Seattle’s State of the City 2017: $55M homelessness levy, soda tax for schools, Trump immigration push-back

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Gordon Werner

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(Image: Seattle.gov)

At Northgate’s Idris Mosque Tuesday morning, Mayor Ed Murray gave his 2017 State of the City address, announcing plans to increase investments to further address homelessness and education disparities, and to continue to support immigrants and refugees in Seattle. Included in the speech were plans to activate a city emergency system usually reserved for bad weather and protests to provide more resources for helping the area’s homeless, a proposal for a $55 million property levy to fund homelessness services, and the floating of a possible Seattle soda tax to help fund schools. Video and the full text of Murray’s speech is below.

For Seattle, the biggest news of the speech will likely be the homeless levy proposal. The plan will go to city voters this August to ask them to approve an increase in the commercial and residential property tax of around $13 per month for the median household, according to the mayor’s office. Murray said that a coalition including entrepreneur Nick Hanauer, Downtown Emergency Services Center executive director Daniel Malone, and City Council members Debora Juarez and Sally Bagshaw will lead an advisory group to create the funding package for the proposal.

The mayor also announced a new offensive to push back on Trump administration immigration policies. Murray said the city will send Freedom of Information Act requests to multiple federal departments, including the Department of Homeland Security, in response to President Donald Trump’s actions affecting immigrants and refugees. Murray is seeking to determine potential enforcement actions the federal government may take against Seattle and other sanctuary cities and details about changes to travel and immigration policy.

“We believe that the rule of law is on our side,” Murray said, adding that Seattle will take legal action if the federal departments do not provide timely responses.

Murray’s State of the City announcements:

Murray said he also plans to meet with other regional mayors to about remaining safe sanctuary cities.

“Remaining open to all is a fundamental value of the city,” Murray said. “Seattle is a great city because of immigrants and refugees.” Continue reading →

‘SAVE OUR POST OFFICE’ — 15th Ave E meeting to help Postal Plus find a new home

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Zhang (Image: CHS)

Zhang (Image: CHS)

As what could be the biggest change for the street in decades plays out, the community around 15th Ave E’s shops and restaurants is coming together to help make a smaller change in the neighborhood work out for a longtime neighborhood business.

In October, CHS reported that mailing and package services stop Postal Plus was faced with doubling rent and needed to find a new home. Sunday, a neighborhood meeting organized by resident Ellen Taft is being held at Victrola to help postmaster Ed Zhang find a new home:

SAVE OUR POST OFFICE

Taft says ‎Sen. Patty Murray Sen. Pramila Jayapal aide Raman Khanna will be on hand for the meeting.

The business situation around Postal Plus is more complicated than most small ventures on the street. Continue reading →

Blotter | State Patrol chases down suspected truck thief after Lakeview/Belmont crashes

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A still from Adam Su’s video
Thanks to Andrew for the picture
Thanks to Christina for the picture

See something others should know about? Email CHS or call/txt (206) 399-5959. You can view recent CHS Crime coverage here.

  • Belmont auto theft arrest: Police and the Washington State Patrol were busy Tuesday morning after an I-5 pursuit of a reported stolen vehicle turned into a series of crashes involving at least three different vehicles before ending just up the Hill from Lakeview and Belmont Ave E. There was one arrest. The incident began playing out at the base of Capitol Hill around 9:20 AM after WSP stopped a stolen pick-up truck and the driver fled the scene on foot. You can see the incident play out in this video posted to Reddit by a resident in the area. Seattle Police rushed to the scene and the suspect was taken into custody within minutes. Seattle Fire was called out to treat one occupant of vehicles involved in a collision with the stolen truck for what were described as minor injuries.

  • Reported hit and run: Seattle Fire and SPD were on the scene Monday night after a reported hit and run of a pedestrian at Bellevue and Pine but the circumstances of the incident remain murky. Emergency personnel arrived to find a woman in her 60s down in the street just north of the intersection on Bellevue with an injured arm. The victim said she had been hit by a driver who had left the scene. Police could find no witnesses to the collision and did not have a description of the vehicle to work with. The woman was transported to Harborview for treatment of her injuries. SPD says its traffic collision team did not investigate the incident.
  • UPDATE — Broadway mattress arson: Here’s a bonus blotter item for your Tuesday afternoon. Seattle Police were looking for a suspect seen running from the scene after a mattress was set on fire in front of the Broadway Performance Hall. Seattle Fire responded to the incident just after 2:30 PM after a 911 caller witnessed a male suspect spray paint something on the mattress, light it on fire, and take off running on Broadway. Police were looking for a suspect described as a white male, around 6-feet tall, wearing a black knit hat, grey jacket, and black pants. Seattle Central was able to provide surveillance video from the campus to police, according to East Precinct radio dispatches.

