Podcasts about seattle office

The Urbanist hosted a “Future of Seattle Housing” panel discussion on April 23rd, alongside Seattle YIMBY, at El Centro de la Raza in Beacon Hill. The panel was moderated by Doug Trumm, The Urbanist's publisher, and our panelists are housing leaders in the private, non-profit, and public sectors:Patrick Cobb, developer, architect, and a founding partner of Stack, a firm specializing in urban infill development.Naishin Fu, Co-Executive Director at House Our Neighbors, a nonprofit focused on expanding social housing.Michael Hubner, Long Range Planning Manager at the Seattle Office of Planning Community and Development (OPCD).Jesse Simpson, Director of Government Relations and Policy at the Housing Development Consortium of Seattle-King County and a board member at The Urbanist.The transcript was auto-generated and edited lightly for errors. Apologies for the errors that made it through.

We sat down with Davis Bae, the Managing Partner of the Seattle Office of Fisher & Phillips to talk about the immigration issue and how operators need to prepare for the foreseeable future. Is this a passing fad or the new normal? We'll discuss. And we take a few minutes to discuss a future business model that includes cloud kitchens and what Travis Kalanick of Uber fame is up to in that area. We'll talk about those issues and wrap it up with the legislative scorecard.

In this episode, Cherise is joined by Jooyeol Oh, Principal at MG2 Architects in their Seattle Office. MG2 also has offices in Portland, Irvine, Minneapolis, Washington DC, New York, and Shanghai, China. They discuss the 6 Corners Lofts Project in Chicago, IL.You can see the project here as you listen along.Located in Chicago's Portage Park, the historic Sears building at 4714 W Irving Park Road has undergone a remarkable transformation. Originally an Art Deco department store and warehouse that opened its doors in 1938, it closed in 2018, marking the end of an era. However, thanks to the visionary efforts of MG2, in collaboration with Colliers Engineering & Design and clients Novak Construction, this iconic structure has been reborn as the 6 Corners Lofts—a dynamic mixed-use development combining retail and residential spaces.If you enjoy this episode, visit arcat.com/podcast for more. If you're a frequent listener of Detailed, you might enjoy similar content at Gābl Media. Mentioned in this episode:ARCAT Detailed on Youtube

Guest: Former detective and founder of Crime Stoppers Myrle Carner on the turmoil within the Seattle Police Department. There’s been yet another child sex abuse scandal in our schools. // Guest: Sabrina Villanueva with Clise properties gives a lay of the land of the Seattle office market. // A little bit of Mariners talk.

Amazon plans to reduce its Seattle area footprint and move out of a Denny Triangle office building, as the e-commerce giant grows its presence in Bellevue. The company has let its lease expire at the Metropolitan Park North building located at 1220 Howell Street, reported the Seattle Times. Amazon had leased roughly 209,000 square feet of space at the property. The move comes as Seattle area companies continue to evaluate their office footprints amid hybrid work, with Amazon notably making the decision to resume its return-to-office mandate.

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

In this special episode, recorded live at the Face to Face 2024 Conference in New York City, Courtney J. Boddie has a panel discussion with James Miles, also known as Fresh Professor. With a rich background as an artist and educator, James brings over two decades of experience from New York City to Seattle, where he now serves as an Assistant Professor at Seattle University and Creative Economy Manager at the Seattle Office of Economic Development. In this discussion, centered on the transformative power of hip-hop in education, James reflects on his mission to change how children, particularly those who resemble him, are perceived and treated in the U.S. education system. James also notes how hip-hop culture can bridge the gap between students and curricular content, offering a relatable and engaging learning experience. James highlights the importance of teaching methods that align with how kids actually learn, being a positive influence in all educational spaces, and the crucial role of collaboration. Additionally, he pays tribute to his colleagues at the New Victory Theater in New York City, whose guidance helped shape his inclusive and inspiring approach to education.

If you're a part of the Seattle arts scene, chances are you've come across Tessa Hulls. She has a hand in many local creative communities, including Seattle Arts & Lectures (where you might have spotted her illustrations on the 2021 Summer Book Bingo Card!), the Seattle Office of Arts and Culture, and the Henry Art Museum. She's also the lead artist in the Wing Luke Museum exhibit “Nobody Lives Here,” which explores the impacts of how the I-5 construction ran right through the Chinatown International District in the 1960s. It's no surprise then that Hulls is passionate about mixing art and historical research, looking at how past events echo throughout daily relationships today. She explores these themes in her debut book, Feeding Ghosts, a graphic novel memoir that tells the story of three generations of women in her family: her Chinese grandmother Sun Yi; her mother, Rose; and herself. Sun Yi, who fled Communist China for Hong Kong, published a celebrated memoir about her persecution and survival, but then later succumbed to mental illness. Determined to face the history that shaped her family, Tessa exposes the wounds that haunt generations and the love that holds them together. Hulls is a self-proclaimed “compulsive genre-hopper,” mixing personal and political histories with travel writing and visual art. This might explain why she's so well-intertwined in Seattle's art scene, using her creativity to build community and create conversations about the impacts of our shared history. Tessa Hulls is an artist, a writer, and an adventurer. Her essays have appeared in The Washington Post, Atlas Obscura, and Adventure Journal, and her comics have been published in The Rumpus, City Arts, and SPARK. She has received grants from the Seattle Office of Arts and Culture and 4Culture, and she is a fellowship recipient from the Washington Artist Trust. Feeding Ghosts is her first book. Putsata Reang is a Cambodian-born author and a journalist whose work has appeared in The New York Times, Politico, The Guardian, Ms., The San Jose Mercury News, and The Seattle Times, among other publications. She is an alumna of residencies at Hedgebrook, the Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts, and Mineral School, and she has received fellowships from the Alicia Patterson Foundation and Jack Straw Cultural Center.   Buy the Companion Book Feeding Ghosts: A Graphic Memoir Third Place Books

On this topical show, Crystal Fincher and Executive Director of The Urbanist, Rian Watt, dig into how housing policy shapes the future vision for our communities, why the recent legislative session didn't live up to its “Year of Housing 2.0” billing, and how the Seattle Comprehensive plan falls short and can be improved. As always, a full text transcript of the show is available at officialhacksandwonks.com. Follow us on Twitter at @HacksWonks. Find the host, Crystal Fincher, on Twitter at @finchfrii and find Rian Watt at @rianwatt.   Resources  “State Legislators Push for ‘Year of Housing 2.0'” by Ryan Packer from The Urbanist   “Year of Housing 2.0 Mostly Fizzles Out at Washington Legislature” by Ryan Packer from The Urbanist   Find your Washington state legislators   Contact your Washington state legislators   “Seattle Releases Comprehensive Plan Less Ambitious Than Bellevue” by Doug Trumm from The Urbanist   “Housing Leaders Call Out Seattle's Bare Minimum Growth Proposal” by Doug Trumm from The Urbanist   “Land Use Chair Tammy Morales Takes Aim at Proposed Seattle Growth Plan” by Ryan Packer from The Urbanist   “Op-Ed: Harrell's Anemic Growth Plan Is Not ‘Space Needle Thinking'” by Tiffani McCoy, Mike Eliason and Paul Chapman for The Urbanist   “Growth Plan Falls Short of Seattle's Needs, Planning Commission Says” by Ryan Packer from The Urbanist   Complete Communities Coalition   Public participation opportunities for Seattle Comprehensive Plan | City of Seattle Office of Planning and Community Development   Find your Seattle City Councilmembers

What's Trending: a wild crime spree ended with a flaming crash into a power pole in Snohomish, the driver of a car in Cherry Hill was hit by an apparently random bullet, Seattle won't book criminals for open-air drug use despite it being a crime, and the media wants Biden's border deal to be portrayed as the best possible option. // Ben Shapiro features in a new rap song by Tom MacDonald,  and the director of the Seattle Office of Public Accountability changed findings against the SPD officer involved in the Jaahnavi Kandula crash in an effort to get him fired and no one else is reporting on it. // SNL host Colin Jost made fun of Donald Trump for using the word de-bank, even though it is a word. Maria Salazar, a representative from Florida, can't remember if she celebrated bills passing that she voted against.

guest include:Derrick Wheeler Smith, Director, Seattle Office of Civil RightsSteve Bury, Executive Director, Urban Impact in SeattleDr. Dwane Chappelle, Director of the Seattle Department of Education and Early LearningReverend Dr. Leslie D. Braxton, Pastor, New Beginnings Christian Fellowship, Kent WA and Reverend Dr. Joseph Evans, Endowed Chair, Berkeley School of Theology Linda Thompson Black, Pacific Northwest Area Development Director, United Negro College Fund (UNCF)DeiMarlon Scisney Shaude' Moore, Chair, Seattle King County Organizing Coalition Hamdi Mohamed, new President of the Seattle Port Commission  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoicesSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

guest include: Derrick Wheeler Smith, Director, Seattle Office of Civil Rights Steve Bury, Executive Director, Urban Impact in Seattle Dr. Dwane Chappelle, Director of the Seattle Department of Education and Early Learning Reverend Dr. Leslie D. Braxton, Pastor, New Beginnings Christian Fellowship, Kent WA and Reverend Dr. Joseph Evans, Endowed Chair, Berkeley School of Theology  Linda Thompson Black, Pacific Northwest Area Development Director, United Negro College Fund (UNCF) DeiMarlon Scisney  Shaude' Moore, Chair, Seattle King County Organizing Coalition  Hamdi Mohamed, new President of the Seattle Port Commission 

