Hello.
I'm your host, Brian Kalanan.
How is the coronavirus crisis changing the way city council members reach out to their districts?
What new measures are being taken to deal with Seattle's homelessness crisis during the pandemic?
And could a recent move to establish safe streets for walkers and cyclists turn up in more neighborhoods in the city?
Council members Debra Juarez and Dan Strauss answer these questions and the ones you're sending in, too, next on Council Edition.
The folks that did not want to come inside had moved to other parts of my neighborhood.
And I've already received complaints about that.
When I see other people with masks on, I silently say a prayer and say, thank you.
You're thinking about me.
You're embracing your humanity.
You're saying that my life is important, just as important as your life.
All that and more coming up next on City Inside Out, Council Edition.
And joining us over the Skype connection, we have with us Councilmember Deborah Juarez and Councilmember Dan Strauss.
And Councilmember Juarez, let me start with you.
I want to talk about how the COVID crisis is impacting the way you're able to reach out to people in D5, your district there.
You have personally dealt with MS over the past 20 years.
You need to be especially careful health-wise during the pandemic, and all of us are going through the stay home, stay safe mode here.
So following the governor's proclamation, trying to figure all this out, Your job remains to connect with your constituents.
I want to talk about how you've been able to do that virtually or otherwise.
What's going on?
Well, let me just focus that we have been in our north star has been that we've been laser focused on our duties and what we can do with council members.
And that lens is not just.
district, it's obviously we're watching the national news, the local news and what our governor is saying.
Sure.
But in honoring the needs of our district and being transparent and giving our district and our constituents facts, two things.
We have a phenomenal and I don't call it a newsletter anymore.
I want a big shout out to Dean or D-5 Gazette.
Yeah.
In that we have been just giving a weekly update of not just the stuff you're seeing on the national news, but what we're trying to do citywide and what we're doing locally.
And we've been focused on our relationships with the public-private resource groups, such as working with Amazon to make sure 105 computers were delivered to our low-income students, working with the Seattle Foundation to make sure $50,000 was given to North Helpline, our food bank, working with the Oakview Group for the $1 million donation that they gave to the Seattle Grocery Voucher Program.
So I could go on and on with North Helpline and Aurora Commons, but my point is, Our ear is to the ground to make sure that we're delivering information and resources, not just to the district, because I think we're up to a 5,000 readership in our Gazette.
And that's kind of where we want to be, about being really honest with people and telling them what we can do with city council members and what we can do under the state of emergency and the governor's proclamation.
Right.
That's a very important part of this.
I know you've been reaching out, Council Member Juarez, and you too, Council Member Strauss, when it comes to webinars through the Department of Neighborhoods and other agencies there to reach out.
And actually, Council Member Strauss, I saw you recently with the Ballard Town Council online, which held its first ever virtual meeting.
And I wanted to touch on this with you, Dan.
Another part of the challenge in your job is really helping people understand a couple of things here.
Under the governor's proclamation, the focus of the council really has to be 100% on these COVID issues.
And two, the mayor's office has a lot more executive authority to make decisions during a civil emergency like this.
Help me out with that.
How have those two factors impacted your job?
Yeah.
So with the, uh, executive powers being enhanced, uh, to respond dynamically in the issuances of directives to our city.
One example that I have from this is parking enforcement in district six.
Right.
So we had a resident who at the beginning of the stay home, stay healthy order was in a vulnerable position and he did not want to leave his home.
He wanted to follow the directives by the governor.
And what that meant is that his car sat on the street for more than 72 hours.
And so his car was ticketed.
It was then issued a tow notice and he went out to move his car, but the car was towed before it was supposed to.
And so my, my team, you know, when COVID, when the COVID pandemic started, I redirected my staff's resources to being responsive to constituents.
and one of my staff members to solely be working for small businesses in my district.
So when this resident reached out to us about his car being towed, I had my staff follow up and make sure that we got his car back for him.
So that was within my power as a council member to use my staff to ensure that the residents of my district were receiving the services that they need.
Now, when we look at parking enforcement a little bit larger, We saw that the mayor needed to issue an executive order to ensure that 72-hour parking was not being enforced any longer.
When that occurred, it created another issue, which was that parking enforcement was then focused on the paid parking, which is really usually centered in our business district.
So suddenly, we had relieved the issue for residents, And now the issue for our smallest businesses were being impacted even more.
So Peter in my office worked with Otto, which is a restaurant here in the neighborhood, because they were having a lot of issues with this parking enforcement.
And so again, the mayor needed to issue another executive order making paid parking free.
And parking enforcement continues to be an issue.
I received an email just this morning about a gentleman getting a parking ticket for blocking his own driveway.
