Live in North Seattle?
Have questions about Seattle or King County that you would like answered?
Then please join me and King County Councilmember Bob Ferguson for a Town Hall meeting at Olympic View Elementary (see map) near Northgate.
Thursday night 7:00-8:30, February 2.
This Thursday, Jan. 26, Futurewise, my office and the Office of Sustainability and Environment have teamed up to put together a brown bag discussion on the Climate Action Plan. The brown bag will be held at GGLO at noon.
The focus of the brown bag will be on transit oriented communities. Building homes closer to jobs while also improving street and transit infrastructure can save families in Seattle money and help us meet our environmental goals around green house gas reduction. A panel of local experts will discuss tangible opportunities for healthy, safe and affordable communities.
The conversation will be co-moderated by Councilmembers Rasmussen (Chair of the Transportation Committee) and Conlin (Chair of the Land Use and Sustainability Committee).
We have a stellar panel as well:
Location: GGLO Conference Room (1301 First Avenue, Suite 301). GGLO is located in downtown Seattle at the Harbor Steps, just two blocks south of the Pike Place Market and directly across the street from the Seattle Art Museum.
[Post below borrowed from the Town Hall website]
Wednesday, January 25, 2012, 7:30 – 9:00pm
Downstairs at Town Hall; enter on Seneca Street. $5.
Like a synthetic siren, The Great Pacific Garbage Patch drew Charles Moore to science; now his research raises deep questions about plastic. Moore, author of Plastic Oceans, first encountered the 2-million-square-mile floating landfill by chance in 1997, as skipper of a catamaran. He returned repeatedly to cull scientific samples, finding that the plastic in his nets outweighed zooplankton by a factor of 6-to-1—prompting not only a global reassessment of plastics’ invasiveness, but also a personal quest to achieve his own scientific credibility—and to save our oceans. Presented as part of Seattle Science Lectures, with the Sierra Club, Pacific Science Center, and University Book Store. Series sponsored by Microsoft. Series media sponsorship provided by KPLU.
Advance tickets are $5 at Brown Paper Tickets or 800/838-3006 and at the door beginning at 6:30 pm. Double feature! Ticket also gains admission to the Jessica Rhode event at 6 pm.
An ice storm warning has been issued from the National Weather Service. Residents are strongly discouraged from travelling until conditions improve.
Tools and information
Today the Seattle City Council voted 9-0 to implement a ban on plastic carry-out bags. This is the culmination of a lot of hard work and I am proud of Seattle for taking this step today and joining the growing global movement to curb plastic consumption and its impacts on our environment. Below is a picture of the Seattle Bag Monster’s who were on hand to testify today. Below is the press release that went out on the action we took today.
News Release: Seattle joins global movement to protect marine wildlife
City Council unanimously votes to ban plastic carry out bags
Seattle – Today the Seattle City Council unanimously voted to pass Council Bill 117345, a bill to protect Puget Sound and protect marine wildlife by banning plastic carry-out bags. The bill encourages the use of reusable shopping bags by requiring grocers and retailers to charge a nickel for paper bags.
Washingtonians use more than 2 billion single-use plastic bags each year. Seattle alone uses approximately 292 million plastic bags annually, only 13% of which are recycled, according to Seattle Public Utilities.
“This bill is a great example of a broad and diverse coalition of people and organizations coming together to do the right thing for our environment,” said prime sponsor, City Councilmember Mike O’Brien, chair of the Seattle Public Utilities and Neighborhoods Committee. “We have the support of grocers, retailers, restaurants, labor unions, and environmental organizations in Seattle. We also have broad grassroots involvement from residents who have been emailing and calling in support of this issue for months now.”
Environmental organizations in support of the plastic bag ban include Environment Washington, People for Puget Sound, Surfrider Foundation, Sierra Club, and Zero Waste Seattle. The bill is also supported by the Northwest Grocery Association, the Washington Restaurant Association, United Food and Commercial Workers Local 21, and some local independent grocers, such as Metropolitan Market, Town & Country Markets, PCC, and Central Co-op.
