Seattle Forward

Seattle Needs A Vision Reset . . . Quickly

Seattle needs a vision reset.

The mayor is not seeking re-election. The school superintendent has resigned. The police chief was pushed aside by the city council. The coronavirus pandemic has left us isolated. Downtown is desolate. Where and how we work is being transformed. Many essential workers are struggling mightily to keep up and pay the bills. Our infrastructure systems are inadequately maintained. First responders are overloaded and stretched thin. Campers have taken over many of our parks, greenspaces and sidewalks, preventing others from accessing them safely. Ideological and political divides are pushing us further and further into our dogmatic corners. Herein, opportunity presents itself.  

The urban theorist Richard Florida argues cities and surrounding regions will thrive as we move beyond the pandemic, just as they have following previous calamities: “Covid-19 is a once-in-a-century catastrophe, but it also hands us a once-in-a-century opportunity to rebuild communities to be

Mayor Durkan's Decision, Crime and Economic Recovery, Wrong Vs Evil

Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan's decision not to seek re-election didn't come as a total surprise, but it certainly creates uncertainty for our city going forward.

 

When I write that it's not a surprise I mean that in today's political climate where verbal personal attacks, threats of violence, and name calling — the politics of personal destruction — are so common I understand the Mayor's decision. Add to this ugliness the illogical populism of the far left and far right and we have a mess that makes governing all the more difficult. (Unrelated, but important, see below for Anthony Robinson's discussion of being wrong versus being evil.)

 

Mayor Durkan's decision to focus on the significant challenges we face instead of a re-election

How Out of Touch Is The Seattle City Council?

Just how out of touch some members of our City Council are became painfully clearer this week when prosecution of misdemeanor crimes was discussed. Some Council members want to make it more difficult to successfully prosecute these cases.

 

Misdemeanor crimes are those where punishment is capped at 364 days in jail — think simple assault, fighting, retail theft (shoplifting), car prowl, harassment, non-retail theft (stealing your bicycle from your porch or backyard), and many other offenses.

 

In December, or perhaps January, the Council will consider a new city ordinance expanding the already existing affirmative defenses available to offenders charged with misdemeanors. These

Thoughts on Police Reform from a UW Criminologist

With national and local attention rightly being focused on policing and criminal justice reform, it is very important that we hear from experts who have studied these issues for years. One of these esteemed experts is University of Washington Professor Emeritus Robert Crutchfield. Professor Crutchfield, is a criminologist nationally known for his work on race and crime. He chairs the National Academy of Sciences' Law and Justice Committee. (By the way, the National Academy of Sciences was established by Congress and President Lincoln in 1863 during the Civil War to bring scientific facts and perspective into discussions of public policy.)

 

I interviewed Professor Crutchfield yesterday to gain his insight on the issues facing us here in Seattle around police reform. His comments are direct and filled with wisdom from his years of research. This transcript of our discussion has been edited for length and clarity.

 

Tim: There is a racial reckoning underway in our country that I believe was prompted primarily by the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis. As you social scientists like to say, “will it stick and make a difference?"

 

Bob: I have to confess some skepticism because I thought maybe we were going to go there after Michael Brown was killed in Ferguson. Then after Eric Garner was killed the conversations intensified. I think those events set the stage for the reaction to Floyd’s death. Maybe this time is different. Some of my colleagues think maybe this time is like what happened prior to the modern

Six Steps to Effective Police Reform

This post was first published Friday, August 14, 2020 in The Seattle Times.

 

In its reckless rush to slash the police budget, the Seattle City Council has forced out Chief Carmen Best — the city’s first Black female police chief — and created unnecessary risks to public health and safety.

 

The council’s decisions have been hasty and ill-advised — no consultation with Best, no checking-in with the federal judge overseeing the police department’s reform efforts, no discussion with the court’s monitor, no counsel from national police-reform experts, no due diligence to discover that by slashing Best’s salary they were making the head of the city’s largest department the second lowest paid department leader.

