Podcasts about rainier valley

Since Link Light Rail began service in 2009, more than 30 pedestrians have been hit by trains after stepping into a crossing. Less than two weeks ago there was a collision near Othello Station in the Rainier Valley. The next week, just blocks away… Another collision between a light rail train and a car. KUOW Reporter Casey Martin will explain what makes the light rail so dangerous in south Seattle, and what Sound Transit is doing to try and make things safer. Read about Sound Transit’s At-Grade Crossing Program here. Information on off-leash dog areas can be found here. We can only make Seattle Now because listeners support us. Tap here to make a gift and keep Seattle Now in your feed. Got questions about local news or story ideas to share? We want to hear from you! Email us at seattlenow@kuow.org, leave us a voicemail at (206) 616-6746 or leave us feedback online.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Seattle City Council Member Tammy Morales is leaving her post. She announced last week she is resigning from the council.  Morales has represented Seattle's 2nd District, which includes Yesler Terrace, the CID, Beacon Hill, Rainier Valley and Rainier Beach, since 2019.  Her last day in the seat will be January 6th.  It's a surprise decision considering Morales was re-elected to a four year term just last year. In a letter to her constituents, Morales leveled criticisms about at toxic environment on the council and the toll the job has taken on her personally over the past year - "For the last 11 months, this Council has eroded our checks and balances as a Legislative department and undermined my work as a policymaker." Guest: District 2 Seattle City Council Member Tammy Morales Relevant Links: Morales letter to her constituents City Councilmember Tammy Morales Will Leave the Council In January - Publicola   Thank you to the supporters of KUOW, you help make this show possible! If you want to help out, go to kuow.org/donate/soundsidenotes Soundside is a production of KUOW in Seattle, a proud member of the NPR Network.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

How can cities and the people they serve work together to co-create civil rights solutions to root cause issues, and not symptoms?   In this illuminating episode, Ben McBride delves into a powerful conversation with Derrick Wheeler-Smith, the Director of the Seattle Office for Civil Rights. Derrick shares his compelling journey from personal experiences of racism to leading transformative civil rights and racial equity initiatives in Seattle. Learn how his values-based leadership and commitment to community investment are driving systemic change and fostering a culture of belonging. This episode is a masterclass in resilience, equity, and the importance of knowing oneself to lead effectively.   Guest Bio: Derrick Wheeler-Smith is a native son of the Rainier Valley whose impact as a leader in racial equity and community empowerment in Seattle and King County has spanned more than two decades. Since his beginnings as a youth outreach worker in the streets and schools of Seattle in the late 1990's, through his most recent appointment as the Director of Seattle Office For Civil Rights, Derrick's bold ideas, courageous voice, and ability to empower community action has been a tidal force for countless waves of progress in the Seattle region.   Derrick Wheeler-Smith's LinkedIn profile

How can cities and the people they serve work together to co-create civil rights solutions to root cause issues, and not symptoms?   In this illuminating episode, Ben McBride delves into a powerful conversation with Derrick Wheeler-Smith, the Director of the Seattle Office for Civil Rights. Derrick shares his compelling journey from personal experiences of racism to leading transformative civil rights and racial equity initiatives in Seattle. Learn how his values-based leadership and commitment to community investment are driving systemic change and fostering a culture of belonging. This episode is a masterclass in resilience, equity, and the importance of knowing oneself to lead effectively.   Guest Bio: Derrick Wheeler-Smith is a native son of the Rainier Valley whose impact as a leader in racial equity and community empowerment in Seattle and King County has spanned more than two decades. Since his beginnings as a youth outreach worker in the streets and schools of Seattle in the late 1990's, through his most recent appointment as the Director of Seattle Office For Civil Rights, Derrick's bold ideas, courageous voice, and ability to empower community action has been a tidal force for countless waves of progress in the Seattle region.   Derrick Wheeler-Smith's LinkedIn profile

Movie armorer in Alec Baldwin shooting case has been found guilty and could face up to 18 months in prison. KNOW IT ALL: 1) Murder in Rainier Valley. 2) The weather is looking good for this weekend. 3) Seattle's historic Denny Mansion will be torn down. 4) Diaper prices are up 600% in Gaza. // Elon Musk hired then fired Don Lemon. // Bryan notes some famous people who died this week. WSU's Gardner Minshew signed a multi-year deal with the Las Vegas Raiders. Media mocks Aaron Rodgers in light of RFK Jr. considering him for VP. 

New book details the rise of various tech moguls and includes folksy anecdotes. Bryan disagrees with NY City mayor Eric Adams and his number one priority to address the illegal immigration problem. Biden stressed bipartisanship in addressing the border crisis and Bryan says the President's plea was hollow. Border patrol agents seem to obviously prefer Trump's policies over Biden's. // A checking of the texting. In-N-Out Burger is coming to WA state. // Shooting in Rainier Valley.   

On this week-in-review, Crystal is joined by Seattle political reporter and editor of PubliCola, Erica Barnett! First up, for those looking to supercharge their engagement in Washington State policymaking or advocacy, Crystal gives a shout-out for the Washington State Institute for a Democratic Future program. Applications for their 2024 class are open and due by November 20th for early applicants (there is also an extended “late application period” until November 27th but with an increased application fee). Check out the program that launched Crystal's career in politics and see if it's right for you! Crystal and Erica then dive into a roundup of election news starting with how the Seattle City Council is losing institutional knowledge with its makeup shifting after last week's election results, meaning the new council will need to get up to speed on many complex upcoming issues such as the City budget, the Seattle Police Officers Guild (SPOG) contract, and the Comprehensive Plan. Contributing to this loss of experience is Teresa Mosqueda moving over to the King County Council and how speculation has begun over who her appointed replacement will be. The election news wraps up with two snafus - the King County website breaking on Election Night and USPS finally delivering missing ballots from an unchecked mailbox. Moving on from elections, they discuss Seattle budget news - a $20 million increase in the JumpStart Tax to fund student mental health care programs, narrow passage of controversial ShotSpotter surveillance technology, continued struggle to fund City employee pay increases, and a spotty outlook for much-needed progressive revenue solutions. Delving further into City worker wage issues, the City sent an oblivious email to workers providing financial tips whilst asking them to accept a sub-inflationary pay increase and the tentative firefighters' union contract also doesn't keep up with cost of living. Finally, Crystal and Erica revisit the saga unfolding in Burien with a looming deadline to accept $1 million to address their homelessness crisis and Sound Transit resumes fare enforcement. As always, a full text transcript of the show is available below and at officialhacksandwonks.com. Find the host, Crystal Fincher, on Twitter at @finchfrii and find today's co-host, Erica Barnett, at @ericacbarnett.   Resources WAIDF - Washington State Institute for a Democratic Future   “Morales Surges While Other Progressives Flail in Latest Election Results; Mosqueda Explains Why She'll Stay Through the End of This Year” from PubliCola   “Who Will Replace Teresa Mosqueda?” by Hannah Krieg from The Stranger   “County Website Failed on Election Night Due to “Traffic Issue”” by Erica C. Barnett from PubliCola   “USPS failed to deliver ballots from one Seattle mail drop box” by Sarah Grace Taylor from The Seattle Times   “City Budget Will Fund Shotspotter—But Also Significant Progressive Priorities, Including $20 Million for Student Mental Health” by Erica C. Barnett from PubliCola   “A Mixed Seattle Budget, While a $221 Million Deficit Still Looms” by Amy Sundberg from Notes from the Emerald City   “City Employees Seeking Wage Increase Advised to “Avoid Impulse Buys”” by Erica C. Barnett from PubliCola   “Firefighters' Tentative Contract Could be Bad News for Other City Workers Seeking Pay Increases” by Erica C. Barnett from PubliCola   “As Deadline to Use or Lose $1 Million in Shelter Funding Looms, Top Burien Official Offers New Explanation for Failing to Inform Some on Council” by Erica C. Barnett from PubliCola   “King County gives Burien deadline to take $1 million for homeless shelter” by Greg Kim from The Seattle Times   “Sound Transit to start issuing citations today to riders who don't pay” by David Kroman from The Seattle Times   “Seattle light rail is about to get heavy for those who don't pay the fare” by Joshua McNichols from KUOW   Find stories that Crystal is reading here   Listen on your favorite podcast app to all our episodes here   Transcript [00:00:00] Crystal Fincher: Welcome to Hacks & Wonks. I'm Crystal Fincher, and I'm a political consultant and your host. On this show, we talk with policy wonks and political hacks to gather insight into local politics and policy in Washington State through the lens of those doing the work with behind-the-scenes perspectives on what's happening, why it's happening, and what you can do about it. Be sure to subscribe to the podcast to get the full versions of our Tuesday topical shows and our Friday week-in-reviews delivered to your podcast feed. If you like us, the most helpful thing you can do is leave a review wherever you listen to Hacks & Wonks. Full transcripts and resources referenced in the show are always available at officialhacksandwonks.com and in our episode notes. If you missed our 2023 Post-Election Roundtable on Monday night, you can catch the recording on our YouTube channel, or Facebook, or Twitter feeds. We'll also be releasing the roundtable next week as podcast episodes. Tune in for our breakdown of last week's election results with guest panelists Katie Wilson, Andrew Villeneuve and Robert Cruikshank. Also wanna make sure if you can't listen to the Post-Election Roundtable, it will be available on the website with a full text transcript. Today, we are continuing our Friday week-in-review shows where we review the news of the week with a co-host. Welcome back to the program, friend of the show, today's co-host: Seattle political reporter and editor of PubliCola, Erica Barnett. [00:01:38] Erica Barnett: It's great to be here. [00:01:40] Crystal Fincher: Great to have you back as always. It's the time of year where I get to talk about the Washington Institute for a Democratic Future. It is that time again and seeing as how this is Hacks & Wonks and a lot of you are hacks and wonks who are listening, the Washington Institute for a Democratic Future is really ideal for people who may be interested in looking at working in policy or politics, getting more involved in their community and activism. It is a six-month fellowship that runs from January to June that has 10 intensive weekends plus an optional week in Washington, DC. And each of these weekends is in a different place geographically across the state. And it gives you the opportunity to do a deep dive on policy, how that policy is impacting people on the ground from a variety of different perspectives - so, you know, there's a huge network of legislators, policy experts, advocacy organizations, unions, business owners, different people. So you may go to Kitsap County and explore the economy in Bremerton and issues that are happening there. In Central Washington, issues that are important there and talking about legislation that impacts migrant workers and immigration - from a policy perspective - but also talking to workers and representatives for themselves, talking to farmers and business owners there to see how they're being impacted and what their feedback is and what they feel the most prevalent issues that they have. So it's getting a really comprehensive view of what people are facing on the ground throughout the state and how policy is impacting that and has a potential to impact that. So just really important - that is absolutely what I credit for me working in politics. I started my political career after doing IDF - just a really powerful network and a really powerful policy education in ways that really matter and getting to see that a lot of times the situations aren't simple, different people have different perspectives, policy impacts people in different ways. Few things are 100% good and positive and 100% bad or negative. It's really understanding how things impact people differently and trying to do the most good as possible, particularly considering sometimes what's politically possible, different types of activism - whether you're working legislatively, electorally, just more on the ground in community, mutual aid, just a lot of different things. So I recommend this. The early application deadline is Monday, November 20th - so coming up. There's an extended late application period that continues through Monday, November 27th. The website is democraticfuture.org. There's more information about it there, but definitely encourage anyone who may be considering working in politics or who's interested in that - who wants to understand how they can more deeply impact policy in their community and state - to do that. I do want to underscore that you don't have to already be an insider. You don't have to have any idea of what's going on, really. This is a Democratic organization - it is not catering to Republicans, I can tell you that - but looking at people with a variety of experience from diverse backgrounds across the state. It's just a program that I heartily recommend, and I believe most people who go through it come out on the other end more able to impact change in the world around them. So apply to the Institute for a Democratic Future. Well, we think we have a pretty good view of what actually happened with the election now. It's taken a while to count, but what are your takeaways from the general election that we just had? [00:05:39] Erica Barnett: Well, I mean - as others have said, and as I've said in other venues - obviously we are, the City we, are going in a more centrist direction with the city council. From Position 7 - electing Bob Kettle over Andrew Lewis - kicking out a couple other councilmembers. So politically, I think the direction is going to be a little less progressive generally, a little more in the sort of Sara Nelson centrist direction. And I think - big picture - the council is going to be made up primarily of new people and people without a whole lot of experience. The most experienced councilmember, I believe, will be Tammy Morales, who just narrowly got reelected - correct me if I'm wrong on that. But not a lot of institutional memory and knowledge on the council, which I think is going to be - it's always problematic when you lose the majority of an institution all at once, right? And when you're talking about staff who have been there for a long time, as well as councilmembers who maybe have a few terms under their belt - so people are going to be learning on the job and they're gonna be doing it in a year when there's a massive looming budget crisis, when there is the Seattle Police Officers Guild contract on the table, and just lots of other things that the new council is going to have to grapple with - that are really, really big problems and big questions - and they'll be doing it, sort of coming in with virtually no City experience in almost every single seat. [00:07:23] Crystal Fincher: Yeah, that is - it's a really big deal. And we talked about this kind of in the beginning when people were filing or announcing that they weren't running for re-election - kind of hitting a lot of people going - we're losing a ton of institutional knowledge. And just the work that it takes to get up to speed, it's not just what do you wanna do with issues, with - and even with that, a number of the new councilmembers on the campaign trail had a lot of questions, had a lot of things that they wanted to find out and investigate and get to the bottom of, but maybe not as many new ideas. And they're gonna have to understand just procedurally how do things work. Legislation is a weird thing - crafting legislation, working it through the process is not an intuitive endeavor. And it does take institutional knowledge. There's so many reports, committees, just things to digest when you're getting in - even if you've held office before. If you haven't, that's just a big mountain to climb to get your feet underneath you as far as how to understand what's happening from all of the different information sources, advocates, departments, but also how to then enact and respond to the challenges that are happening. I think in this situation, it actually passes a big advantage to the mayor's office. The mayor's office does have a lot of institutional knowledge. The mayor's office does have an agenda that they wanna enact. And right now the council - the new council - is not going to really be in a position to ask questions based on historical knowledge, to investigate or interrogate what expenditures may be, what proposals may be, if there is precedent for something, if there isn't, how something fared before when it was proposed or when it was enacted. There are a lot of things that we do and undo in government and understanding the history of that - how it worked out - is actually really useful so we can learn from what we did before and do better next time, particularly when implementation with a lot of programs has been a major issue. So I am concerned for what this is going to look like in practice with a council that just is really inexperienced. [00:09:41] Erica Barnett: Yeah, I mean, and I just was thinking as you're talking - just kind of going through all the different folks that have been elected and thinking about how - on the current council, I would lift up Lisa Herbold as an example of somebody who's been there 25 years in various roles. And she is the person, particularly like during budget, who brings up things that have happened in the past or says - Well, we actually discussed this six years ago and this was the discussion then, or there's a proviso on this money that says this. And you need someone who is able to do that, whether it's a staff member or a number of staff members or a councilmember, not just during budget time, but during - for example, the SPOG contract. Five members of the council sit on the Labor Relations Policy Committee and they're going to be bargaining with the police guild and Mayor Harrell's office. And if you are talking about people that don't have a lot of institutional knowledge of what came before, I mean - like you, I'm concerned that they're just going to get steamrolled by whatever the mayor's office and SPOG decide that they want or that they can agree to. And I also thought of another thing that they're going to be doing next year, which is the Comprehensive Plan. There's a major update every 10 years and that's happening next year. And that's the document that guides planning and development and zoning for the entire city. And during the campaign, this was a question that came up - which Comp Plan option do you support? And everybody said Comp Plan 5 - for the most part. And I think that without getting into the details of what that even means, I would be really curious to ask every single person who was elected - So what's in Comp Plan 5? Because I think that sometimes campaigns deal with surface level issues, but the Comprehensive Plan is a massively complex document that they're going to be discussing over the course of a year now - starting in January, February - and it's really consequential. So that's just another example of a complex decision that this council is going to have to be making - again, without a lot of institutional knowledge. And I will say just to mention one idea that got squashed this year, Teresa Mosqueda, who is one of the councilmembers who's leaving to go serve on King County Council, brought up the idea of doing staggered elections so that instead of electing all 7 district city council seats all at once, like we did this year, we would do 4 one year and then 3 two years from then. And the idea is that even if you elect a completely new council every four years, at least people have a couple of years of experience under their belts. And that idea just got quashed, and I think it's very unlikely to happen - but that would have made a little bit of difference. [00:12:51] Crystal Fincher: Yeah, and I thought that was an excellent idea - was sad to see that not be able to move forward. Now, speaking of Councilmember Teresa Mosqueda, who was just elected to the King County Council - this now brings up an issue of there being a vacancy timing around when she can choose to go or not. Evidently there's been some calls - maybe people looking at the Supreme Court or Congress, different things, and then looking at the Seattle Council and going - Well, hey, if there's an opportunity to get another progressive in, maybe you should leave early. Why did she appear to decide against that? [00:13:31] Erica Barnett: Yeah, I mean, Teresa Mosqueda is not Ruth Bader Ginsburg. And one big difference is that she is not independently wealthy and - nor is her staff. And so I think that just as a practical matter - and this was my immediate reaction actually when I started seeing calls for her to step down and just kind of not have a job for a couple months, was - well, like normal people can't do that. And even if you're making $130,000 a year, or whatever it currently is at the city council, it is hard when - she has a little kid. And her staff, some of whom may go over with her to King County Council, still need to make a living. So there's a very practical consideration. And the other thing is, I think it's a bit of sour grapes. I mean, the voters have spoken and I think it would be a bit of sour grapes to say - Well, we're gonna shove a progressive onto the council under the wire. But more importantly, I don't think that it would probably work. I don't think it would be successful to try to get - for Teresa Mosqueda to try to appoint another Teresa Mosqueda-type to the council because you have to get the support of your colleagues. And I don't know that the current council would be willing to sort of subvert the process. I mean, it wouldn't be subverting the process, it would just be rushing it a bit. But to do that at this point, when we have a new council coming in, it just - there's a sense of fairness about that, that I think would strike some of the current council the wrong way, even if they are more progressive people who are leaving. [00:15:17] Crystal Fincher: Yeah, and it's not like there's a situation now, or upcoming with the new council, where there is a one-member majority and this one change is going to tip the balance of decisions that are made. I think with looking at some of the budget action, which we'll talk about shortly, earlier this week - we can see that's not the case. And there's also just the responsibilities of the job, which I think Teresa Mosqueda takes seriously. The City of Seattle is heading into a pretty significant budget deficit - hundreds of millions of dollars budget deficit. And I think most people consider her to be the foremost budget expert on the council - particularly with so many new people coming into the council and so much work to do on the budget, the more work she can do to help prepare this next council for what's gonna happen, to help usher in what hopefully will be sustainable changes to the budget, the better for everyone and for the city, I believe. So that's gonna be interesting. I did see Hannah Krieg report on rumors that Tanya Woo is either angling for, or people are angling for her, to be appointed to that position when that does happen. Tanya just lost a very narrow election to Tammy Morales in Seattle's District 2. What do you think the prospects for that would be, or what that would mean? [00:16:45] Erica Barnett: Well, I mean, I would be completely speculating, but it does seem - and segue to completely speculate about that - I mean, it does seem sort of unlikely, you know, just looking at historical appointments for the council to appoint somebody who ran against one of the people that won. Historically what the council has done is either appoint sort of placeholder people who have said they're not going to run for re-election, because remember - this is just a temporary position until the next election, which in this case would actually be in 2024. Because of the way it works, it would be the next state election since there's not another city election until '25. So you're talking about a very temporary seat. I don't know. At this point, my gut would be that they wouldn't do that. But again, that is just speculation. I know Brianna Thomas, who ran for council a couple of times and now works in the mayor's office in labor relations, is another potential person who is definitely angling for that position. So she seems like another possibility, but again, that's somebody who really wants to stay on the council and maybe perceived as progressive, or a member of the kind of progressive wing of the council - she worked for Lorena González, who's quite progressive, before joining the mayor's office. So I'm not following that super, super closely yet, but yeah - it'll be interesting, but perhaps not hugely consequential, except for 2024, who ends up getting that position. [00:18:36] Crystal Fincher: I wanna talk about another Election Night story, or one that was really made plain on Election Night. And that was King County's elections website and its performance or lack thereof on Election Day. What happened? [00:18:50] Erica Barnett: Yeah, so I've been wanting to write about the King County website and it's not just the elections website, but we'll talk about that specifically. But I would encourage people to go to kingcounty.gov and just check it out. See what you think. They did a big website redesign, revamp. And one of the consequences of that revamp is that it's really hard apparently to load sort of new information into the website for just kind of regular County departments. And so on Election Night, if you are an election watcher, what ordinarily happens is that you start refreshing the webpage around 8:10p. The results usually go up right around 8:15p. And so on Election Night, people were refreshing, refreshing, refreshing, but there were no results for at least 15 minutes. I actually gave up and got the results from King 5, which apparently got them because the elections people had to post the results on Twitter. I'm not really on Twitter that much anymore, so I didn't see this, but they had to create essentially a workaround for this website that is - it's not only does it look like something from - I don't know, 1999, maybe that's a little mean, 2003 we'll say - but it doesn't function very well and a lot of stuff is broken, and links don't work, and all the photos are gone, and it's just a mess. And yeah, it was really consequential on Election Night when people were trying to find out who won and couldn't get this information for 15, 20 minutes, which I know might not sound like much, but it is hugely consequential if you are a campaign or if you are somebody interested in the results, like I was as a reporter. So man, it was just a mess. [00:20:54] Crystal Fincher: It was a mess. I was at KIRO doing Election Night coverage and it was a big challenge. Fortunately, their team was able to get the results from the alternate posts, so we had them before they were live on the website. But it's really a challenge. And especially at this point in time where there is so much bad faith information, misinformation about elections, the integrity of our elections, and what's happening. Unfortunately, that means that we need to do as great a job as possible at being transparent, at making sure that things work as expected, that we can explain what's happening and why it's happening, and provide some predictability and transparency in the process. And having that happen on Election Night is very suboptimal. We'll see what improvements they make to it. And we've seen rollouts of websites - these things are hard. It is not like you flip a switch and everything works. So I don't wanna devalue the work involved, but I do hope they reflect on the timing of this, the type of testing and rigor that they use to test this - especially for the kind of strain that is expected on a night like Election Night. I think we heard some of the reasoning was that - Well, you know, it just had a lot of traffic and that contributed to the collapse. Well, yeah, that's gonna be expected on Election Night. And I hope they are able to do a better job in the future - making sure that it can accommodate the infrequent but predictable heavy loads that the website is going to experience. [00:22:40] Erica Barnett: Well, I think in one way it was actually optimal - possibly - because I think it, you know, people have been complaining about this website for a while. I mean, when I first went to it - and I don't know, it's probably been a month or two now - I truly thought, and again, it's kingcounty.gov. I truly thought it was a, like a test website. Like it was sort of the interim version between the old website and the new one, and this was just like temporary. And then called and found out - no, this is the website. And I think there are just - there are so many things that are suboptimal and just bad about it. And I think that sometimes in my experience, the tech side of things tend to, you know, say things like - Well, it's just, you know, it's not the design, it's that you're just not used to using it, or you're not using it right, or there's nothing wrong, there's nothing to see here. And I think a website falling apart on Election Night that just really like pissed off a number of people outside the county might impel them to actually take some action on this thing, because it is infuriating to use. I mean, it is - just one quick example that, you know, that's emblematic - is you go to the website now, and one of the, it's sort of like "the top things people need." And one of them is like animal control. Another is a camera in rural King County that like is on some road in rural King County - I don't know who needs that, but I wouldn't put it in the top, you know, 10,000 things on that website that people are looking for. So hopefully this will bring some sanity back, 'cause I use that website pretty frequently and it is very frustrating to use. [00:24:35] Crystal Fincher: Yeah, and I also use it frequently. And we didn't talk about this part before, but yeah - I had the same thought as you. I thought it was an interim site that - okay, well, they - my read was - well, they were hoping to do some upgrades, but clearly they couldn't get them done in time. So this is the, you know, meantime, they just stripped it down to bare bones and just want to make sure it's functional. That was my read, my assumption - I didn't look very deeply into it besides just being frustrated that everything was hard to find and wasn't where it was before. But yeah, it was a challenge, these things often are. But that would also make me want to keep it as, these things happening as far away from elections as possible. Like, you know, let's implement changes in January or February instead of later in the year, you know, closer to the primary or general election if we're doing these things. And yes, it may be a bigger site-wide thing, but my goodness - if you're hoping that things land well with the public, this is certainly - elections are one of the most visible things that the county does. I would be surprised if there was something that generated more traffic to the website than the election site around election time. But we will see how that continues and hopefully they're able to get that together soon. Also want to talk about another elections-related story, and that was the story of the post office missing pickups from a ballot box that contained ballots in some races - one of them still is too close to officially call. What happened here? [00:26:21] Erica Barnett: Well, from what I understand, the post office just didn't pick up any mail from this one site - or sorry, from this one box for like a month. And I just read about it in The Seattle Times, probably like you did. And I got a tip about it and was gonna look into it, but you know, a one-person website, so I didn't get around to it - Times did. And yeah, it just sounds like they somehow messed up and didn't pick up any mail at this box. So there are 85 ballots, I believe, that are being counted now. Not enough to turn around Ron Davis's election prospects against Maritza Rivera in District 4, but still - 85 ballots is 85 ballots. When you're talking about margins of like 300 votes, every little bit counts. So this was pretty significant to find out about at the, you know, at the 13th hour, really. [00:27:31] Crystal Fincher: Yeah, absolutely. And then just reading about the process that occurs when this does happen. It looks like they were able to follow the process and get these ballots counted by verifying the dates and signatures on them, but certainly a conundrum here, and would love to see what's put in place to make sure that this doesn't happen again. Yeah, will be interesting to see. And the last thing I'll just say about these elections is - you alluded to a little bit earlier with talking about Teresa Mosqueda - it's not just her, but it's her staff. And in big cities - smaller cities and suburbs don't have council staff, but in Seattle, they do. And the role of staff is really important. It's going to be even more important because they're gonna hold the institutional knowledge. They do a lot of the policy work, preparation work, doing the research, interacting with community, doing constituent service. And a lot of them have been there for a while. They are absolutely valuable resources. Sometimes bureaucrats get a bad name for working in government service, but I just - seeing the work that they do, how instrumental they are to the process, particularly in support of elected officials who oftentimes just need good information and assistance to get stuff through the system. It's really important to have capable and competent bureaucrats. I think the City does have a number of them, and I think we're gonna see how important they are in the coming year. [00:29:04] Erica Barnett: Yeah, the City couldn't run without the deep state. I mean, truly. You need those people who've been there 20 years who like know Robert's Rules of Order in and out, and can write a script and, you know, for a city councilmember to read, and can write legislation and just do all the sort of grunt work that keeps things running. I mean, they, you know, staff gets maligned and they're always sort of subject to budget cuts because - who needs all these administrative people? But in a lot of cases, you really do need the administrative people because they're the ones that make the council meeting not look like chaos. [00:29:41] Crystal Fincher: Absolutely. And who help make legislation stand up to legal challenges and get things implemented in the way they were intended. It is really important and just wanted to say that I see them. And when - I'm thinking about Andrew Lewis, who was not reelected - that means that his staff has a lot of question marks too. And in a city as expensive to live in in Seattle, that is a harrowing thing. So elections do impact lots of people in lots of different ways. I do wanna talk about the budget, and action this week with the council pertaining to the budget. What did they do? [00:30:21] Erica Barnett: Well, they are still continuing to sort of hack away at Mayor Bruce Harrell's 2024 budget. And they have voted on a whole slew of amendments. I would say the headline, and surprisingly it has not been a huge headline, is that Kshama Sawant - outgoing councilmember, often does a lot of kind of performative stunty stuff that doesn't actually result in legislation - but she won on a big issue this week. She got $20 million - a very, very tiny increase, I think it was 0.01%. So 0.0001 to the JumpStart Tax to fund mental health care and mental health programs for students. And $20 million is a really big deal at a time when the City is anticipating big budget decisions next year, potentially budget cuts. And when a lot of these debates in the City budget are over $300,000 or $1.5 million, just these very tiny increments. So to me, that is the huge headline is that Kshama Sawant sort of won the budget as she is walking out the door. But other stuff in the budget this year includes ShotSpotter, which is the controversial proposal that Mayor Bruce Harrell has made for a couple of years running to put surveillance systems in neighborhoods to detect gunshots or things that sound like gunshots. A lot of criticism of that system, but it sounds like the council is going to finally give in - on a 5-4 vote most likely - and fund that. And City pay increases are still sort of outstanding because that work is happening in the background, but there's gonna need to be money for City employees to get pay increases. And there's a lot of other stuff kind of around the margins - Sara Nelson is getting some money for the City to subsidize private drug treatment for some folks. And then kind of looming in the background after they pass this budget - and this is another reason Teresa Mosqueda, as you mentioned, is sticking around - They've got to figure out some revenue solutions for next year, 2025, and beyond. So they're looking at other increases to JumpStart, a capital gains tax, and there was talk of a CEO excess compensation tax but it seems like that's not gonna raise very much money - so it's off the table for now. [00:33:14] Crystal Fincher: Well, it certainly is gonna be interesting to see how those conversations play out as this year progresses, this next year progresses. I know several of the candidates who were elected expressed curiosity at some of the revenue options but were notoriously hesitant to commit to supporting any particular option. And knowing that so much of the outside spending that came into these races during the campaign was fundamentally about resisting taxation and some of those efforts and proposals, it's gonna be interesting to see what actually does wind up passing, if anything. [00:33:58] Erica Barnett: Yeah, I - on that note, I will just say that a lot of candidates said that the City doesn't have a budget problem, it has a spending problem. And I think they're going to realize that the City actually does have a budget problem when they have to get in and actually deal with the budget. I don't think that - there's a lot of talk of, We're gonna audit the whole system and I wanna look at the whole budget. Well, good luck, that's not really possible. I mean, you have entire departments each with their own budget division - hashing out the budget, looking at the actual budget documents for any one department could be a job for a person for a year. So I think they're going to be, they're in for a bit of a rough awakening if they think that they can't raise any new revenues and that they can accomplish $250 million in budget reductions through cuts alone. So we'll see when that awakening takes place, but I think it will. [00:34:58] Crystal Fincher: Oh, I absolutely think it will. It is certainly one thing to have catchy and simple slogans and taglines and soundbites when you're running for office, but governing is a serious thing. It is actually harder than running the campaign. So we will see how this progresses. Now I also want to talk about this week - a couple of things when it does come to the potential raises for City workers - that they've been saying, Hey, it's really expensive to live in Seattle. We count on cost of living adjustments to help keep up, but even that is hard with inflation, the cost of living. We aren't making enough in the first place. We need more money. This is teeing up to become a major confrontation, really, with the mayor's office signaling that they're hesitant to give raises anywhere close to what workers are asking for. There may be labor actions taken. We will see what happens. But this week, one interesting thing came out in an email from the mayor's office. What did they send? [00:36:16] Erica Barnett: So an email went out to most City employees this week. And what it said was - I think the subject line was "Financial Self-care," something related to that. And what it said was basically - if you are struggling with money, maybe you should look at your spending. And it gave some examples of things that you can do to sort of reduce your costs in your day-to-day life. And one was pay yourself first, which is this sort of very - I would say for a normal person - very unrealistic idea that before you pay your bills, you should put money in savings or in investments. And I think it's self-explanatory why most people can't do that. People living paycheck to paycheck need to keep the lights on, need to pay their rent. And then another suggestion was that people consider - when making purchases, whether something is a want or a need - which again, I mean, there's just something so condescending about that and so out of touch with the way normal people make spending decisions. And like, sure, like, do I make impulse buys? Does everybody sometimes? Yes. But the advice in this email - not to sort of waste your money on frivolous stuff - hits really poorly at a time when City employees are saying, Look, we're not asking for raises, we're asking for a cost of living adjustment to deal with the fact that inflation went up 8% last year and continues to rise. And what that means is a dollar buys less. So it's just - it was very, very, very poorly worded and poorly timed, considering that City employees are literally talking about striking right now. And so I just, I was sort of blown away by it. And one of the reactions - it got a lot of reaction when I posted about this. And one of the most common reactions was - huh, this is interesting because Mayor Harrell is saying that we all need to work from the office at least three days a week as part of his downtown revitalization plan. And part of that plan is that we're gonna go out to eat at lunch, and we're gonna go out to get drinks after work. And I don't know - is that a want or need, Mayor Harrell? So it's - I think it hit really poorly with a lot of City employees. And I've gotten a lot of reaction from folks who received it, sort of saying - Thanks for pointing this out, this is ridiculous. [00:38:54] Crystal Fincher: Yeah, absolutely. I've also seen a lot of reaction to that. When you're saying - Hey, help me, I'm struggling, and it's, you know, the cost of living, inflation is just unreasonable - it's hard to keep up with. And when the cost of rent is going up, and childcare is going up, and groceries are going up, and people are feeling this in every way - to have the person who does have the power and authority to say, You know what, we will ease this a little bit. We will grant your cost of living adjustment. We already know that you have shortages, and we're burning you out with the amount of work that we're placing on you and the amount that we're not paying you. So we're going to ease that burden and address some of these work shortages, some of these staff shortages in areas that are critical to delivering essential services for residents of Seattle. Seems like there's precedent for thinking that way - we've talked about financial solutions with the police department to help address retention and staffing. Seems like that should apply to other departments, but somehow it doesn't here. And just doesn't seem to be landing with people very well. And just to be clear, right - it's not like financial education and financial planning tips are never warranted. But they are not an intervention or response to poverty. The problem with poverty is not poor people making bad decisions and that's why they're poor. It's that they don't have enough money. And wow, we just got a whole lot of new data on how effective giving people in poverty more money is, as opposed to all of these extra things that are not more money. If you want to reduce poverty, invest in the people who are experiencing it. And if we want a city that is resilient moving forward, if we want a city where we do take pride in paying people a living wage - meaning a wage where they can live in the city - we're gonna have to do better than this for City employees, certainly. Now I also wanna talk about what the prospect is, and what the outlook is for this pay increase. And there was something that happens that maybe makes that cost of living adjustment look a little questionable. What was that? [00:41:11] Erica Barnett: I believe you're talking about the firefighters' contract, which was sent to firefighters - members of the Fire Department - last week. And the votes on that are gonna be tallied soon. But basically what it said was the firefighters, if they vote on this, will agree to a sort of maximum annual wage increase of 4%, a minimum of 2%, which is quite a bit less than the other City workers were asking for, the Coalition of City Unions. And the sort of compromise or payback for that is that if inflation is above 4%, then the money that would be paid to workers getting an inflationary increase is gonna go into what's called a COLA bank. And so - like say inflation 6%, your wage increase is 4% - you get 2% in the COLA bank. If next year inflation is 1%, you can get some of that back. So your minimum increase will always be 2% for the life of the contract. So that's still 2% to 4%, which is not a whole lot of increase, particularly for workers whose pay has been falling further and further behind under their existing contract. But the thinking is that this could be sort of a foreshadowing of what Harrell is going to ultimately offer the rest of the city. So I think there's quite a bit of discontent around that. And again, there is talk of some sort of action. There have been practice pickets happening. And I don't have any special insight into whether the City workers would strike, but I know it's being discussed. They are not technically allowed to do that under their contract. So again, not sure what sort of action they're going to take, but I know that there is a lot of discontent with the idea of settling for a 2% to 4% wage increase at this point. [00:43:16] Crystal Fincher: I wanna shift a little bit and really talk about a story that you broke - a couple weeks ago, I feel like it was - that we also saw reported at The Seattle Times as new this week. What is going on in the City of Burien right now? [00:43:33] Erica Barnett: Oh man, the - well, I mean, just a very, very quick background - the City of Burien passed a ban on sleeping in public at night. And has meanwhile, been sort of pushing around this group of unsheltered people from place to place - And now has the legal authority to use the Sheriff's Office to do so. They have meanwhile, been sort of sitting on an offer of a million dollars from King County, which originally proposed sort of a land swap deal where a Pallet shelter could be built in downtown Burien. But of course the city rejected that, I think, primarily because it would be in sort of a visible location. They've been sort of hemming and hawing on what to do with this million dollars ever since. And we're talking about, I think that was over the summer - I believe in June or July - that they, it was in July, that they voted against using it for that shelter. And so now it's November and King County has said - Look, we have to use this money. Or you have to use this money or we're going to put it out for bid. And so they have until November 27th to do that. The City Manager, Adolfo Bailon - apologies if I am mispronouncing his name - but he essentially sat on this information for a week and did not tell most of the council that this sort of deadline had come up until a week into the four weeks that they have to figure out a new location. So meanwhile, I think the council has one more meeting before this deadline passes. And my guess is they're not going to come up with a solution since they haven't done so so far. And this money is just going to go back into King County and then they'll put it out for bid for other South King County cities to use. [00:45:45] Crystal Fincher: Yeah, I think - if people do want to catch up on what's happened, there has been no one following what's been happening in Burien with more rigor than you and PubliCola. So I would encourage people to catch up on what you have already covered. But just a little more context - this is happening with a very polarized council. There is a 4-3 moderate conservative council majority. The three members in the minority have been very vocally opposed to the way things have gone. This all kicked off because the county basically - they were trying to figure out how to deal with this as a city, were looking like they were going to embark on some illegal sweeps. The county executive's office basically said - Hey, looks like you're about to embark on illegal sweeps. Since you contract your police department through the Sheriff's department, we're just letting you know that the sheriffs cannot participate in an illegal sweep. This kicked off a lot of hemming and hawing by the council - ended up coming to what, I think, the county viewed as a reasonable compromise and offer for help that lots of cities would love to have. And they said - Okay, you're trying to deal with this. We'll help you with a million dollars, some Pallet shelters. You talked about the land swap deal - there's publicly owned land that is being leased to a car dealership, we'll accommodate for that. And basically you have land available to make this happen. We know you need more resources to adequately address this. We will help you with that. And the council majority basically refused to engage with that for a long time. So the county finally has gotten around to saying - Okay, this isn't just an offer out there forever. We need to put this money to good use, so do you wanna take it? And the city manager in Burien initially said, Hey, I didn't even see it. I had no idea this was happening. Turns out he did, he actually responded to the email. But it has been quite a trial and tribulation there, and so we'll have to see what's gonna happen. But it does look like basically an effort to sabotage any attempt to do anything but criminalize homelessness, which just feels so out of joint from where most people are on this topic. Even people who feel that - hey, eventually sweeps are justified, almost uniformly feel like, but we need to do all we can to make sure that we do transition people into housing if possible, that offers of shelter are made, that we don't just move the problem from one place to another. City is not engaged with that at all. They seem perfectly satisfied to just sweep people from one place to another, as has been documented by the sweeps that they did of one location - seeing the people just move to another location. Homelessness is a problem about the lack of housing. If you aren't doing anything to provide housing, you aren't doing anything to solve homelessness, unless you feel the visibility of it, and not the people who actually don't have homes and are dealing with everything associated with that, which is just a very, very, very hard way to live. So we'll see what continues to happen. What are the prospects for them taking this up? Do they still have the option to ignore it? [00:49:14] Erica Barnett: Well, do you mean taking up the offer for a million dollars? Well, I mean, certainly they have the option to ignore it. I mean, it will go away. I mean, I think that - I'm perhaps a little bit less charitable than you are in my assessment of what people want, just having watched all these meetings of people sort of screaming that these are - Seattle people are sending mobs of homeless people down to Burien and just this kind of very unrealistic, fantastical stuff that people say. But I think there's some magical thinking going on on the council as well. The city has just hired, just signed a contract - a no-bid contract - with a group called The More We Love that's run by one individual, a Kirkland mortgage broker named Kristine Moreland. And she has said that she has access to special resources that no one else does, and she can easily house and shelter people. And that it's just that all these other experienced homeless outreach providers have failed. And I think that is a fantastical notion because, as you said, there is not enough housing, there is not enough shelter. And generally what she does is put people into detox, which is a three to five day program that doesn't include any housing or treatment, or takes people to Seattle and puts them into Union Gospel Mission shelters. Those are two of the things that I am aware of her doing, neither of which is a solution. And one of which is just moving people out of Burien and into Seattle, which is not housing them. So I think that there's just, there's a lot of unrealistic thinking going on. And of course, there was an election in Burien as well. And two of the more progressive members will no longer be on the council next year - they've been replaced by people who agree more on this issue with the conservative council majority. So yeah, it's, you know, I don't expect the situation there to get any better on this issue, nor do I think that this new council is going to have more realistic notions of what's possible without additional resources. [00:51:35] Crystal Fincher: Yeah, certainly the election results there were definitely a move in the other direction. We saw King County GOP endorsed candidates like Kevin Schilling handily winning his race there. Now, some of the opponents were pretty new, didn't have many resources, but can pretty much see a continuation and perhaps even an acceleration of these policies that are very punitive and hostile towards the unhoused population. The last thing I wanna talk about today is an update on Sound Transit's fare enforcement policies and processes. We've talked about this before, you have covered this for quite some time. So now they're coming out with a new fare enforcement system. What are they going to do now? [00:52:32] Erica Barnett: Well, as far as I can tell, the main difference - they're going to be enforcing fares and this has been covered in the past, but there will be more opportunities for people to get warnings and things like that - the initial fines will be lower. But the main difference is that the fare enforcement people are now called fare ambassadors and they are not in security uniforms, which Sound Transit is saying is a significant change. I mean, I guess it does make things feel different if you have a person who is not in a uniform, but an orange vest, checking your fare. But ultimately, I mean, that's the big substantive difference. They say that this is gonna be more equitable, they're gonna check everybody on the train, but as you mentioned, I've been covering this for a long time and for years, they've been saying that their process is completely equitable and that they - it is essentially impossible for them to discriminate against anybody or target anybody because of their race or perceived socioeconomic status because they start at both ends of the train and they move to the middle. And there was a slide that they showed so many times that I started kind of making fun of it on PubliCola because, you know, it was just this very, you know, sort of bored recitation at every council, or sorry, at every Sound Transit meeting where they would say - You know, we start at both ends of the train, we work our way to the middle, it's completely equitable. So, you know, they're saying this is gonna be completely equitable too. I don't think that it is possible to have an equitable fare enforcement policy because I think fare enforcement hits different people differently. And if you can't pay it, eventually, you could go to court and get a misdemeanor on your record. So fare enforcement inherently and fares inherently are not equitable. So we'll see how it plays out in practice, but once you start enforcing fares, you have instituted an inequitable process because poor people are less likely to be able to pay fares, more likely to get caught without having paid their fare, and then more likely to be unable to pay the fines that will eventually start accruing. [00:54:50] Crystal Fincher: I have a major pet peeve - pet peeve is too minor a way to say it, but it probably comes through and I haven't overtly articulated it, but you know, in lots of things that I talk about - but people just taking action to take action, that is not a serious attempt to fix the problem that they say they're trying to fix. Whether I agree with what they're stating is a problem or their way that they're going about it - even if you take everything at face value, their solutions are not in any way adequate enough to address what they're saying is a problem. And so the momentum - we've heard Sound Transit board members talk about how important fare enforcement is - people are getting away with it and we need to collect these fares for our system. We - our budget depends on fare box recovery and if people aren't paying, then that's throwing our finances and our system into chaos. Which would make most people reasonably think - Okay, so if they're doing fare enforcement action and spending all of this money on these fare enforcement people, and instituting this basically entire administration dedicated to fare enforcement - one would think that the fines that they issue would be collected by Sound Transit. I was surprised to learn from your reporting before that that wasn't the case. And it seems like it still isn't the case under this new system, is that correct? [00:56:24] Erica Barnett: My understanding is - yes, that the fines go to the, go into the administration, into the court system, but, you know, I am not 100%, I have not looked into this. So please don't, please do some fact checking on this for me, 'cause I - maybe you can look into it, Crystal - but I'm pretty sure that, yeah, the fines don't go to Sound Transit. I mean, I think like big picture, Sound Transit does have some financial problems. A lot of them are related to the fact that they continue to provide service that is suboptimal for a lot of people. A lot of times trains are stopped because of incidents, escalators very often don't work. And the trains are running a lot slower now, they're more crowded because there's not enough cars and they're not running as frequently. And so the service has really suffered. And so - number one, it's not a great product right now. It could be a great product again, but you're sort of instituting fare enforcement at a time when the product itself is suboptimal. And second, they're planning the next expansion of the light rail system and a lot of the stuff they're doing, you know, in particularly in South Lake Union, for example, to appease Amazon and other companies in that area is moving stations around and making big changes that are going to cost money. And then on the flip side, eliminating stations like the Midtown Station that have huge constituencies, like all the people on First Hill that got robbed of a station in Sound Transit 1 when they cut the station there. So you're sort of putting the squeeze on people who might be your riders in the future and moving things around to appease big companies. So I don't know - I think a lot of people are frustrated with Sound Transit right now and focusing on, Oh my God, it's those damn, you know, fare evaders, as they call people who don't pay, they're the problem - just feels really off point right now. And, you know, I mean, I'm sure you've ridden light rail. It's noticeably slower recently because people, the drivers for one - I mean, one reason for that is that the drivers are slowing down in the Rainier Valley to avoid hitting people because Sound Transit put the trains at grade in the first segment of light rail. So yeah, it's just - it's not a great look. [00:59:05] Crystal Fincher: It's not a great look. And yes, I have ridden light rail recently. I've also ridden BART recently and LA Metro trains recently. And my goodness, is it just noticeable? If you know me, you've heard this rant, but Los Angeles, the car capital of the world, and Seattle actually started planning their light rail systems at the same time. And Seattle has wound up with a partial line that still has end points getting pushed off for decades, it seems like. And LA has built this vast network of multiple lines and everything in a city where it's not easy to get stuff done, where people have more of a connection to their cars, where it's harder to get around in other areas - so the lift of getting people to make that change seems heavier down there. And wow, we've just gotten bogged down in the Seattle process, it seems. But it seems like the main problem, what's underlying everything else, is that their - the people in charge of this system, the Sound Transit Board, are not regular transit riders. They don't seem to use the product that they're responsible for. And listening to them talk - most of them are, predominantly drive cars, they don't take transit often. And you can hear that in their comments, you can see that in how they are planning, or not planning, or the things that they're missing, as we progress here. So I certainly hope that we see more of a focus on appointing leaders to that board who understand the system and use it, and understand how important it is to their community and the relevance of their community, and how it needs to adapt to other communities. Yeah, it's really interesting. I'm thinking of a number of suburban leaders, whether it's Bothell or Covington - people wanting to improve the service, make it relevant for their community, but it is just been a big challenge. With that, I thank you for listening to Hacks & Wonks on this Friday, November 17th, 2023. The producer of Hacks & Wonks is Shannon Cheng. Our insightful co-host today was Seattle political reporter and editor of PubliCola, Erica Barnett. You can find Erica on Twitter @ericacbarnett and on multiple platforms now - just search Erica and on PubliCola.com. You can follow Hacks & Wonks on Twitter @HacksWonks and soon you'll be able to follow it on other platforms. You can find me on most platforms as @finchfrii. You can catch Hacks & Wonks on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever else you get your podcasts - just type "Hacks and Wonks" into the search bar, be sure to subscribe and leave a review if you're able - to get the full versions of our Friday week-in-review shows and our Tuesday topical show delivered to your podcast feed. You can also get a full transcript of this episode and links to the resources referenced in the show at officialhacksandwonks.com and in the podcast episode notes. Thanks for tuning in - talk to you next time.