“We know that recycling alone cannot protect Puget Sound and our ocean waters from these plastic bags,” said Councilmember O’Brien. “Of course people are not intentionally littering their bags into Puget Sound, but with so many in circulation, bags are ending up there, causing real damage to habitats and wildlife. Bringing our own reusable bags when we go shopping is a simple step we can all take that will protect our environment and reduce unnecessary waste.”
“In the last few years, we have learned much more about how much plastic is in Puget Sound and the impact it has on marine wildlife,” said Katrina Rosen, Field Director for Environment Washington. “Banning plastic bags is an important step we must take to protect Puget Sound wildlife and we are happy to see City Council stepping up to be a part of this growing global movement.”
Seattle is the fourth city in Washington to ban plastic bags following Edmonds, Bellingham, and, most recently, Mukilteo. Regionally, Seattle joins the Hawaiian islands of Maui and Kauai, more than a dozen municipalities in California—such as San Francisco, San Jose, Malibu, and Los Angeles County—more than 30 coastal towns in Alaska, and neighboring Portland in taking action against plastic bags. Additionally, at least 20 nations have also enacted efforts to reduce or eliminate plastic bag use, including Germany, Ireland, China, Taiwan, India, and Kenya.
The ordinance will go into effect July 1, 2012. Seattle Public Utilities will be responsible for outreach to businesses and public education over the next six months and after the law takes effect. The utilities’ solid waste division will also monitor and enforce the ordinance.
Saturday December 10 is Human Rights Day. In fact, tonight at City Hall we will be a special Human Rights Commission meeting: Spotlight on Economic Inequality.
In honor of human rights day I sat down for an interview with Ameera Brooks, an incredible young person who is part of Puget Soundoff. This is the first installment of a three-part video.
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Also, if you haven’t seen this yet, it is a great speech on gay rights as human rights made by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Check out the Huffington Post for the full transcript.
As you have probably heard about or read about by now, Seattle City Council has introduced a bill that would make a great step towards protecting Puget Sound and ocean waters and reducing unnecessary waste by banning single-use plastic carryout bags.
We will hold a public hearing on the plastic bag ban bill on December 5, starting at 5:30pm. The hearing will be held in Council Chambers on the 2nd floor of City Hall (600 Fourth Ave). I understand that not everyone can make a trip down to City Hall in the evening for a public hearing, but if you are willing and able I would love to see you there to voice your support. You can also submit written testimony if you are unable to be there in person.
Plastic bag litter stuck in a tree across the street from City Hall
This new law would encourage the use of reusable bags when shopping by banning plastic bags outright. Paper bags will still be available, but will cost a nickel. This nickel serves as a modest monetary reminder to bring your reusable bah. The nickel is also kept by retailers to help them recover the costs of switching to paper bags–this is not a new tax and the nickel doesn’t go to the city.
While plastic carry out bags at retailers and grocery stores will be banned, thin plastic bags that are used for meats and produce in grocery stores are still allowed because of the public health function they play.
Banning these plastics will help protect Puget Sound, ocean waters and marine life. A recent study by UW-Tacoma researchers, highlighted in the new report by Environment Washington, found that every single water sample taken in Puget sound–from the Strait of Juan de Fuca to Elliott Bay to the southern inlet in Olympia–contained small particles of plastic. The problem of plastics in our waters is pervasive and alarming. For an incredible visual account, check out the work of local photojournalist Chris Jordan and his images of dead albatross chicks on Midway Island.
Some people have written and called my office to say they already voted down this measure a few years ago. Well, I believe our current proposal takes into account the concerns Seattle voters had with Council’s last attempt at curbing plastic bag use in Seattle. Instead of a $0.20 tax on paper or plastic bags, we are banning plastics outright and charging a nickel for paper as a reminder to bring reusables. And, we heard in 2009 that voters were concerned about the impacts of a bag fee on low-income earners. So this time we are exempting people on state and federal assistance programs.
We know the plastic industry will fight this proposal, so we encourage everyone who thinks this is the right thing to show your support and come out to the hearing on Monday or write or call in with your support to City Council (Council contact info).
