(Image: SPD Micro-Community Policing Plans)
(Image: SPD Micro-Community Policing Plans)
Despite a weekend of deadly gun violence and a debate over public safety at the center of the battle for an open seat on the Seattle City Council, the most important decision on the November ballot for voters around Capitol Hill and the Central District might be the city’s $1.55 billion transportation levy.
Traffic safety was identified by East Precinct respondents as the number one public safety threat in their area of the city, according to the latest annual Micro-Community Policing Plans survey.
The Seattle Police Department says it uses the yearly research process to create specific public safety plans for every neighborhood.
The most recent 2023 results (PDF) were released quietly earlier this year and are being shared as the Seattle University-based research project is launching its 2024 survey.
“A report on the survey results will be provided to the Seattle Police Department to help them better understand your neighborhood’s safety and security concerns,” the Seattle U research team says.
Despite last year’s pace of record homicides in Seattle including seven murders in the East Precinct and citywide concerns about police hiring, the Seattle U research team identified the East Precinct respondents’ top concerns as Traffic Safety, Property Crime, Homelessness, and Community Capacity, or concerns about the “capacity of non-police entities to address public safety,” the research team said.
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Researchers said East Precinct respondents were less concerned about Behavioral Crisis and City Politics in relation to crime issues than the rest of the city.
East Precinct respondents, meanwhile, continue to be more concerned about Police Legitimacy and Social Cohesion while having overall lower Fear of Crime than the rest of the city, trends that have continued from last year’s survey.
(Image: SPD Micro-Community Policing Plans)
One growing area of crime concern for East Precinct respondents is the concept of what Seattle U labels Informal Social Control. Respondents have shown a growing interest in solutions that involve the neighborhood’s social fabric and peer and community pressure, shared responsibility, and social interactions over recent surveys.
The 2023 survey results come as gun violence claimed one life and sent to the hospital over the weekend in a series of what police say were related shootings. 25-year-old Breanna Simmons was shot multiple times in the chest and died amid Pike/Pine nightlife crowds on 11th Ave early Saturday morning. A man and a woman were both hospitalized early Sunday morning after police say assailants opened fire on a memorial for the victim the following night.
Saturday’s murder was reported as the 52nd in the city this year as Seattle approaches last year’s total of 74.
Capitol Hill area voters are making choices for their November ballots including the race for Tanya Woo’s citywide seat on the Seattle City Council. In September, Woo made nightlife public safety concerns a campaign issue calling for stiffer penalties for venues where violence occurs while allowing complying venues to remain open past 2 AM.
CHS reported here on the political fight for the Position 8 seat pitting the International District-based Woo against the Central District’s Alexis Mercedes Rinck.
Rinck says she prefers solutions that address the root causes of crime like social and housing programs.
Woo, meanwhile, has aligned with the council’s recent crime and street disorder crackdowns including voting to approve the formation of new “Stay out of Drug Area” restriction zones across the city. “My opponent advocates for all the policies in the last four years that have brought us where we are today. We have to move forward,” Woo said earlier in the campaign about Rinck. “We have to look at public safety and do that differently from what we have done in the past.
Rinck says Woo and the current council’s ineffectiveness and failure to deliver on causes important to thousands in the city like affordability and police reform are not acceptable.
“This is a council that has voted down affordable housing legislation, that has approved a SPOG contract without increased accountability measures,” Rinck said in a September debate.
In November, Seattle voters will also decide on the city’s proposed $1.55 billion transportation levy. Despite its record size, the city’s electorate seem unlikely to reject the levy and its focus on spending on streets, transit, sidewalk, and bike lanes for the next eight years. The levy would increase the property tax bill from the levy for the Seattle median assessed value home to $499 a year — $30 higher than the initial proposal from the mayor. If passed in November, the funding and spending plan will replace the $930 million previous levy approved in 2015.
East Precinct overall crime trends
Crime statistics, meanwhile, show citywide trends related to all categories including assaults and property crimes dipping lower than 2023 over the summer before climbing back above the trendline in September. In the East Precinct, the dip had been more distinct with categories like aggravated assault down about 15% year over year this summer. But the year in murder is a tragedy. The East Precinct has already tallied ten homicides.