Derrick Wheeler Smith, Director, Seattle Office of Civil Rights Steve Bury, Executive Director, Urban Impact in Seattle Dr. Dwane Chappelle, Director of the Seattle Department of Education and Early Learning Reverend Dr. Leslie D. Braxton, Pastor, New Beginnings Christian Fellowship, Kent WA and Reverend Dr. Joseph Evans, Endowed Chair, Berkeley School of Theology Linda Thompson Black, Pacific Northwest Area Development Director, United Negro College Fund (UNCF) DeiMarlon Scisney Shaude' Moore, Chair, Seattle King County Organizing Coalition Hamdi Mohamed, new President of the Seattle Port Commission

Join our BUILD 206 Leadership Team Member, Deaunte Damper, as he sits down with Dré Franklin, Founder of BUILD 206 to talk about some of the innovative ways BUILD 206 was able to leverage the partnership with the City of Seattle Office of Labor Standards to outreach to and educate the Black community in 2023.  Connect with BUILD and Learn More: BUILD 206 IG: @build_206 Linktree: linktr.ee/build206 Web: www.build206.com/laborstandards Connect with our Host and our Guest: Deaunte Damper IG: @dampeyalife1 Dré Franklin IG: @build_206 Learn more about the City of Seattle Office of Labor Standards: FB: @SeattleLaborStandards Web: www.seattle.gov/laborstandards --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/build206/message

Join our BUILD 206 Leadership Team Member, Deaunte Damper, as he sits down with Nichele Smith, BUILD 206 Administrative Coordinator to talk about some of the resources that BUILD 206 was able to share with the Black community in 2023 as part of our partnership with the City of Seattle Office of Labor Standards.  Connect with BUILD and Learn More: BUILD 206 IG: @build_206 Linktree: linktr.ee/build206 Web: www.build206.com/laborstandards Connect with our Host and our Guest: Deaunte Dampe IG: @dampeyalife1 Nichele Smith IG: @nichele.nicole Learn more about the City of Seattle Office of Labor Standards: FB: @SeattleLaborStandards Web: www.seattle.gov/laborstandards --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/build206/message

Join our BUILD 206 Leadership Team Member, Deaunte Damper, as he sits down with Angela P. Smith, Outreach and Engagement Specialist with the City of Seattle Office of Labor Standards, to talk about a few 2023 highlights from the partnership between BUILD 206 and the City of Seattle Office of Labor Standards.  Connect with BUILD and Learn More: BUILD 206 IG: @build_206 Linktree: linktr.ee/build206 Web: www.build206.com/laborstandards Connect with our Host and our Guest: Deaunte Dampe IG: @dampeyalife1 Angela P. Smith: www.seattle.gov/laborstandards Learn more about the City of Seattle Office of Labor Standards: FB: @SeattleLaborStandards Web: www.seattle.gov/laborstandards --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/build206/message

Join our BUILD 206 Leadership Team Member, Deaunte Damper, as he sits down with Queen (she/they) a community advocate, community caseworker, community connector, child mentor, and aunt, to answer questions they have and share some of the amazing work that BUILD 206 has been doing in the Black community in partnership with the City of Seattle Office of Labor Standards. Connect with BUILD and Learn More: BUILD 206 IG: @build_206 Linktree: linktr.ee/build206 Web: www.build206.com/laborstandards Connect with our Host and our Guest: Deaunte Dampe IG: @dampeyalife1 Queen (She/They) IG: @sunflowermoonqueen  Learn more about the City of Seattle Office of Labor Standards: FB: @SeattleLaborStandards Web: www.seattle.gov/laborstandards --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/build206/message

In their latest collection of poems, Cave Canem Poetry Prize winner Brionne Janae dives into the deep, unsettled waters of intimate partner violence, queerness, grief, and survival. This event took place on July 6, 2023. “I've decided I can't trust anyone who uses darkness as a metaphor for what they fear,” poet Brionne Janae writes in this stunning new collection, in which the speaker navigates past and present traumas and interrogates familial and artistic lineages, queer relationships, positions of power, and community. Because You Were Mine is an intimate look at love, loneliness, and what it costs to survive abuse at the hands of those meant to be “protectors.” In raw, confessional, image-heavy poems, Janae explores the aftershocks of the dangerous entanglement of love and possession in parent-child relationships. Through this difficult but necessary examination, the collection speaks on behalf of children who were left or harmed as a result of the failures of their parents, their states, and their gods. Survivors, queer folks, and readers of poetry will find recognition and solace in these hard-wrought poems—poems that honor survivorship, queer love, parent wounds, trauma, and the complexities of familial blood. Get Because You Were Mine from Haymarket: https://www.haymarketbooks.org/books/... Speakers: Brionne Janae is a poet and teaching artist living in Brooklyn. They are the author of Blessed are the Peacemakers (2021), which won the 2020 Cave Canem Northwestern University Press Poetry Prize, and After Jubilee (2017). Janae is the recipient of the St. Botoloph Emerging Artist award, a Hedgebrook Alum, a proud Cave Canem Fellow, and a 2023 National Endowment of the Arts Creative Writing Fellow. Their poetry has been published in Best American Poetry (2022), Ploughshares, the American Poetry Review, the Academy of American Poets Poem-a-Day, the Sun Magazine, jubilat, and Waxwing among others. Janae is the co-host of the podcast The Slave is Gone. Off the page they go by Breezy. Amber Flame is an interdisciplinary artist whose work garnered residencies with Hedgebrook, Vermont Studio Center, and more. Her first poetry collection, Ordinary Cruelty, was published through Write Bloody Press. Flame is a recipient of Seattle Office of Arts and Culture's CityArtist grant and served as Hugo House's 2017-2019 Writer-in-Residence for Poetry. Krysten Hill is the author of How Her Spirit Got Out (Aforementioned Productions, 2016), which received the 2017 Jean Pedrick Chapbook Prize. Her work has been featured in The Academy of American Poets' Poem-a-Day Series, Poetry Magazine, PANK, Up the Staircase Quarterly, Winter Tangerine Review, and elsewhere. She is recipient of the 2016 St. Botolph Club Foundation Emerging Artist Award, 2020 Mass Cultural Council Poetry Fellowship, and 2023 Vermont Studio Center Residency. JR Mahung is a Belizean-American poet from the South Side of Chicago and one half of the Poetry duo Black Plantains with Malcolm Friend. They teach, write, and study in Amherst, MA. JR is a 2016 Pushcart Prize nominee, a 2017 Emerging Poet's Incubator Fellow, and the 2018 Individual World Poetry Slam representative for the Boston Poetry Slam. Tweet them about rice and beans @jr_mahung. Cynthia Manick is the author of No Sweet Without Brine, editor of The Future of Black: Afrofuturism, Black Comics, and Superhero Poetry, winner of the Lascaux Prize in Collected Poetry, and author of Blue Hallelujahs. She has received fellowships from Cave Canem, Hedgebrook, MacDowell Colony, and Château de la Napoule among other foundations. Watch the live event recording: https://youtube.com/live/oQzdrRc6y7k Buy books from Haymarket: www.haymarketbooks.org Follow us on Soundcloud: soundcloud.com/haymarketbooks

Bill Radke discusses the week's news with Seattle Times Claudia Rowe, Puget Sound Business Journal's Alex Halverson, and Seattle Met's Allison Williams.We can only make Week in Review because listeners support us. You have the power! Make the show happen by making a gift to KUOW: https://www.kuow.org/donate/weekinreview

In this special encore edition of Making Contact we present “Saltwater Soundwalk”: Indigenous Audio Tour of the Seattle Coast. Produced by Jenny Asarnow and Rachel Lam, this rhythmic, watery audio experience, streams of stories that ebb and flow, intermixing English with Coast Salish languages. Indigenous Coast Salish peoples continue to steward this land and preserve its language, despite settler colonialism, industrialization and gentrification. Part story, part sound collage, this piece is scored entirely with the sounds of the waters and animals who live in and around the Salish Sea.  Like this program? Please show us the love. Click here: http://bit.ly/3LYyl0R and support our non-profit journalism. Thanks! Featuring:  Voices in order of appearance: Water at Don Armeni Boat Ramp Randi Purser Smith (Suquamish) Archie Cantrell (Puyallup) Southern Resident Orcas Plainfin Midshipman Fish Ken Workman (Duwamish) Michelle Myles (Tulalip) LaDean Johnson (Skokomish) Owen Oliver (Quinault/Isleta Pueblo) RYAN! Feddersen (Colville) Warren King George (Muckleshoot) Lydia Sigo (Suquamish) Water at Gas Works Park, Lake Union Water at Kayak Point Regional County Park Birds and Water at Puyallup River Eric Autry Birds and Water at Erlands Point Water in Pacific Ocean, La Push Birds and water at Potlatch State Park, Hood Canal Jeanne Hyde Joseph Sisnero  Produced by: Rachel Lam (Anigiduwagi enrolled Cherokee Nation) and Jenny Asarnow Special Thanks: Commissioned with SPU 1% for Art Funds. Administered by the Seattle Office of Arts and Culture. City of Seattle, Bruce Harrell, Mayor. This episode of Making Contact was supported in part by a Moral Courage grant from the Satterberg Foundation. Credits: Local artists and producers, Rachel Lam (Anigiduwagi enrolled Cherokee Nation) and Jenny Asarnow produced this work as part of FLOW: Art Along the Ship Canal, a commission from Seattle Public Utilities in partnership with the Office of Arts & Culture. Making Contact Staff: Jina Chung, Executive Director; Interim Senior Producer, Jessica Partnow. Producers: Anita Johnson; Amy Gastelum; Lucy Kang; and Salima Hamirani. Web Updates: Sabine Blazin. Music: Last Kiss - Magnus Moone Audiobinger - Enchanted Forest  Learn More:  Seattle Times - https://www.seattletimes.com/entertainment/how-you-can-explore-seattles-waterways-with-saltwater-soundwalk/ Art Beat Blog - https://artbeat.seattle.gov/2022/08/25/new-podcast-saltwater-soundwalk-highlights-the-people-land-and-water-of-seattle/ Saltwater Soundwalk - https://saltwater-soundwalk.simplecast.com/ Making Contact is a 29-minute weekly program committed to investigative journalism and in-depth critical analysis that goes beyond the breaking news. On the web at www.radioproject.org.

