Steve Miletich and Mike Carter (Seattle Times):City Attorney Pete Holmes has sent a sharply worded letter to Mayor Mike McGinn, warning that McGinn's legal strategy in negotiating police reforms with the Department of Justice has put the city on the verge of a civil-rights lawsuit that could have dire consequences. MORE...
Few people viewed Mayor Bloomberg as an environmental leader when he was first elected, but he has been -- and to the highest standards. Early in his mandate, the city adopted the revolutionary PlaNYC, the city's official plan that is explicitly based on leading environmental criteria.
All decisions -- about density, transportation, and economic investments to create jobs -- are viewed through PlaNYC and its approach to sustainability. Some of his initiatives have garnered international attention (and controversy) -- for example, reclaiming road space for bicycles and pedestrians and requiring all commercial buildings to post their energy consumption. None of this would have happened without the underlying strategy.
Leadership isn't enough though -- and the truly successful cities also have engaged citizens. New York is the home of people like Majora Carter, founder of Sustainable South Bronx, which fights to overcome environmental issues in a way that creates jobs and hope. I explored some of these issues in a recent CBC Radio documentary. MORE...
Dominic Holden (The Stranger):I can't imagine that US Attorney Durkan looks at this fractured mess of politics and thinks that these people, led by McGinn, can fix this problem without expensive monitoring and onerous scrutiny. Which is exactly what the city was trying to avoid, but is, apparently, exactly what the police department will need. MORE...
One of the sticking points with McGinn and police, sources tell The Times, is the need for court oversight of the changes recommended by the Justice Department.
Responding to the Police Department’s proposed reforms, Kathleen Taylor, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Washington, said in a news release:
“The ACLU is encouraged that the City is responding to the Department of Justice investigation by identifying some steps to improve the Seattle Police Department. We urge the City to speedily negotiate a consent decree with the DOJ that will include a monitor and court oversight. Seattle cannot solve the longstanding problems of SPD culture and accountability without that assistance. A consent decree is critical to ensure that reforms are thoroughly implemented and are sustained for the long term.” MORE...
West Seattle Blog video of Mayor McGinn's March 2012 town hall at Youngstown Cultural Arts Center in Delridge, in its entirety.Howie P.S.: For some of us this may be the highlight of Hizzoner's visit, "Vicious Puppies Crew at Mayor's Town Hall," video (06:42):
West Seattle Blog video of the Vicious Puppies Crew breakdancing at Mayor McGinn's March 2012 Town Hall at Youngstown Cultural Arts Center in North Delridge.
'I know every one of the city council members sitting to my left and right believe as I do: it’s time for this state to legalize marijuana,' Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn said in his State of the City address. (City of Seattle) In his “State of the City” address, Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn made an impassioned plea today for the legalization of marijuana saying in the illegal trade in drugs was fueling crime in the city.Howie P.S.: I have to give credit to Hizzoner for the messaging on this one.“It is time we were honest about the problems we face with the drug trade. Drugs are a source of criminal profit, and that has led to shootings and even murders. Just like we learned in the 1920s with the prohibition of alcohol, prohibition of marijuana is fueling violent activity,” the mayor said in the written version of his speech. MORE...
Jonathan Martin (Seattle Times):Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn said Monday the city will begin talks to forge a legally binding agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) to address findings that Seattle police officers engage in unconstitutional use of force.Howie P.S.: I am interested in observing how The Stranger will cover this story as they were such enthusiastic supporters of Hizzoner during the mayoral election campaign.
McGinn, with Seattle Police Chief John Diaz by his side, struck a more conciliatory tone than was heard Friday, when a blistering DOJ report found one in every five uses of force by Seattle officers was unconstitutional. MORE...
SignOn.org: We demand that you call off the police and that Occupy Seattle be allowed to exercise free speech and voice its opposition to corporate control by demonstrating in Westlake Park, which is in the city center where the targets of these protests--the multi-national corporations and banks--are located. We demand no restrictions on First Amendment rights to assemble, including attempts to seek protection from the weather, any time - day or night. MORE...
Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn is lampooned by Comedy Central's Jon Stewart. The criticism is about the mayor's handling of a home weatherization program. Linda Brill reports.
DEFENDING WESTLAKE Protesters link arms on October 5 to protect their encampment. Police arrested 25 protesters that day.The city's reaction to their presence has been confusing at best. Mayor Mike McGinn and Seattle police have been playing the role of abusive husband to the Occupy protests. During the daytime, they are considerate and thoughtful—at one point when protesters were blocking Fourth Avenue and Pike Street to traffic, police negotiated with leaders to open the road back up, avoiding any WTO-style pepper-spray baths—but at night they become cruel. After a rally and march on Saturday, October 8, Seattle police occupied the dry space under the awnings, turning their bikes into barricades and refusing to let protesters protect themselves from the cold rain. Thus far, McGinn will be best remembered as the Seattle mayor who outlawed umbrellas: For reasons that are hard to fathom, umbrellas on the ground were deemed "structures," which he banned in Westlake Park, but if you were "standing and holding" an umbrella, a policeman explained, you were fine. You were also allowed to lie on the pavement under a tarp.
McGinn has blown what could have been an opportunity to be as forward-thinking as the mayor of Portland. Hell, if he had gotten behind the Occupy movement as quickly as some members of his staff are rumored to have suggested, he could right now be gracing magazine covers as the Mayor of Occupied America. Instead he's come across as a quavering, equivocating doofus who doesn't recognize the future when it's literally parked in the center of his own city. MORE...
"Revel Smith: People lie to get you out. Photograph the space regularly. Occupy Seattle is a CLEAN scene ;}>"Organizers said they'd been told to submit the list by 8 p.m. Tuesday or face eviction from Westlake Park the following morning. Because the protesters submitted the list on time, they were given another 24 hours at Westlake Park. MORE...occupyseattle.org:
1) To the Mayor-- First and foremost, we demand that Mayor McGinn meet with nominated representatives of Occupy Seattle in order to discuss our long term goals.
2) Practical Demands
-- Four large tents for Medical, Kitchen, Supply and Info/Tactical
-- Twenty four hour parking at City Hall (One space for supply purposes)
-- Twenty four occupancy shelters for health and safety of protesters
-- Twenty four hour access to first floor of City Hall for access to restrooms, meetings & etc.
-- A written statement from Mayor McGinn regarding right to indefinite occupancy of City Hall site.This list of demands has been so resolved and passed by the General Assembly of Occupy Seattle this Tuesday, October 11, 2011.
This is what Democracy looks like. ...your neighbors take to the streets to say, Enough, Wall Street... pay for the economy you broke. ... Congress, stop floundering and pass the American Jobs Act, NOW! The 99% will not stop until there is action in Congress and on Wall Street. Occupy Seattle is here for the long haul.
"Protester Cat Jobes, a nurse, talks with Mayor Mike McGinn after his speech Monday at the Occupy Seattle protest in Westlake Park."Officials late Monday night ordered Occupy Seattle protesters to leave Westlake Park or face arrest, saying the park closes at 10 p.m.Howie P.S.: SLOG Updates and comments:
Park security officers before midnight made three announcements by loudspeaker that the park had closed and those who remained could be arrested for criminal trespass. As of midnight no arrests had been made, but police cars with flashing lights were stationed at both ends of the park.
Protesters huddled to discuss what to do, with many agreeing it could be a bluff to frighten or demoralize them. Others questioned who was in control — the mayor, who had seemed to support their cause earlier in the day, or the police and parks departments.
Despite the rain, protesters had intended to stay the night, sheltering themselves with cardboard and tarps, since tents are not permitted. Last week, there were 25 arrests as police removed tents of protesters who refused to take them down.
Monday night, police and park officials began asking people to leave starting at about 10 p.m., according to protester Neal Bernstein of Federal Way.
Confusion reigned for a couple of hours. Finally, a representative of Mayor Mike McGinn's office showed up and spoke privately with some protesters and with the ranking police officer on site. But the representative refused to identify himself, saying only that he was "just having conversations with people."
