(The Center Square) - Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson has endorsed a plan to close residential streets in the Aurora Avenue area after residents fed up with growing gun violence took the matter into their own hands.
Residents have pleaded with the mayor’s office and the city council to stop the gun violence that police and community members say is related to underage prostitution in the area.
“We absolutely need to stop the human trafficking, and we also need to take care not to push women further into the margins, create more danger for them, or blame them for causing this problem,” Wilson said at a Thursday night press conference in City Hall.
The City Council introduced an ordinance earlier this week to allow streets to be closed, and it appears certain to pass, with all nine members of the council expressing support.
Last month, residents, acting in frustration, blocked the streets along Aurora Avenue, only to find that the city had removed their makeshift barriers and installed traffic-calming devices instead. City officials said they were trying to preserve access to emergency vehicles.
One Aurora Avenue area resident, Jake Wallack, was among more than a dozen residents who appeared before the City Council on May 26 to plead with city officials to do something.
Wallack said he had been complaining to Wilson’s office and city council members for six months to no avail.
"In the past two weeks, my house was hit by gunfire,” he told a City Council Public Safety Committee on May 26. "I have a six-week-old baby, and it [bullet hole] hit two feet above my baby’s window. A week later, my neighbor had a bullet go through their window and into their bedroom.“
Other residents told similar stories, attributing frequent gunshots heard throughout the night over the last month to conflicts between pimps and prostitutes as young as 14.
After a community march last Saturday, the issue has become front and center with Wilson, the police chief, and city attorney, and members of the City Council all appearing at a joint press conference Thursday night to promise action.
Seattle Police Chief Shon Barnes said at the press conference that the neighborhoods would have two dedicated officers on patrol at night. There will also be bicycle officers in the neighborhood to deter criminal activity, he said.
Seattle City Attorney Erica Evans issued her own warnings for people committing or enabling crimes.
She said johns or buyers coming to Aurora Avenue to solicit children or people would be arrested and prosecuted, while motels, bars, and businesses that allow criminal activity on their premises would be shut down.
But residents at the City Council meeting said part of the issue is that the city attorney’s office is refusing to enforce a city law passed in September 2024, known as the Stay Out of Drug Areas and Stay Out of Prostitution Zones.
The ordinance was pushed by former City Attorney Ann Davidson, but was opposed by current City Attorney Erica Evans who defeated her in November 2025.
Evans said during the campaign that targeted criminal penalties push illicit activities to other areas of the city and don’t address the root causes of drug use or sex work.
Evans has insisted that the law would just spread crime to other areas.
Speaking with The Center Square Friday, the president of the Seattle Police Officers Guild, Kent Loux, said arresting the underage sex workers would ultimately make the situation better. He said the sex workers are victims, but arresting them could get them help.
"Tell me you're not going to find juveniles," he said. "Tell me you're not going to find victims of other crimes that you can help and tell me that we can't work our way up to the pimps that are running these girls and taking advantage and preying on others."
Reporter Carleen Johnson contributed to this story.
