Tim Burgess' City View

Seattle Public Library Sets World Record

To kick off the Seattle Public Library's summer reading program, two college students worked with the Library to set a world record for the longest book domino chain: 2,131 books! The three-minute video is a must watch.

Oh, Yeah! Here Come the Sonics

Chris Hansen's announcement this morning is fantastic news and a huge win for Seattle and our entire region. Throughout our Council work to improve the proposal, Chris Hansen negotiated fairly and has kept his word. He is doing exactly what he told us he would do—working to return NBA basketball to Seattle. There is more work ahead, but this is a giant leap toward bringing the Sonics back home to Seattle.

I was privileged to lead the Council's review of the Mayor's initial arena proposal and insisted on significant changes in the agreement to improve public benefits, including:

• Stronger legal and financial protections for the city and county governments.
• Reduction in the inherent risks of this type of public-private partnership.
• Creation of a transportation fund with $40 million in initial funding for SODO freight and pedestrian mobility improvements.

After the Council committee negotiated a revised memorandum of agreement with Hansen, the full City Council approved it by a 7-2 vote on October 12, 2012 (Ordinance 124019).

Read my previous posts on the SODO arena and Sonics here.

Survey Says . . . Public Safety, Education, Transportation

Correction: the survey summary as originally posted contained an error in calculations on the chart and graph of per capita respondents by zip code on pages 14 and 15. The information has now been corrected.

Last Wednesday we closed our online, non-scientific survey of residents about the 2013-2014 City budget. We’ve spent the last few days compiling the results into a summary presentation, which you can view here. 

The survey asked 19 questions regarding priorities for city spending, what residents value most about their neighborhoods and how they feel about city services.

The results show that people want to be safe, they want good schools and they want to be able to get around town in a variety of ways. Respondents gave public safety, public schools and transportation the highest ranks when asked to order the “most important” local government services and, separately, the priorities “local government should focus on.”

The Future of Seattle Center (and Key Arena too)

In its 50^th year, Seattle Center is one of our city’s greatest treasures. And it has suddenly captured a lot of renewed attention because of Chris Hansen’s proposed new sports and entertainment arena in SODO. This attention is a good thing. It focuses the City on the challenges and opportunities we currently face at Seattle Center.

Seattle Center is a place visited by millions of people every year, a mixing place for all ages, cultures, races and interests.

4th of July Gripes

I put my flag out this morning, then sat down and read Danny Westneat's column in The Seattle Times. Bottomline, Westneat thinks we should use the 4th of July to carp about whatever bugs us because that's what the founders did when they wrote up their bill of particulars against Great Britain.

One of Westneat's carpings is that we don't read the Declaration of Independence out loud at our neighborhood barbeques and civic events anymore. But, NPR did it this morning, as they have for the past 24 years. Take a listen here.

So, taking my cue from Danny Westneat, here's my 4th of July list of gripes, well, a few of them.

I'll start off with a very personal and probably politically incorrect one: I don't like being yelled at, called names, or ridiculed over a policy decision I'm about to make or have made. I'll let you in on a little City Hall secret . . . people who send emails to Council members or testify in front of our committees will gain a fair hearing when they clearly express their opinion, cite facts and perspective to support their opinion and suggest specific solutions. Those who forward email rants, use name-calling as their primary form of argumentation, well, they're not likely to be heard very well.

Here's another one. Fear drives too many of our public discussions.  Take immigration reform. Despite the overwhelming evidence that this country needs serious and widespread immigration reform, including a reasonable path to citizenship for undocumented individuals already here, we can't act. Congress is frozen on the issue, so states step in with their draconion solutions that are economically self-destructive. Let's be clear, we need new immigrants in our country today as much as we always have.  It's an economic imparative. Don't agree? Read this Washington State perspective that's loaded with facts and figures making the case for sensible immigration reform.

Just one more. Crime and neighborhood safety are a concern throughout Seattle. Every neighborhood and every resident deserves to be safe and secure in their home, on the streets and sidewalks of our city, and in our parks, at work and at school. But we can't bring ourselves to invest in the crime prevention interventions we absolutely know work extremely well and pay huge dividends. Here's an example—the Nurse Family Partnership (NFP).

NFP is a program across the country that every week sends a specially-trained nurse into the home of first-time mothers living in poverty beginning early in their pregnancy until their child reaches age two.  The program has been operating for more than 30 years and it is one of the most examined, tested, reviewed and evaluated social service interventions anywhere. The results of the NFP are clearly documented—lower criminal involvement by both mother and child, better academic outcomes for the child, stronger economic stability for the mother, and on and on. Our state government ranks the NFP as among the most effective and most efficient interventions possible to improve child welfare and prevent crime. Yet, government funding of the NFP only allows us to reach about half of the eligible moms in Seattle. What a shame!