Several protesters said the mayor's representative had promised them there would be no arrests overnight. But there were no guarantees for Tuesday night, they said.
Seattle Police Lt. Deanna Nollette said shortly after midnight that there had "not yet" been any arrests. She said, "We're trying to balance the interests of the businesses and the community around the park" with the First Amendment rights of the protesters.
She declined to say why the parks department and police officers decided to threaten arrests on Monday night. And she wouldn't say what would happen next. Using a football game analogy, Nollette said that would be like "showing our playbook" to the other side.
When asked why the parks department hours weren't enforced last week, she said, "Many dispensations have been given."
Bernstein said, "This comes the day after [the mayor] came down and gave us coffee," and added that several volunteer lawyers have been negotiating with the city. He said Monday night's police threats were a sign of bad faith.
Bernstein speculated the threatened arrests were to frighten the protesters and possibly reduce their numbers.
"We realize our presence impacts these businesses," Bernstein said. "We don't want to hurt these businesses. We love local businesses."
He added: "This is truly spontaneous. People are coming out on the streets because they are frustrated."
Monday afternoon, McGinn had stopped by the park and told protesters they were welcome to spend the night at City Hall.
"I feel he's trying to pacify our movement," said protester Zach Pattin, referring to McGinn's visit. Pattin said moving to City Hall would allow city officials to "co-opt" the Occupy Seattle movement, a spinoff of protests that began on Wall Street against government policies benefiting the superrich.
Another woman, Cat Jobes, a nurse, said of the city's no-tents policy, "I think it's baloney, or malarkey."
Pattin said he and others planned to spend the night in sleeping bags on top of cardboard and tarps, then put another tarp on top of their bags and seal most of it, like a "pita pocket."
Monday, afternoon Joyce Glasgow, a writer and veteran protester of the Vietnam War and the World Trade Organization, argued politely with Pattin and others while defending the mayor. "I think the mayor has his heart in the right place," she said.
During his visit, McGinn had offered moral support to the protesters as he urged federal lawmakers to take action on President Obama's jobs bill, up for an initial vote Tuesday in the Senate.
"People are hurting more and more," he told a crowd of several hundred. "Good jobs are hard to come by."
Glasgow did not plan to spend the night in the park, but she said it made sense for some people to camp at City Hall Plaza. "I think it's a good place for people who need a break from the wet and the rain," after which they could return to Westlake to continue their protests, she said.
"I don't think there's anything wrong with that," she added. "It's not a defeat. It's not giving in to the establishment."
Aaron Pickus, a mayoral spokesman, said in the afternoon that McGinn was striking a balance, supporting protesters' right to free speech, but also public safety and other people's right to access the park. He noted that City Hall — "the center of politics" — was an appropriate place to protest. Wednesday afternoon, according to Pickus, the protesters were "actively discussing" the mayor's offer to set up camp at City Hall.
Before the late-night push to clear the park, the day's theme for protesters had been jobs, jobs, jobs. It began with a rally at 5 p.m. at the north end of the park and continued with a small march around the center of downtown and a candlelight vigil at 7 p.m.
UPDATE at 12:51 AM: As per the livefeed that just went dead, the group has called a special assembly. Speakers believe that police don't intend to arrest them, but rather plan to continue repeating loudspeaker announcements that the park is closed in a an attempt to keep them awake all night. Protesters note that 7-11 is selling coffee. A man just announced: "I just want to say that the mayor and police chief are obviously having a political battle and we are caught in between. We should continue to occupy this park." MORE...
It's funny, though. I'm still rooting for McGinn to catch his political sea legs, whatever the critical stuff I've written about him and in spite of the press conference set-to.A hopeless mayor hurts a city. Grant money -- the taxpayers' dollars -- gets wasted if it is used to create a feast for interest groups. If government is keyed to specific groups' agendas (e.g. Cascade Bicycle Club, Transportation Choices, Sierra Club) those left out resist and we witness the kind of conflict seen on the tunnel.