As for SPD’s annual crime research, respondents can take the survey at publicsafetysurvey.org through November 30th.
The election is November 5th.
Can’t say I’m surprised. I walk, bike and take transit for 99% of my trips throughout the neighborhood even though I have a car.
By far, and it’s not even close, the biggest threat to my life on a day-to-day basis is cars.
This absolutely… it’s not that people don’t think the other issues are problems, it’s that if you walk or cycle at all in any part of this city you’ll find that motorists are a lot more life threatening than any of the rest. I actually had to jump out of the way of someone who turned out of a side street onto the street I was crossing.. Note – I was already crossing when they started out from their stop sign, I was at an intersection and thereby in a crosswalk. When I yelped they accelerated. It’s tiresome to be threatened in this way on a daily basis.
I would bike but a) bike was stolen from outside qfc on Broadway and b) it’s becoming difficult to find anywhere safe to lock up the new second hand bike I replaced it with. Basically lawless along Broadway.
I have been almost run over on Capitol Hill at least 2 times in the past few months. I have not ever been assaulted by a homeless person.
But I’ve been close to getting hit at unmarked crosswalks on residential streets around the hill on the regular.
The cops sure took a huge hit on their legitimacy in 8 years.
From 60% to 30%. People always point to progressives as the reason. Do understand that the “Back the Blue” “Patriots” are no longer besties with the cops after 1/6. Now MAGA says cops are the problem too. For different reasons though.
The left says cops are corrupt.
The right says they are not corrupt enough.
Consider placing lethal along side corrupt.
Thanks for that. I missed it.
I am old. I can barely remember how to tie my shoes w/o a cup a coffee.
I can’t help noticing that traffic safety was one of the top concerns in 2023’s survey: https://www.capitolhillseattle.com/2023/11/property-crime-police-capacity-and-traffic-safety-are-top-concerns-in-the-east-precinct-where-police-legitimacy-ratings-crashed-years-ago-and-never-recovered/
And in 2022: https://www.seattle.gov/documents/Departments/Police/Reports/2022-Seattle-Public-Safety-Survey-Report.pdf
And in 2021: https://www.capitolhillseattle.com/2022/04/2021-crime-survey-capitol-hill-and-central-district-trust-in-spd-continues-plunge-as-seattle-crime-fears-drop/
Surveys are great. Now at what point does the city, you know, DO something about it?
When they man up enough to admit that asking people nicely to obey speed limits, stop for stop signs, stop for pedestrians, etc. is completely ineffective… All the city has done for the most part is to paint lines and put up signs, most of which are often ignored. The only way to get people’s attention is to give them tickets and take licenses.
There’s also my personal favorite option of forcing drivers to better obey speed limits through physical impedances to driving fast, such as more traffic circles and wider, more bulbous curbs at crosswalks on roads that currently look like long straight race tracks; skinnier traffic lanes with wider bike lanes, widening the planted strips between sidewalks and roads by again, reducing lane size for cars. Remove parking requirements OBVIOUSLY, and remove some street parking. I would also like to move to a system that only lets you register a car if you can prove you have a parking space for it, because for all of time before the automobile, streets were first and foremost for people (the actual beings who live in cities) even though it feels like we care about the feelings of cars first and foremost based on how we coddle drivers as they top the list of our neighborhood’s safety concerns.
You’ve got my vote let’s goooo.
Everyone should understand this. This isn’t a Capitol Hill problem, this is a city wide issue. No matter what neighborhood you visit you see the same behaviors, not stopping at stop signs, running red lights, swerving around other cars, refusing to stop for pedestrians when sometimes they are half way across the street. And speeding everywhere whether it’s neighborhood streets, thoroughfares or freeways. The ONLY way people will change this behavior is through penalties and punishment.
I just took the latest version of the survey and while it still makes a bunch of assumptions that I think won’t produce the best data, it seems improved from previous versions.
And yeah, that traffic safety is among the greatest concerns is not a surprise. Many days I literally cannot walk two blocks from home without a driver failing to do very basic stuff like yielding and coming wayyyyy too close for comfort. Although this has improved with the Rapid Ride G line since left turns are banned from eastbound Madison onto 16th and mostly people seem to be complying.
