It has been a while since I wrote you say? Yes, yes it has and I apologize for lapsing in my writing. You know, a year is a long time, and I don’t think I realized just what I was committing to in this blog. If you were hoping for a better excuse tell your friends I took to a cabin in the woods where I have been chopping my own wood and composing an album. It will be titled, “For Emma, Forever Ago.” Ok so that is Bon Iver, but still…you should listen to it.
Upon receiving constant harassment from my old compatriot, Chris Johnson, I’ve decided to start writing again. I will probably devote several posts in the coming months to ensuring his demise, but I will save hate-filled rhetoric for another time. For now, I will try to squeeze an update on my life into less than 500 words because, frankly, I’m not interesting enough to write any more than that, and I value the time of the 4 of you who will read this.
Victory
Back in September I had a letter to the editor published in the Seattle Times newspaper about a proposal floated by a Seattle City Councilmember to make “aggressive panhandling” a civil infraction.
Earlier this year it was officially released. The ordinance would have made solicitation within 15 feet of someone engaged in a parking or ATM transaction, or immediately carrying a document related to that transaction, a civil infraction and imposes a $50 fine for each violation. I might add that aggressive panhandling is already illegal under current law.
The law as it was written left an enormous amount of subjectivity to the enforcing officer and lowered the burden of proof to the point where it could violate the due process of the ticket person. Additionally, the data that was sighted showing a need for the new law was incredibly faulty.
Real Change assembled a coalition of over 20 organization and campaigned against the passage of the ordinance. A week before the council vote it looked certain to pass with a veto-proof majority. Throughout the week organizations and others lined up in opposition. Due mostly to a report by the Seattle Human Rights Commission that recommended unanimously that the council reject the ordinance.
The Mayor said he would veto it, so the council would need at least six votes to overturn it. The vote was on Monday and on Sunday night the vote count was 6-3 in favor. At the last-minute one of the Councilmembers who had told voters in the fall he would oppose it decided to hold true to his promise and changed his vote.
The next day the ordinance past 5-4, but was vetoed by the Mayor. Lacking a sixth vote the Council President said he would not seek a vote to overturn the veto.
Basically I just used almost all of my 500 words to tell you….WE WON!
I’m gonna go ahead and check off my New Years resolution of fighting bigotry. How many idealistic resolutions have you finished?
JVness
On the home front things are going well. Oh, except one of our housemates moved out in March because she was offered an amazing job in Connecticut. Which as all of you geography nerds know is not exactly in the Northwest.
My green thumb is getting…well….greener. So I have undertaken re-landscaping the entire back yard.
I tore up all the weeds, moved some rocks around, and tilled in some compost. The beds are ready to plant, but because most of it is in the shade I still need to decide what would grow best.
The garden is doing well. I just harvest our over wintering carrots. Tasty, but their root growth was severely stunted by the cold. It’s spring, so we are at the start of the growing season. My romaine is happy…except for the slugs and the aphids. I’ve tried to kill them, but so far all my beer slug trap has managed to kill are two beneficial spiders.
There is much more to tell, but I’ve wasted enough of your time. I’ll try to post every week, and at the very least keep you update on the backyard.
In honor of my renewed commitment to posting I also renewed my theme. What do you think?
Tags: Garden, Panhandling, update
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