DISPATCHES FROM THE BLUE ZONES: Aurora Avenue neighbors revolt, blocking off street access after yet another shooting.

One week ago, bullets blasted through the wall of a Greenwood neighborhood home and passed within inches of a window where a six-week-old baby boy was sleeping in his bassinet.

Saturday morning, roughly 40 shell casings were on the pavement near Aurora Avenue N. and N. 98th Street in Seattle after another shootout near the Burgermaster.

By daylight, the neighbors had had enough.

Residents along Seattle’s North Aurora corridor stopped waiting on City Hall. They hauled in large industrial steel planters and blocked off three residential side streets at N. 97th, 98th, and 102nd Streets near where they meet Aurora Avenue N. Neighbors said a representative from the mayor’s office and the Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) came out to push back. They were waved off.

“We’re honestly not thinking long term right now,” one neighbor said, asking not to be identified out of fear of retribution from pimps and dealers operating along the Aurora Avenue corridor.

“We’re sick of this,” he added, citing a lack of action from city leaders. “We’re going to close the streets.”

Hard to think longterm when the bullets are flying.