The Seattle City Council passed a bill 8-1 on Tuesday, aimed at disrupting the city’s open-air drug markets.
If signed by the mayor, the new law will go into effect 30 days after the date of his signature.
The bill establishes two “Stay Out of Drug Area” (SODA) zones.
SODA Zone 1 is located in downtown Seattle, while SODA Zone 2 encompasses the Chinatown-International District (CID). The latter zone stretches from South Main Street to South Dearborn Street, with its western perimeter including the westernmost edge of 7th Avenue South and all adjacent sidewalks. The eastern perimeter runs along Boren Avenue to Rainier Avenue South.
The Chinatown-International District SODA zone boundaries. (Courtesy of the Seattle City Council)
Teizi Mersai, the operations manager at Lam’s Seafood in Little Saigon, called the move a “good sign that the city is doing something” and “long overdue.”
“I do not know enough to be overjoyed, but on the surface it looks like we’ll get our area cleaned up…
Now I’m waiting to see if the mayor signs it.”
The Seattle City Council also voted in favor of “SOAP” zones, or Stay Out of Area of Prostitution.
This legislation will make selling or buying a sex act a misdemeanor within the city of Seattle and will make promoting loitering for the purposes of prostitution a gross misdemeanor.
The zone is on Aurora Avenue from North 85th Street to North 145th Street.