Spotlight back on public safety in Seattle's Little Saigon neighborhood

George Nguyen owns the Lam Seafood Market in Seattle's Little Saigon neighborhood. Nguyen said the crime and drug use outside — and inside — his store have gotten so intense in recent months that he's had to put up a foreboding barbed wire fence near the entrance.

Now he worries the fence is driving away customers.

"The last thing I wanted to do was make our neighborhood look like a prison yard," Nguyen said.

He's not alone. Nguyen joined a handful of business and community leaders from Little Saigon for a press conference with City Council candidate Tanya Woo on Tuesday to draw attention to public safety concerns.

Speakers said a brisk open-air drug market is at the heart of the issues the neighborhood is facing.

"We are standing at ground zero for fentanyl sales," Woo said from the corner of 12th Avenue and Jackson Street.

“This is a neighborhood that's been long neglected. Why is this happening in Little Saigon?” asked Woo, who is running in City Council District 2, which includes Little Saigon. Under the administration of Mayor Brue Harrell, the city has stepped up efforts to improve safety to the neighborhood.

But overdose deaths in the area are up this year. And speakers and attendees at the press conference said the city’s efforts have been too sporadic to be effective at addressing crime.

“We're dealing with more than just financial hardships,” said Quynh Pham, executive director of the Friends of Little Saigon.

“We're grappling with a sense of insecurity that affects every aspect of our operations. Business owners and their employees face daily criminal activities, drug use, drug dealing, and just the general deterioration of people's behavioral, mental, and physical health,” Pham said.

Candidate Tanya Woo and other speakers accused incumbent District 2 Councilmember Tammy Morales of not doing enough to help.

“It's been very hard for us to get a seat at the table, to have our concerns heard and to really have our concerns tackled by the City Council,” Woo said.

Morales in particular voted against a bill to make public drug use and possession prosecutable under Seattle law, for example. Woo said she would have voted differently.

Woo also said the neighborhood needs more police, and that she would help set a different tone on the council, which could help with flailing officer recruitment efforts.

“The Seattle City Council demoralized the police department. No one wants to work for a manager who doesn't like them,” Woo said.

At-large City Councilmember Sara Nelson also attended the press conference and criticized Morales.

"She continues to oppose the removal of homeless encampments and open-air drug markets which are magnets for, not just dealing, but also sex trafficking and in violence," Nelson said.

"Why am I here and where is Tammy Morales?" Nelson asked.

Later in the day Morales issued a press release in response to Nelson.

“I am disappointed to see my Seattle City Council colleague stoop to the level of divisive politics in a city already on edge," Morales wrote.

"All corners of Seattle have expressed their frustration with being priced out of their neighborhoods, climate change, and our city’s response to this summer’s tragic and senseless gun violence. This is where the council's attention needs to be focused–it is where I remain focused," she wrote.

Bruce Harrell’s spokesperson Jamie Housen told KUOW the mayor couldn’t comment on this press conference — he isn’t allowed to address campaign-related events using city resources.

“Broadly speaking, Mayor Harrell remains committed to urgent and sustainable solutions to create a safe and welcoming Seattle for every neighbor in every neighborhood, including Little Saigon and the International District,” Housen wrote.