#DontMakeMyCityAThemePark
[updated 10.24.2021] This digital brochure is my homage to Benjamin Franklin, Frederick Douglass and Ida B. Wells ... I’ve listed my personal recommendations for my own local ballot and explored some background about my interests.
Seattle and King County election November 2. 2021 Personal recommendations
by Alice Dubiel @odaraia (Twitter) [updated 10.24.2021]
This digital brochure is my homage to Benjamin Franklin, Frederick Douglass and Ida B. Wells who published opinion papers and supported the US Post Office which made their papers available to the country as a whole. I’ve listed my personal recommendations for my own local ballot and explored some background about my interests. Then I’ve listed some local endorsing politicians and organizations whose opinions also inform mine.
for information and links to what’s on your ballot:
https://kingcounty.gov/depts/elections/elections/current-elections/november-general.aspx
Recommended (followed by discussion and contexts):
Seattle mayor: M. Lorena González
Seattle City Attorney: Nicole Thomas-Kennedy.
Seattle City Council position # 8 Teresa Mosqueda
Seattle City Council position #9 Nikkita Oliver
Seattle School District Directors
District #4: Vivian song Maritz
District #5: Michelle Sarju
Port of Seattle Commissioners
Position #1: Ryan Calkins
Position #3: Hamdi Mohamed
Position #4: Toshiko Grace Hasegawa
King County Executive
Joe Nguyen
Some background
Seattle is an exciting place to experience local politics. When we first moved here, people still reinforced an ethos of class respect, though there were many racist policies in housing and hiring evident. I liked to think this ethos was a residue of the IWW, the Boeing Machinist’s Union (have you ever seen the sculpture outside its union hall? Permanent strike!), and artists, including grunge musicians dominating the city in the 1970’s. I was very excited about the WTO protests until I got teargassed while at my teaching job at Seattle Central Community College. Then I was even more convinced we needed to reenvision policing.
Protests against Washington DC wars in Central Asia were large and lively, with children participating. During this time, we gave our middle school/early high school son a mobile phone to allow wandering with his friends and still stay in touch at protests. Things seemed somewhat safe after the post WTO backlash. Occupy Seattle was inspiring, and I was glad faculty members of Seattle Central offered to host Occupy Seattle protestors in November 2011 when the police under the mayor’s order removed them from Westlake Park [Mike McGinn did this, probably with pressure from the usual suspects]. This period of time saw the shift toward increasing SPD and King County Sheriff’s violence, arresting and assaulting activists with crowd control chemical weapons.
I’ve become somewhat a believer in the power of local politics since I first met Ron Sims. What a terrific public servant he has been, advocating for people. In recent years, there’s a shift been going on, more dramatic distinctions as the elite of our city in real estate, banking and developer interests, tourism, construction and corporate domination of the Seattle skyline oppose the health and well being of workers, students, families including LGBTQ and BIPOC and especially unhoused people. I consider us fortunate that the voices of Occupy Seattle made room for the candidacy and seating of Kshama Sawant on the Seattle City Council. Jim and I support her campaigns, her politics, her sense of humor and have contributed to her fight against this current recall (see below).
In this context, the Seattle mayor’s race is a critical area of contention and focus on city funding sources, control of police and city’s superficial appearance being marred by the visibility of unhoused people in tourist areas. Key villians: Tim Burgess, Seattle Times Business and Technology News @SeaTimesBusiness . The candidates are M. Lorena González and Bruce Harrell who clearly represents the same kind of interests Jenny Durkan has.
I encourage you to attend any forum that is recorded or upcoming. True progressive and generous politicians support climate policies, oppose certain established entrenched policies which don't work but do continue to profit large corporate interests including banking, luxury real estate developers and segments of the tourism industry. The Alliance for Pioneer Square has hosted several key candidate forae which adress the concerns of the businesses in this neighborhood.
For City Attorney, we support Nicole Thomas-Kennedy, who has been a public defender and supports ending qualified immunity of the police, using police funding for community based outreach and engagement programs for restorative justice, shifting resources from the city attorney’s focus on criminal emphasis and toward advocacy for victims. Ann Davison is completely unqualified to run this office.
For City Council position # 8 (At Large) we support incumbent Teresa Mosqueda. Like Lorena, she is a progressive voice for workers, and her Jumpstart program is designed to address equity and environmental priorities in Seattle. She was with constituents and Seattle protestors on Capitol Hill last year facing the police violence during #BLM.
9 (At Large) Nikkita Oliver is my favorite politician. My support of Oliver in the previous mayor’s race was based on their announcement at a rally SEIU held for Bernie Sanders in March 2017. I knew they had been an active leader in juvenile justice agitation against the building of the King County Youth jail, and opposed the North Precinct “Bunker.” But hearing them speak was a revelation: they are the candidate I’d always hoped would appear in my lifetime. Everything they said that day I agreed with, and I urge you to check out this platform https://www.nikkitafornine.com/platform Includes Green New Deal, Municipal Broadband (means they get no money from Comcast!), progressive housing solutions, pro child policies, and ARTS! (They have the best graphics!) Also check out Vision and Endorsements.
a terrific Seattle Arts and Lectures discussion with Oliver and Keeanga Yamatta-Taylor took place 09.21.2021 and you can stream it. While not a campaign forum, both speakers address the underlying issues of disporportionate housing policies and their connections to policing. Oliver gives a riveting spoken word performance incorporating creative and political energies with exquisite skill. https://lectures.org/event/keeanga-yamahtta-taylor/
Their opponent, Sara Nelson, is a brewery owner and a Democratic Party centrist who used to work for Richard Conlin. You know who defeated Richard Conlin, right?
