(This piece was originally published online in Real Change News on February 19, and is republished here with permission.)
On Dec. 16, King County Metro suspended bus services on 12th Avenue South and South Jackson Street, because of safety concerns from both operators and riders. This temporary closure lasted over two months, leaving many who depend on these bus routes to cope with the ongoing effects of this choice.
On Feb. 20, King County Metro announced route 1,7,9,14,36, 60 and 106 will resume operations on 12th Avenue South and South Jackson Street on March 3. All of these routes were impacted by the closure.
In its announcement, King County Metro provided information on alternative stops through posters at the closed locations, as well as notifications through the Metro Transit Alert website to subscribers.
“What it means is that customers need to board and exit either down the street or up the street from the bus stops that are closed,” said Jeff Switzer, a public information officer and spokesperson for King County Metro. “We recognize that’s an inconvenience for those bus riders, and we take that seriously and we do sympathize with that.”
Switzer said the decision came after King County Metro observed how difficult it was for riders to easily board and exit at the four bus stops located on 12th and Jackson, as well as for operators to proceed to the next stop due to overcrowding on the street. King County Metro wrote in an emailed statement to Real Change, “The area of 12th Ave South and South Jackson Street continues to be a location of frequent illegal activity.”
The general area that encompasses 12th and Jackson has been widely referred to by the public as hotspot for visible homelessness. Little Saigon, where the closed bus stops are, has been a frequent focus of the city’s efforts to increase public safety. Last September, Mayor Bruce Harrell designated the neighborhood as one of the city’s Stay Out of Drug Areas.
However, some unhoused folks, like Levita, say they felt abandoned by King County Metro’s decision. On Feb. 10, Levita waited for one of the southbound buses but didn’t realize the bus stop was closed. During our interview, I informed her about the closures, and she rushed to the nearest stop.
“I don’t know why they would do it,” she said before she left to catch the next bus.
According to community activist and Chinatown-International District (CID) resident Yin, these closures also impacted the CID’s elderly population. Yin, who did not disclose her last name due to privacy reasons, believes the closures weren’t communicated well enough, as she saw “aunties” and “uncles” continue to wait for their buses at the closed stops.
“It’s very frustrating that there’s no better solution,” Yin said. “There’s no upstream solution. The only solutions that the government seems to come up with [are] more policing and just very inhumane solutions for the neighborhood. There’s no thought about how to resource folks or being a safety net as a government for people. Instead they’re choosing violence and choosing to neglect the neighborhood.”
Since Mayor Harrell announced the launch of Operation New Day in March 2022, the area around 12th and Jackson has seen an increased presence of local law enforcement to address informal commerce and drug activity. Additionally, last November, he issued an executive order to deploy a Downtown Activation Team to “provide place-based activations, cleanings, and safety operations” in the CID and specifically Little Saigon.
Callie Craighead, press secretary for Mayor Harrell, wrote in an email to Real Change before bus services resumed at 12th and Jackson that the Mayor’s office recognizes how inconvenient these closures are and is working to implement $9 million from the transportation levy to increase transit safety measures both on the King County Metro and Sound Transit.
Craighead stated that the Seattle Department of Transportation 2025 budget includes $1 million to be allocated to aid King County Metro’s Transit Ambassador Program and King County’s Behavioral Health Team, as well as, another $1 million towards transit security. The mayors office is refining public safety within Little Saigon through the DAT pilot, which include installing more CCTV cameras and a real time crime center, as well as, working with community organizations in the area.
“Our office also continues to work with Friends of Little Saigon on community-driven safety solutions through the Phố Đẹp (Beautiful Neighborhood) initiative.”
Rame Smith and AJ Seymour, both frequent riders of route 7, said they view the closures as a good thing.
“I heard about it three days ago,” Smith said. “I was just on the way to my new apartment, my new start. I’m a representative of Seattle [who] wants to have the homeless people off the streets, to better themselves.”
