Sunday night, when two drivers — one in a van, another in an SUV — got into an argument as they both tried to turn onto Pike Place, the street running through the market, according to Seattle police.
A third driver, in a Mazda, witnessed the exchange and decided to drive his car up to the SUV, where he began arguing with its driver.
When the SUV driver stood up, he started striking the Mazda driver with the hammer until a crowd began to form and police arrived.
The morass of violence, ending with an injury to a pedestrian, comes just as the perennial fight over car access into Pike Place Market has taken on new momentum.
The question of whether such traffic should be limited caught fire again after council member Andrew Lewis, whose district includes the market, said on social media last fall he was interested in limiting cars through the market — part of a pandemic-era upswell of advocacy for making streets in the city more pedestrian-centered.
According to data from the Seattle Department of Transportation, there have been at least 170 collisions involving drivers in Pike Place Market since 2004, both on Pike Place itself and the streets heading east toward First Avenue.
Padelford said he does not expect, nor support, any decisions being made without robust conversation involving vendors and others with a vested interest in the Market.
As the discussion about limiting traffic gains steam, so too does pushback from some of the market’s legacy backers and supporters.
“This can happen anywhere, any time, in any type of situation where there are people and pedestrians in numbers,” he said.