by Elizabeth Turnbull
On Friday, the City of Seattle opened a COVID-19 testing site in the parking lot of Rainier Beach High School, in an attempt to make testing more available to Seattleites in zip codes where the City has found residents to be at higher risk for the virus. Continue reading New COVID-19 Testing Site Opens In Rainier Beach
by Carolyn Bick
The farm stand hadn’t even opened for business yet, but the socially distant line for Tilth Alliance’s new farm stand was already starting to stretch down the organization’s driveway on the sunny afternoon of June 25.
The nonprofit organic gardening and urban ecology organization is located at the Rainier Beach Urban Farm and Wetlands in partnership with Friends of Rainier Beach Urban Farm and Wetlands. Tucked away in a leafy residential area on South Cloverdale Street, this is the city’s largest urban farm. Tilth Alliance officially launched the new farm stand in this outdoor space on June 18. The farm stand is open every Thursday from 2–7 p.m. and is yet another one of Tilth Alliance’s efforts to support South King County residents.
Continue reading Farm Stand in Rainier Beach Provides Free and Low-Cost Produce for the Communityby Carolyn Bick
Joined by several community leaders, Mayor Jenny Durkan and Seattle Police Chief Carmen Best addressed two weekend shootings that claimed the life of a 19-year-old Black teen and wounded two others in the Capitol Hill Organized Protest (CHOP).
In the June 22 press conference, Durkan and Best committed to working with different Black-led community organizations, including Community Passageways and Not This Time. Durkan said that she will be introducing a 2020 budget rebalancing plan that will make a point to invest in the Black community, in order to enhance public safety. In the name of both equity and public safety, Durkan also committed $5 million for mentoring and summer learning for Black youth.
She also said that police officers responded to almost 17,000 emergency calls within the last nine months, and that her budget process will examine the police budget. She said that police only respond “because the other systems in society have failed,” and that what the city needs is for certain services, like mental health workers or community-based workers, to be available to respond to some emergency calls.
Continue reading In Press Conference, Durkan, Best Focus on Just Two of Three Shootings That Happened Over the Weekendby Ronnie Estoque
No one within a mile of Othello Park Sunday afternoon could avoid the message. The crowd was too massive, the signs too numerous and the uniform chant, Black Lives Matter, was too loud. Continue reading “We Want to Live” Rally Draws Thousands in Support of Black Youth in South Seattle
by Ari Robin McKenna and Makayla Miles
When Conner Dassa-Holland was in middle school at Orca K–8, his English teacher there, Donte Felder, would often present students with two questions:
“What is your story? What is your future?”
Years later, Donte would run into Conner from time to time in South Seattle, where they both lived. Usually, after getting an earful of Conner’s recent achievements, he would ask Conner what had become a predictable question:
“What is your story? What is your future?”
Responses varied over the years. Having spent both 7th and 8th grade in Donte’s English classrooms, Conner was ready with a variety of off-the-cuff answers over the years.
Donte remembers their final exchange:
“What is your story? What is your future?”
“Change the world. Our systems are wrong.”
“How?”
“I’ll figure that out later, but one step at a time.”
Continue reading Rainier Beach Community Pays Tribute to Conner Dassa-Hollandby Carolyn Bick
A week ago, Janet C. returned to her home in Rainier Beach, where she spent time with her husband, who has asthma. She kissed her son goodnight. When her daughter, who also has asthma, awakened from bad dreams, Janet consoled the girl, and slept in bed with her.
Then, days later, she learned that she had been exposed to the novel coronavirus. She’s not worried for herself, she said. She’s worried about her daughter, whose allergies are triggered by pollen.
Continue reading Despite Rain, Rainier Beach Community Uses City’s First Walk-Up Novel Coronavirus Testing Siteby Carolyn Bick
Starting tomorrow, the city will see its first walk-up novel coronavirus testing site at the Atlantic City Boat Ramp across from Rainier Beach High School in South Seattle.
Continue reading Seattle’s First Walk-Up Coronavirus Testing Site to Open in Rainier Beachby Jack Russillo
Mayor Jenny Durkan announced last week that “the most significant parks” in Seattle would close over this past weekend and likely for future ones as well. Unlike many other parks excluded from the mayor’s list, Rainier Beach’s Be’er Sheva Park was ultimately closed over the weekend without an explanation (The Emerald has reached out to the City and is awaiting a response). For some in the community, Be’er Sheva’s absence from the list, and confusion over its closure, brings into question the significance of the park to the city’s decision-makers in other regards.
Continue reading Be’er Sheva Park Remains an Unknown in Seattle Parks’ BudgetBy Carolyn Bick
In the second week, Jane Pauw found herself wrapped in darkness, her brain empty in a way she had never before experienced. Minutes, hours –– days, even –– slipped by as afterthoughts, while her body, wracked with fever, worked to preserve her life. But, really, she wasn’t worried –– and she couldn’t have concentrated on being worried, even if she wanted to. She was just too sick with COVID-19, the illness caused by the novel coronavirus.
The illness meant that even little movements were taxing. At one point during the worst week, the week of relentless fever, she remembers crawling to get herself water. Sometimes, she went downstairs, pausing to rest and sit down every few steps. She blacked out a few times.
Once, she had walked across England.
Continue reading Through the darkness: A Rainier Beach pastor’s experience with coronavirus infectionby Alexa Peters
In South Seattle, those who are uninsured, face housing instability, or are undocumented immigrants have few places to turn other than sliding-scale neighborhood clinics like Neighborcare. With South End locations in Columbia City, Rainier Beach, and Georgetown, Neighborcare typically provides vital medical, dental and behavioral care to South King County residents as well as those who have been pushed out by gentrification and come to the clinic from as far away as Kent and Tukwila. Continue reading South Seattle Neighborcare Response to COVID-19 Exposes Health Care Inequities
