These community conversations provide important opportunities for School Board members to connect with the community.
| Details Of: | District V Community Meeting (Blanford) |
| Date: | 1/18/2014 (10:00 AM – 11:30 AM) |
| Calendar: | Seattle Public Schools (School Board) |
| Description: | Informal, drop-in opportunity to meet directly with school board director, Stephan Blanford.Location: Douglass-Truth Library, 2300 E Yesler Way |
2013′s Mt. Zion celebration
2014′s celebration of Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday stretches across the weekend with and event Thursday at the Paramount, Friday’s 40th annual celebration at E Madison’s Mt. Zion and a new spirit rallying people at Garfield High School on Monday under the banner of a $15 minimum wage in Seattle. Details below.
Human Rights Hero Larry Gossett to present celebration’s keynote address
Thursday, January 16, 2014
Noon – 1 p.m.
Paramount Theater
911 Pine St, Seattle
Six Words: National ‘Race Card’ Project launches in Seattle at Martin Luther King Jr. Community Celebration at Mt. Zion
Michele Norris, host and special correspondent for National Public Radio (NPR), will be keynote speaker at the 40th Annual Martin Luther King Jr. Community Celebration presented by the Seattle Community Colleges. Three years ago, Norris started a national conversation with The Race Card Project, which invites participants to share their thoughts, experiences and observations about race in one sentence with only six words. Thousands of interesting and thoughtful sentences from around the world are posted on The Race Card Project website.
Broadcast journalist Tonya Mosley, who recently completed the Black in Seattle series for KUOW, will emcee the interactive program and a reception to follow, where students and the community are invited to engage in an informal moderated conversation inspired by what they heard during the program.
Area leaders will present their six-word Race Cards throughout the program. Students will provide a dramatic reading of Race Cards, submitted by people in our community at www.seattlecolleges.edu/mlk.
Award-winning Greater Works Chorale directed by DaNell Daymon will perform dynamic gospel music throughout.
WHEN
Friday, Jan. 17, 2014
12 – 1:30 pm (Program)
1:30 – 2:30 (Reception & Discussion)
WHERE
Mt. Zion Baptist Church
1634 19th Ave, Seattle 98122
BACKGROUND
The 40th anniversary event is recognized as one of the area’s oldest and most significant events commemorating the life of Dr. King and reinforcing Dr. King’s message of tolerance and inclusion.
A capacity audience of close to 1,000 community members, civic and political leaders and students of all ages, is anticipated.
The event builds on the RACE exhibit at the Pacific Science Center, which explores the biology, history and culture of race and has drawn people from throughout the region for information and presentations.
The annual Giddens School MLK March for Peace and Justice will be held Friday, January 17, 2014th at 10am. Organized by Giddens School in conjunction with the Seattle Girls School and Lake Washington Girls Middle School. Students have spent the past several weeks learning about the civil rights movement and have created their own protest and peace signs. They will carry their signs and sing traditional protest songs as they march from Giddens School to the Langston Hughes Cultural Arts Center.
DATE AND TIME: Friday, February 17th at 10am.
ROUTE: March begins at Giddens School, 620 20th Avenue S. Students will walk north on 20th and then walk through Pratt Park. March will end at the Langston Hughes Cultural Arts Center at 104 17th Ave S, Seattle, WA 98144
CONTACT: Amy Bresslour, Development Director
Photos from Question Bridge, courtesy of PCNW
Photo Center NW is set to host an opening reception tonight at 6:00 PM for two new exhibitions, Question Bridge and Seen, both focusing on black men. They’ll run through March 8.
Question Bridge: Black Males is a project that critically explores challenging issues within the Black male community by instigating a transmedia conversation among black men across the geographic, economic, generational, educational and social strata of American society. Question Bridge provides a safe setting for necessary, honest expression and healing dialogue on themes that divide, unite and puzzle black males in the United States. Please join us on Wednesday, January 22nd for an artist lecture with Hank Willis Thomas, artist and Question Bridge collaborator.
Photographs in Seen were selected from images submitted by men of African diasporal descent in the Northwest in response to the question: In one photograph, what would you say? Photographs from twenty-six men ranging from age 4 to 70 were chosen by the curators and reflect a diverse range of subject and aesthetic approaches. Please join us on Wednesday, January 22nd for an artist lecture with Hank Willis Thomas, artist and Question Bridge collaborator.
(Image: ChaseRW via the CHS Flickr pool)
King County will move ahead with a local plan to help Seattle and surrounding communities overcome a public transportation budget shortfall to stave off yet another round of planned Metro service cuts.
County Executive Dow Constantine proposed Tuesday a King County Transportation District ordinance that will ask voters to approve a 0.1% increase in sales tax and a $60 annual vehicle license fee. Meanwhile, Metro fares would be adjusted with a 25-cent increase for standard adult fares and a new low-income fare of $1.50 for qualifying riders.
The sales tax and fees would create about $130 million in revenue to help fund Metro, the county says.
Metro says the standard fare increase would raise an estimated $6.6 million annually, starting in March 2015.
Meanwhile, a public transportation forum is planned for Thursday at the Broadway Performance Hall.
Each session will open with a short presentation on the history of cuts to King County Metro, current funding sources, and climate in the legislature. Directly following the presentation, our featured panel will address critical questions regarding the situation.