For King County Executive I support Joe Nguyen instead of Dow Constantine who administers the largest county governmental budget in the state $12.67 Billion. https://meetjoenguyen.com/
Dow has had three terms to address housing, mental health, arts and transportation. His work to address mental health follows in the steps of Ron Sims, his precedessor. However, an establishment Democrat, he is clearly eying higher office. During his tenure, and previously to the pandemic, Metro has reduced service, abandoned vulnerable people and Dow flattened the arts budget. He did tell Jenny Durkan not to defund some mental health programs. We need a progressive, inclusive politician. We will have to press Nguyen on the arts, but after three terms, it’s going nowhere with Dow.
Charter Amendment 29, the initiative developed by “Compassion Seattle” has been defeated before it even made the ballot. However, these false flag operatives are using the funds and recognition to defeat candidates such as González and Oliver. (They also are connected to the campaign to recall Councilmember Kshama Sawant who is not up for reelection this year, but has faced recall before and defeated these forces.) Here’s a link:
https://www.capitolhillseattle.com/2021/09/appeals-court-decision-snuffs-last-hope-for-compassion-seattle-vote/
And another link by Erica C. Barnett who is terrific on covering housing issues and the City Council in Seattle.
https://publicola.com/2021/09/03/harrell-says-hell-implement-key-provisions-of-compassion-seattle-clear-encampments/
Disclaimer: As you may know, Jim Hopfenbeck, MD, is my husband. Jim works at Downtown Emergency Service Center as a medical provider and director at its Crisis Solutions Center. Certainly, we support programs for vulnerable people in Seattle and throughout the Puget Sound region. Jim doesn't always agree with me; so don't attribute every one of my votes to him, but we do support most of them together.
Endorsements by other people I trust:
These candidates are supported by our Representative in Congress Pramila Jayapal: Lorena González, Teresa Mosqueda, and for Port Comissioners: #3: Hamdi Mohamed, #4 Toshiko Hasegawa, #1 Ryan Calkins
The Transit Riders support Joe Nguyen, Teresa Mosqueda, Nikkita Oliver, Nicole Thomas-Kennedy for city attorney, Port Comissioners: #3: Hamdi Mohamed, #4 Toshiko Hasegawa, #1 Ryan Calkins
350.org Seattle (which also supports “Cruise-Free Salish Sea”)
supports Lorena González, Nikkita Oliver, Teresa Mosqueda, Nicole Thomas-Kennedy and for Port: Hamdi Mohamed, Toshiko Hasegawa
SEIU 777 supports Nikkita Oliver. More labor and personal endorsements on their endorsements page.
The 36th District Democrats of Washington State supports:
Teresa Mosqueda, both Dow Constantine and Joe Nguyen, and the Port Comissioners: #3: Hamdi Mohamed, #4 Toshiko Hasegawa, #1 Ryan Calkins
Because they are likely to update soon for the general election, here’s the 36th platform link http://36th.org/platform/
Some final thoughts. Long ago, when we lived in Santa Monica, we were home, but otherwise occupied when the doorbell rang. Later, we saw canvassing materials from Tom Hayden, who was running for California State Assembly for the first time and realized we missed the opportunity to speak with someone actually running for office with whose politics we agreed (Jim had taught his kids when he taught elementary school). After that, we always support canvassing and try to find as many candidates who truly support our values.
One of our current State Representatives, Noel Frame, was canvassing and rang our doorbell herself. We talked for a long time and it was evident she was progressive, for children and earnest. We have enthusiastically supported her ever since, and her enthusiasm for Pramila Jayapal as the heir to Jim McDermott in our 7th District made our support for Rep. Jayapal obvious. There are others in the Washington State Legislature we support and some we don’t (more about that another time).
We have attended events for Kshama Sawant, and her pre-pandemic appearance at one of Brett Hamil’s Capitol Hill political comedy talk show, “The Seattle Process” clearly showed off her wit and generous sense of humor. This is a real necessity for politicians and expecially for people in office, a most important reason why we support keeping her there.
The title of this blog is both a Twitter list and a meme I use to counter the lies and disingenuous posing of the “Compassion Seattle crowd.” Remember, these are the people whose not quite original sin was to use HUD money to finance the parking garage below the Pacific Place shopping center downtown. I suggest checking out the following people for more information about #Don’tMakeMyCityAThemePark and there was good coverage about #BLM in Seattle from these sources, too. You can subscribe to them for less than a mocha a month, a much better deal than The Seattle Times, though there are a few worthy reporters there now.
Capitol Hill News @CHSfeed @jseattle https://www.capitolhillseattle.com/
Publicola @ericacbarnett https://publicola.com/
King County Equity Now @KCEquityNow https://www.kingcountyequitynow.com/
Brett Hamill @BrettHamil best way to access his schedule is via Twitter, https://bretthamil.com/, appears in https://southseattleemerald.com/2021/09/12/sunday-comix-fallback-legacy-centerpiece/