Several readers have sent us notes in the last few days about crime in the neighborhood:
My husband and I have been awakened twice in the past two weeks to what vividly sounded like gunshots very early morning. It sounded like it was coming from somewhere between 85th/90th and Greenwood. Has anyone else heard this or know what we heard?
And this from last Thursday:
Certainly, the streets of Greenwood could do without the many nighttime disturbances. Last night at 2:00am, coincidentally the same hour as closing time for local bars, an aggressively loud voice shouted down the street “I’m not through with you” several times along with other incendiary phrases. This alcohol fueled voice was loud enough to wake my wife and I from our needed slumber. From out of our window we watched two youths, and by youths I mean two trouble making 30 year olds, slowing corralling another youth down the street. Challenges of a fight were made, the fight occurred, and the shouting continued. Police were pretty quick to get to the scene. In fact, there were 12 police cars at the scene at last count. Pretty interesting.
At around 5am were were awoken again by what sounded like 2 gunshots. Anybody else hear anything?
And someone sent this note on Sunday about N. 61st St. between Evanston and Dayton avenues:
Our car was rifled through at some point over night or this morning. It doesn’t look like anything was taken, but all of the compartments were open and everything taken out and strewn throughout the car. At the same time there is a guy sitting in a red car in front of our house and has been for over 20 minutes now! Not loving suspicious activity around here lately.
21 responses so far ↓
1 Whopper // Jan 25, 2010 at 11:37 am
“I’m not through with you”
Isn’t that a common greeting in Green’hood?
2 greenwoodresident // Jan 25, 2010 at 11:45 am
I would appreciate it if you would actually report real incidents not “I thought I heard gunshots” and “a guy with a red shirt is sitting in a car in front of our house.” This hurts the image of our neighborhood and scares people unnecessarily.
3 Whopper // Jan 25, 2010 at 12:01 pm
” This hurts the image of our neighborhood”
Denial isn’t a river in Egypt my friend.
4 seattle mike // Jan 25, 2010 at 12:17 pm
What I find frustrating are the reports without any indication of where the event happened. See “the streets of Greenwood” reference. That could be anywhere between 65th and 130th according to some definitions of G’wood.
5 Concerned // Jan 25, 2010 at 1:42 pm
There’s more crime reports in the Forum of this blog, and at least one was stopped in the act.
6 Hinto // Jan 25, 2010 at 3:22 pm
Do you honestly think the person that riffled through your car has anything to do with someone sitting in a car. That’s just pure paranoia.
The car prowlers are disturbed petty criminals that wander the streets looking for easy targets. One reason there are so many car prowls between the ridge and Aurora is because #1) it’s downhill and #2) They get right on the 358 at the bottom.
Yes, it sucks… but if this is all we have to worry about, life is pretty freaking good.
7 Whopper // Jan 25, 2010 at 4:57 pm
Ahhhh, bus #358, the methadone express.
8 MyGreenLake.com // Jan 25, 2010 at 7:31 pm
We’ve been hearing something that sounds like gun shots over here in Green Lake as well: http://www.mygreenlake.com/2010/01/gun-shots-or-something-like-it-heard-in-green-lake-last-night/
9 Karl // Jan 25, 2010 at 9:33 pm
So much cynicism in these comments…anyway, I think the point of blogging about these reports is to simply make people aware of what’s going on in their neighborhood. It definitely points out the need for regular police patrols. Seattle is pretty bad about city upkeep too (street cleaning, potholes, etc…). It all goes a long way to improving the neighborhood. Maybe not an ultimate crime solution, but a start…
10 Michelle // Jan 26, 2010 at 4:32 am
I’ve lived in Greenwood almost a year now, and for the most part I’ve loved it. But the crime here… wow. It’s really starting to freak me out. I’m tempted to move back to Des Moines where the biggest threat is Mary Kay Letourneau. Okay, not really, but still. :/
11 Joe // Jan 26, 2010 at 7:10 am
“Someone sitting in a car” is often a drug deal. If the car is idling and doesn’t belong on the block, I usually tend to loiter nearby just to observe. I have seen numerous drug deals that started out with “someone sitting in a car”, then some guy walks up, gets in, sits for long enough for the money/drugs to change hands, gets out, and the car drives away. Or sometimes they get very creative and actually drive around the corner before the other guy gets out. I can’t believe that someone is worried about hurting the image of our neighborhood. Get a clue, the image is already hurt by the increase in crime in the past year. Sticking your head in the sand ain’t gonna make it go away. Personally I’d much rather be over-vigilant and at least be aware of the threats in the hood.
