Parks strikes again

Jobs, Journalism, Justice

Staff Reporter

Articles by Cydney Gillis

“Major transformation” foreseen for Little Saigon

By Cydney Gillis | May 30, 2007

Drive past Southcenter, Northgate, or any other major mall in the Seattle area and the view is typically not of the mall itself, but Best Buy, Staples, and other big-box stores that have moved in around it. But city consultants say that won’t happen in Little Saigon: If a 10-acre shopping center and 550 units of housing go in as planned at the site of the Seattle Goodwill on South Dearborn Street, they say large chains aren’t likely to follow. ...

Time to End the Drug War? Seattle’s Drug War Re-Examined

By Cydney Gillis | May 23, 2007

The three-decade-long War on Drugs is really “a war on young people, on the poor, on people of color,” says former SPD chief

The war in Iraq has cost $300 billion. But that’s only a third of what Americans have spent on another war they’ve been waging at home for nearly 40 years.

In 1970, when the War on Drugs began, approximately 1.3 percent of the U.S. population used drugs. Today, sociologist Katherine Beckett says, the ratio of drug use remains the same and is spread fairly evenly across the races. ...

Waiting on the housing authority

By Cydney Gillis | May 23, 2007

On June 1, the Seattle Housing Authority is launching a new waitlist procedure it calls “Save My Spot” that housing advocates are already dubbing the “Get Lost” program. ...

Just Heard... May 23, 2007

By Cydney Gillis | May 23, 2007

Port recall

After 22 years on the commission, Pat Davis may finally be running aground at the Port of Seattle.

Last week, a King County Superior Court judge approved a petition filed by Renton resident Chris Clifford to recall Davis. In it, Clifford accuses her of malfeasance for signing a memo last year that granted an extra year’s salary of nearly $340,000 to retiring Port Chief Mic Dinsmore. ...

Port of Seattle to Raze Housing Near Runway

By Cydney Gillis | May 16, 2007

Ending homelessness gets harder, activists and officials contend, when public agencies tear down affordable housing needlessly

It may only be a matter of time now before a wrecking ball comes calling at the Lora Lake Apartments. But, by then, Nikole Dispenza will have already made a move that makes her mad just to think about.

She moved into the Burien apartment complex last September, renting a one-bedroom on the ground floor for $760. It has a washer and dryer in the unit and a back porch that opens to an outdoor area where her two-year-old son, Devin, can ride his tricycle. But by May 31, she has to be out. ...

Officers, Video Tell Different Stories

By Cydney Gillis | May 9, 2007

Judge orders documents released that could cast doubt on SPD’s internal investigations

Two police officers say they arrested a wheelchair-bound man Jan. 2 in downtown Seattle after collecting crumbs of crack cocaine from his lap. But in a surveillance video released of the incident, the officers never examine or collect anything in the suspect’s lap. ...

Just Heard... May 9, 2007

By Cydney Gillis | May 9, 2007

The kid’s not all right

The 2006 One Night Count found nearly 800 children ages 6 and under homeless in King County. A few of them are being represented on the streets this Thursday as a local non-profit takes life-size cutouts to downtown sidewalks.

For Family Services’ “Don’t Just Look Away” campaign, child models posed with cardboard signs scrawled with statements like “We live in a car.” Printed up at life size, the cutouts furnish visual reminders of those who are homeless but often hidden from view. ...

Whose Voice?

By Cydney Gillis | May 9, 2007

Some public housing residents read The Voice. Others think it’s only good for lining bird cages. Either way, the Seattle Housing Authority is going to have to find a new way to pay for its monthly tenant newsletter: On April 10, a committee of SHA tenants voted to yank the housing authority’s entire budget for The Voice — $65,000 — after tenants balked at SHA using their Resident Participation Fund to pay for it. ...