“failing to do very basic stuff like yielding and coming wayyyyy too close for comfort.”
Chyaaa…IKR? People are supposed to wait until the pedestrian is across the yellow line or one lane away from the curb before ever moving. Yet? They creep forward nearly into crosswalk for zero reason. Traffic is still stopped behind them. Or the other thing is refusing to wait for the next light and filling up the box. Blocking traffic the other way. People squeezing between cars in the crosswalk and occasionally have to leave the crosswalk to make it around someone dead in the middle. They don’t want to simply wait or follow the law if they know it at all. Like, people cross from both directions and if your bumper is so close to the other that only one person can fit through? People are so wrapped up in themselves that pedestrians are just another traffic nuisance. They can go around me and my car in the middle of the crosswalk. That happens almost every light change at rush hour or weekends.
Uhuh…The new bus route improved the safety factor big time. I find that the tiniest number of drivers are discourteous. It’s incredibly rare. Nobody wants to hit a pedestrian/bike. It’s all that other crap I wish there was a magical solution to solve it all.
But still, the murderer of Amarr Murphy-Paine is free. But, no worries.
This is so bizarre to me.
Nobody ‘snitched.’ Dump on the SPD all you want, but they aren’t the Minority Report. They actually need more than hopes and dreams to go on to solve a crime.
The killing was caught on a school camera and witnessed by many. Eyewitnesses are the weakest point to solving a case. It’s almost like they don’t care or want to solve it, which leads to retaliation killings that we continue to see.
Rent increases incoming due to inflation, insurance and taxes. In other news, does staring down a car as you’re selected to be ran over a bummer? Death and Taxes for sure.
This top issue survey results are an interpretation of the data from a poorly designed survey, not a direct question. If it were a direct question – Which is of greater concern, traffic safety or public disorder or violent crime or property crime? – I guarantee, traffic would not be the top public safety concern of residents of Capitol Hill.
SDOT is famous for bad surveys. Really pisses me off. Guess what – regardless of the “feels”, homicide has the chance to kill you 2 to 3 times more than a car, but it’s hard to see that with all this incredulous pearl clutching and phony ass surveying. SDOT stroked themselves a couple years ago collecting data for approval of their work along Lake WA Blvd by setting up a table in Seward Park and collecting opinions, completely removing the sector of people driving by in cars.Until they show a little interest in objective results, I cannot trust them with my money. I’d rather use an undermaintained system than continue to give them hundreds of dollars a year to make it less functional. Traffic deaths have risen every year since the implementation of Vision Zero. I will be voting against this latest property tax they are asking to implement.
Me too. I would have considered voting yes, but the ballot proposal almost DOUBLES the cost that property owners will pay, vs. the current levy. That’s just too much, especially since SDOT is not to be trusted to spend the money wisely and effectively. But they know that property tax levies always pass in Seattle, so they have no incentive to propose a more reasonable increase.
Or, perhaps, in a city and state that have restrictions on what types of taxes can be collected, and major players that squash attempts at progressive taxation, were left with this as the only method to pay for increasingly expensive road maintenance (much of which has already been delayed for decades or ignored).
I find it ironic and sad that the progressive Jumpstart tax passed by the previous council is the only thing keeping the Harrel administration and current council afloat, as they continue to ransack those funds rather than actually pass meaningful legislation.
There are a lot of things we CAN do in this city, but when you stop and look at functional limits, what we SHOULD do is an entirely different question. SDOT, being an institutional ideologue, is stuck on what we CAN do, and it is wasting a massive amount of money that could do great things in the hands of more practical institutions.
What are these more practical institutions that you think would function better?
As for your notion of ideologues, this latest budget has less concrete specifics and more goal oriented as a response to issues with the previous levy and assuming they would get matching federal funds for more of the projects than they did.
Do you really think that seismic upgrades for bridges and other repairs are not practical?