So this is an example of how a council member can be responsive to constituents and how the mayor has the power to issue directives in a dynamic fashion.
It really is.
And it's changing, I know, week by week here.
So thank you for breaking down that anecdote there.
Council Member Strauss, I want to stick with you and talk about your work on the homelessness crisis during this pandemic.
The city, of course, has been de-intensifying its shelters, looking for more spaces for the homeless.
And recently at the Ballard Commons, I know you helped connect a number of people to housing options, responding to some community concerns there.
But still, the camp needed to get cleared out by the navigation team.
There were some people displaced.
And I know you're working on a navigation team bill right now to try to answer some of the concerns involved with that.
Could you talk about that, please?
Yeah.
So I want to clarify, I am not working on the bill.
I'm interested to see the bill come forward next week.
and to see what types of amendments are put forward on that bill.
So I have not been part of that working group.
I have only just recently received that bill.
The navigation team did some superb work and outreach in Ballard Commons, referring 19 people into shelter over 10 days.
And at the end of that period, there were still 15 people left in our public space.
And so what that means is that the policies that I've inherited There are gaps in those policies.
We need more solutions for people who are criminally justice involved, people who do not want to go into shelter for whatever reason.
We need to make sure that we have enough appropriate shelter at the scale of the crisis and pair it with accepting services.
Maybe this means setting up managed encampments with enough spaces for everyone on our streets to have a place to go.
And then saying to those who don't want to accept appropriate services, you have to come in, but you can't stay on our sidewalks and streets.
It's important to note that these solutions cannot be mapped on the floor or in a singular location because we know that concentrating a complex problem is not a best practice.
So again, it is the situation in Ballard where we had an opportunity to move people who are the hardest to house into stable places that are not on our streets.
And the result of not taking that action has been that the folks that did not want to come inside have moved to other parts of my neighborhood.
And I've already received complaints about that.
And it has exacerbated the issue on the Leary Triangle, on Schill Shoal, on 85th.
So we absolutely have to turn, square our shoulders, and confront this crisis as it is.
The state of emergency has been going on for five years.
and it took time to get there.
And so I recognize that the policies I've inherited have gaps, and I'm looking to find the solutions to those gaps.
Okay, and we'll follow up what's going on with that bill.
Thank you for that, Councilmember Strauss.
Really, we're talking about two emergencies happening at the same time, with homelessness, with COVID-19.
And Councilmember Juarez, I want to talk about homelessness in D5.
There's a new lakefront community house facility recently opened in the Bitter Lake neighborhood, a 24-7 shelter with room for about 50 people there.
You've also said you've been visiting the tent city in your district.
and 125th and Lake City Way frequently.
I know there's a new hygiene station that's there.
I want to talk about your assessment of what's happening at that tent city.
And how do you get more people into facilities like Lakefront?
Because as Council Member Straus says, it really seems like that's the direction the city wants to go.
Well, let me back up here and lay out for you a little bit.
Let's contextualize some of this.
You know, the thing about this virus is that it has further exposed what we already know, the inequities in all spheres of government, basic social services, human services, which is housing, health care, employment, you name it, right?
All across the board.
So our response to those experiencing the homelessness is what council members said.
We need shelter.
We need to shelter the unsheltered.
We need to have a place to bring folks.
We and District 5 have had success with the navigation team.
And I'm really glad that Council Member Strauss hit on something.
We have been struggling with, particularly in my second term now, where you can get, people do accept services, and then you have people that don't want your services, and that's where the rub is, is then what do you do?
You can't involuntarily make someone go somewhere.
And so they go other places.
And so the real answer then is more shelter.
We need to shelter them in shelter.
That being said, getting back, and thank you for knowing the history on the lakefront community house, We've had three direct responses that we can actually work on with the county and the mayor's office.
There's the lakefront community house.
I mean, you're right.
We're twenty five units which serve to be a place for unsheltered.
And right now we've already had thirty five people from the navigation team referred to the lakefront community house.
We also work with the county on the King County quarantine isolation site.
That's on one hundred and thirtieth.
And again, this is set up for everyone from first responders to travelers to unsheltered individuals.
It's supervised.
It has security on site.
So a lot of these schools we already have, but we're being laser focused so we can get to those communities that are disproportionately affected by this deadly virus.
And I am monitoring.
We are monitoring in conjunction with the North Precinct, with Sergeant Diaz of the navigation team, with Chief Best, Captain Sano, of what's going on on 125th and Lake City Way, and not just there.
We're looking at Nesbitt, Albert Davis Park.
I mean, I could go on and on and on.
