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Little Saigon is the neighborhood of Seattle that the government forgot.
Walking the streets means experiencing neglect instinctively. Located a few blocks around 12th Avenue South and South Jackson Street, Little Saigon is filled with overcrowded bins, trash, dirty sidewalks, and open air drug trafficking.
It is unacceptable that the city of Seattle and King County, which oversees several metro bus stops in the area, allowed conditions to deteriorate to this level. That Little Saigon is an ethnically diverse, low-income community in progressive Seattle makes improvement all the more urgent.
On November 28, Seattle Times food writer Tan Vinh noted that two well-known restaurants in the area, Hue Ky Mi Gia and Seven Stars Pepper Szechwan Restaurant, may close soon as the area becomes increasingly unsafe. It’s a wonder they’re still in business.
Stacks of plastic coat hangers line the sidewalk, evidence of quick shoplifting. Outside the Ding How Center, the mall that houses Hue Ky Mi Gia and Seven Stars, drugs are openly exchanged for cash while people sell everything from hand lotion to steaks.
The reported serious assaults in the Chinatown International District (Seattle Police Department’s crime dashboard stats are for the entire neighborhood, not Little Saigon) rose from 112 in 2019 to 131 in the first 11 months of this year. The number of burglaries reported rose from 143 to 173 over the same period. In October, two people were shot dead near noon near the 1200 block on South Jackson Street after an argument over a bottle of whiskey.
Minh Äức Phạm Nguyá»…n, executive director of Helping Link, a social services agency serving the Vietnamese community, said her office had been broken into and robbed of computers and other equipment several times. She no longer bothered to call the police. The officers never come, she said, and shipping tells her to go online and fill out a form.
Last year, Nguyen wrote to Mayor Jenny Durkan and King County Executive Dow Constantine asking for help. In a letter signed by nine local restaurants and other local businesses and nonprofits, she called for more police and rubbish collection, especially needle cleaning.
Nguyen said she never heard anything.
“The companies in the area have given up running the city. We can’t even use the sidewalks. It’s not far from the town hall, but no one paid any attention, â€she said. Helping Link is less than a mile from the mayor’s office and councilors.
Time is running out.
As the owner of Seven Stars Restaurant said to Vinh, “I can’t see how things go around in a building that is essentially a slum.”
Seattle is facing the collapse of one of its neighborhood business districts. City and county officials must act quickly to help with the consistent garbage collection. Instead of occasionally having to patrol, the police have to set up a mobile precinct on site. The same goes for Public Health – Seattle & King County and a mobile ambulance. The King County Metro Police Department must do more than watch over the mayhem.
Mayor Durkan and County Executive Constantine represent this neighborhood. So did Seattle councilors Kshama Sawant and Tammy Morales, and county council member Girmay Zahilay. To everyone: it’s up to you.
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