The Seattle Office of Police Accountability is investigating footage of a police officer who made light of a pedestrian who was struck and killed by a Seattle police vehicle in January. The Seattle Police Department released footage showing Seattle Police Officers Guild Vice President Daniel Auderer on a phone call, reportedly with Seattle Police Officers Guild President Mike Solan, on Jan. 23. That night, Jaahnavi Kandula, 23, was hit and killed by a marked Seattle police vehicle going 74 mph in an intersection. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/washington-in-focus/support

This is a story about the way we make a statement. Alice Wong, a Chinese-American disability activist, came into her own as a public personality through creating and hosting a podcast on disabled voices. Her status as a person with a disability in an ableist world gave her access to a world of perspectives and voices that we don't usually hear on public radio. And she prioritized putting disabled voices on the air. But losing her own voice and replacing it with an app forced her to reckon with a new relationship to voice. Related links:Disability Visibility ProjectDisability Visibility PodcastYear of the Tiger by Alice WongResistance and Hope: Crip Wisdom for the People, edited by Alice WongWe can only make Ten Thousand Things because listeners support us. Make the show happen by making a gift to KUOW.And we want to hear from you! Leave us feedback online.Ten Thousand Things is produced by KUOW in Seattle. Our host, writer, and creator is Shin Yu Pai. Whitney Henry-Lester produced this episode. Jim Gates is our editor. Tomo Nakayama wrote our theme music. Additional music in this episode by Jaylon Ashaun and Stan Forebee.Search for Ten Thousand Things in your podcast app!Partial funding of Ten Thousand Things was made possible by the Seattle Office of Arts and Culture Hope Corps Grant, a recovery funded program of the National Endowment for the Arts, plus support from The Windrose Fund.

Anti-Asian hate crimes spiked during the Covid-19 pandemic. And then the Atlanta spa shooting scarred a community already suffering.But Kae-Lin Wang turned the Atlanta shooting's aftermath into an opportunity for healing. And she used bikes to do it.Today, Ampersand Bikes Club is still going strong. It's co-organized and co-run by some of its 100+ community members.In this episode, we hear from Kae-Lin and Andrew Chin about how a bicycle might provide strength, joy, and a way to create a protected space. And how protecting that community space is not always easy.Related Links: Ride with Ampersand Bikes Club!Ampersand Bikes Club at Seattle Parks FoundationBike Works and Northstar Cycling and Peace Peloton Seattle area Bike mapWe can only make Ten Thousand Things because listeners support us. Make the show happen by making a gift to KUOW.And we want to hear from you! Leave us feedback online.Ten Thousand Things is produced by KUOW in Seattle. Our host, writer, and creator is Shin Yu Pai. Whitney Henry-Lester produced this episode. Jim Gates is our editor. Tomo Nakayama wrote our theme music. Additional music in this episode by Ross Christopher and 12 Palms. Special thanks to ABC, Shannon, Sammy Vo, Annie Sing and Alan Zhang for their contributions!Search for Ten Thousand Things in your podcast app!Partial funding of Ten Thousand Things was made possible by the Seattle Office of Arts and Culture Hope Corps Grant, a recovery funded program of the National Endowment for the Arts, plus support from The Windrose Fund.

Tamara Lewis, a partner in our Seattle office, spent 10 years in our Boston office before heading to Seattle to become one of the office's founding partners in 2018. As part of our special edition series, Tamara discusses how Bain approaches entering new markets, innovation in Seattle during the early days of the firm's presence in the city, and her experience as an intrapreneur building Bain's Seattle office.

This week, the city concluded a design competition, in which architects submitted proposals to convert specific buildings.

Shawn Wong discovered the first Japanese American novel, No-No Boy, at a used bookstore for 50 cents, after being told by his English professors that Asian American literature didn't exist. He sought out the author, John Okada, and he fought to have the book republished and distributed far and wide, to unearth the legacy of Asian American writers. But all the mainstream publishers rejected it. So Shawn started to print, distribute, and sell the novel himself with friends,often from the trunk of his car. The Asian American community turned up, ordering books by mail, telling their friends, and sending checks with handwritten letters- a testament to a generation hungry for their own stories.Correction, 10:30 a.m., 6/6/2023: The audio version of this story misstates the name of the protagonist in No-No Boy. The character's name is Ichiro Yamada.Related Links: Shawn WongBook notes: A talk with UW English professor, author Shawn Wong about his UW Press book series for Asian American authorsRelated reading:Aiiieeeee! An Anthology of Asian-American Writers by Frank Chin, Jeffery Paul Chan, Lawson Fusao Inada, and Shawn WongToshio Mori's Yokohama California was Ahead of its Time via International ExaminerHisaye YamamotoWakako YamauchiNisei Daughter by Monica SoneEat a Bowl of Tea by Louis ChuJanice MirikitaniFrontiers of Love by Diana ChangAmerica is in the Heart by Carlos BulosanUncle Rico's Encore: Mostly True Stories of Filipino Seattle by Peter BachoDancer Dawkins and the California Kid by Willyce KimPremonitions: The Kaya Anthology of New Asian North American Poetry edited by Walter LewPinoy Poetics: A Collection of Autobiographical and Critical Essays on Filipino and Filipino American Poetics edited by Nick CarboThe World I Leave You: Asian American Poets on Faith & Spirit edited by Leah Silvieus and Lee HerrickWe can only make Ten Thousand Things because listeners support us. Make the show happen by making a gift to KUOW.And we want to hear from you! Leave us feedback online.Ten Thousand Things is produced by KUOW in Seattle. Our host, writer, and creator is Shin Yu Pai. Whitney Henry-Lester produced this episode. Jim Gates is our editor. Tomo Nakayama wrote our theme music. Additional music in this episode by Taika. Search for Ten Thousand Things in your podcast app!Partial funding of Ten Thousand Things was made possible by the Seattle Office of Arts and Culture Hope Corps Grant, a recovery funded program of the National Endowment for the Arts, plus support from The Windrose Fund.

During the mizu kuyo ritual for pregnancy loss, a small Jizo Bodhisattva statue enshrines ceremonial remains of a lost child.Following Shin Yu's miscarriage in 2012, she had a mizu kuyo ceremony to process her grief. Miscarriage is a socially taboo topic that many people have difficulty talking about. It's often laden with grief, shame, and self-blame and is a loss that has not been very normalized in public discourse. Through Shin Yu's personal story this episode shines a light on the silent subject of miscarriage and how the Jizo Bodhisattva can provide comfort to grieving parents.Related links:Adopting a Buddhist Ritual to Mourn Miscarraige, Abortion via NPRWater Returning to Water: A Buddhist Ritual Brings Release by Shin Yu Pai Splitting the Milk, a poem by Shin Yu PaiWe can only make Ten Thousand Things because listeners support us. Make the show happen by making a gift to KUOW.And we want to hear from you! Leave us feedback online.Ten Thousand Things is produced by KUOW in Seattle. Our host, writer, and creator is Shin Yu Pai. Whitney Henry-Lester produced this episode. Jim Gates is our editor. Tomo Nakayama wrote our theme music. Additional music in this episode by inola and The Field Tapes. Search for Ten Thousand Things in your podcast app!Partial funding of Ten Thousand Things was made possible by the Seattle Office of Arts and Culture Hope Corps Grant, a recovery funded program of the National Endowment for the Arts, plus support from The Windrose Fund.

Dylan Tomine has a passion for steelhead trout. Or an obsession. Or an addiction. His steelhead passion has brought him close to beautiful places, driven him far from stability, and lost him some loving relationships.This is a story about how an obsession can take priority over everything. How it might provide both purpose and isolation. And how it isn't guaranteed to last forever.Related LinksDylan TomineWild Fish ConservancyWild Steelhead CoalitionWe can only make Ten Thousand Things because listeners support us. Make the show happen by making a gift to KUOW.And we want to hear from you! Leave us feedback here.Ten Thousand Things is produced by KUOW in Seattle. Our host, writer, and creator is Shin Yu Pai. Whitney Henry-Lester produced this episode. Jim Gates is our editor. Tomo Nakayama wrote our theme music. Additional music in this episode by Tim Halperin, 12 Palms, and cloudcrush.Search for Ten Thousand Things in your podcast app!Partial funding of Ten Thousand Things was made possible by the Seattle Office of Arts and Culture Hope Corps Grant, a recovery funded program of the National Endowment for the Arts, plus support from The Windrose Fund.

