Did you know that an average Tukwila resident racks up restaurant bills of over $10,700 each year at restaurants in the city, drops another $105,000 or more shopping at businesses in the city and attends around 67 sporting events at Starfire Sports Complex annually? Not only that, we have the most professional soccer players per capita than any other city in the country!
April Fools? Well, if we were applying statistical data the way a for-profit marketing firm known as Safewise does to determine the “Safest & Most Dangerous Cities” list, then the above would be true. If you have ever taken a statistics class, you know that when seeking ratio, applying a number to 20,000 (residents) instead of 150,000 (Daytime population with visitors) will yield dramatically different results. Results that are then ranked against explicit warnings from the FBI to not do so due to the many variables such as residential vs daytime populations in unique cities like Tukwila.
Why is this important? For a company that says they “Want to avoid harmful generalizations of any demographic, group or community”, their actions say quite the opposite. Tukwila like most all cities in the country has been deeply impacted by COVID-19. Publicly ranking and thus knowingly damaging the livelihood and image of what is an extremely diverse, inclusive, wonderful and caring community based on inappropriately applied data does exactly what Safewise claims to be opposed to. It harms residents, businesses and the community as a whole all while at a time when many are struggling to get by or get back on their feet due to COVID-19 impacts. Further reporting and sharing this skewed data as a means of ranking cities only serves to negatively impact our diverse community and businesses.
For the third year in a row, Safewise has yet again failed to respond to our requests to address why they continue to ignore FBI warnings. Why are we putting this statement out? Because we care. We care about our diverse community, businesses and visitors. When we see incorrectly applied data hurting that same diverse community that we serve and care about, then we are going to stand up and say something and not remain silent.
