The survey was the second installment of the Seattle Metro Chamber of Commerce’s “The Index.” The first was conducted in August and unearthed that Seattlites utmost concern was homelessness.
When questioned about the issues facing the city that voters are most frustrated or concerned about, the number of voters citing crime/drugs/public safety grew by 17 points since Index 1 in August 2021, from 28 to 46 percent. Seventy-three percent of residents said their neighborhoods are less safe than two years ago.
67 percent of voters polled said they had actively considered moving out of Seattle, citing the expensive cost of living and cost of housing in the city, as well as public safety.
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91 percent of Seattle voters believe downtown Seattle cannot make a full recovery until the homelessness crisis, and public safety problems are addressed, with an increasing number of voters saying they would not feel safe visiting downtown during the day and at night. The majority of voters said they would visit downtown less often for non-work activities since the August 2021 Index.
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Three-quarters said their neighborhood feels less safe compared to two years ago and that addressing homelessness and public safety issues is essential for the recovery of downtown.
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It was also detected that voters do not trust the City Council on police reform and strongly prefer a method that includes reform and hiring more officers rather than defunding and decriminalizing misdemeanors. Moreover, above 60 percent of voters distrusted the way the city spends taxpayer dollars.
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In 2020, during the riots that wavered the city, the Seattle City Council defunded not only the police department but also the Navigation Team, which utilized police, Waste Management, and social workers to clear encampments. Yet, 86 percent of voters support clearing the encampments, including 55 percent of self-identified Socialists that participated in the poll.
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One of the proponents of defunding the police, Councilmember Andrew Lewis, who marched with Antifa against the Seattle Police and as a city attorney advocated for releasing prolific offenders, recently was quoted as saying that fellow council members were “looking at me a little funny.” This followed his remark that “It is blatantly evident that a significant amount of the city’s crime and disorder is attributable to conditions in homeless encampments.”
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