Opinion: Homeowner lives in a car while squatter rents his house as an Airbnb. Jason Roth, who lives in Rainier Valley, is an example of how overly aggressive rental laws are destroying the housing rental market and raising rents. https://tinyurl.com/3n3rrwkp #opinion #columns #commentary #MarkHarmsworth #WashingtonPolicyCenter #homeowner #squatter #Airbnb #JasonRoth #RainierValley #KIRO7 #aggressiveRentalLaws #housingRentalMarket #WashingtonState #VancouverWa #ClarkCountyWa #ClarkCountyNews #ClarkCountyToday

Rhythm & News Podcast interview with ​Baionne Coleman, Chief Executive Officer of the Rainier Valley Leadership Academy, about the benefits of charter schools. Interview by Chris B. Bennett. 

Have you ever thought about the plight of a homeless homeowner who's also a landlord? It may sound paradoxical, but that's the reality for one Seattle resident, struggling with a tenant who's converted part of their house into an Airbnb rental without paying a dime in rent. Join us as we unravel the intriguing narrative of this homeowner, living in a van while grappling with mortgage payments, utilities bills, and a staggering backlog of $29,000 in rent.In the heart of a city famed for its liberal socialist utopia, we take a detour through Seattle's tumultuous rental property market. Unearth how the city's stance on nonpaying tenants amidst a pandemic can be a nightmare for landlords. Yet, the allure of owning rental property in Seattle remains, especially in areas like Rainier Valley, with its reputation for being rough around the edges but offering easy downtown access. Can you envision the dilemma of a landlord in this city, battling the risks and yet attracted by the potential rewards?Our journey doesn't end there. We also delve into the complex world of evictions and tenant rights issues in this fascinating episode. Discover how the city granted a non-paying tenant a short-term rental license, spotlighting the thorny issues around tenants' rights in liberal cities. As we wrap up the episode, we shine a light on the judicial system's approach to eviction cases in King County. So, if you're intrigued by the trials, tribulations and triumphs of being a landlord in Seattle, join us for this revealing exploration of the city's rental market.Support the show

We continue Season Four with Mary DeJong. Mary lives in Seattle, Washington's Rainier Valley in Columbia City, at Hedgewood, a home that for over a decade has hosted community connection through the reclamation and restoration of a neighborhood forest.Mary finds herself an eco-theologian and urban naturalist who delves into why place matters, the sacramentality of creation, and how together this informs the development of our ecological self. Mary terms this work “sacred eco-awakening” and sees this as a critical and holy endeavor as it allows us to come to grievous terms of our human history and to posture ourselves once again side-by-side with the whole of creation, putting our souls back in conversation with the anima mundi, the soul of the world. Her husband, four children, St. Findus and the Flock (a feral kitty and ten chickens and a duck!), medicinal and herbal “Hildagarden,” and yard—a Certified Wildlife Habitat—keep her busy when her pen does not.On this episode, we unpack what it means rewild, not only our outer landscapes, but mostly the inner landscape of our soul. We discover why wholeness and communion with the natural world so valuable and how rewilding our own stories can help us to reimagine our images of God, ourselves and even our parenting.Mary is passionate, brilliant and gentle. As you listen to this episode, you will find yourself immersed in your own inner soulscape, a place that longs to be restored to its beautiful wholeness. You'll feel both invigorated and at peace as you listen.You can find Mary's work, Waymarkers, at the following:Instagram:  @waymarkers Facebook:  Waymarkers Website:  waymarkers.net **RESOURCE ALERT**Commit to a soul journey through the whole wheel of the year! Every season that we move through throughout the year has tremendous potential and meaning for our soul formation.In the Wild Seasons rewilding courses, you will be companioned around the calendar of the year, deepening into the ways the more-than-human world resources you and expresses aspects of the Sacred Wild.Mary has so generously offered WILDAUTUMN20, a 20% discount code for Wild Autumn or the entire Wild Seasons series. Learn more about Wild Autumn here, and the bundled Wild Seasons series, which includes Wild Autumn, Wild Winter, Wild Spring, and Wild Summer.It's wonderful teaching in a self-paced format, and provides a jumping place for families to begin exploring nature as their own holy place of worship, communion, and sacred connection. 

Seattle Police Chief Adrian Diaz joins the Chino Y Chicano to talk about crime and gun violence. There has been a spike in shooting incidents  involving stolen guns. A fatal shooting in downtown Seattle took the lives of a  pregnant woman and her unborn child, and a shooting in the Rainier Valley at a community event injured five people.  Police are seeing the use of high power weapons and ammunition. The Chino Y Chicano take up those and other public safety concerns with the Seattle Police Chief.Read: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/08/us/lahaina-fire-families.html#:~:text=The%20F.B.I.,survivors%20wonder%20what%20comes%20next.: Read:https://www.spokesman.com/stories/2022/apr/15/fentanyl-involved-in-more-than-half-of-overdose-de/Read: https://pharmacy.wsu.edu/2021/08/23/how-one-professor-is-combating-a-silent-epidemic-in-eastern-washington/Read:https://www.courts.wa.gov/appellate_trial_courts/supreme/bios/?fa=scbios.display_file&fileID=gonzalezRead: https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/mental-health/seattle-libraries-transit-branch-into-social-work-to-take-on-mental-health-drug-use/: Read:https://www.seattletimes.com/opinion/editorials/buoyed-by-poll-seattle-mayor-harrell-should-go-big-on-public-safety/Read: https://crosscut.com/news/2023/01/two-seattle-asian-american-community-newspapers-go-out-printRead: https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/law-justice/leesa-manion-sworn-in-as-king-county-prosecuting-attorney/Read: The Best & Worst Awards for 2022https://i0.wp.com/nwasianweekly.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/04-05-Matt-and-Gei-1.jpgRead Marcus Harrison Green's Seattle's Times column about Black Youth suicide. https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/mental-health/more-black-kids-are-dying-by-suicide-the-reasons-unfortunately-arent-surprising/

For this Tuesday show, we present Part 1 of the Hacks & Wonks 2023 Post-Primary Roundtable which was live-streamed on August 8, 2023 with special guests - journalists Daniel Beekman, Guy Oron, and Melissa Santos. In Part 1, the panel breaks down primary election results for the crowded Seattle City Council races in Districts 1 through 5 - looking at how vote shares, campaign finances, redistricting, candidate quality, endorsements, and more played a part in who came out as the top two. Stay tuned for Part 2 of the roundtable releasing this Friday for more election analysis! As always, a full text transcript of the show is available below and at officialhacksandwonks.com. You can follow Hacks & Wonks on Twitter at @HacksWonks. Find the host, Crystal Fincher on Twitter at @finchfrii and find today's special guests, Daniel Beekman at @DBeekman, Guy Oron at @GuyOron, and Melissa Santos at @MelissaSantos1.    Resources Hacks & Wonks 2023 Post-Primary Roundtable Livestream | August 8th, 2023   Transcript [00:00:00] Shannon Cheng: Welcome to Hacks & Wonks. I'm Shannon Cheng, Producer for the show. You're listening to Part 1 of our 2023 Post-Primary Roundtable that was originally aired live on Tuesday, August 8th. Audio for Part 2 will be running this Friday, so make sure you stay tuned. Full video from the event and a full text transcript of the show can be found on our website officialhacksandwonks.com. Thank you for tuning in! [00:00:37] Crystal Fincher: Hello everyone - good evening. Welcome to the Hacks & Wonks Post-Primary Roundtable. I'm Crystal Fincher, I'm a political consultant and host of the Hacks & Wonks podcast and radio show. And today I'm thrilled to be joined by three of my favorite hacks and wonks - local reporters - to break down what happened in last week's primary election. We're excited to be able to livestream this roundtable on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube. Additionally, we are recording this roundtable for broadcast on KODX and KVRU radio, podcast, and it will be available with a full text transcript on officialhacksandwonks.com. Our esteemed panelists for the evening are: Politics and Communities reporter for The Seattle Times, Daniel Beekman. Staff Reporter for Real Change, covering local news, labor, policing, the environment, criminal legal issues and politics, Guy Oron. And Seattle Axios reporter, Melissa Santos. Welcome everyone. So I think we will get started talking about Seattle and all of these races for Seattle City Council. This is a year where we had some redistricted council districts in Seattle - we had a number of incumbents decide not to seek reelection, and a few who did - and some really interesting results. So I think we'll start in District 1, which is in the West Seattle area, where we see a result of Maren Costa with the lead - currently at 33.16% - and the second person getting through the primary, Rob Saka, with 24% here. So I guess just starting out - how are these candidates positioned, and what do you think this primary says about the state of the district and the state of this race going into the general? Starting with Daniel - what are your thoughts here? [00:02:47] Daniel Beekman: Oh, yeah, good questions - I'm interested to hear what the other folks have to say. I guess the one thing that strikes me about the race is that, like in - I think - every other race of the seven districts, we're going into the general election with a candidate who was endorsed by The Stranger's editorial board and one endorsed by The Seattle Times editorial board - which operates separately from our newsroom. And that's pretty typical for Seattle City Council elections. And maybe even without those endorsements, this race and others would have ended up the way they did - but I think that's something to note in this race and others. The other thing that struck me about this race is two pretty interesting candidates, background-wise - especially to some extent in Seattle politics with Costa. Doesn't really fit the - if there's a typical sort of Seattle candidate, especially in the left lane - the progressive, more progressive lane. I don't know if she fits quite into that. She doesn't come from a - she hasn't worked at the City Council, she doesn't come from the County or State Labor Council, she hasn't been steeped in local Democratic legislative district politics or anything like that, I don't think. She's from the tech world and was an activist in that world. So I don't know - I found that interesting, I don't know if that's a major takeaway - but it's something in that race that I think will be interesting to watch going forward. [00:04:41] Crystal Fincher: Go ahead, Melissa. What did you think? [00:04:42] Melissa Santos: I will be curious. It's really hard in a race where there's - what, we have eight candidates here again, or was it actually nine, eight in this one as well - to predict how the votes that the candidates didn't get will shake out. I'm really curious to see where Phil Tavel's votes go because - he ran last time too - and again, more one of the more business-friendly candidates in this race. And I'm just not sure that there'll be a one-for-one accounting for those votes, necessarily, when you come into November. Theoretically, those votes would go to the more central lane candidate, who is Rob Saka. But I don't know that that math is a direct line when there's a lot of time between here and November. And also, they're just - sometimes people are really attracted to someone's personal story in these races, right? We're focused as reporters and commentators sometimes on - who's the moderate, who's the lefty, or whatever. And sometimes I don't know that voters always are. Maybe there's one particular idea they had, that they talked about at the door, that people were into or a percentage were into. And there's also progressive candidates here that had some votes that are not making it to the primary, so I just don't know - I have zero idea how the votes for the non-winning candidates will shake out. [00:06:06] Crystal Fincher: What do you think, Guy? [00:06:08] Guy Oron: Yeah, I think to start - with all these Seattle races, I think the biggest message is that most people didn't vote. 64% of folks didn't vote in these elections. And it'll be interesting to see where those people land in the general. It did seem like a very competitive race - all these City Council races - but especially the open ones. And I think Maren was able to really use her credentials as an activist to get a lot of support among progressives, and while the more right-of-center lane was a little more split between Phil and Rob Saka. And it'll be interesting to see how it measures up. I think right-leaning candidates won just about 50%, compared to progressive ones that won about 45%. I was doing some rough arithmetic earlier - it is pretty narrow margin. It'll be interesting to see how it goes. [00:07:18] Crystal Fincher: Yeah, this is a race where it looks like this is going to be a competitive race in the general election. We did see an interesting role that donors played in this race where there were some substantial fundraising numbers from a number of candidates, even several who didn't make it through. I think there were a few who eclipsed $50,000 who did not make it through the general election. And then you have the two that did make it through raising a considerable amount of money, in addition to an independent expenditure on behalf of Rob Saka that made some news - for a Trump-supporting donor included in there and certainly more business-aligned candidate there. How do you see the role of donors and money and the way that the primary election shaped up, and what do you think that says about the general election? - starting with you, Guy. [00:08:15] Guy Oron: It'll be interesting to see. I think with Democracy Vouchers, it really changes the game and allows people who don't rely on corporate donations to run. And I think that gives Costa an edge there to fight at least an even battle. It'll be interesting to see if this election is more like 2019, where corporate donations sparked a big backlash, or more like 2021 when they got folks like Davison over the line. [00:08:49] Melissa Santos: The independent expenditures, I think, will be interesting to watch because theoretically the Democracy Vouchers do even the playing field. But once you get all that independent expenditure money in there, it's not limited in the same way. So I do think we'll see this huge flood of outside money going forward. And I am watching how - whether that kind of undermines the intent of the Democracy Voucher program. We've had a few years now where we've watched how this plays out. But particularly this year, I'm looking at that because I just think there will be a lot of outside money. And there already has been in this race in particular - maybe not a lot yet, but more than in other races, of city council races - and that can tip the scales. But like Guy said, there has been backlash before. We certainly saw that with the $1 million Amazon donation to the Chamber's PAC that kind of seemed to have that kind of resurgence of the progressive candidates in protest a few years ago. [00:09:53] Daniel Beekman: Yeah, I think it would be right to expect big outside spending in this race and some of the other races that look like they could be very competitive - that seems very likely. And one of the sort of quirks of this race in terms of spending in the primary was that there were some candidates - as you mentioned Crystal - like Stephen Brown got under 10%, spent money or raised quite a bit of money. But a fair chunk of that, I think - just looking, $34,000 or something like that was from himself, I believe. So that kind of tips the scales sometimes, or it can be confusing looking at the overall totals. But yeah, this is one of those races where I would be surprised if there wasn't a lot of independent spending in the general election. [00:10:52] Melissa Santos: You're saying bagels can't buy a City Council seat, Dan? Is that what you're saying? [00:10:57] Daniel Beekman: I'm just saying that this City - what was it? The mailer - This City deserves better bagels? [00:11:05] Melissa Santos: Bagels. Yeah, maybe that wasn't effective - maybe a different audience, maybe next cycle. [00:11:11] Crystal Fincher: Yeah, it's going to be interesting to see. And another race where sometimes people just have a ton of money and they think - I have a ton of money, I can loan myself money, donate to the campaign. But more often than not, we see those predominantly self-funders not necessarily finishing all that well. It actually does take the support of people in the community and those donations are basically a measure of support from people. And that seems to be important in overall results. I do want to talk about District 2 now, which includes the Rainier Valley, southeast Seattle. And that is where incumbent Tammy Morales is facing Tanya Woo, who will be proceeding through to the primary. And this is one of those races where in Seattle we see numbers shift from Election Night to others - this certainly was no exception, a race that shifted. And as we stand now, Tammy Morales - over 52% of the vote here, 52.26%. Tanya Woo with 42.58%, so about a 10-point spread. This is one of the races where people were wondering if there was going to be a backlash to the council that showed up. Lots of talk going in about - Oh, the council may not be popular or have high approval ratings. I've noted several times, similar to Congressional approval numbers, those don't really have much bearing to individual Congressional results. Here to individual city council results, this is seemingly a strong finish for Tammy Morales as an incumbent here. How did you see this race, Guy? [00:12:52] Guy Oron: Yeah, I think initially on Election Night - oftentimes media covers it as a definitive - especially not local media, but national media. It did seem close, but the fact that Tammy Morales won by 10% - got over 50% - that's huge for her. And I think it will be very, very hard for Tanya Woo to unseat her at this point. And it shows that Morales has a lot of support from a lot of the district. And so, especially considering the fact that Harrell went really hard supporting Woo and it looks like that didn't work out too well for him. [00:13:36] Crystal Fincher: Do you agree, Daniel? [00:13:38] Daniel Beekman: Yeah, I think to an extent. Definitely the race swung a lot - I think more than any other from Election Night to now - although other races did also have a leftward swing with the later ballots. It looks like to stand any kind of a chance, Tanya Woo will have to - she's a first-time candidate and raise her game, her candidate game, in the next couple months. And also it will be interesting to see - what I was looking for on Election Night - will that race be close enough for the people who fund those independent expenditures to decide that they want to get in? I don't know, but maybe they weren't necessarily expecting her to - Woo to come out on top, but maybe they're looking at - Well, is it close enough to make it worth our while to spend? And if I was her, I wouldn't want to hear the race described like that. But I think it's just reality as people are looking in from the outside and they're making decisions about where their money is best, would best be spent. So it'll be interesting to see if - what calculation those folks make - whether people think it was close enough to be worth pouring money in or not. [00:15:13] Melissa Santos: Because remember - this was one of the least crowded races. It was just Tanya Woo, Tammy Morales, and then Margaret Elisabeth who got less than 5% of the vote. So it's not one of those sort of mystery, how did the vote split situations as much. This one is more likely to be pretty predictive of the general election. And yeah, there's only so much money to spend - even though we talk about tons of money in politics, people don't want to just throw it at nothing. And I don't think it's a lost cause - I think Tanya Woo has a chance - it doesn't look as good as it did on the night of the election for her. [00:15:47] Crystal Fincher: Yeah, absolutely. This - to your point, Melissa - more than the others, I think - one, could be viewed through the lens of, Is this a referendum on Tammy Morales and/or the council? And also, this is one where it does pretty much reflect what the race is going to be in the general election. I don't think we've seen a situation before, barring a massive scandal, where an incumbent has finished with over 52% of the vote and lost. To your point, those trying to figure out - there are a number of open seats, there are certainly seats that some people want to pick up - Is it worth spending in those and this one? - is going to be part of the calculation that people make. But this is a harder one - it's hard to see incumbents losing in this kind of a position. How do you see the general election shaping up here, Daniel? [00:16:49] Daniel Beekman: I think we know what kind of a race Tammy Morales is likely to run because she's - I think she's run similar races to some extent, when she won her seat and then the race before that when she nearly unseated Bruce Harrell. So I think we know what that's going to look like. I think the question is more how Tanya Woo is going to try to make up the vote she didn't get or gain in the general - what that looks like, whether that means leaning into her, more into her sort of community work in the CID [Chinatown International District] , or if it means hammering on a particular issue like public safety or something like that. So I think that's - I don't know - but that's what I would be looking for is where this sort of question lies. But, yeah, I think it's - incumbents don't get knocked off very often. I was trying to think - I probably should have just looked it up, but I was trying to think before this about when's the last time the Seattle City Council incumbent was unseated and I was thinking about Jean Godden losing in the 2015 primary in a crowded race. But I think I could be totally spacing on a more recent one. But that seems like, in my mind, the most recent one and that's eight years ago now. [00:18:21] Crystal Fincher: Go ahead, Melissa. [00:18:22] Melissa Santos: I have a barking dog, so I'm trying to spare everyone from that. But yeah - now that I think about it - I was thinking - time is flat to me at this point, but Richard Conlin was a couple years before that. So what you're saying may be very well the most recent. We haven't seen a lot of incumbents go down and have those dramatic flips recently. It has happened, but not super recently. I will say - for Morales, since Sawant is leaving the council, she is, I think, the most - in this traditional lens of going back to who's left and who's center, right? Morales is the sort of furthest left member I think we have up for election this year. So the fact that she did get pretty good results in the primary, it suggests to me that there might not be this huge, huge upswell of being fed up with far-left City Council politics. There's certainly things people are unhappy with - we've seen polling that says people want more action on stuff - housing, homelessness. People want action. They want things to change, but they don't - necessarily voting out the most liberal candidates at this point. [00:19:31] Crystal Fincher: Yeah, I think that's a really good point. And I think, I've talked about it before in other places, but sometimes we hear about polling a lot and it's - Well, people are unhappy. And that's a reflection on people being unhappy with City councilmembers and approval ratings are low. And I think there are a lot of people who are unhappy with the state of things today, but I think sometimes we make assumptions about why that is and assume that that automatically means that they're unhappy with their councilmember. And that's not necessarily the case. I think that this is yet another example of that, where we need to go further and ask - Okay, so you're not happy with the state of things. Is it because - when it comes to public safety, do you want a more punitive and carceral approach, or do you want more intervention and community violence intervention and more addressing root causes? And I think if you look at the people on the ground in Seattle, they do want to do more to address some of the systemic issues that we have, to address some of the root causes, get more to prevention instead of trying to respond to so much after the fact. And I think that these results - almost in this race more than others - where there was a direct contrast between the two and a direct policy difference between the two. And we saw voters basically affirm that the direction Tammy Morales is heading is one that they're, that most are happy with. And especially in a lower turnout primary election, in an off-year, this is where you would expect unhappiness to really materialize if there was a desire to - kick all the bums out, that saying for people who are elected, but that didn't seem to materialize with two of the three incumbents finishing over 50%. And the third with the plurality of the vote there. How do you think this moves forward with that, Guy? [00:21:37] Guy Oron: Yeah, I do think it's a vindication for some of the people who were in the Solidarity Budget coalition, who are supporting decriminalization and defund, that maybe they see that one of the councilmembers that stood by their side got over 50%. I think they'll be reassured by that. I do think Tanya Woo got a lot of support in the CID and was able to really voice to that neighborhood that has been ignored a lot in the media by policymakers - or used as tokens, but not actually given proper seat at the table. So I think even if Morales wins the general election, that'll be something on the top of her priorities - is to better address the CID. And I think that was something that Woo was able to bring, even if she doesn't win in the general. [00:22:36] Crystal Fincher: Absolutely. Go ahead, Daniel. [00:22:39] Daniel Beekman: Oh, I was just going to say - and there's also sort of the differences district-to-district and candidate-to-candidate where - definitely Tammy Morales had a, looks like a strong result. On the other hand, you saw Dan Strauss trying to distance himself from some of his pro-defund advocacy from back in 2020 - I think I saw a mailer. And so whether he's right or not, he's obviously a little bit concerned about some of that coming back to bite him with voters in his district, so there's some differences district to district as well. [00:23:24] Crystal Fincher: Yeah, I agree with that. Another district - District 3, where Councilmember Kshama Sawant will not be seeking reelection, so this is for the person who will succeed Councilmember Sawant. And so in this race, we have the two making it through - Joy Hollingsworth with 36.89% right now and Alex Hudson being the second, making it through with 36.52%. Another very crowded race - this is a very close result, maybe the closest result. And two very different candidates than the current incumbent. What do you think this says about the district, and what do you think this says about the race? - starting with Melissa. [00:24:12] Melissa Santos: It is really close - you're less than a percentage point between these candidates now that we've seen the results shake out. And it is another situation where you have Joy Hollingsworth being the Seattle Times Editorial Board-endorsed candidate - not the newsroom, but the editorial board - and Alex Hudson being the Stranger-endorsed candidate up against one another. However, it's interesting to me because Alex Hudson is then - would be in the camp of being this more progressive candidate, right? - which in certain ways, she is. She's a long-time transit advocate and is - I remember, one time, her doing a video of confronting Tim Eyman, the anti-tax initiative pusher. And so she's done those sorts of things, but she's also someone who's worked a little bit more within the establishment than - certainly than Sawant, for instance - lobbying, building coalitions. So we're not seeing, and this has been said a lot about this race and I'm not the only one to say it, but we're not seeing anyone who wants to burn the barn down here in this race in the same way. We're not seeing a Socialist candidate in the same way even, and I'm actually - I haven't talked to these candidates as much as Dan and Guy probably have, but I actually think they're closer together on some issues than maybe it appears from those divergent endorsements. And I think some of that is likely to come to light during the general election, and it's possible that their positions don't as neatly line up necessarily with this sort of pro-business and labor/left activism, although in some ways they do. [00:25:45] Crystal Fincher: Do you agree, Guy? [00:25:48] Guy Oron: I definitely agree that it's a huge change from Kshama Sawant and either one of the candidates won't be Socialists. And so I think that'll be something for Seattle left to think about - how do you build momentum for a more broad base, long-term institutional victory - to get five council seats at least instead of just one. And that's - they have to go to the drawing board and think about that long-term. But in terms of Hudson and Hollingsworth, I think Hudson started off a little slow, but managed to snag some important endorsements - and that's credit to her and her long-time presence in the policy world in Seattle. And I think Hollingsworth also is a very compelling candidate - I've seen her at so many different events in the community. She really shows up - for example, when Nurturing Roots was closing back in March, not even in her district, but she was the only candidate to show up and show support. So I think that's credit to her and really cultivating her base in the CD [Central District] . And I definitely think it will be a tight race. Progressives did - all the progressive candidates together did win about 4 or 5% more than the more moderate candidates, so it'll be interesting to see if Hollingsworth can manage to build a coalition of moderate liberals and especially in the CD, turn out folks who aren't voting just to get over the line. [00:27:30] Crystal Fincher: Do you agree, Daniel? [00:27:32] Daniel Beekman: Yeah, I guess this is a race where Bruce Harrell has endorsed Joy Hollingsworth, right? So it'll be interesting to see what kind of impact that has, if any, that can be discerned - Mayor Bruce Harrell. Alex Hudson has a varied background, but coming out of the Transportation Choices Coalition - which is transit advocacy but labor-aligned - and in the world of the big players in Seattle politics and been a policy and politician factory. Rob Johnson, a councilmember, was the Executive Director there. And Jessyn Farrell, former state lawmaker, and other people - so it's been churning out folks into government, so that's interesting. But I think Melissa and Guy covered a lot of this, so I don't have a whole lot to add. I had noticed just on social media a little bit - and I should say that I'm not, I should shout out my coworker Sarah Grace Taylor, who's been doing a lot of the coverage of the City Council races this year for us rather than myself, so I'm not the expert - but just on observing on social media, I feel like I've seen a little bit of different emphases in how the two candidates are positioning themselves. Joy Hollingsworth trying to emphasize her community ties. And Alex Hudson - I just saw on the way over to do this - talking up transit as an issue. Obviously because she's - that's some of her background. But also she must think it will play well with voters saying - in that district that's pretty transit reliant. [00:29:32] Melissa Santos: In theory, Joy Hollingsworth would be the candidate who's newer to politics - in theory - if you look at them. However, Joy is coming from a family of sort of political legacies in a way as well. Her grandmother Dorothy was the first African American woman elected to the Seattle School Board - and I think that's part of her community story a little bit that Joy is playing up - being from the Central District, being part of the legacy of people making change and pushing forward, which is interesting since she's the more establishment candidate endorsed by the mayor. But that's why the dynamics of this race are a little interesting to me. Because the narrative is not as clean as what we've looked at - races in the past where it's, again, lefty versus more business friendly Democrat kind of races in Seattle. [00:30:26] Crystal Fincher: Yeah, I think that's spot on. And this is a district where there's a Socialist as an incumbent. This is arguably the most left district in the city that doesn't quite have a candidate that speaks to that far left end that Kshama Sawant does. And I do agree that there are potentially a number of overlaps or places where the policy differences may not be as clear from the very beginning. So I think this is going to be a race where it's going to be important to examine where the candidates stand. It's going to be important to understand where the differences are and to really understand what they're bringing in terms of - not just votes, but where they're willing to lead and push, perhaps, the council. What are going to be their signature issues? And what are going to be the issues where they may just be an additional vote? I think that there's a lot that people still don't know, and this is going to be one of the most interesting districts for trying to ferret out what those differences and contrasts are. Also notice that fundraising in this race - again, a lot of money raised throughout the district. This is a race - we saw the result being very close - also the amount raised, both raising about $94,000 there. And so this is another race where both seem to have a lot of fundraising capacity. Is this going to be a race where outside entities get involved? And I also think those outside entities are going to be listening for cues from each of those candidates. Who do funders see as their ally on the council? Who does labor see as a stronger ally on the council? I think that there's still more that they're figuring out here. And those donations, those types of donors and those endorsements, are also going to do a lot of speaking for these candidates about where they stand and how they're likely to govern. [00:32:26] Melissa Santos: I was surprised that - based on just fundraising - that Alex Cooley didn't do a little bit better because they raised $95,000 as well. I don't know if any of you can explain what happened there, because I expected a better showing for that amount of money - I thought, I don't know - just looking from the outside at it. [00:32:42] Daniel Beekman: Yeah, I didn't follow it close enough to know - was it mostly Democracy Vouchers? [00:32:46] Melissa Santos: Yes, must be. Yeah, it's a mystery to me. [00:32:50] Guy Oron: He was the only candidate to run on a platform of only taking Democracy Vouchers and he didn't accept private donations, which I think is an interesting platform and could prove compelling if you think about - I'm not beholden to any interests, only the people. But I think his ground game was strong, but he didn't have a lot of institutional support from people like The Stranger, and so that's why he fell short. [00:33:22] Daniel Beekman: Yeah, and to pick up on something that you mentioned when you introduced the race, Crystal - it's interesting to think about - Sawant won her seat in 2013, so 10 years ago. And to think about how much District 3 - those neighborhoods, like Capitol Hill and the CD, have changed in the last 10 years. And think about is that why we didn't get someone with Kshama Sawant's politics in this race? Or is it because people are tired of her personally and that's soured them? But they narrowly voted down a recall just recently, so they're not that sick of it. I don't know, I find that interesting to ponder on whether the fact that there are two very unlike-Sawant candidates and two non-Socialist candidates going into the general election has anything to do with her or not, has anything to do with changes in the electorate or not. I don't have the answer, but I'm intrigued by that question. [00:34:37] Crystal Fincher: I don't have the answer to that one either, but I do think this is a race where endorsements mattered a lot because it was hard, just on the face, to see some of the automatic differences between the candidates in a way that you can in some of the other districts perhaps. And so this is another one where we talk about the importance of The Times and The Stranger endorsements and that certainly carried through here, in people looking at The Stranger as a cue to see who is considered to be the most progressive. Lots of times people are doing the same thing with The Times on the other side, if they want a more moderate presence on the council. And so I think those endorsements really mattered - in this race in particular - but in several of them overall. Also want to talk about the District 4 election. Now this is a district where - we talk about change over the last 10 years - this is certainly a district where I think recent results that we're seeing there reflect an evolution of the district and a change in this district. And so both with redistricting here and in this race, probably one of the cleanest lines between what is considered traditionally someone in the progressive lane and those traditionally in a moderate to conservative lane. How did you see this race shaping up, Guy? [00:35:59] Guy Oron: Yeah, I think it echoes the last 2019 elections, but now Ron P. Davis is number one instead of Alex Pedersen, so that's a good sign for him. And he is the strongest non-incumbent candidate in Seattle, winning 45% of the vote. It does seem like, with more development and just growing density, there are changing demographics. So it could be an opportunity for a pretty dramatic swing towards the left in this district. But still, the more moderate conservative candidates won about 55% of the vote together - Wilson and Maritza Rivera. So it'll be very competitive, and I think it all relies on if Ron can turn out all the students to vote for him who tend to lean more progressive. [00:37:04] Crystal Fincher: How do you see this race, Melissa? [00:37:07] Melissa Santos: Theoretically, it would make sense to add together those sort of more centrist candidates and say - Oh, they got 55% - and I don't disagree with doing that, Guy. The thing that was weird to me is - and I wish I had in front of me at the moment - but there was a mailer that went out and Crystal, you saw this and I just think Dan, you also probably saw this - but where it didn't, it seemed like Wilson was going after Rivera, who was closer to him politically, than he was going after Davis. And there were checkmarks and it's like Davis got more checks being aligned with Wilson than Maritza Rivera did on this particular advertisement and mailer. And I don't know if that kind of communication is going to then make some people think that Davis is more aligned - people who voted for Wilson - if they're going to think, go forward thinking Davis is more their guy than Rivera. Or there's a lot of election communication still yet to happen, so I guess all of that can be reset. But it seemed like that was one of the primary communication that's happening in that district. And it may have disrupted the dynamic in a way of the sort of candidates and saying - Oh yeah, this is now my candidate since mine got knocked out since they're the most similar. And so I'm not sure how that will carry out forward going with this election into the general. [00:38:23] Daniel Beekman: Yeah, that's interesting - whether that mailer will stick in anyone's mind and sour them on Rivera when they might not otherwise be. I think probably what Ken Wilson was going for there was just looking and assuming that - Well, Ron Davis is getting through, it's between me and Maritza Rivera about who's getting through on the other lane, and so let's see if I can make that happen without - like we were talking about - one of these newspaper endorsements. And it didn't work as much as he needed to, at least. Yeah, District 4 is interesting. Shaun Scott ran - I think running as a Democratic Socialist to some extent in 2019 - ran Alex Pedersen really close in District 4 in that year. And I guess my sort of what I'll be watching for in this one is how Ron Davis moves forward - whether he tries to draw really sharp contrast between himself and Maritza Rivera and he thinks that's the key, or if he tries to tack to the center a bit to try to win over some of those maybe slightly more moderate voters or Ken Wilson voters in some way. And I'll just tell a sort of funny story. I went out on Election Day to do some just person-on-the-street voter reporting. And it was funny because I was in District 4 and District 5 for a while talking to voters. And I had two voters - one was this sort of like older boomer, typical Seattle boomer voter, and to some extent - whatever that is. And I said - What are you thinking about? And most of the people I talked to didn't have some sort of mega-narrative about the Seattle election cycle, like we're going to throw out the lefties or we're going to do this. It was more - they're kind of grasping at straws a bit in my little unscientific sample size. But this somewhat older voter said - Well, I care about trees and I went to this tree protest in Wedgwood for Luma the cedar tree. And Ken Wilson was there and he seemed to care, so I'm voting for him - that's a big reason. And then I talked to a voter - more lefty-seeming voter in her 20s, I think - elsewhere, I think in the U district. And they said - Well, I care about climate change and I went to this protest for the cedar tree. And Ron Davis was there, so I'm voting for him. So I don't know if that means anything, but it just goes to show - yeah, so it will be interesting to see, does Ron Davis lean into the tree protest? Or does he lean into let's densify and tax big business? [00:41:30] Crystal Fincher: Yeah, this is going to be interesting. And those anecdotes are always so interesting, and I think underscores just from the inside-a-campaign candidate perspective - three quarters of the job, three quarters of the work is in showing up, whether it's on someone's doorstep, whether it's at an event. People want to see that you're actively engaged in the community and in the issues that they care about. So I would just encourage all of the candidates to do that. And the more you can talk to regular voters, the better. But this is an interesting race here. This is another race where we also saw an independent expenditure on behalf of, or in favor of, Maritza Rivera here. And it is an interesting race where - I don't know that this race, these votes consolidate cleanly pre-mailer in the way that they would expect. On top of that, this is a district that, a similar district, just last year elected Darya Farivar. And you think that the general election electorate is going to look more similar to what we saw in an even-year election then - that certainly is more progressive than that district and that area has been for a while. So are we seeing a shift in the preferences of a district? Are we seeing a shift in the issues that are concerning people? Certainly housing affordability is a major issue throughout all of Seattle, but also playing out in this district where I think the previous calculus and assumption was that this is a district full of NIMBYs and they seem to be voting in the opposite direction now. So this is going to be a really interesting race to pay attention to and one that may attract a lot of outside money because there are clearer lanes with a moderate in the race seemingly and a progressive - and looking to really pick up the seat for one or the other. Also want to talk about the District 5 race, which is another interesting, exciting race and was a pretty close race. So we have Cathy Moore here - close overall, especially for the second and third place finisher here - so Cathy Moore finishing with 32.26% of the vote, ChrisTiana ObeySumner - they're finishing with 21.38% of the vote here. How did you see this vote shaping up in the primary? Nilu Jenks is finishing currently in third place, just outside of making it through the primary. Guy, how did you see this developing? [00:44:19] Guy Oron: Yeah, I think the District 5 race was by far the most fractured and we had, I think, tied for the most amount of candidates. And so people - I think a lot of people voted for their first choice and I think ChrisTiana was able to be a sort of dark horse and come out on top. I think a lot of people were expecting Nilu Jenks to win, and so now those voters will have to decide whether they prefer Moore or ChrisTiana - and I think that will decide which way the district goes. But I think North Seattle is not usually thought of as a progressive stronghold, but I think it is surprisingly pretty progressive in terms of where people are voting. And I think people have all sorts of politics, like chaotic politics, where they support trees and density - and how do you reconcile those two, and I think that's up to the candidates to show that they're more well-spoken and have a stronger vision about integrating these various contradictions. [00:45:32] Crystal Fincher: What do you think, Melissa? [00:45:34] Melissa Santos: I was just reviewing some of the candidates' sort of statements and where they're coming from - it does encapsulate to me a little bit - you have Cathy Moore talking about public safety. All the candidates are talking about safety and should be talking about public safety probably, but she's coming at - literally in her voter guide statement says - I'm the pragmatic solution - very much very focused on capturing that center lane, people who might want to see a little bit more timely police response is a huge part of her platform. And again, everyone wants the cops to probably, I think, to respond to emergencies probably. I don't think there's too many people saying - well, okay, I retract my statement. It's a very complicated issue, actually. But I mean emphasizing that - as opposed to emphasizing housing and upstream solutions to homelessness, which is where ChrisTiana was doing with her statements. I just think we have a lot of contrast between people talking about housing, to be honest - housing, housing, housing on one side and then people talk about public safety sometimes when you get - in the more traditional races where you get those center lane candidates. And housing is a message that's resonating with people. People, I think, want housing to be a thing. And again, for instance, we had this Social Housing measure pass earlier this year and I think that kind of - Tammy Morales, again, who is leading in her race and getting good, has really been supportive of that social housing measure and finding money to actually implement it. And as far as District - back to District 5 - I think ChrisTiana ObeySumner is also talking about those sorts of things more so than cops and hiring more police, and I think that there's people who want to hear them talk about that. And there certainly were other candidates in this race talking about different solutions to some of the sort of agreed upon crisis we see - maybe homelessness and housing - but I think those sort of holistic solutions, people are listening to that in an interesting way in some of these races. And this is an example of that to me. [00:47:48] Crystal Fincher: Yeah, this is a race where I think there was a broader range of viewpoints represented in this race across the spectrum that we see in Seattle. There was Tye Reed also in this race, who was very involved in the Social Housing initiative and that passing, and taking up a left mantle. But a number of progressive candidates - I think, yet again, this was another race where people were trying to figure out who was most aligned with their beliefs and that may have been not as easy as some people would have thought at first glance. And so another race where I think the endorsements from The Times and The Stranger were once again consequential. But I also think this is one where - a lot of times, I think we underestimate sometimes just individual candidate attributes, individual candidate performance, how people are connecting. And especially with how close this race was, particularly between the second and third place finishers - ChrisTiana ObeySumner and Nilu Jenks - I think ChrisTiana did a more effective job at clearly articulating where they stood on issues. And that was more of a challenge for Nilu Jenks, where some people left with some impressions based on what they said and they said things that gave other impressions to people. And so voters trying to reconcile who these candidates are and what kind of votes to expect, endorsing organizations trying to ferret out what kind of votes should they expect from these - I think that this is an example of being clear about where you stand is helpful in getting through to establishment people, getting through to voters, and making the kinds of connections that get you through to the general election. What do you think, Daniel? [00:49:50] Daniel Beekman: I was going to say - yeah, I don't have a lot to add, I don't think, about these particular two candidates. But I spent some time on Election Day - again, my very unscientific sample size, by the Lake City Library and a lot of people were talking about homelessness and people were talking about public drug use. And it will be interesting to see how these candidates navigate some issues like that. I do think that the questions about prosecuting people for using drugs in public - that has been in the headlines recently at City Hall, so that will likely in this race and others be something that is talked about. But Guy mentioned Darya Farivar's - or maybe you did, Crystal, or both of you - that election that she ran and won last year. And I would think that candidates in both District 4 and District 5 might want to be looking at that - and some of it is just about a candidate and their personality and what they have going for them. But if you're a smart candidate in those districts, you're looking at that race and - what did she do? And also just reminded me that - in terms of sort of some changes politically - is that on issues like criminal justice or the legal system, on issues around housing - both zoning, which is traditionally very much a city issue, but also on funding affordable housing - it seems like there are more of those conversations and more action happening in Olympia than there was some years ago. And I don't know if that sort of makes some of these City races feel a little bit less urgent for folks, but it's something that's occurred to me where - some years ago when there was just nothing happening in the State Legislature, when people are looking for help or for change, it made City elections that much more high stakes, but maybe that's been changing a little bit. [00:51:58] Crystal Fincher: Yeah, and I also think this is an interesting race just because of the expanded representation that could potentially be coming to the Council - non-binary person, disabled BIPOC person - and that kind of representation being really important. We're seeing so many other members of the community deal with challenges and access issues related to that, that some lived experience could be very enlightening and helpful in crafting solutions that meet the needs of everyone in the City. So I'll be interested to see that explored throughout the general election. And just figuring out, once again, where these candidates stand on issues. There's going to be a lot that the City Council is going to be dealing with over the next several years. And so I hope that there really is an attempt to figure out where the candidates stand and what solutions they feel - not just that they're willing to vote for, but that they're really willing to lean on and try and craft solutions with their colleagues on this for. [00:53:06] Shannon Cheng: You just listened to Part 1 of our 2023 Post-Primary Roundtable that was originally aired live on Tuesday, August 8th. Audio for Part 2 will be running this Friday, so make sure to stay tuned. Full video from the event and a full text transcript of the show can be found on our website officialhacksandwonks.com. The producer of Hacks & Wonks is Shannon Cheng. You can find Hacks & Wonks on Twitter @HacksWonks, and you can follow Crystal @finchfrii, spelled F-I-N-C-H-F-R-I-I. You can catch Hacks & Wonks on iTunes, Spotify, or wherever else you get your podcasts - just type "Hacks and Wonks" into the search bar. Be sure to subscribe to get our Friday almost-live shows and our Tuesday topical show delivered to your podcast feed. If you like us, leave us a review wherever you listen. You can also get a full transcript of this episode at officialhacksandwonks.com and in the podcast episode notes. Thank you for tuning in!

