By Amber Campbell, RVP Editor/Publisher
Just when you thought Mayor McGinn might stop digging a public relations hole behind the Rainier Valley’s brutal on-again-off again crime wave and woefully understaffed South Precinct, somebody went and gave him the Columbia City shovel.
Without much more than a might-make-it-down-there-in-five-or-six-weeks and maybe-some-LED-lighting-in-a-couple-years, the Mayor finally just let Deputy Mayor and Columbia City neighbor Darryl Smith do the talking:
The Valley, as we well know, has over the years been maligned in the press. At times, we’ve felt ignored, humored, and frankly dissed by the City. I’m not here to say that those feelings aren’t based in some sort of reality. Like many of you, I’ve at times felt frustrated, and angry at my elected officials.
and…
We’re serious about walking our talk. If you would like to hear more about how we’re engaged or tell us what you’re working on, I hope you will call or email me directly. No one knows your neighborhood as well as you, and you are critical to our ability to lead in a way that ensures we are as responsive and as thoughtful as possible in times that are as complex and challenging as these. More.
Really?
‘Cause we tried that last week when we emailed Mayor McGinn and Deputy Mayor Smith with a friendly invitation to join the Rainier Valley Live Local Challenge, and didn’t get so much as a “thanks but no thanks” in response.
Then some of our homies, like KING5′s Tonya Mosely, Q13′s Amy Allen, the venerable Sable Verity and seattlepi.com blogger Craig Thompson tried to get answers to questions about South Precinct officers being tapped for drunk duty in Belltown, and so far, they too are gettin’ the hand.
Meanwhile, it may be another 30 days before the Mayor makes it down to Seattle’s most violent corner to discuss public safety, but tonight he’ll be in Capitol Hill for a nightlife forum.
Bad manners or bad governance? What do you think?
Deputy Mayor Darryl Smith has lived in the Rainier Valley since 1994. He is also one of only a few people of color in Mayor McGinn’s administration. Photo/Office of Economic Development
Related:
- Save the Date: Mayor to Make Rare Rainier Valley Appearance (8/27/10)
- Another Shooting at City’s Most Violent Corner; Mayor Promises Better Lighting (8/26/10)
- Community in Crisis: Man Beaten, Set on Fire in Rainier Beach (8/20/10)
- Two Shootings in 24 Hours, Two Kids Injured, 10-Year Old Gunman, Mayor SILENT (8/19/10)
Who to know, where to eat & what to do in one of America’s most diverse zip codes!
{ 37 comments }
Do I need stronger glasses because I know he didn’t say, “At times, we’ve felt ignored, humored, and frankly dissed by the City”.
Dissed?
This “response” is an episode of Dave Chappele’s, “I know black people”.
This is how the conversation went.
“Hey person of color who works for me, I need you to “holla” at the Rainier Valley because they feel I dissed them. You’re down…..you do it”.
The mayor has already responded to this. Did you not see him on the news riding the 358 showing how “down” he is?
Did you not hear him promise us LED lights? Because we all know LED lights will stop the crime. Oh wait…stuff happens during broad daylight before the lights would even be on?
Well damn….
I’m still waiting for my response to their post (added yesterday afternoon) to be approved by their moderator, so I’ll post it here:
“We certainly didn’t wait for the City to come and save us.”
I resent this comment. You imply our community makes no effort at all. Honestly, what have you done here other than share your SE Seattle pride before telling us to help ourselves? Should we help ourselves against armed gang members? Do I need to invest in a bulletproof vest before volunteering? Or should we build condos and higher income establishments to push the crime further down the street (and all the poor people with it)? Is that what Columbia City did? If it’s all good to you, I’d rather stop passing the buck and make -everyone- own up to this problem; that includes the city. What is the city doing to keep repeat underage offenders off the street? Are you saying these kids with rap sheets longer than my arm just need a hug, a government funded hobby, and a job? Do you take the #7 on your way home from work and walk from a stop somewhere further south than Columbia City or are you speaking to me from the experience of someone who rides the shorter, safer version of my commute?
