Former Seattle Police Chief Carmen Best told Change Washington that Seattle is on the edge of a precipice and that city leaders will determine whether we “turn and keep it the top-tier world class city that it is or if we’re going to just let mayhem and destruction take us in a different direction.” Chief...
Mark Mason, CEO of HomeStreet Bank knows a lot about Seattle and what’s working and not for our city’s businesses. In a recent Seattle Times editorial, Mason makes a number of critical points that our elected leaders and candidates for office must address: Companies are leaving Seattle or abandoning plans to locate here. Mason points...
The latest Danny Westneat column is bleak. Business owners, residents, and visitors alike are reeling from the “wild, wild West” that Pioneer Square has become. There is no question what has gone wrong here. In a knee-jerk move, the Seattle City Council cut the police department’s budget leading to the loss of the first African-American...
The first day of school arrived last week and still the school district had not cleared the encampment of homeless individuals by Broadview-Thompson K-8 School. Parents are upset and why shouldn’t they be? At the same time, the Seattle Times Editorial Board called on the city to ensure that city parks and amenities are cleared...
If you had $216 million, what would you to do address homelessness? KOMO reports the City of Seattle now has a record $216 million to spend on homelessness this year and with about 8,000 people unsheltered, the city should be poised to make a serious dent in the number of unsheltered and unserved people…right? Recent...
U.S District Judge James Robart made clear this week that the federal consent decree allowing the federal government to oversee the Seattle Police Department will continue until Seattle’s leaders can get their act together. The Seattle Times reported that Judge Robart cited many possible reasons for the ongoing lack of compliance that he says has...
The race for Seattle City Attorney is turning into one of the more interesting races to watch after yesterday’s primary. The importance of this position cannot be overstated. The city attorney is responsible for ensuring that criminals are prosecuted. As KOMO News put it, “concerns about crime, safety and repeat offenders are a driving force...
“These people need to get down to business and clean up the mess in this city.” That’s what Joe Howard, a financial trader living in Seattle, has to say to local political candidates. “I understand you want to open up society, you want a fair and equitable society, but just being airheaded about things behind...
The global pandemic was a gut punch to our rapidly growing regional economy, with the greatest costs of the slowdown landing on the backs of low-income workers and communities of color. This coincided with a rapid spike in violent crime, vandalism, and people in crisis. We are recovering, but in order to get the economy...
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...
In an email to his constituents last week, Seattle City Councilmember Dan Strauss wanted to “address the homelessness in district 6.” Strauss said that action was needed to get homeless people out of parks, libraries, and bus stops and into adequate shelter. One of the best tools for this, Strauss wrote, was the Navigation Team....
The Seattle Times’s Dominic Gates reported that arrests and property damage in downtown Seattle are impacting SPD’s ability to respond to other crimes happening in the city and the overall public safety of the community. Following demonstrations over the weekend, interim SPD Chief Adrian Diaz pleaded to members of the community for the violence and...
A Superior Court Judge ruled that there was enough evidence to move forward with the recall petition against Seattle City Councilmember Kshama Sawant. According to a King 5 News report, the judge ruled that four allegations made against Sawant can proceed. These are serious allegations ranging from misusing public resources to doxing Mayor Durkin. Sawant...
Black Lives Matter of Seattle King County (BLMSKC) is taking the fight to the Seattle City Council. According a report from MyNorthwest.com the group sent a letter to the Ethics and Elections Commission (SEEC) calling for an immediate, transparent and aggressive investigation into the actions and conduct of the city council. The letter asks SEEC...