Seattle Forward

More Steps to Stop Human Trafficking

I’ll be at the Washington BEST (Businesses Ending Slavery and Trafficking) kick-off later tonight in Belltown. Washington BEST is a new business-led initiative to combat human trafficking. It's an alliance that encourages businesses to adopt policies that explicitly oppose trafficking and to follow practices that prevent it from occurring on their premises. The Council passed a resolution supporting this initiative two weeks ago.

Businesses can be a powerful resource in the fight against trafficking. For example, in the area of sex trafficking, cabs, restaurants, bars, hotels and motels, and even retail malls are often locales used by traffickers. Businesses can educate employees about the problem, train employees to identify and report suspicious activity appropriately and make their premises and operations unwelcoming and risky to human traffickers.

Demand-Based Parking Showing Promise

A few cities around the U.S., including Seattle and San Francisco, are trying new on-street parking management techniques to reduce cruising for open parking spaces and ensure one or two available spaces on each block. Today's New York Times has an article about how San Francisco's experiment is going. Just like here in Seattle where Councilmember Mike O'Brien and I led the effort to switch to demand-based parking management, San Francisco's effort shows promise.

Read my earlier posts on better on-street parking management strategies here.

Seattle City Light Strategic Plan

Seattle City Light, our city's electric utility created in 1902, is in the final stages of drafting its five-year strategic plan. This plan will affect the priorities of the utility and your electricity rates. There are many ways you can weigh in online or at public forums next week. More information is available at www.seattle.gov/light/strategic-plan.

Seattle Channel City Inside/Out

Councilmembers Bagshaw and Rasmussen and I joined host Brian Callanan for the March taping of City Inside/Out: Council Edition. You can watch our conversation below as we touch on issues related to education, public safety, transportation and a new sports arena.

Seattle Channel Video can be played in Flash Player 9 and up

Seattle is Leading on Education Reform

There has been lots of discussion lately about the best path forward on public school reform. There has even been a public airing of the frustration some Democrats feel over the slow pace of reform and their belief that teachers’ unions are dragging their feet and resisting substantive changes to the status quo.

While these debates continue, Seattle is purposefully moving forward with an initiative predicated on a fundamental tenet of education reform—that we measure student academic performance and adjust our strategies when performance lags.