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City Council to hear from business owners about crime, safety concerns

February 8, 2022 12:55 pm
|      51 COMMENTS
 |   Crime | Safety | West Seattle news | West Seattle politics

Tomorrow (Wednesday, February 9th) at 9:30 am, the City Council’s Economic Development, Technology, and City Light Committee, chaired by new Councilmember Sara Nelson, will devote its meeting to a roundtable of business owners and neighborhood leaders. The topic: Public-safety concerns and recommendations. Announced participants (as shown on the agenda) include two with businesses in West Seattle – Kamala Saxton of Marination and Dan Austin of Peel & Press – but the committee invites comment from others too. From the announcement circulated by business groups including the West Seattle Junction Association:

Councilmember Nelson has requested that business owners across the City take part in the public comment process to share their experiences as well. This is important as it has been far too long since a Councilmember has specifically asked to hear from businesses.

Provide public comment at the Wednesday, February 9th Meeting at 9:30 AM

Registration opens two hours prior to the meeting at 7:30 AM. Plan to go to the council website exactly two hours before the meeting to register online.

Send an Email:

Take a moment now and send an email to City Council and the Mayor.

Whether you are a business owner, property owner or an employee, it is more important than ever to share an experience you’ve had that articulates the need for an increased emphasis and new strategies to keep our city safe.

Contact your Councilmembers by emailing council@seattle.gov

Contact Mayor Bruce Harrell by emailing bruce.harrell@seattle.gov

Other members of the committee holding tomorrow’s roundtable include West Seattle/South Park Councilmember Lisa Herbold. Like all council meetings, this one will be streamed live via Seattle Channel, and available for viewing later.

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51 Replies to "City Council to hear from business owners about crime, safety concerns"

  • Lagartija Nick February 8, 2022 (1:46 pm)

    Oh look, yet another committee to commission a roundtable to study whether there should be a committee to recommend a study of blah, blah, blah. And here I thought Harrell and Nelson assured everyone that they already had a plan in place that could be implemented as soon as they were in office. Pfft.

    • WSB February 8, 2022 (2:01 pm)

      This is an ongoing council committee, not a special or new group. Previously it was the Community Economic Development Committee, chaired by Councilmember Tammy Morales.

    • WS Guy February 8, 2022 (3:19 pm)

      My guess is that Nelson knows what she wants to do, but wants to parade supporters in front of the council in order to build the momentum.

      • Derek February 8, 2022 (4:07 pm)

        She’s a Republican with zero experience. What makes you think she has a clue?

        • Mark32 February 8, 2022 (4:38 pm)

          That’s helpful.

        • KBear February 8, 2022 (4:42 pm)

          1. City Council is non-partisan.

          2. Only in Seattle would someone accuse Sara Nelson of being a Republican.

        • WW Resident February 8, 2022 (7:10 pm)

          LOL @Derrick, well tell me, where’s all this progressive experience got us? 

          • Derek February 8, 2022 (10:37 pm)

            Pretty far. One of the most successful cities in the country. Homelessness is the problem of corrupt developers and big business and corporations. Not the government.

          • Jimmy Nimbles February 9, 2022 (5:16 am)

            You’re dead wrong on that.  Lots of other cities with bigger developers and bigger businesses out there. Chicago for example. It’s our local government policy that differs from Chicago and creates a big difference in the homeless population. I’ve lived in both places and see it. 

        • zark00 February 9, 2022 (5:08 pm)

          @Jimmy Nimbles – Chicago homeless pop – 2.2% – Seattle homeless pop – 1.4% – nice try.

          • Jimmy Nimbles February 10, 2022 (6:08 am)

            Nice. Numbers without source or context. Try looking at per capita and find me a homeless per capital that has Chicago even listed in the Top 10. Seattle is constantly in the Top 5 per capita. There’s always the eyeball test –  you know just walking around the two cities and seeing it for yourself. But that requires you pulling your head out of the sand. Good luck!

    • Jackie February 12, 2022 (7:34 am)

      A mayor and two councilmembers have to fight the other 6 councilmen/women. Talk to other neighborhoods who voted Sawant, Etc who enable drug addiction, use, sales, crime ,etc. Nelson and Our Mayor are outnumbered.

