11th and Pike from above (Image: Google Earth)

In December, CHS reported on the city’s response to public safety concerns around the Pike/Pine nightlife district with plans for improved policing and new resources including CCTV cameras and a new CARE Department base for crisis responders on Broadway.

A newly unearthed email thread between a neighborhood business owner, their landlord, and the offices of District 3 City Councilmember Joy Hollingsworth and Mayor Bruce Harrell reveals details of those concerns and how City Hall was finally driven to act after a 25-year-old was shot and killed on 11th Ave in October.

“These are not random party kids playing with guns, they are organized drug gangs who have used this street to run their business unfettered for years. My tenants and staff are terrified of them, to the point they won’t even go on the record with SPD’s detectives for fear of retribution. My private security team is too intimidated to write down license plate numbers,” neighborhood developer Liz Dunn wrote in an email to the mayor’s office, Hollingsworth, and safety officials two days after the deadly shooting.

“How is it possible that one of the most celebrated blocks in Seattle with almost 20 BIPOC and queer-owned businesses has been allowed to become the most dangerous block in Seattle, where it seems even the police are now afraid to come? Capitol Hill is at a tipping point of never recovering,” Dunn wrote.

The response was swift. “Liz, I could come up and meet with you this afternoon if you are available. I could be there by 4,” Deputy Mayor Tim Burgess responded four hours later.

Weeks later, the city was moving out the plan CHS reported on here as it was shared at a neighborhood safety forum hosted by the GSBA.

Burgess told the crowd at the GSBA event that afternoon that the mayor’s office was working on 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 were 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.

Burgess also revealed the effort to establish a Community Assisted Response and Engagement (CARE) station on the street level of the Harvard Market shopping center in a space left empty when Chase Bank departed the challenged corner.

The email from Dunn provided to CHS reveals how the October 19th murder of 25-year-old Breanna Simmons and a related shooting the next day sparked the response to address ongoing safety issues around Pike/Pine.

Dunn, the developer behind neighborhood projects including 11th Ave’s Chophouse Row, told city officials she was at risk of her tenants dropping their leases if the violence continued to spiral out of control. “If these tenants move out I will not be able to cover my loans and both Chophouse and the Baker Linen building will be foreclosed,” Dunn wrote. “I have tried to support my tenants in all the ways that are in my power, but this sits squarely in the City’s lap, as it has been brought up over and over.”

In the thread, an email from the ownership of Dunn tenant the Gemini Room outlined the concerns.

“As the owner of the Gemini Room, I urgently request that the property owners
reconsider our lease, release us from any liabilities, and refund us for the significant
expenses associated with our buildout,” Joey Burgess wrote in an October 21st message to Dunn. “The alarming increase in violence, drug- related activities, and the overall decline in safety have made it exceedingly difficult for us to continue operations. The conditions in the neighborhood have changed dramatically since we signed our lease, and had we known the risks involved, we would never have chosen to establish our business here.”

In the message, Burgess cited a “a staggering 68 percent decline” in business “following the murder that occurred just steps from our establishment.”

“As a queer and women-owned small business, we resonate with the concerns of our employees and patrons – we no longer feel secure in this environment,” Burgess wrote.

Contacted this week about the situation and the escalation from Dunn to City Hall, Burgess tells CHS that, four months later, the environment around 11th Ave is “much better” and that the Gemini Room lease issues are settled.

“I’m pleased that people are listening and trying to find solutions for public safety,” Burgess said.

In addition to the Gemini Room, Burgess is part of the ownership behind several Pike/Pine institutions including Queer/Bar, Oddfellows Cafe, and Elliott Bay Book Company.

Dunn has not responded to our inquiry about the city’s response.

Hollingsworth declined to comment, telling CHS she would “defer to the Mayor’s office on this one as they were the lead for this plan.”

(Image: Google Earth)

Mayor Bruce Harrell’s office says its plan is moving forward.

“Public safety remains Mayor Harrell’s top priority, and our office has been working closely with the Seattle Police Department, Capitol Hill business owners, and community partners to advance solutions that improve the safety of this neighborhood for all,” the mayor’s spokesperson Callie Craighead said in a statement sent to CHS.

Craighead said details revealed by Deputy Mayor Burgess in December remain in the works including “new overhead lighting features along 11th Avenue from Madison Street to Cal Anderson Park, similar to what has been installed along Nagle Place, portions of Third Avenue, and in the Chinatown-International District, to activate this area and enhance safety.”

Craighead said the expansion of CCTV and the SPD crime center pilot to the neighborhood is also moving forward and will allow police “to quickly respond to and collect evidence to solve crimes.”

Efforts to establish the new CARE facility on Broadway have bogged down over a possible lease at the Harvard Market shopping center. A spokesperson said the search continues but is no longer centered on Harvard Market. “The Seattle CARE Department continues exploring the viability of several potential locations, which may serve as a base for CARE Community Crisis Responders in the East Precinct,” the spokesperson said.

“Ultimately, we need more police officers to be able to do proactive patrols that deter illegal behaviors,” Craighead tells CHS.

Progress has been made on one front, however. The mayor’s office tells CHS it will be installing a safety element on Capitol Hill pedestrian and urbanist advocates have been asking for at locations across Seattle. Bollards are scheduled to be installed along the plaza area of Cal Anderson Park to prevent vehicle access from Nagle Place, Craighead said, “after hearing constituent feedback.”

The city is looking at an installation date towards the end of February, the spokesperson said.

Meanwhile, the killing of Simmons was one of 14 homicides in the East Precinct last year — like many of those tragedies, her murder remains unsolved.

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