The two motels on the west side of the urban highway, just south of North th Street, were the site of an open-air sex market that attracted droves of sex buyers and contributed to increased lawlessness β shootings, homicides, robberies, drug dealing and other crimes β in the surrounding neighborhood, according to police. The motels were shuttered in August, immediately disrupting the local marketplace and greatly reducing the number of prostituted women seen walking the streets in sky-high heels and barely there clothing.
At the same time, social-service providers who offer women and girls a path out of prostitution are stretched to capacity and say the men who pay for sex have become increasingly aggressive and violent. It was a hybrid system meant to maximize profits. The Seattle City Council unanimously voted in June to drop drug traffic and prostitution loitering laws from the books because of their disproportionate impacts on people of color.
Joe Osborne. You have to be able to build a case. Pimps typically exploit women and promote prostitution, while traffickers do the same to minor victims or adults compelled to prostitute through force, fraud or coercion.
But others have told Baedke they felt exploited by police and unsafe while interacting with officers on the street, she said. Investigators began compiling data late last year about calls for service and crimes committed at four Aurora motels, then met with their owners and managers to offer public-safety suggestions, Osborne said.
The two motels were closed as chronic nuisance properties and given more than 30 conditions to meet β ranging from improved aesthetics and wiring to hiring hour security β before they will undergo a variety of inspections on the path to reopening, Westphal said. Once the motels are allowed to reopen, the owners must maintain those terms for two years or risk a city lawsuit for breach of contract, said Westphal.
