Another harrowing escape puts attention on open prostitution along Seattle’s Aurora Avenue

By GENE JOHNSON
Associated Press

SEATTLE (AP) — The kidnapping of a woman who authorities say escaped her abductor by punching her way out of a cinder block cell in Oregon has focused attention on the area where authorities say she was taken: Aurora Avenue in Seattle, an urban stretch of state highway lined with box stores and budget motels and known for rampant prostitution. The mayor’s office says the city is clamping down following recent cases in which women who engaged in prostitution along Aurora had to make harrowing escapes or otherwise be rescued. The police department issued nuisance notices last week to two budget motels on Aurora that police said were hotbeds of prostitution and other crime.