On the eve of selling her family's house, Donna Miscolta's daughter had a special request: Go to the stairwell and pull back the loose board on the bottom step. There, Donna found a box of treasures that 9-year-old Ana Miscolta Cameron had hidden for future children living in the house. Rediscovering this time capsule allowed Donna and Ana to revisit memories from the past, hopes for the future, and where mother and daughter diverge and meet in the middle. Related Links: Donna's Blog Post about the time capsuleTen Thousand Things is produced by KUOW in Seattle. Our host, writer, and creator is Shin Yu Pai. Whitney Henry-Lester produced this episode. Jim Gates is our editor. Tomo Nakayama wrote our theme music. Additional music in this episode by coldbrew, Jaylon Ashaun, and Gracie and Rachel.Search for Ten Thousand Things in your podcast app!Partial funding of Ten Thousand Things was made possible by the Seattle Office of Arts and Culture Hope Corps Grant, a recovery funded program of the National Endowment for the Arts, plus support from The Windrose Fund.And of course, we don't exist without listeners like you. Support Ten Thousand Things by donating to KUOW.

When we come into this world we are given a name. It is etched in ink on our birth certificate, pasted onto our cubbies in pre-school and signed onto paper to acknowledge our union with a beloved. A name has power. A name is an object that defines who we are. But what if our name is wrong? Poet, educator, and cultural worker Ebo Barton tells us a story about the power of names and their journey to change their name and reclaim their true identity.Related Links: Ebo BartonEbo Barton performs Freedom, Cut Me Loose Are you looking for another podcast that explores deeply personal and totally factual conversations about race, identity, and culture? Then check out Dear White Women. Its mission is to help more white women use their privilege to uproot systemic racism.We can only make Ten Thousand Things because listeners support us. Make the show happen by making a gift to KUOW.And we want to hear from you! Leave us feedback online.Ten Thousand Things is produced by KUOW in Seattle. Our host, writer, and creator is Shin Yu Pai. Whitney Henry-Lester produced this episode. Jim Gates is our editor. Tomo Nakayama wrote our theme music. Additional music in this episode by coldbrew, Jaylon Ashaun, and Gracie and Rachel.Search for Ten Thousand Things in your podcast app!Partial funding of The Blue Suit was made possible by the Seattle Office of Arts and Culture Hope Corps Grant, a recovery funded program of the National Endowment for the Arts, plus support from The Windrose Fund.

The guest for this podcast is Jim Mullen, a long-time emergency manager who led the Seattle Office of Emergency Management for 12 years before spending eight years as the Washington State Emergency Management Director…and also being selected by his peers to be the National Emergency Management Association (NEMA) President, that ended up being a two-year term. In this podcast we discuss a wide range of emergency management topics, from disaster exercises, the need for disaster recovery planning, to where is the best location for the emergency management function in government. Today Jim has a monthly column, Emergency Management, Once Removed  You will notice I didn't call him an “old goat” but a Greatest OF All Time “GOAT.”  Merit is a first-of-its-kind, all-hazards, digital credentialing platform that equips emergency responders with innovative tools to securely manage their personnel on-site, no matter the situation. Merit's platform is relied on in mission-critical situations such as the Surfside building collapse and at secure Health and Human Service facilities and is trusted by a growing network of thousands of partners.Eric Holdeman is a professional emergency manager who is passionate about providing information that can help families, businesses & governments become better prepared for disasters of all types. Hear first hand expert insights from Eric on his Podcast, Blog & EricHoldeman.com.

4pm - Amazon pulling out of downtown Seattle office tower near HQ // Report: Regal Meridian 16 movie theater in downtown Seattle to close // Don Lemon responds to Colbert's dig at his hoodie-suit combo // ​​The Sundance Film Festival Loyalty Oath  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

5pm - GUEST Jay Withey: The Impossible Decisions That Faced Those Trapped in the Buffalo Blizzard // Twitter closes Seattle office, facing eviction, reports say // King County tech worker arrested for ‘Office Space'-inspired felony theft // Bill Cosby Plans to Tour in 2023See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

How much does the general public really trust tech? Despite increased scrutiny and critique of digital platforms, renowned tech policy scholar Orly Lobel defends digital technology, including AI, as a powerful tool we can harness to achieve equality and a better future. Lobel recognizes the criticism of big data and automation, and she does not refute the many challenges that technology presents — but at the same time, Lobel encourages us to improve it. We cannot stop technological development, Lobel argues, but we can direct its course according to our most fundamental values. In The Equality Machine: Harnessing Digital Technology for a Brighter, More Inclusive Future, Lobel presents evidence that digital technology frequently has a comparative advantage over humans in detecting discrimination, correcting historical exclusions, subverting long-standing stereotypes, and addressing some of the world's complex problems: climate, poverty, injustice, literacy, accessibility, speech, health, and safety. Lobel offers insights in each chapter that tackle everything from labor markets to dating markets, revealing just how much of our lives can be changed — and in her view, improved — via technology. Through analysis and storytelling, The Equality Machine promises to add to the robust, ongoing debate about technology and serves as a call to restore human agency over our own values. Orly Lobel is the Warren Distinguished Professor of Law and Director of the Center for Employment and Labor Policy at the University of San Diego. She is the recipient of prestigious research grants, member of the American Law Institute, a former Israeli military data analyst and Supreme Court clerk, and regularly consults governments and industry on law and technology. An award-winning writer, she is the author of You Don't Own Me and Talent Wants to Be Free. Beverly Aarons is a writer, artist, and game developer. She works across disciplines exploring the intersections of history, hidden current realities, and imagined future worlds. She is the winner of the Guy A. Hanks & Marvin H. Miller Screenwriting Award, Community 4Culture Fellowship, Artist Trust GAP Award, 4Culture Creative Consultancies Award, and the Seattle Office of Arts & Culture smART Ventures grant. She's currently publishing in-depth artist profiles at Artists Up Close on Substack. The Equality Machine: Harnessing Digital Technology for a Brighter, More Inclusive Future (Hardcover) Elliott Bay Books

Thursday, October 27 on Urban Forum Northwest: Congresswoman Brenda Lawrence (D) Michigan-14 Eric McCurdy, Associate Vice President and Director of Athletics at California State University-Dominguez Hills Reverend Dr. Leslie Braxton, Pastor, New Beginnings Christian Fellowship invites you to the Church's Scholarship Banquet Karissa Braxton, Director of Communications and Strategy, City of Seattle Office of Economic Development Peter Gishuru, President & CEO, African Chamber of Commerce of the Pacific Northwest Urban Forum Northwest streams live at www.1150kknw.com. Check us out at www.urbanforumnw.com for archived programs and relevant information. Like us on facebook. Twitter@Eddie_Rye. This program will also air on Saturday 7:00-8:00 am (PDT).

We are joined by Jason Okrent who discusses how he helps people with wealth, both in their investment strategies and also by helping them think through how to give back to the community through donations. Jason shares the tips and tricks that his firm offers for donors to be able to give effectively.Episode Highlights:Defining your valuesConnecting your values to causes Create better outcomes.Track your progress.Inform your loved ones about your plansJason Okrent Bio:Jason Okrent is a Vice President and Financial Advisor in the Seattle office of Bernstein Private Wealth Management responsible for leading our Foundations and Institutions advisory practice in the northwest region. He provides wealth planning advice to individuals and families as well as trusts, estates, foundations, and tax-exempt organizations. Jason is a board member for the Jewish Community Foundation of Greater Seattle and at Hillel of the University of Washington. Prior to joining the firm, Jason served as director of investor sales at Integral Development, a start-up specializing in foreign exchange and digital asset trading. Jason holds a BA in business administration from the University of Washington and is a Chartered Financial Analyst.Links referenced in this interviewBernstein Private Wealth Management: https://www.bernstein.com/LinkedIn: http://linkedin.com/in/jokrentIf you enjoyed this episode, listen to these as well:#98 Strategies to Support Entrepreneurship in Your Giving Strategy, with Conor Carmody Program Director @The Innovation Exchange Furthr & Chief Commercial Officer (COO) for Airify Technology#76 The Creation of a Giving Circle to Support Survivor-Driven Change with Ken Kroner, Principal, Kroner Family Foundation#73 Sybil Speaks: It Takes Time to Make a DifferenceCrack the Code: Sybil's Successful Guide to PhilanthropyBecome even better at what you do as Sybil teaches you the strategies as well as the tools, you'll need to avoid mistakes and make a career out of philanthropy through my new course, Crack the Code!In this new course, you'll gain access to beautifully animated and filmed engaging videos, and many more! Link for the wait list for the Philanthropy Accelerator https://www.doyourgood.com/Philanthropy-Accelerator-Mastermind-WaitlistLink to the nonprofit email sign-up to connect https://www.doyourgood.com/ticket-to-fundraisingCheck out her website with all the latest opportunities to learn from Sybil at www.doyourgood.com. Connect with Do Your GoodFacebook @doyourgoodInstagram @doyourgoodWould you like to talk with Sybil directly?Send in your inquiries through her website www.doyourgood.com, or you can email her directly at sybil@doyourgood.com!

