Harger: Mayor Katie Wilson skipped the North Aurora march Saturday. Several city leaders showed up instead
Jun 8, 2026, 6:11 AM | Updated: 2:04 pm
Mayor Katie Wilson did not show up. Again.
Several hundred North Aurora residents marched the avenue Saturday evening, blocking traffic, demanding the city take action on the sex trafficking and gun violence that turned the corridor between 97th and 109th Streets into a place where families build safety drills around the sound of gunfire.
The march was organized by the same residents I have been talking with for months. The same residents who put planters in their own streets after weeks of begging the city to do it. The same residents whose names are now on Reddit threads, on KIRO’s airwaves, on all the TV stations, and in five pieces of my own commentary.
The mayor did not go.
She also did not go to a safety walk last weekend. That was the piece I wrote last week. The mayor sent her team. She thanked them on Facebook. She wrote that her team was deeply saddened. Her team.
She also didn’t attend a public safety meeting with elected leaders, police, and prosecutors Wednesday evening.
This was the third event in less than a week organized by North Aurora residents that the mayor of Seattle declined to attend.
Two former councilmembers, a sitting city attorney, and the chair of Public Safety all cleared their Saturday for the Aurora residents. The mayor did not
Look at who did go.
Public Safety Committee Chair Bob Kettle. Seattle City Attorney Erika Evans. Members of the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office. Former City Attorney Ann Davison. Former Councilmember Sara Nelson. Former Councilmember Cathy Moore, who residents have repeatedly thanked for taking Aurora seriously during her tenure before she stepped down last June.
Two former councilmembers cleared their Saturday evenings to walk Aurora with residents. A former city attorney cleared her Saturday evening. The current city attorney cleared her Saturday evening. The current chair of the Public Safety Committee cleared his Saturday evening. The King County prosecutor’s office sent staff.
The current mayor of the city did not.
KOMO News reached out to the mayor’s office Saturday evening to ask why. By late Saturday night, the mayor’s office had not responded.
That is the news. A KOMO reporter asked the mayor of Seattle why she was not at a community march in her own city about a public safety crisis everyone in town has been talking about for weeks, and the mayor’s office did not have an answer ready.
Mayor Wilson’s Friday statement on Aurora cited SPD patrols and SDOT analysis. The Saturday no-response from her office was its own answer
The mayor’s office issued a statement to KOMO on Friday afternoon, ahead of the march. The statement said the city is “actively working with Aurora-area residents.” It said the Seattle Police Department (SPD) continues to conduct emphasis patrols. It said the Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) will complete its analysis of roads in the area “in about a week.” It said the deputy mayor, public safety staff, and community liaisons have met with residents.
None of those sentences are wrong. Patrols are up. SDOT did install something. Deputy Mayor Surratt, Alison Holcomb, and Chief Barnes have all been on the block.
The mayor has not.
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Jake’s kid sleeps with bullets in the wall. Andrew Steelsmith said what the avenue belongs to
Jake spoke at Saturday’s march. The father whose infant’s bedroom was hit by a bullet from one of the recent shootouts. The father who told KOMO he is asking for state police, the National Guard, whatever it takes, because every time residents ask the city for help, they hear about SPD staffing shortages and how long it will take to train more officers.
Andrew Steelsmith spoke, too. The resident who has been documenting the violence on Reddit in real time. The neighbor whose family runs the gunfire drill I wrote about Monday.
“North Aurora belongs to people of Greenwood, North Park, Licton Springs, Phinney Ridge, Bitter Lake, and Haller Lake,” Steelsmith said into the microphone. “Not the johns, not the pimps.”
The mayor of Seattle was not there to hear it.
North Aurora demands leadership. Mayor Katie Wilson keeps choosing City Hall instead
A neighborhood organizing itself in the absence of city government. A council chair, a city attorney, former councilmembers, and a county prosecutor’s office showing up to walk the block. A father whose infant slept inches from a bullet hole, standing in front of a microphone, asking for the National Guard. A community member naming the neighborhoods the avenue actually belongs to.
And a mayor at City Hall.
This is a situation that demands leadership. Saturday was the second weekend in a row that the people doing the leading were not the mayor.
The list of people who did show up is the news.
The mayor’s continued absence is the verdict.
Charlie Harger is the host of “Seattle’s Morning News” on KIRO Newsradio. You can read more of his stories and commentaries here. Follow Charlie on X and email him here.
