Top Things to Know & Do
- Mayor Durkan swept CHOP.
- SDOT put many bike projects on permanent hold.
- Lime is back as JUMP.
- SDOT established streamlined streateries. Slick.
- Lake Washington Blvd is the bike boulevard it was always meant to be, at least for a segment.
- The West Seattle Bridge is getting wrapped in carbon.
Remember how I said that moving into "Phase 2" felt like shifting into a bigger gear while riding up a hill. Yeah, about that exponential curve.
Thoughts on The CHOP Down
CHOP was an impressive community action that occupied public space to draw attention to the Black Lives Matter movement and the need for immediate policy and funding change. Occupation was not the intent of the organizers, it was foisted upon them by the dramatic and violent escalation of engagement by SPD with protestors. Because of SPD's escalation, city councilmembers put enough pressure on the agency to force them into a full retreat from the East Precinct. Unfortunately, what started off as a peaceful occupation full of hope and promise turned fatal. News reporting suggests that SPD did not respond to the shootings in a timely manner, resulting the delay of EMTs to assist. This mess is not the doing of Black Lives Matter organizers. It is SPD's violent escalations and retreat from the community it is sworn to serve. The Black Lives Movement is so much bigger than CHOP, and the energy that went into its community building will continue on. How cities address crime, emergency, and public health must be reimagined, shifting significant resources away from state-powered officers with guns to people who instead wield empathy for their communities. Part of the solution must be reimagining traffic enforcement, shifting away from racially-biased pretextual stops that escalate to violence and toward automated fee based structures and calmer, more forgiving streets.
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