Re: “Seattle’s Little Saigon, beset by crime, looks for a way forward” (March 20, Native Information):
As a Vietnamese American resident of Seattle, I see firsthand how the Chinatown Worldwide District’s working-class Asian neighborhood is being punished for current.
When fentanyl customers took over downtown, the town pushed them into the CID. When residents and companies complained, the town didn’t improve police presence or clear drug markets — it took away public providers as an alternative. The King County Metro bus cease? Eliminated. Hoa Mai Park? Closed.
If this occurred in a Black neighborhood, it could rightly be known as systemic racism. However as a result of it’s taking place to Asian immigrants, the town calls it “fairness.” Progressives who declare to care about marginalized communities flip a blind eye when the victims don’t match their most popular narrative.
Seattle takes taxes from CID companies whereas providing nothing in return — no security, no providers, not even acknowledgment. If the town refuses to guard this neighborhood, why ought to the CID proceed funding its personal neglect? Till actual motion is taken — police restored, drug markets eliminated, public providers returned — CID companies ought to withhold B&O and gross sales tax remittances. No safety, no providers, no taxes.
Sufficient. Seattle should be held accountable. If metropolis leaders received’t act, the CID should drive them to.
Jeff Nguyen, Seattle