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.

Rhythm & News interview with Chera Amlag from the Seattle Office of Economic Development about their Tenant Improvement Fund, which grants up to $100,000 to small businesses to improve their commercial space. Interview by Chris B. Bennett

First: We've got the latest on the economic news of the week. To sort out the Fed's interest rate hike, corporate earnings, and the latest GDP report showing another quarter of shrinkage, we phone a friend and learn what all these money moves mean.  Next: Lawmakers in Indiana introduced a near total abortion ban, kicking off a special legislative session this week. Skimm This spoke to VP Kamala Harris in Indianapolis to learn about the federal government's response since Roe fell — and what we can expect to see going forward.  ICYMI: It's too darn hot. With extreme heat on the rise worldwide, many cities are scrambling to figure out how to handle it. We talk to an emergency planning coordinator from Seattle who tells us how her city plans to beat the heat. PS: Here's how you can stay safe and cool during a heatwave. Finally: From Yosemite to Yellowstone, national park visits boomed during the pandemic as people looked for safe-ish ways to go on vacay. But with parks overcrowded and severe weather taking a toll, one travel expert shares alternative places to go that are just as Instagram-worthy, if not more.  PS: Calling all Skimm This listeners. Have questions about the news, work, or life? Call and leave us a voicemail at (929) 266-4381. We can't wait to hear from you. On this episode, you'll hear from:  Katheryn Edwards, economist, RAND Corporation Kamala Harris, Vice President of the United States Lucia Schmidt, emergency planning coordinator, Seattle Office of Emergency Management Shannon Lowery, content manager, Visit USA Parks Want more Skimm?  Sign up for our free daily newsletter Email us your questions about what's going on in the news right now  Subscribe and leave us a review wherever you get your podcasts Skimm'd by Alex Carr, Will Livingston, and Blake Lew-Merwin. Engineered by Andrew Callaway and Elie McAfee-Hahn. TheSkimm's head of audio is Graelyn Brashear.

The fight for racial justice within the U.S. criminal legal system — and the call for its reform — has intensified in recent years. Studies show that Black Americans are almost five times as likely to be incarcerated than whites. Can our society be transformed? The story of the formerly incarcerated gang founder and leader, Antong Lucky, reveals how peace, nonviolence, and societal change are possible. The child of an incarcerated father, Lucky grew up in a poor, crime-ridden neighborhood in East Dallas, Texas, a city experiencing an alarming rise in crack cocaine and heroin use in the 1980s and 1990s. Despite high grades and a passion for learning, Lucky was introduced to gang life. Eventually, Lucky formed the Dallas Bloods gang and played a part in the escalating gun violence and illegal drugs until he was ultimately arrested and sentenced to seven years in prison. While incarcerated, Lucky turned away from his gang affiliation and quickly rose to become one of the most respected and sought-after mentors in prison. After his early release, he returned to his old neighborhood and became a leading activist, uniting people in challenging systemic issues in U.S. communities. Now chronicled in his new book, A Redemptive Path Forward, Lucky investigates the possibility of prison abolition and the path to societal changes. While the harrowing account of his transformation is moving, Lucky's frank discussion about racial inequities is also a call to action. His experience adds to our public examination of the future for the U.S. criminal legal system. Antong Lucky is an activist, advocate, and public speaker concentrating in the areas of mentoring Black men and boys, bridging the gap between community and police, and developing and launching violence reduction strategies, criminal justice reform, and reentry initiatives for formerly incarcerated people. Beverly Aarons is a writer, artist, and game developer. She works across disciplines exploring the intersections of history, hidden current realities, and imagined future worlds. She specializes in making unseen perspectives visible and aims to infuse all of her creative work with a deep sense of emotionality. She's won the Guy A. Hanks, Marvin H. Miller Screenwriting Award, Community 4Culture Fellowship, Artist Trust GAP Award, 4Culture Creative Consultancies Award, and the Seattle Office of Arts & Culture smART Ventures grant.  She's currently publishing in-depth artist profiles at Artists Up Close on Substack. Buy the Book: A Redemptive Path Forward: From Incarceration to a Life of Activism (Hardcover) from Third Place Books Presented by Town Hall Seattle. To become a member or make a donation click here. 

