by Lauren Duffy
(This article was originally published on Real Change and has been reprinted under an agreement.)
Homelessness remains a persistent problem in Seattle and King County. The region that houses some of the wealthiest men on the planet simultaneously has one of the largest populations of homeless people in the country.
Continue reading Myth Busting: Five Misconceptions About Homelessness We Need to Retireby Kevin Schofield
Last weekend, I talked about the benefits for Black students of having a Black teacher, benefits that were proven in a long-term study of students in Tennessee. This weekend’s read is a result from another valuable long-term study, this time on children’s brain development. Called the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) study, it recruited 11,880 children ages 9–10 from 21 sites across the United States and will look at how those kids’ experiences and their bodies’ changing biology affects their brain development over the following several years. Like the study on students, this one is likely to produce dozens, if not hundreds, of research papers with new discoveries.
Continue reading Weekend Reads | Is Playing Video Games Good for Kids’ Brains?by Chardonnay Beaver
In 1967, after fighting against Jim Crow segregation and winning many civil rights victories for Black and Brown Americans, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and many others called for a “revolution of values” in America.
The Poor People’s Campaign marks Dr. King’s philosophical shift from civil rights to human rights — demanding a new consciousness amid the threat of war, poverty, racial discrimination, and white supremacy. This inclusive fusion movement would unite all races through their commonality of struggle, to create solutions that would revolutionize American values.
Continue reading Poor People’s Campaign: Called to Lead — Part 3by Kevin Schofield
Back in the 1990s, the state of Tennessee began a field experiment looking at the impact of class size in its elementary schools. Called Project STAR (Student-Teacher Achievement Ratio), it randomly assigned students to a certain teacher and classroom. It found, not surprisingly, that class size mattered a lot: Students in smaller classes did better (as measured by end-of-year test scores).
Continue reading Weekend Reads | The Impact of Black Teachers on Black Studentsby Troy Landrum Jr.
“Prolific, so gifted!” Those are the first words we hear from the resounding lyrics of the late great Nipsey Hussle’s award-winning Victory Lap album. If you know of his life and work, you know exactly how impactful those words are to his legacy. If you don’t know, then it would be my honor to tell you.
Continue reading D’Vonne Pickett Jr. — ‘Prolific, So Gifted!’by Ashley Archibald
(This article was originally published on Real Change and has been reprinted under an agreement.)
When an unmasked Gov. Jay Inslee announced the end of the coronavirus state of emergency after more than two years, he did so with matter-of-fact language. Language for a boardroom.
Continue reading On Oct. 31, Get Ready to Welcome … the New Normal!by Kevin Schofield
Growing up in a rural area, as I did, one learns that a regular rite of summer is bugs getting smashed on your car windshield. There’s the odd one here and there, and then occasionally when driving by a field a swarm will cross the road and … well, it’s pretty disgusting. But over the past couple of decades, many people have started to notice that there don’t seem to be nearly as many flying insects as there used to be. At the same time, scientists have been gathering data that seems to confirm the phenomenon: Insect populations are in decline in many parts of the world.
Continue reading Weekend Reads | Your Windshield May Have Important Data Splattered on Itby Kevin Schofield
This weekend’s read is a new report from the City of Seattle’s Office of Sustainability and Environment, which provides an inventory of the city’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in 2020. It looks at both the magnitude of GHG emissions as well as the sources, and it gives us an interesting and insightful look at what it will take to make meaningful reduction in the city’s contribution to global warming.
Continue reading Weekend Reads | Seattle’s Greenhouse Gas Emissionsby Andrew Hong
South Seattle is a unique and important part of the state to understand. We are the most diverse part of the state, with many neighborhoods being over three-quarters People of Color. However, our community’s needs and an understanding of our communities are often discarded. That includes our politics. Most political analyses of Washington State gloss over Communities of Color, and the analyses that do dive into BIPOC communities often lump all Communities of Color together into one bucket. However, Bellevue Communities of Color are much different from Central Washington Communities of Color which are much different from South End Communities of Color.
Continue reading How Gentrification Shapes South End Politics: Race and Politics in South Seattleby Lauryn Bray
On Sept. 27, 2022, Mayor Bruce Harrell delivered his budget proposal for 2023, which included a $10 million increase in funding for the Regional Homelessness Authority, a $1 million increase to the $6 million budget for projects designed to reduce traffic collisions in the Rainier Valley, and pay increases for homelessness service providers. The budget also outlines increased spending for police, using the JumpStart payroll tax for non-JumpStart programs, moving the City’s parking enforcement back to the Seattle Police Department, and installing ShotSpotters in Rainier Beach. As Bruce Harrell attempts to follow through with his campaign promise to address public safety concerns, he seeks to undo the abolition efforts of the 2020–2022 state of civil unrest.
Continue reading Community Groups Say ShotSpotter in Proposed Mayoral Budget May Harm South End