Today Trae sits with AJ Brooks to learn all about the Rainier Valley Community Development Fund. Tune in to hear how this fund is being used to invest in small businesses so they can maintain their impact in the community.

Never underestimate the taco.Especially ones you can get in a gas station parking lot or maybe filled with spicy grasshoppers.Today we're heading out with Seattle Times food critic Tan Vin to find out what he learned after eating 500 tacos in western Washington.We visit two taquerias along the way, Taqueria Los Potrillos #1 in the Rainier Valley and Casa Mixteca in Burien.We can only make Seattle Now because listeners support us. Make the show happen by making a gift to KUOW: https://www.kuow.org/donate/seattlenowAnd we want to hear from you! Follow us on Instagram at SeattleNowPod, or leave us feedback online: https://www.kuow.org/feedbackElijah Lewis Tribute Event: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/ethereal-vision-presents-puff-eat-laugh-tickets-610256302027

For generations his cake creations were synonymous with birthdays, weddings and graduations. Remo Borracchini of Borracchini's Bakery in Seattle's Rainier Valley died this month.

On this Hacks & Wonks week-in-review, political consultant and host Crystal Fincher is joined by Guy Oron, Staff Reporter for Real Change! They start with a discussion of Friday's Washington Supreme Court ruling that the capital gains tax is constitutional and what that means for the state's residents. Then they discuss a tragic eviction in Seattle and a court ruling that landlords can ask about criminal records.  They chat about Howard Schultz stepping down early as the CEO of Starbucks, workers protesting before their annual shareholder meeting, and some shareholders' and white collar workers' desire for Starbucks to improve their behavior and relations with unionizing workers. They follow with the Seattle Chamber of Commerce's desire to gut JumpStart tax funds for downtown, despite the popularity of the tax and need for continued investment in other neighborhoods and small businesses.  They close with a discussion of where the Sound Transit CID station debate stands, as well as talk about the significance of Pierce County passing a local tax to fund housing services. As always, a full text transcript of the show is available below and at officialhacksandwonks.com. Find the host, Crystal Fincher, on Twitter at @finchfrii and find today's co-host, Guy Oron at @GuyOron.   Guy Oron Guy Oron is the Staff Reporter for Real Change, covering local news, labor, policing, the environment, criminal legal issues and politics. His writing has been featured in a number of publications including the South Seattle Emerald, The Nation and The Stranger. Raised in Seattle, Guy brings a community and student organizer perspective to their journalism, highlighting stories of equity and justice.   Resources Dahlia Bazzaz and What's Happening in Washington Education from Hacks & Wonks   WA Supreme Court upholds capital gains tax by David Gutman and Claire Withycombe from The Seattle Times    Seattle landlords can ask about criminal records, court rules by Heidi Groover from The Seattle Times   Councilmember Invites Landlord Who's Suing City to Lead “Housing Provider” Panel from PubliCola   Seattle DSA Statement on the Death of Eucy Following the Attempt to Evict Her by King County Deputies | Seattle DSA   Will City Hall give downtown Seattle a tax break? by John O'Brien and Dyer Oxley from KUOW    Howard Schultz Will Step Down From Starbucks to Spend Less Time Getting Owned by Union Organizers by Tori Otten from The New Republic   Starbucks workers protest before annual shareholder meeting from The Associated Press   Starbucks shareholders to vote on proposals for labor probe, succession planning by Amelia Lucas from CNBC   Comptroller Lander and Coalition of Investors File Shareholder Proposal at Starbucks on the Rights of Workers to Organize | NYC Comptroller   Placement of future CID light rail station sparks heated debate, strains relations by Guy Oron from Real Change    What We Know About Sound Transit's Alternatives to a Chinatown Station by Doug Trumm and Stephen Fesler from The Urbanist   Sound Transit is Not Ready for Its Big Chinatown Station Decision from The Urbanist Editorial Board       Light Rail Board Members Seek Middle Ground as Plan to Skip Chinatown, Midtown Stations Moves Forward by Erica Barnett from PubliCola   From the Other Side of I-5: Little Saigon Weighs In On Sound Transit's Light Rail Expansion In the CID by Friends of Little Sài Gòn for PubliCola   Preserve Chinatown or Fuck Over Transit Riders Forever? by Hannah Krieg from The Stranger   Pierce County just passed a new tax and funded a homeless village. That's a big deal by Matt Driscoll from The News Tribune   Pierce County Council votes on sales tax to address housing crisis. Here's the decision by Becca Most from The News Tribune   Transcript [00:00:00] Crystal Fincher: Welcome to Hacks & Wonks. I'm Crystal Fincher, and I'm a political consultant and your host. On this show, we talk with policy wonks and political hacks to gather insight into local politics and policy in Washington state through the lens of those doing the work with behind-the-scenes perspectives on what's happening, why it's happening, and what you can do about it. Be sure to subscribe to the podcast to get the full versions of our Friday almost-live shows and our midweek show delivered to your podcast feed. If you like us, the most helpful thing you can do is leave a review wherever you listen to Hacks & Wonks. Full transcripts and resources referenced in the show are always available at officialhacksandwonks.com and in our episode notes. If you missed our Tuesday midweek show, Seattle Times reporter Dahlia Bazzaz returned with a rundown of education issues across Washington state, including why budgets are a mess, how the Washington State Legislature is and isn't addressing it, the Wahkiakum Schools lawsuit addressing capital construction costs, and shifts in enrollment patterns in Washington schools. Today, we're continuing our Friday almost-live shows where we review the news of the week with a co-host. Welcome to the program for the first time, today's co-host: Staff Reporter for Real Change covering local news, labor, policing, the environment, criminal legal issues and politics, Guy Oron. Hey! [00:01:30] Guy Oron: Hi, thank you - I'm so glad to be here. [00:01:32] Crystal Fincher: I'm so excited to have you here - have been appreciating your coverage of all of those issues for a while now, so excited to be able to talk about the news this week. And we just got a big piece of breaking news this morning - finding out that the capital gains tax has been found, by our Washington State Supreme Court, to be constitutional. What did they say? [00:01:59] Guy Oron: Yeah, the Washington Supreme Court ruled that the capital gains tax is not a property tax and that it is legal, which is a huge win for the Washington Democrats and the governor, who signed the bill into law in 2021. [00:02:15] Crystal Fincher: Yes, absolutely. There was question about - okay, we have - our State Constitution prevents an income tax from being enacted, any graduated income tax is not considered constitutional at this time. This didn't address that issue - basically it accepted that the capital gains tax is an excise tax, so the Court didn't visit, revisit all the rulings that classify income as property and that being a way to clear the way for a graduated income tax. We will address that a different day at some point, I'm sure, but for now, the capital gains tax is found to be constitutional. And this is really big for a lot of funding going for schools, for daycare, for a lot of family support. And this is a tax that is going to only impact - what is it - the top 0.2% of Washingtonians, I think that was, while easing some of the burden or allowing people who are lower income, middle income to really get more bang for their buck in the types of services that are going to be provided here. [00:03:24] Guy Oron: Yeah, it's really a game changer because the state has operated for so many years on this austerity mindset where they have to decide between schools and other public services. And so this will give some breathing room for families, the vast majority of families in the state. [00:03:44] Crystal Fincher: Yeah, absolutely. So looking forward to see this implementation continue - yeah, and so with only two-tenths of 1% of Washington taxpayers seeing enough profits on capital gains to pay this tax - which is a 7% tax on stock sales, extraordinary profits exceeding $250,000 annually - exempting real estate, retirement accounts like IRAs, family-owned small businesses and farms, among other things. It is just something that lots of people have been waiting to find out if this is going to go through, and that will enable about $500 million extra a year to be raised, just from this tax on two-tenths of a percent of Washington state residents. Also this week, we got news that a landlord court case - another one decided - that it is not legal for the legislation that Seattle passed - to try and help ease people back into the community, help people with access to housing who have been convicted or previously incarcerated - preventing landlords from being able to ask on an application if someone has been convicted of a crime before. That was ruled unconstitutional - landlords can do that, continue to do that. How do you think this is going to play out? [00:05:10] Guy Oron: Yeah, I was very surprised by the Ninth Circuit's reasoning - because on the one hand, they acknowledged the importance of remedying discrimination against people who have been incarcerated. But on the other hand, they ruled that it was too broad - banning landlords from finding out someone's criminal history. And so it does seem like there's still room for the City to challenge the ruling and try to still mitigate that, but it is a blow for renters and people who are fighting against the criminal legal system and trying to get folks reintegrated into society after experiencing the harms of mass incarceration. [00:05:54] Crystal Fincher: Yeah, absolutely. And that's so major, because so many people have had some kind of conviction or even just an arrest. Yes, especially with so many people who have convictions - because we have been in this era of mass incarceration, a significant percentage of our community has been arrested, has been convicted of some crime at some point in time. And we talk about the housing crisis, homelessness crisis - people not being able to afford homes - but also being able to qualify for an apartment, to be able to rent a place is challenging. And if we're serious about wanting to create a safer community, wanting to create a community where more people can have their needs met, where fewer people are victimized or harmed - certainly helping to make sure that people have access to housing is one of the most basic and fundamental things we can do. So there still - once again, is a significant percentage of people in Seattle, but obviously most other cities have not passed this legislation - and so lots of people across the state still facing challenges being able to access housing overall. So we'll see what the response to this is, but definitely a challenge. Also in the news this week is a really unfortunate - really, really tragic - story this week of a really fatal eviction where a young woman ended up taking her own life, where a deputy was shot, and just a tragedy that unfolded because of an eviction - an attempt to serve an eviction notice and forcefully evict this - which really seemed to throw this person into crisis. And the community overall has really largely reacted to this and I've actually been, through this tragedy, heartened to see the reporting from a variety of news outlets really talking about the root causes of this issue - in failing to take action to keep people in their homes, to prevent eviction - resulted in so many people getting harmed, and so many people being less safe, so many people being scarred after this, and a life being lost. How do you see this? [00:08:24] Guy Oron: Yeah, it's just such a tragic incident. I know Eucy was a member of the Seattle DSA community and of mutual aid and other community organizations in Seattle and so I just - my heart goes out to her and everyone who was touched by her presence in the community. I think this case really is the tip of the iceberg, and really shows the structural violence of evictions and our current housing crisis. And so many people have - it's so violent that people have to move every six months, every year or two, every time they get a rent increase. And you just think about children and having to switch schools every year. You have to think about the mental health impacts and stress that it takes to not only find a deposit and pay all the short-term rental fees on top of rent, but also just how difficult it is to exist in society when rents are so high. And so this case really shows how difficult and how much violence our current housing system inflicts on people. [00:09:42] Crystal Fincher: Absolutely, and we can do better. We have to do better, we need to do better. And that's the thing that gets me with so much of this. Some of the discourse I see or talk - What are you talking about? Why are you even, basically, caring about the humanity of this person? A law enforcement officer was shot, and we should note that we do not know by whom at this point in time. We do know that Eucy died by suicide. And just a really unfortunate situation. And if we get away from blame, if we get away from this kind of toxic discourse that talks about - if people deserve help, deserve a second chance, deserve grace, deserve housing, deserve basic needs met - when we don't focus on that and we allow things to get this far down the road, it is very expensive. As a community - beyond the life lost - this is destabilizing for a ton of people. This has endangered law enforcement lives - this is not good for them either - this is putting them in danger and in harm's way. It's hard to see who wins. Certainly a landlord now has a clear house, but at what cost? The cost is so high, it doesn't have to be that high. We can do better than this. And I think this underscores the real toll that is taken - we hear statistics a lot of times - and the eviction moratorium saved this many people from being evicted. But when you look at the cost of one person, the impact of one person - it really underscores how urgent it is to act to keep people in their homes, to get their basic needs met, and to find a different way that takes into consideration the health and safety of the community in a much better way than we do now. Also this week, we learned that the Chamber is interested in looting the JumpStart Tax and lowering the B&O Tax in an attempt to jumpstart and revitalize downtown. What's your take on this? [00:11:57] Guy Oron: I think it is very much out of step with much of the community right now that are suffering. We know that during the COVID-19 pandemic, small businesses, workers, even people who work in white collar jobs - right now with all the layoffs going on - are suffering. For example, with the interest rates, it's really hitting - we've seen with SVB's bank shutting down, it's really hitting the tech sector hard. And so most of the economy and most people are suffering. The one group that hasn't been suffering very much are people who own land, and property, and businesses. And to see the Chamber of Commerce, which represents organizations like Starbucks, like Amazon - all these companies which have reported record earnings in the last year - all of them now targeting this small tax, which is a couple million dollars for some of these businesses. In total, I think less than $300 million a year is raised through the JumpStart Tax, if I'm not mistaken. And so it seems like they're trying to take advantage of the economic downturn to redistribute more wealth from workers to the rich. And I think for folks who want to advocate for the whole community and not just a small segment, they should really be skeptical of the claims the Chamber's making. [00:13:24] Crystal Fincher: Yeah, this is part of the ongoing conversation of revitalizing the downtown core. Lots of concern is being heard from people who want to "get back to normal" - whatever that is - from pre-pandemic times, where people were going into the office five days a week. Because of the way that our downtown, many downtowns are designed - people commute in to the downtown core and they commute out of the downtown core. And so much of the businesses, services, structure of downtown, economic structure of downtown is based on just that - servicing commuters, so restaurants and services. But really it's a different downtown after 6-7 PM with so many people clearing out. Through the pandemic, certainly people reduced going to the office. Now patterns have changed where we're seeing less than half, about half of what pre-pandemic foot traffic from people who work downtown was - which is impacting many businesses, which is concerning a lot of people. I think the question really is - should we keep chasing the structure and economy of yesterday that just doesn't look like it is relevant or valid moving forward into the future? If we want to consider downtown just for commuters and focus on the revitalization efforts, return-to-work efforts, and everything going there - we miss the opportunity to make a downtown for today and tomorrow. To make a downtown that's a cultural destination, that's a community destination, and not just a business and commuting destination. I put that just there - businesses are absolutely vital - we need jobs, we need people hiring and thriving, and we certainly need a healthy economy. But again, at what cost? The reason why we have the JumpStart Tax is because most people recognize that businesses, especially the larger businesses, were not paying what most people considered to be their fair share. And this imposes a fee on every employee making over $150,000 for businesses of a certain size. So really it's about mitigating the impacts that their employees have, that their business has instead of solely reaping the benefits of all of the resources - human and otherwise, that this community provides - that they are able to use to drive up the record profits that you referenced. So it's a really interesting conversation. And the other interesting dimension is - certainly, downtown is an important, vital neighborhood. So are lots of other Seattle neighborhoods. And we're now in a situation - once again, in a situation where downtown is really asking for resources from other neighborhoods. And are other neighborhoods are gonna settle for that? Are residents of other areas gonna say - We have to address housing in our neighborhood. We have to address crime in our neighborhood. We need to make our streets safer, healthier. There's so much on the docket to do. Do we need to be taking money out and deprioritizing our needs to move more money over, redirect money to downtown and those purposes - which goes against the JumpStart Tax, which is very popular with Seattle residents and really bailed the City out of a really harmful budget shortfall. So it's gonna be interesting to see how this shapes up - seems like every election is, at the end of the day for the Seattle Chamber and many large corporations, a referendum on taxes for them and an attempt to reduce taxation for them. So we'll see how this all unfolds, but certainly interesting to follow. And once again, we're seeing what's behind a lot of the rhetoric and candidates that we're hearing from out there - and really another bullseye on the JumpStart Tax. In related big corporate news, Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz is stepping down. What did we hear with this news? [00:17:49] Guy Oron: Yeah, it was a bit of a surprise just because he was slated to step down at the start of April, and he ended up stepping down two weeks early. This comes as he's been engulfed in a lot of controversy over retaliation against union organizers. At the same time, Starbucks has been making record profits alongside other corporations. And this kind of motivated the union to hold a big rally on Wednesday, and there were hundreds of union members and supporters who showed up in SoDo. At the same time, over a hundred stores across the country went on strike as well. And I think this is a turning point. I think we might see some change. It also happened, this also happened at the same time as a shareholder meeting, where there were multiple resolutions sponsored by different shareholders who are concerned about the impact that union busting might have on the reputation of the company. And so it'll be interesting to see if the pressure from workers from the bottom and pressure from some stakeholders and shareholders will together combine to make some change. And maybe we'll see a shift from Starbucks corporate to be a little more amenable to the union. [00:19:16] Crystal Fincher: Yeah, it's gonna be interesting. Like you said, they have their annual shareholders meeting. Starbucks is important - it's a big corporation - but it's a big corporation that seems as dedicated as any corporation to union busting in every single way that they possibly can. Howard Schultz was certainly the union buster-in-chief and union busted in ways that were not just distasteful and unethical, but also illegal. The National Labor Relations Board found many instances of illegal union busting activity. And so they seem to be on the tip of the spear of being willing to do whatever they feel it takes to battle unions, whether it's shutting down stores and trying to do the redirection by blaming crime - but the stores that they're shutting down seem to just predominantly be stores that are attempting to unionize, or just don't fit within their profit plans. But also just the amount of hostility towards workers - firing people who are organizing, wielding benefits as a weapon - there was coverage before of potentially even using gender affirming care, women's reproductive care as a wedge issue in attempts to unionize. It is just really unfortunate. And so there were some votes on whether to reassess their labor stance in the shareholder meeting. I don't know how much is gonna come from that - those are certainly non-binding. There is some shareholder sentiment to, at least in terms of rhetoric and outward appearance - from at least a marketing perspective - to not be so hostile to workers, as more and more people across the country definitely understand the plight that their workers are going through more than the plight of the CEO and the highly-paid executives fighting against people just being able to afford the basic necessities of life. So we'll see how Starbucks' new CEO, how their shareholders try and push the corporation - but they've got a long way to go. And certainly even if they were to change some rhetoric, lots of people would need to see changes in behavior - immediate good-faith negotiation with many stores that have opted to unionize that now need to negotiate their contracts and seeing them. But it seems also - as we talked about, I think last week or week before - white collar workers in Starbucks headquarters have also voiced concerns and are calling on Starbucks to do better for their workers. So we'll see how this continues to unfold, and how the new CEO stakes their claim and what path they set. Other really big news this week, in the Puget Sound area, is the Sound Transit CID conversation - CID station conversation about where to site stations and spines for the upcoming lines planned for Sound Transit. What is being talked about and what is this about? [00:22:41] Guy Oron: Yeah, this has been a huge issue across Seattle, the Seattle area, for the past couple of weeks. Sound Transit in 2016 passed a ballot measure called ST3, which authorized funding for a new line that would service both Ballard and West Seattle. And now is the process where the agency needs to find locations for a second tunnel and where those stations are gonna be located at. And so over the past couple of years, the Chinatown International District community has really pushed back against some of these plans. Initially the agency really disregarded completely the community perspective and just started drawing on a map. And they drew proposals for Fifth Avenue, which is right next to Uwajimaya and the gate kind of near Chinatown, and that really angered community. And after basically unanimous pushback, they shelved that proposal. And so now they have one proposal for a Fourth Avenue shallower, which would build a station in between Union and King Street Station. And more recently, a couple of months ago, local leaders - Constantine, Dow Constantine and Bruce Harrell - came up with a second proposal to put two stations right outside of the neighborhood, one in Pioneer Square and the other one kind of in the north end of SoDo. And so this proposal was seen as more a way to mitigate some of the direct impacts of construction on the neighborhood, but it's also caused a lot of controversy because it would make transferring from some lines more difficult. Someone who's coming from Ballard and wants to go take the Amtrak, for example - with the north-south proposal, they would have to get off in Pioneer Square and wait another 10 minutes. And similarly, someone coming from the south end, from Rainier Valley, they would also have to either - to get to the Amtrak, they might have to walk another 5-10 minutes. And certain areas of the CID will be farther than with the Fourth Avenue proposal. And so there's a lot of trade-offs in terms of prioritizing transit accessibility, especially if we think about the climate impacts of mitigating car use. And so those are some of the concerns that transit advocates have brought up. And also, some of the progressive organizations in the CID have really pointed to some of the issues with Fourth Avenue, including potentially 9+ years of construction closing down Fourth Avenue and where will all those cars that kind of use it as a mini-highway - where will they go? And they're very concerned that a lot of them will cut through the neighborhood and increase smog and congestion, and make it harder for people who are actually going to the CID to go there and really make the neighborhood much less livable. And so some of these concerns are really important to consider, especially given the history of the City screwing over the neighborhood time and time again - whether it's building I-5 through the neighborhood, the King Dome, and other kind of mega-construction projects that have really devastated communities there. [00:26:11] Crystal Fincher: Yeah, Sound Transit tunnel, deep-bore tunnel - several projects have caused a lot of harm and strain to the CID. And I think what a lot of people are saying, 'cause some people are just - Construction is construction. Everybody deals with it. You gotta, it's gonna inconvenience some people. But the issue is - man, the CID seems to be expected to absorb the inconvenience much more frequently, similarly to the way we see disinvestment in South Seattle. Some areas of the City - which have predominantly BIPOC, predominantly low income, much higher percentage of disabled residents who are there - and experiencing the harm from these impacts from construction. And they're saying - We're tired of being the people who have to absorb the brunt and the majority of the impact, or we're always on the chopping block when it comes to what we need. And over and over again, we see it happen where we're experiencing challenges that other areas of the City are not expected to deal with to the same degree. And they're sick of it, frankly. And a lot of people are saying - Okay, is there a path forward where we can mitigate some of these impacts while still looking at and studying these other stations? So there was a meeting yesterday where they agreed to move forward on what you were talking about - studying, building out these new options and what the impacts and the ramifications and the actual projected cost is. How do you see the conversation about mitigating the impacts of this station happening? What kinds of things are they talking about? [00:28:03] Guy Oron: Yeah, a big thing is transit, the traffic congestion, and how you would mitigate traffic congestion into the neighborhood, regardless of which proposal Sound Transit takes up. And I think that is something where the agency will have to be a little more robust than just promise. They will have to compensate the neighborhood in various ways, as well as also compensating the First Hill neighborhood, of course - because that neighborhood hasn't really been serviced by either of the proposals, especially areas like Harborview. I think the agency should look into maybe funding more frequent bus service to that neighborhood as well. Another issue is, of course, equitable transit-oriented development. And I think the agency has an opportunity to use some of its eminent domain powers to maybe help construct more affordable housing - because that's a huge concern that wherever you build a new light rail station, developers will buy up the land - and then the prices will go up - and build market-rate apartments and price out a lot of the existing residents. So those are some of the concerns that Sound Transit and local leaders will have to look to address. [00:29:19] Crystal Fincher: Yeah, absolutely. I guess I gave my two cents before - which isn't really two cents - on the planned station alignments. I do think the community most impacted, most at risk for displacement and harm should be centered in this conversation. There certainly are people on all sides. There's a broad, diverse array of opinions, but we should hear all of those opinions from that community. We're hearing varied concerns from the community. I think my reflection is based on seeing a lot of people discussing this, a lot of people who are not from the community or tied to the community. And looking at transfer times, which is important - rider experience is absolutely important - but as they do that, to continue to focus and highlight and uplift and listen to the concerns of the residents there. So often when we're in these battles - in a lot of people's minds, it's just refute the argument, get them to vote, and move forward. Downplay the argument - No, that's ridiculous. We should move forward with that. That's a bad idea. And what we're hearing from the community is regardless of which option there is, no matter what option we choose, there are challenges that need to be addressed meaningfully. And I would say to those activists - no matter what option you're supporting - mitigation for the CID, mitigation for First Hill needs to be a part of that. And in so many of these proposals, when we wind up in this situation right here - where community is voicing concerns and people outside of the community are making decisions - so often there's rhetoric - We hear you, we'll totally take care of you. But the things they're asking for are not written into legislation. They're just winks and nods and promises and - Don't worry, we'll take care of it. And then when it's time to take care of it - invariably for a variety of reasons - it doesn't get taken care of, the ball gets dropped, promises get broken, things that they were told were possible are no longer possible. And they end up even more jaded than when they began because they voiced their concerns, they were told that they were heard, they were assured that they would be taken care of, and then they were left out to dry. And so I hope advocates for this really focus on listening to the community, amplifying their concerns, and bringing those concerns to electeds and demanding that mitigations be codified as strictly as everything else. And to not just rely on promises and hopes, and we should be able to do that, and if we get funding. If we are concerned about equity in moving forward, then we need to make sure that we're all moving forward together - and that means standing up for voices that are traditionally talked over, minimalized, overlooked, and making sure that they are actually taken care of. Not saying that everyone's gonna walk away from this happy at the end of the day, but we can ensure that fewer people walk away from this harmed at the end of the day. I think that's everybody's responsibility, and they should really reflect on if they are doing that, they should reflect on if they are talking over people, they should reflect on how to amplify voices, and move forward with that in mind. [00:32:48] Guy Oron: And something I really wish was that this conversation didn't get so polarized, and that communities would listen to each other a little more - be more cognizant of the privilege they are coming into these conversations with. And really direct their fire not at each other, but upwards towards the agencies, towards politicians. There's no shortage of places that Sound Transit needs to be held accountable for, and I think it is unfortunate to see some of that energy be directed between different progressive people who want to do right by their communities. And so I would encourage, like you said, hopefully more cognizant, thoughtful advocacy in the future. [00:33:27] Crystal Fincher: Absolutely. The last thing we'll cover today is Pierce County passing a local tax to fund housing services. What will this do? The final thing we'll talk about today is the Pierce County Council passing a local tax - one-tenth of 1% sales tax increase - to fund affordable housing, as well as approving a pair of ordinances that set the stage for construction of a micro-housing village for people experiencing chronic homelessness, which is a big deal. It's really a big deal because, as I look at this - and I'm old, so I remember things from a long time ago, a lot of people may not - but this Pierce County Council, Pierce County being purple, the Pierce County Council being split - and being able to pass a tax with a majority is something that would not have happened 10, 15, 20 years ago. This is a council that had a strong Republican majority, and the recently retired Derek Young stepped down - he was term limited out actually from the Pierce County Council - was part of really starting to turn the Pierce County Council and Pierce County policy from red to purple and even blue in many circumstances. This passed with a veto-proof majority. A number of people that Derek Young helped to recruit were there, so now that he is no longer on the council, this is the last piece of legislation passed with him as a prime sponsor. It started while he was still on there, and it is continuing now. But I do think this is a testament to how important local organizing is, how important it is for our elected leaders to continue to build leaders in their community, to help give people opportunities for leadership, and to help shepherd people into positions that can make an impact like this in the community. This is not the first action that Pierce County has taken to address major structural issues - certainly within public health and public health centers, housing, the environment - many different issues that they have taken action on. And now with housing, seemingly still being ahead of our State Legislature and several other cities here. But I just think it is something that will absolutely do good and that is possible, was made possible by some real serious continued organizing and investment and leadership from people and leaders within that community. So excited to see that, excited to see another major city in the state take a significant step to try and address this housing affordability and homelessness crisis that we have, with significant investments and delivering on what voters basically have given people a mandate to do. Voters are expecting action to address this housing affordability crisis and homelessness crisis. And can talk about minor changes in policies and this and that, but until we actually make solid investments, have dedicated revenue streams to fund continual improvements, we're not gonna make the progress that we need to. And so kudos to the council Democrats on the Pierce County Council for passing this, despite some opposition from Republicans there - but definitely delivering for what the voters have asked for in Pierce County. [00:37:00] Guy Oron: Yeah, this new tax really shows that leaders across the state are starting to take this - the housing and homelessness issue - seriously, and really understand how dire the situation is. So it's great to see other counties, like Pierce County, start to take action and so I commend them. [00:37:20] Crystal Fincher: Absolutely, and with that, we thank you for listening to Hacks & Wonks on today, Friday, March 24th, 2023. I can't believe it's so late in March, but I can believe my brackets are on fire - okay, I just had to throw that in. It's March Madness, my brackets are amazing at the moment - we'll see if that still holds by next week. But thank you for listening. This show is produced by Shannon Cheng. Our insightful co-host today is Staff Reporter for Real Change covering local news, labor, policing, the environment, criminal legal issues and politics, Guy Oron. You can find Guy on Twitter @GuyOron, G-U-Y-O-R-O-N. You can follow Hacks & Wonks on Twitter @HacksWonks. You can find me on Twitter @finchfrii, it's two I's at the end. You can catch Hacks & Wonks wherever you get your podcasts - just type "Hacks and Wonks" into the search bar. Be sure to subscribe to the podcast to get the full versions of our Friday almost-live shows and our midweek show delivered to your podcast feed. And if you like us, leave a review wherever you listen. You can also get a full transcript of this episode and links to the resources referenced in the show at officialhacksandwonks.com and in the episode notes. Thanks for tuning in - talk to you next time.

Pastor Kyle Van Tine of Rainier Valley Church comes into the studio to share how his testimony and call to ministry have led him to love and serve Seattle in pastoral ministry. Adrian and Pastor Kyle reminisce on their time at Western Seminary. And discuss the importance of connection, community, and discipline in today's fractured world. Get more info on Rainier Valley Church here:https://rainiervalleychurch.com/ https://www.instagram.com/rainier_valley_church/ See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On today's episode of confabulation, hosts Pearl and David learn from guest Jade from Ranier Valley Birth and Health Center. We learned about all the services offered at the health center, differences between a midwife and traditional OBGYN. Jade explains how Ranier Valley supports BIPOC patients to have better outcomes. Links: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/oursistershouse/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/our_sisters_house Apple podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/confabulation-osh/id1500315817 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5dqqRWvQ3b50t79AGuPPW6 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@Confab-OSH/featured

Burnout can manifest differently across job sectors. Long hours and an intertwined work and home life balance makes things tricky. Since the onset of the pandemic, many clergy members have been wrestling with how to do and be everything their community needs. Some have even considered quitting ministry altogether because it's too much to handle. "I really felt like I was at my rope's end in terms of ministry,” Pastor Peter Chin said. Chin is the lead pastor of Rainier Avenue Church, located in the Rainier Valley of Seattle.Senior producer Brandi Fullwood spoke with Pastor Chin about his scheduled sabbatical. It was clear he really needed it. But not everyone understood that.

