tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1177011220900542567.comments2009-03-01T13:21:14.424-08:00RCOPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09965339388017076450RealChangeOrganizingProject@gmail.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1177011220900542567.post-18935440467565494192009-03-01T13:21:00.000-08:002009-03-01T13:21:00.000-08:00please put a downloadable pdf version of I-100 online!wadehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10790922337002367362noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1177011220900542567.post-66143138987153127832009-03-01T13:19:00.000-08:002009-03-01T13:19:00.000-08:00Editorial for Detroit's Alley Culture News <BR/>Wade Rosenthal<BR/><BR/>Seattle Notes for the Alley Cultured<BR/><BR/>Real Change News is bad-ass! It's Seattle's homeless paper bought by homeless vendors for a few cents a copy and sold for a buck for their own profit, but its quality writing sets it apart from other noble experiments of its kind. It has radical content and intelligent analysis of the issues of the day local and global, where you can get critical reports on contraversial land use, education, and homeless struggles. Real Change gives a public voice to the voiceless. <BR/><BR/>One example would be the story of a homeless tent city 'Nickelsville,' that takes its name after our current mayor Greg Nickels, in the tradition of Seattle's depression era shantytown 'Hoverville' which once grew up along the train tracks and Elliot Bay in the industrial area that today has been labled 'SODO' to help market it as hot development property. Nickelsville keeps getting raided by the police and forced to migrate. Partly as a result of Real Change keeping this issue in the public eye, many local churches have offered to host Nickelsville. It's now in a church parking lot on the University of Washington campus. <BR/><BR/>Real Change has also been a pivotal force behind Citizens' Initiative 100-which to me is not just another petition, but could be the start of a movement-to get the city's plan to build a new MUNI jail under the control of voters. I got involved with this campaign January 28 after attending a panel talk at Seattle University hosted by the homeless paper's organizing wing called Question Inevitablility. I like that- it poses the question of whether we like the way things are going; do we really need another jail?<BR/><BR/>The mayor's decision to build this jail is happening at the same time as the city has decided its too expensive to provide vital social services. The budgets of drug rehab programs, medical clinics, low income housing projects, and homeless services could all use this money to raise up the quality of life here for everyone, but some of these programs are just being cut. Also parents and students in South Seattle are in an uproar against the superintendent of schools' plans to close three schools in their neighborhoods that she says are necessary due to a budget shortfall. <BR/><BR/>On the panel: city councilman Larry Gosset , two activists working around homeless issues and education, U-W sociologist Alexes Harris, radical lawyer and educator Dean Spade the founder of the Sylvia Rivera transgender Law Project, Silja J.A. Talvi an investigative journalist from In These Times and Prison Legal News who has just recently published a book on U.S. women's prisons, and Aaron Dixon, a lifelong youth activist who marched with MLK and used to head the Seattle BPP.<BR/><BR/>I have never really been into petitions before, but theres something special about this one that makes me copy it at work and hand it out to other commuters in the back of the bus on my way home. I like I-100's specificity; it not only says the people must ultimately decide but it requires the city to take steps to end the current racial disparity and consider specific alternatives to expansion including diversion programs. This language appeals to a wide variety of political persuasions-should we invest billions into infrastructure whose end result would be to create 400 misdemeanor beds. <BR/><BR/>Athough I know not everyone will sign all their friends up, if just one person reads the petition, signs on the line, and votes* to check Seattle's or the nation's skyrocketing incarceration rates it will be worth the energy I'm putting in! I'm motivated to do this work because 'tough on crime' is a failed state policy agenda that has resulted in 30% of the total population of the United States being either locked up, on parole, or out on bail right now. The expansion of state funding for crime fighting apparatus and detention has simply meant more people incarcerated and longer for less serious offenses, while our society grows increasingly violent and unsafe. Maybe if my shoving a petition in these liberals faces can make them take any of these smaller steps it could eventually inspire a person to take other actions as well to stop the expansion of institutions that are swallowing the underclass alive. <BR/> <BR/>At the meeting homeless activist and founder of Real Change News Timothy Harris pointed out that jails are where civil society puts all the disposable people. Penal institutions are where the state is hiding the growing population of people who have no other viable low income housing. These people are in need of a roof over their heads mental health care and drug treatment. The vast majority of incarcerated people in the U.S. are in jail for drug use and other non violent crimes associated with poverty and mental illness. The biggest reason people end up back in jail is due to parole violations related to drug and alcohol addiction.<BR/><BR/>I already knew nationwide the incarceration rates of the poor and racial minorities by far exceed the percentage of the same groups in the general population, but I found out that WA has a much greater disparity (10X) because its criminal 'justice' system is similar to the rest of the nation, only relatively few African Americans live here proportionate to the total population. Panelist Talvi said that throughout the nation, most incarcerated people are in jails like the proposed MUNI not prisons.<BR/><BR/>In the US it is basically legal to discriminate against people because of their arrest record. Many ex offenders lose their voting rights and must disclose their criminal history on all kinds of applications for the rest of their lives. In Seattle, not only are you not allowed to live in low income public housing projects if you have a non violent drug offense on your criminal record, but your family can be kicked out of their home if you're caught staying with them in public housing.<BR/><BR/>When you get released from jail and end up going back to jail they call it 'recidivism.' Very frequently people end up going back in because they can't get legit jobs or housing and are forced into the illegal economy in order to survive. <BR/><BR/>Writer and education activist Jesse Hagopian eloquently connected the issues of juvenile crime and three recent school closings in the poorest neighborhoods to the jail issue. He pointed out that these decisions were made by city executives due to budget shortfalls, but it always comes down to an appropriations choice of what to fund. He asked what kind of future we're buying into by choosing to build jails and close schools and compared the situation to the way the Fed had money to fight a war in Iraq but no money to fix the levees in New Orleans.<BR/><BR/>Someone told an anecdote about a homeless guy he knows who breaks the law every time he's released so he can have a roof over his head. That also happens to be an O. Henry story about a tramp named Soapy from a hundred years ago. You'd think we could do better by now. <BR/><BR/> *if we get 23,000 votes in 86 days I-100 Seattle MUNI will be a ballot issue.wadehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10790922337002367362noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1177011220900542567.post-40671676830417677182008-11-11T04:03:00.000-08:002008-11-11T04:03:00.000-08:00This is great info to know.Neeteehttp://munmroinsurance.blogspot.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1177011220900542567.post-70505965258652581032008-10-21T14:22:00.000-07:002008-10-21T14:22:00.000-07:00Hi Lauren,<BR/><BR/>They'd appreciate anything, anytime, but hey get lots of crackers and carbohydrate stuff. Could use more protein food.<BR/><BR/>Beverages like soda, coffee etc. have also been consistently in short supply. Fresh fruit too. <BR/><BR/>Easy to carry? Maybe a bag of oranges and some 2 liter bottles of soda.<BR/><BR/>Thanks!<BR/> <BR/>Revel<BR/>Real ChangeRCOPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09965339388017076450noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1177011220900542567.post-40693620763267553842008-10-21T08:55:00.000-07:002008-10-21T08:55:00.000-07:00I work down the street and can come by at my lunch break today. What can I bring? Coffee? Some magazines or something? <BR/><BR/>I didn't plan ahead enough to have bought socks or anything ... next time.laurenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09747498161580198393noreply@blogger.com