On this midweek show, Crystal chats with Emily Alvarado about her campaign for State Representative in the 34th Legislative District - why she decided to run, how the last legislative session went, and her thoughts on how to address housing affordability and zoning, Washington's regressive tax structure, homelessness, climate change, public safety, drug decriminalization, COVID response and recovery. As always, a full text transcript of the show is available below and at officialhacksandwonks.com. Find the host, Crystal, on Twitter at @finchfrii and find Emily at https://www.facebook.com/emilyforwa.   Resources Campaign Website - Emily Alvarado: https://emilyforwa.com/   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, I'm very pleased to welcome to the show - Emily Alvarado, who is a candidate for the 34th District State Representative seat in Position 1 - welcome to the show. [00:00:48] Emily Alvarado: Thank you so much, Crystal. It's good to be here. [00:00:51] Crystal Fincher: Good to be here, great to meet you. I wanted to start off just talking about what made you choose to run? [00:00:59] Emily Alvarado: Yeah, well, I'm running for the State Legislature because I believe that government has an obligation to meet the basic needs of all people, and because I've spent my entire career in public service fighting for just that. I'm a lawyer - I went to the University of Washington School of Law, where I was a Gates Public Service Law Scholar. I'm a Latina, raised in a multicultural household, and I'm committed to advancing racial equity and defending civil rights. I'm the child of public school educators and the parent of two kids in Seattle Public Schools, and I care about the future of our public education and the future of our environment. I'm also running because housing is a human right - everyone deserves access to safe, affordable housing, and I'll bring over a decade of experience to the Legislature to address housing affordability. [00:02:00] Crystal Fincher: Well, that is a huge thing - it's a crisis, as you are very aware of. So what should we be doing to make housing affordable, and is part of the solution increasing density in single-family neighborhoods? [00:02:16] Emily Alvarado: Yeah, thanks for that question. Clearly, our housing system is broken and needs to be repaired. We do not have enough housing choices throughout the state. We have a shortage of hundreds of thousands of homes to meet the needs of people, so we do need to pursue options to create more housing choices in all communities. We need duplexes, triplexes, ADUs in all communities - so we have options for multi-generational households, for first-time home buyers, for seniors to live with their grandchildren, so that we can have inclusion and diversity. We need more density by our public transit investments so that people can have access to their jobs and to transit, and we can address climate change through our housing policy. We need more from the market, and we also know that the market is necessary, but it's not sufficient, to solve our affordable housing crisis. It has not, and will not, be able to serve the needs of extremely low income people, people with no income, people on a fixed income, people working part-time jobs at minimum wage. So I think we also need significant and deep and sustained investment in publicly-financed, permanently affordable housing - including housing to meet the needs of people experiencing homelessness, like permanent supportive housing, which is the proven evidence-based cost-effective and humane solution to addressing homelessness. And we need deep public investments in housing for seniors, for people with disabilities, for low income working families - we need those investments. And third, to help take bold action for housing, we need to make sure that we're protecting tenants and homeowners. Tenants cannot be subject to excessive year-over-year rent increases that exceeds the wages and wage increases of normal families. We can't have year-over-year rent increases that really hamstring people on fixed incomes. So I would take action to make sure that we're providing stability and that we're providing access for tenants. We have to make sure that people who have criminal histories have access to housing, so we're not continuing recidivism and a cycle of incarceration. So there's a lot of steps to take on housing, and I'll put together that bold plan rooted in experience, a deep understanding of what all levels of government - local, state, and federal - what we can do to work together. And I'll build coalitions because this is urgent and it's time to take action now. [00:05:15] Crystal Fincher: You bring a wealth of knowledge with you as a former director of the City of Seattle Office of Housing - you talk about a lot of different tools and we certainly need to be taking a lot of action, varied types of action, to address this crisis. So it sounds like social housing should be on the table, rent control should be on the table - have all of the tools available at our disposal - and those are the types of things that you would be voting to enable or implement if you were in the Legislature. [00:05:46] Emily Alvarado: Absolutely. We need all of the tools and we need significant resource to invest to make the tools actionable. We know that - [00:05:57] Crystal Fincher: Where do we get those resources? [00:05:59] Emily Alvarado: Right. Well, we know that Washington State has the most regressive tax system in the entire country where poor people, low income folks are disproportionately paying a higher percentage of their income to contribute to really critical public necessities - like housing, like education and childcare, like shared investments in transportation and our infrastructure. I believe we need to fix our regressive tax system and we need to do so with urgency. I support a range of strategies to create more progressive revenue, and I think we need to act quickly because that's the kind of scale and resource that it's going to take to solve our most pressing issues. [00:06:49] Crystal Fincher: I think we absolutely need so many of these things - that you are bringing tools to the table that have been shown, have been proven to help in these crises. Looking at how we've been handling the homelessness crisis - you talked so eloquently about supportive housing being critical - we have seen over the past few years, an approach that - it seems sweeps-focused and the criminalization of homelessness and moving the unhoused population around. Okay, you can't be here - we're sweeping your location without providing those services, or without ensuring that services that are relevant to the people needing them are available. Have we been taking the wrong approach by doing that? And what should we be doing? [00:07:51] Emily Alvarado: It's not acceptable to simply move people experiencing homelessness from one place to another. What people need is housing, and they need services and supports to live healthy and stable lives. What we're seeing right now are the outcomes of 40+ years of intentional policy from the federal level - disinvestment and privatization that has really exacerbated and created the homelessness crisis that we see today. Housing is one of the issues in our country where - there is no entitlement to housing. At the federal level, if you need affordable housing, if you have an extremely low income, you apply to a lottery to receive a Section 8 voucher. We can't have a lottery system driving the extent to which people are able to meet their basic human needs. We need to ensure that all people have access to housing. And I think first and foremost, that means that we need our federal government to step back up and reinvest in housing, and reinvest in human services and in social services, and in homelessness supports like through the McKinney-Vento Program, like through the Section 8 voucher program, like through investments in public housing and the National Housing Trust Fund and HUD 202 and 811 - so many sources that we've seen disinvestment from. We need the federal government to reinvest. While they're working on doing that, we need to continue to take action at the local and at the state level to meaningfully solve the problem. And we know what works. As I mentioned earlier, permanent supportive housing works - to move people into a home and give them the necessary behavioral health, substance abuse, social supports that they need to be stable and safe. Unfortunately, we do not have the resources to adequately and sufficiently scale up our permanent supportive housing response to be able to provide the housing that's necessary. In addition, Washington has one of the worst behavioral health systems in the nation. And so we've seen that people's behavioral health challenges have increased significantly throughout the pandemic, across the board - in our schools, in jails, in hospitals, and on the street - you see this and yet more than half of the people who need support of mental health services can't access those services. There's nowhere to go. And the people who are providing those services are burnt out and there's not enough of a workforce to be providing adequate mental health and behavioral health supports, especially when people are in a time of crisis. We have to invest deeply in our behavioral health system - make sure that it's a one-stop place where people know how to get care and treatment. And I believe that those kinds of investments that I would work deeply on as a State legislator, paired with really thoughtful, scaled investment in permanent supportive housing and other measures to address poverty like universal basic income and other kinds of supports will make a meaningful difference - and we'll actually solve homelessness and provide dignity and stability to people who are suffering. [00:11:36] Crystal Fincher: So we just came out of a legislative session where some good things happened, some not so good things happened. What was your evaluation of this past session? [00:11:49] Emily Alvarado: Yeah, well, I think there were some significant record investments in areas in which we have under-investment, and we showed that the Legislature can lead. Good examples are in housing - the Legislature made record investments in housing, both in purchasing and acquiring buildings to help move people out of homelessness into housing, new resources for the state Housing Trust fund to invest in community development, equitable development, and affordable housing projects across the state. New resources in housing, especially to help make sure that frontline human service and homeless service workers have compensation for the hard work that they've done during the pandemic. On that end, there were great strides. Similarly, record level of investments in transportation with a real emphasis on creating investments in mobility, in electrification, in buses and Metro and ferries. Those really show that we're moving in the right direction of knowing where we need to invest our resources. Unfortunately, I think we didn't make as strong strides on the policy end. And I know that it was a short session and I look forward to entering the Legislature next year with some strong plans to really move the needle, especially on housing policy, but on other issues as well. We need to make sure that we're bringing together coalitions of people and we're establishing policies and plans now, that can help impact generations to come. Another place where generational-level policy is needed is around planning in our communities for growth. It was really unfortunate last legislative session - that we lost the chance to include in our Growth Management Act and in our comprehensive planning policies - a focus on climate change and on environmental justice. We could have said that all communities under GMA that are planning are prioritizing efforts to address climate change, to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, to reduce vehicle miles traveled. And instead, we were not able to bring that across the finish line. I'll work hard to make sure that, from a policy perspective, in addition to investments, we're planning thoughtfully on issues like climate change, like housing, like healthcare - to make sure that we have strong, progressive, forward-looking policy. [00:14:44] Crystal Fincher: I think you bring up a number of excellent points. And I do think it was really critical that we saw the types of investments in mobility and transit, and the types of transportation that will move us into a sustainable future. One of the things that a lot of folks talked about and saw was that while we were doing that, which is great, there were also a significant amount of investment in highway expansion and the types of things that - if we take two steps forward with the record transit investments, we take a step back with increasing, continuing to invest in highway expansion. Should we be investing in further highway expanse? [00:15:31] Emily Alvarado: I don't believe that's our priority. I don't think that investments in highway expansion have ever demonstrated that they serve the needs of community in a way that really focuses on equity, that focuses on mobility, that focuses on livability for communities. I would prioritize continued investments in public transportation, in connectivity, in multimodal transit and mobility - to make sure that people can really access communities in a way that is effective, efficient, affordable, and also people-centered. That's the kind of communities that we need to be building for our climate future - we need dense communities where people can walk, where we can have thriving small businesses, where people can bike, where people can commute with their children safely from one place to another. And as a legislator, those are the kinds of investments I would prioritize. [00:16:37] Crystal Fincher: I definitely want a legislator who prioritizes those types of things - will make life just better in so many ways for so many people. What more should we be doing to meet our 2030 climate goals? There's a lot of action that has been taken, but it doesn't have us on track to achieve our goals yet. What more do we need to do? And what will you lead on? [00:17:01] Emily Alvarado: Yeah, well, we obviously have a lot more to do. We have to move towards electrification of our transportation system, and we need to do so urgently and aggressively, and I'd support all of those efforts. As I've mentioned before, affordable housing policy is climate policy. And until we create the policy to build a future of having dense, compact, livable communities, we are never going to address the emissions that come from driving. And we need to prioritize that - one of the things that the state can be doing is to have more alignment in our investment around housing and transportation. I've spent a lot of my career at the local level working on equitable transit-oriented development - really making sure that we're purchasing property or using surplus property by our transit investments to create dense, affordable housing with community facilities, with cultural assets, so that we can both avoid or mitigate or prevent displacement. And also, so that low income people have an opportunity to live in communities by jobs and by transit - many of whom are the most transit-dependent people in our state. So alignment of our housing and transportation investments can make sure that we're creating the dense communities that are needed. We also know that from a carbon emissions perspective, our housing stock is one of the greatest drivers of carbon. And so we really need to take seriously an effort to not only build towards the future, where we're building buildings that are climate resilient, but also looking at our existing building stock. We need new financing tools, new partnerships to meaningfully upgrade and retrofit our existing buildings to move away from fossil fuels towards electrification. And we need to do so with a prioritization on the people who are low income so that they are achieving the benefits, not only of climate justice, but also of electrification, which can bring air conditioning as we see changes in our weather and climate. [00:19:32] Crystal Fincher: Absolutely. [00:19:32] Emily Alvarado: So I'll pursue continued strategies to build climate resilience through our housing policy. And lastly, Crystal, I don't want to move on from this topic without saying that - a focus on our climate justice work has to be environmental justice. We need to be investing in communities that are most impacted by air pollution, by water pollution - whose impacts are often aligned with the same impacts of housing policy, including redlining and racially restrictive covenants. We need to start by investing in those communities through grants and partnerships and resources so that there is genuine environmental justice planning that happens, that helps to build the policy platform and strategies for our future. And those are the kinds of strategies that I would follow and invest in. [00:20:32] Crystal Fincher: Our Legislature certainly would benefit from an increased focus and centering and prioritization of that, and I appreciate you prioritizing that. We, in this last legislative session - the Democratic majority and the Legislature overall also took some new action, reversed some prior action - when it comes to public safety and police accountability reforms. Do you think they did the right thing? [00:21:05] Emily Alvarado: I completely support the efforts that were made two years ago to make sweeping reforms in police accountability. And I'm glad that we really took the steps to take meaningful action - it's necessary. I would not have supported the rollback of those laws. That's not the right direction. We need to be intentional and focused on addressing racial bias in policing, on addressing over-policing of communities of color. And I would make sure that we continue to have systems of accountability that can help to repair trust and help to get us back on a path towards real community-led, community-driven public safety. I think, outside of the conversation about the police accountability and police reform measures, we need to take public safety seriously by investing deeply in communities that have been impacted by violence and by intentional disinvestment for decades. And I would start by making sure that people have access to basic needs of housing, healthcare, education, that we have investments in youth activities, in civic infrastructure, in community facilities - so that we have healthy communities. We know that healthy communities are safer communities, they're less violent communities. That's where I believe that true public safety begins. I also think, as I mentioned before, that we need to be investing in a system of crisis response that's actually meeting the needs of what crisis people are facing. If people are facing a behavioral health crisis, we might want to respond with a behavioral health response rather than a police response - and law enforcement agrees with that. So again, we need investments in those kinds of behavioral health crisis responses so that we can meet people where they are and treat people as they need to be treated. I also believe that we need to seriously address gun violence in order for our communities to be safe. I appreciate the efforts of the state to create the new Office of Firearms, Safety and Gun Prevention, Violence Prevention. As a legislator, I would make investments in that office. I would scale the work of that office and make sure that they are prioritizing - themselves - investments and a commitment to communities that are most impacted by gun violence. [00:23:57] Crystal Fincher: Absolutely makes sense. Another area that does impact how safe we are - how we're meeting people's needs who are in crisis - are those who are dealing with substance use disorder. And we've had this War on Drugs that - it's pretty universally recognized as a failure and ultimately as counterproductive. What should the approach to possessing drugs be - should it be treated as a criminal activity or a public health problem? How would you address that? [00:24:29] Emily Alvarado: Yeah, I would definitely start by treating substance abuse as a public health problem. And we know right now that - one, our laws have primarily been designed in a way to focus on criminalization and to focus on over-policing of communities of color. That's how our drug policy for decades has been designed at the federal level and locally. We need to undo those kinds of policies. We also need to make sure that people who are often caught up in systems of incarceration - that we're putting better interventions in place. People should not go to jail because they have a substance abuse disorder. They should be treated for the substance abuse disorder. And that's an investment in public health, that's an investment in our healthcare systems, and in investing in public health and healthcare in a way that's also meeting people where they are - through community-based health care centers, through street-based outreach and services, so that people can get treatment. As I mentioned earlier, too, part of the cycle of recidivism and incarceration is because we put intentional barriers up that don't allow people to live healthy, stable lives. We need to take action now on ensuring that people who have criminal history in the criminal justice system can access housing. People need to be able to have safety and security of a home - and without that, there continues to be people who are caught up in systems over and over again. And then our laws on drug possession and others become other tools by which we continue incarceration. I'll oppose those. [00:26:32] Crystal Fincher: We are still in this time where COVID is spreading, still impacting people. In fact, right now the rates are increasing and even the hospitalizations are increasing. And it seems like a lot of people have just decided to be done with COVID, even though COVID has not yet decided to be done with us. What more should the Legislature be doing to help prevent the spread and mitigate the impacts of COVID? [00:26:59] Emily Alvarado: Yeah, well, first of all, we need to make sure that our healthcare system, which has been serving and supporting people through the pandemic for three years now - over two years now - has the resources that it needs to really serve people. And we know that right now we have a nursing shortage. We know that many of the people who work in the healthcare industry are burnt out, or are quitting, and are overworked. And we need to address that kind of a staffing issue if we want to provide adequate safety for our community, and we want to provide appropriate health care for our community. So I would work on efforts that didn't move forward last legislative session - to make sure that we have staffing safety for nurses and for nursing workers, so that we can have a strong, robust health workforce. We need that as part of our future. We also have to continue to invest in the underlying systems that make people feel comfortable taking days off when they're sick and being at home with their children. Unfortunately, we do have so much economic insecurity and job insecurity that people can't be at home. I'll fight hard for safe workplaces and to make sure that we work on policies so that when people are sick, they can be at home. I'm proud to have support from many labor organizations because I'll fight to make sure that workers can put themselves and their health and their safety before overworking. [00:28:53] Crystal Fincher: Well, and as we conclude this conversation today, I'm wondering - if you're talking to a voter, who's trying to decide between you and your opponent, trying to decide who's most aligned with their values, who they can most count on to fight for what they need - what would you tell them in terms of you versus your opponent and how they should approach that decision? [00:29:20] Emily Alvarado: Look, I believe that we can build a future that works for all Washingtonians. I am hopeful. I believe that investing in robust housing, in healthcare, in childcare, in education and infrastructure - I believe that's absolutely necessary to build strong communities and a thriving middle class. In a state and a region with incredible opportunity, I believe we can have shared prosperity, I believe we can solve our biggest challenges. The difference between me and my opponent is that I've spent my entire career working for social justice. I've spent my life fighting for families who need housing, for individuals experiencing homelessness, for people who want connection and belonging, and for communities who want safe thriving neighborhoods. I have a track record of not only advocating, but also on delivering, on implementing policies, on investing in housing and services for people who need it, and advancing creative solutions. My track record and demonstrated commitment is clear. My personal commitment to social justice and progressive change is clear, as is my ability to bring people together and solve our biggest challenges. [00:30:42] Crystal Fincher: Appreciate that. And just final question - as director of the Office of Housing, certainly you have a lot of responsibility. You were working within an administration that some people have a lot of questions about when it came to their commitment, particularly with former Mayor Jenny Durkan, to the same kinds of values that you talk about. How would you characterize your work within that administration, or your work despite that administration - whichever one is more appropriate - when people are trying to figure out how you fit within that and how you were aligned with Mayor Durkan and her approach? [00:31:21] Emily Alvarado: Yeah, thanks for that pointed question - I appreciate it. I think that the track record that I have of creating progressive outcomes as director at the Office of Housing, at one of the more challenging times of our recent history with tense political tensions, is demonstrative of my success and the effectiveness that I would bring to the State Legislature. I got things done at a time when council and the mayor didn't agree. At a time when I didn't always agree with the mayor, we still moved progressive policy. Just remember - during that time, I was able to make record investments in affordable housing - record investments. I made the greatest number investments in BIPOC-led community-based housing organizations that have ever been made. We implemented a permanent supportive housing pilot to triple our annual production of permanent supportive housing as a COVID response, including by using federal resources. We got more resources to buy buildings and buy land - to move people out of homelessness. We passed record policies on addressing displacement, community preference policy - making sure that communities can stay in place and access affordable housing. I created a rental assistance program during COVID and invested in BIPOC-led, community-based organizations to provide resources to the most impacted communities. I implemented foreclosure prevention policies targeted in communities facing the highest risk of displacement. So outside of the administration, I delivered clearly on the values that I hold dear and I'm transparent about. I worked deeply with community and maintained and built strong, authentic community relationships. And I brought people together to get things done - that's what we need in the Legislature - someone who's going to bring people together and get progressive policy accomplished. [00:33:45] Crystal Fincher: Thank you so much for your time today, for this conversation, and appreciate the time that you spent. Thank you so much. [00:33:53] Emily Alvarado: Thank you, Crystal - I appreciate it. [00:33:55] Crystal Fincher: I thank you all for listening to Hacks & Wonks on KVRU 105.7 FM. The producer of Hacks & Wonks is Lisl Stadler with assistance from Shannon Cheng. 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 our Friday almost-live shows and our midweek show delivered to your podcast feed. If you like us, leave a review wherever you listen to Hacks & Wonks. 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 - we'll talk to you next time.

