‘It’s night and day’: Aurora resident praises street barriers for curbing neighborhood crime

Seattle City Council members unanimously approved an emergency plan on Tuesday that would block through traffic on several residential streets near Aurora Avenue, part of an effort to reduce shootings and other crime tied to the illegal sex trade.

Becca, a resident near Aurora Avenue, reached out to “The John Curley Show” on KIRO Newsradio, providing in great detail what had been occurring nightly in her neighborhood and how pivotal the addition of the barriers has been in reducing crime since they were put up.

“Becca, where are you on a scale of 1-10? 10 being, ‘I’ve had it, I feel at any moment I could be killed, or a friend or neighbor could lose their life. I’m moving out.’ How close did you come to that?” KIRO host John Curley asked.

“I’d say about an eight,” Becca responded. “When your neighbors find shell casings in their lawn furniture, you really have to think seriously about what I am doing here. Personally, I cannot afford to move, and a lot of my neighbors are in the same situation, so that’s why we need these barriers to stay in place long term, because they’re the only effective solution that I can find for this problem.

“It’s like living on a cul-de-sac now,” she continued. “It’s night and day. The children can roller skate on the sidewalk or walk to the park. They’re safe now. It’s quiet now. We can sleep at night. It’s just an incredibly effective solution that needs to stay in place forever. It’s been incredibly effective at calming down the noise, chaos, gunfire, pimps, hookers, all of that now stays up on Aurora.”

Barriers reportedly last through summer, leaving residents anxious about their future

As a resident near Aurora for the past 11 years, Becca was asked whether there were any concerns that the “incredibly effective solution” would only be a temporary fix from the city.

“That’s what we’ve been told, that it’s just for the summer and they’re going to see if it works,” Becca said. “Well, it is working, and they’ve got to stay in place because it was just totally chaotic before. At four in the morning, we had people parking their cars in front of the house, walking up to the hookah lounge on Aurora, and then the gunfire started. Like, what’s going on? Why is there an all-night club open with people carrying these weapons? It was crazy, but that has stopped now.”

Curley asked where Becca stands now, following the barriers that were put up and a City Council vote to keep the community-led deterrents in place.

“Oh, I’m very happy right now,” Becca said. “Our neighborhood, our block, is now just like the rest of Greenwood. It’s quiet and livable. I have no plan to move now.”

Watch the full discussion in the video above.

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