SEATTLE — People living in Seattle’s Greenwood neighborhood have delivered an ultimatum to city leaders, saying they don’t feel safe in their own homes and something needs to be done.
They are demanding a state of emergency declaration for the area surrounding Aurora Avenue.
This request follows a surge in criminal activity in recent weeks, including multiple shootings near homes over a four-week period.
Residents tell KIRO 7 they’ve seen drug deals, prostitutes and reckless driving by their customers who circle the neighborhood, and constantly hear gunshots.
Earlier this month, KIRO 7 reported one instance where bullets flew through a baby’s room.
One resident, Rudy Pantoja, told KIRO 7 he’s witnessed the deteriorating conditions firsthand for years.
“If I was doing that out in Crown Hill, making noise, well hook ‘em and book “‘em, Dano, and it’s just not going to fly,” Pantoja shared, putting his own spin on the situation, a nod to the old police show ‘Hawaii Five-0′ from the late 1960s.
Pantoja is advocating for city cameras, including license plate readers, to be activated in the area.
“Those cameras need to be on,” he said.
Another North Seattle resident, Sara, who did not want to share her last name, said something needs to change.
“They need to have a lot more squad cars out here,” she shared. “There’s shooting here like every night now. It’s getting ridiculous. You hear them at 12 to 3 a.m., and there’s a lot of prostitution.”
Residents have also called for more roads to be blocked or restricted in some manner to cut off escape routes for criminals.
KIRO 7 has reached out to the mayor’s office, City Council, and Seattle Police about the letter and their plans to address the neighbors’ growing concerns, and are waiting on a response.
Read the full letter below:
Mayor Wilson, Chair Kettle, Councilmember Juarez, Members of the Seattle City Council, and Seattle Police Department Leadership,
This is no longer a neighborhood complaint. It is a public safety failure unfolding in real time.
THIS IS A PLEA FOR HELP!!
Over the last several weeks, residents along the North Aurora corridor between N 85th and N 145th have experienced repeated shootings, open trafficking activity, armed violence, reckless driving, property crime, and ongoing intimidation in residential neighborhoods where families with children live.
Within days:
Residents have emailed, testified, filed reports, attended public meetings, and provided evidence for months and in some cases years. In return, they have received little more than <b>silence, deflection, studies, and promises</b> of future corridor redesigns while gunfire continues in front of homes.
The situation has now deteriorated to the point where neighbors are openly discussing taking security into their own hands through self-organized patrols, street blockades, and litigation against the City. That is what happens when residents conclude their government has abandoned basic public safety responsibilities.
To be absolutely clear: residents do not want vigilantism. <b>They want functioning government.</b>
Seattle leadership must stop treating Aurora as a politically inconvenient problem to be managed through delay and messaging. Families living on this corridor deserve the same protection, enforcement, and urgency afforded to every other neighborhood in the city.
We are therefore demanding the following actions immediately:
Residents deserve accurate data, not incidents buried inside citywide statistics.
This situation is not theoretical. It is not abstract policy debate. Bullets are entering homes. Children are walking past shell casings. Residents are sleeping through nightly gunfire while city leadership remains largely<b> absent</b> from public view.
The continued lack of urgency communicates a devastating message: that the safety of Aurora residents is acceptable collateral damage.
That message is <b>unacceptable</b>.
We expect written responses, named accountable points of contact, and concrete operational timelines — not another cycle of silence, studies, or press statements detached from conditions on the ground.
Seattle residents have fulfilled their responsibility by documenting the crisis, reporting crimes, and demanding action through every available civic channel.
Now elected leadership must fulfill theirs.
Sincerely,
Concerned Residents of North Seattle and the Aurora Corridor
— Letter from Greenwood residents