Originally published Saturday, November 29, 1997

By SCOTT SUNDE
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER

It wasn't until Feb. 28, 1990, that the city of SeaTac came into being, spurred on by two forces: money and sex.

The area that would become SeaTac was "a cash cow" for King County government, recalled Joe Brennan, a longtime city councilman. The hotels, restaurants and other airport-related businesses produced huge tax revenues, most of which was sent to the county, which returned only a trickle.

The area, for example, had a rural fire department even though it was responsible for high-rise office buildings and hotels, Brennan says.

Then there was sex. Pacific Highway South became "the strip," a collection of massage parlors and parade ground for streetwalkers.

"You could drive down the strip and count 25 prostitutes working at any time of the day," Brennan says.

Along with the prostitution came drugs and shootings. Many of the victims of the Green River Killer came from the strip.

Crime overwhelmed the King County police officers assigned to the area. Incorporation brought in tax revenue and bought SeaTac its own police force. The city still uses King County officers, though they wear SeaTac uniforms. The city also is paying to have twice the number of officers on the street as before incorporation, says Bill Dickinson, chief of the 51-person department.

Police enforcement and threats of property seizures closed down the city's three massage parlors, Dickinson says. Also gone are the peep shows and what Dickinson called a "rip and tease" business that promised patrons sexual contact but offered none.

One all-nude dance club remains.

Town residents say the streetwalkers have either moved away or stay out of sight. Dickinson credits SOAP -- a local ordinance known as Stay Out of Areas of Prostitution -- for the cleanup. That made a second-time conviction for prostitution punishable by up to a year in jail.

Before the ordinance, prostitutes typically spent a night in jail and paid a fine of $40 to $50 -- "nothing more than a tax," Dickinson says.

The strip also went in for a makeover. The city changed the name of Pacific Highway South to International Boulevard and has begun to line it with sidewalks and planted trees.

The challenges, however, continue. The sidewalks have yet to reach as far south as Madrona Elementary School. Despite Campbell's urgings that parents put their children on buses, some students still walk along and cross International Boulevard twice a day, the principal says.

The school district is trying to work out a plan with neighboring apartment complexes that would provide a four-foot right of way through which students could walk safely and away from traffic, Campbell says.