But our focus has been cleaning up, mitigating the trash, providing hygiene stations and washing stations, more honey buckets, cleaning them.
Last week, the navigation team was out there six times.
We'll start out with a certain number of tents, and I'll go out there, and there'll be like 12, and then we get down to six.
And then I come back again, and now we're up to, 14, then we get back down to 10.
Right.
So again, we're dealing with and I don't know what the public understands or I don't I shouldn't say understand what's going on behind the scenes in Councilmember Strauss can back me up on this.
Sometimes we feel like a hamster on a wheel.
We're just particularly under this virus, trying to be transparent, trying to give facts, trying to be clear to the public.
What we can do is Seattle City Council members under state of emergency, the governor's proclamation, what is a direct response to responding to this virus, about what we can actually do.
And that's what we have done.
We've taken all of that robust energy, if you will, and tried to focus that on our social service safety net that we have in the North, and not just in the North end either, by the way, we represent all of Seattle, and where we can place people.
And, you know, that's why I was really happy that when working with the Seattle Foundation and North Helpline and getting them the funds they needed and other organizations, Chris Leverson of Build Lake City Together, of getting food out, getting meals prepared.
That's the stuff that I feel like I'm at my best, where I'm like literally meeting with people that are volunteers, that are putting food in their cars and delivering it to families that don't either speak English, low income, free lunch.
That's where I feel like I'm actually doing something as an elected, and that's what we've been doing.
Well, thank you for that.
And Council Member Strauss, I want to try to move ahead if I can, talking about how and when Seattle can move into phase two.
So many people have been talking about this.
Of course, being in line with the governor's plan to slowly bring our state back online with the economy, etc.
District 6 has a ton of small businesses that I know are eager to get back open.
What conversations are you having with them?
What's your message for them right now?
Seattle is strong.
We have solutions and we're going to get through this together.
One of the things that I've been working on with different areas of my district, starting with Ballard, and we're looking at Green Lake, Finney and Fremont, is to where can we have Cafe Street?
We know that restaurants will be able to open at 50% capacity in June as long as things don't change.
Again, we as the city of Seattle need to follow the governor's direction on reopening because it needs to be based on data and it needs to protect public health.
So as we look at businesses that typically operate within brick and mortar spaces that are more difficult to clean, that have increased health risk, we need to be looking at our public and open spaces, so our right-of-ways, our parks, you know, it could be that our venues that cannot have rock shows in, you know, the Tractor Cavern, maybe we put that out on the street or maybe we put that in a park.
We look at Ballard Avenue that has a lot of amazing restaurants and looking at the ability to turn that into a cafe street for Friday to Sunday.
We have a lot of opportunities and I'm excited to be working with my smallest businesses to support them getting through this.
Okay.
We're going to touch on that issue one more time, but council member Juarez, I want to throw a similar question to you and really focus on your work with the parks department.
You chair that committee on the council.
As we move into the summer months, I know more people are going to want to be in our parks and it could be a challenge to keep things in line with what the governor's asking for.
We actually got a tweet in about this issue.
If there are social distancing requirements, who enforces them?
Because I can see fights breaking out of a civilian tries to get someone else to socially distance.
Your thought about maintaining public health in our parks during this time and how the city is going to do that.
Well, let me say something here just a little bit philosophical before I launch into it in depth.
OK, I mean, I could go I could go on and on about this report.
Can I just say something, though?
And I learned this from our from our from our Muslim community during Ramadan that it really isn't socially distancing.
It's physical distancing, but socially connected and about embracing our humanity.
and about what is important about what we've seen with first responders and essential workers putting their lives out on the line and people losing their family members who've been out there for us to protect our lives so we can be safe.
So getting back to parks, let me tell you what I've been seeing and hearing is that we do have an ambassador program and we do want to open up parks.
And we know what parks have the highest level of foot traffic.
One of the things that we've been working closely with the Superintendent Aguirre is about how we have to stay safe.
And the only way that we can stay safe is to practice the physical distancing and looking at the data.
But the other thing is just not getting to the point where you've seen these videos about people going into Costco and refusing to put on their masks.
This is where I come back to embracing your humanity and thinking about other people besides yourself and about how important it is that we stay healthy.
And I don't know how to stress that anymore.
What we're doing right now besides with the parks, we've been doing the emergency child care program.
We've been looking at the indoor shower program that we've opened up at community centers.
We have a phased reopening.
And when you do that phased reopening, the governor's or the mayor's office has to develop that in conjunction with what the governor says.
And, you know, safe start Washington and the three issues that we struggle with and that I struggle with and that I talk to the mayor about and my colleagues about is the first the first three issues.
The first one is What is the use and what is our response to that in regards to recovery?
