Shining light on "real" Belltown

She is the buzz of Belltown, though almost no one knows her name.

Depending on whom you ask, she's courageous for staring into Seattle's abyss. Or a voyeur who ridicules the city's down and out.

She's a video vigilante, who began posting on YouTube what she can see from her third-floor balcony in Belltown. It's a neighborhood known, as she says, for being "trendy, glamorous, filled with gorgeous million-dollar condos."

Her short films show a different Belltown. You can watch people smoking crack or shooting up, peeing or fighting. Dealers pass out drugs. Pimps berate hookers. All in a single alleyway, all during a two-week period last month.

It's like Belltown's own crime TV channel. The videos, at youtube.com/user/BelltownCrime, come with titles such as "Bums smoking crack in the afternoon." Or "Crackhead makes a pipe out of a can while wearing a sombrero."

One is so graphic, though dimly lit, that YouTube refused to post it. It is now on LiveLeak, a video site with apparently lower standards. It's a horrific 13 minutes of crack use, sex and shooting up next to a stained Dumpster.

The woman bringing all this to the world is 26 and works in marketing for a safety-equipment firm. She moved to Seattle, from Detroit, last September. I caught up with her to ask: Why are you doing this?

"I couldn't take it anymore," she said. "You'd think Detroit would be worse than Seattle, but it's not.

"Everybody says Seattle is a clean, safe city, but what you see in those videos is how it is outside my apartment every day and night. I did all the things I'm supposed to do, like call the police over and over. But it never changes.

"So this is a little experiment. I'm seeing if maybe this will shine some light on the problem."

That appears to have worked. The police say they have seen the videos. Last week the woman had 12 interview requests from TV stations and newspapers. She agreed to talk to me if I wouldn't name her, because she is worried about her safety.

"We think she's a hero," said her building manager. "What's happening in Belltown is a disgrace to the city. Because of her, people can see it for themselves."

Not everyone sees the value in that. Some say: Why expose addicts? They need help, not shaming. The videos have such a viscerally intimate quality that watching them, you can end up feeling as if you're the one doing something wrong.

Said one commenter at LiveLeak: "I'm not sure who is actually the worst in all this — the guy smoking crack or the guy recording it or me for watching it."

The woman says she's not out to exploit anyone. She left out videos in which addicts are easily recognizable.

"This is about what kind of city we want," she says. "People are afraid to walk down the street. Why is that OK? Shouldn't we do something about that?"

Yes, we should. Starting with more cops, I say.

But I wonder if we will do much. I forced myself to watch all 26 of her videos. I noticed YouTube is jammed with similarly graphic stuff from other cities.

At first I was aghast. Then, demoralized. By the end, numb.

These days we can watch anything and everything. Strangely, that may make it easier than ever to shrug and look away.

Danny Westneat's column appears Wednesday and Sunday. Reach him at 206-464-2086 or dwestneat@seattletimes.com.