SEATTLE — These crime fighters aren't in uniform and don't carry weapons or badges. They wield guitars, Hula-Hoops, washboards, paintbrushes, and will hopefully have the ability to draw a crowd.
Last week, Seattle parks began paying street performers -- mostly musicians, but also a few visual artists and some vaudevillians -- to entertain in five downtown parks in hopes that with more people around, a park will be less hospitable to illegal activity.
Mayor Greg Nickels organized a special city task force in 2005 to study the problems of urban public spaces and parks. The group's report, released last year, hailed these areas as "potentially great assets" to downtown, but concluded that "the parks don't feel safe or welcoming, and ... there are few reasons for people to visit them."
Four of the five parks -- Westlake, Hing Hay, Pioneer Square and Freeway -- are in the city's urban core. The fifth park, Waterfront, is on a pier next to the city's newly remodeled aquarium and near the cruise ship terminal.
The most common problems in the parks are drug-dealing and prostitution.
"It's an experiment," said Victoria Schoenburg, one of the principal organizers of the Seattle Parks and Recreation Department program.
She said that a concert may draw people to a park once, but the presence of performers everyday at lunchtime would more likely draw return visitors.
"We've been trying all kinds of things in the parks over the past few years -- free concerts, basic ambient improvements. We've discovered that low-cost, simple grass-roots ideas are the most effective," Schoenburg said .
Judd Wasserman, 28 and Rachel Jacobson-Larson, 25, who perform as the Forget Me Nots, had an audience of five late in the lunch hour in Freeway Park on Wednesday, but said their experience had been positive.
"People have been coming up, asking us what we're doing, and saying how much they like the music," said Jacobson-Larson, who plays the violin. Wasserman plays a steel acoustic guitar and both musicians sing.
Freeway Park abuts Interstate 5. It's loud and the long benches often serve as sleeping spots for homeless people. But it is also next to several high-rise office buildings, and the parks department has provided lunch tables for office workers.
The parks are not always ideal performance spaces, but Schoenburg said the parks department would ask the performers for feedback.
