on the streets and while I’d loooove to see a little enforcement for drivers too it’s certainly not a “self-driving AI hellscape”.
The biggest problem with this city is that we’ve given up on enforcing pretty much any rules, so people do what they feel like… Addicts steal as much as they want and use all over our sidewalks, drivers don’t give a shit about things like stop signs or speed limits, dog owners run their mutts off leash wherever they please, kids fly up and down the sidewalks on rental scooters that pretty plainly state that they shouldn’t be there…. It’s all the same problem, just different groups of folks. Until we start expecting some civility out of everyone, nothing is going to substantially change.
It’s comments like yours that make me wish that this blog had a “like” button!
I am plenty nervous about both drivers and the the crazy homeless. I have been almost run over by young women laughing and almost punched in the head by drug zombies. So take your pick. No fan of Musk at all but have not heard of his involvement with Ketamine. Source?
I was here in the aughts. I moved to Seattle in 2011. I have a very distinct memory of heroin addicts being mildly ashamed of their addiction and shuffling out of the way when an early 20s me threw a frisbee their way in a game with friends at Cal Anderson.
That fent and meth addict today is berating me for being in the park, often screaming obscenities, is trying to steal our bikes and packages and god only knows what else.
It’s a different breed out there now. You’ve have to be blind or willfully ignorant not to see it.
You’re making this up. I’ve lived on and off the Hill since 1982. A lot of that time no more than a block or two from Broadway (currently upper Leschi). It’s the worse it’s even been.
Jess, that’s complete bullshit.
Yep. 4 years ago in 2020 I was a big “it’s not as bad as people are saying it is” defender (and it genuinely was) but in the last year or 2 it’s gotten worse by several magnitudes.
You didn’t see that coming?
it’s so bad. At least CM Hollingsworth is committed on doing something tangible about it unlike what former CM Sawant did with her politicking of DSA propaganda and talking points.
Joy stole 350 million from the housing fund.
But you cheer her on buddy.
If it’s not raising taxes on the wealthy to fund public programs and infrastructure, it’s a farce! Can’t implement the brilliant Sawant ideas without funding
*cough, Joy protecting tax cheats, cough*
Which were Sawant’s brilliant ideas? I’m drawing a blank here. Please remind me.
Letting homeless people camp in the parks for instance lol – which is what her folks were campaigning for one day going around, and got offended when I told them no, that’s a terrible idea!
The usual BS that doesn’t accomplish anything but make everyone who earns less than the ones being taxed feel better.
Totally agree. Also the QFC 400 block. Growing drug mart. Zero police presence. Guess the SODA pushed them north?
I could be wrong, but I don’t think the SODA zones have taken effect yet.
Raise taxes on the wealthy then! Where else will we get the money to help them?
Please define “the wealthy”. Nobody has the guts to go after the ones who actually have more money than they can count (and probably wouldn’t notice much). Meanwhile, middle range income folks are being taxed out of their existence because that’s the easier target.
Oh, and yes – please also come up with a plan on what to do with that money! The correct answer is “raise money … and do X”. The latter part is usually glanced over. Thanks for the well balanced opinion piece.
No police cameras! Let’s stop the ubiquitous and fascist surveillance cop culture please.
“…a trouble zone for drug crimes and street disorder…” CCTV has been show to be marginally effective at best in these situations and only worthwhile in parking lots (car theft) and sites of potential large scale property damage. As you suggest, newer real-time surveillance capabilities make this a scarier proposition especially coupled with hardware tech and lax restraints. Exploiting fearful public sentiment is an irresistible open door.
Let crime run rampant eh?
Why not, Elon and Trump thrive from it
Where is this ubiquitous now?
👏
If the problems are really as bad as everyone claims (not my neighborhood, and while it does look sometimes rough when I go through, it’s not as described) then cops patrolling and actually doing police work should easily be able to address the issues of open air dealing and what not.
The “very very addicted people taking over bus stops” and whatever mostly need housing, access to addiction care, and social workers, not cops.
