Murder-suicides, purse-snatchings, urm, homeless people. Ballard's got it all!

From the Ballard News Tribune.

Once a quiet, Scandinavian suburb of Seattle, Ballard has morphed into an urban hotspot, complete with top-rated restaurants, fresh nightlife and, yes, crime.

Residents are concerned about keeping their streets safe, their parks clean and their police visible. They want all the perks of downtown Seattle to accommodate their growing population, but there just aren’t enough funds, said Beth Williamson Miller, executive director of the Ballard Chamber of Commerce.

Crime makes a commercial district seem unfriendly — the last thing you want when you’re struggling to stay out of the red in a stagnant economy, Williamson Miller said.

“It used to be because we were kind of out of the way, we were fortunate enough not to have a lot of public safety issues like some other communities have had,” she said. “Now, because we’ve become more dense and become kind of the ‘it’ place, we’re seeing more criminal activity.”