Agreed. As we struggle with housing affordability is this reasonable? Also the projects they choose and the way they are implemented show no one is paying attention or watching the pocketbook. Take the recent handicap ramp they added to a side walk in my neighborhood that goes 3-4 feet to a staircase of 30 some stairs. Or a new sidewalk they just installed in front of a lot that is going to be demoed in a few months, of the 7 people working on a block of street for the last 2 weeks with little done.
IMO, the focus on traffic safety being all about cars is ridiculous. YES, it is cars, but it is 100% also people on bicycles and e-scooters being equally careless, dangerous and cavalier about pedestrians (and each other). The sidewalks are *almost* as dangerous as the streets sometimes.
Well your opinion isn’t considering the weight of each respective vehicle. A scooter or bike going 30 is NOT THE SAME as a car going 30. GROW UP!
They still do serious damage. I think you need a time out so that you can think before speak.
Exactly. I couldn’t agree more.
Please tally the number of people seriously injured or killed by drivers while on the sidewalk and then tally the number of people seriously injured or killed by e-scooters or cyclists while on the sidewalk, then adjust for vehicle miles traveled, then we can have a conversation about what is actual almost as dangerous. If I had money to bet, I’d bet a lot that the latter does not come anywhere close to former. Scooters and cyclists are occasionally obnoxious and occasionally do stupid, threatening shit. Every single day, drivers do much worse and have the capacity to do much worse by simple virtue of their size, weight and speed. There is simply no comparison.
So because you think they don’t care we should do nothing?
Protected space for folks walking and biking/rolling from those driving cars has been shown to increase safety for all mobility choices, including people driving cars. It’s a straightforward solution that many other major cities have done.
The issue is always that it takes political will to invest in real infrastructure for safety, but “taking away” space for cars gets certain people outraged. Unfortunate that a “liberal” city like Seattle that pretends to care about climate change because people are so car-centric, which leads to divestment in other modes, more cars and bad driving, more traffic, round and round we go.
We can’t continue to put billions into cars, electric or otherwise. It’s bad strategy for people (particularly poorer people and people who can’t drive) and the planet.
https://www.theurbanist.org/2024/10/22/pacific-northwests-largest-highway-project-ever-is-in-deep-denial/
Only 5% of respondents identified traffic safety as an issue in written comments. What were the top three safety concerns of D3 residents in written comments?
1) Public disorder crime
2) Behavioral health issues
3) Violent crime
Only 23% of respondents provided written comments…
Yeah what’s new. The loud minority with too much time on their hands cares only about second order issues related to income inequality, while the rest of us who just filled out a survey have our priorities in line with the reality of what truly endangers us in our everyday lives walking around the city…insane, entitled drivers who are usually texting (you should really consider a new name because your comments always seem a bit…untethered from it.)
The only things that will help here are massive investments in public transit infrastructure (from tax increases), road diets, and increased funding to social services.
Thanks for so blithely dismissing the written concerns of many of your neighbors. Perhaps these people feel strongly enough about these issues that they were motivated to actually write something? And if taking the time to write is an indicator of having too much time on their hands, what does that say about you given your comments in this forum?
lmao second order issues related to income inequality, you literally think people have no responsibility for their actions unless they’re behind the wheel of a car
A few days ago, I was followed by a homeless man for no reason, as he shouted expletives (“faggot”, “coward”) at me, for several blocks. Finally, he charged at me several times, threatening to kill me and shoot me in the head, as he literally foamed at the mouth and raised his fist as if to punch me.
So, public safety is high on my list of concerns. We MUST do something about all the mentally ill people roaming our streets.
Yes, seen it myself here on E. Pine and Broadway last fall.
A dude with a 12″ blade kitchen knife was doing the same creaming I’ll kill you and lunging at people. The cops picked him up a block away at the 76 station. Saw a dude last summer screaming about killing everyone. Deliberately scaring people.
This is the most poorly designed and biased survey I have ever seen. Seattle U has clearly designed it to support their preferred narrative and agenda. It is a propaganda tool. Every year they reach the conclusion that the Capitol Hill community’s top public safety concern is traffic, not homeless addicts and associated crime and disorder. The only problem is the survey never asks this question directly. The real answer, which is evident in the written component of survey, is that crime and disorder associated with the drug addict homeless that have taken over the neighborhood is the top community public safety concern by a landslide.