Details from the Seattle Police Department blotter:

Seattle police are looking for a man who attacked a woman in her Central District apartment Monday evening.

At about 8:15 pm, the woman was cooking inside her home in the 700 block 26th Ave, when she heard a knock at the door.

When her young son ran to the door and unlocked the deadbolt, a man began trying to force his way inside the home.

The suspect broke a second lock on the door, burst inside the home, and grabbed the woman.

The woman was able to wrestle herself away from the man, grab her son, and run to a neighbor’s house, where she called 911.

During the incident, another woman walked by the victim’s home, heard the commotion inside, approached the door and asked what was going on. The suspect told the witness it “was an accident” before he fled.

Officers recovered several pieces of evidence at the scene, including clothing and other items.

The victim told officers the suspect was a hispanic or middle eastern man in his 20s to 30s, tall, with a slim build and light facial hair.

The victim sustained a minor injury to her wrist during the incident and was taken to Harborview for treatment.

UPDATE: The woman told Kiro 7 that she plans to move, as she no longer feels safe in her home. Police have not caught her attacker.

Over the summer, we began working with a small, diverse group of both for-profit and non-profit housing developers and citizens, all with an interest in promoting socially responsible development toward Seattle’s future built form. The Harrell, McGinn, Murray, and Steinbrueck campaigns all responded with detailed responses to our questionnaire.

After the primary election, we submitted the same questions to the candidates for City Council. We are happy to say that we have received responses from all but one campaign. The Conlin, Sawant, Bagshaw, Bellomio, Licata, O’Brien, and Shen campaigns all responded to our questions.

As the responses cannot be succinctly summarized—and with 7 different responses to 5 essay questions—below is not so much a summary as an excerpt from each full response:

Richard Conlin views the most “salient” issue regarding socially responsible development (SRD) to be the work of integrating affordable housing and transportation choices in a way that is accessible to all. His challenger, Kshama Sawant, acknowledges that Seattle has reason to tout its green credentials, but writes that these improvements are often at the expense of already marginalized communities. Sally Bagshaw hopes to advance SRD by requiring affordable units in market rate apartments, while Sam Bellomio advocates strengthening citizen engagement. Mike O’Brien, in his response, highlights his success in securing funds for a cultural center in Little Saigon as part of the Yesler Terrace Re-Development, as a way to prevent displacement and retain the neighborhood character.

Potential negative outcomes of growth, for Albert Shen, include inadequate public transit relative to the city’s growth, in particular to underserved communities—for example, the lack of a Graham Street LINK station. Kshama Sawant sees gentrification as a negative outcome of growth and development, and proposes freezing rents and enacting rent control as remedies. While Richard Conlin, after explaining the nature of Seattle’s boom-bust cycles, asserts that people in Seattle do not fear change, but rather loss. According to Sally Bagshaw, this is caused by rapid growth—and to Nick Licata this rapid growth tends to exacerbate already existing discrepancies in wealth.

Nick Licata asserts that the “Seattle process” can make the city reactive, when it should be responsive—essentially always “one (economic) boom behind.” However, the he goes on to say that as a model of community engagement, Seattle has set an international example. Mike O’Brien sees the “Seattle process” as an opportunity to fully examine a development’s merits, but that the lengthy review can increase costs that ultimately get passed on higher housing costs. Both Albert Shen and Kshama Sawant indicated that the process can cause delays to the supply of affordable housing, and both draw the connection between the delay in affordable housing and an inadequate public transportation system. Kshama Sawant proposes that while the “Seattle process” has somewhat democratized the process, monied influence still holds undue sway. Richard Conlin values the democratic principles behind the process, but sees it fall apart at times when it is an endless loop, and in the worst case the views ultimately taken into account are simply the last ones standing. He laments that the current land use code is often too focused on things we do not want to see happen, rather than promote opportunities for the things we would like to see happen.

