This arrived in my inbox the same time as a Danny Westneat column that highlighted the fact that Nordstrom downtown is unable to get the police to respond to calls about theft or disruptive customers, while its store at Southcenter gets a response from Tukwila police 100 PERCENT OF THE TIME! I'm all in favor of throwing brickbats at rich people and those who want better service without paying for it. But is that really what's going on here? I know if my house was ransacked and the police didn't respond I'd be ticked off. This is not a Katie Wilson problem, let's be clear. Westneat posits that it's an SPD staffing issue. Maybe. But I'm not as quick to dismiss the issue with a knee jerk condemnation of local businesses large and small.
Thanks, Robert, great feedback! We definitely have a responsiveness issue, partly because SPD has done so much to block civilian response that they leave themselves overwhelmed.
And these public safety issues are real and should be taken seriously. But they were worse and letters like this were not getting circulated, or gleefully promoted by Media the same way. So I think the critique of the cynicism is still worth it. Note that many of the signatories’s headquarters aren’t even in Seattle (Microsoft, Costco, etc.)
Seahawks winning is too easy. I think they'll demand she'll make the Mariners win.
I do think there are legitimate public safety issues, including for retail businesses. But the point is that they are ongoing, have deeper roots, including a tax system that still leaves our city short for both public safety and social services. And as you say, they didn't make that kind of statement when Harrell was mayor.
Paul Loeb--author of The Impossible Will Take a Little While: Hope and Perseverance in Troubled Times.
This arrived in my inbox the same time as a Danny Westneat column that highlighted the fact that Nordstrom downtown is unable to get the police to respond to calls about theft or disruptive customers, while its store at Southcenter gets a response from Tukwila police 100 PERCENT OF THE TIME! I'm all in favor of throwing brickbats at rich people and those who want better service without paying for it. But is that really what's going on here? I know if my house was ransacked and the police didn't respond I'd be ticked off. This is not a Katie Wilson problem, let's be clear. Westneat posits that it's an SPD staffing issue. Maybe. But I'm not as quick to dismiss the issue with a knee jerk condemnation of local businesses large and small.
Thanks, Robert, great feedback! We definitely have a responsiveness issue, partly because SPD has done so much to block civilian response that they leave themselves overwhelmed.
And these public safety issues are real and should be taken seriously. But they were worse and letters like this were not getting circulated, or gleefully promoted by Media the same way. So I think the critique of the cynicism is still worth it. Note that many of the signatories’s headquarters aren’t even in Seattle (Microsoft, Costco, etc.)
Seahawks winning is too easy. I think they'll demand she'll make the Mariners win.
I do think there are legitimate public safety issues, including for retail businesses. But the point is that they are ongoing, have deeper roots, including a tax system that still leaves our city short for both public safety and social services. And as you say, they didn't make that kind of statement when Harrell was mayor.
Paul Loeb--author of The Impossible Will Take a Little While: Hope and Perseverance in Troubled Times.