By Reverend Angela Ying
How can Seattle have gone so wrong and become a city of people “sweeps?” The word calls to mind clean cities, such as Vancouver, Canada, and Toronto, Canada –– except sweeping is what they do to garbage.
People are not garbage.
Seattle’s sweeps cost more than $8 million per year and has no proven track record of getting people into permanent housing. Continue reading OPINION: Seattle Must Stop the Sweeps and Build Tiny House Villages
by the Seattle Peoples Party
This past year has been a very difficult one. With global fascism on the rise, the war has continued to escalate against people of color, women, trans and gender non-conforming folks, disabled people, and anyone who is economically disadvantaged. Here in Seattle, the housing catastrophe has intensified, with over 12,000 people living houseless at any given time.
by Geov Parrish
Primaries in even-numbered years with no presidential or governor’s elections and no local elections other than the Washington Legislature traditionally have the lowest turnout of any of the state’s primary election days. In 2014, the last such year, fewer than 30 percent of eligible King County voters actually voted—about 351,000 of 1.175 million.
Continue reading The Primary Election Results: Progressives Surging, But Still Have Work to Do
by Geov Parrish
If voting changed anything, they’d make it illegal … Oh wait.
And if voting didn’t change anything, they wouldn’t try to slip the primary past people in the middle of their short, glorious summer, when the last thing many of us want to do is pay attention to political candidates. In 2014, the last non-presidential election year with no local offices on the ballot, fewer than 30 percent of registered voters in King County, and less than a quarter of all eligible adults, bothered to vote. Continue reading Vote Now, So We Can Vote Later
by Joe Nguyen and Rosa Mai
When I started campaigning on the idea that representation matters, I received pushback from people who felt that I was playing into identity politics. Some of these people argued that I needed a wider appeal or that I could not win on demographic votes alone. There seemed to be a lot of folks assuming that representation begins and ends with race. In the end, representation never seems a satisfactory reason for a candidate to run nor for us to vote for them.
Continue reading Representation Matters: Why Politics Is Always a Matter of Life or Death
by Erica Soelling, DNP, ARNP, FNP-BC
This is one of a series of articles written by Commissioners from The Seattle Women’s Commission. The Commission advises the Mayor, City Council, and City of Seattle departments on issues that impact the women of Seattle.
The troubling separations of children from their parents at the U.S.-Mexico border will have long-lasting consequences on our community. Therefore, the Chairs of our Commission’s four subcommittees, including Community Health and Wellness, Economic and Educational Opportunities, Equitable Development, and Violence Prevention and Justice have each penned Op-Eds relating to how family separations will impact these four areas in our community. See previous posts here and here.
“The true character of society is revealed in how it treats its children.” This Nelson Mandela quote is remarkably prescient today, as draconian immigration policies separate and detain families at the border and within our city limits. These policies are wreaking havoc on the health of women and children, families, communities, and our nation.
by Hanna Brooks Olsen
Last week, the Trump administration announced that it would halt data collection from businesses with over 100 employees—close to 63 million businesses in total. The program, initiated by the Obama administration, was designed to find potential solutions to the ongoing racial and gender wage gaps among private employees. Similar data had been collected among federal contractors for years. Continue reading Trump Administration Cans Gender Wage Data Collection – Leaving Cities to Pick Up the Bag
by Ashok Chandwaney
Tax day is the day that ordinary Americans send their money to Washington, D.C., and wealthy Americans send their money to the Cayman Islands. – Jimmy Kimmel
Nowhere is this more true than Seattle. Working class people pay 16.8% of their income in taxes to make this city run. The wealthiest only pay 2.4%. I’m a tech worker, and expect to make over $250,000 this year and more in the future. Living in Seattle is a lot like if I hid my money in the Cayman Islands: I pay nearly nothing but still benefit by using roads, transit and all the other things working people fund. Continue reading I’d Like To Be Taxed, Please
by Jennifer Tran
The number of Washington state children with health insurance has risen to historic highs, with 39 of every 40 kids in the state now covered by health insurance. Further, disparities in access to health care have been reduced across nearly all racial and ethnic groups. Continue reading Washington Seeing Historic Progress in Kids’ Health Care Access
by Bob Hasegawa
I’ve spent my life fighting to make Seattle a city more accessible and equitable for all. First, as a leader for the Teamster’s Union, second, as a state representative and, most recently, a state senator. Continue reading Hasegawa: Clarifying My Record on Transit
