Issues | Change Washington

Lesson from New York City’s mayoral primary: Running on improving public safety in a blue city can win

Eric Adams’s win in the New York City primary election is inspiring to those of us in Seattle who want to see our own candidates for office and elected officials share detailed plans for increasing public safety and common sense governance. Adams’s position on police reforms is both pragmatic and yet bold. On his website,...

Seattle Shuts Down Ballard Spray Park Citing Concerns About Tent Encampments

The Seattle Parks and Recreation Department will not open the spray park at Ballard Commons Park this summer according to the Seattle Times and the My Ballard blog. The reason? Health and safety concerns related to tent encampments there. “Because of health and safety concerns of Seattle/King County Public Health and our own Safety Office...

Seattle Can Do Better

Homelessness has been a declared emergency in Seattle since 2015. Almost six years! Hundreds of millions of dollars have been spent to solve the crisis, but the problem is only getting worse. Almost every day, there is another story about encampments on playgrounds and school property and each story has a similar, disastrous ending. We...

The question is “Why?”

After five years of declaring a state of emergency on homelessness in Seattle and hundreds of millions of dollars spent, the problem is only getting worse. Almost every day, there is another story about encampments on playfields and school grounds and each story has a similar ending – Seattle will spend $167m on homelessness this...

Seattle City Council Has No Plan for Homeless Encampments

Day after day we see news reports about growing homeless encampments in city parks and on school property. These encampments threaten public safety and lack compassion for those who are living unsheltered, but the Seattle City Council has no plan to solve the problem. Instead, it has cut the Navigation Team and a majority of...

Making Seattle Safer?

The refusal of the Seattle City Council to make a plan to address public safety is an endorsement of the status quo. If only they weren’t trying to make it worse. Councilmember Lisa Herbold’s Misdemeanor Loophole Since October, we’ve kept the pressure on the Herbold Loophole, which would’ve legalized most misdemeanors in Seattle. Last fall...

Small Business on the Brink

Even before the pandemic, small businesses in Seattle were struggling. Beneath the surface of a thriving tech and real estate boom, small businesses were being pushed to the brink of survival, threatened by rising rents and rising taxes, while public safety issues were ignored by the Seattle City Council. Enter a global pandemic. As of...

Stretched Thin: An Analysis of Ten Years of Calls for Service to Seattle Police

STRETCHED THIN An Analysis of Ten Years of Calls for Service to Seattle Police By Scott Lindsay – attorney; Seattle resident; former public safety advisor and special assistant for police reform to the City of Seattle; former senior counsel to House Oversight Committee Democrats. The main function of Seattle’s police force is responding to the...

You Call, They Respond

Seattle City Council members are in the process of moving forward a budget that makes cuts to Seattle police and activists are pushing for even deeper cuts — without a plan for public safety. Because of your recent advocacy and participation on this topic, we wanted to make sure you were among the first to...

A Loophole that Effectively Legalizes Most Crime in Seattle

ANALYSIS OF SEATTLE CITY COUNCIL PROPOSAL TO EXCUSE AND DISMISS MOST MISDEMEANOR CRIMES By Scott Lindsay – attorney; Seattle resident; former public safety advisor and special assistant for police reform to the City of Seattle; former senior counsel to House Oversight Committee Democrats. On Wednesday, October 21, Councilmember Lisa Herbold, chairperson of the Seattle City...

Analysis of Seattle City Council Proposal to Excuse And Dismiss Most Misdemeanor Crimes (PDF)

By Scott Lindsay – attorney; Seattle resident; former public safety advisor and special assistant for police reform to the City of Seattle; former senior counsel to House Oversight Committee Democrats. On Wednesday, October 21, Councilmember Lisa Herbold, chairperson of the Seattle City Council’s Public Safety Committee, introduced far-reaching legislation to excuse and dismiss almost all...

Seattle is Feeling the Effects of Losing the Navigation Team

The Seattle City Council recently voted to reduce funding for public safety and completely eliminate the Navigation Team without a plan on how to address safety issues in parks. The Navigation Team’s absence is already being felt by many city residents. KOMO reported on the increasing presence of homeless encampments in Seattle parks in the last several...

Had enough?

Night after night, peaceful protests are co-opted by people destroying businesses and homes, setting fires, assaulting officers, throwing explosives, and blocking first responders. Peaceful protests and legitimate calls for social justice reforms are being drowned out by relentless violence, mayhem, and illegal behavior. Had enough? We have. It is frustrating to see Seattle’s reputation suffer as...

King County Residents Want Reform, Not Defunding Police

As this summer’s protests against police brutality continue into the fall months, more information is coming to light about where the public stands on the central issues of the protests. According to a new Crosscut/ Elway poll, the majority of voters support the broad goals of the protests, but remain against cutting the police by...