Design is more than an aesthetically pleasing logo or banner – it has the power to solve problems in unique ways, cultivate innovation, and anchor multidisciplinary teamwork. In Reimagining Design, Kevin Bethune describes his journey as a Black professional through corporate America, revealing the power of transformative design, multidisciplinary leaps, and diversity. Bethune, who began as an engineer at Westinghouse, moved on to Nike (where he designed Air Jordans), and now works as a sought-after consultant on design and innovation, shows how design can transform individual lives and organizations. In Bethune's account, diversity, equity, and inclusion emerge as a recurring theme. He shows how, as we leverage design for innovation, we also need to consider the broader ecological implications of our decisions and acknowledge the threads of systemic injustice in order to realize positive change. He contends that design transformation takes leadership by leaders who do not act as gatekeepers but, with agility and nimbleness, build teams that mirror the marketplace. Bethune is joined by Beverly Aarons in the 138th episode of Town Hall's In the Moment Podcast, as they discuss design in harmony with other disciplines. Design in harmony with other disciplines can be incredibly powerful; multidisciplinary team collaboration is the foundation of future innovation. With insight and compassion, Bethune provides a framework for bringing this about. Kevin G. Bethune is the Founder and Chief Creative Officer of dreams • design + life, a think tank for design and innovation. Over a career that spans more than twenty years, he has worked in engineering, business, and design. Beverly Aarons is a writer, artist, and game developer. She works across disciplines exploring the intersections of history, hidden current realities, and imagined future worlds. She specializes in making unseen perspectives visible and aims to infuse all of her creative work with a deep sense of emotionality. She's won the Guy A. Hanks, Marvin H. Miller Screenwriting Award, Community 4Culture Fellowship, Artist Trust GAP Award, 4Culture Creative Consultancies Award, and the Seattle Office of Arts & Culture smART Ventures grant.  She's currently publishing in-depth artist profiles at Artists Up Close on Substack. Buy the Book—Reimagining Design: Unlocking Strategic Innovation  Presented by Town Hall Seattle. To become a member or make a donation click here. 

Design is more than an aesthetically pleasing logo or banner – it has the power to solve problems in unique ways, cultivate innovation, and anchor multidisciplinary teamwork. In Reimagining Design, Kevin Bethune describes his journey as a Black professional through corporate America, revealing the power of transformative design, multidisciplinary leaps, and diversity. Bethune, who began as an engineer at Westinghouse, moved on to Nike (where he designed Air Jordans), and now works as a sought-after consultant on design and innovation, shows how design can transform individual lives and organizations. In Bethune's account, diversity, equity, and inclusion emerge as a recurring theme. He shows how, as we leverage design for innovation, we also need to consider the broader ecological implications of our decisions and acknowledge the threads of systemic injustice in order to realize positive change. He contends that design transformation takes leadership by leaders who do not act as gatekeepers but, with agility and nimbleness, build teams that mirror the marketplace. Bethune is joined by Beverly Aarons in the 138th episode of Town Hall's In the Moment Podcast, as they discuss design in harmony with other disciplines. Design in harmony with other disciplines can be incredibly powerful; multidisciplinary team collaboration is the foundation of future innovation. With insight and compassion, Bethune provides a framework for bringing this about. Kevin G. Bethune is the Founder and Chief Creative Officer of dreams • design + life, a think tank for design and innovation. Over a career that spans more than twenty years, he has worked in engineering, business, and design. Beverly Aarons is a writer, artist, and game developer. She works across disciplines exploring the intersections of history, hidden current realities, and imagined future worlds. She specializes in making unseen perspectives visible and aims to infuse all of her creative work with a deep sense of emotionality. She's won the Guy A. Hanks, Marvin H. Miller Screenwriting Award, Community 4Culture Fellowship, Artist Trust GAP Award, 4Culture Creative Consultancies Award, and the Seattle Office of Arts & Culture smART Ventures grant.  She's currently publishing in-depth artist profiles at Artists Up Close on Substack. Buy the Book—Reimagining Design: Unlocking Strategic Innovation  Presented by Town Hall Seattle. To become a member or make a donation click here. 

