"We take the American flag, and we form a little line, and then we walk," says Wes Brewton, the 69-year-old man who hangs their flag at the apartment complex he manages.
Brewton and company are a frustrated group of neighbors tired of the drug dealing and crime plaguing their area--the tiny neighborhood at the southwest corner of Capitol Hill near the Planned Parenthood complex where Madison crisscrosses 20th, Denny, and 23rd in a series of seriously confusing intersections. The neighbors figure that showing up in force every few weeks might scare off some of the illegal activity that is pervasive around 21st and Madison.
"We go wherever the dealers are," says Brewton, a black man who is retired from the military. "Sometimes we double back on them and come in at a different angle." This Friday, June 21, they'll have guests tagging along on their walk--Seattle City Council police committee chair Jim Compton and City Attorney Tom Carr. (On Thursday, June 6, about 100 Miller Park neighbors got Mayor Greg Nickels' ear for an evening. He attended their neighborhood association meeting at the Miller Community Center, which is at 19th and Thomas, in a calmer section of Miller Park.)
Inviting city bigwigs to Miller Park is part of the residents' efforts to draw attention to the neighborhood's problems: drug dealing, shootings, intense loitering late at night on Madison, and prostitution.
Miller Park hit a low point six months ago, when there were several shootings on Madison Street over the course of a few weeks. One even happened on the dance floor of a Madison bar, and according to cops the owner did not call police--he cleared the place out, and left the injured victim on the street for police to find. Though there hasn't been a shooting in months, the neighbors are still on edge.
"There's drug deals, people smoking crack, prostitution," says Carolyn Stevens, a woman who lives just off Madison. "People are on the corner soliciting, and there seems to be prostitution that actually goes on in the alley behind our house." She finds used condoms, human waste, and drug needles in her alley and back yard on a regular basis.
Despite the "NO LOITERING" warnings stenciled with red paint on nearly every building, on weekend nights crowds of people hang out along Madison, from 19th Avenue to 22nd. Some folks are there to enjoy the music at Deano's or Oscar's--two clubs that have gotten a bad rap for the crime in the area. Most of the problems happen on the street.
"There are so many people in the street," says Julianne Andersen, a five-year Miller Park resident who lives a block away from Madison. "It's crazy. You cannot drive through 21st and Madison on a Friday or Saturday night. They'll stop your car." She's right--on weekend nights, crowds milling about among the two clubs and a corner store become a de facto block party. The street is essentially blocked off by dozens of people who are in no hurry to get out of the way of oncoming traffic. Cars are forced to slow until the crowds clear enough to pass.
Andersen is not your typical neighborhood nag. She's a thirtysomething hipster who books popular local rock bands like the Catheters. Andersen knows neighbors who have experienced the problems close-up: Some have seen drug deals in their front yards, and others have had people break into their fenced back yards. A man who lives right next to Madison has been known to run into the street with a bat to scare drug dealers away, she says.
One couple even moved away this month, citing a fear for their safety when they broke their lease. Now Andersen worries that more people will be afraid to live in Miller Park, and the neighborhood will deteriorate.
At the Seattle Police Department's East Precinct, acting Captain Fred Hill doubts the neighborhood will fall apart. He says Miller Park has been consistently improving: It was much worse when he patrolled the area 30 years ago. "[Back then] I wouldn't advise anybody in their right mind to go up there," Hill says. "Now there's marked improvement. There are problems up there, but it's not anything unmanageable."
It's still pretty bad, though, compared to the surrounding area. According to police crime stats broken down by census tract, in 2001 there were 482 crimes (ranging from homicide and rape to assault and robbery) in the census area that covers over half of Miller Park, including its entire Madison strip. In contrast, the abutting census tract, which covers the other half of Miller Park (and the community center the mayor visited), had only 296 crimes in 2001. The most dramatic difference was in the number of assaults. There were twice as many aggravated assaults along Madison than there were in the rest of Miller Park, and four times as many non-aggravated assaults.
Those are the sorts of stats that brought out nearly 100 neighbors to meet Greg Nickels at the Miller Community Center on June 6. Andersen asked Nickels what he would do to get more police in the neighborhood. The best he could promise was not to cut current SPD funding. Anderson wanted more specific solutions, like bike cops.
"Here's the thing, Greg: That's so not the point," Anderson says. "We need bike cops. Period. The end." She, along with other neighbors, hope Compton and Carr will be more receptive when they visit on Friday.