On this week's Hacks & Wonks week-in-review, Crystal Fincher is joined by transformative justice advocate, community organizer, writer, and sociologist Evelyn Chow. We start off the show with a reminder that Crystal will be hosting a candidate forum for the Seattle Municipal Court Judge Positions 3 and 7 races, featuring Position 3 candidates Adam Eisenberg and Pooja Vaddadi, and Position 7 candidates Nyjat Rose-Akins and Damon Shadid. The forum will be streaming live on Facebook, Twitter, and Youtube on Wednesday, October 12th at 7:00pm. See our blog for more details: https://www.officialhacksandwonks.com/blog/municipal-judge-forum-october-12-2022  Also, starting this week, applications for the Institute for a Democratic Future (IDF)'s 2023 program are now live! You can find more information at IDF's website at https://democraticfuture.org/.  In national news, President Biden has announced his administration is pardoning people who have received federal simple possession charges for marajuana. In the announcement, Biden asked state governors to do the same for state charges, and requested the secretary of Health and Human Services and the U.S. Attorney General to review how marijuana is scheduled under federal law. This is a big step that will help many people, and will hopefully be emulated by the states, but it has its limits - pardoning doesn't equate to ending prison sentences and doesn't include expungement, which has logistical and financial hurdles for people to climb.  In county news, while we've heard stories from other parts of the country facing issues with clean water access, King County is facing its own water crisis. For the past week, the King County Jail in Downtown Seattle has been without clean water. People in the jail have been forced to use water bottles, and the schedule at which they can refill them is unclear. This is another terrible example of how our jails do not provide rehabilitation, and instead subject people to inhumane and dehumanizing treatment. This story also follows many other instances of horribly under-resourced and under-staffed King County jails leading to outrageous conditions for people staying in the jails. We have to do better. This is inexcusable. This week saw some very informative reporting following up on Harrell's proposed budget putting $1M into the controversial ShotSpotter program. Amy Sundberg from Notes from the Emerald City and Melissa Santos from Axios both put out stories, linked below, covering the program's history - which shows it's not only ineffective in its purpose of catching gunfire as it happens, it's also incredibly wasteful of police resources. ShotSpotter has no positive impact on gun crime or public safety, and none of its alternative surveillance programs are any more effective. It's budget season! Evelyn gives us an in-depth explanation of the City of Seattle's participatory budgeting process, and encourages folks to get involved and make their voices heard! If you want to speak your mind about the city's budget, you can send written emails to the City Council at this email: council@seattle.gov. You can also attend Budget Committee meetings in-person and remote on October 11th and October 25th at 9:30am. In addition, there will be public hearings on the budget, also remote and in-person, on October 11th at 5:00pm, November 8th at 9:30am, and November 15th at 5:00pm. See here for more info: https://www.seattle.gov/council/committees/select-budget-committee   In local homelessness news, we look at the on-going story of King County's planned expanded enhanced shelter and behavioral health services hub in the SoDo neighborhood, which has seen a lot of pushback from local residents. This is a complicated story about providing care to those who need it, while at the same time making sure that the county works with local communities about what happens in their neighborhoods. The CID has faced heavy burden during the pandemic, and has dealt with a number of government projects that have been pushed through with little community engagement. If a community is telling us there wasn't enough engagement, there wasn't enough engagement, and we need to remember not to dismiss these grassroots community voices just because there are bad faith actors trying to take advantage of them. As always, a full text transcript of the show is available below and at officialhacksandwonks.com. Find the host, Crystal Fincher, on Twitter at@finchfrii and find today's co-host, Evelyn T Chow, at @evelyntchow. More info is available at officialhacksandwonks.com. Resources Hacks & Wonks is hosting a Seattle Municipal Judge Candidate forum on October 12th at 7:00pm! Please see the link here for more details: https://www.officialhacksandwonks.com/blog/municipal-judge-forum-october-12-2022    The Institute for a Democratic Future is now accepting applications for its 2023 program! The Early Application Deadline is November 2nd, with an application fee of $35, and the Final Application Deadline is November 13, with a fee of $75. See their site for more details: https://democraticfuture.org/    “Biden Pardons Thousands Convicted of Marijuana Possession Under Federal Law” by Michael D. Shear & Zolan Kanno-Youngs from New York Times: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/06/us/politics/biden-marijuana-pardon.html?auth=login-email&login=email    “In a Sign of Worsening Conditions, Understaffed King County Jail Has Lacked Water for a Week” by Erica C. Barentt from Publicola: https://publicola.com/2022/10/06/in-a-sign-of-worsening-conditions-understaffed-king-county-jail-has-lacked-water-for-a-week/    “Proposed Surveillance Tech Can Lead to Biased Policing” by Amy Sundberg from News From the Emerald City: https://www.getrevue.co/profile/amysundberg/issues/proposed-surveillance-tech-can-lead-to-biased-policing-1383779    “Seattle mayor budgets $1M for controversial gunfire detection tech” by Melissa Santos from Axios: https://www.axios.com/local/seattle/2022/10/07/mayor-million-shotspotter-gunfire-detection    “$30M Seattle participatory budgeting effort gears up with staff, workgroups, and a steering committee” by CHS from Capitol Hill Seattle Blog: https://www.capitolhillseattle.com/2022/10/30m-seattle-participatory-budgeting-effort-gears-up-with-staff-workgroups-and-a-steering-committee/    Learn more about how you can get involved in the Participatory Budget process here: https://www.seattle.gov/council/committees/select-budget-committee      Seattle Solidarity Budget: https://www.seattlesolidaritybudget.com/    “Chinatown International District pushes back at expanded homeless shelter. Officials ask where else?” by Greg Kim from The Seattle Times: https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/homeless/chinatown-international-district-pushes-back-at-expanded-homeless-shelter-officials-ask-where-else/    “OPINION | Hooverville Then and Now: Who Is Worthy of Space?” by Caedmon Magboo Cahill from The South Seattle Emerald: https://southseattleemerald.com/2022/10/03/opinion-hooverville-then-and-now-who-is-worthy-of-space/    “King County planning expanded enhanced shelter and behavioral health services hub in SoDo with new lease“ from King County's Press Office: https://kingcounty.gov/elected/executive/constantine/news/release/2022/March/23-SoDo-Enhanced-Shelter-Transmittal.aspx    Transcript [00:00:00] Crystal Fincher: Welcome to Hacks & Wonks. I'm Crystal Fincher and I'm a political consultant and your host. On this show, we talk with policy wonks and political hacks to gather insight into local politics and policy in Washington State through the lens of those doing the work with behind-the-scenes perspectives on what's happening, why it's happening, and what you can do about it. Full transcripts and resources referenced in the show are always available at officialhacksandwonks.com and in our episode notes. Today, we are continuing our Friday almost-live shows where we review the news of the week with a co-host. Welcome to the program for the first time today, our co-host, Evelyn Chow. Hello! [00:00:51] Evelyn Chow: Hi, thanks for having me. [00:00:53] Crystal Fincher: Hey, I am excited. Just so people understand who you are - you're a transformative justice advocate, community organizer, writer, and sociologist. You were born and raised in Hawai'i, moved to Seattle 7 years ago where you received your degree in Sociology from Seattle University. Currently work as the District Director to Councilmember Tammy Morales, representing Seattle City Council District 2. Previously, they worked for non-profits Real Change and Ingersoll Gender Center, and did communications work for several local and state political campaigns. You are a force to be reckoned with. [00:01:34] Evelyn Chow: I appreciate that praise. I don't feel like such, but - [00:01:41] Crystal Fincher: I am so thrilled that you are here on the show today 'cause I have appreciated and admired your work for a bit here. So I'm excited. [00:01:51] Evelyn Chow: Thank you, Crystal, for having me. [00:01:53] Crystal Fincher: Absolutely. Before we get into all of the stuff, there are two reminders, or upcoming things that are coming up. One is the Municipal Judge Forum that we are putting on next week - it's a live candidate forum that will be streamed via Twitter and Facebook - and it will be a Municipal Court judicial forum. So the two contested seats are Position 3 and Position 7 - Adam Eisenberg vs Pooja Vaddadi and Nyjat Rose-Akins vs Damon Shadid. So we will be hashing it out, talking about what they believe in, want to do on Wednesday, October 12th - that's this coming Wednesday - at 7:00 PM, which will be live streamed online. So pay attention to that. Also want to remind you about something we've talked about before on the program. The Institute for a Democratic Future, or IDF, is opening its application period. This is a six-month program, with about 10 weekends over those six months across the state of Washington and in Washington DC, covering politics and policy from all vantage points throughout the state - how policy passed is actually implemented and impacts the people on the ground. Great network, great education - it's responsible for my career in politics. Just a great preparation, whether you want to work in the political sphere as a candidate or staff, policy - wide variety of options there, even in the nonprofit or advocacy space. Just great preparation - helps you get a great understanding and connections to people in a great network. So if you're interested in that and - you don't have to want to work in politics, but maybe you just want to advocate for policy or explore what options may be - I highly recommend the Institute for a Democratic Future. We'll include the information in our show notes. Feel free to @ me, email me if you have any questions, but just wanted to make sure that is on everybody's radar and the application deadline is in November, so you have a little bit of time. But now is the time to get started on that if you're interested. Now we'll get to the news of the week. So there's a lot that has happened in a lot of different areas. We had a couple chaos days with news this week of every kind, but looking at politics and policy in the state - want to start talking about some big news that broke yesterday with Joe Biden pardoning federal simple possession of marijuana. What did you see as the most important takeaways from this settlement? [00:04:33] Evelyn Chow: What we saw yesterday - huge news, in terms of Joe Biden setting his agenda by making the statement that, on a federal level, simple possession convictions of marijuana will be pardoned. And I think across the board we've seen a lot of different parties, people, interests react. On my end, while I'm really hopeful that states will follow suit across the US and do the same thing, which will impact more people, I also want to. acknowledge also that pardons don't mean, necessarily, released from prison. Nor are they expungements of criminal records. And the administration does say that about 6,000 people will be pardoned. And which is really again, huge - it means you're forgiven - but it's still on paper. I would love to see the expungement of it from records, though we also know, just from doing work in community, that expungements are costly. Lawyers have to file the expungement, on top of cost of filing, and they know that this is a cost that a lot of working class people might not be able to afford. And the method becomes like a fiscal generator for municipalities. Sorry, now we're going down the rabbit hole of the negative or maybe the under-the-surface, but I think on the surface this is really huge. I do hope to see more states follow suit in that - this is not nothing. For a lot of, I think, abolitionists and criminal legal system reform advocates, I've seen a lot of this just kind of brush through. And I understand where that sentiment comes from and at the same time, this is not nothing. This just - it's a something that will hopefully evolve. [00:06:31] Crystal Fincher: It is, absolutely - I think that's exactly right. It's something that is positive, that hopefully continues to evolve here in Washington State - we've been more fortunate than a lot of other states in the country. There are states where you can go to jail for possessing a joint, where there is no legalization at all. We're used to the ability to go to the store here and pick out our selection of weed - that is not the case in a lot of the country. And there have been recent - pretty pointed - efforts on behalf of the Republican Party in several states to roll back marijuana legalization. So it is not even like legalization, in one form or another, is even safe in places where it has been implemented. So I think this is important - one, as you said, in setting the agenda and really urging states to move down the path of decriminalization, which I think is important, and just puts a little bit of external pressure on different states. I was surprised to hear about this just because of the news, previously, that Biden didn't have the friendliest marijuana policy for his own administration and looking at issues with that. But I do think that this moves the conversation forward across the entire country. We're ahead of the conversation a little bit in Washington State, but a lot of people are not there and this is meaningful for a lot of people in states where the population - the people there - want this change, but they have leaders who are very, very resistant. Also, looking at the rescheduling of this - to keep it from being classified similarly as heroin or fentanyl - it clearly is not. All the public health data shows that, and it's a barrier to research and a bunch of other things. So this is a step in the right direction, I think. Still have a lot more to go, but it's a fight that Biden is willing to take on even before we get to these elections. It's a winning issue and it's the right thing to do. So if you can - absolutely, if you can win on an issue and it's the right thing to do, should be moving forward with it. And I'm glad to see that this happened. So in other news this week, we saw that the King County Jail is lacking water. They've lacked water for a week. This is a story that PubliCola broke on Thursday, I believe. And we've seen news and lots of people have made their opinions known about the water crisis in Jackson - sometimes it's just, Oh my goodness, that's horrible there, it could never happen here. It's happening here. It's happening in a place where people have literally no other choice, no other option about what to do. They're being given bottled water instead of being able to access the water, because there are currently health issues. And there are questions about whether people are even getting enough water - it looks like they're having to choose between hydration and hygiene. What do you see with this? [00:09:52] Evelyn Chow: I have a status as a volunteer at the women's prison down in Purdy, in Tacoma. And was a volunteer for a few years until COVID, in which - none of us have been able to get back in for programming, except for a few of the churches - which is a discussion for another time. But, I think often the way that we see punishment in this country is, in a way, a just sweeping things under the rug - putting people in prisons and jails is this. And when you put people there, there's that perception of - all of the stigmatization of what you put on a population that has often done things that maybe you have also, but maybe I've had the privilege of not being caught for. And what happens to those people is they get forgotten, or they get put into conditions that we would never ourselves want to be in, regardless of any of the harm that we have caused as individuals. I think in this issue - sorry to get philosophical with it, I just needed to set that context of - [00:10:59] Crystal Fincher: No apologies necessary. [00:11:01] Evelyn Chow: This is not, obviously, the first time in the US or even across the world where prisons, people who are getting placed into prison, are experiencing extremely degrading and violent circumstances, right? From the article, we hear that there are women in the jail who are getting their period and they're unable to get a change of underwear for the week. And this is also something that is across the board even pre-COVID, pre-pandemic times, of people needing to spend the very limited resources they have on hygiene products - things that should be guaranteed rights for people. It's inhumane, it's also just a clear liability for the county. [00:11:47] Crystal Fincher: It's infuriating. It's infuriating because - one, this could have, this started and went on for a week before it even caught notice. And thankfully for PubliCola's reporting, it did - otherwise it would've gone on longer - that inmates often have no voice in our community. We make it so hard for people who are incarcerated to communicate, to advocate for anything. They frequently face punishment for just bringing up issues of clear illegality, or challenges just in terms of health, violations of policy - and too many people in the community who just feel like we can discard rights of people who are incarcerated or that somehow they're deserving of it. And if someone is incarcerated, the sentence is the incarceration. That does not in any way absolve all of us because they are being held, on behalf of our society with our tax dollars - this is a community responsibility to make sure they are treated as humans. One, because it's the right thing to do. They should not be subjected to harsh, inhumane, insufficient - facilities, supplies, regulations, any of that. We should be treating them and making sure they have all of the provisions they need. And it's wrong morally not to do so, it's also highly ineffective and increases the chances that they're going to come out when they get released - because everybody's, just about everybody's getting released - and are not going to be able to successfully integrate into our society and contribute to the problems that so many people then complain about on the other side. We have to invest in people, treat people, make sure they have resources - access to education, access to therapeutic programming, arts, lots of different things. We need to make sure that they come out more whole than they go in, if they are going in. That is what's best for our community, that's what's best for the safety of everyone, that's what's best for legal liability resources. And so this is just infuriating. And on top of this, the jails are understaffed. And so there's a big question about - are people dehydrated right now? They don't have a way to tell us most of the time. They are limited to receiving one bottle of water at a time - I'm assuming these are small, 20-ounce bottles of water that we normally see - because they're afraid of affiliated, associated safety concerns. They can exchange an empty bottle for a full bottle. How frequently is that opportunity to exchange? Why are we rationing water to people? It just doesn't make sense, we have to do better - this is - we have to do better. And so this is on Dow Constantine, this is on all the employees there, this is on every elected official - the King County Council. We have to do better - this is inexcusable. [00:15:22] Evelyn Chow: And I'd also, if I could Crystal, just point out - this recent, this ongoing water shutoff is only the most recent example of the different types of problems that they've been experiencing at the jail over the past few years, if not since the jail has been there. We've been hearing from folks there that they are getting limited access to medical care, to their attorneys, to even spend time calling people like family members and loved ones. All of this has been exacerbated by COVID, but is a statement of the existing conditions at a lot of these jails and prisons. So I agree - there has to be a better way of - people need to do better, our electeds need to do better. [00:16:04] Crystal Fincher: Yeah, and these are public resources that are being spent or misspent in these ways. We need to demand better. They must do better. And to your point, this is the latest in a litany - and as a reminder, both public defenders and the corrections officers in our King County jails came together earlier this year to ask King County to release more prisoners 'cause they're woefully understaffed. This is a safety issue for the corrections officers, it's a safety and health issue for the people who are incarcerated there. It is working for nobody and ignoring this is only allowing those conditions to get worse. Someone is going to end up injured, ill, or worse. And this is entirely preventable. In other news, more discussion this week about Mayor Harrell's budget proposal, including part of the proposal that he has to address gun violence with the ShotSpotter surveillance program. What is this program and what is your perspective on this? [00:17:12] Evelyn Chow: Shotspotter is a private program and it's - over the past years - been marketed to dozens of cities across the US. However, they've proven to have little investment on their return. So the description of what they are proposing that this technology does is - it's a microphone system and it triangulates the location of where they would hear supposed, or alleged, gunshots. And that would allow first responders, specifically the police, to show up to that scene quickly and supposedly de-escalate the situation or apprehend whoever had fired a gun. I think the system, as we've seen in cities across the US like in Charlotte and in others that have actually used this technology - we've seen that the system generates a lot of notifications when the sensors are triggered. But there's very little evidence that that data leads to any arrests, convictions, or even - most importantly - victim assistance. Cities across the US have already been canceling their contracts with ShotSpotter for the past few years, citing the poor results. And I think even in New York City, the system had triggered enough false positives that the NYPD Deputy Commissioner a few years ago was like - this is an unsuccessful system and it just logs noise. It was logging things like an exploding volleyball - like a popped volleyball - or a car backfiring. And so I think, before we choose to invest a million dollars in this upcoming budget cycle in a technology that is proven time and again and again that it doesn't work - perhaps that million dollars could be better spent in other places that will actually promote community and public safety. And I just also want to make the point that there is already increased surveillance technology equipment in SPD, especially around South Seattle communities, but citywide. And the data that it collects is not transparent in any way. With existing technologies and this new proposed, or not necessarily new, but proposed technology - we need to, at least - the public deserves to know how that data will be used and who will have access to it. I know a few years ago, when the ShotSpotter was being proposed, they talked about how it, as a private entity company, owns that data. And so there's a lot of repercussions that I can see coming up with - if the city decides to move forward with implementing ShotSpotter. And I also hear a lot of people who have very fair questions, candidly, about whether this is going to be effective at all. And, my answer is no. [00:20:17] Crystal Fincher: Your answer is no. And so many different entities' answers are no. An AP investigation earlier this year found serious flaws with prosecutors using ShotSpotter for evidence - noting, as you said - it can miss live gunfire next to its microphone, but misclassify the sounds of fireworks or cars backfiring as gunshots. A study published last year in the peer-reviewed Journal of Urban Health found that ShotSpotter appeared to have no significant impact on firearm-related homicides or arrest outcomes in 68 large metropolitan counties from 1999 to 2016. It has no impact on gun crime, it has no impact on public safety. A separate study on Philadelphia's use of SENTRI, a ShotSpotter alternative - and it's important to note that there are different alternatives - they all experience these problems, so if they substitute another one with ShotSpotter, these surveillance programs that are essentially trying to hack public safety and hack a solution to gun violence are just not effective - that found that the technology increased police workload. At a time where they keep complaining that they're overworked, that they don't have enough police to address public safety concerns - it increased police workload by sending officers to incidents where no evidence of a shooting was found. So once again, we're in a situation where Bruce Harrell has the opportunity to define what his plan for public safety is going to be and we're hearing things, that not only have no evidence that they're going to work, they have evidence to the contrary. While lots of people are suggesting things that are backed by data, backed by evidence - when he came in office, he said, Look, I'm going to be evidence-based, data-driven. People are like, So here's that evidence that you said you wanted, and here's this data that you had said you wanted - let's do this. And it's, No, let's go to this thing that has been demonstrated not to work. And we do need public safety solutions. We do need to make our streets safer. We do need to reduce the amount of people who are being victimized urgently. And we can't afford to waste this time and money on solutions that have proven not to make people anymore safe. We just can't afford this. And I am asking, I'm begging public officials to - yes, follow the data. There is so much available that shows what is helpful and useful to do. And I will note that some programs - Bruce has defunded, that have been effective in doing this this year, so it's just frustrating to see. And I wonder - this is me wondering, obviously - a lot of people have moved here over the last 10 years and may not remember Bruce Harrell being on the City Council. He was for quite some time. And I think that we are hearing a number of proposals that were talked about 10 years ago when he was on the council. And he was on the council for several years - for a decade, basically. [00:23:39] Evelyn Chow: I think three terms - yeah. [00:23:41] Crystal Fincher: Yes, and so it's like we're bringing back the hits from 2010, 2012 - and sometimes, there was even some promise for some of those things at that time. Wow - they've been implemented in so many cities across the US, we've had the opportunity to gather data and figure out what has evidence of effectiveness and what doesn't. And that just doesn't seem to enter into what they're proposing. It's really confusing and we're waiting - we're waiting on proposals that will make people more safe - and more than just hiring more police, which can't even happen until next year. What is going to happen now to make people more safe? It's frustrating, as I am sure you deal with in a very immediate and present way on a daily basis. [00:24:35] Evelyn Chow: Yeah, absolutely. Everything you said - public safety, community safety is an urgent issue and they keep trying these tried techniques, right? Tough on crime didn't work in the nineties, it's not going to work now. And investing in all of these things that are scientifically, with data and evidence, proven not to work is just not the way we need to move forward. And I think similar to King County Councilmember Girmay Zahilay's op-ed in the Times, I think a few weeks ago now, talking about how public safety is not about scoring political points. I think the executive put out this proposal with a very specific - I guess, his specific base in mind. And that does not encompass the lived realities of a lot of people across, especially South Seattle, but across the City as well. [00:25:26] Crystal Fincher: Yeah, absolutely. So we'll continue to keep our eye on that. Also, it's budget season in the City, in the County - which you are in the middle of and steeped in. And so, there was an article in Capitol Hill Seattle this week covering the $30 million Seattle participatory budgeting effort that is now gearing up. What is happening with this, and what is happening just in the budget process overall? [00:25:53] Evelyn Chow: The mayor gets eight months to put together his proposed budget and then it comes to Council - it came on September 27th, a few weeks ago now - and we get about eight weeks in the council to splice and dice that budget. And you brought up participatory budgeting - I am glad to see that - I think the context, to just set a little bit of groundwork for participatory budgeting - this was money that was allocated in September of 2020, following the protests that sparked nationwide after the police murders of George Floyd, of Brianna Taylor, of too many others. And it really came as a demand from community to the council to direct money into community-led safety initiatives. And this is an opportunity for the community that's most impacted, that's usually furthest away from being able to make decisions about how their money is spent, to be engaged in that process. And the Seattle City Council allocated $30 million into this participatory budgeting process, and this is going to be the largest undertaking in, I believe, North America with a similar initiative. And so just a little bit more of groundwork before I get to where we're at - King County Council did the same allocation on a smaller scale of $11 million. And they've already executed their contracts and that money has gone out into community. I believe it was about $11 million to 45 different community-based organizations. And where we are now - it's been a couple of years since the money has been allocated, and I know that some people are starting to ask - what's the status update? And I know in the Neighborhoods, Education, and Civil Rights Committee on the Seattle City Council - we recently held presentations to get that status update from the King County Council and the Seattle Office of Civil Rights, where that contract is now housed. And so - I believe they're in the design process and that they are working to make sure that community engagement is really steeped in this step and every step along the way to direct this funding. I think at this point, it sounds like the group that got contracted from the City is called the Participatory Budgeting Project. They're a national organization and they are currently working to hire local staff to help on their steering and working group committees, which will in turn shape and launch this effort. So I'm excited to see - I think at a time when we're talking about the budget season in Seattle, on the county level - and a lot of folks are feeling particularly enraged at several of the proposed line items in the mayor's budget around these new technologies, around the caps for service workers on their raises. This is an opportunity - participatory budgeting - to put funds towards, quite frankly, where the executive is not going to invest right now - in these types of solutions that we know community has already been working on, for years, to address violence on an interpersonal and on a state level. So I'm excited to see this continue to be underway. [00:29:42] Crystal Fincher: Yeah, I'm excited too and I'm broadly in favor of the community being actively engaged, actively involved in allocations that impact them and that they should have a voice. All neighborhoods in Seattle should have a voice. Traditionally, some have had much more of a voice than others. And there are some that have had many more resources, that have had close relationships, the time and ability, and frankly privilege, to get familiar with budget processes, engagement processes - which can be very exclusionary and hard to figure out how to even become a part of it. And they're not necessarily friendly to someone just walking up trying to figure out what's happening. Making sure that we reach out to every single community in the City and that they have a voice in shaping the investments is really important. I'm also excited to see this, excited for this money to get distributed and for this process to actually get started. And then for the budget process overall - so we've talked about this participatory budgeting, but this is in the context of the larger budget process overall, which is a big process - lots of resources there. I guess we'll talk about specific hearings and stuff in a moment, but what would your personal advice be, if people are looking to become more involved in budget decisions in the City, and how money is invested and where it's involved? [00:31:26] Evelyn Chow: That's a great question because it's - I don't see it enough, especially in communities where there's intentional, whether implicit or explicit, ways to de-incentivize people from being civically engaged. Where I've seen the people build the most power - and we saw this in 2020, as well as when people with their specific values and interests come together - and really work on contacting their elected representatives, setting up meetings throughout the year, making sure they're being held accountable to the votes they're taking in committees, in Full Councils and being like - here are the updates that I see on the ground, as people who are doing work as - at community-based organizations and non-profits, etc. And here's the needs that we see emerging in our communities, and here's what you can do about it in the budget season. [00:32:16] Crystal Fincher: So I'm glad that participatory budgeting is hopefully going to be getting underway. At least they're hiring - hopefully the money actually gets distributed soon. Engaging in budget processes is always complicated overall. I'm sitting here - I've worked in politics for a while, I've worked with tons of people who've worked with budgets - and budgets are so opaque and so complicated, and so - these are documents over, that are thousands of pages long, oftentimes. You have to have a deep and intimate familiarity with everything to even understand what they are. You can see the numbers on the paper, but is that more than I spent before? Is that less? What does that mean? Where did this money come from? Is this continuing? It's a complicated and convoluted thing. And we have this budget process, which is at a certain period of time during the year. One, I always just want to reiterate and reinforce with people, 'cause we don't talk about this enough, I don't think - is that a lot of the groundwork, whether it's budget, whether it's legislation, or anything - there's a period of time where there are hearings and everything to discuss it and that's valuable. But a lot of the groundwork, a lot of what actually shapes that - happens long before that process. And so the importance of engaging within community, within organizations that are familiar with the budget and advocating there, being familiar with your County Council person, City Council person, mayor and keeping that line of communication open - and anyone can call your elected representatives. They are your elected representatives. If you are a resident - you don't have to be documented, you don't have to be anything else. If you live in whatever jurisdiction, they represent you and they should be responsive to you. But you can ask questions, you can do all that kind of stuff and start there. That's always helpful to do and sometimes that helps to get an understanding of things so that when these processes do officially ramp up, that you know where everything stands and can be prepared to advocate for what you want - hopefully already getting that and how it's shaped in there. But if you don't, you're prepared to advocate. For people who are getting engaged in this process now - now that this process has spun up - what are ways that people can get involved, whether it's hearings or anything else? [00:34:43] Evelyn Chow: Couldn't have said it more eloquently - thank you, Crystal. I can give a vague overview, or I can give a timeline of the budget process. Anyone in the public gets to provide feedback on the budget. You can call your representatives, you can send emails into their offices. I will say that mail form responses don't receive as many individual responses as just a personal - Hey, I'm concerned about this - you know what's going on. The Seattle City Council does have public hearings. There will be three in the next few weeks. The next one is coming up next week on October 11th, which is a Tuesday, at 5:00 PM. And then in November there will be two public hearings on November 7th and November 15th. The Select Budget Committee will be meeting throughout these weeks. And on the first meetings of the Select Budget Committee, I believe there will also be public comment allowed. Now this is a shift from, I think previous years where, people could give public comment at each committee hearing, and so I've definitely heard some pushbacks on there. I think a lot of the reasoning is just that - we are still in COVID but - yes, there will be those public hearings. And folks are able to give feedback in public comment during the Budget Committee hearings. And the first one had already happened on September 28th. There will be another one coming up on October 11th, similarly, but in the morning. And those Select Budget Committee meetings are happening all week. And next week is when the Council is going into, going to deep dive into basically every issue area with the Central Staff. And so it starts next Tuesday - I believe Tuesday is just going to be a general overview of the General Fund and Capital Investments. And then each day throughout the week - Wednesday, Thursday and Friday - they'll be covering several different issue areas, whether it's SPD, homelessness, Office of Planning and Community Development. And so - folks are really encouraged to stay on top of the Budget Committee meetings as well - there is a link on the City of Seattle's website to stay on top of when these committee meetings are happening throughout the weeks. So just to summarize, there will be Budget Committee meetings that folks can give either remote or in-person public comment to - for the Select Budget Committee, which is just made up of members of the Seattle City Council. And there will be public hearings on the budget specifically. The first one is set for next Tuesday, and then there will also be on - November 8th and November 15th. And at any time throughout the budget process, folks are encouraged to reach out to their elected officials, to stay on top of their representatives - either social media, newsletters, mail - all of the different forms to get information. And partnering up and joining up with these organizations that you specified, Crystal, that have been doing this type of advocacy work and have dedicated staff people to dissect those year-round. Just a number of ways - [00:37:56] Crystal Fincher: There are - number of ways - not the simplest process to follow, but there are ways to get engaged. One of those groups with the Seattle Solidarity Budget - we'll include all of this information and all of the dates that Evelyn just talked about in our show notes - Solidarity Budget is another effort involved in this budget process, a more community-focused budget that they're advocating for. The website will also link to - has information, ways to advocate, you can look through that - also, ways to help - social media stuff - with alt text provided for the social media graphics that they provided, which I appreciate. But just a lot of different things. So I encourage people to get involved because we all talk about the impacts and effects of there's not enough funding here, and we need to do this, and why aren't we doing this? And this is how these decisions are made, this is where those funding decisions are solidified, and this is the time to engage if you have an opinion about what is happening within your city. That's a lot there. It's a lot to go through, but definitely worth it. I also want to cover news - it's been making news throughout the past several weeks. Just talking about the SoDo shelter expansion and some pushback from within the CID. Starting off - what is happening, Evelyn? And then we can talk about some thoughts about what's happening. [00:39:32] Evelyn Chow: Yes, I'm happy to give a quick overview of that. King County is planning to expand their - this enhanced shelter, that is currently housed in SoDo. It's right along the bottom edge of the CID, under where the Uwajimaya is on the south end. And the proposal is to expand the shelter - it currently has 269 beds, they want to add an additional 150 beds - mind you, these are congregate shelter. And they want to expand into having a behavioral health services center, as well as support for RV residents and Pallet shelters, which are essentially tiny homes. So that expansion of 150 that has been talked about by the executive - King County Executive - is going to bring the total number of people at that site to approximately 419 people. So that's just a high-level of what's happening. [00:40:36] Crystal Fincher: And it's also known as the Megaplex, correct? [00:40:39] Evelyn Chow: Yeah, I guess a lot of folks have been trying to call it the Megaplex. Yes. [00:40:44] Crystal Fincher: But just for people's familiarity, if they happen to hear that term - this is what that's in reference to. [00:40:49] Evelyn Chow: Yes. Yeah. I didn't really like that term because I feel like it dehumanizes the people who live there. [00:40:54] Crystal Fincher: It does. [00:40:55] Evelyn Chow: So I just call it the SoDO shelter. [00:40:56] Crystal Fincher: Yes. [00:40:57] Evelyn Chow: But you are correct that that is what it's being called by a lot of more clickbait media. The Seattle City Council allotted funding from their federal ARPA - the emergency, the American Rescue Plan Act - funding towards this. And last year, I believe that Councilmember Tammy Morales did propose an amendment to divert that funding from where it currently is to the Salvation Army Shelter, to instead Chief Seattle Club for them to build a unit or several units of non-congregate shelter. But that amendment did not pass. And towards the late summer of this year, I think around September, is when we heard of the plans for expansion. That is when the county had announced, more fully to the public at the CID Public Safety Forum, and there are claims of doing community engagement before these plans started moving forward. The county claims to have done community engagement prior to the implementation of these plans. And I think a lot of community folks have pushed back being like - No, we actually didn't hear about this at all. They have their list of people that they've reached out to and we've heard some critiques be - Yes, we did hear about a plan to expand a shelter, but I think if we had known the size of this project, we would've had more engagement. And so I think, just on the government side, there hasn't been a lot of authentic community engagement with folks in the CID. And there are other players in this situation, namely some right-wing think tanks of the Discovery Institute that have been trying to co-opt what is happening in the CID for their political agendas. And so it's created this extremely tense environment to be able to talk about the dynamics of - yes, everyone deserves housing, everyone deserves shelter - I think there's no doubt there. There are indeed some people who don't believe that, who are part of the pushback. And the CID is a really small neighborhood, it's also the third CID that the City of Seattle has seen, right? They've already relocated two times. And throughout the pandemic, a lot of folks in the CID have burdened a lot of the the impacts of the pandemic. And businesses have been slow to open back up if they have it all. There's boarded up windows everywhere and people generally have really valid concerns around public safety in the neighborhood. There are a lot of other government projects that are taking place in the neighborhood that have been plowed through without also similar meaningful community engagement. Most recently, the Sound Transit expansion of the West Seattle Ballard Link extension, where their proposed Fifth Ave or Fourth Ave options still do propose closing businesses - and all of this to say, and I'm sure there's more to say - there's a lot of moving factors around what's happening in the CID right now. I think some of the bottom lines are that the community there does not feel like engaged in these decisions that are being made. Going back to our conversation earlier around participatory budgeting, it's really important to have dedicated forces of people who will meaningfully take what people have to say and propose solutions, have meaningful dialogue. And people also need to be housed and it's an urgent crisis. So this is where we're at. I will say, just in the blog put out by the King County on this project, they stated that the lease renewal for that site in SoDo, which currently encompasses the Salvation Army Center as well as the surrounding block - it is supposed to be a one-time lease for five years. If they did not use the funds they secured to renew this lease, they would've had to close this already-existing 270-bed shelter which seems like a terrible ultimatum to give in a lease - it's like they had to renew the lease and take that additional property. And so now they're trying to find uses for that property - and so that's where I've seen the county's messaging come through. [00:46:03] Crystal Fincher: Yeah, absolutely. Thank you for that overview - it's good kind of level setting for the conversation. I guess thinking about this - one, I've seen a lot of reactions to this. I've seen a lot of commentary. And a lot of it has just been dismissive in one way or another. And looking at the situation and - Oh, these are people, this shouldn't be anywhere and this isn't the solution. Or these are NIMBYs just not wanting this there. And I think we have to be real. And sometimes, oftentimes, these conversations aren't simple. One, as you said, engagement is so important. You just talked about the West Seattle Bridge extension - even with the deep bore tunnel and that issue was hard on that community - that community homes so many services and service centers overall there - just so many different things involved there. And we keep asking a small percentage of the communities in Seattle and in King County to bear the majority of the brunt of infrastructure challenges, infrastructure disruptions - public safety concerns aren't being held, or being heard, or being dismissed. And yes, there are challenges everywhere in the City, including there, with people who need housing. Yes, there are challenges there and so many places in the City with people feeling unsafe in their neighborhood. But there seems to be a divergence between how those concerns are heard and what is done in response. And what I continue to hear from people in the CID, people in the Rainier Valley, people in other places are - Hey, people in Magnolia are saying this and we are saying this. And they keep getting listened to over there and somehow projects always get diverted away from there and then land here. Projects always get picketed somewhere else and then land here. And we have been doing our fair share and other people have not. And so once again, you're asking us to bear the brunt of this without even having a conversation with us first. And kind of news flash - if the community is saying you haven't done adequate engagement, you haven't done adequate engagement. That is the community that wants you to engage with them. You gotta go deeper than the organizations that you have - like that's a flag and a signal to the organization - you have to go wider and deeper than you have before, clearly. At the same time, there are also people with bad faith criticisms. There have been some King County GOP efforts - they showed up with picket signs and basically astroturfed some stuff and are joining onto this effort to try and get publicity to try and characterize it in their own way. And so certainly, that's a bad faith effort and they're not coming with the same concerns. They're not rooted or invested in that community and they're exploiting that community. But that does not give us the right, or I guess the moral authority, to then ignore the concerns that are genuinely rooted in that community. And so there should have been better engagement, there needs to be more engagement clearly. There need to be more alternatives cited. There need to be invest - we have to look into how we determine where potential sites for this are. We talk after the fact - well, these requirements or specifications for a desirable location say it can't be near this, and it has to be that, and it can't be near this. Well, yeah - they're written that way to exclude certain communities. How do we make this impact more equitable? How do we make sure that we don't unduly burden individual communities and ask people to continue to bear the brunt of what other neighborhoods say that they don't want. And how do we make it work all over the place? So I do think this is not a simple solution. We do have a crisis of people on the street and they do need to get housed. We need to take action on that quickly. We can't do that without listening to community, and we can't shortcut this process by just saying, Okay, we'll just put it over here again. We can do it over here and maybe they won't yell as loud as some people in other neighborhoods, or maybe because they may not have enough financial resources, that they won't be, they won't have enough time to engage and they won't be as much of a "headache" to us as other people will consistently - it's just not good enough. And we have to engage with that reality. We have to talk within communities. And that doesn't mean that those communities are automatically NIMBYs for that, right? They have valid concerns that we have to listen to and work through. [00:51:34] Evelyn Chow: Yeah, and something else on this issue that I just, I really wish I was seeing more of - from both the county and other local partners on this - is engagement with the actual people who are living unhoused by that shelter. I think in terms of the the people who are involved in these decisions, that's one entity. The people who are housed in the neighborhood, or provide services, or have businesses in the neighborhood - that's another one. Also, I want to hear also directly from the people who are living outside - what their thoughts of - a lot of, and I won't say this is either in good or bad faith, but we've been seeing protests outside of the existing Salvation Army shelter for the past few weeks now, since the news broke. And the shelter is right next to a large, I guess, unsanctioned encampment of folks who have to listen to these protests day in, day out about just the circumstances that they're under in life. And I can't imagine what the relationship would continue to look like or evolve between those who are living there because they seemingly have no other options currently - and that site is also close to other services that they are receiving - and the residents and business owners of the neighborhood, many of whom have developed extremely tense relationships and antagonistic relationships with each other over the past years, especially since COVID when just socioeconomic conditions across the nation have worsened. And I just think, in moving forward with these conversations, the engagement has to be inclusive of the whole CID community. I think a lot of the folks who are very vocal now are the ones who are also historically vocal in a lot of decisions. And that's not to say it's a good or bad thing, it's just there's a lot more to folks in the CID than the three dozen people who show up to protest because they have that time every week. [00:53:54] Crystal Fincher: Absolutely - well said. So I hope that engagement does happen with this - continued and for all the future stuff. And we have to look at why we keep having to have these conversations in the exact same communities and they're telling us that, repeatedly - Hey, there hasn't been enough engagement and now you are just implementing something, ramming it through, and we're paying the price. We're happy to do our fair share but why are we doing the majority of it when the rest of the City exists? And that's with this issue, that's with so many issues. It's with issues surrounding public safety, around environmental and climate change, impacts around education, around so many things. And the reasons why are related and share the same root cause. So I hope there are better conversations about this while also - no need to entertain the bad faith conversations, but engage with community. [00:54:57] Evelyn Chow: Unfortunately, the bad faith conversations are really good at co-opting narratives right now. So I think it's on - [00:55:02] Crystal Fincher: Yes, they are. [00:55:03] Evelyn Chow: - people with, it's on people to, if they don't already have existing relationships, build those and continue to show up, especially our elected leaders. To make sure that everyone is being served in the best possible way. [00:55:17] Crystal Fincher: And with that, I want to thank you for listening to Hacks & Wonks on this Friday, October 7th, 2022. The producer of Hacks & Wonks is Lisl Stadler. Our assistant producer is Shannon Cheng, and our Production Coordinator is Bryce Cannatelli. Our insightful co-host today is Evelyn Chow. You can find them on Twitter @EvelynTChow, E-V-E-L-Y-N-T-C-H-O-W. You can follow Hacks & Wonks on Twitter @HacksWonks. You can find me on Twitter @finchfrii. You can catch Hacks & Wonks on iTunes, Spotify, or wherever else you get your podcasts - just search "Hacks and Wonks." Be sure to subscribe to get the full versions of our Friday almost-live shows and our midweek show delivered to your podcast feed. If you like us, leave a review wherever you listen. You can also get a full transcript of this episode and links to the resources referenced in the show at officialhacksandwonks.com and in the episode notes. Thank you for tuning in - and we'll talk to you next time.

