I thought a lot about how to ask a question for our Question of the Week about whether people feel safe in Skyway. I asked it in a way that would make others think about Skyway, too, not just those who live there.

The question:

“Do you lock your car door when you drive through Skyway?”

I asked the question on the same day reporter Celeste Gracey wrote about the crime rate in Skyway and the Skyway community’s efforts to, in essence, take back their streets. That was the context for the question.

The photo on the front page showed Michele Savelle with Skyway Solutions painting the “See Skyway” mural.

The question angered and offended many of those Skyway residents, many involved in Skyway Solutions, who are working hard to dispel myths about West Hill and to revitalize their community. Those efforts are worth applauding and supporting.

Of course, I didn’t know how the poll would turn out. As of Wednesday (our print deadline), about two-thirds of the respondents said they don’t lock their car doors when they drive through Skyway. The poll is unscientific, but I think it’s a good indication that most people believe Skyway is an inherently safe place.

At least one commenter on the Skyway Solutions’ West Hill Connects called the question insensitive and many called for me to remove the poll question.

As Michele Savelle wrote in an e-mail to me:

“People here are hurt by the lack of context, as we struggle to face these very questions ourselves in an appropriate way. It’s not as if we don’t talk or think about this issue all the time!”

I was struck by three words in her e-mail: “an appropriate way.”

Michele and others asked that I remove the question. I didn’t. I think the question, while provocative, resulted in a clear message from the community and a healthy discussion that will make everyone more sensitive. As I told Michele in a reply, if the response had gone the other way, then Skyway would have had more work to do.

The Renton Reporter will continue to write about Skyway’s renaissance and the hard work of its citizens to make that happen. And, yes, we will continue to ask questions that hopefully will spur debate and lead to a deeper understanding of the West Hill.

As I said last week, the debate is important because someday Skyway could become part of Renton. By the way. I don’t lock my car door when I drive through Skyway or Renton or Kent or pretty much anyplace else.

Michele wondered why I didn’t ask the same question of Renton. That’s this week’s Question of the Week. I wasn’t picking on Skyway.

Here is Michele’s letter

I am writing to express my disappointment at the continued presence of a poll on this page of your online publication.

The poll is titled: “Do you lock your car doors when driving through Skyway?”

As you will see by the results, the responses are overwhelmingly “NO.”

While this is a gratifying outcome, I find the presence of the poll itself insulting and amazingly insensitive to the concerns and efforts of the Skyway community.

It is fascinating to me that at exactly the same time as you are printing a series about the good things that are going on in our community (the mural story got top billing recently), you would see fit to run this poll, which serves to prolong and strengthen the misconception that Skyway is a place where you SHOULD or MIGHT WANT TO lock your doors!

We are not happy about this “giving with one hand and taking away with the other” on the part of your paper. The comments on our Google Group, “West Hill Connects,” are really quite angry! I am moderating my tone, but I must confess to feeling that way myself – the question is: What is the point of this poll? What are you trying to do? And why?

I believe that it should be removed from your website, with an apology for gross insensitivity. We don’t need this kind of veiled commentary from you, when we are struggling to correct the damage that has already been done by the media. When the Renton Reporter can be quoted as describing our area as “Best known for its crime.”, we wonder what you are really up to.

Would you post a poll like that about Seattle? Renton? Kent?

Why have you chosen to “pick on” Skyway?

Please remove this gratuitous, negative message, which is masquerading as a “poll” from your site.