 

This is careless governance, no matter how you look at it.

Important Steps to Police Reform

This post was first published today at Crosscut.com. It was co-authored by myself and Bernard Melekian, DPPD.

 

It took less than 9 minutes. That’s how long Officer Derek Chauvin pressed his knee into the neck of George Floyd, killing the 46-year-old man on a Minneapolis street on May 25, and that is how long it took to erase whatever public trust and confidence had been gained in American policing over the past decade of attempted reforms.

 

It was a callous killing committed in the light of day, documented on video for all to witness.

 

Both of us have experience with policing, one as a patrol officer and detective and as an elected official in Seattle, the

Where Are We Headed?

The challenges of policing in our country did not arise in a vacuum. They connect to a broad array of factors . . . They connect to the fact that in this country police shootings and police misconduct disproportionately affect Black people. The challenges connect, as well, to the shameful American legacy of slavery, to Jim Crow, to mass incarceration, to the “war on drugs,” to redlining, and to public schools that have and continue to fail Black children.

 

In this context, and at this time, it is important for someone in my position to say clearly — Black Lives Matter.

 

Black Lives Matter in policing.

 

Black Lives Matter in education.

 

Black Lives Matter in our economic system.

 

We must squarely face our history of racism and injustice, and, frankly, that’s something I don’t believe our country has truly done. We will know that we have when all people of color have equal opportunity, equal protection under the law, and never doubt their standing as Americans.

 

I spoke the above words in an address to the City Council on September 25, 2017, when I was serving as Seattle’s interim Mayor. Now, nearly three years later, here we are again grappling with the same challenges in policing and criminal justice.

Do You Want Tent Encampments Almost Everywhere in Seattle?

A shorter version of this article was first published in The Seattle Times earlier this afternoon.

 

Three Seattle City Council members — Tammy Morales, Teresa Mosqueda, Kshama Sawant — want to permit tent encampments almost everywhere citywide.

 

This ill-conceived, very dangerous legislation (Council Bill 119796) would effectively allow camping across Seattle — including on sidewalks (if campers leave a 4-foot accessible pathway), planting strips, parks, open spaces and industrial lands.

 

Astonishingly, the council members even want to block police officers from removing encampments when someone calls police seeking removal of campers.

 

Key Step to Preserve Jobs and Springboard Our Economy

A shorter version of this article was first published at Crosscut on May 18, 2020, with my co-authors Gladys Gillis, owner of Starline Luxury Coaches in Seattle and immediate past chair of the national United Motor Coach Association and Jon Scholes, president and CEO of the Downtown Seattle Association.

 

On CBS' 60 Minutes on Sunday, May 17, 2020, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell urged Congress to do much more to preserve jobs and prevent business bankruptcies. Powell also said the Federal Reserve still had lots of "ammunition" to act further, but additional Congressional action is urgently needed.

 

Last January, Seattle was smack in the middle of the first outbreak of the coronavirus. Now, nearly four months later, almost 37 million Americans across the country have lost their jobs.

The official unemployment rate for April hit 14.7%.

 

This staggering number will likely increase; some believe unemployment levels could reach 30%. That is higher than the unemployment peak of the Great Depression, in 1933, when 24.9% of American workers were without work.

 

Pandemic exposes our neglect of children, families

This post was first published in The Seattle Times on April 24, 2020.

The coronavirus pandemic has shattered our feelings of invincibility.

It has exposed deep divides that separate us — inequities in education, economic opportunity, criminal justice and public health. This raw and searing reality is evident in the millions of low-wage workers who have lost their jobs and the disparate impact coronavirus has had on our Black and Hispanic neighbors.

It has revealed systemic failures to prepare, to be ready, even with clear warnings such a pandemic was highly likely to occur.

We shouldn’t be surprised at systemic failures. They are all around us.

Take the threat of climate change. Our response has been piecemeal and inadequate.

