Seattle Forward

Income Inequality Symposium

This Thursday there will be a 1-day conference about income inequality in Seattle at Seattle University. The all-day event is free, but registration is required. More information and a list of speakers are available here.

From the Mayor's press release:

The Symposium is a critical component of the Mayor’s efforts to address a cornerstone priority of his opportunity agenda: a meaningful increase in the compensation for Seattle workers.  There are three primary goals for the Symposium:

• Help inform ourselves of the rising income gap in our community and the complexities in addressing this issue,
• Establish Seattle as a national leader in developing strategies to address income inequality, and
• Serve as a model to catalyze a broader national movement to address the rising wealth gap in our country.

Today's Helicopter Crash

Today’s KOMO News helicopter crash reminded me of an afternoon 40 years ago when a Seattle police helicopter crashed on Beacon Hill after colliding in midair with a small aircraft to the east of Boeing Field.  Police Officer Observer James Forbes and Police Officer Pilot James St. Delore died in the crash.

Officers Forbes (in picture, left) and St. Delore (right) were responding in “Air 4” to a shooting incident in south Seattle when the crash occurred. I was assigned to the Police Department’s media relations team at the time and was sent to the scene of the crash. Like today, it was a very sad day for Seattle, especially the Police Department.

Final Vote on Taxis, TNCs

Today the Full Council voted to pass a bill that places new regulations on emerging app-based transportation network companies (TNCs) like UberX, Lyft and Sidecar. The legislation places important and necessary safety regulations around these new services, including insurance requirements equivalent to those in the taxi industry. The Council was unified on this issue: safety and consumer protection must come first.

The legislation also places a cap of 150 on the number of vehicles that can be logged into a TNC app at any one time. I do not favor a cap. I voted for an amendment to remove the cap three weeks ago and again this afternoon, but that amendment failed 3 to 6. We will be monitoring the impact of the cap – and the broader changes in the industry – closely over the coming year.

The legislation also calls for 200 new taxi licenses to be issued over the next two years and allows flat-rate for-hire vehicles to pick up passengers who flag them down.

You can read more of my thoughts on this issue or my description of the committee vote in earlier blog posts.

Our City, Our Schools

The Seattle Channel created a series of videos about the City's Families and Education Levy titled "Our City, Our Schools."

The series includes five half-hour segments about levy-funded programs in the areas of Preschool, Health, Elementary School, Middle School and High School. You can find all the videos at http://www.seattlechannel.org/OurCityOurSchools/.

Preschool for All Study Mission

Last week, over 40 government, education, non-profit, business and community leaders traveled to Boston, New Jersey and Washington, D.C. to study high quality preschool programs in other cities. It was an inspiring and productive trip!

I’ll have a more detailed summary soon, but here is a quick review.

My favorite part was engaging with teachers and children in their colorful classrooms. The site visits reinforced and confirmed for me what we have seen in the academic research: only preschool that is high quality can truly prepare children for kindergarten and beyond. 

And high quality across an entire city is not some abstract concept. We saw it in Boston and Jersey City.  High quality preschool requires well-paid, well-qualified teachers with strong, proactive coaching and professional development and evidence-based curricula.

This is our goal for Seattle—high quality preschool for all of our city’s three and four year olds.

On Thursday, I believe we successfully communicated to federal officials and the members of Congress we met with that Seattle intends to do it right for our kids. The fact that Roberto Rodriguez, the President’s special advisor on education, came over from the White House to join our meeting reinforced for me that we are going about this correctly. 

I look forward to applying what we’ve learned to build upon the foundation we have in place for Seattle’s Preschool for All efforts.

Returning to Kindergarten

Recently I returned to Stevens Elementary - where I attended kindergarten - to talk with the Seattle Channel's Josephine Cheng about preschool, the search for a new police chief, the minimum wage and more. Here's the latest installment of "Council Conversations":