A coalition of neighborhood business groups including the Capitol Hill Chamber of Commerce are calling for increased foot and bike police patrols on Seattle’s city streets and a greater emphasis on crime including tougher laws on drugs in the city.
“While major crime is down citywide, street disorder persists and continues to negatively impact our neighborhoods,” a letter sent to the City Council by the coalition of 12 business groups states. “Neighborhood businesses are closing and our neighbors feel unsafe on their own streets, citing open air drug dealing, public intoxication, graffiti and vandalism as chronic problems.”
The letter will be presented Tuesday morning as the Council holds a hearing on Mayor Mike McGinn’s 2012 budget proposal — The ‘Great Recession’ continues: Where Seattle budget cuts will hit the Hill — which includes a freeze on new hiring at SPD.
The mayor’s office and Chief John Diaz contend that current SPD staffing is meeting the response time goals of the neighborhood policing plan. The city’s crime rates reported by SPD also remain historically low.
On Capitol Hill, crime trends are mostly lower thus far in 2011. We’ll update those numbers soon with the latest stats just released by SPD. Incidents like Sunday night’s shooting and the “safety emphasis” underway in Cal Anderson Park sometimes outweigh the statistics, however.
The coalition letter, below, also calls for a pilot “hot spots” emphasis program, improved officer distribution across the city and tougher drug and crime laws.
It does not propose where cuts might be made to support the increased emphasis on crime. “This letter is meant to start the conversation with Council—we are eager to listen to any proposals they have for how to tackle these issues,” said Don Blakeney of the Chinatown-International District Business Improvement Area, who distributed the letter to media.
Blakeney said the mayor and police chief’s focus on response time doesn’t go far enough. “If success is measured (in part) by response time and resources are allocated largely based on need (as defined by 911 call originations), how does the City measure SPD’s ability to fight the crimes that people are not calling in — due to cultural barriers or because they are not perceived as emergencies per se,” Blakeney writes. “Basically, there is a growing concern that a large number of low-level crimes go unreported, yet they are increasingly impacting our neighborhoods.”
Public Safety Letter From Neighborhoods 10 2011
Arrest anyone that looks out of place after dark, too.
Oh, and make sure that cops wear heavy armor to protect themselves — it’s like Mad Max out there.
http://youtu.be/ZWkSyF7tNgQ
The letter is poorly constructed. I need to elaborate on the increased programs, including how to fund.
By the way, the city attorney is adopting the will of the people in placing mj busts at the bottom of the list of agency crime enforcement. Yes, a vote was held.
I know of no policy in the city attorney’s office that it is OK to be soft on hard drugs, none.
A senior staff in one of these agencies should have reviewed the letter, checked for facts, and given it more substance. Linked, these groups can lobby very effectively in city neighborhood matters.
. It needed to ….
Part of the presence or absence of police in our (or any other) neighborhood is determined by budget. There’s an opportunity to be part of the solution tonight:
City Council will hold two public hearings on the budget, both at City Hall on Tuesday October 4 and Wednesday October 26 (5:30 p.m. start time for each).
http://council.seattle.gov/2011/09/26/the-2012-budget-proces
Wow, the Capitol Hill Chamber of Commerce is a complete joke. Let’s tear apart this shitty letter top to bottom and expose the people who signed it for the morons they are.
“Neighborhood businesses are closing and ourneighbors feel unsafe on their own streets, citing open air drug dealing, public intoxication, graffiti and vandalism as chronic problems.”
Yes, I’m sure vandalism is a top reason for closing cited by small business owners. Maybe it’s because the economy is shit? I’m sorry your boutique organic pet food and home supplies business didn’t take off in this age of Amazon Prime, but I don’t think it had anything to do with me walking by smoking a joint. Or the kid who stenciled Boba Fett on the side of your building.
Paragraph #2 shouldn’t even be in this letter. People care about their community? Really? So if I don’t agree with the stupid letter, I must not care about my community? Jesus Christ these morons are dense.
“The 2012 budget adoption is fast approaching” — okay — let’s just stop here — really? As programs like Basic Health, the city’s mental-health system, teachers, homeless shelters, prisons, and so on are being gutted yet again, you want more money for a relatively safe neighborhood? And all of this is after the SPD’s commitment to Cal Anderson? Add self centered and delusional to the list of adjectives that can describe the people who signed this letter.
