(The Center Square) – Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson has announced a police crackdown on Aurora Avenue North in response to a surge in shootings and prostitution along the corridor, but only after residents created makeshift roadblocks and complained to the city council.
Jake Wallack was just one of the 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 Mayor 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.“
Wallach said he wanted to know who in the city would lead.
“The city is allowing unchecked prostitution, human trafficking, and the related violence,’ he said. “It’s gang-led, organized, violent human trafficking, and the city is turning their eyes.”
Other residents told similar stories, attributing frequent gunshots heard throughout the night over the last month to conflicts between pimps for prostitutes as young as 14.
Three days later, Wilson said she was taking action in a joint statement with City Councilman Debora Suarez.
“Gun violence along the Aurora corridor is alarming and unacceptable, and we share neighbors’ desire for immediate action to address safety concerns,” Wilson said in a statement.
Wilson said she has directed city transportation officials to replace the resident-installed barriers with temporary traffic-calming treatments to reduce cut-through traffic and address residents’ access needs in the area.
Wilson didn’t respond to requests for comment from The Center Square.
But residents want their roadblocks back, and the city council could grant them.
Suarez said she is currently working with Councilman Bob Kettle, chairman of Public Safety, on emergency legislation that will allow the Seattle Police Department and the Seattle Department of Transportation to close public streets for public safety reasons.
The draft legislation would allow the closures “in order to prevent criminal activity occurring in or emanating from that street or alley, she said.
But residents at the 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 law allows judges to order offenders to stay out of those zones or face arrest.
North Aurora Avenue is one of those zones.
The ordinance was pushed by former City Attorney Ann Davidson, but was opposed by current City Attorney Erica Adams, who defeated her in November 2025.
Adams 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.
Adams did not reply to requests for comment
Kettle said at the city council committee meeting that the gunshots and sex trafficking on Aurora Avenue showed a “lack of leadership” but didn’t name Wilson by name.