Rhythm & News interview with Dr. Dwane Chappelle, director of the Seattle Office of Education and Early Learning (DEEL), and Monica Liang-Aguirre, DEEL's director of early learning, about the open enrollment period and expansion of the Seattle Preschool Program. Interview by Chris B. Bennett.

Anthony Jones is an enrolled member of the Port Gamble S'Klallam Tribe of Washington and an intellectual property attorney. An associate at Perkins Coie, his practice focuses on patent matters, including prosecution & portfolio counseling, involving complex technologies such as telecommunications, artificial intelligence, machine learning, cryptocurrency & blockchain, and software-based technologies. Anthony's journey to the practice of IP law includes a variety of legal experiences. He served as an in-house attorney for the Tulalip Tribes, focusing on tribal governance, economic development, and Tribal court litigation. He was also an appellate and pro tem judge for the Northwest Intertribal Court System and a hearing examiner pro tem (trainee) for the City of Seattle Office of Hearing Examiner. In 2021, he was named one of the 20 under 40 honorees by Leadership Kitsap. He is currently the president of the Northwest Indian Bar Association.An avid tinkerer from childhood, Anthony first set his sights on an engineering career and therefore applied and was accepted to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, from which he graduated with a B.S., Engineering. But when he realized that a career in engineering would not provide an outlet for his people skills, he changed tacks and embarked on a career in the law. Then, Anthony made another small course correction to fully embrace both his engineering background and his legal training by passing the patent bar exam after studying for it on his own.Anthony grew up steeped in the traditions, culture, art, & living history of his Tribe. From a young age, he participated in Tribal journeys with his grandfather, building his capacity for perseverance, determination, & success. In this episode, Anthony shares how growing up on the reservation instilled in him a strong sense of self & allowed him to pursue his dreams - without limits. Highlights include: From growing up on a reservation to culture shock at MIT  Coping with implicit bias from a young age  Stretching one's wings and finding new challengesThe value of a solid grounding in tribal cultureTribal journeys that build a strong sense of self and the ability to persevereArt as a means of keeping Native American traditions alive and passing them down to future generationsWalking in two worlds: Native American cultural traditions vs. BigLawThe shocking rarity of attorneys in general – and IP attorneys in particular - from Native American backgroundsLearn More:Anthony's artwork on MV Chimacum, "Thunderbird Moon" - via West Sound Magazine "Coast Salish art piece will welcome visitors to the New Burke"Thanks for listening to Sidebars! Connect with us: Read our Medicine and Molecules (MEMO) Blog Subscribe to our YouTube Channel Questions or feedback? Reach out at socialmedia@kilpatricktownsend.com Learn more about Kilpatrick Townsend **The opinions expressed are those of the attorneys and do not necessarily reflect the views of the firm or its clients. This podcast is for general information purposes and is not intended to be and should not be taken as legal advice.

During this episode of Why Change? co-host Jeff M. Poulin introduces a new type of format for the podcast featuring interviews with two practitioners working towards a common goal: Amanda Masterpaul and Mytoan Nguyen-Akbar. Both Amanda and Mytoan focus pieces of their work on arts education projects with young people experiencing unstable housing. They share two perspectives, one as a teaching artist and one as a project evaluator, and encourage future dialogues about this type of work. In this episode you'll learn: About two arts education projects focused on mitigating the impacts of unstable housing on young people; How collaborations can benefit intersectional projects and pedagogies; and What knowledge is gained from researching the impacts of arts education interventions. Please download the transcript here. ABOUT AMANDA MASTERPAUL: Amanda Masterpaul is a participatory theatre artist, activist, and educator dedicated to weaving social justice, cultural organizing, anti-racism, and critical consciousness into the everyday lived experience. Amanda is a Teaching Associate at Coastal Carolina University, specializing in Applied Theatre and Theatre of the Oppressed practices in addition to teaching Women's and Gender Studies. Throughout her career, she has organized alongside various civic engagement and community-centered efforts in areas such as houselessness, gender equity, sexual violence, and systemic racism. As a collaborative artist, she creates ensembles of artists and activists to deploy art, education, Theatre of the Oppressed, and collective action through interactive and intercultural experiences centered on dismantling systemic (in)justice while building communities of care. Amanda believes in the power of multi-identifying people collaborating in partnership and shared purpose to co-create visions of communal wellbeing and to co-solidify solutions for addressing the material conditions of peoples' lives. ABOUT MYTOAN NGUYEN-AKBAR: Mytoan Nguyen-Akbar, PhD (she/her) is a community organizer, mother of two, and strategic researcher with an equity lens. Currently, she is Impact and Assessment Manager for the City of Seattle Office of Arts & Culture. She began her journey into municipal arts as a Mellon/American Council of Learned Societies Public Fellow, awarded to post-doctoral fellows nationally to demonstrate the impact of the humanities outside of the academy. Dr. Nguyen-Akbar completed her PhD in Sociology at University of Madison, and has been a past US Fulbright Fellows (to Australia), American Sociological Association Minority Pre-Doctoral Fellow, and recipient of the Jane Addams Outstanding Award for Public Service in Sociology. Her work ranges from designing COVID-19 impact studies, monitoring, assessment and evaluation of racial justice and equity cultural investments, and data and storytelling capacity building for public sector and nonprofit organizations. Mytoan came to this country as a boatperson from Vietnam. WHERE TO FIND AMANDA AND MYTOAN: Facebook: @liberationcityimpact and @amanda.reyelt Instagram: @solidarityinisolation, @passionforthepossible, @amasterpaul Linkedin: @hguyenakbar This episode of Why Change? A Podcast for the Creative Generation was powered by Creative Generation. Produced and Edited by Daniel Stanley. For more information on this episode and Creative Generation please visit here and follow us on social media @Campaign4GenC --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/whychange/support

The National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) confirms that 2020 was one of the most extreme years for global environmental events such as storms, flooding, droughts, and more. This is attributed to the rise of CO2 and other greenhouse gasses in our atmosphere contributing to increased global temperatures. With climate emergency being widely accepted as one of our next obstacles to overcome, businesses are assessing their carbon footprint and how they can reduce and reverse one of humanity's largest looming problems. In this podcast, Paul K. Boyce, PE, PG, discusses atmospheric warmings impact for local companies with PWGC colleagues Marie Mendes, IE, Director, Seattle Office and Doreen Carlson, Senior Project Manager. #carbonfootprint #carbonneutral #carbonoffsetting To watch a video version of this podcast, ask a question, suggest a topic or to be a guest on the show visit us at https://pwgrosser.com/podcast If you or your organization is in need of our services please contact us at https://pwgrosser.com/contact/ or call 631-589-6353. Follow us Facebook: https://bit.ly/2Qceu3u Twitter: https://bit.ly/3wIri2x Instagram: https://bit.ly/3d4cZxv LinkedIn: https://bit.ly/3s9dzya See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Opening Doors Season 2, episode 4 features an interview with Tatiana Lee, an actress, international model, and activist born with spina bifida. Transcript at http://seattlecac.org/s/Opening-Doors-S02-Ep04-Tatiana-Lee-Transcript.pdf Opening Doors is produced by the Seattle Cultural Accessibility Consortium and Jack Straw Cultural Center. This podcast was made possible by the Seattle Office of Arts and Culture, the Washington State Arts Commission, and individual donors, with in-kind support from Jack Straw Cultural Center, Sound Theatre Company, Jennifer Rice Communications, and the Seattle Cultural Accessibility Consortium steering committee. Music performed by William Chapman Nyaho, produced through the Jack Straw Artist Support Program.

Opening Doors Season 2, episode 1 features an interview with Nasreen Alkhateeb, an award-winning cinematographer, whose work amplifies underrepresented voices. Transcript at http://seattlecac.org/s/Opening-Doors-S02-Ep01-Nasreen-Alkhateeb-Transcript.pdf Opening Doors is produced by the Seattle Cultural Accessibility Consortium and Jack Straw Cultural Center. This podcast was made possible by the Seattle Office of Arts and Culture, the Washington State Arts Commission, and individual donors, with in-kind support from Jack Straw Cultural Center, Sound Theatre Company, Jennifer Rice Communications, and the Seattle Cultural Accessibility Consortium steering committee. Music performed by William Chapman Nyaho, produced through the Jack Straw Artist Support Program.