Real Change News | VOTW- William Brown

September 16, 2009
Vol: 16 No: 41

Vendor of the Week

VOTW- William Brown

by: Alex Becker , Real Change Intern & Contributing Writer

Photo by: Alex Becker , Real Change Intern & Contributing Writer

Printer-Friendly Version

Like it? Share it!

“I don’t want to see schools closing down … [because] I don’t want to see my kids on the street,” William explains.

He sees a direct correlation. Closing schools means less opportunity. Less opportunity means life on the streets. Street life equals jail time, drug abuse or worse.

“If you got people on the streets and they’re not doing nothing, chances are they’re going to jail,” William says.

That’s why he was so passionate about collecting signatures for Initiative 100, the ballot initiative spearheaded by Real Change with a coalition of organizations and concerned citizens. If passed, I-100 would have let the public decide whether or not they wanted the city to build a $226 million dollar jail. A project, William says, that would be “a waste of money.” Money that should be going into education.

The signature gathering campaign fell a few thousand short of the amount needed to get I-100 on the ballot, but the fight’s not over. Through William’s and others’ help, the people of Seattle are continuing to make their voices heard, to oppose the construction of the new jail.

In the span of just a couple months, William singlehandedly collected hundreds of signatures for the campaign. Now that’s dedication.

“It costs more to house a prisoner than to educate a person,” William says. “So why are they closing the schools down? Where’s my kid going to go if they close down the schools?”

To his customers, he says, “I appreciate the donations that you guys give us. And if you haven’t read [Real Change] yet, read it.”

You can find William selling Real Change outside the Starbucks at 12th and Columbia.

----