Big property deal set to reshape Capitol Hill’s somewhat sleepy 15th Ave E

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img_1796In a sellers’ market on Capitol Hill, another big real estate deal appears primed to remake part of the neighborhood. CHS has learned that property on a key block in the heart of 15th Ave E’s strip of shops and restaurants recently hit the market and already has a prospective buyer with plans for a multi-story, mixed-use building stretching from the site where the 15th Ave E QFC stands today to cornershop ShopRite.

“If God means for us to stay, I am staying,” ShopRite owner Mohammad Abid tells CHS about the deal and his long-term lease in the building the shop has called home for more then 20 years.

Fortunately, the coming changes are still a ways off. Continue reading →

Proposal for Washington state bank introduced in Olympia

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Democratics Sen. Hasegawa at January's protest at Sea-Tac

Democratics Sen. Hasegawa at January’s protest at Sea-Tac

As Seattle looks to pull its money out of financial institutions like Wells Fargo with skin in the game of profiting from projects like the Dakota Access Pipeline, Washington Sen. Bob Hasegawa is introducing a bill to create a state bank:

Senate Bill 5464 is modeled after the successful Bank of North Dakota (BND), which has successfully implemented it’s economic development and public support mission for almost a hundred years. The BND reported its 12th consecutive year of record profits for the state, which includes the period through the great recession and the ups and downs of the oil markets.

“The Washington Investment Trust will keep taxpayer dollars in our state working for Washingtonians instead of Wall Street,” 11th District rep Hasegawa said in an announcement of the bill. “It will generate revenue, but also save money and provide public financing options by loaning money to ourselves rather than going through big banks and bond brokers.”

According to Hasegawa’s announcement, Washington sets aside over $1 billion per year in operating budget for debt service.

“Instead of paying profits to bankers, we could be borrowing from and repaying ourselves,” Hasegawa said.

You can read more about the bill at app.leg.wa.gov.

 

Sorry, Andrew Jackson, Seattle should rename its street named after you

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Jackson was a key conduit in Seattle’s Womxn’s March (Image: CHS)
Joseph Jackson, first president of the Seattle Urban League

In 1986, Ron Sims, the first black person to be a member of the King County Council, introduced a motion to repair his county’s recognition of history by changing its namesake from an obscure, pre-Civil War United States vice president and slaveholder to civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. The motion passed, barely, 5-4. With history’s twists as knotted as ever this Presidents’ Day 2017, CHS wonders if another namesake change is in order.

Today, Jackson Street runs from the Central District to the International District and honors the nation’s seventh president, Andrew Jackson:

King Street was named by David Maynard in his 1853 Plat of the Town of Seattle, one of the first three plats laying out the street grid. (The other two plats, north of Maynard’s, were filed by Carson Boren and Arthur Denny). Maynard, a staunch Democrat, named many of the streets in his plat for Democratic leaders, including Andrew Jackson, John B. Weller (Governor of California), and Joseph Lane (Oregon Territory’s Congressional delegate).

As was William Rufus Devane King, Jackson was also a slaveholder. Beyond his battlefield prowess, he is remembered for The Indian Removal Act. His populism and, apparently, temper have also become a historical model for the Trump administration. Continue reading →

McDemolition: First Hill fast food franchise set to make way for 700-Big Mac-tall apartment tower

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(Image: CHS)

It’s been a long time coming, but the slow path to the development set to replace First Hill’s most well-known fast food restaurant will reach a sad milestone for Big Mac fans in coming weeks.

The City of Seattle has approved the demolition permit for 1122 Madison — the Madison McDonald’s. The plan is for the nearest Capitol Hill-elevation location for the global fast food franchise to be razed in April. “Assuming acquisition of the appropriate permits in a timely manner,” the construction report filed for the address reads, “demolition of the existing structure is expected to begin April, 2017 and continue through April, 2017, at which point shoring wall and excavation will begin.” Continue reading →

Police search for suspect in ‘coveralls’ after another Broadway hold-up

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A suspect wearing a surgical mask and what was described as blue coveralls threatened that he had a gun and robbed the Broadway Rite Aid Monday morning.

