Downtown Seattle Association says it’s time to take back Pike-Pine

Wednesday night’s mass shooting in downtown Seattle is just the latest violence in an area notorious for criminal activity. The Downtown Seattle Association says enough is enough.

Photos from the crime scene

“It’s horrible,” said Jon Scholes, head of the Downtown Seattle Association.

Scholes said tens of thousand of people who work, live, and visit Seattle pass through the Third and Pine area every day and deserve to feel safe.

“For too long it’s been a place that criminals have laid claim to. Everybody knows that,” Scholes said. “It’s a drug market that too often leads to violence like what we saw last night. It’s time for radical change.”

Scholes said everything should be on the table, including more police officers, government-run surveillance cameras, and prosecutors who send criminals to jail. He said the city considered cameras years ago, but the Seattle City Council put a stop to them.

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“We need to take back this corner, that intersection, from the criminals,” Scholes said.

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