(given the assorted public safety issues in the CD, it would be prudent for us to take a very active part in the selection of the next Seattle Police chief. The interim chief, John Diaz, was East Precinct commander for several years. I recall no concerns or issues related to him.  

 I’d be overjoyed if the Mayor chose Captain Mike Meehan as our new Police Chief. He was East Precinct Commander before Paul Donoagh, and struck me as a very competent, realistic, down-to-earth kind of guy. )

SEATTLE CHANNEL, Cable 21

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Friday, March 20, 2009

Contact: George Howland Jr., Seattle Channel Communications, [email protected], (206) 684-5755

Watch It Tonight: What’s Next for the Seattle Police Department?

City Inside/Out premieres Friday, March 20, 7 p.m., Cable 21; program examines the current state of police-community relations in Seattle and asks what community leaders are looking for in a new chief. Guests include Seattle Police Officers’ Guild President Rich O’Neill, Seattle/King County NAACP President James Bible, SeattlePI.com’s Scott Gutierrez and SE Seattle Crime Prevention Council’s Mariana Quarnstrom.

SEATTLE —The Seattle Police Department will likely have a new chief soon. The current Police Chief, Gil Kerlikowske, has been nominated by President Barack Obama to be the nation’s next drug czar. As Kerlikowske goes through Senate confirmation, the Mayor has appointed an interim police chief is looking for a permanent replacement. On this week’s City Inside/Out, we examine the current state of law and order and police-community relations in Seattle. We also ask what community leaders are looking for in a new chief. Joining us in the studio are the Seattle Police Officers’ Guild President Rich O’Neill, Seattle/King County NAACP President James Bible, SeattlePI.com‘s Scott Gutierrez and SE Seattle Crime Prevention Council’s Mariana Quarnstrom.

Tune in tonight, Friday, March 20, 7 p.m., Cable 21 on SEATTLE CHANNEL. Did you miss last week’s show on the debate over reducing sentences for drug crimes? You can watch it right now by following this link:  >http://www.seattlechannel.org/CityInsideOut/.

From a press release from Councilmember Jean Godden

SEATTLE – The Seattle City Council will hold a public hearing on Thursday, March 26 at 5:30 p.m. in Council Chambers to hear from citizens their priorities for city government, including programs and services that they would like to see preserved.  

“Designing a city budget works best when there is thoughtful and constructive input from citizens,” said Councilmember Jean Godden, chair of the Council’s budget committee. “It’s going to take all of us to make the difficult choices and steer us in the right direction”. 

Since the budget was passed just over three months ago, the City’s sales tax and other revenues have significantly declined and continue to do so. This steep drop mirrors what is happening across the country. As a result, the City finds itself facing an estimated budget gap of more than $25 million dollars – and growing – for 2009.

The people affected by these outages presumably can’t read or write about them (unless they relocate to a cafe with internet and electrons). From KING5:

(4:46 PM PDT on Sunday, March 15, 2009)

A line down near 31st Ave. E. and E. Pine Street knocked out power for about 3,000 customers. By 2 p.m., about half of those customers had service restored. The rest were expected to have power by 8.m. (PM? AM?)

The outage stretched from Lake Washington to 30th Ave. E., between E. Arlington Pl on the south and 35th Ave. E. on the north.

Are you passionate about issues affecting your neighborhood and community? Do you want to get involved? You just might find the Executive Board of the East Precinct Crime Prevention Coalition (EPCPC) to be the perfect place for you!

Attached is a short description of what the role of an Executive Board member looks like. The EPCPC is a community organization that promotes partnerships among community residents, businesses, government agencies, students, teachers/school administrators and social service agencies. The group also serves as an advisory to the SPD Captain of the East Precinct, Paul McDonagh.

Seattle Neighborhood Group (SNG) staffs the group (that’s me!), so Board Members don’t have to worry about planning meetings, reminders, agendas, etc. – the boring stuff :). Executive Board Members use all their time to discuss and consider action options and vote on them, utilize their expertise to make recommendations to the group about their community, and come up with creative ideas and solutions to problems facing our community. We currently have a great Board but there is room for many more to join! I want to encourage you to take advantage of this opportunity as a leader in your community.

Please contact me if you are interested or have any questions. Thanks, Sita —

Sita DeGiulio Das East Program Coordinator Seattle Neighborhood Group 206.323.9666 (Main Line) 206.322.9330 (Direct Line)

[email protected]

 http://www.sngi.org/

From The Skanner: 

NAACP Calls in Attorneys

Multiple lawsuits, civil rights complaints filed against school district

By Lisa Loving of The Skanner

Hundreds of complaints and as many as five separate lawsuits have been filed against the Seattle School District over its plans to save money by shuttering facilities.

….

From Monday’s P-I “Getting There” column.  If either the PI reporter or the traffic engineer had gone out to look at the intersection (or used Google maps), they’d have seen that the desired/proposed No Left Turn sign is already there: it’s on the overhead traffic light gantry on the south side of 23rd, between the sets of lights. What part of “no left turn” don’t they understand?

