There’s a great power in standing up to be seen. We should do it more often.

For many of the neighbors, it was the first ever extensive walk around the area. Most people, if they walk in the area at all, have their route to and from home. Mr. Vega was on his usual route when he was jumped in November.

The tragedy of Danny Vega’s death brought press coverage to what locals in South Seattle who rely on transit in the Light Rail Corridor already know – too many frightening attacks with serious consequences have also occurred.  More than 30 street robberies or attempted robberies have occurred in South Seattle since Sept. 1, Seattle police reports indicate.

One attack is too many. Thirty is way, way too many. My greater neighborhood is filled with hardworking people, many of whom have no practical alternative to walking to and from the bus or light rail. Nor should they have to worry about walking to and from the bus or light rail. It has to be safe to walk to and from the Othello Street station, and from the Mt. Baker, Columbia City, and Henderson Street stations.

During Sunday night’s walk, organized by the Southeast Seattle Crime Prevention Council and followed Monday night by a walk around the Columbia City station, we looked for dark spots or secluded, dangerous areas. We found a full half block with no street lights and no lights on adjacent property, and five burnt out pedestrian-scale lights just across from the station itself. We found some places very well lit with well-trimmed landscaping. We saw the mounted video camera that captured the images of two young men stashing a jacket into a dumpster near where Danny Vega was beaten. We saw mostly good sidewalks, but some cracked and heaved areas that make walking (or rolling in a wheelchair) difficult.

In the end, though, there isn’t much unique about the greater Othello area. I don’t mean that in a bad way. It’s a great neighborhood of small businesses, homes, a new apartment complex and the great Othello Park.  The attacks on people can and do happen just about anywhere.  They are thwarted by a combination of efforts and luck. More light, tidier landscaping, more eyes on the street from neighbors and other walkers.

While investigating the specific attack on Mr. Vega, SPD has also focused resources on preventing more attacks from occurring. Capt. Nolan of the South Precinct has responded to the attacks with emphasis patrols targeting the areas where these attacks have been occurring. Also, the precinct now deploys a two-officer special emphasis car that does nothing but cruise the corridor on the look out for transit predators. South Precinct Anti-Crime Teams and Gang Unit officers also work the problem. 

These are all good moves, though community members have reason to ask why the pattern of attacks wasn’t publicized sooner. I remain concerned that South Precinct doesn’t have the number of officers needed to cover the area with a consistent visible presence.  Not only are we not hiring to replace all our retiring or otherwise departing current officers, but events in other parts of the City (like Occupy) require shifting officers out of neighborhood patrol assignments and into special duties. The result is a patrol force stretched too thin.

For now – big thanks to Lieutenant Hayes and Detective Cookie for their company and assistance Sunday night.  The punch list from our Othello area walk-around includes replacing lights, adding new ones, trimming hedges, fixing sidewalks – and follow-through.

The art keepers in the city came for the painting today so it can be photographed and prepped to be part of a show at the Seattle Art Museum next year called Seattle as Collector: Office of Arts & Cultural Affairs Turns 40. This free to the public exhibition will take place from May through October of 2011. Mark your calendar and check out the very great collection we all own.

Roberto was an organizer, a strategist, a leader and a good man.  Gracias, Mi Amigo.

Then it just became ridiculous.  I was seeing him every day either at Fourth and Cherry or at PCC. We clearly both recognized each other. I finally just started saying hi and buying the paper from time to time. Then we’d start talking longer.  Usually about the Huskies or the Seahawks, less frequently about politics.  He was always on top of the latest in the teams’ progress and the roster changes.  One thing people may not know is that Robert was really good at advising on flower bouquets.  The Seward Park PCC keeps their flowers out to the side of the door and Robert would help me out if I was picking up flowers.  He was really good at it, too.  I would be reaching for something and he’d lean in and point out a different bunch that, on review, was clearly superior in color make-up.

The memorial on Real Change’s website notes that Robert helped to sort out conflicts between vendors. He had a knack for this, too. There was a new guy working the PCC one day who apparently didn’t know Robert and was new to the Real Change system.  He was maybe a little negative in his salesmanship and a couple of the storekeepers were noticing him, but not in a good way.  I saw Robert take him aside and firmly explain to the guy the balance involved in being a successful Real Change vendor in a super small business district.

In the past year Robert proudly arrived for his selling stints at PCC in a new-to-him pick-up truck.  He was psyched when he got it.

I’ve been sick with pneumonia (“community acquired” is my new favorite term) or bronchitis for approximately a month now.  When stuck at home I’ve switched between bed, the couch and chairs depending upon the time of day. I walk back and forth from the kitchen to make more and more tea. I have a humidifier, my own bathroom, and a washer and dryer downstairs. I get paid when I’m on bed rest.

Robert apparently died in his truck down on Sixth Avenue South near Massachusetts Street on Thursday, April 28. He’d been discharged the day before from the hospital with orders of seven days bed rest. I don’t know if he had offers of places to go or an opportunity for a respite bed in one of the shelters. I do know we need more respite beds for homeless people leaving hospital care. Ironically, temporary respite care for homeless people discharged from hospitals is one of the things I’ve been researching this year and would like to expand. We clearly need more beds whether Robert was in need of one or not.

A memorial for Robert will be held this Friday at 1 p.m. at City Hall Plaza.

One later tonight for Theresa Butz, the South Park resident murdered in her home by an intruder Sunday morning. Her partner was injured, but survived.

Russ had what I consider to be a fantastic job serving the city with information and he made the most of it. As is often the case we learn so much about someone after they’re gone. The Queen Anne/Magnolia News ran a great tribute to Russ detailing his achievements and his life as a traveler, calling his life “picaresque.”

David Horsey did a great cartoon image of Thomas Jefferson back in January when the impending closure was announced (cloaked as putting up a for sale sign). Jefferson looks shocked next to his words:

“Were it left for me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter.”

Of course, Jefferson is also to have said:

“I do not take a single newspaper, nor read one a month, and feel myself infinitely the happier for it.”

I do not feel myself infinitely happier for losing the P-I. Our understanding of each other and of the issues that challenge us locally, regionally and nationally will be the worse. Many thanks to all the great writers, editors and photographers.

“The project, in faux industrial concrete and steel, is more evidence of change in a city whose growth and economic success over the past two decades have put its modest neighborhoods like Ballard under perpetual renovation.

“Mrs. Macefield’s refusal to sell her house made the news more than once. In a city knotted over its shifting identity, she seemed a familiar face, old Seattle, vulnerable but resistant to the march of gentrification and blandness.”

On a somewhat related note, Knute Berger has a piece on Crosscut about “slow cities,” cities taking a purposefully slow approach to growth. It’s a thought-provoking piece that again dives into the tension between economic development that feeds job creation and wealth (hopefully for all) and the idea that we should perhaps slow growth intentionally in order to somehow control its affects on Seattle. The comments from readers of Berger’s piece are interesting. Some hail the return of “Lesser Seattle” while others note that plenty of other cities would be all too happy to pick up Seattle’s growth (our high tech, bio tech, global health, research, education and other great jobs) and leave us to struggle. At least one poster noted that if by slow city we mean a city where people walk and interact more, we need to become a denser city, thereby requiring more growth and change in targeted ways.