12 CutTheString // Jan 26, 2010 at 3:31 pm
greenwood resident has a point. Reading this blog can sometimes make it seem as if Greenwood is an open air drug market and that if you live here it’s only a matter of time before you’re a victim of crime.
For the most part I suspect it’s overly excited folks who see a potential criminal in every person who passes them on the street.
Cars will get broken into and when bars close there will be fights. That’s just the way of the world, rather you live in Greenwood, Green Bay or Greenville
13 cobaltblue // Jan 26, 2010 at 4:22 pm
Is the red car a Honda Prelude, licence # —RZO? If so, that was a drug deal in progress for sure.
14 HL // Jan 26, 2010 at 6:57 pm
CutTheString: It’s probably true that people who read and post to the neighborhood blogs are more likely to be concerned about crime, but just because we live in the city doesn’t mean we should just let it continue unchallenged.
The broken window theory is real.
We’ve lived in the neighborhood for 15 years and feel like it’s a great place to be. But our home and vehicles were unmolested for the first 12 of those years. It’s only in the past 3 years that we’ve had: Graffiti painted on our wall; license plates stolen off our car; stuff stolen out of our car in the garage while we were home in daytime; beer bottle (40 oz) broken in our driveway; UPS packages stolen from our not-visible-from-street front porch; and just this week an another attempt at a car prowl that we caught in the act.
I know we’re not alone in experiencing this kind of stuff. The more the neighborhood accepts this as the norm, the more it will accelerate and escalate. We had a great response as a community to the Greenwood arsonist, and people rallied to watch out for each others’ homes and businesses as much as they could.
We need more block watch participation, more police staffing and funding, and more emphasis on prosecuting those who are actually caught. The crime continues to grow because the risks for the criminals are so relatively low.
I know there are bigger issues than this that also need attention, but these “little” things will multiply like the rabbits at Greenlake a couple of years ago unless we do something.
15 SarahB // Jan 27, 2010 at 5:43 am
HL: I couldn’t have said it better.
“The more the neighborhood accepts this as the norm, the more it will accelerate and escalate.”
You are exactly right.
16 Ghoul // Jan 27, 2010 at 8:29 am
:cough:
http://www.neighborhoodscout.com/wa/seattle/greenwood/#goto-tab-crime
17 Ghoul // Jan 27, 2010 at 8:32 am
and thats only in this area,
http://www.neighborhoodscout.com/wa/seattle/greenwood/#goto-tab-crime
18 Ghoul // Jan 27, 2010 at 8:35 am
sorry, that last link did not work.
area:
105th & greenwood to 85th and greenwood -
14th & 85th to 14th and holman -
holman to 105th.
19 iheartgreenwood // Jan 27, 2010 at 9:34 pm
Ghoul, the Greenwood data for both links is blocked out and says, “subscribe for data.” WIll you please share the percentages?
20 ghoul // Jan 28, 2010 at 10:29 am
sorry about that, i posted the correct link in the forum. i was trying to show the crime index.
http://www.neighborhoodscout.com/wa/seattle/crime/
like i said in the forum. this week has not been kind to my brain…
21 ghoul // Jan 28, 2010 at 10:30 am
fyi, just click once on the zone and it will show you the index.
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