Finally, a reasonable-sounding neighbor
Oh except not enough cops to do that because, well, you know…
Stop posting stuff like this every day here. It’s annoying.
Now you are a troll? c’mon man…Get your own material.
this has been a on-going debate over the last 15 years. We’ve installed them at one point, especially in the CD, and was successful with catching gang members and arresting them. However, Sawant wanted them removed.
I think we should install them again.
You don’t need to go further to look up this info. Use the site’s search feature to check the archives.
Yawn. We are done with your types. We are gonna fix this city.
Just stop it. Please.
Where are these ubiquitous?
Leave the food stands. I love a late night hot dog!
Me too! But I’d like to know they are following some basic health requirements.
rats run all over those at night.
Hot dog vendors creating crowds are a *safety* issue now? If you want them to move five or twenty feet then ask them. Meanwhile in normal reality, people and lights out on the street are actually a good thing, can’t wait til the street corners are *more* dark and empty except for drunks leaving the bars.
I think the safety issue at hand with unlicensed street food vendors has to do with food safety. If these unlicensed vendors aren’t prepping and storing food correctly it could lead to a lot of folks getting food poisoning.
If someone were to die from severe food poisoning the city could be liable because the government knew of these unlicensed vendors but did nothing to shut them down.
By that argument, the city should be sued for not shutting down the unlicensed fentanyl sellers that are *actually* killing people.
These vendors also use stadium speakers to attract customers playing music that vibrates the floors of residents from 10 to 4am. They also leave behind their trash. They compete with businesses that pay taxes.
The issue is they take business away from others.
Everything these people are doing revolves around their businesses and those that doughnate to their campaigns. Not a single thing benefits us.
It’s businesses superior politics again.
not a fan of the cameras. I guess I don’t understand why, if they can monitor the space and respond to problems on the theoretical CCTV, why don’t they just come by regularly and check in? it’s a two minute drive from the precinct.
Not nearly enough staffing to do that… they don’t even have enough staff to respond to much other than active crimes of violence, what makes you think they have time to do mundane stuff like patrol.
I mean, if cops have got time to sleep in their cars collecting overtime, they’ve got time to patrol (many SPD cops collect obscene amounts of overtime doing nothing of use, this is quite well documented and overtime abuse has been a long standing discipline issue within the department). If they have time to monitor cameras and/or go through that footage in a proactive way that does something useful, they have enough staff to patrol.
They don’t actually care about being proactive and improving public safety or public health; it’s more useful for them for things to be bad because then they can demand more money and more staff, and gobble up even more of the city’s budget.
The proposed SPD 2025 budget was nearly HALF A BILLION dollars, and they seemingly can’t manage to do much of anything of use at all. Half a billion dollars that is not going to after-school programs, housing, sanitation workers for the parks, social and mental health workers, rehab services, etc. All things that are more likely to have rapid, measurable, visible improvements in people’s quality of life. We damn well should be getting more for our money.
Don’t get why I have to reply to my own comment to get this threaded properly but anyhoo…
Have you ever stopped to think that if there were **enough** cops that there wouldn’t be gobs of overtime even available to work, the budget would come down because of how much less time and a half they are paying? This is pretty basic bookkeeping…
… seems like if there were more regular visible patrols then crimes would be prevented before rather than a reaction to any cctv in place, especially when I we already have footage of a typical crime in < 60 seconds by somebody in a hoodie
There are may potential steps that could improve things; increasing surveillance is not one of them. I’m not sure what Community Assisted Response & Engagement entails, but this sounds like a much better path.
Oh you mean like the community assisted openly conducted bike theft carried out on a sidewalk with an electric saw that nobody did anything about? I guess that would prove your point about surveillance not going to accomplish much. But there’s something else very wrong with this picture of our city …
I hope the city and county can work with these food vendors to sell food safely and not just shut them down. Street food is part of what makes a great city to live in. #LegalizeStreetFood
Anything they do will have businesses as the #1 seat at the table. Everyone gets screaps after that or worse. Another attack on minimum wage or Jump Start as a permanent slush fund.
