Crime rates have lowered and the neighborhood is getting cleaner since the beginning of the City’s emphasis patrols and community walks in Ballard.
The walks were part of the City’s pre-summer emphasis program which elevated police presence and took a closer look at community maintenance walks in seven neighborhoods across Seattle. Several City departments took part in the walks, which looked at streetlights, trees, graffiti, and illegal dumping. Representatives from those departments performed the walk with local business leaders to identify issues and determine maintenance projects.
Since the May 7th walk, the below issues have been resolved:
- Graffiti removal and repainting of signal boxes at 22nd Ave NW and NW Market St
- Pothole patching on the alleyways behind Ballard Ave and Leary Way
- Crosswalk painting at multiple locations across Market St.
- Notice posted to remove temporary bike racks and bikes at 24th Ave NW and Shilshole Ave NW
- Fixed damaged and dirty bike corrals at multiple locations: 22nd Ave NW and Shilshole, 22nd Ave NW and Ballard Ave NW, 22nd Ave NW and Market St.
- Replaced rail rack at 2026 NW Market St.
- Replaced signs at 22nd Ave NW and Shilshole Ave NW, and Ballard Ave NW and NW Market St.
- Replaced missing street name sign at 20th Ave NW and NW 56th St.
- Removed crosswalk warning sign at NW 56th St and 20th Ave NW to reduce sign congestion.
- Paved section of concrete and added new topsoil in the planting strip at 26th Ave NW and NW Market St.
- Re-marked crosswalks and installed new legends at 24th Ave NW and NW Market St.
Since the emphasis patrols began, SPD reports that there’s been a 48 percent increase in proactive work compared to May 2018. SPD says that between their various teams — Bike Patrols, Community Police Team, Retail Theft Program, Navigation Team, Anti-Crime Team, and regular Patrol Units — they made 167 contacts since the beginning of the enhanced patrols, which logged 500 hours since the beginning of May between Ballard and Fremont.
The contacts include 11 referrals to the Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion program (LEAD), 34 referrals through the Human Services Department, three Involuntary Treatment applications, 26 bookings into King County Jail, multiple campsite and RV clearance actions, more than 80 oral warnings, and 55 traffic citations.
SPD also found that reported crime is down 49 percent in the past 28 days.
The results have been consistent across the seven neighborhoods chosen for the enhanced patrols — crime is reportedly also down in Fremont, Downtown (Pike/Pine and 3rd Ave), Georgetown, SoDo, Pioneer Square and South Park.
The increased patrols are expected to continue through August. To view results of the emphasis patrols and community walks in each of the seven neighborhoods, click here.
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Great results. Nice to see that after all the moaning and groaning about this program, it did exactly what it set out to do. Thank you SPD and City agencies for your help.
well of course crime is down when you actually attempt to patrol and enforce laws. this needs to be applied all the time, not for a few months at the whim of the city.
I completely agree. Completely. Just enforce existing laws.
I e-mailed the mayor’s office, urging them to begin looking into licensing bicycles. This revenue stream would pay for not only more police on the streets, but improvements for said cyclists. I will say it again, boaters MUST attend a safety class AND display that all important sticker. Today we have these expensive bikes + more demands on public roads. Yes, roads we have all paid for a few times and own. But, tolls and more taxes are always threatened too. I feel the time HAS come to tax/fee cyclists. Pay for play. Or, do we want a state income tax and or a city tax???
Can we also license and tax the shopping carts that go up and down our sidewalks, think of all the demands these place on our sidewalks. Also, anyone that pushes a shopping cart on our sidewalks should have proper training. think of all the tax revenue, we could eliminate the car tab tax altogether. Can we also license and tax wheelchairs and baby strollers while we are at it. Pay to play. Lets also not forget to license and tax roller skates, running/walking shoes and skateboards.
Most of the shopping carts on sidewalks are stolen. Enforcement of laws against possessing stolen property is the proper remedy.
Sure, let’s go by weight, which corresponds to the amount of damage they do to the infrastructure, which would help pay for it. Say your 4259 lb SUV costs $300 for the car tab. That would mean my 17 lb bike would cost $1.20. The “expensive bikes” (I assume you’re referring to electric ones?) weigh around 50, so their tab may be closer $3.52. Do you really think it’s worth it for public employees to spend time on these miniscule fees? If so, fine, but let’s be honest about the amount of damage these bikes are causing vs vehicles.
Seattle used to license bicycles approximately 50 years ago. They cancelled that program because it costed a ton of money and accomplished nothing.
The impact of a bicycle is orders of magnitudes less than a car, hence why you need a license to drive a car. Same with a boat, which operates quite differently than a car.
Not to mention bicycle infrastructure is almost completely paid for by property taxes, which all cyclists pay.
Compare that to our state highways system which is only 50% funded by user fees (gas tax, tolls, MVET).
So what’s that about “pay to play”? Oh, you just wanted to take a cheap shot at cyclists? Carry on.
Riders of e-bikes and riders of regular bikes are headed toward some conflicts as the e-bikes grow in popularity. The e-bikes that go 20 mph (Rad bikes, for example), are a different beast.
Gee, the list is primarily replacing sings. Great Job! Mayor, lets re-elect her Democrats.
Its amazing how well its all working out and Seattle isn’t dying, wink wink!
To bad 12 large trees had to be cut down. I feel so much safer now.