Chris Gregoire says lawmakers must act to help downtown Seattle recover
Chris Gregoire on Thursday laid out a list of actions needed to help Seattle recover, including support for law enforcement.
"We cannot have an open drug market on Third Avenue and expect we're going to attract tourists and we're going to get people to come back to work," the CEO of Challenge Seattle said at the Business Journal's Grow Seattle event.
The state of downtown, while improved over the last eight months, continues to struggle due largely to public safety concerns fueled by a surge fentanyl use. In just one incident last month involving two arrests north of downtown, Seattle police said they confiscated over 5 pounds of fentanyl powder, 30,000 fentanyl pills, heroin, methamphetamine, cocaine and 14 guns plus body armor.
"We can no longer allow this type of market on Third. We cannot allow an arrest to be made, a person to be booked and released within an hour. We cannot allow the (state) Supreme Court to have made it so our law enforcement officers can't enforce in this area," said the former Washington governor.
https://www.bizjournals.com/seattle/news/2022/10/07/gregoire-legislature-must-act-help-seattle-recover.html