Good. Businesses should have a big seat at the table – stop with the nonsense. A neighborhood without businesses is at best Belleuve/suburbs – at worst a dump.
GSBA has created and set the table. This time residents have no voice.
Really? That’s bigoted of you.
A business w/o customers is no businesses.
Trying to suppress minimum wage and steal money for housing the poor? That’s your moral contribution to society. Have people continue working for charity and people in the streets.
Is there an attack on minimum wage?
Yes…$3 an hour for “small business owners” for every worker.
“Small businesses” is what council members own. The people who donate as well.
They wanted to make it permanent. It had been going for a decade. MUCH longer than when the law was past. It’s amazing what they get away with. Hate the Amazon tax? Then take credit for it and vote to make it a slush fund till 2040. No more housing. clean energy etc.
What do you mean by $3 an hour for small business owners? Not being snarky but your response did not clarify for me.
It was a special cut out for “small business owners” of 500 or less employees. When $15 an hour minimum passed. The restaurant people especially, but all business owners ctied they’d be put out of business. They would move and the usual tropes. None came true. But that 3 years, turned into a decade of free lunch. Now? They want to make it permanent. Joy introduced it before her seat was even warm. Pretty much sealing her fate. She’s a yes vote for business superior politics. Not a politician. She’s the sacrificial lamb.
I e-mailed Hollingsworth’s office 2 weeks for the job description of the Capitol Hill Community Safety Coordinator but haven’t heard back. I’m worried that it will be a job created simply to give the impression that something is being done. Tim Burgess talks about addressing “root causes” like every social worker since the 50’s. It’s stale and unhelpful. Joy Hollingsworth says the the kids aren’t bad, just bored. So they take up fentanyl, tagging, carjacking, and stealing as a pastime? What does she plan to do to get them engaged and exited again? The problem with the Harrell Administration is that they are so worried that someone might call them “mean” that they’ve become paralyzed. They are unable to commit to no drug use in public spaces, no camping in parks, on sidewalks or along streets. While they fiddle with their brand of do-goodism, Capitol Hill suffers.
100% agree!
Change your name to a business. You will get a reply.
I said from jump street it’s a carve out for a job for a friend. I got jumped on.
Because it’s a lie. Position is funded through department of neighborhoods who is not just hiring someone’s friend. Any evidence for your claim?
Possible Pike/Pine police surveillance cameras? Possible?
How about definite police presence. Cops walking a beat sounds like a good idea.
Totally agree. The police are sitting in their cruisers when they should be walking among us. We need foot/bike patrols encountering the criminals and addicts that we see on the street every day.
Shut it all down, and rebuild. There is so much activity, hardly any police, and way too many guns floating around on The Hill. And for what? So we can eat hot dogs and look like IG models at 2 am. It’s not even that fun. Just go to the cuff on a busy night and really look around. NO ONE IS DOING ANYTHING. They’re on their phones, in a clique possibly being nasty to a total stranger OR not (I might be projecting a bit), or they’re in an open relationship. Where is the love and actual single people around here people? But seriously, the hill is not worth it. There are other adult things to do that are far less expensive and secure.
“The meeting came as part of what is planned to be a new series of gatherings involving the GSBA chamber of commerce and Hollingsworth who has pledged to hold quarterly public safety meetings like it beginning in January.”
Joy is truly a breath of fresh air. Sawant rarely held such meetings, and even then it was only on an issue her leftist supporters cared about.
It’s so hilarious how you support Joy so hard and she’s literally done nothing of note.
I get that you don’t like Sawant because you’re misinformed, but you don’t have to pretend Joy has been there for her district…just look at the comments above you lol. Everyone is mad!!!!
Joy immediately self dealt herself and everyone else on the council and donors to their campaigns. Also “small business owners of 500 or less employees. Like the federal tax cuts conservatives crush us all with and steal our wealth w/o a say. Even if we vote and it passes. They simply change it with a stroke of apen.
These are all focused on businesses. I hope businesses understand that they rely upon customers, most of whom are residents. Most businesses close at 5 or 6. Residents have to put up with crime 24 hours a day. Stopping daytime crime is not enough. Joy is not out here at 3 or 4 in the morning to understand the needs of the residents. She doesn’t respond to concerns of residents. Well, businesses don’t vote.
