‘Warning: Entering Rainier Valley’ signs posted in South Seattle neighborhoods

It might not be an official community greeting, but drivers entering into Seattle’s Rainier Valley have been treated to a new neighborhood warning.

Hundreds of signs were reportedly posted on roadsides bordering Rainier Valley, stating: “Warning: Entering Rainier Valley.”

On the opposite side of the warning signs, for drivers leaving the Rainier Valley area, a different message is posted: “Welcome! Leaving Central District.”

“Over the weekend I noticed these signs were put up,” said resident Marilee Jolin. “I was quite taken aback. My experience of choosing to live and work in South Seattle has been one of falling in love with this beautiful neighborhood … I was shocked that someone would defame my neighborhood.”

“It felt like a smear campaign,” she said. “It seems a lot of people I know had that reaction.”

The Rainier Valley is composed of neighborhoods such as Columbia City, Dunlap, Seward Park, New Holly, or Rainier Beach, all along the shores of Lake Washington.

The signs caused a flurry of online dialogue. Some neighbors greeted the signs with a laugh, others took great offense to what it implied about their corner of Seattle. Part of that dialogue was a column Jolin wrote for the South Seattle Emerald, conveying her mixed reactions to the signs. She found that, after discovering the issue behind the effort, she was conflicted.

“It challenged my initial response,” she said. “What they are trying to highlight is gun violence, and the disproportionate response to gun violence in our city.”

Jolin said she is aware that, as an affluent white woman, she lacks a certain understanding and experience that some of her neighbors may have.

“This is, at its core, a racial issue,” Jolin said.

“I don’t have to like these signs &#8212 I don’t like these signs. I feel they are highlighting the worst things and ignoring the best,” she said. “At the same time, I think the group that posted those signs was speaking from a perspective that I can never fully understand, as a white woman. I can never understand the depths of which gun violence has affected the black community here in South Seattle.”

The massive dispersion of warning signs was an effort to raise awareness of youth-on-youth crime, according to King County News, a blog written for and by youth.

The blog quotes the organizers, Equal Representation Now, who posted the signs. Organizers, who remained anonymous, said, “We posted these signs because people need to know what they are driving into. These neighborhoods are not safe. There is a much greater chance of being shot and killed in this area than in any other part of Seattle. Especially if you are a young, African-American male.”

The King County News blog didn’t have pictures of the signs themselves, however, it did post the original image files of the work.

Organizers argue that Mayor Ed Murray needs to listen to the leaders in those communities, as he has, for example, to leaders on Capitol Hill.

Crime in Rainier Valley

Seattle Police data compiled from January to October shows some crime rates are dropping in the Rainier Valley, when compared to the same period last year.

• Street robberies with bodily force in Rainier Beach went down from 39 to 12.

• Robberies with a weapon in Rainier Beach went from four to zero.

• Aggravated assault with a weapon in Columbia City went down from seven in 2014, to four in 2015.

However, you can’t ignore other crimes that have increased:

• The Central District in Rainier Valley saw a rise from seven to eight for aggravated assaults with a gun.

• Assaults with a weapon went up from 10 to 17 in the Central District.

• Aggravated assaults with a gun in Rainier Beach rose from four to nine.

• Street robberies with a gun in Columbia City went from two to three.

It is important to note that these numbers do not reflect the Dunlap neighborhood, where a young man was shot to death while walking home from a funeral for a friend who was also shot to death, or where a pregnant woman was shot in July. She lost her unborn child as a result of the incident. Or the New Holly neighborhood where a young man attempted to rob another and was shot twice in return.

They also neglect to convey incidents such as the August arrest of a 23-year-old man who fired several shots outside Rainier Beach High School.

Numbers also cannot reflect the general impression that many Seattleites have become desensitized to the sound of gunfire, which has now merely become background noise.

And of course, statistics can only represent what is reported to police. There is no data on what never is called in to 9-1-1. That call is important, according to Detective Patrick Michaud with the Seattle Police Department.

“We are trying to focus on data,” Michaud said. “So when we go back and try to figure out how we are going to combat different crimes, we take data for what we have.”

In other words, police look at crime stats, then focus their energy on those crimes in the areas that are most problematic. Michaud notes that overall, numbers of violent crimes, such as aggravated assaults or robberies, remain low and are dropping throughout the Rainier Valley area.

Regardless of the data, it’s clear that some locals still feel like the Rainier Valley is unsafe. And there may be a divide between who experiences safety or lack thereof.

“A lot of my friends that look like me here say ‘why do people say it’s so violent. I feel perfectly safe,'” Jolin said. “But then most of my black friends say, ‘What the hell. How can you not see how much this is a problem?'”

“There are a lot of people in the Rainier Valley who do not feel they have any voice or power, and there are a lot of people moving in, like me, who traditionally have had power and do feel they have a voice,” she said. “How we figure out how to live together is encapsulated really well in these signs that were hung up over the weekend, and our reactions to them.”