Back in August, Seattle Times reporter Lynn Thompson began an article about downtown feeling unsafe by citing a bus-shooting:
Monday’s shooting of a Metro bus driver came just two weeks after downtown business leaders urged Mayor Mike McGinn and the City Council to address increasing violence and disorder in the city’s busy retail and tourist corridor.
Even though crime rates downtown hadn’t actually changed much, and had dropped significantly in many parts of downtown (Pioneer Square, Belltown, International District), the Seattle Times Editorial Board chimed in with the headline “Downtown Seattle feels unsafe. Fix it.” The board explained:
That perception is more damaging than data, because statistics change month to month, but reputations become set in stone…
Mayor Mike McGinn, who is running for re-election, recently allocated $400,000 for extra patrols, but it shouldn’t take the midday shooting of a bus driver for the mayor to heed the concerns of downtown retailers.
But those dark days are over. After 31 suspected drug dealers and gang members were busted last week, and Ed Murray was elected mayor this month, it turns out that dangerous reputation isn’t set in stone. Thompson reports today—in an article that doesn’t cite any crime data, which is secondary to perception anyway—that downtown “feels safer” and it’s “boosting spirits”:
“It feels cleaner down here. It feels safer,” said Crudo, a 26-year-old college student who watched with alarm last summer as open-air drug dealing and gang activity intensified in and around the park. “The gang members and criminals partied down here.” …
“I’m ecstatic,” said Tom Norwalk, president and CEO of Visit Seattle. “It doesn’t help Seattle’s brand if people come here and experience the streets as out of control.”
Yay for the SPD busting bad guys! Yay for more police foot patrols! Yay for the Seattle Times burying this detail:
It’s an ongoing effort. On Monday night, a man with a mask and a gun boarded a bus at Third Avenue and Pike Street and robbed passengers.
It’s a good thing that detail was halfway down the article, played off as a manageable problem. Otherwise focusing on a masked gunman roving downtown could make people feel unsafe. Perceptions are what count. And right now, Thompson perceives that it’s safer.