Crime problem has helped Aurora community bond

By GORDY HOLT
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER

Crime, especially on Aurora Avenue North, is a prime concern for residents and merchants, who are vigilant about cyclical crime waves.

Despite the siting of the Seattle Police Department's North Precinct in Licton Springs, battles over prostitution and drug crimes on Aurora Avenue North have been constant.

Crime is usually confined to Aurora, says Kearns, with auto theft and other property crimes being the most-reported.

At Clary's Transmission on Aurora, across from Gold's Gym, manager Tim Blanes said crime has been cleaned up "an awful lot," mainly because of police, and Aurora Avenue merchants watching out for one another.

"Years ago, we used to guess what would happen the next day. Now there is more of a neighborhood feel, and more of a sense of stability," Blanes said.

Improved lighting, awareness and bicycle police patrols have significantly cut into prostitution, gang problems and drug selling, according to business owners.

"It's Aurora, and Aurora's character doesn't change from Sea-Tac south of Seattle, all the way to north of Everett," said Greg Abbey, manager of Larry's Markets at Oak Tree Plaza on Aurora and North 103rd Street.

Abbey -- whose nagging problem is recovering shopping carts that find their ways to nearby motels -- has a personal investment in the neighborhood. He grew up here. The bricks he used to pave his home driveway were purchased for 25 cents each from the debris of the Oak Lake Elementary School, which stood where Larry's now is.

"I used to go live two blocks off the park," Abbey said. "I taught my daughter to ride her bike at the park. This place is very near and dear to me -- a great area, like a nice, little secret garden.''

A block south, carving marble memorials has become an award-winning art form at Quiring Monuments. The company has won several national competitions for its creative, elaborate and dignified gravestones.

Quiring's artisans also create sculptures like fountains and garden statuary for the living, owner David Quiring Jr. said. His father started the business in 1945 in his Beacon Hill home.

Now a board member of the Aurora Avenue Merchants Association, Quiring said "no business flourishes very well unless it is part of the community around them."

Aurora's late 1980s crime crisis of drugs, gangs and prostitution actually "did us a favor," Quiring said. "It was very serious, but helped us focus on the future, and showed us what happens when you have no community organization. We work more now for common goals."

The owners of Medalia Auctions have become heavily involved in neighborliness. Their office is like a small-town barber shop where regulars drop by for friendly banter. Joe Medalia sold the business to Ed McKnight and Bill Foote a few years ago and retired. But his brother, Mike, remains a frequent visitor.

The lot evolved from a scrap yard to selling surplus restaurant and school equipment. Anything seems to sell, and what some might consider an eyesore is actually quite an attraction for young photographers and artists, McKnight said. One artist bought a set of dishes to break up and use in a sculpture. Another customer bought old bakery cases to house a boa constrictor. And someone once staged a nude photography shoot in the lot -- "unbeknownst to us," McKnight said.

Each August, they join neighboring business owners to sponsor the "Bash Brothers Yard Party," with free food and the Portage Bay Big Band's 1940s swing music.

And during the Christmas season, Foote and McKnight display the mechanical holiday window displays from the old Frederick & Nelson department store. They acquired the window scenes while handling the venerable store's going-out-of-business auction.

The two like the community's willingness to compromise. When parking or traffic problems have crept up, "we've had meetings when there was some animosity in the neighborhood, and all found out that the guy next door wasn't such a jerk after all," McKnight said.