Instead of just spending my Fourth of July sleeping or watching old movies or finishing my The Mod Squad marathon from my DVD collection, I was going to do something that I could write about. I know: take a stroll down Aurora Avenue North, which the last occasion I had a desire to visit was when I went to the Woodland Park Zoo a long, long time ago. I had heard that Aurora now had a seedy reputation, and I wanted to find out why.
It was supposed to be around 90 degrees, so I decided to make an early start. Instead of taking the bus home after my night shift job, I took a nap for a few hours and started off at 4:30 AM, because the Google map told me it was going to be a long haul to reach my ultimate destination walking, and I wanted to make this a pictorial excursion. I got on board Aurora from Mercer Street past the Seattle Center; it didn’t start out too “seedy,” with these condos overlooking the avenue…
…before I turned my attention to ground level, where I noticed why Aurora was not a particularly “friendly” place for either drivers or pedestrians, with this barrier stretching much of its length with no crossing roads and only one or two sky bridges located at the E-Line bus stops (well, except for this one):
It didn’t take long for me to discover that Aurora had seen better days; when this dwelling was built, it must have been considered quite “chic.” Today, it is an abandoned ruin with broken windows:
Lots of trees on that side (there’s a homeless person’s tent hiding up there)…
…and Lake Union on this side:
What’s that there? I remember that place, the Hillside Motel; I think I rented a room there once, back in the 90’s:
A couple of high-rent residences, one “classical,” the other “modern”:
Now we are on the Aurora Bridge; the meta data says it was still only 5:36 AM:
Here are some over-water bungalows on this side…
…and boat docks on that side:
We’re off the bridge now…
…and there is the Marco Polo Motel:
It must have been high-end back in the day, if it has three-bed suites:
What’s this? The Seattle Pole Dance Studio?:
Their website seems legit…
…and it isn’t the only pole-dancing studio in the area:
The question is where can you practice the trade?:
Well, more places than I thought. Back to our road trip. Here is a motel that probably didn’t offer three-bed suites:
And here we are entering Woodland Park:
I had to go all the way to the end to find an opening from the avenue…
…and the place looked empty about then, so I went in search of a tree somewhere while it was still safe. There’s Green Lake peeking through the trees. It sure seems a lot bigger than I “remembered”:
I think these “floating habitats” were created by guilt-ridden people who destroyed the originals:
So now we are past the higher-end Green Lake community and finally getting closer to the “seedy” side of Aurora Avenue north of North:
Aurora Avenue “welcomes” you to its “business” district:
The real “business,” from what I can tell, doesn’t start until you reach 90th Street…
…which is the "official" southern border of…
I actually didn’t expect to see anything this early in the morning, until I reached 92nd, where I saw a woman wearing a super-skintight, mini-mini skirt standing at the corner. I wanted to take a picture of her facing away from me, but she kept looking at me, and I didn’t want to look like some jerk. Since I figured that yes, the rumors were true, and my "dogs" were killing me after an almost 3-hour walk, I went over to the other side of the avenue to find the nearest E-Line bus stop going back to downtown.
While I was waiting I observed another woman walking toward me, also wearing the same type of outfit, as if it were a form of “identification.” I noticed that she was waving at motorists passing by—including a Seattle police car. She walked past me with a wide grin on her face, as if she found it amusing that this curious novice was "shocked" by such things. But then again, why would anyone be there that early in the morning when the only other place open for “business” was a 7-Eleven?
Well, there she goes…
…and on the way back there was the other lady:
Of course if this was at night, you would see something like this (I think it is a good bet that the lady on the right isn't a cop):
Hard to believe that something like this goes on in Seattle, huh? According to “liberal” Washington law and the mainstream media, these women are all the victims of “human trafficking.” The other day this local news story appeared:
Seven men were arrested as the result of an undercover operation aimed at buyers of human trafficking victims on Aurora Avenue North on June 28.
To most people, this claim of “human trafficking” is worthy of no more than an eye-roll, because the vast majority of these women know exactly what they are doing. That’s the way things are in this “progressive” on gender issues state. Drug pushers are treated more harshly than drug users—the latter considered to be more the “victims”—while the opposite is true for “sex” pushers and sex “users.”
Women are the "dealers," and men are buying their "product," and there is (no) debate on who the real "victims" are? Who is taking advantage of the "weaknesses" of whom here for money? Most of these women are lying if they say they were "forced" into this; most are not working for what the law describes as “promoters,” but as independent operators. These women know that they can get better money doing this in one hour than they would working at most 8-hour jobs. Yet they are "victims."
Furthermore, the idea that if you remove the “dealers” the “market” will disappear is just another example of political hypocrisy in plain sight; these women know that they will not be arrested for just being there. There is only “trouble” if they are seen being picked up by a man—and mostly for the man. According to some guy on a Reddit discussion page,
What's funny to me is as a security guard I have spoken to quite a few of these women. The OP absolutely has a point. SPD spends about 4 hours a night just sitting along Aurora. From 9 pm - 1 am. The women know the times and try to either move to a space out of the vision or wait till 1 to go back out. For all of you saying that these women are being victims, you have a gross misunderstanding about who they are. Some are out there for drugs. A smaller few maybe are being trafficked, but most are independent workers who are just as sick of the pimps as they are the cops.
And probably their “rescuers” too, who are
interfering with their livelihood and actually makes life more "unsafe" for
them; since theirs is not recognized as a “legitimate” occupation, they have no
labor rights that can be enforced. Furthermore, as the website Decriminalize Sex Work asserts, making “sex work” legal will actually decrease alleged “trafficking.” But then again, the "rescuers" apparently desire the opposite, because it "justifies" their own existence and agenda.
As it stands today, current Washington state law tell us that
Engaging in prostitution or solicitation are both misdemeanors in Washington, which can each incur fines of up to $1,000, up to ninety days of jail time, or both. Engaging in first-degree promoting of prostitution is a class B felony that can result in fines of up to $20,000, up to ten years in prison, or both. Second degree promoting of prostitution, on the other hand, is a class C felony, which can result in a fine of up to $10,000, up to five years in prison, or both.
As can be seen, it really doesn’t “pay” to be a “promoter,” meaning a “pimp” or a “madam”—although the statute repeatedly uses only masculine pronouns to describe “promoters”—and thus it makes sense that most of these women are “independent.” So who actually is left to be treated as the "real" criminals? Why, the “johns” of course.
Well, that’s that. I have no plans on returning to Aurora Avenue North, but at least I “know” what’s there now.
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