The second is what resources and personnel are we going to request or put at risk, whether that's library, community center, park?
And then also, how do we do that with physical distancing and hygiene protections that are safe?
And I think what I keep saying over and over, you know, I understand that you want to go to the park.
I understand that you want a beach fire.
I understand that you want to go walk.
I get all that.
But we are in the midst of a global pandemic in which we do not have a cure for this virus and people are dying.
And I am so proud of this state, because, as you know, we were we were the epicenter and you brought this up with me being immune suppressed with my MS. Right.
My life is at stake when people don't wear their mask at the store.
So when I see other people with masks on, I silently say a prayer and say, thank you.
You're thinking about me.
You're embracing your humanity.
You're saying that my life is important, just as important as your life.
And that's what I try to do.
And I think that's what we're all trying to do under this pandemic, about having voluntary, I'm sorry, having voluntary compliance with what we're dealing with.
Yeah, another call coming in there.
I know you're a popular person, Council Member Juarez, so I'll move on.
I'd like to hang up on them.
It happens, right.
Council Member Strauss, I want to go back to some more of the challenges the Council is facing under COVID restrictions.
As we've talked about, the Governor really wants the Seattle City Council and all the governments around the state here to be focusing on coronavirus, but I know you've been working on some other issues too when it comes to childcare facilities in Seattle, a tree issue, a tree ordinance issue too.
Help us out with that.
Do you think you're going to be able to tackle those issues between now and the fall time when I know the city council has some big budget issues to consider too?
Yeah, thanks for that context, Brian.
That's absolutely right.
So the open public meetings act proclamation only allows us to take up items that are necessary and routine or specifically related to addressing the COVID-19 crisis.
And so I was able to pass a permitting bill that helps make sure that we have projects that are shovel ready for when construction begins at full steam.
And so some of the other bills that I have coming up are, as you said, child care near you, a land use change that would allow, that would streamline permitting for child care facilities throughout the city.
I have a lot of friends that, one friend that had a child just this week, and three more friends that have had children in the last month.
It happens to all of us, yeah.
And yeah, it's wonderful.
And the unfortunate situation is that with the lack of accessible child care at the moment, people are having to drive outside of the city to get a spot in child care.
People are having to sign up years in advance knowing that child care is not accessible.
And so We are, with the Open Public Meetings Act proclamation from the governor, we are continuing to do as much work behind the scenes so that when that proclamation is lifted, we are ready to go.
And so we see that with the Child Care Near You bill.
We also see that with the Tree Ordinance.
There are some very, in the resolution that was passed last year, there are some very specific things called out, such as stakeholder engagement.
And that is going to be much more difficult under the COVID-19 scenario.
We also see that Seattle Department of Construction and Inspections, which is the department that is needed to be engaged with the tree ordinance, is also responding to COVID in their own ways.
And so there is a work backlog that is occurring.
So what I can say is that we are still working to see what type of bill could be put forward because again, with land use bills, that the SEPA analysis and window for appeal makes a very long timeline.
And right now we have between about July and the end of September or really the end of August to take up legislative action.
And so that window is coming very, very close.
It is narrowing and narrowing and narrowing.
And so with the tree ordinance, what we're looking at is ensuring that the director's rules that have been stated to be in place will be rolled out in the next few weeks.
We're ensuring that any work that we can get done to protect trees is being done.
Okay.
Okay.
I know a lot still ahead with that, but I wanted to switch gears, Council Member Juarez, and make sure I talk with you about your work with Native communities.
I know this is very important to you, and we have seen that COVID has had disproportionate impacts on communities of color, certainly on Native people in Seattle.
What are those impacts you're seeing?
And please talk about the work you're doing with the National Urban Indian Family Coalition to deal with some of those issues.
Well, I'm really glad you brought that up, because as you know, we have Native communities in committee.
So starting with the, and I'll be brief, on the Urban Indian Health Institute, we've been working with the Seattle Indian Health Board, and this comes out of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, and that is collecting data.
And so we've been working, they just published their best practices on data collection in Indian country and Native American organizations and Native folk in the city of Seattle for American Indian and Alaska Native.
Again, this is one of those data points that was never collected in the past, and now we're doing that so we can zero in and give funding and resources, PPE, to those Native American organizations that are serving those folks in the city of Seattle and King County, quite frankly.
And then, of course, on the national level, just more, and I don't think this should be on a personal note.
I think this is something collectively as a country, and certainly in this region, we've always looked at.
Before I dive into quickly about what's going on in Oglala Sioux Country in South Dakota, I just want to point out, which breaks my heart, I've been following this story, and whether it's not having clean water, the Navajo Nation now has an international organization, Doctors Without Borders, in the continental United States, which is just heartbreaking.