On this bonus episode, we present our Hacks & Wonks Candidate Forum with Andrew Ashiofu, Nimco Bulale, Emijah Smith, and Chipalo Street - all running for State Representative Position 2 in Seattle's 37th Legislative District, which includes Beacon Hill, the Central District, Rainier Valley, Columbia City, Rainier Beach, and Skyway. This was originally live-streamed on Facebook and Twitter on July 11th, 2022. You can view the video and access the full text transcript of this forum on the 2022 Elections page at officialhacksandwonks.com. We hope you enjoy this forum, and please make sure to vote by Tuesday, August 2nd!  As always, a full text transcript of the show is available below and at officialhacksandwonks.com. Find the host, Crystal, on Twitter at @finchfrii.   Resources Register to Vote, Update Your Registration, See What's on Your Ballot: MyVote.wa.gov   37th LD Primary Candidate Forum Video and Transcript: https://www.officialhacksandwonks.com/37th-ld-candidate-forum-2022   Transcript   [00:00:00] Crystal Fincher: Hello everyone, this is Crystal Fincher, host of Hacks & Wonks. This is a bonus podcast release of our Hacks & Wonks Candidate Forum with candidates for State Representative Position 2 in Seattle's 37th Legislative district, which includes Beacon Hill, the Central District, Rainier Valley, Columbia City, Rainier Beach, and Skyway. This was originally live-streamed on Facebook and Twitter on July 11th, 2022. You can view the video and access the full text transcript of the forum on the 2022 Elections page at officialhacksandwonks.com. We hope you enjoy this forum, and please make sure to vote by Tuesday, August 2nd! All right. Good evening, everyone. Welcome to the Hacks & Wonks 2022 Primary Candidate Forum for Legislative District 37, for State Representative Position 2. We're excited to be able to live stream this series on Facebook and Twitter. Additionally, we're recording this program, this forum, for rebroadcast and later viewing. We invite our audience to ask questions of our candidates. If you're watching a livestream online, then you can ask questions by commenting on the livestream. You can also text your questions to 206-395-6248. That's 206-395-6248, and that number will intermittently scroll at the bottom of the screen. All of the candidates running for 37th Legislative District State Representative Position 2 are with us tonight. In alphabetical order, we have Andrew Ashiofu, Nimco Bulale, Emijah Smith, and Chipalo Street. A few reminders before we jump into the forum: I want to remind you to vote. Ballots will be mailed to your mailbox starting on July 13th - that's this week, you will be receiving your ballots on Thursday or Friday of this week. You can register to vote, update your registration, and see what will be on your ballot at MyVote.Wa.gov. I want to mention that tonight's answers will be timed. Each candidate will have one minute to introduce themselves initially and 90 seconds to answer each subsequent question. Candidates may be engaged with rebuttal or follow up questions and will have 30 seconds to respond - I will indicate if that's so. Time will be indicated by the colored dot labeled "timer" on the screen. The dot will initially appear green, and then when there are 30 seconds left it will turn yellow, when time is up it'll turn red. I want to mention that I'm on the board for the Institute for a Democratic Future. Andrew and Chipalo are both IDF alums and Chipalo is also on the board. We've not discussed any of the details of this campaign or this forum and are expecting a lively discussion from everyone tonight. In addition to tonight's forum, Hacks & Wonks is also hosting a 36th Legislative District State Representative Position 1 candidate forum this Wednesday, July 13th at the same time - 6:30-8PM. Now we'll turn to the candidates who will each have one minute to introduce themselves, starting with Nimco, then Chipalo, next to Emijah, finally Andrew. Nimco. [00:03:19] Nimco Bulale: Hi, thank you. Good evening and thank you so much for the opportunity to speak to you all. My name is Nimco Bulale and I'm running for the open seat in the 37th Legislative District. I immigrated to Seattle from Somalia at the age of eight, a child of a single mother of nine. I know the importance of education, opportunity, and being supported by a strong, safe and nurturing community. I'm a lifelong community organizer, small business owner, university educator, and education policy expert working every day to help marginalized people in communities. As a woman of color, I'm acutely aware of the issues facing Black immigrant people of color communities and I'm excited to bring a systematically underrepresented perspective. I've spent my career working with marginalized communities and focused on creating a more inclusive, multicultural education system. I've largely worked in education policy, so this is where most of my experience on the issue lies. However, as a legislator, I will have the unique opportunity to look at this issue through a much broader lens. I am the co-founder and CEO of South Sound Strategies, a consulting firm focused on - [00:04:26] Crystal Fincher: That was time. Next we are headed to the next candidate - go ahead. [00:04:41] Chipalo Street: And I'm running here because I want the 37th to have the most effective representation possible. I've seen what education has done for my life and I want every kid to have the same opportunities my education has provided me. Police accountability is near and dear to my heart - during college, I was beaten by the police and so I want to make sure we have an accountable police force, while still working with them to make sure that we increase public safety. I've been a union member, so I would stand with our unions as they fight to make sure that working people can increase their compensation and benefits. In my professional life, I work for Microsoft for the Chief Technology Officer, where I advise our executive leadership on emerging technology. I think it's important we have legislators who understand technology, especially so given Roe, so that we can make sure that data isn't used unintended for people who are trying to get abortions. Serving in the legislature would allow me to magnify my efforts to improve our community. As a former union member, I understand the value of empowering the labor movement. As a BIPOC community member, I have experience with the important issues of our times like education, housing, technology, and interactions with the police. [00:05:50] Crystal Fincher: That is our time - next Emijah. Oh, you need to unmute, Emijah. [00:06:01] Emijah Smith: I was told that your staff would be muting us and unmuting us. So thank you. So my time starts now, or am I using my time? [00:06:12] Crystal Fincher: We'll start now and a reminder to everyone that if you mute yourself, we can't unmute you. If we do the unmuting, then we can unmute you. [00:06:20] Emijah Smith: Thank you. My name is Emijah Smith. I am a lifelong resident of the 37th Legislative District. I have the historical and current perspective of the 37th. I am a mother and I am a grandmother. I am focusing here on - ooh, this is good - I am focused on education policy ever since I was a senior in high school, surviving the War on Drugs - growing up in the Central District in South Seattle, I made a commitment to make sure that we get resources to our community to heal the harms. So I've been doing that - I'm the Mercer PTSA president, I'm the chief of staff of King County Equity Now, and I sit on the board of Tubman Health. So I've been doing the work currently in the Legislature for many years - going to Olympia with families, utilizing the power of our voice to bring meaningful change into our community. I walk with integrity - the integrity I walk in the community doing this work as a community leader - I will take that to Olympia. I have championed and been alongside the families that got us some current wins that is community reinvestment dollars for marijuana. Thank you. [00:07:28] Crystal Fincher: Thank you - and Andrew. [00:07:31] Andrew Ashiofu: Hi, my name is Andrew Ashiofu. I'm coming to you from a lived experience. I'm from - I was born in Houston, Texas and my family's Nigerian. When I came out, I lost my comfort zone. I got kicked out, lost my house due to depression, I couldn't keep up at work, and I was diagnosed with AIDS. And that was a - it was a tough process because I had to navigate ideologies and policies not created for people like me. I always say it was a good Samaritan that gave me accommodation. I have lived the experience currently in Seattle - I'm a coach of the Seattle LGBTQ commission. Here in the 37th district, I sit on the Harborview Medical Community Advisory Board, I am on the Seattle-King County HIV Planning Council. I have done immigration, LGBTQ rights advocacy on a local and global level with the Department of Homeland Security. For me, it's - we talk about healthcare, it's very important. I'm a renter also, so housing is important. But I have lived the experience, I have advocated in that experience and I'm here to serve you. Thank you. [00:08:37] Crystal Fincher: Thank you so much. And with those introductions, we will get to the questions. We're gonna start by talking about housing. Housing affordability is not very affordable these days. We are at a crisis level. Lots of people are losing their housing, people are facing this all over the place. So beyond extending - beyond ending exclusionary zoning and making further investments in the Housing Trust Fund, what else do we need to do to address housing affordability and to prevent displacement? And as a reminder, everyone has a response time of 90 seconds. And we will start with Chipalo. [00:09:19] Chipalo Street: So a bunch of things we can do - in the short term, we can add housing vouchers so that working people can live in existing market rate housing without spending their full paycheck on their shelter. We should have short-term rental assistance so that a temporary hardship doesn't end up in a situation that snowballs - like once you lose your house, it's harder to go to work, it's harder for your kids to go to school - that just gets worse. In addition to those, we need more renter protections. And so some tenant protections that I support are preventing landlords from using past criminal history to discriminate against prospective tenants, limiting the types of fees that can be charged by landlords. And David Hackney has a great bill that would provide recourse for tenants against a landlord who's looking to take some kind of action against them - you can already do that, but it takes a long time and so what's the point of taking action against the landlord if they've evicted you already. The harm has been done, we need to make sure that tenants can make sure that landlords are treating them well. Looks like I have more time, so those would be the main things. What would be some other things that we could do - I think you mentioned the exclusionary zoning - lifting the ban on rent control statewide would also be another option that would allow different municipalities and give them another tool in their tool belt for fighting housing costs. [00:10:44] Crystal Fincher: Thank you very much. And next we're gonna head to Nimco. [00:10:47] Nimco Bulale: Thank you for that question. I believe housing is a human right. As somebody that had to - when we moved to the United States to Seattle specifically, that was pushed out of the 37th and more specifically the Seattle Central District - I'm keenly aware of the precarious of housing affordability, similar to many folks. The cost of housing is a major crisis facing working families in Washington State. Affordability is an issue, not only for persons facing or at risk for homelessness, but working families also struggle to ensure that they have secure housing as costs increase, especially around job centers. There are many actions that the state can take to address this. We've already mentioned the Housing Trust Fund, we've talked about land use regulations, encouraging low income and working workforce housing, as well as protections for tenants. But I also want to say that it's necessary to update, as mentioned, our land use laws to move past zoning that privileges single-family homes. Additionally, I think that we need wraparound services such as behavioral health, substance abuse services, as well as providing resources to local jurisdictions to bring their services to scale. I read recently that Black renters can't afford 93% of the zip codes in the top US cities and I think that that's a travesty. I think that those are just some of the ways that we can think about it. And also knowing that 16% of zip codes in the list, on the list had rents that were unaffordable to Latinx households - again, that is unacceptable. And when I do get to the Legislature, I believe that there's things that the state can do. [00:12:31] Crystal Fincher: Thank you very much - next we're headed to Andrew. [00:12:35] Andrew Ashiofu: This is very personal to me. That's why my campaign - we signed on to the Initiative 135 - social housing is a key. One thing I've been privileged is to see social housing work in Europe and in Amsterdam, they have the 40-40-20, where 40% of the building is social housing, and another 40% is affordable mid-level housing, and 20% is commercial or community space. I'm big on community space because I play dodgeball every Tuesday in the community space. But it's also very important that we protect - in the 37th district - we protect our housing through preventing gentrification. Property tax for the elderly and people living with disabilities should be eliminated - that's where I'm coming from. But also we have a lot of land in Washington state in cities where the downtown is empty, with population of less than a hundred - we should, we can utilize that to create social wraparound services for teenagers and youth at-risk, for domestic violence victims, for people going through mental and drug addiction. We need to invest in those kind of services as well. Thank you. [00:13:49] Crystal Fincher: Thank you very much - and Emijah. [00:13:52] Emijah Smith: Thank you. As we've heard that housing, healthcare, food are human basic rights. And so the way I would look at how we have to address housing, which is a very complicated issue, but when I think about being a survivor of the War on Drugs, the gentrification displacement that happened in the Central District and has been happening throughout the 37th currently, we have to look at the policies. The home I grew up in was taken from my grandfather due to some bad crime bill policies, but also we want to look at the Housing Finance Commission, most definitely, to make sure there is enough money in there that can come back into the community for housing development. And not just affordable housing, but stable, affordable housing. We have Africatown Plaza, Ethiopian Village, as well as Elizabeth Thomas Holmes - that came from community voice that I was part of to make sure that that money was sent down to the community. It wasn't gonna come to the community a couple years back without the power of our voice. In addition to that, we need to look at the barriers that are in the Department of Commerce, in terms of the application process, to even provide housing developments that could be stable for our community. There's so many loopholes that oftentimes it's the BIPOC and marginalized communities that don't get access to those resources. And although shelters and emergency housing is important to get someone off the streets immediately, it is important that we can provide some stable housing - if it's gonna be temporary, it needs to be temporary for at least a year. As a payee for my uncle who was dealing with addiction, it was because I was able to provide him stable housing for that year that helped him get stable. Thank you. [00:15:28] Crystal Fincher: Thank you very much. Just a reminder to everyone that you do have 90 seconds to respond. It's up to you whether you choose to use that entire 90 seconds or not. If you want your answer to be shorter, feel free. We welcome that. The next question is we've seen - excuse me - significant increased investment in programs meant to reduce homelessness, but a lot of people are saying that they're not seeing the problem get any better despite the increase in funds. A lot of people attribute that to the continuing affordability crisis. Do you agree that this crisis is not improving? And if so, what needs to happen to get results? And we are starting with Emijah. [00:16:11] Emijah Smith: Thank you for that question. I think that's an ongoing issue and I think it's an ongoing issue that has to do with our regressive tax system, our property taxes - people who are being pushed out are low-income working class families that cannot afford the rent, right? So it's a cycle of an issue that is occurring. When that cycle occurs, it's like - the burden of property taxes going up fall onto the renter who is then also gonna continue to be pushed out. So how are we solving the problem if we're not addressing some of the root causes of the issues. The root causes of the issue is also about having fair wages and wages that - where people can actually live in the 37th and pay the mortgages, buy the homes. So also these temporary three-day opportunities just - they're not long enough. And we're pushing people more into being renters who are carrying the burden of even homeowners who want to rent rather than providing stable housing, like I said, for at least a year in some place - so that people can build themselves up, not just go for three three days and then you have to transfer and go to another place, and eventually you're gonna get pushed out of the 37th going south, which is actually having its issues as well as our homeless population. We have the resources, we have the money, the 37th and Washington State can correct this issue. We need to correct the issue and we need to address the root causes of homelessness, not just providing people a three-day motel stay here or there or putting people in tiny home villages. Thank you. [00:17:44] Crystal Fincher: Thank you - Chipalo. [00:17:47] Chipalo Street: Yeah, I also agree that it's an issue. And it's great that we're increasing funding for it, but I don't think the funding is keeping up with the magnitude of the issue. There's many things that are contributing to this - like Emijah mentioned, home costs for someone who's trying to buy a house are skyrocketing. That's pushing up property values, which then increases someone's tax burden. So if you're a low-income person and your property taxes rise, you have less spending power. If you're a senior on a fixed income, you have less spending power and sometimes get forced into selling. We also have insufficient tenant protections. And so if you lose - if you're a renter and you lose your housing, then you end up on the street and that snowballs. You can't go to work, your kids can't go to school, and the issue gets worse. So not only do I support all of those, or means to fix all of those, I also would like to see better paying jobs. So for example, I think it's crazy that after K-12 school, we don't elevate the trades. The trades provide a great means of well-paying stable jobs for everyone. And traditionally we have denigrated the trades like - oh, you went to the trades 'cause you can't hack it. No, these are great jobs that people enjoy. Two of my best friends from junior high school went through four-year college, hated the jobs they got, came back, became electricians, and now love those jobs and get paid more than they did before. So I think this - we need to think of this comprehensively, not only in how do we fix the housing market, but how do we increase job stability and the paying of jobs? [00:19:16] Crystal Fincher: Thank you - Nimco. [00:19:19] Nimco Bulale: Thank you for that question. Homelessness affects all of our communities in Seattle and King County and as mentioned before, it is a very complicated issue, but I think that we all have a role to play. Homelessness represents a multisector, multi-system failures and requires a whole of community solutions. Many of the strategies, connections, and services needed to support individuals experiencing homelessness are managed outside of the homeless service system or in geographically separated systems. So I think as a solution, we need to think about creating long-term institutional alignment across systems serving people experiencing homelessness. We must also ensure that community leaders in business, philanthropy, and those who have lived experience with homelessness and advocates can coordinate and align with regional and state level homelessness initiatives to cultivate share and promote solutions to homelessness. I think, while at times, efforts to support the unhoused in Seattle can appear scattered and disorganized - oftentimes initiatives and task force are renamed, replaced, discontinued. I think that every day we encounter people who are living on the street, often without a reliable place to store possessions, clean clothes, take a shower, and get a solid night of rest. Moving forward, I think that we must continue to invest in housing, supportive housing for people with serious mental illness, emergency housing, and affordable housing. The solution to ending homelessness is to provide more options for housing and that Seattle and King County will need private business to take an active role in housing the unhoused if efforts to end homelessness must be - [00:21:01] Crystal Fincher: Thank you - and next Andrew. [00:21:07] Andrew Ashiofu: Thank you for this question. As I said earlier in my introduction, I was able to come out of being homeless by someone giving me somewhere to stay. We've been approaching homelessness in - we'd say one-size-fits-all solution and that's wrong. Homeless has various degrees - from mental health to drugs, to PTSD with the vets, to domestic violence, to people like me that lost their jobs, to youths that are kicked out for coming out. We have a huge problem in the LGBTQ community. The first thing I think we should do is - I'm not a fan of shelters because it's just for overnight. Again, we need more. So we need things like investing in transition housing. We just had one open up right here on 12th. We need to, again, back to wraparound services, housing. We have the space, but we also - people talk about density. We have a lot of high-rises apartments coming. The problem why it's not affordable is one, it's not affordable. Also, it doesn't - it's all one bedroom studios and two bedroom. What about families? What about town homes? We don't have that kind of investment. So we need to create legislation that brings about things like right to return, but also invest in multi-family units, not just one bedroom or studios. We need more, more, more. Thank you. [00:22:37] Crystal Fincher: Thank you very much. So families have been facing increased financial pressure. The cost of necessities like rent and childcare has been skyrocketing for years. More recently, gas, food and other prices have noticeably increased and people are having to make financial sacrifices. What can you do in your capacity as a state legislator to provide tangible relief to people who are struggling with bills? And we are starting with Andrew. [00:23:05] Andrew Ashiofu: The first thing is we need a tax relief for low-income families, working class families. Two, I think we need a gas tax break - for now - because of the high prices of gas. When it comes to childcare, we - I always say we need childcare vouchers, but also making it applicable whereby people can give what I call family, friends and neighbor - a part of childcare, but it's highly overlooked. So we need to create those vouchers as - oh, I can pay my family, I can pay a friend, I can pay a neighbor to help me take care of these kids. In campaigning, we see childcare as a huge need for people campaigning with children. We have that law that they cannot even use campaign phones for childcare. And a lot of people, especially women, have to drop out for running for office because of things like childcare. So we need that. And for - I think we need transportation, free public transit. I'm a transit - I use the transits occasionally. I've been endorsed by the Transit Riders Union, but we also need to invest in accessible transit and make it free for people to move around and reduce dependency on gas. Thank you so much. [00:24:25] Crystal Fincher: Thank you - Emijah. [00:24:29] Emijah Smith: Thank you. I think on a state level, the state can provide some relief. They can give credits of some tax credit - we need to address our regressive tax code, period. That will give a lot of relief. Our state is receiving revenue of our marijuana tax dollars. We have the money to make some different choices and we really need to release the burden off of our low-income and working class families. So I definitely just think that there should be some type of package that is offered. But I do agree that I think that things are starting to be cut back because of COVID, coming out of COVID. So we should still be making sure that our students are receiving free breakfast, free lunch - that should not be something that's gonna be cut - the feds are cutting it, the state needs to pick up on that. The state is doing a great job by supporting covering some of the healthcare costs and help for the insurance, but that needs to be extended. It needs to be covered because just to try to buy some food, to go in there and just try to buy fruit and be healthy - the 37th has a lot of food deserts. It costs a lot of money to be healthy and to thrive in this community. So our basic necessities, I think that the state should utilize some of that revenue and give us all some level of a break based on our income. I am a single parent, I have raised my kids, I have found innovative ways to survive and get through that paying through childcare. Definitely advocating for childcare, increasing the income levels for families to be able to access that - this screen is killing me, but - the state can do it. We have the money, we need to take care of our basic needs we need to give food vouchers to our community members. Thank you. [00:26:13] Crystal Fincher: Thank you - Chipalo. [00:26:15] Chipalo Street: Sure. So one of the places that childcare is provided is in the schools. We have a program for early childhood learning. I think it would be great to expand that, not only because that would provide some relief for childcare, but also the earlier we get a kid into education, the better the outcomes. I think there are some other good ideas thrown out there around like a gas tax holiday, but a gas tax holiday is really a short-term band-aid on the solution where we really need progressive tax reform. Washington State has the most regressive tax code in the country, which is crazy given how fortunate we are in this state to have very good-paying jobs and we need to make sure that everyone pays their fair share. So I would love to see income tax implemented. Unfortunately it seems like there's some issues with that in the constitution, so we need to fight to keep our capital gains tax. There's some corporate tax loopholes that we could close and in doing so, we could then reduce some of the sales tax, which contributes to our regressive tax code. So I think we should look at this a little more holistically in terms of progressive tax reform, because so much of it comes down to where we fund different programs in our state. [00:27:23] Crystal Fincher: Thank you - Nimco. [00:27:26] Nimco Bulale: Thank you for that question. I believe that Washington's economic climate is one of the best in the nation. And this is because unlike other states, our minimum wage is more reflective of the current economy and workers are offered generous employment benefits. However, this is often negated by the fact that we do have the most regressive tax code in our country. Our economy only works for the top, our economy works the best for the top 1%. I believe that workers and small businesses are fundamental to the health of our economy. I think that as a small business owner, we need to create an economy that fosters the growth of these businesses. And we need to invest in apprenticeship programs and strong unions to grow our economy and safe, living-wage jobs. At the same time, we desperately need to reconsider, like I said, our regressive tax code, which exploits working people by lowering taxes on low-income earners. And by requiring the wealthiest in our state to pay their fair share, we can spur economic growth and relieve this population of its economic burden. As a woman of color, centering the voices of Black, Indigenous and people of color is of the utmost importance to me. I'm committed to explicitly centering the perspective and the needs of marginalized groups who are so often underserved by being left out in the policy I work to craft. In addition to this, I support policies that specifically or functionally address the racial wealth gap, including affordable housing that helps people of color generate generational wealth, as well as the universal basic income, which has been shown to reduce the racial wealth gap. I think in addition to cutting taxes, we also - in addition to creating more taxes, we need to also cut taxes for low-income workers. [00:29:05] Crystal Fincher: Thank you. We are sitting here after the Dobbs decision that struck down reproductive rights protections and the right to an abortion for women. According to Axios, 41% of hospital beds in Washington are located in religious hospitals. So although we are not one of the states that has an abortion ban immediately occurring because of the decision, we do have some issues with access. Would you vote to make the continuation of abortion services a requirement of mergers involving religious hospital networks? And we are starting with Nimco. [00:29:49] Nimco Bulale: Can you repeat the last part of the question? [00:29:52] Crystal Fincher: Would you vote to make the continuation of abortion services a requirement of hospital mergers, which we're having a lot of - involving secular or religious hospital networks. And what more can we do to protect abortion access? [00:30:08] Nimco Bulale: So I don't have a paddle, but I will say absolutely Yes, I would support that. I'm pissed - I think access to healthcare, reproductive, and gender-affirming care are at the forefront of my campaign as our nation continues to face an onslaught of threats to the rights of people of marginalized genders. And this is not okay. I think that we need to work harder to make this part of our constitution - the right to bodily autonomy is fundamental and I will always fight to protect these rights, especially in a state like Washington, which is soon to become a safe haven for birthing people in states looking to outlaw abortion entirely. As a longtime education policy activist, I understand the need for comprehensive sex education and I will continue to fight for that when I'm elected in office. I'm firmly committed to creating a world in which all people can decide when, if, and in what manner they decide to have children. Reproductive justice means we must also work to create a world in which those children are born into communities that are safe, healthy, and just. [00:31:09] Crystal Fincher: Thank you - and next we're going to Andrew. [00:31:15] Andrew Ashiofu: It's a Yes for me - we need to protect the right to choose. And we also need to call a special session to codify this in our constitution and create bills that would protect anyone that comes into our state to seek an abortion - currently there's been an increase. Now, when it comes to hospitals' merger, we need to protect the right to choose as part of this merger. And this is not just - this covers - because some of these hospitals also could choose not to treat me as a gay person because they believe - they might say - because of anti-LGBTQ rhetorics in some of these places. We need - healthcare is very important for everyone. We all deserve healthcare and there should be no barrier against healthcare. I have done a lot of advocacy, I have fought for my right to survive, and I know the red tape and the obstacles. We don't need that now. We need to create access. As a state, we need to call - I call on Governor Inslee to call a special session to codify abortion into our constitution here in Washington State. Thank you. [00:32:30] Crystal Fincher: Thank you - Emijah. [00:32:33] Emijah Smith: Thank you for the question. And just going directly to it - healthcare is a right and I believe having access to abortion is part of our basic healthcare. And so I definitely believe that we would have to interrogate, and I think that with this merger, those type of access - abortion access - should be available to all - to birthing parents and birthing people who need that. I also am in agreement with our Washington State really looking at our constitution and making sure that if we say we're gonna support and having access to abortion and it is a right for people for that choice, then we need to lock that in now and not be worried about a session or two here and somebody trying to undo that. That's the world that I grew up in and I totally support that no matter what I would choose in terms of if I want to have a child or not. I also want to just say healthcare equities are real. And particularly for Black women, we have the highest risk of death at birth. So this is a real issue for us around trying to have choice and just getting care in general. COVID just lifted up the top of how these he health equities are a real problem in our healthcare system. And too often, some of our healthcare systems are just moving for profit. We need to be moving for health. It is a basic right for our community. Thank you. [00:34:00] Crystal Fincher: Thank you - Chipalo. [00:34:03] Chipalo Street: Yes, I'm a hundred percent supportive of this. If we didn't have enough issues at the state level to deal with before, the Supreme Court has given us a whole host of new issues to deal with, abortion access being one of them. I would love for my first bill to be a bill to enshrine protections for the right to choose into our constitution. Above and beyond that, I think we also need people who understand technology in the Legislature. So I work for the Chief Technology Officer at Microsoft and I think having folks who understand technology is incredibly important, especially for things like Roe, where we don't - where we want to make sure that companies' data can't be inadvertently, or even maybe specifically, used to target people seeking abortions. And then I also agree with Nimco that we need to increase funding for our abortion centers, because we will have an influx of folks coming from our surrounding states where they do not have access to it anymore. So we have to make sure that our folks have it, we have to make sure that we are a beacon of light for other surrounding states so that we can make abortion a option that people have when they consider their overall healthcare. [00:35:09] Crystal Fincher: Thank you very much. So this next question is a little bit of a question. So crime has been increasing across the state. People are concerned about their safety and whether we're doing the right things to address the current levels of property and violent crime. According to a recent Crosscut/Elway poll, Seattle voters were asked what they think are major factors in the crime rate. The top three answers were lack of mental health and addiction services - that was 85% of Seattle residents gave that answer. Second answer was homelessness at 67%. And the third answer was economic conditions at 63%. When asked specifically if they could direct where their tax dollars were spent, the top three responses were at 92% addiction and mental health services, at 81% training police officers to deescalate situations, and at 80% programs to address the root causes of crime. Those were Seattle residents' top answers. Given that the Legislature has already voted to increase public safety funding, largely devoted to policing and prisons, do you feel that we should increase funding for these things that Seattle voters have requested like behavioral health resources, non-police intervention services, and rehabilitation services before passing further increases for police spending? And we will start with Chipalo. [00:36:34] Chipalo Street: Yeah, public safety and police accountability is a issue that is near and dear to my heart. In college, I was beaten by the police for not showing my ID so bad that I had to be taken to the hospital before they took me to jail. It was so bad that a student who was watching it said that she was traumatized. And so I, 100%, believe that we need an accountable police force. That said, I think police are part of public safety. They should be partners that we can work with and should not be afraid to call to come to violent crimes, to solve robberies. They are part of public safety and I want to work with them to make sure that we have a - we have more public safety. I also encourage our society to think more holistically about public safety - we ask police to do too much and things they're not trained for. So we should have counselors in schools, not cops. We shouldn't be sending police to respond to nonviolent mental health crisis, we should be sending professionals who are trained to do that. And so I think that reflects a lot of what you're seeing Seattle voters say is - yes, we need more addiction counseling, we need more mental health funding - so that we first prevent these issues from starting. And then if they do happen, we want a person who is trained to deal with that issue responding to it. So I would 100% support more of these services to get at the root causes of some of these issues while making our police accountable, just like any other professional accountability. We have professional accountability for lawyers and doctors. We should have the same thing for police. [00:38:07] Crystal Fincher: Thank you - Nimco. [00:38:10] Nimco Bulale: Thank you for that question. Regarding public safety and police, I absolutely believe that we need more law enforcement jobs that need to be reassigned to social workers and other service providers. I believe that the police are equipped with limited and largely punitive tools to handle many of the crises they're called to address. I support protecting our public safety by investing in broader emergency response teams trained to handle mental health, interpersonal, and addiction crises. Additionally, the police have jeopardized the public safety by systematically inflicting violence, surveillance, and fear on communities of color. I support deescalation, crisis intervention, and accountability in service of protecting public safety. I believe we need a justice system that makes our community safer and healthier. We need proactive policies that emphasize crime prevention and support for vulnerable communities instead of reactive policies that emphasize punishment. I also support setting up effective systems for crime prevention, including mental health and addiction resources, policies that tackle scarcity, and social work. Effective public safety comes from community and requires community healing when harm is done. [00:39:27] Crystal Fincher: Thank you - Andrew. [00:39:30] Andrew Ashiofu: Thanks. I'm gonna talk from the other side - from someone that has walked through the shoes of the other side, where people think otherwise about you. I tell people I had a mental crisis in 2020, and 'til now I'm still on a wait list to talk to a mental specialist. And what does that tell me is - we don't have enough trained, diverse mental health specialists even in our clinics that are affordable and accessible to many people that really need them. Most of them work for very expensive hospitals or clinics or practices. We, as a state, we need to invest in that form of education. And also when it comes to drug addiction, I tell people I am for safe injection or safe sites. And people say why? I said, because one, it brings these people to a place where you could personally reach out to them. And it also reduces diseases and spread of blood-borne diseases. And our police force - I think we've invested enough. We need more civilian engagement, more social workers, more people that are not violent. We need the police to go back and address sexual assault victims. We need more civil engagement. That's what I think we need in Washington State. Thank you. [00:41:04] Crystal Fincher: Thank you - Emijah. [00:41:07] Emijah Smith: Yes, thank you for the question. We definitely need - our state needs to invest, provide mental health investments. As a PTSA president at my son's middle school, every year we check in with the families and ask them - what type of resources, what do you need? And for the past few years, especially with COVID, everyone a hundred percent has prioritized social, emotional health and wanting some mental health support for our youth. So mental health supports go across the gamut - I know you were speaking to public safety, crime, and what the poll had indicated, but I want to say it's across the board. Recently had spoke with the leader of the If Project - a police officer who was also sharing - in the past that our police officers weren't even getting properly mental health care. And so how we're trying to look into how they are trying to look and making sure that police officers are getting behavioral health. So the behavioral health is across the board. We, as families have been impacted. And so our state should invest regardless - whether it's those who are having addiction issues, who are untreated or others. And if our youth are not being serviced well, then people are gonna go try to self-medicate and it's going to create a cycle. And we wanna interrupt that cycle of harm. We wanna interrupt that cycle of being untreated. I definitely believe that we need to make sure our resources are equitable, right? So the police force budget is way much larger than our education budget. And so we need to take a look at that. So I definitely believe in police accountability - all the things - deescalation, all the things, the training that's needed. [00:42:49] Crystal Fincher: Thank you very much. Next, we're going to go with a question from a viewer. I'll read it verbatim. We've just found out that Starbucks is closing our CD neighborhood location on 23rd and Jackson due to crime concerns. That's a quote from them. I would be interested to hear candidate thoughts on this decision and how this loss affects a community gathering space. And we will start with Emijah. [00:43:19] Emijah Smith: I appreciate that question - you probably see my eyes. I'll honestly say I'm a little bit heartbroken about what's happening in the Central District. I was just talking with the new development complex about looking at that parking lot just this morning, saying the result of the people who are in that parking lot is a result of the poor policies that have come when you displace and gentrified a whole community. This is a place where people find to be their community. This is sometimes a place where people who are unhoused feel most safe - in that space - because someone will come and smile at them. So crime and different things are happening across not only our City, across the 37th, but across our nation. So to remove something as a community space that we need - so people can come together, come problem solve, come be a support in some way or another - I think that that is not the best move. I think it's like you came and you put your footsteps there, but then you're gonna step away and leave the problem. You need to resource the issue, bring in investments. I would rather Starbucks do that, especially when you look at the racial justice context and how they maybe even came into the community. So I'm disheartened about it, but at the same time, we as community and advocates work in solidarity - are working to address that issue. But I will say I've talked to those people in that parking lot, I've seen people I've grew up with in that community, and I know even a unhoused, homeless woman sleeping in the bench there said that was the safest place for them because they're amongst at least their own community. Thank you. [00:44:53] Crystal Fincher: Thank you - Chipalo. [00:44:55] Chipalo Street: Yeah - if they wanna leave, they can leave - and I don't understand why they would leave for safety concerns. What I hope is that we can have another community business come in and take that spot - let's have Boon Boona Coffee, who has a place down in Renton and a place down on 12th Ave, come in and take that shop because I believe you can do good business in that location without vilifying the people who are in the parking lot. There are definitely issues with unhoused populations choking out businesses. You can see that down on 12th and Jackson where they've moved in front of Lam's Seafood and there's EBT fraud going on there. I would not put 23rd and Jackson in that same bucket. I quite frankly, wouldn't be surprised if there's a little bit of bias or racism going on in that decision to shut down. And Starbucks has shown that they want to do some union busting in other places, so losing Starbucks - to me - isn't the end of the world. I'll bet you that a better business will come in and replace it really soon because that's a booming area - they just opened up a bunch of housing around there. Yeah, that's their decision, that's fine. We'll get a better business in there. [00:46:01] Crystal Fincher: Thank you - Nimco. [00:46:04] Nimco Bulale: I'm disheartened by the closing, to be very honest - I remember as a young child growing up and meeting my grandfather at that Starbucks because he lived right at a senior center close by. And so I'm gutted to hear that that's happening. And it's unfortunate that - we know that oftentimes communities of color, the ones that are disproportionately impacted by these travesties and by gun violence and public safety - as a representative, I will lead with racial justice being central to the fight to end violence and specifically support policies that are common sense and that reduce police interactions and increase accountability for our communities. I think, as Chipalo mentioned, this could be an opportunity to have a community cafe there, an opportunity to really invest in the Central District and in that area. And I think it's a missed opportunity for Starbucks to leave in this condition and to say that it's because of safety concerns. I would've hoped that they would be a part of that solution in really being able to continue to invest and rehabilitate the community. Yeah, so it's unfortunate, but I think there's more opportunities to be - to really invest in that corner of our community. [00:47:22] Crystal Fincher: Thank you - Andrew. [00:47:25] Andrew Ashiofu: I'm going to address this in various forms for - when they say public safety, I think I go again with what everyone said - is based on racial bias. I really hope Brian of Tougo Coffee down here at Yesler opens another branch there. But also - I, as a frontline worker that has been working hard to be unionized at my airline, I think this is also a form of union busting, as Chipalo said, because we've seen that nearly all the stores that unionize at Starbucks - they close it down. And there's a huge - this is the time, the moment for the unions to come together. And Starbucks is - Okay, we're going to punish you. But also, I think as a state representative, or as on the state level, this is why we should invest in small businesses and among minorities and Black communities, immigrant communities, because - I used to say those are our safe space, even the LGBT community, but reality - those are our brave spaces where we could be who we are. We could be - so we need to invest in small business there and take back what was ours. Thank you so much. [00:48:38] Crystal Fincher: Thank you. Next we are going to a question about the Dobbs decision that eliminated the right to abortion. But in Justice Thomas's concurring opinion, he went further and he identified decisions he felt should be reevaluated after their ruling in Dobbs - cases that established our right to same-sex marriage, rights to contraception, and rights to sexual privacy. What can our state legislature do to proactively protect these rights? Starting with Andrew. [00:49:13] Andrew Ashiofu: Ooh - as a gay person and someone involved in the LGBTQ+ community and advocacy, this is really hard. It brings back memories of when I was kicked out, it brings back memories of being bullied and being called a f*gg*t. As a state, we need to create constitution that protects all those things. Contraception is part of healthcare - it's important, it's not an option. You can't tell me that - as a states we need to provide - contraception should be free, condoms should be free, Plan B should be free, IUD should be free, menstrual pads and all those tampons should be free - should not be for profit. We need to protect and make it accessible, not affordable - accessible for free - because again it's criminalizing minorities. Then when it comes to privacy and this is the whole LGBTQ witch hunting all over again. In this day and age, we need to create that as a protective class in our constitution, in our schools, we need to protect them in our workplace. We need to protect them - I want to walk down the streets and not have someone call me a f*gg*t. So this is something very dear to me. And I would walk hard to codify all that into protection in Washington State. Thank you. [00:50:39] Crystal Fincher: Thank you - Emijah. [00:50:41] Emijah Smith: Thank you. This is an opportunity for Washington State to really walk its talk. We talk about being progressive, we talk about all the things, and this is an opportunity for us to get in front of it. This is why I want to go ahead and be a state representative - because I do not wanna see us go back, turn the clock back. I'm there to push, hold the line, and take us forward - because this type of it's - I have no understanding for it. I'm triggered, right? We're here in the 37th and we talk about the progressiveness and I'm tired of talk and we need representation and leadership that will hold the line and also push the line forward. This is about safety in my opinion. This is a safety issue. If a person cannot show up who they are, then how can they be safe? They're going to be a target of violence. This to me is policy violence, and this is not acceptable. So this is who I am and how I wanna show up moving forward. We leave this place better than the way we found it. I do not need my children or my loved ones, or my neighbors, fearful of their own safety, because they cannot show up as who they need to be - because they don't have the proper resources or then we're gonna be stereotyped in some form or fashion, then more policies and that systemic racism will fall on those who are most marginalized. It's this type of rhetoric that has to come to an end. You have to be about action. Thank you. [00:52:21] Crystal Fincher: Thank you - Chipalo. [00:52:24] Chipalo Street: Yeah, I can't agree more with what folks are saying. To me, what's interesting about this and ironic is that this is an example of extreme privilege. My understanding is that he left one issue out that is also built on Dobbs, which is interracial marriage, and he is married to a white lady. But yet he cited every other thing that he wants to take back. So why is it that this person in a position of power over so many people can just selectively exclude it? So I think it hits home for all of us in very many different ways. Personally, this hits home because I'm half Black, half white. And so even though he didn't include it in there, you know it's next - it just means that you can't trust what they say. And it means that you need to elect leaders to state representatives, to Supreme Court - I guess we can't elect people to Supreme Court, but Senators who confirm justices up and down the ballot - who support everyone's right, to see people as equal, who are with us on this march towards equality. [00:53:31] Crystal Fincher: Thank you - Nimco. [00:53:32] Nimco Bulale: Thank you so much for that question. I don't wanna re - I agree with what everybody said. I think additionally, Washington State needs to be in the business of justice. And when I say justice, I really mean the complete physical, mental, spiritual, political, economic, and social wellbeing of all people. It can only - I think that this can only be achieved when everybody has that economic, social, and political power, as well as the resources to make healthy decisions about their bodies, about their sexuality, about their reproductive - reproduction - for themselves, their families, and their communities in all areas of their lives. I think that this is the kind of foresight that we need to have as a state and we really need to lead in these issues. If we say that we are beacon for supporting reproductive rights and other rights of all people, I think that we need to be leading in that. And we need to show the rest of the country that we are an example of folks that take that business of justice seriously. [00:54:36] Crystal Fincher: Thank you. And with that, we are actually gonna take a short two-minute break to give our candidates a chance to grab some water - it's a hot day. And grab their Yes and No paddles because we're going to be back with a lightning round. So two minutes is starting now and we will see you on the other side. All right. We are getting ready to begin our lightning round. So you all have paddles with - that are green on one side, red on the other. Green is what you show to face - that faces the camera - if your answer is Yes. The other side - red, if it's No. We will do these in rapid succession. And following the lightning round, following all of - the totality of the questions - everyone will have one minute to explain any of the answers that you want to. But we will go through this quickly, so I'll ask the question and then ask you to hold up for people to clearly see the Yes or No to the answers to these questions. So we're starting out - regarding housing and homelessness, are there any instances where you would support sweeps of homeless encampments? Yes or no? It looks like we have two either giving a No or a thumbs down for No. Looks like everybody is a No on that question. Next question. Will you vote to end single-family zoning in order to create more housing density and affordability? Yes or no? Everyone is a Yes. Next question. Would you vote to end the statewide ban on rent control and let localities decide whether they want to implement it? Yes or no. Everyone is a Yes on that question. Next, do you support Seattle's social housing initiative, I-135? Yes or no. Everybody is a Yes. Would you have voted for the legislature's police reform rollbacks in the last legislative session? Yes or no? A mixed answer. So keep your paddles held up for that. So Emijah is a Yes, everyone else is a No - that's Chipalo, Andrew, and Nimco. Next, should the legislature pass restrictions on what can be collectively bargained by police unions? Yes or no. Repeating the question - should the legislature pass restrictions on what can be collectively bargained by police unions? Everyone is a Yes in that question. Would you vote for any bill that increases highway expansion? Yes or no? Chipalo is a Yes. Emijah, Nimco, and Andrew are No. Do you support calling a special session this year to codify reproductive rights and access into law? Yes or no? Everybody's a Yes. Would you have voted this past session - for the session before last - for the Climate Commitment Act? Yes or no? Everybody's a Yes on that question. Do you think trans and non-binary students should be allowed to play on the sports teams that fit with their gender identities? Yes or no. Everybody is a Yes. Will you vote to enact a universal basic income in Washington? Yes or no. Everybody is a Yes on that question. Our state has one of the most regressive tax codes in the country, meaning lower-income people pay a higher percentage of their income in taxes than the ultra-wealthy. In addition to the capital gains tax, do you support a wealth tax? Yes or no? Everybody with quick Yeses to that. Do you support implementing ranked-choice voting in Seattle? Yes or no. Everybody is a Yes to that. Do you support implementing approval voting in Seattle? Yes or no. These are slow answers. We've got some waffling. We've got a lot of waffling. The only clear answer was Andrew with a No. Do you support moving local elections from odd years to even years to significantly increase voter turnout? Yes or no? Quick yeses for that. Is your campaign unionized? Yes or no? Every - I can't see your answer there, Andrew. Everybody's a No. If your campaign staff wants to unionize, will you voluntarily recognize their effort? Yes or no. Everybody is a Yes. Would you vote to provide universal healthcare to every Washington resident? Yes or no? Everybody is a Yes. That concludes our lightning round. Now we will give each candidate one minute to explain anything they want to explain about their answers or their waffles. And we'll start with Nimco. [01:00:47] Nimco Bulale: About my waffles? [01:00:49] Crystal Fincher: About any of your answers or the answers that were a non-answer - is there anything that you'd want to explain? [01:00:56] Nimco Bulale: Yeah - maybe if I didn't vote on the question - it wasn't the ranked-choice question, it was the question after that. I wasn't familiar unfortunately with that idea. And so my only explanation is - is that I need to learn a little bit more about - can you explain, can Crystal, can you repeat what that question was? [01:01:15] Crystal Fincher: It was about an approval voting initiative that had been collecting ballot signatures, may appear on the ballot. However, we actually just got some breaking news today that there may be an effort from Councilmember Andrew Lewis to actually put ranked-choice voting on the ballot, which would supplant the approval voting process. So tune in there, but there is a possibility for approval voting, which is where you just vote for everyone that you like. And we've discussed it certainly, there's other people discussing it - lots of lively conversation about - the people and interests supporting and opposing it, and the differences between the two. But just an interesting question there. [01:02:02] Nimco Bulale: Yeah - I just will commit myself to learning more about that. Obviously I support ranked-choice voting and will get myself knowledgeable about approval voting. [01:02:13] Crystal Fincher: Thank you - Andrew. [01:02:17] Andrew Ashiofu: Yeah. I am not in support of approval voting. I'm more in support of ranked-choice voting. Also this very initiative has had a bit of scandal while gathering the signatures and all that - I've heard from them, I've listened to their ideology, which I truly appreciate in creating more voices in - more voices of the people voting in the approval, but I think ranked-choice voting is the right way to go. [01:02:55] Crystal Fincher: Thank you - Emijah. [01:02:59] Emijah Smith: Yeah. I wanted to share more information about my answer with regard to the rollbacks, when you spoke about the police legislation initiatives. I define rollbacks as taking us backwards, so I'm not sure how you were defining rollbacks, but when I think about the fact that there's Terry stops now - from the past legislative session, there are now Terry stops. Terry stop is where a person can just be pulled over, asked for their ID, they can be interrogated by the police - without probable cause. And I think that that's a huge problem. And so I'm not in support of things like that - the use of force - and how those things are defined. So I will - I push and want to champion police accountability that's going to make us more safety and bring more balance, not take us back to the 80s, 90s, and 2000s that I'm surviving from right now with overpolicing in our community. [01:03:58] Crystal Fincher: Thank you - Chipalo. [01:04:00] Chipalo Street: Sure. So I think the one that I was different from folks was highway expansion. I think the key word to me in that question was "any" - there are times where I could believe you need to expand highways for freight mobility and those support our union jobs. So I would want to make sure that we could at least consider that. In general, I don't think we should be expanding highways. We should be investing in mass transit. But I do want to make sure that we can support our unions and freight transit, 'cause that is - that diversifies our economy and it's one of the strengths that Seattle has. Approval voting - yeah, similar to Nimco, I had no idea what that was. It'll be interesting to learn more about that. And then the police accountability stuff - I have a hard time believing I would've voted for it. The thing that I think that went really well is that Jesse Johnson did ride-alongs with the police - I think we have to be their partners, we have to understand the impacts of our legislation. And so I'd be open to partnering with them to understand how that impacts them and their ability to provide public safety. But given my experience, I have a hard time believing that I would've. But I do believe they're are partners and would like to partner with them to improve public safety. [01:05:05] Crystal Fincher: Thank you. We'll now move on to our regular type of questions. We're currently not on track to meet our 2030 climate goals, and I'm going to ask a question from someone who's watching because of that and because transportation is the biggest polluting sector. They're asking - how can we shift people out of cars while making sure we don't hurt those working class people whose commutes are too long for transit or bikes? And we will start with Chipalo. [01:05:38] Chipalo Street: And one more time for me, please. [01:05:41] Crystal Fincher: Sure. How can we shift people out of cars while making sure we don't hurt those working class people whose commutes are too long for transit or bikes? [01:05:52] Chipalo Street: For sure. So I think one of the things that we have to do, that we saw last cycle when we passed Move Ahead WA, was investing in transit and forms of non-single-occupancy vehicles into our suburbs and rural areas. Mass transit is great, but we can't just focus on our cities because there are people who have longer commutes that need to get to jobs. Often, these are working people who have been pushed and displaced out of cities and into suburban and rural areas. So I want to make sure that whatever we do for transit thinks about the state comprehensively in conjunction with cities and our exurbs. [01:06:36] Crystal Fincher: Thank you - Nimco. [01:06:37] Nimco Bulale: Thank you for that question. I believe that to quickly reduce transportation carbon emissions, we need to fundamentally shift our planning, our policy development, and infrastructure investments to prioritize public transit, walking, and biking over personal vehicles. I think often communities of color and working class communities lack access to reliable forms of public transportation or live in areas where bus systems lack sufficient funding. As legislator, I will support any and all legislation that helps expand public transit to be more reliable, accessible, and affordable for Washingtonians, especially for those who currently live in areas with limited access to public transportation and are forced to be more reliant on cars. I think that this will not only reduce carbon emissions, but it'll also help mobilize our communities and promote fuel efficiency. I do support a just transportation package to ensure that when planning transportation systems, there is a focus on people disproportionately harmed by our current transportation choices. No one should be burdened by pollution from transportation or unable to access - unable to access groceries or school without a car. This package must be a catalyst towards protecting future generations from the climate crisis today. [01:07:59] Crystal Fincher: Thank you - Andrew. [01:08:03] Andrew Ashiofu: One, I think is - we need to invest in the expansion of public transportation. There's no rail from here to Tacoma, there's no rail from here to Olympia - that's a red flag right there. We also need to invest in hiring public transport workers, especially bus drivers, to help us with our interconnection with cities, with urban areas. We also need to create incentive for environmental friendly rideshare programs. I hav