This bill is running through the Seattle Public Utilities and Neighborhoods Committee that I chair, and we had our first committee meeting on the ordinance last week. Since our ordinance is modeled after Bellingham’s, we invited Bellingham Councilmember Seth Fleetwood down to share his experiences with our committee. We also heard testimony from Cedar Grove Composting, Seattle’s current contract holder for organics recycling. Cedar Grove supports this measure because of all of the plastics contamination that they have to pull out of their composting operations. Below are some photos of examples they brought to show the committee.
Hope to see you Monday night!
Above: Me with Bellingham Councilmember Seth Fleetwood
Below: (top) a sample of plastic bags from Cedar Grove Compost facility in Maple Valley, (middle) a bag full of various plastic bags, (bottom) other plastics contaminating the compost operations
Check out the latest Inside/Out: Council Edition. I was on with Councilmembers Sally Bagshaw and Tom Rasmussen. We discussed the 2011 election results, the 2012 budget and more.
I have done the One Night Count two years in a row. I stayed up all night and walked the streets of Seattle in an effort to gain some idea of how many people in our city are sleeping on the streets. In 2005, the Seattle Times counted 41 live-in vehicles parked in Central Ballard. It was also 2005 that King County adopted the Ten Year Plan to End Homelessness.
According to the 2011 One Night Count, 506 vehicular residents were counted and 141 of them were in Ballard. In January of this year, I committed to finding a solution for people living in their cars in Ballard. I started by meeting with local advocates and churches to assess what had been done in Ballard about the number of people living in cars. In February, I started meetingwith city departments, asking for their support and whatever background they had on the situation.
It turns out I was not the only elected official interested in finding a solution for Ballard Car Campers. In response to the growing numbers of people living in their cars in Ballard, and in no small part due to the incredible advocacy of Ballard Homes for All, State Representative Mary Lou Dickerson fought to secure $10,000 in state funds for a safe parking pilot project in Ballard.
The community came together to do outreach in the Ballard community to vehicular residents and, on April 24, I joined Heroes for the Homeless at the crack of dawn in their routine outreach. I served coffee and handed out socks and hygiene products to people who were just looking for a safe, dry place to rest their heads.
More importantly, I had a chance to listen to their stories. What I heard was that these folks could be my parents. These were people down on their luck in the most difficult economy in generations and they were doing everything they could to maintain a temporary home in a motor vehicle.
I believe that this is a time for action. I fully support the Ten Year Plan to End Homelessness and the underlying philosphy behind its approach, including the need for more transitional housing. We all know we need more safe, affordable housing in Seattle, be it transitional housing or permanent housing, we need more. But right now we don’t have enough funds for transitional housing for everyone. Right now the State faces nearly $2 billion in additional revenue shortfalls, and legislators have tough choices ahead. We’ve already seen the legilsature cut over $9 billion over the past few years.
So what is this project? What am I trying to do? The answer what we are calling a safe parking pilot program, and the idea has been tried across the country in various models.
In Seattle it looks like this. The local faith community in Ballard is coming together to provide vacant parking spaces in their lots. The first congregation to announce their support has been Our Redeemers Lutheran. They have offered space in their lots and access to have their toilets for 3-5 vehicles, on the condition that the people living in their cars want to get out of homelessness and into housing.
On our end, the Human Services Department will be contracting with a local service provider to do basic case management at each church that hosts cars. Altogether, there should be about 20 spots starting January 1, 2012. There is one caveat. I committed to raise $25,000 for this project during this year’s budget. I need the support of you and my colleagues to get that passed.
I have been inspired by the people who have come together and volunteered their time to make this program a reality. I am grateful to organizations like Real Change, that give folks like those living in their cars the chance to make a little extra money to cover expenses by selling their newspapers. I am committed to working on more solutions for homelessness and I recognize that this pilot doesn’t end the problem. But, at the end of the day, we are providing a safer place for people who are living outside until they can live inside.
I hope you will come out on Wednesday and support my Green Sheet for $25,000 towards this important project. The Public Hearing will be held at 5:30 at City Hall in Chambers. Citizens attending the meeting can take a copy of the agenda from the meeting and receive a discounted parking rate of $3 at Sea Park Garage on 6th Avenue between Cherry and James.
Please let me know what you think below in the comments, and as always feel free to email (mike.obrien@seattle.gov) or call my office (206-684-8800) if you have any questions or want to know how you can support this important project.