Take poverty. We have designed multiple programs to eliminate poverty, spent billions, yet intergenerational poverty persists, and families wanting help must navigate a confusing labyrinth that most of us would give up on very quickly.

Take public health. The pandemic has exposed huge gaps, and we remain way behind every other industrialized country in access to health care.

Take tax policy. We have failed to modernize Washington state’s tax structure. The result is the most regressive, inadequate, and unfair system in the country, where our poorest families pay a far higher percentage — nearly 18% — of their household income in taxes than do our wealthiest families, who only pay about 3%.

But nowhere are our systemic failures more damaging and longer lasting than in the education of our children, where inequity rages on. Until we solve our well-documented education inequities, we will continue to perpetuate a society where many Americans are kept out, pushed aside, held back.

The good news is that a very good solution, a proven solution, is ours for the taking.

We know from nearly 50 years of academic research that high-quality early learning opportunities in child care and preschool for 3– and 4-year-old children can change a child’s life outcomes — better education attainment, better health, higher earning power as an adult, less criminal justice system involvement. Yet, in Washington state we only invest about 1% of our state budget in early learning and child access to preschool services, placing us near the bottom among all states.

Researchers at the University of Chicago have documented that ensuring high-quality early learning is the most important and best investment we can make for our children and our society. Last year, these same researchers documented that these investments can eliminate intergenerational poverty.

Yet, we don’t make the level of investment that’s required.

The coronavirus pandemic has exposed our failures and drawn attention to who is harmed the most — low-income families and people of color. The same is true in education. We can change this reality by making sure every child has the strong and fair start they need and deserve, beginning in the all-important first five years of life.

As we prepare for recovery from this pandemic, let’s also resolve to erase education inequity and intergenerational poverty by adopting three proven solutions:

First, a strong system of high-quality child care for infants and toddlers, so no parent is held back from working or continuing their education.

About 30% of working parents in our state report they have quit a job or school because they couldn’t find or afford child care. As an interdependent society — something the pandemic has vividly reinforced — we should subsidize quality child care and make it affordable so working families don’t pay more than 7% of their household income on child care.

Businesses need this, too, to ensure a reliable and capable workforce.

Second, universal, yet voluntary, high-quality preschool for our 3– and 4-year-olds, free for everyone, just like our K-12 system. As the research shows, investing early in our children will reap huge benefits for all of us. Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Oklahoma, Vermont, Wisconsin and Washington, D.C., recognize these benefits and provide universal preschool.

We must also compensate the educators and staff providing child care and preschool commensurate with the vitally important child outcomes they are working to achieve.

Third, strong supports for young families with children who need an extra hand, like the national Nurse Family Partnership or Seattle’s Parent-Child Home Program. These research-based family support programs improve pregnancy outcomes, improve child and parent health, and begin to expose young children to a broad vocabulary and a love of reading.

With these three solutions, we follow the evidence of what works best. The cost should be viewed as an investment in the common good.

This work is urgent. Almost one-half of Washington’s 5-year-old children enter their kindergarten classroom already behind on six age-specific measures of preparedness to learn — social-emotional, physical, cognitive, language, literacy and mathematics. For children of color, it is closer to 60% who start behind.

 

Children who start behind very often remain behind, and we see the results later in high school dropout rates, criminal justice involvement and the inability to remain employed as adults.

Many of these outcomes can be traced to a child’s first five years, when 90% of brain development occurs.

These efforts will require a significant investment of public dollars, but the cost of the status quo is far greater. We could raise the necessary dollars — about $1 billion per year — by adopting a new progressive, dedicated tax that would help turn our upside-down tax structure right side up. One option is a capital-gains tax, as 41 other states have, on profits from the sale of corporate stocks, bonds and other financial assets. There may well be other revenue options to consider.

What we do today for our children isn’t working. As we prepare to rebuild from this pandemic, let’s seize the opportunity to build a strong, fully integrated and effective early-learning system so Washington becomes the best place in America to raise a family, to prepare our future work force and to erase the systemic failures that have created a scourge of inequity.