We’re tired of lip service. We want city officials that exist in reality, not some world where statistics show our town is “safe”. We want our actual problems addressed by someone who gets it, not someone who’s real proud they shifted their troubles further down the road. We want to see progress. What’s more, we want to feel that votes for our Mayor were not wasted. Otherwise, anything from the following pages just seems like a lie in attempt to gain my temporary support:
http://mcginnformayor.com/issues/neighborhoods/
http://mcginnformayor.com/issues/public-safety/
I don’t mean to seem ungrateful. I appreciate their attempt to express empathy towards our situation. It’s a start. But the empathy doesn’t keep me and my work laptop safe on my way to and from the job. These fluffy letters have no real substance and make us sound like we’re “waiting to be saved”. That just burns my hide. They don’t seem to understand that we can’t do it alone.
In an ideal world, -both- city and community members hold a serious point-by-point conversation about our issues and discuss what everyone can bring to the table to generate measurable progress. Admittedly, I’m a little frustrated that we have to wait a month for that to happen. Given what we’ve seen from the mayor and deputy so far, I’m not completely confident we’ll get much value out of the upcoming visit. Still, I’ll take it.
The mayor is scared or does not think we matter. He will happily discuss with Broadview residents about their trash pick up issues.
1 – Please call into the mayors office and let them know we want to meet with him
2 – Call into the radio shows that host the mayor
3- Listen to the actions of the councilmembers, not their lipservice
People are afraid of the things they cannot understand. Every city has an area where crime is rampant. How can we expect a suburban Mayor who can count the times he’s set foot in our area to being to care about the complexities in our environment?
We need a Mayor who is dedicated (not just on paper) to figuring out ways to solve the violence in our community.
Oh and I appreciate the deputy Mayor for reaching out but this should be coming from the man we voted for. Again I really hope someone in his office is reminding him that we are not dumb and the streets are watching.
I’ve been trying to get information and will continue to do so.
Kind regards,
Craig Thompson
It looks like they’re picking and choosing their comments carefully. I see an addition from September 1st yet my comment is still pending moderation.
They deleted my comment
Sustainable development is not crime reduction. This is going to confuse a lot of people for many years to come. Some of those who try to push back hard on the mayor may find themselves in a padded cell, later on. Be careful out there… central bankers make money out of thin air. They can buy anything.
To be far, I jumped the gun. It’s up. I blame caffeine and an itching desire to get the Mayor to the table.
Jerry: Are you saying they’re masquerading development as crime reduction or vice versa? Do you mind expanding on your last comment?
*fair
Tasha, are you calling the Deputy Mayor a token person of color for the Mayor? If so, that is quite a disrespectful insult and damages any effort to develop a good relationship between our neighborhood and the Mayor’s Office. That is NOT how we solve our problems.
As for all the complaining going on on the RVP, some of it is valid given the history here but most of it is way off base. The Mayor has been in office for 9 months. Nine! He is working with the worst budget scenario ever. Ever! There is no magic switch he can flip and lock up all those underage repeat offenders Mich is so fearful of.
I ride the 7 every week day and you know what I see? A lot of people turning their heads and mumbling under their breath when folks are acting out. It takes a village people. How many of you complaining on this thread every say anything? How many mentor kids at a public school? How many coach sports or volunteer at a teen program? How many are on your block watch? Don’t have a block watch? Start one. These are things we can do now!
I realize we can’t do this alone and need SPD’s help but sitting back and slinging arrows at a mayor that values social justice and equity more than any we’ve had since Norm Rice is just self-defeating.
Yes, but shouldn’t the mayor be held to the same level of accountability that the interim chief of police was held to?
As far as people acting out on the number 7, if they are disturbing the bus ride of the other passengers, shouldn’t the driver boot them off the bus? Does Metro have a policy that riders should be subjected to harrassment up and down Rainier Avenue? Metro is part of the village too, and weild the authority on the bus. Paying a bus fare (assuming the fare was paid) is not one’s ticket to make the commutes of other workers, students and fellow travelers unbearable.
