On the day Seattle announced its vision to enhance two of the city's grittiest urban parks, there were 136 registered sex offenders living in and around one of them: Occidental Park in Pioneer Square.
The other, Westlake Park near the downtown retail core, had been a gathering place for drug dealers until recently. In April, a joint Seattle Police Department Major Crimes Task Force-FBI operation cleared the 9 1/2-block area around Westlake Park of nearly 100 drug dealers and repeat criminals, arresting them or connecting them to diversion programs.
As a result, visible drug dealing and other crimes have declined 40 percent, according to Downtown Seattle Association President and CEO Jon Scholes, who called the increased policing at Westlake a big success.
However, making Occidental Park as welcoming as Westlake Park may be a much larger challenge.
On Thursday, the City of Seattle announced that the Downtown Seattle Association (DSA) and the Metropolitan Improvement District (MID) have signed an agreement for the DSA and the MID to manage Westlake and Occidental parks, to "enhance the experience of visiting these parks," according to a press release.
The new features -- such as increased park staffing, gaming tables, live music and fitness classes -- are already in place at Westlake. They'll be added to Occidental Park later this summer.
But more than 100 registered sex offenders live in and around Occidental Park and Pioneer Square. Dozens of them are homeless and remain in the area because --- as registered sex offenders without valid addresses --- they must check in at the King County Sheriff's Office two blocks away on a weekly basis.
Detective Jason Houck with the KCSO confirmed there is no other location in King County for them to meet with detectives, as required.
After Thursday's ribbon-cutting for the Urban Parks Activation Partnership, Seattle Mayor Ed Murray acknowledged that in order for Occidental Park to be revitalized, other cities in the county will have to help with services for the homeless and possibly sex offender check-ins.
"I think all these services can't simply be located for the county in downtown Seattle," he said. "Folks didn't just originate in downtown Seattle. This is the responsibility of the 35-plus cities in King County, and that's a discussion that we started last fall with our suburban cities, and one that we'll continue to work on."
DSA President Scholes admitted it will be a tough sell to encourage visitors to go to Occidental Park considering the high homeless sex offender population there. But he said, "The biggest thing is, we need more people using the park, and we need to give them reasons to be there, and food and music and tables and chairs and areas to read."
Scholes told KIRO 7, "More people using public spaces make these public spaces safer."
KIRO
