Ten Reasons You Need To Be At Real Change's Forum On The New Jail

1. Silja J.A. Talvi, multiple award-winning essayist, investigative journalist and author of Women Behind Bars: The Crisis of Women in the U.S. Prison System.

2. Aaron Dixon, Green Party Senate candidate in 2006, co-founder of the Seattle Black Panthers and well-known activist.

3. Larry Gossett, King County Councilmember

4. Tim Harris, Founder and Executive Director of Real Change

5. Jesse Hagopian, Seattle teacher and activist

6. Alexes Harris, part of the Clean Dreams pre-arrest diversion program.

7. Because 1 in 33 Americans is under correctional supervision.

8. Because 1 in 99 Americans is in jail.

9. Because the city wants to spend 220 million dollars on a monument to economic injustice and structural racism without having any real public discussion.

10. Because our city and our nation are at a crossroads, and the time is now.

Join Real Change and the Seattle University School of Law for an evening of education, debate and organizing. Learn about the costs of a new jail to our neighborhoods, our communities, and our schools through a panel discussion moderated by David Bloom. Hear about the better ways. And join others to find out what we can do about it. RSVP!

Wednesday, January 28th

6:30 to 8:30 PM

Seattle University

Pigott Auditorium

What Would YOU do with $200,000,000? Build a jail?

What would YOU do with $200 million dollars? Build a new jail? Jails are expensive.

The City says it's planning ahead by 15 years. During that time, enough people living in despair and poverty in Seattle, with limited hopes for a future, can regularly ripen for criminalization and warehousing in an expensive new jail.

To help subsidize it, funding will be cut from hugely successful programs that help: at-risk youth, the growing number of people trying to survive poverty, thousands of homeless, people trying to break the cycle of drug addiction and drug-related crime, people who need health or human services help, people with mental-illness who don't get enough help (often criminalized) . . .

In otherwords, this $200 million dollar jail will house the people the City fails when it cuts programs. It's absurd.

Monday night at 6pm is the City's big Budget Hearing. It's our last chance to give them the word that we don't want another new jail. Write it down on a piece of paper if you want. Not in your neighborhood, not downtown, not at all. NO NEW JAIL.

Enough already.

-Revel

Sanctuary

Friday morning Nickelsville relocated to University Christian Church.

They were invited to use the parking lot. It's private property. The church owns it and most of the block adjacent. The Church Council of Greater Seattle offices are across the street. There's a power center of social justice so significant here that the Mayor's office and the City wouldn't even answer phone calls from major media, much less set police loose with eviction notices.

But is nothing sacred in Seattle? Even the survival of increasing numbers of homeless people in organized communities on church ground? Not according to the Mayor's 'drift.'

Listen to Mayor Nickels fib, choke, and go-all-tangential during "The Conversation" with KUOW's Steve Scher this morning.

Read transcripts of the show, plus an informative reality-check by Tim Harris, right here at Apesma's Lament.

Stay tuned.

Pink and A Whole Lot to Like

"I Like Pink" - A little ditty by Tim Harris

People ask us daily where Nickelsville's pink tents came from.

"We saw tents at a breast cancer awareness event just before Nickelsville opened. They were the same shade of pink, kind of dark pink ("fuschia") yeahhh - and approximately the same shape. Did they give those to you?

People still thinking hard about those tents.

"Yeah, they are a similar shade of fuschia pink. Just a coincidence. Girl Scouts of America sells tons of 'em. Hmm? Maybe they use them for their Jamboree gig. I don't know. Maybe the tents come from the same manufacturer . . . ANYWAY, we acquired as many as we could to shelter about 150 people who are homeless and building a shantytown."

"Pink tents. Huh. Well, they're cheerful. "


Here we are 2 weeks in, and about 3 days until Nickelsville leaves Discovery Park.

People have made something of those tents along with the shanties they've built.

Some tents are enclosed in creative structures to make them more secure, more sturdy. Some have lean-to's added-on to store people's things or give them a little extra space. Some are elevated on planks to keep them off the damp ground and have canopies to protect them from the elements (It's getting cold). There are personal touches like welcome signs, decorations. Tools and cooking utensils hang outide while thick blanketed bedrooms and roll-ups containing clothes and personal items are stored inside. Some tents are set-up far apart for those who like extra peace and tranquility. Most are close together in a community with bathrooms, kitchen, secure entry to the camp. The basics.

It's been work, but people made homes of them. Pink's been all-right.

Revel

Daybreak at Discovery

Go Forward With Courage
When you are in doubt, be still, and wait;
when doubt no longer exists for you, then go forward with courage.
So long as mists envelop you, be still;
be still until the sunlight pours through and dispels the mists -- as it surely will.

Then act with courage.

Chief White Eagle - Ponca

Daybreak Star Center

" . . .the center owes its existence to Bernie Whitebear and other Native Americans, who staged a generally successful self-styled "invasion" and occupation of the land in 1970 after most of the Fort Lawton military base was declared surplus by the U.S. Department of Defense."

Getting Ready for the Exodus

Nickelsville is preparing to move. Time's up at midnight.

25 sites were reviewed for relocation. Farms, churches, vacant properties, facilities with available space on their grounds, open parcels in King County . . .

Please keep residents in your hearts and minds, along with all of the other people without homes who will live in tent cities, camp in their cars, sleep on the street or stay out of sight tonight.

"Nickelsville? That's my home. That's where I live."

- Richard W.

RCOP - Failure to Obey

14 homeless activists arrested at the RCOP Camp4Unity demonstration at City Hall on June 9th finally went to a pre-trial hearing today.

The charges are pedestrian interference and failure to obey.

Given the opportunity today to plea-out with community service, and an agreement, basically, to not commit crime for 1 year - they opted to go to trial instead.

Why? Because today the City Prosecuting Attorney wouldn't give a year of exclusion of criminal charges for trespassing against members of the group, homeless, who might have to sleep some place illegally for survival. Without some exclusionary protection, they could be in violation of the plea agreement with that 'crime' and subject to stiff penalties.

That's solidarity.

********************

Nickelsville will have to move-out of the parking lot at West Marginal Way SW and Highland Park Way by Wednesday night. They're looking at 25 sites where they might relocate to. Requests/negotiations are in the works.

Meanwhile Operation Nightwatch says shelters are still full. 28 more people were referred to Nickelsville last night.

Nickelsville needs food, water, beverages, coffee, soda, ice, ice chests, blankets. Please see the Nickelsville website for a nice map.