Businesses near 12th and Jackson have also been affected by these closures. Henry Ku, owner of Henry’s Taiwan Kitchen, believes the closures are improving the area as he noticed fewer homeless people in the area. Ku said his business struggled prior to the closures.
“Nobody wants to come here, because it’s too dangerous,” he said. “[There’s] too many homeless people, and no one wants to get in trouble. I pay so much in fees, [but] then I have no business.”
Ku said King County Metro should only be able to lift the closure if the city of Seattle can guarantee that there will no longer be a homeless community situated at 12th and Jackson.
A 2022 UCLA study examined unhoused populations’ relation to U.S. public transportation and found that homeless people use transit as a form of shelter and to commute to services. According to King County Metro operator Desiree Andersen, this reliance on public transportation reflects a more significant problem within Seattle that needs to be addressed.
“When our social safety net [and] social service systems fail to provide services like housing, mental health care and crisis intervention, those people don’t go away,” Andersen said. “They don’t disappear. Oftentimes, they reappear on our public transit systems, and that directly impacts us bus operators and everyone else who provides public services.”
One frequent commuter of the 7, who requested anonymity due to privacy concerns, said they felt conflicted about the news of the temporary closures and believed a different approach to resolving the situation at 12th and Jackson would have been better.
“I understood why they [closed] that space [because] that’s where all these restaurants and kids traveling from school. They don’t have to see people overdosing or having a confrontation,” they said. “I also think it’s a shame because I don’t see them making positive space like that anywhere else.”
As they grew up in Seattle, the bus stop on 12th and Jackson was essential to their commuting, as it provided an easy way to get to school, work and grocery stores. They said the area was never a violent space for them.
“There are other people who want their community to be safe or feel secure, [and] I understood [sic] why that was,” they said. “But I really wish people would have upped their game so that they felt comfortable in their environment.”
As a King County Metro driver, Andersen said there are many misunderstandings about the causes of homelessness. And while she thinks the general public does not show enough compassion, she has also experienced situations that have made her uncomfortable or presented danger.
“If you’re driving [a bus] anywhere from, let’s say, four to 12 hours a day, those incidents add up over time and they create somebody who has compassion fatigue and who is having a hard time navigating being exposed to so much on the street everyday,” Andersen said.
Andersen credits her educational background in social work for helping her de-escalate difficult situations, but she said King Country Metro needs to implement more training to help drivers who don’t have those skills.
In the wake of the murder of Shawn Yim, a King County Metro operator who was fatally stabbed by a rider on Dec. 18, Andersen said King County Metro has committed to providing additional protection and training for operators.
Switzer wrote in an email to Real Change that King County Metro is looking at installing safety barriers for transit operators and partnering with the Awareness Vigilance Avoidance Defense and Escape program to provide transit operators more training.
Andersen believes it’s unfortunate that the stops on 12th and Jackson were closed, but she also emphasized that safety needs to come first.
“Nobody wants to make services less for people,” she said. “But ultimately we’re balancing safety first, and that means sometimes we’re making difficult decisions.”
According to Switzer, King County Metro is conducting an ongoing evaluation of these stops and is working with local law enforcement to address any illegal activity occurring in the area. King Country Metro is also hiring 10 additional King County Sheriff’s deputies who will be contracted as Metro Transit Police.
Robert Meano, a CID resident who regularly takes route 7 to get to work, doesn’t believe local law enforcement is helping the situation at 12th and Jackson. In fact, Meano said, the closures only made it worse.
“If they lift it, and the people are still there, what’s that going to solve?” Meano said in an interview before Metro resumed bus service. “Why close it in the first place? If they don’t solve the problem, you’re just exasperating it. SPD and other people here, all they do is move [homeless people] to the next street. It doesn’t solve the problem. It’s one of those things that [is] a written rule: don’t mess with the bus stops.”
To find more information about alternative routes, visit tinyurl.com/KingCountyMetroAlternateRoutes.