Seattle residents of the Rainier Valley cheered this weekend over news that Amazon will not build a new warehouse there. The surprise news followed a year of controversy, after a developer closely associated with the company filed site plans with the city showing a warehouse at the site of the Lowe's Home Improvement store.

According to census data, the greater Seattle area is home to the fifth-largest Filipino American population in the U.S — the majority of which arrived in the area after 1965. From the 1950s to 1970s, Filipino Americans, or Pinoys, faced serious hardships and struggles with racism, discrimination, and exploitation. It was a difficult life for many. The struggle persists today, with the U.S. seeing a steep rise in discrimination and violence against Asian Americans since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. In a new collection of autobiographical essays, Uncle Rico's Encore, award-winning author Peter Bacho shared stories that illuminate the Filipino American experience. Bacho related vivid stories of community, generational connection, defiance, and activism, including resistance to the union-busting efforts of the federal government and organizing for decent housing and services for elders. He also illustrated the Filipino American experience of the era through intimate moments of everyday life in familiar places such as Madison Beach, Beacon Hill, and Madrona Park. The result is a tribute to Filipino Seattle and the people who contributed to Pacific Northwest culture, arts, business, and politics, while also offering a glimpse into the national Asian American experience. Peter Bacho is the author of six books: Cebu, Dark Blue Suit, Boxing in Black and White, Nelson's Run, Entrys, and Leaving Yesler. His books have received several awards, including the 1992 American Book Award. He is an adjunct professor at The Evergreen State College Tacoma Campus. Bacho was born in Seattle, Washington and grew up in Seattle's Central District. Robert Flor is a poet and playwright whose work has been published in numerous magazines and anthologies, and his plays have been performed at the Rainier Arts Center, the Eclectic Theater, and in the Filipino Community of Seattle. He was born in Seattle and grew up in Seattle's Central District and Rainier Valley. Buy the Book: Uncle Rico's Encore: Mostly True Stories of Filipino Seattle  Presented by Town Hall Seattle and the Wing Luke Museum, with introductions by Joël Barraquiel Tan, Executive Director of the Wing Luke Museum. Sponsored by the Boeing Company.

3PM - Trouble at Sandpoint school: reports that the principal would not cooperate with police // Mass shootings over the weekend // New park opens in Rainier valley so kids can play chess - Using chess to teach kids life lessons // You find $36,000 in a couch you were given for free.  What do you do? See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On today's Hacks & Wonks week-in-review, Crystal is joined by Co-Founder and Editor of PubliCola, Erica Barnett. They start by discussing the impact of redlining on the City of Seattle today, housing affordability, and the initiative that would create social housing in Seattle. Then, they unpack why Seattle City Council's tree conservation plan would ultimately slow down housing development. Crystal and Erica then dive into this week's labor news and finish with a conversation about hiring and public safety – from the police chief to the downtown juvenile jail staff. As always, a full text transcript of the show is available below and at officialhacksandwonks.com. Find the host, Crystal Fincher on Twitter at @finchfrii and find today's co-host, Erica C. Barnett, at @ericacbarnett. More info is available at officialhacksandwonks.com.   Resources “New maps show strong correlation between redlined places in Seattle and worse air quality” by Nicholas Turner from The Seattle Times: https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/environment/new-maps-show-strong-correlation-between-redlined-places-in-seattle-and-worse-air-quality/    “$100K-plus households are now the majority in most Seattle neighborhoods” by Gene Balk from The Seattle Times: https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/data/100k-plus-households-are-now-the-majority-in-most-seattle-neighborhoods/    “Initiative Would Pave the Way for Social Housing in Seattle” by Erica C. Barnett from PubliCola: https://publicola.com/2022/03/28/initiative-would-pave-the-way-for-social-housing-in-seattle/     “Seattle City Council Embarks on Tree Conservation Crusade, but Strauss Says Urbanists Need Not Worry” by Hannah Krieg from The Stranger: https://www.thestranger.com/slog/2022/03/30/69548451/seattle-city-council-embarks-on-tree-conservation-crusade-but-strauss-says-urbanists-need-not-worry    “Judge: Seattle concrete companies intentionally drove into striking workers at picket line” by FOX 13 News Staff from FOX 13: https://www.q13fox.com/news/judge-seattle-concrete-companies-intentionally-drove-into-striking-workers-at-picket-line     “Broadway is a union street — Capitol Hill Crossroads workers approve unionization” by CHS from Capitol Hill Seattle Blog: https://www.capitolhillseattle.com/2022/03/broadway-is-a-union-street-capitol-hill-crossroads-workers-approve-unionization/   “Amazon Warehouse Workers Win Historic Union Vote on Staten Island” by Josefa Velasquez and Claudia Irizarry Aponte from The City: https://www.thecity.nyc/2022/4/1/23006509/amazon-warehouse-workers-union-win-staten-island   “Amazon Spent $4.3 Million On Anti-Union Consultants Last Year” by Dave Jamieson from HuffPost: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/amazon-anti-union-consultants_n_62449258e4b0742dfa5a74fb?c9h    “Kirsten Harris-Talley: Why I Am Not Seeking Reelection” by Kirsten Harris-Talley from The South Seattle Emerald: https://southseattleemerald.com/2022/03/29/kirsten-harris-talley-why-i-am-not-seeking-reelection/    “Seattle mayor announces nationwide police chief search, urges interim Chief Diaz to apply”  by Sarah Grace Taylor from The Seattle Times: https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/politics/seattle-mayor-announces-nationwide-police-chief-search-urges-interim-chief-diaz-to-apply/    “Report Says Hiring Incentives May Not Work; 11 City Appointees Kept Hanging for Lack of Council Quorum” by Erica C. Barnett from PubliCola: https://publicola.com/2022/03/29/report-says-hiring-incentives-may-not-work-11-city-appointees-kept-hanging-for-lack-of-council-quorum/    “Parents Won't Have to to Pay Jail Costs for Incarcerated Children; Another Suicide at Downtown Jail Amid Ongoing Staff Shortage” by Paul Kiefer from PubliCola: https://publicola.com/2022/03/25/parents-wont-have-to-to-pay-jail-costs-for-incarcerated-children-another-suicide-at-downtown-jail-amid-ongoing-staff-shortage/    Transcript [00:00:00] Crystal Fincher: Welcome to Hacks & Wonks. I am Crystal Fincher, and I'm a political consultant and your host. On this show, we talk with policy wonks and political hacks to gather insight into local politics and policy in Washington State through the lens of those doing the work with behind-the-scenes perspectives on what's happening, why it's happening, and what you can do about it. I can tell I've had a lot of coffee. Full transcripts and resources referenced in this show are always available at officialhacksandwonks.com and in our episode notes. Today, we are continuing our Friday almost-live shows where we review the news of the week. Welcome back to the program, friend of the show and today's co-host: Seattle political reporter, editor of PubliCola, co-host of the Seattle Nice podcast, and author of Quitter: A Memoir of Drinking, Relapse, and Recovery - Erica Barnett. [00:00:58] Erica Barnett: Hey Crystal - great to be here. [00:01:00] Crystal Fincher: Hey, great to be here with you. I've been reading you for over the past decade and enjoying all of our conversations that we have on here, so I'm excited to have you back. I want to start talking about a story here in Seattle this week that was published in The Times - talking about the correlation between redlined places in Seattle and worse air quality. What were these findings? [00:01:26] Erica Barnett: Well, I think you basically said it. The places that were historically redlined in Seattle, places like Georgetown - and redlining of course is, I'm sure your listeners know this, but the racist practice of restricting home ownership and where people of color, Black people in particular, could live - it still persists to this day in the sense that we are a very segregated city. And no surprise, a lot of the places that people were sort of redlined into - South Park, Georgetown, the industrial areas of Seattle - are more dangerous places to live. Life expectancy is lower where pollution is greater and so the study basically confirmed that with some real numbers. [00:02:17] Crystal Fincher: Yeah, and part of the conversation related to zoning that we've had - what we are seeing today - the development patterns and where people today live has definitely been influenced by areas that have traditionally been redlined and those that haven't. Development has followed a very predictable pattern - looking at where it's occurred in areas that were outside of redlined areas, and where development has not occurred in areas that were redlined. This is just part of the continuing conversation of looking at how we build and shape our communities. And if we don't move with intention to undo the blatantly racist practices from a couple few decades ago, then we're continuing and enabling dangerous conditions to persist in these communities. [00:03:16] Erica Barnett: Yeah - one of the most predictive factors for pollution and for health impacts is living next to a big road - a freeway, or just a big arterial - where you have lots of trucks and buses and cars driving all the time. And of course in Seattle, since the 1990s, we have had official policy of concentrating density around larger arterials and into areas that we call urban villages, which have lots of shops and businesses and restaurants and all that great stuff, but they're also on the busiest roads. This is official policy that basically was designed to "protect single family areas" which make up the overwhelming majority of Seattle - and there are real pollution implications and there are real class implications to doing that - to concentrating people who can't afford to buy a $1 million, $2 million house into these tiny little sections of the City where we allow them, or we allow us, because I certainly can't afford a house to live. [00:04:26] Crystal Fincher: Well, I am in that same club. And this is related to another story that came out this week talking about $100,000-and-over households are now the majority in most Seattle neighborhoods. The average home in Seattle now has an income of over $100,000. What does this mean for Seattle? [00:04:49] Erica Barnett: I don't find these numbers surprising, so I think it means exactly what we've been seeing - for those of us who've lived here for a decade or two - have been seeing for a long time. The haves and the have-nots in Seattle are just living in very different cities. Something like, I think, it was 52%, 51%, maybe a little more - make over $100,000. That is just a different world than the 18% or so who make under $35,000 - because when you have that kind of income, when you have that kind of wealth, even in the rental market, you've got people who are making a tremendous amount of money driving up costs for everybody else. And so if you make $50,000 a year, that means that the apartment that would maybe cost a $1,000 10 years ago now costs $2,000. So your money just doesn't go as far when you have this kind of tremendous income inequality and you have this tremendous top heavy city, with so many people just making sums that are absurd to those of us in the middle income and lower brackets. [00:06:07] Crystal Fincher: Yeah, and this is so just revealing - and I should note that these numbers are an average of 2016 to 2020 - and we have seen incomes and housing prices continue to rise in that time. So these figures might technically be a little out of date and odds are that the average has actually increased, but with 53% of the homes in Seattle making over $100,000, it certainly skews so many things there. And just such small percentages of people who make incomes lower than that - and also interesting where they're concentrated - so looking at areas in interior of West Seattle, some areas in the Rainier Valley. Other areas where lower income, or households that earn less than $50,000, include part of Bitter Lake and part of Northgate, the CID and Yesler Terrace, and parts of Beacon Hill around New Holly. [00:07:16] Erica Barnett: It's Georgetown and South Park - the areas we were just talking about as being redlined - are also in those lower income brackets. [00:07:23] Crystal Fincher: Absolutely, and we have to do something about this. We can't continue to concentrate poverty and to kind of exempt people from healthier areas, more vibrant areas, more economically mobile areas. There's so many reports and studies that have been done - when you actually have areas with mixed incomes, the families generally do better, the neighborhoods are usually safer. It actually is harmful to the City to have it be this segregated and certainly harmful to the residents living in the areas that we just talked about - are experiencing all of the downsides from concentrating wealth in so few areas and kind of locking people out of wealth in other areas. And then also impacting their health and the way their community is just shaped and developed, and the way their families are forced to deal with the challenges that higher income people are able to buy themselves out of. I certainly am of the opinion that we should do more to protect the entire community - it's to all of our advantage to do that, but we will see how that continues to unfold. And then related to this, in response to so much of this that we've seen, there's a new initiative that was announced this week. What is it? [00:08:52] Erica Barnett: This is a new initiative put out by House Our Neighbors, which is a project of Real Change, that would essentially set up a public development authority to develop publicly owned, permanently affordable housing. The initiative would just set up an organization to do this work - it does not actually provide a funding source yet. The folks who are behind it said to me that they want to do this in steps because there's a single subject rule on initiatives and to sort of get people accustomed to the idea and educated on the idea of what they're calling social housing. And they distinguish this from affordable housing because it would not be owned and operated by a private non-profit or any of the other existing models. And because it would be permanently affordable, including if you move into a social housing apartment and your income changes, you would not be kicked out. So those are kind of the basics, and I think we'll find out more about their intent once they start the campaign - they have filed the initiative and they need, I want to say, a little over 26,000 signatures to get it on the ballot in November. [00:10:14] Crystal Fincher: All right. And then we're also seeing, in the City of Seattle, an effort to save trees that has some people suspicious. What's going on there? [00:10:26] Erica Barnett: Well, there has been a push for a very long time among single family homeowner advocates to "save trees". Seattle is a very green city compared to a lot of other cities and I think that is a wonderful thing about it. You go to San Francisco, you go to other places - and it's not as green and that is definitely a huge asset to the City. But there is an effort to sort of restrict what people can do in their backyards in terms of removing trees of sort of normal size, not giant exceptional trees. They're trying to make the - I'm trying to think of how to explain this - to make the size of tree that you can remove without taking extraordinary measures and getting permission from the City smaller. What this is actually aimed at is preventing development - it is an effort to say if you want to build a duplex, if you want to build a backyard cottage, and you have to remove a tree, we're going to make that incredibly hard for you to do. The legislation that they adopted this week was pretty anodyne - it was just about getting arborists to register and have licenses with the City before they can remove trees. But it was the first in a whole series of legislation - the largest piece of which is a giant update to the tree ordinance that would do all these things. It would make it harder to remove smaller trees - because now you already have to get a permit to remove exceptional, giant, enormous trees - so this would just kind of make it harder and harder to remove trees, and thus harder and harder to actually build new housing. And I think that is the ultimate goal. [00:12:19] Crystal Fincher: Yeah, and what has a number of people who've been supportive of increasing zoning and density and building new housing - suspicious that this is a tactic just to prevent building new housing and is not driven by people with a principle motivation of maintaining trees. Trees are an important conversation. We've talked before on this program about how important the tree canopy is and having a wide variety of trees - particularly, just in terms of air quality in the area, but also in terms of regulating temperature - and as we continue to increase the types of harms that we are seeing from climate change and having more heat extremes, the amount of trees in an area completely dictates how hot an area gets, how long it takes to cool down, and there have been absolute heat zones correlated with areas that lack trees definitely here in King County. And The Seattle Times has covered this before with maps that demonstrate this, so trees are an important conversation. I do not want to discount the importance of talking about trees in terms of public policy and safety. This does not seem to be that. This seems to be just, "Hey, we want to make it harder to have anything to do with that." It's not talking about planting any new trees, it's not talking about addressing areas that are in heat deserts without trees. It's - just seems like it's, "Hey, we're going to make it harder to modify our existing landscape, particularly in single family zoned areas." [00:14:02] Erica Barnett: Right - I think the thing is, and the part of the conversation that we never seem to get to, is the fact that when we are in areas that do not have a lot of trees - development can be an opportunity to plant trees. And actually, we don't even need development to plant trees, but that is a great opportunity. And we're not talking about adding to the tree canopy in the same way that we are "protecting the tree canopy" by specifically not allowing people to cut down trees on private land. So I think that kind of reveals what this conversation is really about - because if it was about tree canopy, we would be talking about tree canopy everywhere and not just in these single family areas and these very wealthy single family areas that tend to have these huge urban forests, as opposed to these redlined areas - the poorer areas of town - where trees were cut down and where we don't have mature trees anymore. I think that part of the conversation just gets left out by these so-called tree advocates. [00:15:12] Crystal Fincher: Completely agree. Now, I also want to talk about an update to a story that we've been covering on lots of these weeks in reviews, and it's about the concrete worker strike. And this week - kind of a big deal - a judge ruled that Seattle concrete companies have been intentionally driving into striking workers who are on the picket line. Literally driving into workers causing injury - evidently it's been a tactic that has been used. The King County Superior Court judge ruled in favor of striking workers who filed a lawsuit against the concrete companies - these companies have had drivers that have assaulted and blocked union members' constitutional right to protest. The judge agreed with that and found that there have been multiple instances at concrete company sites where non-union drivers or trucks, leasing from or serving the companies, have charged into picketers causing bodily injury and creating significant danger to the picketers. And also violating some signage requirements. They also found that one truck driver intentionally drove a truck against, or basically drove into a picketer who was clearly standing in front of the truck, and that another driver for Cadman drove a truck into the picket line causing physical contact with picketers and causing injury. This is really, really out of bounds and scary. A representative from the union said it's reassuring to have the Court affirm our legal right to peacefully picket, but the violence that they've seen against their members is unfounded, egregious, and frankly disgusting. They're trying to negotiate, and exercising their rights to stand up for their members and negotiate better terms. The Court also found that the construction companies - particularly Cadman, Merlino and Stoneway - had failed to fully comply with an earlier order to post signage to drivers and customers alerting them of the pickets, and in order to prevent trucks from charging through picketers as they perform their picketing and patrolling. This, as Teamsters reached a good faith agreement to try and come back to work for some of the concrete companies - as we continue to hear how projects around the region, whether it's Sound Transit or other affordable housing projects, a wide variety or bridge projects have been delayed by this and the County is searching for options, including potentially, a publicly owned concrete company. What's your read of this? [00:17:56] Erica Barnett: I don't think the concrete companies have a lot of sympathy, and I'm not on the inside of this obviously, but if they're betting that all these agencies that rely on them and companies that rely on concrete flowing are going to get fed up with the unions and with the picketing - this certainly seems like a major miscalculation - committing violence. We were talking earlier off mic about how this sort of tactic of driving through protests has become more and more common in a lot of different contexts. And when you're talking about these giant trucks - obviously, it's incredibly dangerous, incredibly violent - and I think I on a political level, I don't think that it serves their cause at all to be committing violence against workers who are trying to bargain in good faith and as you said - are voluntarily working out agreements for some of them to go back to work, even in the absence of a deal with the companies - who I think the terms that they initially proposed were pretty unreasonable. So it seems like the stalemate just is going to continue, and there have been major consequences and I think will continue to be - Sound Transit relies heavily on concrete flowing - they're in a big production cycle, they're building a lot right now and I think that they could see delays. I don't think that this is going to make government agencies more sympathetic to the concrete company's side. [00:19:45] Crystal Fincher: Completely agree - we will continue to pay attention and stay involved. With that, we certainly hope those companies cease their violent tactics and just negotiate in good faith, please. This can cost lives. There is just no justification for those kind of violent tactics. In better, more exciting union news - just yesterday, a new union was formed. The Capitol Hill Crossroads workers voted unanimously to approve unionization, and this comes on the heels of hearing that Amazon's 5,000-member Staten Island facility also voted to unionize - which was a humongous uphill battle. And I don't know if you recall, especially in the Amazon example, there was a worker - a Black worker - who was fired unjustly for trying to organize a union. And it was leaked that Amazon suggested that this man was unintelligent, unarticulate, and that they wanted to make him the face of the unionization effort as if that was going to be some kind of liability, or that he was inherently problematic for some mysterious reason. And he said, "You know what? Bring it on." And actually led the unionization effort, and in a big David versus Goliath battle - came out on top and successfully organized that union. And so just a lot of news. I mean, we've talked about how just income inequality is flourishing as much as it ever has - and people are struggling in so many ways and experiencing so many consequences related to them just trying to earn a living and live a life - and certainly unionization helps. So congratulations to the Crossroads Workers Union in Capitol Hill. I definitely want to give a shout out to Emma Mudd who did an amazing job as a lead organizer there, and just hope that we are just seeing the beginning - between Starbucks and Crossroads, there is definitely a movement afoot. One other thing I wanted to touch on and talk about was an article this week that was written by outgoing, or who will be outgoing, legislator Kirsten Harris-Talley from Seattle's 37th legislative district - who announced that she is not running for reelection and called out a number of challenges that are currently happening in the Legislature - and really calling out the toxic environment that has festered there for quite some time and has played a role in a large number of departures that we've seen. What was your reaction to the story? [00:22:50] Erica Barnett: Well, I have to say it's not terribly surprising to me that the Legislature - she described the Legislature as a toxic work environment - and talked pretty specifically about some amendments that she tried to get in legislation and was basically just told, "Nope" - kind of a version of "not your turn." And this is something that I've heard about for years, that I'm sure you have even more so heard about for years since you are closer to the legislature than I am. And I think what's unusual about this is that - is for her to say all this explicitly - it's a very long piece in the South Seattle Emerald about what was the final straw for her. But I think that the Legislature seems to me to be the kind of place where there's leadership - leadership makes the decisions. If you are new, you are supposed to be quiet and not step out of line and take your turn. I would consider that a toxic work environment if it was in the private sector. And the fact is - people who serve in the Legislature do not get rich from it. It is not a full-time job. It is something people do because they want to make a difference, and it's largely a very, very thankless job. And I can certainly see why you would just get frustrated with being told, "Wait your turn. It's not your time. You're being unreasonable. You're being too loud." And there are a number of people of color who are leaving the Legislature this year - not all of them are being as explicit about why as Kirsten Harris-Talley was - but I have to imagine that some of their reasons are similar. [00:24:57] Crystal Fincher: Yeah - again, to your point, this is something that has been a problem for a while. I have personally witnessed toxicity and have certainly dealt with a number of legislators who have dealt with it themselves. That's not to say everyone in the Legislature is toxic - Kirsten Harris-Talley points out there are a number of people there who are absolutely pushing for the right thing, who are principled - but as she states, "The environment of a caucus is a unique one that speaks of being a family and collaboration, but is also one of centralized control, consistency, and compliance." I hope that sparks some reflection because one of the things that I have, just over the past few years in particular, have had my eyes opened up to even more than it was before - those three words - control, consistency, and compliance. And when you think about how those things are enforced in areas, it is in toxic ways. And to your point, people are not making a ton of money from the Legislature. And even with that, a number of people are depending on this income to pay their bills. There are - I think to the Legislature's benefit - have been an increasing amount of people who are not coming in who are independently wealthy, who don't need the money. There are a number of people who do, and if you actually are relying on the job to pay your bills and you're pushing for the change that your district is demanding of you, and then you get a message that you could be punished for it, and punishment in a legislature can look a number of different ways - whether it's committee assignments or reelection support or anything like that. If people feel that could be in danger, that can do a lot to reinforce control, consistency, and compliance. So I hope this sparks a lot of reflection. This was a very brave thing for Kirsten Harris-Talley to write. It's a very difficult thing for lots of people to discuss - and just the inherent power dynamics - we just had the unionization conversation - a lot in terms of workplace health and safety and culture. And understanding when you have more power - and in the Legislature, chairs and leadership have a lot more power than the average member - all votes and opinions are not equal - those of chairs and of leadership are greater. That the way they use that needs to be examined. And I just hope it causes a lot of reflection and conversation and people really examine how they've been using their power, how people have been made to feel, whether they are creating an environment that includes and is truly welcoming of certain opinions or does not. And that is not just, "Hey, we have a caucus with a variety of viewpoints," but just some truly not being welcome or people feeling like not toeing the line as it has been dictated perhaps by people above, comes with consequences and just may not be good for their career or their position, which therefore reflects on and impacts their ability to serve their district. So I just hope it's listened to. I do want to say this was brave. It is accurate. There are some people who kind of defaulted to, "Well, this is just a person who's mad about a piece of legislation not passing." And man, it's a lot more comprehensive than that issue. Or, "Well, this is just a person who wasn't sure how the legislative process worked." And also want to point out that this is a person who had thrived in other public service legislative capacities within the City of Seattle - and certainly understood that situation - but to discount the toxicity that we have heard obliquely referenced so many different times, and this is one of the most overt examples, that people take heed. And with that, I also want to talk about Mayor Harrell kicking off a search for his new police chief in the City. Was there anything that stood out to you in his announcement and direction there, Erica? [00:29:51] Erica Barnett: Yeah. I mean, the fact that he made it stood out to me. The mayor is required by charter - which is something that Paul Kiefer reported on that I had forgotten about - that he has to actually consider three different candidates at least. And so this week he announced he's doing a national search. The tone of it was interesting because I think that the kind of common knowledge, or what is believed, is that he is going to appoint interim police chief, Adrian Diaz, to the permanent position. He said several times in press conferences and other contexts that he really thinks that the chief is doing a good job. Diaz is fairly popular compared to his predecessor, Carmen Best, among the rank and file - he hasn't made anybody particularly mad. But he's doing a national search. And so the announcement was basically - we're going to have a search firm do this, so they're going to spend some money on this search process - but Adrian Diaz is encouraged to apply. So the way that the announcement was made was a little bit surprising to me - this kind of emphasis on a national search. And the other thing that sticks out is - we'll see, but I don't know what kind of response he's going to get for a couple of reasons. One, the fact that he has encouraged the police chief to apply, that the police chief is considered a favorite or the interim chief is considered a favorite to get the position could depress applications from elsewhere. And second, it's not like there are a lot of police chiefs in other departments around the country that are untainted by problems with accountability, allegations of abuse, allegations of biased policing. There's not a huge pool out there of people who are going to be able to come in and say, "I know how to change the system. I know how to get you out from under the consent decree. I know how to do all these things because I've done it in my own city." So I will be very, very curious to see how many qualified and good candidates actually end up applying. I was also kind of fascinated by the fact that there has to be at least three. So if there aren't three - if there was a scenario where there were not as many as three, I'm not sure what would happen. [00:32:30] Crystal Fincher: That's interesting. [00:32:32] Erica Barnett: Yeah, it is kind of interesting to dig into that announcement a little bit. Paul Kiefer, our dearly beloved and outgoing police accountability reporter, had a piece about that last night. [00:32:46] Crystal Fincher: Well, another piece that was in PubliCola touched on something that we've talked about before on this program. And that was about the police department hiring incentives that were talked about and numbers were thrown out and, "Hey, let's increase these signing bonuses," and we noted at the time that it seemed odd - and there did not seem to be any kind of data that supported the fact that, "Hey, did people cite that they were not motivated to stay, and any data to indicate that this incentive and this amount would make that more likely?" And some data came out this week that shed more light on that - what did it show? [00:33:36] Erica Barnett: I mean, essentially it showed that there was basically no impact. The City has been offering hiring incentives for a number of months, since October through actually January, because of some shenanigans by outgoing former mayor, Jenny Durkan. They were supposed to end at the end of the year, they went through January - so short period of time - that period did not show any bump in recruitment to the police department from the hiring incentives. And it showed a slight bump to the new 911 department, which has been sort of dissociated from the police department. And it showed similar outcomes from a previous period of hiring incentives - the incentives are not really working to recruit police but nonetheless, City Councilmember Sara Nelson has proposed bringing them back and believes that this will be the ticket to hiring more police. Of course, Seattle Police Department is at incredibly high attrition - a lot of people are retiring and leaving the department - and that's probably going to continue because there are new incentives in place from the state for officers to retire. And I think what we're seeing is what we've tried hasn't been working. If the goal is - just leaving aside whether this should be the goal - but if the goal is to hire more police and that is the mayor's goal and the City Council's goal for the most part, hiring incentives are maybe a waste of money. [00:35:18] Crystal Fincher: Yeah, absolutely. And it's so interesting and notable to me that for - especially for the mayor and councilmembers like Sara Nelson, who have talked about using data-driven approaches to public safety and just following the data - that when data is released that they don't agree with, there are reasons why it may not be complete or they may not have the full picture. But the same kind of grace or latitude is not given to other areas or other programs. If the goal really is to maintain police officers, this doesn't seem to be working. And we do need to keep people safe in Seattle - this is actually really important and no one wants to be a victim of anything. There are people who are concerned and worried, and we have seen types of crime increase and the stakes are - to me - too high to continue to move in directions that seem like a resource suck without delivering any results. We have limited resources here. We have a need to keep people safe. People talk about that being a very high priority. And it just doesn't seem they're taking it seriously if they continue to spend money that could be used on things that have a much better record and a lot more data behind it to ultimately keep people safe than to focus on a metric that - again, leaving aside whether it should be the goal - that putting it in place, there just doesn't seem to be any tie to how is this keeping people safer. And if we're going to use this limited amount of money, is it best used in this way or another way that's actually going to keep people from being victimized in the first place. I hope they start to take action that's effective in keeping people safe - also in the recruiting of officers, there is a long lag time between the time that they are actually signed and the time that they are deployed and active on the street - a really big delay. So what is the plan to keep people safer in the meantime? It feels like we're just talking about things that are not engaged with the reality of - how do we make people safer today and next month? There does not seem to be a plan for that and it is very concerning. I hope there is more of an examination of that from the mayor's office, from the Council, to actually do things to make people safer. There is not much time to waste and people are at stake. [00:38:08] Erica Barnett: And one other interesting thing that came out of this report - very briefly - was that there is also a problem with retaining people in other City departments that do a lot of important work - some of which also keeps people safe. And the problem that they cited was lack of advancement opportunities, an outdated classification system that makes it hard for people to get permanent positions and get full-time work. Those are things that the City could be focusing on, and it would take a lot of time and it's more complicated than it sounds to fix a classification system, but people are kind of feeling like they're in dead end jobs in other departments - and that is arguably as big or bigger problem than the problem of whether hiring incentives are working in the police department. So it's not just the police department that's hemorrhaging workers, it's the whole city. And I think Lisa Herbold on the Council has pointed out that we need to take a look at that too. [00:39:07] Crystal Fincher: Yeah, and the last thing I want to touch on today is a story that you covered in PubliCola - just talking about another suicide, death by suicide, at the King County Correctional Facility in downtown - occurring amidst the staffing shortage that has been talked about for a while. What happened? [00:39:30] Erica Barnett: Well, there have been four deaths this year so far in the King County Jail, and I think that some of them have been suicides, the others have been overdoses. I think it is in part a problem of the staffing shortage that we're seeing these deaths occur and not be stopped. But I also think when we are putting people in jail who are very high acuity - who have severe problems with addiction, severe behavioral health problems, all the people that frankly City Attorney Ann Davison wants to focus on throwing in jail so they can get some mysterious form of treatment that does not actually exist - this is the reality of what happens. I think people are ending up in jail who should not be in jail. I'm not speaking to the specifics of any of these cases because I don't know the specific circumstances of each of these people's lives, but my understanding is these are people who have problems that jail makes worse. And when the focus of the City is to take people with severe behavioral health conditions, severe addictions, and put them in jail to "get them off the street" - one of the results is that you're putting people in circumstances that are very, very dangerous for them. I think that is part of what's happening here, and my worry is that if the City's policy is going to be to take "prolific offenders" or "high utilizers" of the system and put them in jail to teach them a lesson and to get them off the street, we're going to see more of these incidents happening - particularly with the staffing shortage at the jail being as bad as it is. [00:41:38] Crystal Fincher: Yeah. There are currently over a hundred vacant officer positions and the president of the King County Corrections Guild just stated exactly what you said. You said it seems like the people coming through our doors are sicker than they've ever been in terms of withdrawal, mental health, and everything else in the recent past - and it's hard to meet that need. They're experiencing shortages, not just with officers, but with the jail's medical staff - and it is putting everybody at risk. And again, the point of this - seemingly - and it's being sold as, "Hey, we put people in jail, it keeps the community safer." This is being touted as an approach to help clean up our streets and keep people from committing crime and it actually does not result in that. And again, this conversation about keeping people safe is too important to continue to do things that don't result in that. We're exacerbating a shortage - they say that more corrections officers have left since the beginning of the year than the County has hired - the problem's getting worse - and we are not doing anything to address any of the problems that the people who are coming in have. And again, we don't just lock people up and throw away the key - it's unconstitutional, it is extremely expensive - we can't afford to do that. But what we are doing is undertaking the extreme expense of incarcerating people, doing nothing to treat them or to address anything that will help them get on a better path and keep the community safe, and then releasing them again. We are setting them up for failure. We are setting the community up to be victimized. And again, we need to do a better job of keeping people safe. And I hope we center more of our conversations around the need to actually keep people safe. And if our elected officials are not focused on things that are doing that and are not spending our limited resources on things that are accomplishing that, then we need to re-evaluate our elected officials. They need to re-evaluate their approach. So I thank you for having this conversation with me today, and for all of you listening to Hacks & Wonks on this Friday, April 1st, 2022. The producer of Hacks & Wonks is Lisl Stadler and assistant producer is Shannon Cheng with help from Emma Mudd. Our wonderful co-host today was Seattle political reporter and founder of PubliCola, Erica Barnett. You can find Erica on Twitter @ericacbarnett - that's Erica with a C and ending with two Ts - and on PubliCola.com, and you can buy her book Quitter: A Memoir of Drinking, Relapse, and Recovery anywhere basically. You can find me on Twitter @finchfrii, and now you can follow Hacks & Wonks on iTunes, Spotify, or wherever else to get your podcasts. Just type "Hacks and Wonks" into the search bar. Be sure to subscribe to get our Friday almost-live shows and our midweek show delivered to your podcast feed. While you're there, leave a review, it really helps us out. You could also get a full transcript of this episode and links to the resources referenced in the show at officialhacksandwonks.com and in our episode notes. Thanks for tuning in, talk to you next time.

