‘It was a horrible scene’: Ursula describes crime pushing businesses out of Seattle’s Chinatown

After 10 years of operating blocks away from the notoriously crime-riddled 12th and Jackson corner in Seattle, a dim sum restaurant has shut down its weekday service because the crime became too much.

Ursula Reutin, co-host of “The Gee and Ursula Show” on KIRO Newsradio, summarized a recent experience she had in the Chinatown-International District (CID), an area she used to spend time in regularly, but said rampant crime has kept her away.

“It had been a while for me since I’d been there. We used to go fairly regularly, and I was asking myself, why haven’t I been?” Ursula said. “Yesterday, I drove by 12th and Jackson, and I had to drive around again to take some pictures and document it. There were at least 50 people just on that corner, and they were all in various stages of drug use; it was very obvious. If they were not dealing, they were stooped over, or they were using. I mean, it was a horrible scene.”

Mayor Katie Wilson had promised to crack down on crime in Chinatown

Ursula pointed out that Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson had promised to crack down on crime in the CID. The neighborhood was cleaned up for the FIFA World Cup, but fill-in host Angela Poe Russell said what she saw afterward shocked her.

“I remember going by that street, the infamous 12th and Jackson, and being shocked, like, ‘Whoa, this is cleared,'” Angela said. “It is absolutely unacceptable that we would put the burden of our societal problems onto a few streets in this city. We all know them: the International District, Aurora Avenue, 3rd and Pike. And why is this? We keep settling for it, and I feel like I’m beating my head against the wall.

“I feel for these businesses,” she continued. “I feel like I can find parking. The challenge with the parking is I have to then walk through a bunch of really unsafe places. It’s not about homelessness; we’re talking about people who are doing drugs, smoking, trafficking, or just naked. I mean, why are we tolerating this? If I’m a Seattle voter, which I am, I wouldn’t elect anybody who wouldn’t get on camera and say, ‘I am committed to stopping this day one?'”

Watch the full discussion in the video above.

Listen to Gee and Ursula on “The Gee and Ursula Show” weekday mornings from 9 am to 12 pm on KIRO Newsradio.