Overview
- The Saturday march drew roughly 300 residents who walked on Aurora Avenue to protest open-air prostitution, sex trafficking and a recent rise in shootings.
- Before the march neighbors put steel planters on side streets to limit access and the Seattle Department of Transportation later replaced them with staggered staggered concrete barriers to preserve emergency access.
- The mayor's office responded with a statement saying Seattle Police will conduct emphasis patrols, members of the Gun Violence Reduction Unit were reassigned to the corridor, and SDOT will finish a road-safety analysis in about a week.
- Organizers led by former city attorney Ann Davison remain unsatisfied and have urged the mayor to request state assistance including the National Guard, arguing local police must be concentrated at World Cup events.
- Residents describe direct harms from the violence, including vehicles and homes struck by gunfire and a bullet into an infant’s bedroom, and critics point to limited enforcement of prostitution laws as a long-running factor behind the problem.