It is good to see some movement. But why is this only decided by some business members and the city? Why is there no input from residents? Is the purpose to make the neighborhood safe, or just safe for businesses?
Residents have had no voice in here and this does not reflect their concerns.
correct. Business superior from the first moment they went into office.
Pretty quick conclusion there but anyone can contact their city council member and anyone could attend the public safety meeting reported on above. How has your experience been reaching out to the council or attending this public meeting?
Community Safety Coordinator? Shouldn’t we have some community safety to coordinate first?
This is all so ridiculous! I live near the corner of Bellevue and Olive and watched a homeless man ask a resident smoking in front of his building if he could get a smoke the resident said he had left them upstairs and didn’t have any more, the homeless man then shot him in the foot and just walked away like it was nothing. I hear shootings every single night almost and several times I have had sketchy characters stop on a dime, turn, and start following me after I passed them while walking down the street. I carry a baton on my waist and bear spray when I have to go to the grocery store. This is just a bunch of BS.
We need police that will do their job instead of twiddling there thumbs in their cars, we need real people to run for our political offices and not these a-holes that only care about themselves and what’s good for them and their wallet, and we need to come together as a neighborhood and as a city as well and put our foot down and do something together about all this.
If we have all had enough, then why are we on here bickering back and forth with each other about what should happen, who has it worse, and commiserating with a group of people that are very clearly taking advantage of the fact that our city doesn’t give a crap about its citizens? Why aren’t we taking it upon ourselves to do more to correct this situation? If females are scared to walk home at night by themselves, why haven’t we created a volunteer walk home program? If people can get a ride home because they are too drunk to drive, why can’t we do something similar for this situation? If everyone can come together to boycott some celebrity for saying the wrong pro-noun and destroy their livelihood to the point that now everyone is scared to say anything against the woke logic. Why can’t we come together and do the same to our politicians? Many own businesses themselves, you don’t like their policy, or they are ignoring us and not helping the residents and only responding to businesses then boycott their businesses make them understand it is because of us that they are where they are and have what they have.
If we could all just actually put aside all the BS and come together, sit down and make some pretty easy decisions then things could get fixed and a lot quicker than its going to take with these yahoos in charge.
When are we going to wake up and say enough? When are we going to actually vote people into office because of their actions and because of how they plan on doing for the city? And then vote them out if they don’t keep their word? Or they suck as their job? Why do we keep giving these money hungry, delusional, a-holes the power over our lives?
I’d much rather have my mechanic as our mayor than the idiot that currently holds the office. I wish someone with no money but great values, real ideas about how to fix things, and an honest heart would run for any office. I’d vote for them in a heartbeat. But let’s continue to bicker and bitch because that’s really doing so much to change things for the better. Hooray for us the enlighten.
Sorry, I guess I’m a bit fed up with crap today.
Why are safety issues for Broadway and Pike being made entirely by people outside of this area. Residents have not been allowed at these meetngs. Yes, gay businesses have an INTEREST, but those living in it have no say. I wonder how many of the gsba know what it’s like to walk to the corner grocery.
Seattle put 120 units for Gsy Seniors right there. They have been attacked, assaulted, harassed, knocked down, invaded, but the police will not come. I’m sure the business owners go through once or twice a month. What about those there 24 hours a day?
The plan has been designed and budgeted without ANYONE who knows what it is like there. But businesses throughout the city are at the table. Don’t we have a say in our neighborhood?
No one has even asked the residents about their issues.
Remember things like “community engagement,” “empowerment,” “neighborhood involvement,” “decisions made at the local level,” “open meetings,” “accountability,” “community policing”? Nice words.
It was a great show to see Joy Hollingsworth come up with a plan and for funding for Broadway and Pike. But not a single resident in the area was involved. A large business group that donated heavily to her campaign was asked. None live or work nearby. The top concerns of those who live here were ignored. She does not even reply to calls or emails from desperate residents.