OK, Danny, I've griped.  Off to the neighborhood BBQ now.  What a country!

The Next Fifty and Free Opera

The Next Fifty celebration at the Seattle Center kicked off last Saturday with great fanfare. This year marks the 50^th anniversary of Seattle’s 1962 World’s Fair and lately there has been a lot of interesting chatter about the history and future of our city. (Check out this letter from the 1962 City Council to the “2,012” City Council.)

The celebrations will continue the next six months and many arts organizations that make their home at the Seattle Center are taking part. On Saturday, May 5, the Seattle Opera is hosting a free HD simulcast in Key Arena for the opening night McCaw Hall performance of Madama Butterfly, the final show of its season. Up to 8,000 tickets are available for what is expected to be the largest live opera audience in Seattle history. Don’t think opera is for you? Read these opera myths debunked on the Seattle Opera Web site.

Ignite Seattle

We tried something different this week at the first meeting of the Council's Government Performance and Finance Committee and it worked. Ignite talks are being used around the country to communicate information quickly. At Ignite events, presenters share their personal and professional passions, using 20 slides that auto-advance every 15 seconds for a total of just five minutes.

Thank Goodness for Government

At exactly this minute—17 minutes and 43 seconds past eight o'clock in the morning—one week ago today, the alarm sounded at Fire Station 18 in Ballard and Seattle firefighters jumped into action and headed for their rigs.

They were on their way to bring my friend, Dave Carlstrom, back from the dead.

Why I Asked for Housing Discrimination Audit

Fair and equal access to housing is a fundamental right.  No one should ever be denied a place to live because of race or the color of their skin or because they have a disability.  This equal access right is spelled out in Seattle's Municipal Code which also identifies other classes protected from housing discrimination.

Last December, after reviewing newspaper articles from 10 years ago that told of widespread housing discrimination in Seattle, Councilmember Bruce Harrell and I sent a letter to the City's Office for Civil Rights asking for an audit to determine whether illegal practices in rental housing were still occurring. 

Last Friday, the Office for Civil Rights announced the audit results.  Here are the key findings:

"Overall, 55% of the tests showed evidence of illegal discrimination. In the tests for race-based discrimination, 69% showed patterns of inconsistencies that generally favored white testers. The inconsistencies included quoting a higher rent to African American testers, not telling African American testers about move-in specials, or using different screening criteria with African American testers, including credit or criminal background checks.

"In the tests for disability-based discrimination, 38% showed patterns of inconsistencies that create barriers for people with disabilities. The inconsistencies included refusing to accommodate service animals, not telling testers about available units, or not providing parking areas with spots designated for people with disabilities."

These findings are highly disappointing. I am pleased that the City is pursuing legal action against some of the property owners identified in the audit because often the best education is good law enforcement.  Let's hope that in the future all property owners in Seattle comply with our fair housing laws which are intended to protect a fundamental American right to equal access to housing. 

 

State Senator Scott White: A Tribute

My friend died today.

Senator Scott White was a man of character, rational, hardworking, a dedicated leader commited to public service.  We were together in Cle Elum the last couple of days at the annual conference of the Seattle Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce.  Political, labor, environmental, business, nonprofit and education leaders from around the state were there. 

Councilmember Sally Bagshaw and I moderated a panel that included Senator White on Thursday morning.  He was excited about arranging a bus trip to Yakima with Senator Curtis King and other legislators so we could better understand gang violence.  Senator White wanted to cut through the so-called Cascade Curtain between the east and west sides of Washington. 

Last night, Senator White joined a group of business leaders and legislators for a quiet dinner. We talked about the pending state budget cutbacks and how to protect core services, especially the safety net services so many rely on.  We briefly mentioned SR 520 and the Senator's planned testimony before the City Council on Monday.  We listened as friends from Boeing and King County government described efficiencies gained through Lean managment techniques.  We discussed the importance of higher education and how to get more funding; Senator White was a big booster of the University of Washington.

Tonight, a little after 7:30 p.m., we gathered in SODO to watch the beginning of the demolition of the Alaskan Way Viaduct. The word of Senator Scott's passing quietly spread through the crowd atop the Silver Cloud Hotel on First Avenue South. The celebration ended.  A friend was gone.  A friend who likely would have been there tonight to join the party, if he could.