The deputy mayor is not a token. The blog post he wrote, however, is a token act, and of the poorest form.
Thanks Amber, for pointing how how blatant the mayor’s staff is about refusing to acknowledge or respond to public information requests (as is required, btw).
Curlove: Good points there, but the root of our unrest lies not just in the lack of progress but in the lack of valid & substantial feedback from our Mayor on these issues. Sadly, any arrows pointed in the Mayor’s direction are self-inflicted. I don’t expect a magic switch, but I do expect research, care and attention mixed with thoughtful and expedient response. I certainly want a better response than can be given over a dash to catch the bus home. As-is, it would seem that city officials and residents are so jaded from the amount of violent crime that occurs in SE Seattle that a shooting at the same intersection 2-3 times in the same week is ready to be shrugged off if not for the public outcry you claim to be self-defeating.
As for your challenge to get involved: How can we provide opportunities to get involved for those with jobs or other restrictions that may prevent real-time involvement? Are we logging our meetings and providing a forum for neighbors to submit their input and gleam from others in the after-hours? I’ll volunteer to log some of them but would need help. What other steps can we take to make community involvement more inclusive? Also, what kind of block watch are you suggesting for those in rougher neighborhoods? For multi-lingual?
As for myself, I’m about 2 blocks from Rainier and Henderson. I clean up and secure the communal areas, watch out for my neighbors and have the police on speed dial. I have city report forms bookmarked as do my neighbors. Unfortunately, the gangs in my neighborhood are confident & savvy; they frequently operate in a manner that evades neighborhood watch detection and/or beyond our means to act. No sarcasm intended, I’m very much open to any further suggestions you or fellow RVP members may have. If it’ll help my neighbors and myself feel safer after dark, bring it on!
@ Curlove: Where is your evidence that McGinn “values social justice and equity more than any we’ve had since Norm Rice”? I have seen no evidence to support that statement. I know your values by the way you conduct yourself. I can tell that McGinn values bicycles and hates the tunnel. I haven’t seen him in my neighborhood since he was kissing up to me for my vote, however. I honestly don’t know if he knows where Rainier & Henderson is. This pathetic “response” from Deputy Mayor Smith is almost more insulting than if he’d continued to ignore us.
McGinn was the former head of the local Sierra Club chapter, before he became mayor. Around 700 U.S. organizations representing 40 million members have endorsed the Earth Charter, including the Sierra Club and Humane Society of the United States. In many nations, the Earth Charter is being used as a community development tool.
Absolutely incredible. Despite the criticism from our corner of the city, One-Term Mike has remained silent during the shootings at Rainier and Henderson. Now the mayor’s office broke out of its cone of silence by reminding us that “we’ve felt ignored, humored, and frankly dissed by the City” and extolling the virtues of walking and riding bikes through the Rainier Valley.
I won’t bother asking how out of touch One-Term Mike (I’m sorry, but I will not malign a perfectly good bike company by comparing it with the mayor) and Phil Smith are because they and Rainier Valley reality aren’t on the same planet.
Here’s what I don’t get. Staying silent and being unresponsive is nothing new for the mayor’s office. Had One-Term Mike and company stayed this course, they could have the Rainier Valley Community Development Fund (RVCDF) fiasco occupy our musings until the next shooting, stabbing, etc. on Rainier and Henderson. But by Darryl Smith issuing his statement, he reinforces that the mayor’s office doesn’t “get it” and/or doesn’t care. Thanks, guys!
The deputy mayor is not a token.
Oh really? I didn’t know Darryl ever came south of Tutta Bella. And I didn’t realize that he knew any black people.
When I asked friends about his appointment, they responded, “he isn’t a part of the black community, and he’ll soon learn that he isn’t”.
It’s not even that I’m outraged at Darryl and the Mayor. I’m disgusted at their apathy and lip service. In the meantime, our children are killing each other.
