Seattle Forward

Responding to Neighborhood Crime and Disorder Challenges

We've spent considerable time over the past two years making sure the City has the appropriate tools in place to deal with consistent neighborhood crime and disorder problems. Last Wednesday, I went to southeast Seattle and met with a group of citizens hopping mad about a series of raves at a single venue in their neighborhood. The commander of the south precinct, Captain Mike Nolan, is seated to my left in the photo above. City Attorney Pete Holmes is to my right.

One tool the Council gave our police officers in late 2009 is the Chronic Nuisance Property Ordinance, a powerful law that makes property owners responsible for what happens on their property. The new law has been used effectively to shut down an Aurora motel where crime had flourished for decades and it has prompted other property owners to work with police to resolve continuing problems.

Last week, the Chief of Police declared a property on South Othello Street to be a chronic nuisance. The property owner has pledged to discontinue booking raves at his building.  Here's a PDF version of the police declaration letter and the supporting details: Download 2011 04 05 Citadel Chronic Nuisance Declaration

Health, Crime and Growth in Southeast Seattle

Two events Saturday afternoon in southeast Seattle—one in the far south, the other up north at Franklin High School—highlighted the challenges and opportunities this culturally rich, growing and important area of our city faces.

We kicked off the afternoon with the grand opening of Neighborcare's sparkling, high quality medical and dental clinic in Rainier Beach.  Neighborcare is the city's largest provider of health services to our low-income and uninsured residents.  They also operate several of our school-based health clinics.

The new Rainier Beach clinic is the first of Neighborcare's facilities to combine dental and medical care at the same location. 

We moved to Franklin High School for a Great Cities event focused on the relationship between health, transportation, growth, and public safety. (Much more after the jump.)

Nightlife in the City

One of the thorniest issues we struggle with in city government is how to encourage a lively and economically-successful nightlife scene while also protecting public safety and neighborhood tranquility.  It's not easy, but thankfully the vast majority of nightlife establishment owners and managers take their responsibilities seriously and do a good job of maintaining peace. 

Yesterday, the Council's public safety committee received a briefing from the City's Code Compliance Team.  Here are some key facts from the briefing.  (You can watch the whole briefing here.)

More Help for Neighborhoods

The City Council unanimously adopted a new city ordinance this afternoon that will allow for abandoned and problematic single family homes to be demolished faster than current city law allows.  Some of these abandoned homes become magnets for crime and neighborhood disorder. Coupled with a new Chronic Nuisance Property ordinance adopted by the Council last week, this new ordinance is another helpful tool to improve public safety in our neighborhoods. 

Help On The Way! Council Passes New Chronic Nuisance Law

The City Council voted 8-0 (Conlin excused) this afternoon to adopt a new Chronic Nuisance Property ordinance that is designed to stop frequent criminal activity at commercial and residential properties across the city.  We have worked on this legislation for just over a year and it was personally gratifying that all of my colleagues supported this work.

The new law will help people protect their neighborhoods, including some who have lived with drug trafficking, prostitution, and other street-level crime for years.  Unfortunately, there are some property owners who don't care about their neighbors and they allow all sorts of criminal behavior to flourish.  These owners destroy neighborhoods and the Council said today with its vote that we've had enough.

The legislation gives the city an additional tool against property owners who knowingly and repeatedly allow criminal activity on their property and fail to take steps to stop it.  Under the ordinance, following police investigation, the city can seek a court determination that a specific property is a chronic nuisance.  Court-ordered penalties could include fines up to $500 per day that the nuisance continues, a $25,000 fine if a property owner fails to respond to city attempts to resolve the nuisance, and other nuisance abatement steps the court may impose. 

Facts on Seattle Social Services

There's been a lot of talk recently about how Seattle responds to homelessness and other social service challenges.  My open discussion about street disorder tied to aggressive panhandling has created quite a bit of response, including this thoughtful piece at Crosscut.com today.  Comments received by my office are running nearly 3:1 in favor of some limited restrictions on panhandling as a means of reducing street

Finally!

Here's some interesting news (Download News release Aurora Aug 25 2009) from the Mayor's office this afternoon.  It's about time, is all I have to say.  These motels have been magnets for crime and contributed to neighborhood degradation for years and it's good to see the City taking unified action against the owners. 

I've visited these hotels and walked nearby neighborhood streets with community leaders on several occasions.  Neighbors have been urging action like today's for a very long time.  We have problems with other hotels in the south end as well as this piece in The Stranger documented last week.  I'm working on new legislation that will provide the City with additional tools to deal with chronic nuisance properties like the Aurora hotels, legislation that will enable the City to move sooner to cure nuisance activities and stand with neighbors to protect their neighborhood.