“While the City Attorney has openly declared drug prosecution to be a very low priority, open-air drug markets flourish.” I saved the best for last. First off, you’re conflating pot use with other drug use, and this is a sign of deep ignorance about recreational drugs. Can you remember all the way back to 2003 when the residents of Seattle passed Initiative 75 that made pot the lowest priority crime in the city? Pete Holmes was very straight up from day 1 of his campaign: “I will not prosecute simple possession of pot.” And guess what, the very citizens you claim to be representing here voted him into office.
Dense, moronic, self-centered, delusional, and community-hating. Wait! I know! I have the perfect response to your letter:
Dear Letter Signers,
Please move to the east side. Thanks in advance.
Okay, okay, I know I’m going to get a lot of grief for this- but residents, city dwellers, etc. need to cooperate with the police when they are investigating crimes. Heckling an officer while he or she is on the street responding to an assault report, for example, is discouraging and counter productive.
And it wouldn’t hurt for people to learn exactly what their obligations are when a police officer approaches them. They see you jaywalk, you need to show them your ID so they can write you a ticket. You don’t give them your name and it goes from an infraction to a misdemeanor. An officer suspects you have an open container or see you riding your bike without a helmet- same thing.
And there are some of us who could stand to harken back to basic human decency and not be such caustic jerks to any cop who walks by.
Personally, I’d rather have an officer come to my rescue than a skinny-jeaned hipster armed with only a brass knuckle charm bracelet.
This is all bullshit. Criminal markets for drugs are made by design. The owners of this country know that.
apathy. way to feel you did your part.
I mostly agree with your sentiments and analysis, but I read the paragraphs about businesses closing and open-air markets with 23rd and Union in mind. Seeing Thompson’s Point of View close was a loss, and I think it’s fair to say the non-weed drug and gang activity in the area was a contributing factor.
What’s up with the font choice for this letter?
“Seeing Thompson’s Point of View close was a loss, and I think it’s fair to say the non-weed drug and gang activity in the area was a contributing factor.”
Thompson’s closed because they didn’t pay their taxes. It SUCKS that they closed but it had nothing to do with drug and gang activity.
Pretty innocuous letter that is not at all far from currently reality and discusses consideration for 25 years into the future and fucktard commentators are whining?! Give something back, takers!
Is it really that simple OFD? If people who don’t want to see blatant dealing of hard narcotics or don’t want their business vandalized just moved to Bellevue, would everything be solved? Do you ever stop and think about what you are writing? You are saying that the right to deal crack trumps the right of a family to feel safe on our city’s streets.
First of all, I think you may have overlooked the fact that this is a letter from a dozen neighborhoods across the city—I know how it’s hard to think south of Madison or north of 5-20 sometimes. These problems—which go far beyond a couple of kids smoking a joint in Cal Anderson—are seriously affecting businesses in every corner of the city. Sure the economy is in the toilet, but public safety perceptions and vandalism are very real problems—broken storefront windows are expensive to fix, and business owners are required by law to remove graffiti (which is expensive) and can be fined for failing to comply.
The bottom line is that people should feel safe in our neighborhoods and in many business districts this isn’t the case—especially at night. I hope the city focuses their attention and resources on these issues and commend the Chamber for lending their support.
Cutting and pasting is easy! I guess everyone can run their own community blog!
Now that you have it figured out, make sure to send me your URL so I can check it out!
No, no grief from me. I agree with everything you say.
I think the letter is “extremely excellent” and is an accurate summary of antisocial behaviors that are a blight on our neighborhood. I also think that the majority of Seattle citizens would sign the letter if given a chance…call us the “silent majority” if you want, but we are fed up with panhandling drunks, petty street crime, drug dealing, rampant graffiti and other forms of vandalism, etc. See, there is this thing called the “Broken Windows Theory” (not really a theory anymore, but accepted sociological fact)…and if you don’t know what this is, take a look at Pike-Pine as a prime example.
I also think that the City’s policy of not prosecuting marijuana infractions, and turning a blind eye to the widespread abuses (by individuals and dispensaries) of the medical marijuana legislation, is sending a message that dealing/using illegal drugs of all kinds is OK. Yes, I know the voters approved the “low priority for marijuana” initiative…I think that was unfortunate..it has created an atmosphere that has resulted in what we see on our streets today.