In late 2013, CHS reported on a slate of cuts being proposed for Metro routes including changes like a truncated 12 on Capitol Hill. “With the expiration of the temporary, two-year $20 Congestion Reduction Charge in June and the draining of reserve funds, Metro needs an estimated $75 million in annual revenue to keep service on the road and purchase replacement buses or it must cut up to 17 percent of service,” a county statement on the ordinance proposal reads.
Metro says it has outlined a proposal to cancel 74 bus routes and reduce and revise another 107 routes to live within reduced revenues.
The King County Council will now take up the proposal and decide how and when it will be brought to the ballot for a vote, likely in April. A statement on the proposal is below.
A new funding proposal
King County, local cities, and community leaders have been asking the Washington Legislature to approve a balanced statewide transportation funding package that would authorize local funding tools. The legislature has been considering such proposals, but has not approved one.
Without a legislative solution and with deep service cuts looming, County Executive Dow Constantine has proposed that the King County Council form a countywide transportation benefit district and put a transportation funding proposal on the ballot for a public vote in April.
This proposed measure would generate approximately $130 million annually from two revenue sources:
- $60 annual vehicle fee, which would generate approximately $80 million per year.
- 0.1% increase in sales tax, which would generate approximately $50 million per year (and expire after 10 years).
The proposal would raise enough money to sustain Metro’s current level of service and address some maintenance needs for city streets and King County roads.
Sixty percent of the funds, or about $80 million in 2015, would go to Metro for service and buses.
Forty percent, or about $50 million in 2015, would be allocated to cities and King County Road Services on the basis of population. These funds would be used for the maintenance, preservation and improvement of roads and bridges; for projects that support pedestrian and non-motorized travel; and for other transportation improvements.
Also proposed is a Metro fare change that would take effect in March 2015. All fares for regular transit service would go up by 25 cents; the Access paratransit fare would increase by 50 cents. Metro would also introduce a new reduced fare for people with low-incomes, helping keep bus service affordable for those who need it most. This new fare builds on the recommendation of the Low Income Fare Options Advisory Committee.
An October hazing incident including a reportedly drunken party in the Arboretum busted up by police that lead to suspensions has pushed the parents of one Garfield High School student targeted for discipline.
The Seattle PI has details on the lawsuit filed against Seattle Public Schools:
One of 10 students suspended following the Sept. 27 incident has since sued the district. Through that now-federal lawsuit, the boy and his parents fault Seattle Public Schools for the 11-day suspension.
While that student’s parents described the incident as light-hearted “froshing,” Garfield administrators said in prior years saw a dangerously intoxicated 14-year-old student left unconscious at a Seattle park. Efforts to crack down on the decades-old practice, though, appear to have been unsuccessful so far.
Swedish Medical Center – First Hill Campus will be holding a free public session to help the community to sign up for new healthcare insurance through the Washington Health Benefit Exchange. It’s scheduled for Monday, January 20 from 11a.m. to 7p.m. at Swedish First Hill campus in the Cafeteria Alcove room, B-level (inside dining room). If you are not able to attend, please call 206-386-6996 to set up an appointment.
Swedish Medical Center – First Hill Campus will be holding a free public session to help those who are signing up for new healthcare insurance through the Washington Health Benefit Exchange. It’s scheduled for Monday, January 20 from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. at the Swedish Medical Center First Hill Campus 747 Broadway Seattle WA 98122 in the Cafeteria Alcove Room B-Level (inside Dining Room). If you are not able to attend, please call 206-386-6996 to set up an appointment.
Looks like someone broke into my basement to watch TV, they left the door to the basement wide open and the TV on.
We posted in late 2012 about the possibility of Gigabit, a startup company, bringing a municipal high-speed fiber network to twelve Seattle neighborhoods by fall 2013 — including most of Capitol Hill and the Central District. That news was especially welcome in the CD, where residents have suffered with subpar service from commercial providers for decades.
But alas, it’s not to be. And now Gigabit owes the city money, too.
Here’s the word from Seattle Met:
Gigabit—a four-year-old, Cincinnatti-based startup that has announced plans to bring broadband to Topeka, KS, Chicago, Jackson, MS, and other cities—has not, to date, hooked up a single Internet connection anywhere—has apparently failed in its efforts to bring broadband to Chicago’s South Side, according to the tech site Chicago Grid, and has “fail[ed] to provide local residents with details” about its future plans.
Additionally, Gigabit has, according to Seattle’s Geekwire, failed to pay a bill of $52,250 to the city of Seattle—a minuscule but symbolic amount compared to the millions that would have been required to actually get the high-speed broadband project off the ground.
McGinn chose Gigabit to activate unused “dark fiber” in neighborhoods across Seattle last year. After delaying its planned rollout (and circumscribing it geographically) Gigabit acknowledged that it hadn’t managed to secure investor funding for its broadband system and was putting the plan on hold indefinitely.
McGinn scored political points from a widely distributed Washington Post story touting his advocacy for fast broadband and criticizing his opponent, now-Mayor Ed Murray, for benefiting from two independent expenditure campaigns that received money from Gigabit rival and Internet giant Comcast. (PubliCola reported on Murray’s Comcast money and the Gigabit angle prior to the Post‘s speculative story about Murray’s supposed bias against Gigabit due to his Comcast money.)
Murray told PubliCola he wasn’t opposed to Gigabit’s proposal, but would like to open up the broadband bidding process to more than one company.