So, here's hoping the "Green Economy" isn't a Potemkin promise, that competent contractors get brought in, workers trained and homes weatherized. Mayor McGinn has it in his powers to shut me up.
On the other hand, it's our duty to shake off the choreography and spin and demand an answer to the question immortalized by an old lady named Sarah Peller in those famous Wendy's ads: "WHERE'S THE BEEF?" MORE...
Let's not be contrarians just for the sake of being contrary. Mayor Mike McGinn was the indisputable loser of the August election. Face-plant. In the mud. Limbs hog-tied and floundering. He's in a far worse place now, even with the toxic tunnel issue off his plate, than ever before.Howie P.S.: I guess the The Stranger has been liberated from its relentless cheer-leading of the mayor, at least until it's time for the re-election campaign. Goldy is still there, however.
It wasn't only that voters approved the tunnel on August 16 (a tunnel that McGinn campaigned to stop) by a 16-point margin. And it wasn't just the brute strength of business lobbies that funded the pro-tunnel vote and cast it as a referendum to reject the mayor.
It was also the parade of McGinn's self-created losses that culminated on August 16. That date marked the deadline for McGinn to fulfill promises he made when he ran for office and after he was elected. That is, deadlines that he missed. MORE...
Howie P.S.: I have previously opined about how the The Stranger is McGinn's "BFF" and this story about his campaign roll-out, Seattle-style, fits my story line.MORE..."Mayor McGinn, taking questions from a constituent yesterday evening."
The light in Mayor Mike McGinn's back yard yesterday evening was so perfect it felt like we were at a staged shoot for some future campaign mailer. It was just a lucky, late-summer fluke, this tree-filtered golden light, but McGinn and his guests soaked it up.
He was kicking off his re-election effort with a low-key, homey fundraiser that drew about 100 supporters, each asked to pay $50 to get behind the white picket fence at the McGinn family's modest Greenwood house.
There was an open bar; a nice spread (including veggie burgers, raspberries in yogurt, orzo salad, and homemade chocolate chip cookies); and of course a speech in which McGinn, dressed in Tevas, camping shorts, and a red polo shirt, reminded his donors how things went in his underdog 2009 campaign.
"I didn't get a lot of money from the people who normally hand out money," McGinn told the crowd. "But there's a flip side to that: I don't answer to them."
There, standing between a McGinn family rain barrel and the McGinn family vegetable garden, were the people McGinn said he answers to:
- E.S.
- Greenwood Gothic.
Q13 FOX News Political Analyst C.R. Douglas interviewed Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn to discuss his thoughts on the results of Referendum 1, which asked voters if they approve of City Council process on the tunnel project.Howie P.S.: Andrew @ the NPI ADVOCATE offers his thoughts on the vote and the Prop 1 campaign.
Here's a bit of contrarian punditry for you: The biggest winner in yesterday's pro-tunnel victory was our anti-tunnel mayor, Mike McGinn.Howie P.S.: I'll take a pass on this particular shot of free booze."Whaaaaa...?" You might be asking yourself. "Is Goldy still drunk on all those free Big-Business/Big-Labor beers?" The answer is "No" (although I do have a bit of headache), and it's not a conclusion to which I've recently come. I expected the tunnel referendum to pass by a double-digit margin, I don't view it as a profoundly anti-McGinn vote, and I'm convinced that the referendum's passage was the best thing that could happen for McGinn's 2013 reelection prospects. And judging from his terse yet graceful response to yesterday's results, I'm guessing the politically savviest of the mayor's people agree with me. MORE...
The Stranger became a de facto arm of the McGinn campaign. It ran McGinn's hagiographic portrait on its cover, banner ads on its website and a four-part, 6,000-word polemic in print. In typical fashion, it called McGinn's opponent an idiot — complete with preceding four-letter-word adjective. Keck himself gave a rare political donation.
And it all worked. MORE...
Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn wears a T-shirt supporting the recent legalization of gay marriage in New York State. Photo: JOSHUA TRUJILLO / SEATTLEPI.COM
