By MARK HIGGINS
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER

PUBLIC SAFETY is a top concern of residents, according to a 1996 survey, which also showed a strong community desire for more affordable housing, parking, a storefront police station and artists' live/work space.

While residents say they generally feel safe in Pioneer Square, they strongly object to people urinating in alleys, street drunks, aggressive panhandling, loitering and homeless people who sleep in doorways, the survey found.

In July 1997, the community council launched a summertime "lunch in the park'' program to encourage office workers and residents to use one of the three parks in Pioneer Square. The program also was meant as a way to "take back the park'' from some of the drifters and drinkers who linger there.

The City Council has also passed a law that will soon allow police to eject people from Seattle parks for seven days to one year if they are caught violating city laws.

A new study found 1,249 "part 1" crimes -- thefts, robberies, assaults and burglaries -- were reported in the greater Pioneer Square area in 1996. It was prepared for the Pioneer Square Community Council by two University of Washington undergraduate students and released this month

While the number of incidents may sound high compared with Pioneer Square's population, the area attracts thousands of visitors weekly, especially during sporting events and on weekends.

"We keep being told that this is a safe part of town, and I always believed that and tend to despite the fact that I was assaulted in February," says resident Christopher Martin.

Martin said he was jumped by four soldiers after he asked them to stop smashing bottles. Martin and others in Pioneer Square say it is often drunken sports fans or club-goers who cause problems.

Seattle police Officers Paul Stimmel, Jim Kelly and Lonnie Gillette know Pioneer Square as well as anyone. They walk the beat. As they made their rounds on a recent Saturday, the trio talked about the tight relationship they have with the community.

"Pioneer Square is generally a safe neighborhood," Kelly says. "In a city of this size, you always have to be aware of your surroundings."

Gillette says he sees the biggest change at night, "when it's a completely different picture." Gillette, who was recently assaulted in Pioneer Square during the day, contends that its main streets generally are safe day or night.

Alleys, however, are another matter. Residents complain that some are drug dens and public toilets. Despite the city's efforts to clean them nightly, some are a mess of human excrement, overflowing trash bins and broken glass.

Martin, who lives by one alley, would like to see the alleys turned into pedestrian-friendly places, like Post Alley near Pike Place Market. A way to begin, Martin says, is to remove the dumpsters, have businesses use their alley entrances for deliveries, and collect bagged garbage daily. Such a program also would eliminate the horrible din generated every night when trash haulers empty the trash bins.