Marie, McGinn was down in RV for the Youth and Families Initiative forum and just a few weeks ago for a business district tour or something economic development-related.
If you don’t think every single one of his major initiatives is founded in social equity you have not done your research. A major priority coming out of the Youth and Families Initiative is eliminating the racial achievement gap and inequality between north and south schools. True, taking action on this priority will take a while but the city doesn’t run the schools so McGinn has to build community and political support to make necessary changes in the school district. Walk, Bike, Ride is trying to prioritize more funding for sidewalks, bike lanes, and transit. Where does the Pedestrian Master Plan say the greatest need exist for sidewalks? Lower-income neighborhoods like Rainier Beach and Haller Lake. What part of the city has the most transit dependent residents? That’s right, the RV. The new Jobs Initiative I read about last week is focused on supporting small ethnic businesses and providing job training (and jobs) for low-income residents to weatherize buildings. Where are those buildings? The CD and RV. I can go on and on.
This Mayor may not have decades of experience working in the political game or even half the number of staff that Nickels had but they do seem to have all the right intentions and even some good ideas.
It’s a whole new world and government is not going to be able to do what it used to. Get used to it and start getting organized, developing solutions, and help the Mayor and SPD take some action.
get used to it! what!
I just love how I keep hearing about all these great plans for S. Seattle and we just need to hold tight! Meanwhile in other parts of the city, people’s issues are addressed in a very timely manner.
This letter was a joke and an insult.
For what its worth: Mayor McGinn did hold a half-day walking tour of RB on May 15th and Deputy Mayor Smith was there too – public safety was discussed at several stops along the way but was not featured as directly as it could/should have been.
A realistic analysis of the RB crime situation indicates several steps are necessary:
1. Increase police presence in the hot spots now- a local substation would be ideal but even increased patrols will help.
2. Continue community organizing for both more city attention to RB and for positive solutions; the RB Community Block Watch and RB Empowerment Coalition are both active on this front, join and support them.
3. Acknowledge that RB has long-term needs of economic development, family wellness, early learning and community cohesiveness; this is where the public safety problems arise from and where they can be resolved; in that respect RB is no different from hundreds of inner-city areas across the country.
I think if we want the Mayor to listen to and address the South End we’ll have to come up with requests, plans and complaints more specific, directed and constructive than the general “have the Mayor walk around with lots of expensive items and see if he feels safe” sorts of suggestions that seem par for the course at RVP.
Rainier Valley has no political clout. What are we going to do about it? 1. Declare anarchy? or 2. Get the community together to empower themselves?
Numerous non-profits, Rainier Chamber of Commerce, SEED, Well Spring, Lighthouse for the Blind, ACRS, Boys & Girls Club, the RVCDF, just to name a few… These are the types of organizations that should lend support and take initiative to schedule a Town Hall Public Meeting with elected city officials and the new SPD chief to address youth gang violence, poverty issues, neighborhood safety and development.
What a bunch of beurocratic baloney. As if Rainier Beach residents aren’t savvy enough to see through the meaningless terminology and empty reassurances of Darryl Smith’s response. Not to mention the transparent ploy of using one of the few black people in your administration to gain repor with what Mayor McGinn clearly percieves as a bunch of black people who will just see brown skin and immediately be reassured. Pathetic, insulting, and so incredibly sad.
When keeping it real goes wrong……..
Who’s for empowering the Rainier Valley by insulting public officials online!!!
Curlove either works for the administration, or has drank the kool-aid.
“It’s a whole new world and government is not going to be able to do what it used to. Get used to it and start getting organized, developing solutions, and help the Mayor and SPD take some action.”
North of 90 gets cops, we are told to have meetings and figure it out. What a joke.
@ CBO
I was thinking the exact same thing you were thinking. How long do we have to be patient? I mean sheesh! I’m still waiting for my 40 acres and a mule!