  • Audifans February 8, 2022 (4:44 pm)

    I’ll give her the benefit of starting off.  And Republican  doesn’t indicate bad… unless you are Derek.

    • Lagartija Nick February 8, 2022 (8:24 pm)

      So now inciting insurrection and attempting a coup are good things? Must be that RNC newspeak.

      • Walker February 8, 2022 (9:10 pm)

        Sara Nelson incited an insurrection and attempted a coup? When did she do that? 

    • Derek February 8, 2022 (10:38 pm)

      Republicans were backing nazis. Please rethink this comment. They are auto-bad.

      • Jethro Marx February 9, 2022 (9:09 am)

        People are quite a kaleidoscope of thoughts and feelings; I tend to write off claims that any group can be described individually because of the thoughts/feelings/actions of a portion of that group. What other groups do you feel like we can do this with? Religious? Ethnic? Gender? Italy supported Nazis in WWII- are Italians auto-bad? Were they in 1944? All of them? I have often seen you asking us to not judge all the unhoused based on the actions of a few; I agree with that, but cannot take you seriously if you ask us to maintain such an outright and arbitrary double standard just because that’s your preferred flavor of hatred.

        • anonyme February 9, 2022 (11:32 am)

          Great comment, Jethro.  I’ve often found that those who are social justice zealots in regard to a particular group do not extend that magnanimity across the board.

  • Cranky February 8, 2022 (4:51 pm)

    and the other candidate for attorney…  had no experience and was talking like she wanted to let everyone walk. What makes you think she was a good fit for a crime rate that is spiking here?  Oh right, it’s all capitalism’s fault.  Get a clue.

    • K February 8, 2022 (6:41 pm)

      Sara Nelson is a city councilmember.  I think you’re referring to the race for city attorney where the person who won has only tried 6 cases in her career.

  • Mr K February 8, 2022 (7:07 pm)

    I want to know how we can illegal block parking with concrete blocks like said council member? Whose her contact to do that? 

    • Question Authority February 8, 2022 (8:35 pm)

      Concerned business owners in that neighborhood funded those blocks as their own, as the employees and clients had nowhere to park due to City inaction on the RV’s violating local parking time limits.

      • Tired of Sara already February 8, 2022 (8:59 pm)

        The point is not who funded them, the point is that it is ILLEGAL for a private business owner to block a public way.  As a business owner who decided that it was her right to flout city law, it’s a little rich that she wants to hear from business owners about laws she has demonstrated that she won’t uphold.

        • Question Authority February 8, 2022 (9:30 pm)

          What about those City laws regarding parking time limits, illegal dumping and a multitude of other code issues that weren’t being enforced in front of those businesses?  You seem to forget the hundreds of other businesses and homes throughout the City who’ve installed those type blocks as well in an effort to regain some frontage they pay taxes on.

        • K February 8, 2022 (9:44 pm)

          Not to mention that her stated reason was that customers and employees had nowhere to park, but her remedy still leaves them with nowhere to park.  Same problem, but it’s cool cause they don’t have to look at poor people I guess.

          • Question Authority February 9, 2022 (5:15 am)

            Cars can still park between the blocks, RV’s cannot which was the intent as the street is not a campground per it’s intended public use.

    • momosmom February 9, 2022 (8:16 am)

      You all don’t have a clue to why these concrete blocks are put in place. My job has a holding yard for the trucks coming in, there are 1 sometimes 2 girls working at that yard that has a mobile shed set up for them to work in and not 20ft away were 10 RV’s along with all the trash they seem to need surrounding them along with rats, urine  and …whatever else.  City finally came in and helped get those RV’s moved but this was after numerous times of our company  cleaning the garbage up themselves so those employees would have a clean safe place to come to work in. So you tell me, would you want concrete blocks installed to deter this or would you rather visit or work at a business that you have to walk thru garbage to get to or would you rather want your family member to visit or have to work around all of this?

  • Cozy February 8, 2022 (9:42 pm)

    The other day I was in a bakery, and witnessed a kind worker offer a free slice of warm bread to someone who appeared in some need. I would really love to see more of this from businesses.