 

Question: Erin Weible sees a “serious issue” on 23rd Avenue East in Seattle — southbound drivers crossing over Madison and then quickly trying to make an immediate left turn across traffic onto East Denny Way, “about 5 yards” past the intersection. “Since there is no left turn allowed on Madison, drivers will not turn on the indicator until they are through the intersection and then immediately stop. Traffic is heavy along 23rd at all hours, so it can take several minutes for an opportunity to turn. Other southbound drivers following the left-turning vehicle are left hanging out to dry on Madison. It seems another ‘No Left Turn’ sign could be posted, or perhaps (the city could) forbid left turns along the entire block?”

Answer: The city says neither of those things is needed and that adding a signal might have other, undesirable results. Eric Widstrand, Seattle’s traffic engineer, said he understands the difficulty of making that turn, “however, there have been no reported collisions related to left-turning vehicles. Based upon this information, the section of 23rd Avenue East at East Madison Street (and) East Denny Way seems to be operating safely and efficiently.” Asked about congestion at the intersection because of the turns, Widstrand said there’s “none perceived.”

“A signal at the 23 Avenue East and East Denny Way intersection is not warranted and installing an unwarranted signal can, in fact, be a detriment to efficient movement in an intersection, causing congestion and unnecessary delays as well as the potential for an increase in rear-end collisions,” Widstrand said. “An unwarranted signal can also have the adverse effect of increasing cut-through traffic into a local neighborhood. Also, signs restricting left-hand turns could increase cut-through traffic as drivers seek another location to make the turn.”

(via Chris Leman) The following information was received from the Seattle Displacement Coalition, with some additional background provided:

Galen Goff is a colleague of mine at the Hutchinson Cancer Center: she’s the editor of Center News, our in house online newspaper, among other things. I saw her picture (shown here) in a Seattle Times Pacific Magazine article last summer about the changing face of the Central District, and realized that she must live in the area.

She’s now in Washington DC and is writing a blog about the inauguration for KING 5. Her first post appeared on the KING blog page yesterday. Be on the lookout for more reports from her on Inauguration Day!

Here’s her second post.

(I’ll add a better link if KING 5 ever posts one!)

BTW: Did you know that Barack Obama lived on Capitol Hill as a toddler?

The Seattle Times has a whole lot of bloggers reporting from DC, including a CD resident. And this Crosscut post tells you what our local government officials are up to in DC: Tom Rasmussen knows  incoming White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel.

I bet we all know lots of little ways to deal, on a personal level, with car prowls:

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2008587874_c

Care to share some hints? Yes, yes, I know it’s a symptom of a bigger societal issue, jobs, employment, respect etc, etc, but let’s stick for now to the simple mechanics of getting by. 

My suggestion:

Prowlers go for the glove box and run off with all the contents, to sort through later. We lost a whole load of stuff that was annoying/expensive to replace but of no value to others : insurance certificate, key to gas cap, owners’ manual etc. BTW it was an 18 year  old Civic.

Solution: we now keep that stuff in the pocket on the back of  the passenger’s seat.

This Thursday the Central Area District Council will hold its first monthly meeting with its new officers, who were elected at the December meeting (details and agenda below).

Tenaya Wright is the chair, Thurston Muskelly is the vice chair and Ron Boddie is the secretary. Many of you will have met Tenaya (and her kids) at East Precinct Crime Prevention Coalition meetings. Thurston is active in many organizations in the Central Area and Ron was the District Council Chair last year. The vice chair also serves as the chair of the Central Area Neighborhood Plan implementation team.

Thurston Muskelly(center) with the Mayor

What’s a District Council?

The City’s view of neighborhoods interacting with government is, of course, a hierarchical one: neighborhood groups make up a local City sponsored body ( a District Council) which sends representatives to a Citywide body, the City Neighborhood Council (aka CNC): Ron Boddie was the Central Area District Council’s Chair and CNC representative last year, and vice-chair Adrienne Bailey also often attended. 

The City Neighborhood Council also recently had elections: Kathy Nyland from the Greater Duwamish District Council is the new chair and Laine Ross of the Downtown District Council is the new vice-chair.

It’ll be interesting to see how all the dynamics work out with this new slate of District Council and City Neighborhood Council officers.

The meeting details (from Ted Divina, Central Area Neighborhood Service Center):

 

Central Area Neighborhood District Council

January 8th, 2009: 6:00 pm- 7:30 pm

Garfield Community Center, 2323 East Cherry Street

—– Agenda Topics —–
1.     Introductions ·      Additions to Agenda ·      Group Reports/Updates	Tenaya Wright, Chair – District Council Members	6:00 p.m.- 6:15 p.m.
2.     Marketing the District Council	Tenaya Wright Chair	6:15 pm – 6:25 pm
3.     By Laws Discussion	Thurston Muskelly, Vice Chair	6:25 p.m.- 6:45 p.m.
4.  2009 Work Plan Discussion	All Members	6:45 p.m.- 7:10 p.m.
5.  Thank You Card to Ms. Connelly for Emergency Preparedness Training	All Members	7:10 p.m.- 7:30 p.m.
6. Items for February 12th NDC meeting Adjournment	Tenaya Wright Chair	7:30 p.m.