Tuesday, August 13
As the city council prepared to discuss legislation that would authorize police to detain and arrest sex workers “loitering for the purposes of prostitution” and ban those same sex workers from hundreds of blocks around Aurora Ave. N, experts told us that the effect of such laws and orders (which were a routine practice until fairly recently) has been shown to harm sex workers and will not address issues like gun violence and sex trafficking, as the proposal’s proponents claim.
The council, business owners, and people who live on or near Aurora have made a number claims about what the legislation says and what it would accomplish. In this opinion piece, I explained why most of the claims around the bill’s positive impacts are baseless or false: It does nothing to address gun violence, does not “allow” cops to intervene if they suspect sex trafficking (since they already can), and does not propose or fund any new services for sex workers.
Wednesday, August 14
In what’s starting to feel like one in an endless series of political temper tantrums, members of the newly elected city council blamed the previous council for passing legislation last year to increase the JumpStart payroll tax to raise about $20 million a year for student mental health, saying they basically did nothing for four years. Then they voted not to spend almost half of this year’s $20 million; the unspent money can now be used to help fill the budget deficit.
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City and County Plan to Eliminate Homelessness Authority’s Implementation Board
PubliCola had the scoop on a proposal from the city and county (the agency’s two main funders) to eliminate the King County Regional Homelessness Authority’s implementation board, made up of stakeholders who don’t hold elected office, and consolidate its power into the governing board, made up of elected officials. Officials have called the two-board structure “confusing” and said changing it will make the authority run more efficiently; advocates say the KCRHA won’t be effective without additional funding for programs that help homeless people.
Friday, August 16
Two stories in Friday’s Afternoon Fizz: First, City Councilmember Cathy Moore reportedly plans to hold off on legislation that would roll back renters’ rights passed by the previous council, including a law that requires landlords to rent to the first qualified applicant and one that bans winter evictions.
And: We got a copy of a consultant’s report recommending that the Community Police Commission change the way it interacts with the community it’s supposed to represent. After reviewing the report, the CPC terminated the consultant’s contract.