  • Steve February 9, 2022 (6:49 am)

    Seattle… If it walks like a progressive, talks like a progressive, it’s not.

  • Pessoa February 9, 2022 (7:30 am)

    The use of the word Nazi to describe fellow Americans is repulsive demagoguery.  Give Republicans credit for not supporting lock downs that crushed millions of Americans, and as according to a John Hopkins study, confirmed what many of us already suspected – they did not significantly reduce mortality. 
    https://khn.org/morning-breakout/lockdowns-had-little-to-no-benefit-on-public-health-analysis-finds/

    • Lagartija Nick February 9, 2022 (1:18 pm)

      Um, how could a study conclude that lockdowns didn’t work when over half of the (republican led) states didn’t lock down at all? And, as draconian as their policies were, China proved that strict lockdowns absolutely worked. They have almost 4 times our population yet experienced a fraction of our mortality rate. 

      • Jort February 9, 2022 (1:46 pm)

        Some people have been wrong about the pandemic from the very beginning and there is literally nothing — including their own deaths from the virus — that will permit their minds to recognize that liberals were right and republicans were wrong. To willingly sacrifice their own lives to a virus is a lesser sin than admitting a mistake. It is a sad place for our society. Truly, truly sad.

      • Pessoa February 9, 2022 (2:00 pm)

        That is incorrect. During the height of the pandemic’s first wave, which is what the study covers, some 310 million Americans were under lock down, shelter-in-place orders, that is roughly 92% of the population.   

    • Ms. Sparkles February 10, 2022 (10:34 am)

      That study was written by 3 economists, not public health analysts or epidemiologists, and was not peer reviewed or published in any journal that requires peer review.  Its cherry picked data rendered it little more than propaganda 

  • James February 9, 2022 (9:51 am)

    Sara Nelson is against unions. I knew we shouldn’t have voted for her…. already a disappointment. “The 6-0 vote was unanimous but council members Alex Pedersen and Sara Nelson declined to support the statements, utilizing the council’s new resolution loophole to abstain and be marked absent from the vote. “I was not elected to take symbolic votes,” Nelson said later via social media. “I was elected by people who want to see progress on our major issues, and I promised to focus on doing just that.””

    • AlkiResident February 9, 2022 (11:15 am)

      This vote was NOT any business of the city council, and the vote means nothing. She was right to not participate in the sham vote spearheaded by Sawant that is literally meaningless and a waste of time. We have real problems and real business in this city that the council should be addressing- like public safety. Ironic that the “Public Safety” chair Herbold is not the one who is addressing the issues. I’m thankful Nelson is! Herbold needs to be voted out before she can do any more damage. 19 months and counting! 

    • zark00 February 9, 2022 (5:15 pm)

      If Nelson is anti-union, why is she endorsed by:SFF Local 27Seattle Building Trades UnionsIBEW 77UA 32LiUNA Local 292Iron Workers Local 86and like 6 other local unions?Why do people just make stuff up that’s SO easy to fact check?

  • Balderdash February 9, 2022 (12:19 pm)

    I support keeping the RV crowd out with concrete blocks (cars can still park in between, you just have to know how to parallel park)

    • James February 9, 2022 (1:12 pm)

      Hostile architecture will never end if we budge on stupid stuff like this. I rather people be in an RV than in a tent in the cold.  We need to get rid of thee window and park bench rails that discourage sleeping. It’s gross and anti-progressive.

  • Jort February 9, 2022 (1:44 pm)

    Oh good! I’m glad that businesses are finally getting a chance to be heard! I never hear anything from business owners in our city politics, so this is a huge change!!! #oneseattle!!!!

  • Cranky February 9, 2022 (2:58 pm)

    Business is now paying 1/2 million for private security (thanks defunding police zealots).  So much damage the organized criminals are doing.

    • zark00 February 9, 2022 (5:19 pm)

      @ Cranky – you realize there was no reduction to the SPD budget right?  We had a bunch of butthurt cops quit, and tell us they hate Seattlies on their way out, but nobody got fired, and the budget hasn’t been touched except to earmark funds to hire 125 new officers in 2022.We have budget to hire 240 or so new officers right now. You just making stuff up?

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