County acts to curb street crime in White Center, Boulevard Park
The council unanimously passed what are called SOAP (stay out of areas of prostitution) and SODA (stay out of drug areas) ordinances.
The laws allow judges to order those charged with or convicted of drug or prostitution offenses to stay out of those areas, and they make it a misdemeanor to violate those orders.
The newly restricted zones are in White Center and Boulevard Park in the vicinity of Pacific Highway South, Des Moines Way South, Military Road South and Roxbury Avenue Southwest.
Those areas are in an urban but unincorporated part of King County known as North Highline.
Advocates of the new laws said drug and prostitution problems have grown worse in those areas since SOAP and SODA laws in adjacent Seattle, SeaTac, Burien and Tukwila drove offenders across city borders.
"The open season has to close in North Highline," Judy Duff, a member of the North Highline Unincorporated Area Council, told the County Council in a hearing two weeks ago.
Kelli Mitchell, a Boulevard Park resident, recalled how her 10-year-old daughter had said, "Look, Mom, there's a prostitute."
Mitchell said she didn't want her children to have to walk past streetwalkers to get to the library.
White Center business people also lobbied the County Council to pass the ordinances.
Carlos Jimenez, who operates a sign and graphic-design shop in the heart of White Center, said street crime has forced him to close his doors at dark. Last year, a man was shot and killed 10 feet from the door of his business in what was reported as a drug-related incident.
"The White Center community is asking for our help in taking back their streets from street crime," said County Councilman Dow Constantine, a Democrat whose district includes White Center and Boulevard Park. He was prime sponsor of the ordinances, which passed on 11-0 votes.
The ordinances were amended to include a "sunset" provision under which they will expire if they aren't renewed by the end of 2006.
The American Civil Liberties Union opposed the laws, saying they are unconstitutional and would likely fail to survive a court challenge. ACLU lobbyist Jerry Sheehan said the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals had struck down a similar law in Cincinnati.
But Dan Satterberg, chief of staff to Prosecuting Attorney Norm Maleng, said the King County ordinances, unlike Cincinnati's, apply only to suspects who have been charged with a crime, and require a judge's order in each case.
Roger Goodman of the King County Bar Association's drug-policy project said there is "a wide body of research on the other side that says all this does is displace the public disorder from one place to another."
County Councilman Larry Gossett, who earlier cast the only vote against the ordinances in the law, justice and human-services committee, voted for them yesterday.
The Seattle Democrat said he changed his vote because of the outpouring of community support for the laws and his conversations with a County Council staff member whose father operates a North Highline business.
Advocates of the ordinances acknowledged they won't solve the larger problem of drug dealing, prostitution and associated violence. County Councilwoman Kathy Lambert, R-Woodinville, said the approach is "not a complete answer, but it will help a community get back on its feet."
Keith Ervin: 206-464-2105 or kervin@seattletimes.com