Seattle City Attorney Erika Evans Has No Plan to Protect North Seattle.
Ideology Over Public Safety.
Just as the weather transitions towards summer season, violence and exploitation are heating up on Seattle’s Aurora Blvd. This situation is the consequence of voters in Seattle choosing ideological candidates. It’s a belief system which took hold in the hot summer of 2020. I’m all for social justice, however, focusing on changing the world comes at the cost of ignoring urgent facts on the ground.
SOAP Zones
Stay Out of Areas of Prostitution (SOAP) laws are basically restraining orders on individuals who cause trouble in certain areas. They are similar to SODA orders — Stay Out of Drug Activity . SODA and SOAP were both passed in 2024, before the November 2025 election swept ideology into power.
The idea with SOAP and SODA is to provide relief to areas of concentrated crime by keeping bad actors away. It’s like a judge ordering a creepy stalker to stay away.
Political opposition to SOAP and SODA decried these orders as “banishment”.
They’re not wrong about that.
Instead of addressing the notion of any hurt feelings among pimps and fentanyl dealers who are ordered to stay away from certain communities, I will say that the laws were written in a way where an order could be an alternative to jail time. There you have it — my own bleeding heart.
Nevertheless, ideology candidates ran in 2025 against SOAP and SODA — with some City Attorney candidates vowing to not enforce these laws.
SOAP & SODA “Ridiculous”
A March 27, 2025 Urbanist article about the 2025 election, quotes current Seattle City Attorney Erika Evans saying SOAP and SODA were “ridiculous” and “not effective”. She vowed not to enforce the restraining orders on pimps and dealers.
Evans then frames the situation in North Aurora avenue in terms of race relations in our country. I’m not discounting the reality of our history with race, but Evans is zooming out way too far.
Let’s look at the bad situation on Aurora in terms of rights and justice.
Human exploitation via street walking prostitution fosters general disempowerment and subjugation of women and girls.
Pimps are big guys with guns competing over controlling this gender-based power structure. The result is physical neglect and abuse of women and girls.
Then there’s the gun violence. Just ask the people in the communities surrounding the illicit street-walking business.
Evans’ view from 100,000 ft. misses this, so the result is Seattle’s City Attorney Missing In Action while Aurora breaks down. She even admitted helplessness during the 2025 campaign for city attorney.
The Urbanist article states, “Evans thinks the City Attorney’s Office should be working more with its federal partners and local federal prosecutors to pursue high-level traffickers.”
Did you catch that? Evans punted the issue to “federal partner” Trump administration!
Tyranny of the Managers
Evans and other city leaders’ absence has created a vacuum. If the Seattle City Attorney can’t protect communities, some resourceful people took action .
It’s reported how homemade traffic barriers were built off Aurora side streets. This is vigilantism from people scared by the real sounds and terrible potential of gun violence. The cliché, “To dodge a bullet”, really means something in that area.
Evans, and even at-large city councilors Dionne Foster and Alexis Rinck are not wired for an effective response to the street-walking on Aurora. Check out my article on how CM Rinck never even mentions Chronic Addiction in an interview regarding factors driving Homelessness.
These ideologues refuse to acknowledge reality because increasing police presence and prosecuting crimes in the North Aurora area would refute the whole premise of leadership in Seattle — and even Olympia. Their worldview revolves around supporting publicly funded programs and the managers who contract to run them.
Measurable results do not matter. Erika Evans is on a crusade to fund the effort of building an equitable world. But what about the exploitation of the vulnerable and Aurora community literally caught in the crossfire?
It’s the duty of government to protect us from violence. This means people must demand more police, including prosecutions of pimps and other predators.
Then there’s the “Johns” — the age-old issue of men who need to pay for sex. Check out the Cascade Party resolution regarding legal / safe and regulated sex work . The situation on Seattle’s Aurora urges a discussion about what this could look like in our state.
At least we’re starting to talk about sex work as a solution — you read it here first!
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