Nice to see some graffiti get painted over that was up for awhile on Rainier. Also nice to see the tennis shoes being cut down from the wires. In the America of my parent’s youth, no one could have afforded to throw and extra set of shoes over the telephone wires.
@curlove (and others for Walk, Bike, Ride)…
I understand that SE Seattle has more streets that are without sidewalks. I do not understand how adding sidewalks will prevent gang members from attacking folks walking from point A to point B. Are you serious implying that crime stays away from sidewalks?
I understand that biking is more environmentally conscious than using up fossil fuels with individual automobile commuting. I do not understand how riding a bike substantially increases the safety of the rider from crime.
I understand how riding the bus is more environmentally conscious than using up fossil fuels with individuals driving their own cars. I do not understand how promoting bus ridership increases personal safety in SE Seattle. Rainier and Henderson has bus stops on 3 of the four corners. Yet this is where the crime is being reported. It is the #7 route that is one of the most “interesting” rides you can take. If it was a Disney ride, the lawyers would shut it down.
We have crime, and unless you are seriously suggesting that neighborhood groups in SE Seattle should form armed vigilante groups to combat this crime, I’m not sure just what we can do. Block watches can identify criminal activity and contact law enforcement. This does not stop/prevent the crimes, it only notifies the police that it has happened.
Please, do you have any practical (and legal) solutions?
My wife has also reminded me that adding lights to RAS and Henderson is unlikely to make a substantial change. That intersection is already well lit, and as other posters have pointed out, crime here does not only happen when it is dark. Our criminals are brazen enough to attack in broad daylight. LED lighting will not scare them off.
She also suggests (only somewhat tongue-in-cheek) that we attract a powerful force to fight back… she specifically mentioned the Hell’s Angels.
I’m a youth counselor in the RV area. I agree that the mayor should provide more cops, lights, jobs and programs for youth, but you should see the kids that I work for. Their parents neglect them, abuse them and use alcohol and drugs themselves. It is NOT the mayor’s job to teach values, responsibility and emotional intelligence to these kids, that is the PARENT’S and community responsibility. I know that parents have their history as well and reasons to be who they are, but that history is NOT the mayor’s responsibility either.
The thing I agree the most with curlove is that IT TAKES A VILLAGE. We can’t be spectators waiting for the government to fix our community and family emotional problems. We need to take more responsibility for what’s in our hands and power. Talk to your neighbor about the kind of help they can get with their alcohol or crack problem and the parenting classes that are taught for free in the area. I know this is a small piece of the whole picture, but an essential one. We could have all the city cops in the area, but if this kids are still angry they’ll find a way to take revenge for sure.
There are a lot of thoughtful comments on this thread. I truly enjoyed this conversation.
Yeah, I may have drunk the koolaid during the mayoral campaign but the experience of volunteering in my neighborhood with others from the Rainier Valley for a candidate who actually campaigned in my neighborhood was pretty incredible. I heard the Mayor speak at length about his convictions regarding social justice issues and was inspired. Now I’m committed to supporting the Mayor put those convictions to action. My idealism may be perceived as naive but for now I will error on the side of optimism and will continue to work hard to bring attention to the inequity and injustices experienced in SE.
Erikr, you may want to check out some of the work on crime prevention through environmental design. I’ve heard SPD’s Mark Solomon talk about this too. Basically active public spaces and increased pedestrian activity deter crime. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crime_prevention_through_environmental_design
New voter in Seattle/RV. And Curlove’s efforts to articulate how safety is increased by environmental activism reveals just how out of touch the mayor and his supporters really are. Resolving safety issues require funding SPD to increase patrol in known criminal locations and to enhance response times, it requires city collaboration with local agencies to strengthen gang prevention, and increasing afterschool activities it requires funding undercover activities and ensuring tough punishment for adult offenders know to foster juvenile delinquencies. Curlove’s post about transit and sidewalks fostering “social justice” is and pitiful. Her sincerity is the only thing that prevents it from being offensive, but it is painfully ignorant and patronizing the RV.
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