Why Is Ballard So Crime-Ridden?

I’ve written often about the social disorder, crime, and drug use in Seattle. I’ve come to the conclusion that the northwest Seattle neighborhood of Ballard, where we live, must have a higher degree of such problems than many other parts of the city.

We lived for 25 years in the Columbia City neighborhood of southeast Seattle and never experienced anything close to this. Judging from correspondence received from readers in Laurelhurst, Wedgewood, Capitol Hill, Montake/Madison Park, among others, Ballard seems to be an outlier to which city government and Seattle Police seem indifferent. Yes, “Little Saigon” may be worse, and I’m sure Ballard isn’t completely unique. But it’s bad.

Here’s a recent message from a single, working woman, a neighbor here in Ballard. This is not a person who “goes off” on such topics or sends messages of constant outrage. No, this is reasonable person and solid citizen, a resident Seattle needs. She writes:

“I walk my dog up to the first entrance into the Shilshole Marina each morning and have been reporting to Find It Fix It what started as a couple of RVs illegally parked since September, no action taken. Of course this grew to 8-10 vehicles (unlicensed) so have been reporting dual violations, parking, and encampment.

“Included are pictures of illegal dumping, blocked sidewalks, public urination (and worse), discarded piles of food, rodents, as well as hundreds of feet of wire-casings and drug use, no action taken. Today, at 7 am the sidewalk was covered with casings again, a man was folded over in the fentanyl pose in the middle of the sidewalk and I could smell gasoline from a 100 feet away. I called 911.

“Police and fire department came, a cop called back, confirmed the gas (puddling and draining into a manhole leading into the Sound). There were weapons, equipment, total ‘shop’ for copper wire theft. The cop said they couldn’t prove they stole the copper wire, so nothing. I believe they hosed down the sidewalk.

“Tonight the vehicles are still there, as well as the stolen copper wire, one RV inside lights on, full blown drug lab, two people passed out in the truck in front of the RV. No arrests, no impoundment from what I can see.

“I think I’m done with a city that perpetuates this level of addiction and lets the citizens deal with the consequences and aftermath.”

This is exactly what I also see on walks in Ballard on Seaview Ave., among other locations. This morning in downtown I crossed paths with a dishelved person waving a bolt-cutter. No cops anywhere.

Another Ballard resident recently had a piece in The Seattle Times on what his neighborhood needs from Mayor-elect Katie Wilson. Again, it was a thoughtful, well-stated, non-hysterical plea, which to date has fallen on deaf ears from the City and Police. I hope you’ll read the whole excellent piece (use the link above). Ballard resident David Amschler begins his piece this way:

“I’m a father, a husband, a veteran and a longtime blue-collar resident of Seattle who has watched this city change in ways that have left many feeling unheard, unprotected and honestly, forgotten.

“This isn’t about politics. It’s not about left or right. It’s about the reality families like mine live with every day. It’s about the neighborhoods we raise our kids in, the homes we work so hard to afford, and the basic sense of safety that every resident should be able to count on. I love Seattle. But what’s happening here is breaking people down.”

Amschler notes what any of us who live in Ballard also see or really don’t see — that is police presence. It is vanishingly rare to see any police here at all.

As Amschler puts it, “Right now, the Seattle Police Department has one of the lowest ratios of officers per capita in the country. And it shows. We rarely see patrol cars. We rarely see traffic stops. We rarely see someone held accountable for even obvious, visible crimes.”

He concludes with three asks:

“We are not asking for the impossible. We are asking for three basic things: 1. Accountability for behavior that harms others: Compassion cannot survive without structure. Helping people is noble. Allowing chaos is not. 2. A police department that can actually respond to residents: Even a small increase in presence would change how neighborhoods feel overnight. 3. A real, long-term plan for homelessness that does more than relocate people: We need housing, treatment, outreach, and yes, expectations and rules.

“I believe this city can be better than what it’s become. People like me — the blue-collar families, the veterans, the workers, the parents, the folks who stay here through all the hard times — we need to be heard. We need safety. We need accountability. We need our city back, and I hope Katie Wilson is the leader who helps us get there.”

If I am right and Ballard is a worse-case scenario, why would that be? I only have guesses. First guess is who lives in Ballard. Despite an influx of Amazon workers in a lot of new developments on the main thoroughfares, Ballard is still a working class neighborhood and so may not have the clout or pull of a Laurelhurst or a Madison Park or even Capitol Hill, which has far lower crime numbers.

Another guess would be that Seattle has increasingly become a two-class city. There are the very wealthy and there are the very poor. The vanishing middle and working classes, the kind of people that live in Ballard, are apparently no longer on anyone’s screen.

Additionally, there’s a long-standing narrative in Seattle that resources go more to the whiter north end than the more racially diverse south end of the city. Having lived in both, I’m not sure this is accurate. I suspect the North Police Precinct, where crime rates are highest, may be on the short end of the resource stick because of the persistence of that north-south narrative.

Another factor is that Ballard still has a lot of industry, particularly along the ship canal that runs from Lake Union to the Ballard Locks. These non-residential areas provide more space for encampments than is true in other Seattle neighborhoods.

In any event, Ballard is a mess. There is no excuse for the ineffectiveness of Seattle city government and Seattle Police in responding to concerns here. It’s out-and-out wrong and dangerous.