Seattle mayor grilled on public safety crisis as residents demand answers

Mayor Katie Wilson said Wednesday that Seattle is "acting now" on shootings and trafficking-related crime after being pressed by a local reporter on why residents had to deal with the crisis on their own before City Hall moved toward a permanent fix.Kim asked Wilson why residents were still waiting for a permanent solution after saying their neighborhood had been hit by repeated violence tied to Aurora Avenue."We’re hearing from residents saying there are constant shootings there, bullets going through homes, human trafficking is up," Kim said."Prostitution is up.

Desperate residents put up steel planters to block some of the crime.They say it was working, but then the city took it away and said that they need to have a permanent solution, so they want to study it.

But at what point do you act?""So we are acting now," Wilson told FOX 13 Seattle co-anchor Hana Kim about crime along Aurora Avenue North, where residents installed steel planters across the road to keep criminals from accessing the community."A number of members of my team… were up doing a walk with the neighborhood a few days ago, and I totally understand why people put the barriers in the streets."TERRIFIED RESIDENTS IN CRIME-PLAGUED BLUE CITY THROW UP GIANT BARRICADES TO STOP CHAOSSeattle Mayor Katie Wilson faces pointed questions from FOX 13 Seattle’s Hana Kim about crime, shootings and trafficking concerns along Aurora Avenue.

(David Ryder/Reuters; Fox 13 Seattle)"The issue is emergency access, and so what we’ve done for the time being, there’s one barrier that’s actually still in place, but the other ones we replaced with what are called chicanes, which is basically not entirely blocking off the street, but really slowing movement through it," Wilson added.After Wilson said the city had replaced some barriers with temporary traffic-calming devices, Kim pushed back, saying, "Residents say that barrier isn’t working."Wilson said the city was moving quickly but had to weigh street clo...