It’s been a big week for investments in Seattle’s BIPOC communities. First, the City Council approved $1 million to allow the Office for Civil Rights to move the $30 million participatory budgeting program forward; then yesterday the Mayor’s Equitable Communities Initiative Task Force unveiled their recommendations for how to invest another $30 million. Now this morning, Mayor Durkan announced the release of an RFP for proposals for land and property acquisition “to respond to disproportionate displacement pressures impacting black, Indigenous, and people of color communities.”
Continue readingCategory: neighborhoods
How to help us all get through the coronavirus outbreak
The coronoavirus outbreak is scary for those most at risk of severe health consequences. It’s also scary for all of us with friends and loved ones who are at risk. And it’s disrupted everyone’s lives here in the Seattle area. But we’re in this together, and we’ll get through it together. Here are nine ways that you can help your friends, family, neighbors, and community as we all deal with this public health emergency for the next several weeks.
Continue readingCity announces sale of “Mercer Megablock”
This morning, Mayor Durkan announced that the city has agreed to terms with Alexandria Real Estate Equities to purchase the Mercer Megablock property in South Lake Union, along with the adjacent city-owned property at 615 Dexter Avenue N. The deal will net the city $143 million in cash, plus a package of additional public benefits that together the city estimates will total somewhere between $275 – $305 million.
Continue readingThings I didn’t write about this week
A lot more happened this week that I didn’t get around to writing about. And on Monday the Mayor will release her proposed 2019-2020 budget. So before everything else fades into obscurity, here’s some quick takes on all the other stuff.
Continue readingCouncil poised to extend moratorium on Aurora-Licton Springs commercial development
This morning, the Council voted out of committee an ordinance that would extend for another six months the temporary moratorium on several forms of commercial development in the Aurora-Licton Springs Urban Village.
Continue readingCity-wide MHA upzone Environmental Impact Statement jumps first hurdle with the Hearing Examiner
The Hearing Examiner’s Office has been adjudicating nine separate challenges by neighborhood organizations to the Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) for the city’s city-wide MHA upzones. After a hearing on May 31 to discuss several motions for summary judgment, last Friday the Hearing Examiner issued rulings — and it largely went in favor of the city. The appeals are far from resolved, and won’t be until early fall, but several issues were taken off the table as potential flaws in the FEIS.
Continue readingFort Lawton Final EIS released today
Today the City of Seattle published the Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) for its proposed redevelopment of the Fort Lawton property in Magnolia.
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City delivers safe consumption site feasibility study
The city has published a feasibility study on establishing a “safe consumption” site in Seattle, and for the first time we have a sense for how much it might cost.
Continue readingInterview: Harris-Talley on Community-based Organizations
Last Friday I interviewed new Council member Kirsten Harris-Talley on a topic that is coming up with increasing frequency in City Hall: community-based organizations (aka CBOs), who they are, their role in our community, and their relationship with city government.
Continue readingOther legislation that became law today… quietly
With little fanfare — and in some cases less attention than they deserved — four other notable bills (besides the Uptown MHA upzone) were passed into law by the City Council today.
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