This post may seem a little shorter than usual. I spent over an hour writing a post yersterday about the relationship between downtown public safety and more Seattle Police foot-patrol. Long story short, my internet was down as I wrapped up the post and my auto-save didn’t work. Bummer.
So instead of re-wrting the entire piece, I thought I could simply start the discussion. There has been much talk from the Mayor’s office of adding more foot-patrol to our downtown neighborhoods.
Have you noticed? I haven’t. In fact, from my perspective, crime, panhandling and general aggression has been worse then I can remember. It has a direct impact on the buyers and sellers of our Seattle condos. If I had an opportunity to grab a cup of coffee with the Mayor, this is what I would ask:
- How many more police are you adding to the downtown core?
- Are these patrols pulling your force from one area of the city to the specified area?
- When can we expect the intiative to take place?
- Do you anticipate an immediate impact?
- What authority do the patrols have when facing drug-dealing, public urinating or general aggresiveness? Can they do anything about aggressive panhandeling?
- What else can be done to make our neighborhoods safer?
I would be sure to let him know that many times while my wife lived in New York, I felt much safer walking those streets at 1am then I have in many of Seattle neighborhoods when the sun went down. We need a change. Without safer streets and neighborhoods we will not have more permanent residents.
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