In regards to building typologies and parking, Sally Bagshaw recognizes people’s desire to preserve single family neighborhoods, but states that 100,000 new neighbors are expected within city limits within the next 10 years. She has been impressed by some of the density solutions advocated by Seattle-based Sightline Institute’s Founder and Executive Director, Alan Durning, in his book Unlocking Home. These include, for example, easing parking and owner occupancy restrictions for (modest) detached and attached accessory dwelling units. Sam Bellomio states that the future typologies will be decided by the impacted neighborhoods. Nearly all candidates expressed the very critical need for improved public transportation to accompany any new growth in the city or any change to the building typologies as issues of both efficiency, sustainability, and equity.

All the candidates who responded express a desire for a range of affordability across all neighborhoods. Mike O’Brien sees the need for a multi-faceted approach that includes strengthening the incentive program in the SLU rezone to a variety of housing types, including micro-housing. Albert Shen states that his 8 years with the Seattle Chinatown International District Preservation and Development Authority (SCIDpda), a non-profit housing provider and community development agency, gives him direct experience in working with the affordable housing community. Kshama Sawant sees raising wages, controlling rents, and taking advantage of currently vacant and underutilized buildings as steps to take before increasing supply. Richard Conlin sees the greatest need for people who earn 30-50% of area median income (AMI), especially as the Federal government reduces its commitment, and sees the Housing Levy as a key tool for this. Nick Licata states that preservation of existing housing is a key to affordability as well, and that the creation of the City’s rental housing inspection program, which he spearheaded, will promote stronger maintenance practices and will help prevent some properties from reaching such a state of disrepair that they are vulnerable to redevelopment.

A hazing incident in the Arboretum late Friday afternoon involved more than 100 Garfield High School students. The students were hitting each other with paddles, throwing eggs, drinking alcohol, and were covered in shoe polish and wearing diapers.

Garfield High Principal Ted Howard arrived on the scene with the school’s community police officer after receiving a report of the incident. When he approached, students shouted derogatory names at him, including the N-Word.

Principal Howard wrote an email to Garfield parents on Friday night describing what happened:

An Important Message from Principal Howard…

 

Do you know where your son or daughter is at tonight?  I spent the afternoon with Officer Radford and many other officers walking through the Arboretum.  One hundred or more Garfield students were participating in hazing incidents, drinking hard alcohol and beer.  Students were being paddled, had on diapers, eggs were being thrown at students and shoe polish was all over their body.  As students ran and scattered from the scene they caused  at least one,  maybe more car accidents due to running in front of cars.  I was also called a “Nigger” by a student and many other derogatory names.

 

As I email you tonight I asked the question do you know where your son or daughter is at? I ask that question because I want you to know that we all have a responsibility to keep our kids safe.  We all work hard to make sure they learn life lessons and make better decisions.   Tonight some of our students didn’t make good decisions.  If students were there to watch,  cause harm to another student or behave inappropriately this impacts the entire GHS community and puts the GHS community in a negative light.

 

I am asked every year how we will address hazing.  Every year we work really hard to teach our students about respect, how to honor each other’s cultures, and to have empathy.  I am asking you tonight to continue that conversation with your son or daughter.  We are a community, a community that grows together and learns together.  Please have a conversation with your son and daughter about decisions, how they can and will impact people’s lives.

 

Thank you for your time.

 

Ted Howard

Principal Garfield HS

The district responded with the following message regarding hazing:

• We have zero tolerance for bullying, hazing and intimidation, and we take it very seriously.
• We are continuing to investigate this incident.
• We are in the process of determining what type of disciplinary action is warranted for those students who were involved.

Seattle police responded to the incident Friday but have not made any arrests.

Seattle Public Schools spokesperson Teresa Wippel told KPLU that “Garfield has had a history of this hazing, and it’s something that’s been going on for many years. It’s kind of a tradition,” she said. “The principal has been working hard to rectify to get students to stop doing it, but it has been something that’s been going on for a while.” KPLU also noted that in a school newsletter last year, a parent wrote that upperclassmen tend to haze younger students twice a year, around Homecoming and Spring Spirit Week.