Aurora Residents Asked for Action. A Local Business Answered.

Last week, hundreds of Aurora Avenue residents took to the streets to demand something most people consider basic: safe neighborhoods, safe sidewalks, and a city government willing to confront persistent sex trafficking, violence, and exploitation in their community.

This week, a prominent Seattle business owner is adding his voice to that growing chorus.

Dunn Lumber CEO Mike Dunn plans to install a large banner on the company’s Aurora Avenue location aimed directly at men who purchase sex. The message is intentionally provocative. Dunn says the goal is to discourage demand, raise awareness about trafficking, and force a broader conversation about what has become one of Seattle’s most visible and longstanding public safety failures.

Dunn, a fourth-generation business owner, said he was compelled to act on this because “we are regularly seeing very young girls, mostly unclothed, standing on the corner trying to solicit business, and we’re hearing gunshots during the day.”

The campaign was developed in partnership with Seattle-based creative agency DNA&STONE, which helped create the messaging and strategy behind the effort. Together, they are doing something that increasingly feels uncommon in Seattle’s civic debate: publicly acknowledging the problem and attempting to do something about it.

In a statement, DNA&STONE Co-Founder Alan Brown said, “Real change begins when accountability is paired with an opportunity to confront the deeper issues driving the behavior.”

Business owners generally want to focus on serving customers and running their companies. Residents generally want to focus on raising families and living their lives. Neither group should feel obligated to fill gaps left by government. Yet, that is increasingly what is happening.

Whether people agree with every aspect of the campaign is almost beside the point.

The more important question is why business owners and residents feel compelled to take these steps in the first place.

For years, Aurora Avenue has been the focus of repeated promises, task forces, pilot programs, and public discussions. Yet residents continue to report open-air prostitution, suspected trafficking activity, gun violence, and ongoing safety concerns.

Last weekend’s community march was not organized by political activists or ideological groups. It was organized by neighbors who feel their concerns have gone unanswered for far too long.

Seattle voters are compassionate people. They want trafficking victims protected. They want vulnerable individuals connected with services. They want policies rooted in dignity and fairness.

They also want neighborhoods where children can safely walk to a park, where families do not regularly witness commercial sexual exploitation on major streets, and where businesses can operate without becoming unwilling participants in a public safety crisis.

Those goals are not in conflict.

In fact, many Aurora residents would argue they depend on one another.

What stands out about Dunn’s campaign is not simply the banner itself. It is what the banner represents.

When residents organized a march, they were sending a message that the status quo is unacceptable. Now a fourth-generation Seattle business is sending much the same message. A company that has served the region for more than a century has concluded that speaking publicly about Aurora’s challenges is necessary because remaining silent is no longer responsible.

That should matter to city leaders.

The encouraging part is that Aurora’s residents are no longer waiting quietly for someone else to solve the problem. Neighbors are organizing. Business leaders are speaking up. Community members are demanding better. That kind of civic engagement is worth celebrating.

Mike Dunn and DNA&STONE deserve credit for stepping forward. So do the residents who marched last weekend.

The question now is whether Seattle’s leaders will match that same sense of urgency.

Several current and former elected officials attended last week’s march, but we have still heard very little from those with the most ability to do something about this, specifically Mayor Katie Wilson, Councilmember Debora Juarez (who represents this area), and at-large Councilmembers Alexis Rinck and Dionne Foster (who represent the city as a whole).

Contact Mayor Katie Wilson here.

Lookup and contact your Seattle Councilmembers here.

When residents and businesses are willing to lead, government should be ready to listen.

Photo: Mike Dunn, courtesy of Dunn Lumber