Is Seattle kicking Portland’s booty?

While Portland City Council debates sit-lie citywide, baseball stadiums, parking lots and signage – Seattle’s appears to be kicking our collective butts.

Portland continues to struggle with a debate over a past hero (Cesar Chavez Blvd.), while Seattle appears to be looking to the future and is backing an immigration platform.

Portland continues to sift through a Housing Bureau transfer with no concrete examples of how exactly the transfer will benefit the affordable housing stock in Portland, specifically in places like South Waterfront and now possibly Lents.

Seattle was far enough ahead of the curve to put a  Affordable Housing levy worth $142 million on the ballot. It’s projected to pass.

You decide.

Posted by Israel Bayer

Seattle’s tent city to move to permanent location

Nickelsville, the Seattle tent city that cropped up last year in protest of Mayor Greg Nickels’ policies on homelessness, will move to a permanent location on June 5, according to its organizers.

Though they haven’t announced what the new location will be, Nickelsville’s organizers say the new site will have ten times the capacity of the church lot they’ve stayed on for the last three months.

The cluster of 155 bright pink tents first formed in September in South Seattle. The tent city has moved several times as the city and state have evicted them from public lands.

Last week, the city dropped criminal tresspassing charges against 23 people who were arrested at Nickelsville in October. Read more on the Real Change blog.

Street Roots’ most recent coverage of Dignity Village, Portland’s only permanent tent city, is now online here and here.

- Mara Grunbaum

Officer’s shove puts Seattle man in coma

A Seattle man is in a coma  with a fractured skull after he was forcibly knocked into a wall by a sheriff’s deputy, who mistakenly thought the man was involved in a nearby bar fight.

The Seattle Times reports that Christopher Harris, 29, was pursued by officers in Seattle’s Belltown neighborhood on May 10 because a witness identified Harris as having been involved in a bar altercation. Officers later determined that Harris had not been part of that incident.

To stop Harris, Sherriff’s Deputy Matthew Paul, 26, shoved him toward a concrete wall eight feet away. A surveillance video shows Harris’ head hitting the wall and Harris slumping over, unconscious.

The King County Sheriff’s Office says the force used on Harris was within legal boundaries, and the outcome is “a tragic accident.” A spokesman said officers had identified themselves to Harris, but Harris pulled a hoodie over his face and ran from them.

Harris has been unconscious since the incident and is listed in critical condition.

The sherriff’s office will continue to investigate whether the incident violated protocol, and the county prosecutor will decide whether it warrants criminal charges.

In Portland, the District Attorney recently declined to prosecute the officer who roughly tackled 42-year-old James Chasse during a stop in 2006. Chasse died in police custody with 26 fractured ribs and a punctured lung.

Posted by Mara Grunbaum

Judge rules in favor of Tent City 4 in Seattle

From the Seattle Times