Police were called to the area around the store at Broadway and E Olive Way around 8:20 AM after a report that the suspect had left the store with around $100 in cash and fled southbound on foot.

The suspect was described only as a black male around 6′ tall. He was reportedly wearing a white surgical mask and a blue, full-body mechanic’s suit with a hood, and told the cashier he was armed with a gun.

Police searched the area around Broadway including Cal Anderson and Capitol Hill Station.

The incident follows a string of robberies along this stretch of Broadway including a Valentine’s hold-up of the Chase Bank, and a series of robberies at the same Rite Aid, a restaurant, and the Bank of America in mid-January.

Why you should stop by the new drug drop box on Broadway

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McDermott

It comes nowhere close to the costs of addiction but big drug companies are funding a small program in King County to put “secure medicine return” boxes in locations where it easier for residents to get rid of unwanted pharmaceuticals.

Officials were on hand last week at the Broadway Market QFC to announce the program and show off one of the new drop box locations.

“Working on secure medicine return, I’ve truly seen the community spirit here in King County. These drop boxes are run by volunteers. All of the locations have volunteered to have drop boxes. And the program is supported and operated by drug producers whose medications are sold in King County,” King County Council member Joe McDermott said Thursday morning with the soft rock of the QFC sound system and beeps from the nearby checkouts in the background. “I look forward to the success of this producer supported program.”

A map of medicine return boxes around the county is below. You can also find drop sites at the Country Doctor clinic on 19th Ave E and at the Capitol Hill Group Health campus.

Continue reading →

The Murder of Tyrone Love

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Margarita Quevedo-Walker and Tyrone Love

Margarita Quevedo-Walker and Tyrone Love

By Sakara Remmu/Special to CHS

Since 2007, Sakara Remmu has been a reporter and commentator covering social and political issues for KBCS Radio, The Seattle Times, and a number of regional and national news print and online outlets. She is the Founder and Managing Editor of BOMBCo; Black Owned Media Broadcasting Company, and Executive Producer of the podcast series Under the Redline, currently featuring the story of the Killing of Tyrone Love.

Innocent
In the late 2000s, shootings and murders — particularly of young black men — seemed almost common on the streets of Seattle. The Central District murder of Tyrone Love was different.

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(Image: CHS/Source: data.seattle.gov)

When the Seattle Police Department confirmed the identity of the man gunned down near 27th and Cherry February 15th, 2009 it was unlike anything most had seen or felt before. A city, across neighborhoods, race, religion, class and age, collectively knocked down, and stunned into disbelief, despair, and anger.

The bullets that killed Love hit his family, friends, his neighborhood, and the city at large. The funeral was standing room only. It was one of the few times the mayor himself, and not a delegate, attended the funeral of a homicide victim, specifically a black man. The mainstream media, quick to report such incidents as gang-related violence, initially did the same with Love’s murder, casting him an unsympathetic victim, blaming assumed yet inaccurate self-created circumstances. As far as the media was concerned, if Love was murdered because of gang affiliation, then in a way he was responsible for his own death; it’s a narrative we see time and time again.

Love was none of the things Seattle typically associates with shootings and murders of black men. He wasn’t a gang member or criminal. He didn’t have a criminal record. At 26, he was part founder and owner of a successful business with friends and business partners Jamar Jones and Bruce Williams. He was the provider for his family, including his mother, sisters, and girlfriend. Love had a seemingly stellar reputation in Seattle, with no known enemies. The night he was murdered, he was doing what he did countless times, going home from work. There was no particular incident leading up to the murder that provide clues about motive, or suspects; he didn’t argue with anyone and was thought to be alone as he walked. He was simply gunned down on the sidewalk, just blocks from his home.

His girlfriend, Margarita Quevedo-Walker, dropped Love off at work the night he was murdered. She was also the one who realized, hours later, that something was wrong. Love had not come home. In an interview with me in 2009, she recalled waking up around 4:30 in the morning and realizing his side of the bed was empty. She sent out texts to those closest to him, who sent out texts to their networks. No one knew where Love was. By 9:00 AM, the unimaginable was at the front door. Continue reading →