States and counties across the country have rolled back COVID mandates this month. In Washington, the vaccine verification requirement for King County restaurants as well as the mask mandate for most indoor spaces are lifted. However, Seattle has dealt with another impediment to bringing business back downtown. Public safety as it relates to crime is on the front burner. Seattle’s workers who have been working remotely for almost two years are coming back to work in person.
Thousands of city of Seattle employees are out and about as they were before the pandemic. About 35% of the city’s employees are still working remotely. The Seattle Medium has recently reported on businesses that are taking safety precautions due to crime in Seattle. Mayor Bruce Harrell’s office said it has made safety improvements at all buildings, like installing protective barriers for workers who deal with the public. But, it is also on the streets where the crime issues are.
The city was requiring all staff to be fully vaccinated and mandated employees to wear masks until April 11. Harell announced his plans to bring back the city’s workers to in-person, saying, “These steps forward show we are moving in the right direction and reflect that our region’s strong COVID response is the result of a united team effort. With City employees who had previously been working from home beginning to return to office in mid-March, I look forward to keeping up this collaborative spirit as we drive forward an equitable, community-focused recovery.”
Many are ready to leave home to have a regular work experience again while other workers may have gotten use to working from home. Not having to use gas and fight traffic has many benefits for workers – safety, being one of them. Crime through its retail core near Third Avenue and Pike Street has caused at least two businesses to close and prompted Amazon to remove its employees from offices in the Macy’s building on Pine Street.
A homeless encampment across the street from City Hall was removed recently. Homeless camps have been in the news due to violent crime. This is what is pointed out by employers that own businesses in the area. Crime outside their businesses has caused fear among employees looking to go back to work.
The move to bring back city employees comes as COVID cases and the hospitalizations continue to drop across the county and state. However, Harrell said that the city would bring back its workers over the course of weeks; not all at once.