#StoriesFromTheSouthend - This week we have BG, who grew up in Rainier Valley off of 38th & Genesee. Learn about how his life experiences as a youth on Seattle's Southend helped him find his passion for fatherhood and into him helping the youth of this generation realize their own potential.

For the last show of the year, we have the first part of a discussion with Executive Director of America Walks and former mayor of Seattle Mike McGinn about how the City's response to the recent snowstorm and Harrell's recent appointees highlight opportunities for the incoming administration to both learn from and leave behind the past as they stand up a government to lead us into 2022 and beyond.  As always, a full text transcript of the show is available below and at officialhacksandwonks.com. Find the host, Crystal Fincher on Twitter at @finchfrii and find today's co-host, Mike McGinn, at @mayormcginn. More info is available at officialhacksandwonks.com.   Resources: “Why Sweden Clears Snow-Covered Walkways Before Roads” by Angie Schmitt from Streetsblog USA: https://usa.streetsblog.org/2018/01/24/why-sweden-clears-walkways-before-roads/   Disability Rights Washington - Disability Mobility Initiative: https://www.disabilityrightswa.org/programs/disabilitymobility/   “Does Adding an Extra Driving Lane Make Traffic Worse?” by David Stockin from Drivetribe: https://drivetribe.com/p/does-adding-an-extra-driving-lane-E6FPiVJnQSCPun1-pS-Q-A?iid=Ic6o2PzdQcaGewi7L9kSbw   “The Fundamental Law of Road Congestion: Evidence from US Cities” by Gilles Duranton and Matthew A. Turner from American Economic Review 101: https://pubs.aeaweb.org/doi/pdfplus/10.1257/aer.101.6.2616   “'Zombie highways,' mass transit failures: PBS 'News Hour' takes look at Birmingham” by Bob Sims from Advance Local: https://www.al.com/spotnews/2009/08/zombie_highways_mass_transit_f.html   “Inslee's Proposed 2022 Budget Plugs Holes in Highway Megaprojects” by Ryan Packer from The Urbanist: https://www.theurbanist.org/2021/12/27/inslees-proposed-2022-budget-plugs-holes-in-highway-megaprojects/   “Seattle Mayor-elect Harrell names niece deputy mayor, lists other appointments” by Sarah Grace Taylor from The Seattle Times: https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/politics/bruce-harrell-announces-key-cabinet-members-appoints-niece-as-deputy-mayor/   “Seattle Mayor-elect Harrell appoints final deputy mayor, other leaders before taking office” by Sarah Grace Taylor from The Seattle Times: https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/politics/seattle-mayor-elect-harrell-appoints-final-deputy-mayor-other-leaders-before-taking-office/   Transcript: [00:00:00] Crystal Fincher: Welcome to Hacks & Wonks. I'm Crystal Fincher, and I'm a political consultant and your host. On this show, we talk with policy wonks and political hacks to gather insight into local politics and policy in Washington State through the lens of those doing the work with behind-the-scenes perspectives on what's happening, why it's happening, and what you can do about it. Full transcripts and resources referenced in the show are always available at officialhacksandwonks.com and in our episode notes. Today, we're continuing our Friday almost-live shows where we review the news of the week with a co-host. Welcome back to the program, friend of the show and today's co-host: activist, community leader, former mayor of Seattle, and Executive Director of America Walks - the excellent Mike McGinn. [00:00:57] Mike McGinn: I'm glad to be here, Crystal. [00:00:59] Crystal Fincher: Glad to have you here, as we close out 2021 and tiptoe gingerly into 2022 - and just wanted to talk, not just about what's happening this week, but contextualize it and what's happening through the year. And there was no one better to do that with than Mike McGinn, with so much context just in organizing and urbanism land use policy - and few things you picked up as mayor of Seattle. So this week, we are in the midst of seemingly unending snow that we're dealing with - it snowed on Christmas, it is snowing right now as we're recording on Friday morning, temperatures have not been above freezing all week, they're just supposed to get above freezing today - briefly - before we get some more snow perhaps this weekend. And so we've been blanketed with the snow, mobility has been a challenge, sidewalks have been treacherous - and please shovel your sidewalks, folks - but there's been no cohesive strategy and a ton of people haven't. Our streets have been a mess. Also, it's been freezing and dangerous for people who are unsheltered and we have an imperfect emergency response. And we've talked many times about our responsibility to keep our neighbors safe from extreme climate - heat in the summer and now freezing cold, which can be lethal if you're out there. And so as you're looking at what we're dealing with, what does it tell you about where we're at in Seattle? [00:02:50] Mike McGinn: Well, first of all, I just want to say that it goes from an old mayor to a new mayor at midnight on the 31st, or the first minute of January 1 - and I actually went outside to check the weather the second I became mayor, right? Because I was actually thinking about at the time - what would it be like to enter office if there was something happening? And that's happening right now to Bruce Harrell. So clearly the response that you see to a snowstorm is based on muscle memory and work that's done years and months in advance. So for example, I believe they're still substantially using the road clearing plan that we adopted - and I took office a year after a snowstorm that really showed some weaknesses in the snow response of the City of Seattle. And so there were a lot of big changes made after that. And we still follow that strategy. But there are things - [00:03:52] Crystal Fincher: Yeah, we lost the mayor over that snow response. [00:03:55] Mike McGinn: Yeah, that was big deal. And at the time, this City didn't really use salt, it pushed snow to the middle of the road - not to the edges. And we got a long, cold stretch so it froze in the middle so people couldn't make turns - all the streets were icy. It really had really dramatic effects on the City and the City's residents. And that was a big deal. So we changed a lot of that - the focus now is on plowing the transit routes first, we even shared online the GPS of where they were going. And we use salt because it turns out actually - all that sand has an effect too on the City's systems and storm drains. And the salt was not that big a deal, not as big a deal environmentally. So we made all those changes but it still took us a couple of snowstorms to really get it right. The very first one - there was freezing on the West Seattle Bridge and it shut down stuff. And the brine that was used on the roadways in advance of the storm wasn't powerful enough. So Bruce Harrell will be coming in and it's not like he can change all of that stuff in the past. But it's - one thing I learned though, was it's - a mayor does make a difference in the moment to moment, because there are decisions that have to be made. And we are seeing some of that right now, right? Like as we discover the City can't open up the winter shelters that it wants to open up because people are having trouble getting in to man those shelters because of the conditions. So we have an Emergency Operations Center that opens. I discovered that you want to be there before the snow starts falling, or the ice, or the wind, or whatever the issue is. And you stay there through it for a couple of reasons. One is that you might be able to help facilitate some decisions - you might be able to make a phone call to another arm of government. But I think it's also just a show of support for the City employees that are doing the work. They know it's important when the mayor is there and it matters to them. So for this to be happening during a transition, hopefully everybody is in a position to keep pushing. But this is really something that I hope Durkan and Harrell are working on because there are people, and particularly the least powerful among us, who are counting on the City to innovate and come up with different ideas and different solutions to take care of people in circumstances like this. And I remember being down at EOC, in the Emergency Operations Center, and overhearing the conversations of people on the phone who are working to try to get people to treatments they needed. And just dealing with the situations that come up - that maybe there's a City resource that can be used in that moment to help people. And you need that attention to detail and attention to the developing circumstances to be able to do that. You don't want to read about it the next day - that a bad thing happened and nobody was there to help from the City who should have been. [00:07:12] Crystal Fincher: Yeah, completely agree. And as I look at this, just looking more forward, we're in a continuing, worsening climate crisis. And we are seeing more extreme temperatures than we've seen in decades - right now on the cold side. We saw that on the hot side earlier this year. And so it seems that we should be preparing for more extreme and more prolonged weather events of all different types. And so to your point, you put in place and largely constructed a snow response strategy after the catastrophic failure that helped to lead to you - [00:07:55] Mike McGinn: 2009. Yeah. [00:07:56] Crystal Fincher: - to being in office. Yeah. And it has been updated since then, but now we're at this time and it is foreseeable that these staffing issues as we move forward are going to be - there're issues with staffing for these kinds of services when we're not facing this kind of an extreme challenge - it only gets worse when we are. How do we plan to be more resilient as we move forward? How do we plan to make sure that we have more than just a bare bones, nighttime, get out at 7:00 AM, shelter - and it's still freezing outside and we're putting people out there. How do we focus on perhaps not forcing people into congregate shelter? Are there better options that we can provide even in an emergency situation? So really there's a big opportunity for the Harrell administration, as we move forward, to update this plan and this policy and this capacity. And a lot of people would be surprised to understand that government provides a lot of services - not directly - I mean, they certainly do their share of direct services, but they contract with a lot of companies and service providers. And even what we're asking them to do is the same as it has been. And we need to talk about updating that and making sure that they have the type of capacity to respond to this and that they're prepared for a response for today and not the response of 10 or 20 or 30 years ago. Everything is demanding more updated, more relevant, responsive, resilient solutions. And I see this as a big op opportunity for the Harrell administration to take on. And one that's going to have more consequences if they don't. [00:09:42] Mike McGinn: Well, that use of the word resilient too - and it's worth looking at that because the pandemic certainly exposed every weakness in our society, and exposed the way in which inequality works at multiple levels - and who was exposed to harm because of the pandemic, whether it was the disease itself or the loss of a job or exposure to the disease, all of these things - and who didn't. It's a stress test on the system and a snowstorm is a stress test on the system too. And one of the things - you look at car commercials and they just love to show these big, robust vehicles muscling through the snow like there's some fantasy of freedom associated with that. But what we know from snowstorms, as an example, or flooding - is that it's a very fragile system - that a transportation system that relies on every individual, that they need a big vehicle to navigate the system - that system doesn't work. It doesn't take much stress to tackle that. Whereas if you have neighborhoods that are built around walkability - the ability to get down to the grocery store and pick up what you need, or get to a pharmacy, or get from your home to staff the emergency shelter. So that resiliency isn't just the walkability, but actually affordable housing throughout the City. So that the people who take care of the City can afford to live in the City and close to a bus route that might be operating - because we have enough snow plows to handle the arterials, but we don't have enough snow plows to handle every residential street. So there's all of these even more fundamental things we can do to create a resilient place. And I remember that once in a snowstorm long before I was mayor and I walked home. I walked home from downtown to Wallingford where I was living. And I felt pretty good about it - like if something went wrong, there was probably a public house along the way where I could stop in and get warm. I was going to make it and people could still have a semblance of their daily lives. Whereas the person driving out to Issaquah might have been leaving their car out by the side of the road in a snow drift, wondering what to do next and how to get home. So these are just a resiliency that filters through everything. And we should be looking at our cities when the sun is shining and the weather is great, we should be looking at our cities with, Well, how do we make it so that people can afford to live here so they can meet their daily needs? And it goes to snow clearing strategy as well. And we were talking a little bit about this before the show started. In Sweden, they went and studied and made a conclusion that they should clear the sidewalks before the roads, because the people who were using the sidewalks tended to be more women than men and tended to be on very important trips - for childcare, for getting to work and the like. And we're now developing a set of protected bike lanes around the City. And we got a little snow plowing machine for that - I don't know what they named it yet, but I forget, there was a whole naming thing going on for that - but the idea that if you had a connected network of those places, you could plow those. And that meant somebody in a wheelchair, if they could get from their front door to that lane, they could have a clear path to the neighborhood store. They wouldn't be isolated in their homes by the ice - that is what happens now to somebody who is disabled. So looking at the strategies and rules we have around snow clearing of sidewalks, how - maintenance of sidewalks. Right now, it's the job of private property owners. And we started sending out crews - we were just starting to get at this - we started sending out crews to clear the corners downtown, because the snow plows of course piled up snow at the corners. But we were sending out crews with shovels. Well, why not hire a bunch of people with shovels to go out and make sure that there's clear paths on all the curb ramps where people need them, which is a lot of the City. But these are the types of policy choices we can make about what we prioritize. And of course it's going to take money and it's going to take a different viewpoint. First, it's going to take a change of view - that maybe the person in the single-occupancy vehicle isn't the most important user of the transportation system that needs to be prioritized. It's the everyday trips that people who don't have vehicles need - center our transportation system around them, and we'll have a transportation system in which we all benefit from really great accessible neighborhoods. [00:14:46] Crystal Fincher: Yeah. I completely agree. And to your point - for me, there was a term that was used a lot in the prior federal administration - prior administrations were picking winners and losers. And really that's what we do when we talk about transit and prioritization of cars. We are really eliminating the choice for people to walk, or bike, or roll, or to do anything but drive. We've made that so inaccesible and hard for people that - if people want to drive, great, but there are so many people who dislike so many elements of driving - dealing with traffic, dealing with parking, dealing with trying to be out on these roads and can you make it up a hill or not? And just the inflexibility of the system to support cars that we continue dumping money into. And if we actually did prioritize transit choice - that hey, you know what? If you end up driving, okay. But what we're not going to do is make it impossible for you to walk, for you to ride your bike. I mean, I saw a picture online this morning of right now in the middle of the snow and someone attempting to walk on Aurora. And they're basically walking on the side of the street because the sidewalks are just snow and ice - in the middle of this extremely dangerous road when conditions are ideal. And now they're driving on an icy snowy street. And you just look at that and have a sense of impending doom and dread because you know how dangerous that is on a clear, sunny, dry day. And we are forcing people to walk in the median, we're forcing wheelchair users to roll in the street because it is just impossible to do that on a sidewalk where a sidewalk exists. [00:16:40] Mike McGinn: Yeah. If they can even make it down past the ice that's on the sidewalk outside their front door to reach that place. So yeah, we were talking about prioritization and money. I highly recommend by the way - what the State Legislature will be making decisions in the coming year about - where money should go. There's a lot of federal money heading to the states right now as part of the infrastructure bill. And I really commend to people in the state of Washington, across the state, but certainly the listeners here for Rainier Valley Radio and whoever else we've attracted to this podcast. Thank you, Crystal for your work for building and promoting this thing. The Disability Mobility Initiative is a partnership spearheaded by Disability Rights Washington, but they partnered with Front and Centered - they partnered with other advocates. And what they want to do is put the needs of non-drivers at the center of transportation policy. So that was the philosophy I was talking about earlier. Because I think a lot of our transportation, and you'll see this in advocacy organizations - there's some advocacy organizations that are like, look, the powers that be are going to build their highways. They got all the power. And our job is just to try to fit in around the cars somehow in the policy making too. Maybe we should get a little bit more. Now transportation is now the single largest source of greenhouse gas emissions in the state, in the country. It's behind this extreme weather. It's one of the things behind this extreme weather we're having. So it's a good reason to change it by itself. But how about a philosophy that instead of trying to fit in around this dangerous polluting activity, instead we said, well, how about we make it so that cars fit in around people, that we start to get the ability of people to walk to their daily needs, to walk to transit - and transit, by the way, as a middle leg of a walking trip says the Executive Director of America Walks - me. [00:18:47] Crystal Fincher: It's true. [00:18:49] Mike McGinn: It's true - mostly, mostly. I guess there's some Park and Rides out there, but it's mostly the middle leg of a walking trip. It extends how far you can walk by quite a bit, I've discovered. So why not build a whole system around that and then figure out how to fit in the vehicles around that that you still need. And that is how places were built until we abandoned the good sense of building walkable town centers and walkable business districts in order to prioritize jamming cars through them. So this is a big philosophy change and what's beautiful about the Disability Mobility Initiative is it's centering the needs of non-drivers. And again, that's great for everybody. And that's an approach that Washington state transportation advocacy is needed. And enough of, let the highway builders have their highways. Maybe we'll get a few dollars for the things we care about. Let's get the dollars in the right place to start with. [00:19:52] Crystal Fincher: Yeah. And huge point in the coming months - there's going to be a lot of decisions made on this transportation package. We do know and have a ton of data that expanding highways does not improve traffic, which is often how it's sold. And so let's actually improve people's commutes no matter how they choose to take them, which is going to take a massive rebalancing of the share of our transportation budget that we spend on cars versus the share that we spend on everything else that - that's such a large portion of our community uses. So appreciate that. [00:20:27] Mike McGinn: Nationally and locally, there's an issue. There's a phrase out there. There's something they call zombie highways. These are the highways that were drawn up in the heyday of the highway building era. And the reason they're called zombie highways is because they're still out there soaking up money for planning, and people are still trying to figure out how to raise the money to build them. 509 extension, which will - everybody goes, "Oh, great. It'll connect I-5 to that dead-end 509 by the airport." Yeah. It'll also send tens of thousands more cars a day through South Park, which wants to get rid of another highway that was built in the past that isn't so good anymore. We've got to stop funding the ideas from the 70s - 1970s - and start funding the ideas for the 2020s. And it seems like now would be a good time to think about that. [00:21:17] Crystal Fincher: Now would be an excellent time. There was a great article in The Urbanist about this, this past week, and talking about the - Inslee's proposed budget and a significant amount going to highway expansion. And even conversations within Seattle of - do we have one bridge over Montlake versus two, and relying on old projections that are no longer needed and an increasing realization that hey, we don't need what we thought was needed 30 years ago, 20 years ago. Why are we still relying on the same projections? And I recall there was a mayor around a decade ago that had several conversations about this in terms of a tunnel, and few other things, which actually turned out to be correct. So yeah. [00:22:07] Mike McGinn: Oh my God. And yeah - no - for the listeners that don't know, I thought - if you were around then, you knew. If you're new, maybe this is history. I thought we should not replace the Alaskan Way Viaduct with the tunnel highway. I thought we should invest in transit along that corridor. And there was not a single elected official in the state of Washington who would side with me on that, except for Councilmember Mike O'Brien at the time. The entire City Council, one of whom is now our mayor, thought that building a highway on the waterfront for $4 billion - and by the way, they promised at the time that then there wouldn't be a highway on the surface - and it turns out, they still need lots of lanes on the surface too is what they're saying. So we haven't let go of this magical thinking that more lanes will lead to a better transportation system, when what we know is that more lanes just leads to more vehicles and lots of other places too besides that highway. And that's a big source of the pollution we have and challenges we face. And it doesn't scale, doesn't stand up to bad weather. It doesn't scale and it's not a question of ideology. I like to say it's a question of geometry. If everybody is surrounded by a car, they don't fit in a city. You just can't fit them all. You just can't fit it all. It's just math. So be nice if we could figure that out. Yeah. [00:23:29] Crystal Fincher: Yeah. I mean, I learned a lot of lessons from you in that too. I did not start off agreeing with where you're at - I'm like, "What do you mean? Just roads and transit - that's not going to be enough." And I was wrong. Lots of people were wrong. And lots of lessons to be learned throughout that. And one of the points that you made then was just like, "Hey, these projections are all out of whack. There's no way that this works and it creates so many problems when you count on capacity, then tolling on that capacity." And then that doesn't happen. Then what? Then what happens? And then the promise of no cost overrun. But anyway, we don't need to go back there. We can do year in review, but we won't do a decade in review here. [00:24:18] Mike McGinn: There is a transition here. There is a pivot here - because one of the topics that we've talked about out is - topic of the week is there's going to be a new mayor. There's going to be a new mayor, but we're learning a lot more about his administration. And he did replace his transportation chief, and he's announced some new people he's going to come in. So the history of the past is still with us in the present. But let's talk about the present then. [00:24:45] Crystal Fincher: Well, let's talk about the present. And to your point, Harrell announced the final round of his major appointees, deputy mayors - among those that were recently announced, big deputy mayor heading intergovernmental relations, intergovernmental office relations - I forget what the exact title is - but Gael Tarleton, former port commissioner, former legislator. Gael Tarleton - background in security and issues related to Russia. And Gael was a big supporter of Sara Nelson, a supporter of Bruce Harrell - certainly an indication of the direction that is being signaled in terms of policy, I would think. [00:25:36] Mike McGinn: Well, I think there's a mixed bag of appointees. And I don't know everybody that's listed, but there are a number of people I do know. And for the one thing is - there are a lot of names, I'm not quite sure how to describe this - it's like there's some type of special LinkedIn that you have to be on in order to be hired by Murray, Durkan, or Harrell. Right? [00:26:09] Crystal Fincher: Well, let me list some of them instead of - qualifying that. In the first round, a lot of them - Monisha Harrell, who is the senior deputy mayor and shares a last name with mayor, soon-to-be mayor Bruce Harrell, because she is his niece, but has a lengthy resume of her own. And I certainly will say, have seen - certainly there are a lot of people not excited about Bruce Harrell being mayor and that has led to some justifiable critiques of who he has slated for his administration. But what I don't want to feed into is just tossing people out, or their accomplishments out - especially women of color - their accomplishments out just because they're working in this administration. I try and keep my critiques policy focused. And I don't want to suggest that Monisha Harrell is not worthy of holding the position of senior deputy mayor at all. She's a board chair of Equal Rights Washington, member of the National LGBTQ Task Force Action Fund - extremely competent. And we'll see how that manifests within this Harrell administration. Tiffany Washington is going to be the deputy mayor of housing and homelessness, the deputy mayor of external relations - is that what Gael did? Is that intergovernmental - [00:27:36] Mike McGinn: That's Gael Tarleton. That's Gael Tarleton. [00:27:38] Crystal Fincher: Okay. That was - I'm looking at one of two articles - this one's by Sarah Grace Taylor. And part two, so yes, Gael Tarleton. And then some appointees from folks who worked in Harrell's office before. So two former employees of a City Council office, Jennifer Samuels, and - let me see - Jeremy Racca. [00:28:09] Mike McGinn: Yeah. [00:28:10] Crystal Fincher: Jeremy Racca, who worked as a former LA. So it's going to be an interesting time. Kendee Yamaguchi will serve as mayor of external relations, Gael Tarleton is the interim director of the Office of Intergovernmental Relations. As we talked about last week, and you just mentioned, there's going to be a new SDOT head. So Derrick Wheeler-Smith is going to be the interim director of the Seattle Office for Civil Rights. And it's really interesting to see a number of these appointees hold the title of interim. So I don't know what that means, and if they are planning on transitioning into that role, seeking others, but there are a number who still hold the title of interim. So these could change over time, but that's who we're looking at now. And Tim Burgess - former Councilmember, former mayor Tim Burgess - is going to be influential within this administration. So certainly a lot of names that we have heard, were used to hearing from 10, 15 years ago, are now back - as recently as 5 years ago for some of them. But here we are. So certainly a shift in tone and direction from - [00:29:34] Mike McGinn: It's really interesting, because you are right to point out - there are names that are new to city government and then there are names that we have not seen before. And that's why I said, it's something of a mixed bag. And it starts one to wondering - what direction does he go? And I think that's where a lot of people are in right now - is the reading of the tea leaves, right? Like what will be Bruce Harrell's priorities as mayor? And how will he govern? And people look to appointments as part of that question. I have to say - Burgess and Tarleton both give me pause - because both of them, specifically on these issues we were just talking about, represented an older view. And the firing of Sam Zimbabwe, who's a pretty competent administrator and a professional, and was mostly under the radar during his term. He wasn't out there either upstaging the mayor or making the mayor look bad - just being a dedicated civil servant. That gave me pause about - what does it mean for policy that Sam Zimbabwe was let go when there're so many other positions to fill. Like trying to get a new transportation head while you're trying to also get a new police chief and all sorts of other positions - why take that on? And it gives me fear that what we're going to see is that somebody was complaining that maybe Sam was building too many bike lanes or something. And that was the impression I got from reading The Seattle Times article on that - that somebody in Bruce's camp - and I remember Bruce saying something to the effect of, "I'll tell you what? I'm not going to lead with bike lanes," he said, during the forum, which was kind of a peering into Bruce's soul on transportation there, for a second. And so that's bad. I think it's bad. I think it's a real challenge coming in, as mayor Harrell will be, coming in with the incumbent not going to be there. So all of the department heads and the people in city government, they didn't know who the mayor was going to be for a long time. And so - or whether they would have jobs. So in that situation, you see people leave. And I had the same experience because my predecessor lost in the primary. So everybody knew from August onwards that there would be a new mayor. And even after I took office, there were people who had applied for and received great jobs, and they'd come to me and say I'm leaving for the Obama administration or I'm leaving for a new national position. And there were about four of those. And each one of those searches is important and time-consuming and requires the mayor's personal attention because you really want good people in there. And I think that there's been a fair bit of turnover and interims. And so I think that's going to be one of the challenges for mayor Harrell - is standing up government, so to speak - not just forming his own office and how that functions, but also seeing how - getting the department heads in place to realize his vision. Circling back to Burgess and Tarleton, both of those just give me a lot of concern because I just don't think either of them - to the degree that Burgess in charge of special projects is going to have some strategic leadership in this - that just gives me concern because I saw what he prioritized and what he didn't prioritize as a City Council president. And I just hope that Bruce will be listening to some more progressive voices in his administration than Tim Burgess. [00:33:26] Crystal Fincher: Yeah, certainly - and Burgess's support and involvement in the Compassion Seattle campaign that was there to codify sweeps in the City Charter certainly gave a number of people pause. And the criticisms of progress attempting to be made in terms of the SPD and public safety in a meaningful way for everyone in the City - certainly a divergence in a lot of what has turned out to be popular opinion in the City and where Tim Burgess was at. And I think that, to me, probably more than anything symbolizes just the conversation - recalling the many conversations during your term that you had with the Council, and where the Council was at, is a very different place than where the Council is at - and by implication, where the residents of Seattle who are electing that Council, is at. The residents have made a turn in who they are electing and supporting in recalls for their Councilmembers. And so that is very different than some of the rhetoric that we've heard back when folks were in office. And certainly during this election cycle in 2021 throughout these campaigns. [00:34:49] Mike McGinn: One of the things that I admire about Bruce Harrell, and mayor Harrell in a day or two, mayor-elect now but mayor Harrell - is when Tim Burgess wanted to pass an anti-panhandling statute, it was Bruce Harrell deciding to listen to the Human Rights Commission and vote against it, that meant that that didn't become law. And another thing that - [00:35:14] Crystal Fincher: Yeah. He was the deciding vote. It really rested on where he was going to be at. [00:35:17] Mike McGinn: He kind of cracked it open too, honestly. When he said he would vote against it, that opened the path for Mike O'Brien to come in as well. And so I could veto that and not have the veto overridden on that. And he also spearheaded the effort to get - that felons didn't have to check a box saying whether or not they had been a felon previously when trying to get rental housing. And that said something about who Bruce wanted to support. I recall, late in my term, I was meeting with the Black pastors. I met regularly with them, and they were asking me a series of questions. They would ask me why had Council president Burgess not funded the Seattle Youth Violence Prevention Initiative the way I'd asked for additional funds. And I tried to explain to them about how Tim didn't think there was good enough data to support that. And they asked me about why Tim Burgess had not expanded a program for returning felons called Career Bridge. And I explained to them again that Tim didn't think there was good enough data. And then they asked why he had cut a program in Rainier Valley, just eliminated it from the budget, as the chair. And I'm sorry, I can't remember quite the name of the program, but again it was a program that worked in Rainier Beach. And I explained again - and they're all looking at me and I realized, they're actually asking me a different question. They said, "Why is that, though? Why is that?" And I answered them - because the point they were making is that, why was it the programs for poor people and Black people that were subject to this exacting scrutiny for effectiveness in the City budget, whereas other things seemed to fly through. I had a great conversation with Girmay Zahilay about the King County Council - they just walked on some type of relief for the Convention Center. He said, "Yeah, if it was a program for poor people, we have this long exacting process to decide whether or not we can afford it or whether or not it's good. But if it's for other people, if it's for the big donors, it just flies through." And this is my concern. So when I look at this new administration, I'm looking for the Bruce Harrell that stood up against the anti-panhandling statute and stood up for the rights of people returning to the community from prison, and to not fall for that. And I'm really hopeful that the idea that we can't spend public money on programs to assist people until we know they're perfect is not the voice listened to in this process as well. And I think this is going to be a really big test of the new administration because Bruce came in with a coalition that doesn't like taxes, the business community doesn't want taxes. And will he stand up to them like he stood up to them on the anti-panhandling statute. And that's the Bruce that I want to - that's the mayor I want to see in Bruce Harrell and I hope he does it. [00:38:20] Crystal Fincher: I feel the same. And to your point, in the mix of appointees, some of them certainly give me pause, others give me hope. I mean, there are certainly people who have done a lot of good work. I mean, I look at work Monisha Harrell has done, I look at work that Marco Lowe has done - I mean, the guy who wrote the book on transitions - and just very competent, and talking about the importance of these searches and getting the right people in place. As the Chief Operating Officer, just really focusing on execution within the City, which is major. You can have a great idea - Durkan had some good ideas that she was just not able to execute. And another lesson I learned during your tenure and administration was just how important the actual ability to manage - to manage people, to execute on programs and policy, and to not just set a goal, but to be able to work through the implementation of it and make sure that it actually delivers on the promise that it initially had. I think that was one of the major challenges of the Durkan administration and one that I think Harrell has the opportunity to do much better on. [00:39:37] Mike McGinn: Yeah. And I think oftentimes what's covered in the media are the disagreements in policy between the City Council and the mayor. And so we see - what's the policy on sweeps, what's the policy on police officers, or the like. But there's so many things that - it really exists in the executive branch and there's nothing the City Council can do to make the City work better - that's a management function and an executive branch function. And I think that this is a place where the City really needs to rebuild its muscle memory, to rebuild its strength on execution on a lot of things. And again, there are people in departments who I'm sure are executing great right now, but what I just saw - so much of that is dependent ultimately on getting that alignment through the department director and to the top. [00:40:42] Crystal Fincher: I always appreciate you and your insight. I always appreciate your ability to reflect and to look at what you did. And you're like, "Hey, this went really well, could have done this better." And I have certainly learned a lot from that over the years. So I thank all of you for listening to Hacks & Wonks on this Thursday, December 30th, 2021. It's December 30th, oh my gosh. The producer of Hacks & Wonks is Lisl Stadler with assistance by Shannon Cheng. And our insightful co-host today was activist, community leader, and former mayor of Seattle, and Executive Director of America Walks, Mike McGinn. You can find Mike on Twitter @mayormcginn. That's M-C-G-I-N-N. You can find me on Twitter @finchfrii, spelled F-I-N-C-H-F-R-I-I. Now you can follow Hacks & Wonks on iTunes, Spotify, or wherever else you get your podcasts. Just type "Hacks & Wonks" into the search bar, be sure to subscribe to get the full versions of our Friday almost-live shows and our midweek show delivered to your podcast feed. You can also get a full transcript of this episode and links to the resources referenced in the show at officialhacksandwonks.com and in the episode notes. Get boosted, stay away from the Omicron Rona - it's getting everybody out there - please be safe and be kind to your neighbors. And we'll see you in 2022.

This week we have Colfax from Rainier Valley, specifically 38th & Genessee. Listen to him recant his stories of growing up and being pulled into "traffic" due to peer pressure and a desire to be accepted. Learn how his mother and stepfather played a pivotal role in his life and how being incarcerated made him understand how to deal with his mental health and become a warrior. #BUILD206 #ItsALifestyle ✊

Tap in to hear REAL, RAW, and UNCUT stories from those who grew up in Southend of Seattle during the late 80's, 90's, and early 2000s. Learn about their experiences, wins, losses, and life lessons learned. This week we have BG, who grew up in Rainier Valley off of 38th & Genessee. Learn about how his life experiences as a youth on Seattle's southside helped him find his passion for fatherhood and into him helping the youth of this generation realize their own potential. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/build206/message

From the 1950s through the 1970s, blue-collar Filipino Americans, or Pinoys, lived a hardscrabble existence. Immigrant parents endured blatant racism, sporadic violence, and poverty while their U.S.-born children faced more subtle forms of racism, such as the low expectations of teachers and counselors in the public school system. In this collection of autobiographical essays, acclaimed novelist and short-story writer Peter Bacho centers the experiences of the Pinoy generation that grew up in Seattles multiethnic neighborhoods, from the Central Area to Beacon Hill to Rainier Valley. He recounts intimate moments of everyday life: fishing with marshmallows at Madison Beach, playing bruising games of basketball at Madrona Park, and celebrating with his uncles in Chinatown as hundreds of workers returned from Alaska canneries in the fall. He also relates vivid stories of defiance and activism, including resistance to the union-busting efforts of the federal government in the 1950s and organizing for decent housing and services for elders in the 1970s. Sharing a life inextricably connected to his community and the generation that came before him, this memoir is a tribute to Filipino Seattle.

We bid farewell to a pair of Rainier Valley institutions and celebrate South By Southwest by talking music before reaching the NCAA tournament conclusion of Let’s Revisit a Season and discussing the Seahawks’ latest moves in free agency. Contents sponsored … Continue reading →

0:00 - Episode Introduction1:10 - Conversation with Ijeoma Oluo 31:20 - Conclusion____________________________________________________________Ijeoma Oluo is a Seattle-based writer, speaker, and Internet Yeller.  She's the author of the New York Times Best-Seller So You Want to Talk about Race, published in January by Seal Press. Named one of the The Root's 100 Most Influential African Americans in 2017, one of the Most Influential People in Seattle by Seattle Magazine, one of the 50 Most Influential Women in Seattle by Seattle Met, and winner of the of the 2018 Feminist Humanist Award by the American Humanist Society, Oluo's work focuses primarily on issues of race and identity, feminism, social and mental health, social justice, the arts, and personal essay. Her writing has been featured in The Washington Post, NBC News, Elle Magazine, TIME, The Stranger, and the Guardian, among other outlets. ____________________________________________________________Life On The Margins is a Production of : The South Seattle Emerald  (https://southseattleemerald.com/)_____________________________________________________________Executive Producer + Host  // Marcus Harrison GreenExecutive Producer + Host // Enrique CernaAdditional Production Support Provided By // Hans Anderson & JEFFSCOTTSHAWMusic Provided By // Draze "The Hood Ain't The Same" // http://www.thedrazeexperience.com/about-draze/

