RC Blog

Panhandling Hearing Scorecard & Logos

posted by Tim Harris on Thursday, March 18 at 8:32pm

After closely watching yesterday’s Public Safety Committee hearing on the Seattle Channel, I have to say that my first impression of how things went was a bit off base.  Power has had a long time to strategize this one, and we were out-organized and out-maneuvered.

For the first hour, people in favor of human decency and keeping urban fear within reasonable check held our own pretty well.  Of the 36 who testified, 19 were on our side.  Many strong testimonies were given.

Then, Burgess announced that testimonies should be condensed to a minute in recognition of the extended time and long list of speakers.  That’s when the Seattle business and corporate interest blitz commenced, including two neighborhood associations, Seattle Monorail, Argosy Cruises, Seattle Hotel Assn., Seattle Metropolitan Credit Union, A mysterious Pioneer Square property manager named Dane, and Starbucks.  Their speeches were tight, rehearsed, and with few exceptions, came in under a minute with no signs of the haste that usually accompanies a planned speech being cut in half.  The pro-ordinance forces dominated the final 30 some minutes with 14 of 25 speakers.

As Dominic Holden noted at the Stranger SLOG, the opposition to the ordinance came from a broad cross section of citizens and public interests, while Burgess’ support was represented by the usual downtown crowd. I count 61 speakers, 31 of which supported the ordinance, with tactical advantage going to the home team, and helpfully assembled a visual, in case any of us were deluded that this is going to be easy.

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