I just learned yesterday that the Navajo folks have the highest coronavirus infection rate in the country per capita, more than New York.
That should break all of our hearts in humanity about not getting that money there.
Meanwhile, the federal government's response is to fight with the tribes over releasing $8 billion.
So that's just the tip of the iceberg of what's going on.
And then now you saw our response, if you don't mind me launching into why we got involved, I got involved in talking to the tribal chairs and leadership of the Cheyenne River Sioux, the Ogallala Sioux, and Rosebud Sioux over the weekend, and getting this letter out and drafted with the help of the Seattle Indian Health Board.
and attorneys, Native American lawyers in Indian country and speaking to leadership.
I think what's heartbreaking is that we had to send a letter out to the governor of South Dakota about these checkpoints.
And these three tribes don't want to happen to them what has happened to their Navajo brothers and sisters.
These checkpoints, and I just saw this morning that the governor of South Dakota sent a letter to the president asking for assistance.
Now, the irony here, And the, I'll just say it, the racism here, which drives me insane is all of a sudden this governor.
Christie Nome is concerned about checkpoints.
Where was this governor when the tribes were begging for test kits, begging for personal protective equipment, begging for more hospital beds built on the reservation to respond, letting them know that, you know, we've always had these medical disparities.
We've always had these issues with Indian health services.
And all of a sudden.
The state of South Dakota is concerned that three tribes have checkpoints where people are stopped maybe less than a minute and they are not holding up any supplies of food, gas, medical supplies.
So this is, they've turned this into a political, violent issue escalating and now their side is backing down.
And so I'm to the point where, you know, I was joking issue.
I don't know if you heard me in Seattle city council, cause I know council member, uh, Lou, um, council member, uh, Strauss will come with me.
You know, I'm ready to put together a caravan and head out there.
Okay.
Okay.
Okay.
Thank you for breaking that down.
I'll be right there with you, Council Member Warren.
That's right.
There he goes.
There he goes.
You know, the Makah tribe hasn't had any COVID positive tests, and it's because they put up a checkpoint, just like what you're talking about.
Right.
Right.
Can I just add one more thing?
Just one more quickly.
Really briefly.
I encourage my staff, and particularly my children who are adults, I started a COVID journal on March 4th and I was looking at some of the entries this morning.
And one of my entries on March 12th is that we had 39 deaths.
Now today, the state of Washington is up to over a thousand deaths.
And I was looking at today that we're up to 90,000, 93,000 deaths in the United States and over a million and a half cases.
And so if people out there, are running, we have these first responders and essential workers that are basically, as I heard both our governors in Washington and New York say, those people are running back in the fire to save our lives.
And if the only thing you can do is not is just put on a mask, then I'm really shaken by that.
And I keep bringing this up because I think of the people that have died and have sacrificed their lives.
And I was just telling someone this morning, you know, six, 30 years from now, I won't be around.
that your generation will be around.
And I'm hoping that you're absorbing all of this like a sponge.
And when you wring it out, hopefully the good stuff will come out, that we cared about our brothers and sisters across this country and in this world.
And that's where I'll just kind of leave it.
Thank you very much.
We need to wrap up the show.
These have both been very great answers from both of you with regard to these different topics we're covering here.
Maybe I can get the 30 second version from both of you.
Council Member Juarez, I'll start with you.
I know a lot of us need to stay home, stay safe, but you got to get your takeout food too.
What's the best spot in D5?
Please tell us.
I can't do that, but I will say this.
No, I can't because there's like seven places and we've been walking, but let me just say this quickly.
Okay.
Um, I am listening to Billie holiday.
Um, I finishing a ton of podcasts.
I just finished dictators in crime town.
I wrote this down.
What I'm binge, what I'm binging on.
I finished Miss America convention confession, my brilliant friend and never have I ever, And if I have to say something about something about food, I'm going to say Zilberstein's Deli.
It's a Jewish deli on 15th.
And I'm telling you now, they have some killer rye bread and corned beef.
OK, now we know.
Council Member Strauss, I'll throw the same question at you.
Best takeout place in your district?
You know, I always love the Walk Spot.
Walk Spot is one of the best restaurants that has some of the freshest fish in all of District 6. This week, though, it's been Umbien.
Really love Umbien.
Council Member Juarez, I'm surprised you didn't say Tubbs.
Mmm.
There's so many places, so little time.
I'm gonna let you guys figure out that one.
Make sure you stay physically distant if you try to dine together on that one.
Thank you both for being involved here, and thanks everyone for joining us here.
See you next time on Council Edition.