2020 has changed education forever - and has exacerbated inequalities already present in our education system. In this re-broadcast of an interview with Seattle Times education reporter Dahlia Bazzaz, Crystal and Dahlia delve into how inequality in Seattle Public Schools impacts students, and provide context for our current education landscape. A full text transcript of the show is available below, and on the Hacks & Wonks blog at https://www.officialhacksandwonks.com/post/inequality-in-seattle-public-schools. Find the host, Crystal Fincher on Twitter at @finchfrii and find today's guest, Dahlia Bazzaz, at @dahliabazzaz. More info is available at officialhacksandwonks.com. Articles referenced: Reactions to Seattle schools chief Denise Juneau's resignation are mixed by Dahlia Bazzaz, Hannah Furfaro, and Joy Resmovitshttps://www.seattletimes.com/education-lab/reactions-to-seattle-schools-chief-denise-juneaus-resignation-are-mixed/  Schools confront ‘off the rails' numbers of failing grades by Carolyn Thompsonhttps://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/northwest/schools-confront-off-the-rails-numbers-of-failing-grades/   Seattle's wealth boom and disparity, as told through its public schools by Dahlia Bazzazhttps://www.seattletimes.com/education-lab/seattles-wealth-boom-and-disparity-as-told-through-its-public-schools/  Find more work by today's guest, Dahlia Bazzaz, at https://www.seattletimes.com/author/dahlia-bazzaz/ Full Transcript:   Lisl Stadler, Producer: [00:00:00] Inequality in Seattle Public Schools has been a hot topic for some time, but never more so than now. Just this week, the superintendent of Seattle Public Schools, Denise Juneau, announced her departure amid calls for her resignation from community activists claiming she has contributed to worsening inequality in Seattle Public Schools.   This happens amid the district's ongoing struggle to manage the emergency that is education during COVID-19. In this episode of Hacks and Wonks, Crystal speaks with Seattle Times education reporter, Dahlia Bazzaz, and discusses the effects of income inequality on education. When this was recorded in late 2019, prior to the pandemic, student inequality was already a problem. Now, schools face record numbers of failing grades as students struggle with distance learning, particularly low-income students, English language learners, and disabled students. Seattle Public Schools struggle with inequality is not going away. For up-to-date and more in-depth information about the Seattle education landscape from today's guest, follow her on Twitter at, @dahliabazzaz. That's @dahliabazzaz, or find her work in the Seattle Times.   Crystal Fincher: [00:01:28] Welcome to Hacks and Wonks. I'm your host, Crystal Fincher. On this show, we don't just talk politics and policy, but also how they affect our lives and shape our communities. As we dive into the backstories behind what we read in the news, we bring voices to the table that we don't hear from often enough.   Before Hacks and Wonks, I hosted the show, The Fifth Estate, which dealt with similar themes and stories. This episode was initially recorded for The Fifth Estate at KVRU 105.7 FM in the Rainier Valley in Seattle.   Public schools are involved in every issue we face as a society. If you spend a few minutes just Googling Seattle education news, you see reporters, commentators and community members struggling with issues from substance abuse to hate crimes to safely dealing with anti-vaxxers. Our education system has to deal with it all.   Some facts about Seattle Public Schools. They teach 53,627 students and it includes 104 schools with over 5,800 educators and 8,961 full-time staff. One out of every 5 SPS students come from non-English speaking backgrounds and 1 out of every 10 are English language learners. Almost 1 out of every 20 students is experiencing homelessness. That's about one per class. There are 154 countries of origin among students, speaking 155 languages and dialects.   Today, we talk to Seattle Times reporter Dahlia Bazzaz, who has written articles on almost every education issue in our area. In this conversation, we focus on the changing demographics within Seattle. Just as our city has been gentrifying, so has our school system. Where does that leave students whose families are struggling with the rising cost of living in Seattle? How do schools meet the needs of students - sometimes in the same schools whose family situations range from affluence to homelessness. This is one of many conversations we'll have about education on Hacks and Wonks as it's of such vital importance to our society.   Thank you for joining us.   Dahlia Bazzaz: [00:03:37] Thank you for having me again.   Crystal Fincher: [00:03:38] Just starting out with the composition of the district now - it has changed. Gentrification is certainly an issue. The district isn't separate from that - looking at the amount of students who are in poverty - has declined in the district. And a lot of people might just look at that and go, Hey, things are great, things are wonderful. There are fewer students in poverty. But that's not the whole story, is it?   Dahlia Bazzaz: [00:04:03] It's actually not, yeah. So I wrote a story a few days ago that charted time since 2009 and it looked at the declining poverty rate over that past decade. And over even in the last six years, the number of students receiving free and reduced lunch declined by 16%, which is pretty significant. And I got a lot of feedback when I wrote that story, about, What if it is just economic mobility? What if a bunch of students did actually rise out of poverty, because the time period does span recovery from the great recession. But when I looked at the racial demographics that have changed at the district in that timeframe, it became very clear to me that it is a result of gentrification. So that decline in the poverty rate coincides with a decline in the number of students of color in the district. And students of color make up 88% of students in poverty at Seattle Public Schools. At the same time, you also have a surge of white students, a surge of 25% in the last decade.   And so it was pretty clear to me, and it was pretty clear to some folks at the district who were talking to me when I had seen that chart - I was floored by it, although I shouldn't have been. And so, a lot of families are getting pushed out and it has to do with the rising cost of raising kids here and the rising cost of living here. So economic mobility might be some of it, but it's certainly not all of it. I would say most of it is gentrification.   Crystal Fincher: [00:05:48] Absolutely. And this has been part of a larger conversation we've been having in the cityand we've seen it ourselves. We've seen the Central District, which started out as a Black area because Blacks weren't allowed to go anywhere else, but had been known as that. And it has changed - largely because of the same types of factors that you saw in the work that you just did - where it's really an issue of displacement. We've all seen it with our own eyes. We've all seen people of color, oftentimes, being displaced further south. And a lot of areas that were traditionally, predominantly areas of color now are no longer. The district actually has ways that they can influence or manage or work within that. How have they been doing that?   Dahlia Bazzaz: [00:06:40] So there are a variety of ways that the district influences the larger gentrification of the city. And one of them is through their drawing of school boundaries. And so for the most part, these school boundaries have reinforced the divide between the North and South of the city, which is caused by these racist housing covenants. And so, one of the things that the district has tried to do - they had a five-year plan that they just approved recently, and it focuses on students farthest away from educational justice, and with a specific focus on African-American male students , 40% of whom attend schools in Southeast Seattle. So they've selected a group of about a dozen schools and they want to focus on literacy for the first year and want to pull more resources, do more community partnerships, have more culturally responsive teaching at those schools, hire more teachers of color, to focus in on the population of students of color who have, who are remaining in the city for the time being.   So I talked to a school board member, Brandon Hersey, who represents South Seattle and he works in Federal Way. He's a teacher down there and he said the issues that Seattle are dealing with are kind of interesting because Federal Way has gotten a lot of the families that Seattle has pushed out. And he said, in Federal Way, we're dealing with a lot of these issues because we have a high poverty, lots of students of color in our district. And in Seattle, the challenge there is trying to maintain that diversity in the district, and keep those students of color around and thriving. And so there's an inherent power imbalance when you have more affluence coming into the district. Because then those measures to try and maintain the diversity, and this is what district officials are telling me, are harder to defend, or they're harder to convey. And so they're trying to find ways to communicate - this focus is beneficial for the whole system.   Crystal Fincher: [00:08:56] So I mean to put it pretty bluntly, affluent white people are resistant to diversity in their schools. Because there's an association in a lot of their minds between lower quality schools and a lower quality education and the presence of people of color. It's been an issue, much like the issue of zoning overall, and more affluent, single family neighborhoods are resistant to more density and more different people being in their community. The same resistance is there in the schools that they attend and they're very vocal about that. And so there's been a large amount of affluent white people moving in who don't have diversity as a priority for their kids and their families. And it just makes addressing the issue even harder.   Dahlia Bazzaz: [00:09:55] It does. And it also, it stratifies the needs that they have to meet. One district official told me that, at the same time that we're getting a lot of affluence coming into the district, we're also seeing poor students become poorer. So there was a recent surge in homeless students being served at the district. And I wouldn't say this is a sight you would see very often because of the way that the city is stratified by race and income. But in some schools, for example, I think the example given was, it was a school in the Central Area that sort of border, I believe it's an elementary school. It has a homeless shelter nearby, and then it's also sort of in the gentrified Central District. And so you have some students, this is a school board member telling me this image, you have some students getting dropped off in front of this school in taxis and they're either homeless or they're foster kids. And then in the back parking lot, you see a Tesla. And so the spectrum of needs that the district has had to serve and concentrate on is really divided. So that makes for some interesting political divides for which schools and which areas of the district are going to get money and resources for their schools.   Crystal Fincher: [00:11:21] Right. And we've seen for a long time, this has been a long-standing discussion about the disparity in resources that schools in the South End versus schools in the North End have typically received. It's been predominantly skewed towards kids on the North End for decades. And so the district has an initiative to potentially try and do something about that and make it more equitable.   Dahlia Bazzaz: [00:11:51] Yeah, they've experimented in recent years with a sort of equity - they call it an equity lens or an equity scoring or tier. There are a lot of different, there's a lot of different terminology, but essentially what it breaks down to is that they have a list of these projects that they want to get done in the schools and it can range from maintenance to major reconstruction. Rainier Beach, for example, is due for a major renovation or new school. And so what they've started to do is look at the demographics of the schools that are on the project lists and trying to move them up. And so that's what they've tried to do recently, but there's also been criticism in the most recent round of when they were trying to decide how to spend some construction tax money. There was some criticism of their methodology for deciding that. But they're trying to address it. But there are some other issues that you can't really address with a construction levy like the disparity in teacher experience across the district.   So North End schools or schools with more affluent student bodies tend to have teachers with more experience. And that's pretty true across the country. The turnover at Title I schools, or schools with a high number of low-income students, tend to have higher turnover. Research suggests it's because it's a lack of administrative support sometimes. And so that directly affects the quality of education.   Our South End schools are offering really great programs. I don't want that to come across as those schools are of poor quality in any way, but it does create instability when you have teacher turnover at a higher rate. And then coupled with that, South End schools tend to have lower enrollment than schools in the North End, or at least that's according to what the district says. And so every year we see some sort of adjustment where, for example, a school like Rainier Beach will lose one or two instructors.   Crystal Fincher: [00:13:59] Right. And we've seen protests about that - about South End schools bearing the brunt of staff changes and that instability, because of those enrollment differences. Those enrollment differences aren't happening in a vacuum. Those are people who've been displaced, effectively, and who are no longer in the city. It's not like they just disappeared, but they can no longer afford to live there, because we've all seen what's happened with housing prices.   So when you have an area that's been disproportionately hit by increases that are unsustainable for people who live there - I mean, we're talking doubling of rents and a number of situations. And salaries and wages certainly have not doubled. And the cost of living is increasing and more than just housing costs. So they're losing students and a lot of times the more affluent people replacing them are not participating in the public school system. And so we're seeing enrollment decrease there. And all of the challenges that come with that, in terms of more instability, more inexperienced teachers, fewer resources available, fewer parents there for PTAs and fundraisers, if they're even available to do that in the first place. So a lot of the advantages that we see in some other areas of the city just don't exist there. And there really is no - there hasn't traditionally been an effort to account for that and to make that disparity lessen and look at a more equitable share of resources, but it sounds like they're actually looking at doing that now.   Dahlia Bazzaz: [00:15:52] I think as a result of focusing on African-American male students, you have to focus on South End schools. And we don't know what the result of this focus is going to be. All I have is what they're trying to do, some of the programs they have, but this is the first year of their five-year plan. So there's not really much I can report back about how successful these measures are.   Crystal Fincher: [00:16:18] You're listening to Hacks and Wonks with your host Crystal Fincher on KVRU 105.7 FM.   We're joined today by Dahlia from the Seattle Times who has done an excellent job of reporting on education here in the city and state from a variety of different angles. I encourage you to read more of her work to get a better idea of just what's going on. So we were just talking about some things that are happening in the district that they're trying to address. What else do they have going on in the district?   Dahlia Bazzaz: [00:16:56] I mean that strategic plan is essentially most of what they talk about now. I mean, that's the lens through which they're making all of their policy decisions. They say, how is this going to affect students, and this is their phrase - farthest away from educational justice. And so those initiatives cover a broad cross-section of things. And things that are identified as really important to keeping students of color engaged in the school system, things that they've failed to do thus far - getting students of color reading by third grade, having a teachers' staff that reflects the diversity of their students.   Crystal Fincher: [00:17:36] Which actually increases the academic performance of students. When they have a teacher that looks like them, they do better.   Dahlia Bazzaz: [00:17:45] Yeah. I mean, teacher expectations factor into a lot of how successful students are in the long run. Because if you have, if you have a teacher, and this is shown to be somewhat correlated with race, if you have a teacher that is, that shares your racial background, their likelihood of being referred to college or enjoying a wide variety of academic opportunities is much higher. And students of color are facing a teacher force that is largely white women.   Crystal Fincher: [00:18:18] I am the mother of a son who is now in his twenties, but certainly, what you were just talking about resonated with me and so many other parents of color in districts where, if we came upon a challenge - I mean, there's one situation I remember where my son was having a challenge in one particular subject. And so we wanted to be proactive and, Hey, it looks like he's starting to have a challenge. What can we do to - is there extra time, extra support, extra tutoring, what programming, what resources are there? And being met with almost shock that I was interested in intervening and an expectation almost that he would struggle.   I will never forget that they said, "Well, at least he's not failing." And so if it - there's a reason why I remember that clearly. And so it's - if the expectation for some kids is just not failing while other kids are being talked to about college and beyond and other opportunities, which you see filter through to programs like Running Start or advanced placement classes or the gifted programs. I know there's an impression that parents and kids get from teachers and school administration - that they're more invested in some kids, some types of kids, than they are with others.   Dahlia Bazzaz: [00:19:49] That community disenfranchisement that Seattle has dealt with is something that they want to address, that's something that they've, that's sort of their cultural responsiveness part of their strategic plan. And again, we're in the first year, I don't know how successful that is, but that's something that the district has been aware of for decades .   Crystal Fincher: [00:20:13] Well, and I will say it absolutely has been a problem for decades and major problem for decades. And it is heartening to see them attempt to tackle it, because we've certainly heard talk about the problem for a long time and ideas. But now that something is actually in place and in process, and we'll see where it leads and some parts of it may work well and other parts may not, but at least we're trying something and can retool as we go and learn lessons and make things better. But I think it is time for action in all facets of education for all kids, especially kids who need it most, whether they're immigrants, or non-English speakers, or kids of color, or foster kids, or kids from low-income households, that they are viewed as kids just the same as everyone else - full of the same kind of potential that everyone else has. And so I am happy to hear that that's happening from the district and I'm looking forward to reading your coverage on how that proceeds.   And so one thing that I just mentioned that you've written about recently is talking about how the gifted program is administered. And I guess I probably have a personal opinion on this too, as a kid who went through a gifted program. It just never actually seemed to me that it was that the kids were extraordinary.   Speaking in just my experience, I can't speak for Seattle, but they just taught in a much more relevant way and made connections that they weren't making in other ones. And I'm not saying that your kids are not gifted. There are tons of wonderfully talented kids, but I think it is interesting to consider that maybe if they looked at expanding that type of opportunity to more kids, to different types of kids, that they might potentially see the same kind of achievement by expanding, by looking beyond what they typically view as being gifted or talented or being full of potential. That that is typically looked a very specific way and has typically not looked other specific ways. And I think that's misguided and I'm happy to see that they're at least considering changing that, but it also looks like they're in the middle of that consideration and we don't know what's going to happen with that.   Dahlia Bazzaz: [00:22:47] Yeah. I mean, it's very much in flux right now. To give some folks some background, Seattle Public Schools has had a gifted program since about the 1960s. And that came with a wave of national recognition that there are some students that need to be grown and invested in and nurtured in a different way than other students. It really comes out of the space race. And so it all starts with intelligence testing. And districts like Seattle start piloting these programs where they administer IQ tests to students. And they then use a cutoff - they say 98 percentile and above get to be in this particular program. And they experiment with how to accelerate these students maybe one year or two years of instruction. And over time, and this is sort of a unique thing for Seattle, although a few other districts had tried it - in the 1970s and 80s, as the district was trying to racially integrate schools with bussing, they used gifted programs to try and attract white families to predominantly Black and Brown schools in the district because they had identified that these gifted programs were really popular with white families.   And so there's part of the history that Seattle is dealing with - it includes that sort of racial integration part of their gifted program, or the sort of roots there. And so as a result, there's the current model that Seattle Public Schools uses to deliver gifted instruction - is a cohort where students attend schools in separate classrooms. Students who are designated as gifted - in separate classes as the rest of the general school population.   So you have schools like in Washington Middle School, or Garfield High School, or Thurgood Marshall Elementary School - I'm talking about Central District and South End schools because that's where the divide becomes more obvious, but you'll have classrooms of predominantly Black and Brown students who are in the gen ed population - that's how they're referred to. And then you'll have the HCC, the highly capable cohort students who are predominantly white and Asian in these schools. And the reason I gave that history bit is that a lot of the same schools that were targeted to have gifted programs are the same schools that have these cohorts today. And they have separate classes just like that historical bussing initiative worked. And so the district has said, Okay, we're going to try to do away with these cohorts. We still have to deliver services for gifted students under state law - that's a requirement - but we want to have these gifted services delivered in a way where they're integrated with the rest of the general education population at the school. And that's caused quite a bit of uproar. There's a lot of debate about whether the cohort, these self-contained is what they call them, self-contained cohorts where all the gifted students are in one place, whether they're necessary to ensure that student's needs are met. And so a lot of the pushback has been around well, Can you still offer the same level of academic service if you get rid of this? And so that's - I think that the district believes that it's part of their plan to address students farthest away from educational justice - to remove this cohort model because it sort of steeped in that larger bussing problem.   Crystal Fincher: [00:26:41] 'Cause that's where it originated and it still looks just like that.   Dahlia Bazzaz: [00:26:44] This structure, for sure, yeah. And so that's been one of the largest debates for the district, I would say, in the last decade or so. And it's really bubbling up now and they just had a task force bring together a bunch of recommendations for how the district could reform its practices and the district is expected to issue a proposal for how to reform in the spring of next year.   Crystal Fincher: [00:27:13] Well, we will definitely be keeping our eye on that one too. And I'm sure there will be a lot of heated and colorful conversation from parents and other stakeholders involved in that. But I'm glad they're having the conversation - very happy you gave us that history, because that's important to know similar to the redlining conversation.   So many conversations that we're having in Seattle about where things originate and how they still look the same, but it's easy for a lot of people to forget how they came to be that way. So again, sincerely appreciate your work and you joining us today.   Thank you for listening to Hacks and Wonks. Thank you to KVRU 105.7 FM in Seattle, where we record this show. Our chief audio engineer is Maurice Jones Jr and our Producer is Lisl Stadler. If you want more Hacks and Wonks content, go to https://www.officialhacksandwonks.com, subscribe to Hacks and Wonks on your favorite podcatcher, or follow me on Twitter @finchfrii. Catch you on the other side.   All opinions on Hacks and Wonks represent only the opinion holder and in no way represent the opinions and beliefs of KVRU as a whole.

Join Toka as he talks with our very own, Tara, Executive Director of Rainier Valley Midwives and Co-President of the Pacific Islander Health Board of WA! This will be a facilitated Q&A where Tara will be going over her journey of being a mother, of becoming a Midwife, the opportunities afforded by this career, and the benefits it provides for greater health outcomes to our Pasifika communities collectively. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/pihb/message

This is a special edition of the podcast that was recorded on Thursday, November 5th, two days after the 2020 election. While we now know the results of the election, this conversation still provides such honest and optimistic insight shared between three well-known regional leaders. We were lucky enough to have Colleen Echohawk, Executive Director of the Chief Seattle Club; Girmay Zahilay, King County Councilmember for District 2; and Markham McIntyre, Acting Chief Executive Officer of The Seattle Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce. Spanning commerce, legislation, and Native-led human services; our guests come from a variety of backgrounds and expertise but what ties them all together is the push towards creating a more inclusive region where everyone thrives. That is the vision we need for 2021 and beyond! The trio shared their unsettled yet hopeful thoughts on the outcome of the 2020 election, the experiences and history that makes them who they are, and the exciting projects they are working on. Markham talked about Housing Connector, which bridges the space between landlords and those in need of housing. He also pitched the great work of Green Plate Special which operates in the Rainier Valley. They work with local youth and teach them how to farm, cook, and share through the power of food. Girmay spoke about the Youth Achievement Center which would provide housing and supportive services for young people in the Southend. They are currently working on a capital campaign to raise more funds and we will share more information when it comes available. The councilmember also highlighted two King County charter amendments that can reimagine how the county moves forward with public safety and makes the King County Sheriff an appointment position and not an elected one. Colleen talked about their ?al?al project to build housing in Pioneer Square. She talked about the park next to their location and how they are re-imagining from an indigenous land usage. You can follow this project on The Growing Old podcast (found on all major podcast services) and their Instagram account @GrowingOldProject. They will cover this development in their second season! She also spoke about the Equitable Recovery and Reconciliation Alliance. It’s a way to get past the lip-service of many well-intentioned white relatives but to actually follow the leadership of BIPOC peoples in a way that values that Coast Salish values of welcoming and inclusivity. This will show up on the Chief Seattle Club website in a week or two! Special thanks to Big Phony for providing music for the We Belong Here podcast. 

0:00 - Episode Introduction7:49 - Conversation with Estela Ortega & Michele Storms31:20 - Conclusion____________________________________________________________Florangela Davila has been a journalist since 1992. For 14 years she worked at The Seattle Times where she covered both news and features. She's been freelancing for KNKX since 2008, reporting and producing as well as helping coordinate the station's "Looking Back to Look Forward" documentary project. She's also a lecturer in the Department of Communication at the University of Washington. Florangela received her B.A. from U.C. Berkeley and her Master's in Journalism from Columbia University. She's been both an arts consumer and an arts practitioner for as long as she can remember. Estela Ortega is the executive director of El Centro de la Raza, an organization that works to build unity across all racial and economic sectors, to organize, empower, and defend our most vulnerable and marginalized populations. Michelle Storms is a recognized leader of established racial justice and civil rights organizations in the Pacific Northwest. A fierce advocate for civil rights and civil liberties in Washington, she has a history of building successful programs in service to civil rights, civil liberties, and civil legal aid.  She is currently the Executive Director of the ACLU of Washington  ____________________________________________________________Life On The Margins is a Production of : The South Seattle Emerald  (https://southseattleemerald.com/)_____________________________________________________________Executive Producer + Host  // Marcus Harrison GreenExecutive Producer + Host // Enrique CernaAdditional Production Support Provided By // Hans Anderson & JEFFSCOTTSHAWMusic Provided By // Draze "The Hood Ain't The Same" // http://www.thedrazeexperience.com/about-draze/ 

0:00 - Episode Introduction1:59 - Marcus Harrison Green's Personal Experience 5:43 - Conversation with Dominique Davis35:11 - Conclusion____________________________________________________________Dominique Davis is Founder and CEO of Community Passageways, where he works to improve racial parity in schools, prisons and communities. He sits on the King County Juvenile Justice Equity Steering Committee where he works with King County Superior Court judges to address racial inequity in the juvenile justice system, Our Best Advisory Council to advise the Mayor and City leaders on a long-term strategy to support young black male achievement, the Immigrant Family Institute Community Advisory Committee, and the Mayor's Youth Opportunity Initiative Justice Advisory Committee.He has previously served as Co-Director of the 180 Program, which was named 2015 Best New Nonprofit by Seattle Foundation and Seattle Met Magazine under his leadership. Dominique received the NW Justice Forum's 2017 Restorative Justice Award and was recently named one of the Most Influential Seattleites of 2017 by Seattle Magazine. He also enjoys being a coach and personal trainer in the community. www.communitypassageways.org  ____________________________________________________________Life On The Margins is a Production of : The South Seattle Emerald  (https://southseattleemerald.com/)_____________________________________________________________Executive Producer + Host  // Marcus Harrison GreenExecutive Producer + Host // Enrique CernaAdditional Production Support Provided By // Hans Anderson & JEFFSCOTTSHAWMusic Provided By // Draze "The Hood Ain't The Same" // http://www.thedrazeexperience.com/about-draze/

Listen to Ijeoma Oluo talk about the need to Defund the Seattle Police Department : HERE0:00 - Episode Introduction1:08 - Hosts Check In 14:12 - Interview with Carmen Best46:47 - Analysis with Erica C. Barnett____________________________________________________________Erica C. Barnett  is a feminist, an urbanist, and an obsessive observer of politics, transportation, and the quotidian inner workings of City Hall. She has been a writer and editor since the time of electric typewriters, is a contributing writer for the South Seatttle Emerald and has written for publications such as PubliCola, the Stranger, Seattle Weekly, Shakesville, the Austin Chronicle, and many more. Right now, she is walking around the city.    ____________________________________________________________Produced In Partnership With :Town Hall Seattle  (https://townhallseattle.org/)The South Seattle Emerald  (https://southseattleemerald.com/)_____________________________________________________________Executive Producer + Host  // Marcus Harrison GreenExecutive Producer + Host // Enrique CernaAdditional Production Support Provided By // Hans Anderson & JEFFSCOTTSHAWMusic Provided By // Draze "The Hood Ain't The Same" // http://www.thedrazeexperience.com/about-draze/

0:00 - Episode Introduction0:50 - Hosts Checking In 1:45 - Conversation with Marcus Harrison Green & Patty Murray12:28 - Host Recap15:51 - Tribute to John Lewis____________________________________________________________Patricia Lynn Murray  is an American politician serving as the senior United States Senator from Washington, since 1993. A member of the Democratic Party, Murray previously served in the Washington State Senate and is Washington's first female U.S. Senator.  ____________________________________________________________Produced In Partnership With :Town Hall Seattle  (https://townhallseattle.org/)The South Seattle Emerald  (https://southseattleemerald.com/)_____________________________________________________________Executive Producer + Host  // Marcus Harrison GreenExecutive Producer + Host // Enrique CernaAdditional Production Support Provided By // Hans Anderson & JEFFSCOTTSHAWMusic Provided By // Draze "The Hood Ain't The Same" // http://www.thedrazeexperience.com/about-draze/

Find the "LIVE" video version of this episode :  HERE0:00 - Town Hall Episode Introduction1:30 - Host Introduction7:32 - Spoken Word from Jessica Rycheal10:30 - Conversation with Dr. Julian Perez37:00 - Spoken Word from Naa Akua40:20 - Conversation with Ijeoma Oluo____________________________________________________________Jessica Rycheal is a Multi-disciplinary Storyteller and Creative Director from Macon, Georgia. Since relocating to Seattle in 2014, Jessica has carved space for herself in the pacific northwest with a decade of experience in brand strategy and design, and a blossoming presence in the fine art space.Her diverse body of work embraces vulnerability as an act of resistance. It asks us to challenge traditional notions of identity and belonging as she chronicles tales of healing, resilience, and her journey toward authentic selfhood.In 2018, her exhibition “Everyday Black,” a collection of contemporary portraits affirming the humanity and brilliance of blackness, debuted at the Northwest African-American Museum. Since then, Jessica Rycheal has appeared in the Seattle Times, NPR, City Arts Magazine, Human Condition Magazine, and featured at Seattle Art Museum.Dr. Julian Perez  has been with Sea Mar since 2007. He holds a Bachelor's degree in Zoology with a minor in Spanish from the University of Idaho, and his Doctor of Medicine degree from the University of Washington School of Medicine (2004). He completed his Family Medicine Residency with in 2007 and his Sports Medicine Fellowship in 2016 with Swedish Family Medicine at Cherry Hill, in Seattle. He is board certified in Family Medicine, Sports Medicine and Musculoskeletal Ultrasonography.Dr. Perez's philosophy of care is that health care is a human right for all. He believes that the work of primary care physicians is to ensure the health and well-being of the people of our country. He is an advocate for universal health care for all, and supports the community health center model as the instrument for achieving this goal.Dr. Perez enjoys folkloric dancing with Seattle's highly regarded professional dance group, Bailadores de Bronce. He also loves hiking, camping, road biking, international travel, ethnic festivals, gardening, and cooking.Naa Akua, was a 2019 Citizen University Poet-in-Residence, queer poet, emcee, and Gregory Award winning actor. They are a WITS writer-in-residence at Franklin High School and a co facilitator for Young Women Empowered Y-WE Lead program. Intentionality, love, and encouragement is the focus of Akua's work that can be found in tracks like “The Elements” or “Till It All Goes Away” from their mixtape Odd(s) Balance (on SoundCloud.com). Naa Akua was a cast member of Book-it Repertory Theater's adaptation of T. Geronimo Johnson's “Welcome to Braggsville”, a cast member for Theater Schmeater's production of “Welcome to Arroyo's”,  a participant of an original boilesque ballet Earth Pearl Production called “Tailfeathers”. Naa Akua's one person show, Akwaaba: Healing of A Queer Black Soul ran as part of Gay City's Mosaic program and recently Earth Pearl Collectives, Sovereign Queer Black Womyn Festival. Naa Akua has also been a cast member of the groundbreaking play “Queer. Mama, Crossroads” written by Anastacia-Reneé and directed by Anastacia-Reneé and Aviona-Rodriguez Brown, Akua has also been apart of Sound Theater's Gregory Award winning production of “Citizen, An American Lyric” written by Claudia Rankine and produced by Jay ‘O Leary. When Akua is not writing and performing they are facilitating Sound Healing sessions which focus on breathing, being in the body and meditation.Ijeoma Oluo is a Seattle-based writer, speaker, and Internet Yeller.  She's the author of the New York Times Best-Seller So You Want to Talk about Race, published in January by Seal Press. Named one of the The Root's 100 Most Influential African Americans in 2017, one of the Most Influential People in Seattle by Seattle Magazine, one of the 50 Most Influential Women in Seattle by Seattle Met, and winner of the of the 2018 Feminist Humanist Award by the American Humanist Society, Oluo's work focuses primarily on issues of race and identity, feminism, social and mental health, social justice, the arts, and personal essay. Her writing has been featured in The Washington Post, NBC News, Elle Magazine, TIME, The Stranger, and the Guardian, among other outlets. ____________________________________________________________LIVE Season Finale Produced In Partnership With :Town Hall Seattle  (https://townhallseattle.org/)The South Seattle Emerald  (https://southseattleemerald.com/)The Seattle Channel  (https://www.seattlechannel.org/)_____________________________________________________________Executive Producer + Host  // Marcus Harrison GreenExecutive Producer + Host // Enrique CernaExecutive Producer + Host // Jini PalmerAdditional Production Support Provided By // Hans Anderson & JEFFSCOTTSHAWMusic Provided By // Draze "The Hood Ain't The Same" // http://www.thedrazeexperience.com/about-draze/ 

Rick Newell is the founder of Mentoring Urban Students and Teens (MUST), a professional mentoring organization dedicated to serving young black males in Seattle, WA. MUST believes that in most cases black youth are best served by positive black role models. MUST hires and professionally trains black male college students to mentor black youth truly vulnerable to dropping out of high school and/or becoming involved with the justice system. Prior to working at MUST, Rick worked 7 years at an inner-city Boys & Girls Club after walking away from a promising career in technology. Rick and his wife, Rebecca, both work full time for MUST and live in the Rainier Valley. They have four sons and are educating their kids with a combo of public school and home school. The Newells attend Evergreen Covenant Church. Rick is also a Rotarian with the Mercer Island Rotary Club. Find out more about MUST at  www.mentoringisamust.org.

0:01 - Announcing Special Weekend Edition0:24 - Episode Introduction1:15 - Processing Together7:12 - Conversation with Kert Lin27:54 - Community Opinion by Matt Chan30:36 - Episode Recap____________________________________________________________Kert Lin  is an Seattle Public  School elementary teacher and a new father.  Matt Chan  knows that storytelling begins with the audience – an idea that has driven his 45 years of award winning success in the television industry. Chan has worked in every facet of the industry, from operating television stations to running national television series. In 1998 he started his last business Screaming Flea Productions and over 14 years grew it to national prominence. His work created hits like A&E's HOARDERS, and landed him a spot as one of the very few people of color on the Hollywood Reporter's Top 50 Reality Power Producers list. His newest passion is to give back to the community, training and educating new generations of citizen journalists and storytellers for the new world of media..   ____________________________________________________________Produced In Partnership With :Town Hall Seattle  (https://townhallseattle.org/)The South Seattle Emerald  (https://southseattleemerald.com/)_____________________________________________________________Executive Producer + Host  // Marcus Harrison GreenExecutive Producer + Host // Enrique CernaExecutive Producer + Host // Jini PalmerAdditional Production Support Provided By // Hans Anderson & JEFFSCOTTSHAWMusic Provided By // Draze "The Hood Ain't The Same" // http://www.thedrazeexperience.com/about-draze/

SEATTLE SPIRIT: Police investigating a fatal shooting in North Seattle. Seattle Police investigating a shooting on Aurora Ave North. Rainier Valley residents becoming numb to death, violence. And yet, Inslee and Heroin Dan continue to say that prisoners need to be released for their own safety. // ELECTION COLLUSION WATCH // JUST A FEW MORE THINGS

Enjoying God Help Us? Please rate and review on Apple Podcasts.  - In anticipation of the upcoming winter solstice in the northern hemisphere, I’m here with ecotheologian and spiritual guide Mary DeJong. Mary is the founder of Waymarkers, which offers guidance and support for those who are ready to respond to the call to wander into the sacred wild, seeking wisdom from our interrelated web of life through retreats, pilgrimages, one-on-one and group rewilding guidance, writing, and speaking. Mary has a master’s in theology and culture from The Seattle School of Theology and Psychology as well as post-graduate certificates in Religion and Ecology, EcoPsychology, and applied mythology. She and her family live in Seattle’s Rainier Valley in Columbia City. RECOMMENDED RESOURCES: Article by Mary on practicing biomimicry Seattle Times Hostile Waters series Praying with the Earth FIND MARY: Waymarkers.net Facebook Instagram - I’m Annie Mesaros: a theologian, writer, spiritual guide, and host of this podcast. I offer coaching and facilitation for individuals and groups that are working to transform the world for good.  Learn more and contact me at anniemesaros.com. Follow the podcast on Instagram @godhelppod.

Senator Rebecca Saldana represents the 37th District in the Rainier Valley in South Seattle. We discussed gun control legislation, as well as how we can talk across divides about reasonable gun legislation.

Rachelle Robinett is by far the most connected to plants than anyone I’ve ever met. Her understanding and obsession with herbs, diet and how they affect the body is incomparable. She is a plant-based wellness practitioner, the founder of Supernatural Café – a company dedicated to real world wellness, currently the resident herbalist at CAP Beauty in the west village (in NYC); she is Integrative Health Certified and Clinical Herbalism Certified, and is the creator of some delightful new herbal supplements called HRBLS. She has also worked with brands such as Alchemist’s Kitchen, ABC Home, Elixir Bar @ The Assemblage.In this conversation we discuss Rachelle’s journey from Seattle to New York City to work in fashion and advertising before becoming an entrepreneur committed to creating accessibility to plant & herbal life. She gives us some fantastic tips on herbs we should all be integrating into our diets. We talk about plant medicines and Rachelle shares her experience with ayahuasca ceremonies. And she also shares valuable advice for entrepreneurs. Click here to listen on iTunes - Apple PodcastsRecognitions:Plant-based wellness practitionerFounder of Supernatural Café – “a company dedicated to real world wellness”Resident Herbalist at CAP BeautyComplimentary & Integrative Health CertifiedClinical Herbalism CertifiedCreator of HRBLSTopics discussed in this conversation include: · Rachelle’s career trajectory from Rainier Valley farm to Manhattan fashion before plant-based entrepreneurship· Nutrition & Plant Chemicals as a personal practice· Food prep· Entrepreneurship as a byproduct of plant-obsession· Convergence· Rachelle’s herbalism work with brands such as Alchemist’s Kitchen, ABC Home, Elixir Bar @ The Assemblage· The balance between effectiveness of an herb vs trendiness of popular· Rachelle’s recommendations of herbs that can combat stress & anxietyo Lavendero Oat Topso Red Clover· Rachelle’s perspective of failure· Planting seeds· Work-Life Balance· Rachelle’s business as a “conscious enterprise”· HRBLS· Making taking herbs accessible· Herbs that most people could benefit from taking todayo Ashwaganda or other adaptogenso More greens for everyone!o Prebiotics§ Yuca§ Cassava§ Fibrous, starchy veggies & root herbs· Kale· Rachelle’s thoughts on the use of psychedelics and plant medicines· Rachelle’s six plant medicine ceremonies with ayahuascha & san pedro· Difference between San Pedro & Ayahuascha· Epiphanies· Rachelle’s diet· Rachelle’s personal wellness routine· Hopes for the next 5 years of the state of the world and nature· How Rachelle measures success· Valuable advice for entrepreneursBio:Rachelle Robinett is a plant-based wellness practitioner combining holistic, natural medicine with practical lifestyle work to help people find balanced, lasting health. She holds certificates in Complementary and Integrative Health, and Clinical Herbalism, and has been studying the relationship between plants and people her entire life - be that on a farm in the Pacific Northwest (where she grew up) to time with healers, specialists, and shaman in farther-away places.Rachelle is the founder of Supernatural - a company dedicated to real-world wellness - that includes an herbal cafe, a product line of plant-based remedies, ongoing workshops and events, and personal health coaching.Entrenched in the wellness world, but with an eye on the rest of the world, she brings a global perspective to individual health, and also that of businesses and brands.In addition to Supernatural, Rachelle manages the Bowery Cannabis Club with The Alchemist's Kitchen, and offers professional consulting for companies of all sizes.Specialties & Studies: Complementary & Integrative Health. Clinical Family Herbalism. Ayurveda & yoga. Herbalism & traditional medicine. Meditation Teacher trained. Plant-based nutrition. Positive psychology. Reiki I attunement. Mindfulness & minimalism. Spirituality & science.

In this first released adaptation for radio, we speak with Margaret Viggiani, longtime leader with the socialist-feminist organization Radical Women. Based in the Rainier Valley area of Seattle, Radical Woman has long made waves through agitation for increased access to women's healthcare.

Welcome to LPLE, "Let's Practice Listening in English!" Jesse talks about moving into a new house. Andrew explains states, cities, and neighborhoods in America. Join in the conversation! Follow us on Twitter and Facebook to ask us questions about English conversation and meet other English language learners all over the world. Twitter: @LPLEDialogFM Facebook: facebook.com/LPLEDialogFM TRANSCRIPT Intro [Jesse]: Hi everyone. My name is Jesse Robbins, and welcome to LPLE from Dialogue FM. We're the podcast that lets you practice listening in English. We speak English slowly and clearly so that you can follow along and understand native English speakers more easily. I'm excited to help you improve your English listening skills, as well as help you learn new vocabulary, grammar, and idioms commonly heard and conversation among native English speakers. If you want to practice listening in English, then we invite you to join our conversation. Jesse: Hi, Andrew! Andrew: Hey, Jesse. Jesse: Cool story. A couple of weeks ago, my wife and I moved into a new house. Andrew: I know! We're actually sitting in it right now. Jesse: We're actually recording this podcast on our new dining table in our new living room. It's quite nice! Andrew: It's a very nice, brand new place. Jesse: Now, we live in the Rainier Valley neighborhood. Now, for those who are unfamiliar with how geography and...what, what's a good word? Municipalities? Andrew: I would just say how cities are laid out... Jesse: How cities are laid out. Andrew: Or, how Seattle is laid out. Jesse: Right, because some cities do it differently. Andrew: Right. Jesse: One big example is New York, where they have something that I don't think any other city has in the nation, which is burrows. Andrew: Well, yes. And, I would call those neighborhoods, but the burrows are mainly-... The burrows are defined by geography, right? By the islands that make up part of New York City and also where you are in relation to the freeway and downtown, is that right? Jesse: I have no idea how burrows work, honestly... Andrew: [hahaha] Jesse: Well, skipping that for just a moment here. How Seattle works is you have the Washington State, you have counties within the state, you have cities within the counties, and then you have neighborhoods, within the cities. Andrew: That's right. Jesse: So, we live in the Rainier Valley neighborhood. The old neighborhood we lived in before was called Judkins Park. We moved from Judkins Park to the Rainier Valley. Andrew: That's interesting, actually, because when you spoke about neighborhoods I was actually thinking about, I guess, a larger version of the "neighborhood" definition. So, Seattle is broken down by different areas, which I would consider to be places like Capitol Hill, First Hill, the Central District, North Beacon Hill, and so on. What you're describing are actually smaller parts of those areas, which are the actual, I guess, communities inside those neighborhoods like Judkins or Rainier Valley, and they refer more closely to the roads and the intersections that are around the area where you live, is that right? Jesse: Yeah, that's correct. Now, originally where we lived before in Judkins Park, we were about seven minutes to 10 minutes away from Chinatown and downtown. Andrew: That's right. Jesse: Now we live five to seven minutes away from Chinatown and downtown. So, we're moving ever closer to Chinatown and downtown, without actually living inside either one of those two areas. Andrew: Yes, which is interesting because you are actually moving south, away from most of Seattle, a little ways away. Jesse: Now, we live in a house-... a style of house that's called a "townhouse." How do we describe a townhouse for people who are unfamiliar with this kind of architecture? Andrew: That's a good question. I think when people think of normal family homes in the United States, in general, they are usually a traditional structure with a sloping roof, they are usually one or two stories tall, and usually take up a lot of space on one floor with a large yard around side it--around it outside. I think I would describe a townhome as taking up much less space with much less yard, and having more floors instead so that they are about the same size inside the home, but on maybe three or four floors instead of one or two. Jesse: That's right, that's right. On our ground floor, immediately when you enter the front door there are stairs going up to the, kind of the main area the living room, the kitchen. But, also on the ground floor when you enter you have the option of going to the side of the stairs to two different bedrooms and a bathroom. Andrew: Right. Jesse: So, they're basically compressing, they're making--for maybe lack of a better word--shrinking the size of a normal house; instead of building wider they're building taller. Andrew: That's correct, yes. And, I would say that it is not--... again it is not smaller, it is just stacked differently. So, like you say, there are only two bedrooms on the ground floor, which means that the floor is smaller, but then the next floor up you have a living room and a kitchen, which in a more traditional American home might all be on the same floor. Jesse: Right, right. Are there townhouses in other states? I think that maybe townhouses are more commonly found in denser cities where land is sma-... where land is fewer. Andrew: I think land is more expensive near big cities, and that is why people choose to build taller rather than wider. Jesse: Yes. Andrew: I think traditional American cities had more space, and many of them are still like that. So, for example, in the middle of the country, in the midwest cities like St. Louis or Chicago, tend to have more space and so they have more single family homes with yards. In cities that are denser like New York or like Seattle or San Francisco, there's not as much space to have a yard and to build out, and so they build up instead, and that's why town homes have become more popular. But, they're also very nice because they are built with the newest technology. Jesse: Yes. Andrew: So, they have bigger windows, they have better insulation so they don't get as cold or as hot in the weather, and they're cheaper to run, so it costs less money to keep them warm in the winter and cool in the summer. And, they stand up to weather well, as well. Jesse: That's right. You talk about yards. Now, how do you feel about yards? Andrew: I personally don't care much for them. I don't-... Let me say that differently, I don't value them very highly because I don't spend my time out in them. I am usually out in the city, and when I want to go out into nature, I drive to the mountains and the forests nearby. So, to me the yard is pretty to look at, but it also means a lot of work. I need to mow the grass, I need to pull weeds, I need to plant flowers or a garden, and these are things that I would not want to do normally for myself. So, they are kind of a responsibility that I don't want. I like living in the city because I am close to everything that I like to do, so bars, restaurants, theater, bands, and other performances, and also to be close to my friends. And, so, I don't feel like it is as important to have an estate, a big piece of land to live on, as well. Outro [Jesse]: Thank you for listening to this episode of LPLE, Let's Practice Listening in English, from Dialog.FM. Subscribe to LPLE on iTunes to hear the latest episodes, or listen to past episodes on our website, Dialog.FM. That's d-i-a-l-o-g-dot-f-m. If you have questions or comments about English, or if you would like for us to use a word, grammar, or idiom in our conversation so you can learn how to use it correctly, we would love to hear from you on Twitter at @dialogdotfm or Facebook at facebook.com/dialogFM.

Seattle State Rep. Eric Pettigrew is an eight-year veteran lawmaker representing Washington's 37th legislative district. It's a distinctly urban district and one of the state's most diverse, stretching from Seattle's busy waterfront seaport east to the shores of Lake Washington, and south to Renton, comprising nearly a dozen separate neighborhoods (Rainier Valley, Madrona, North Beacon Hill, Rainier Beach, Mt. Baker, Leschi, Columbia City, southern Capitol Hill, Skyway and Hillman City).