Tuesday, July 2
It’s Decision Day for the Seattle Transportation Levy
After months of sometimes contentious debate over the size and content of an eight-year transportation levy proposal that will go to Seattle voters in Novemer, the City Council prepared to send a $1.55 million levy to the ballot.
YouthCare, Seattle’s largest homeless service and shelter provider for youth and young adults, laid off about a quarter of its staff and announced it was closing four programs in an internal announcement, saying the organization was doing a “strategic realignment” in order to become financial sustainable. The closures include shelters in the U District and West Seattle as well as transitional housing programs.
Wednesday, July 3
An equity-oriented program aimed at providing access to funds for small neighborhood projects to marginalized communities has proved surprisingly controversial, sparking multiple amendments and heated accusations from transportation committee Rob Saka. On a narrow vote, the council preserved the new program while rejecting some last-minute amendments to the levy, including a long-term commitment to a controversial Burke-Gilman Trail alternative and a proposal from Tammy Morales to increase the levy to $1.7 billion.
PubliCola is supported entirely by readers like you.
CLICK BELOW to become a one-time or monthly contributor.
Friday, July 5
Former Seattle police chief Adrian Diaz is on long-term leave, but according to internal records, he still retains his old title of “police chief” and a salary to match. Also, SPD continues to slow-walk public records requests, offering response dates well into next year—a pace that stymies public access to information about SPD activities.
Saturday, July 6
Seattle Nice: Are Sweeps the Answer?
On this week’s edition of the Seattle Nice podcast, we discussed what impact the Supreme Court’s recent decision upholding a law barring people from sleeping in public will have in Seattle, which is surrounded by cities that have passed harsh laws that could push unsheltered people to move to Seattle from other areas.