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Mayor Nickels made a surprise announcement earlier this week: He'd like to spend $2.5 million to add 25 more cops to the chronically understaffed SPD. Nickels hasn't yet specified where the money would come from.

Compare that to a proposal City Council Member Nick Licata unveiled last Friday, February 4, at the annual council retreat: A three-year, $45.5 million per year property tax levy that would boost the number of beat cops and firefighters in town, plus pay for more "emergency human services" like drug treatment or homeless drop-in centers. The smart "Civil Streets Initiative" is Licata's multi-prong answer to "harm created by certain types of street-level activity," like chronic public inebriation and open-air drug markets. AMY JENNIGES

Contrast: Nickels & Donovan

Despite Mayor Nickels' reputation for railroading a pro-development agenda through city hall, Seattle's disgruntled batch of neighborhood activists, led by Seattle Displacement Coalition leader John Fox, have failed to anoint, or even find, a candidate willing to take him on in November ["Anti-Nickels Activists Come Up Short," Erica C. Barnett, Dec 16, 2004]. However, Ann Donovan--the opinionated president of the Capitol Hill Community Council--says she'll gladly challenge Nickels if no one else steps up. "I'm more of a populist than he is," says Donovan. She also says she'd be pragmatic with the transportation budget, prioritizing the viaduct over "more decadent" projects like fixing the Mercer Mess or building a streetcar, and she'd focus on "helping some of the neighborhoods that haven't been getting any attention." JOSH FEIT

Congrats: KCTS The Gays

This Friday, February 11, at 4:30 p.m., local PBS station KCTS plans to air the blacklisted episode of kids' show "Postcards from Buster," in which a cartoon rabbit visits a Vermont family headed up by a lesbian couple. Right-wing controversy had prompted PBS to pull the episode nationally.

KCTS is one of only 35 PBS affiliates (out of 350) brave enough to show it independently. That seems like a no-brainer decision in Seattle, where the 2000 census showed that 1 in 21 couples is gay, the second-highest rate nationally. AMY JENNIGES

CASA Latina Update

There could be fireworks at a February 15 neighborhood meeting over the fate of Belltown social service organization CASA Latina. The group would like to use city funds to move into Rainier Valley's empty Chubby & Tubby building on Rainier Avenue. But CASA Latina needs to secure neighborhood support for the move before they get the city cash ["CASA Latina Political Storm in Rainier Valley," Amy Jenniges, Dec 23, 2004].

Opponents of the proposal would rather see commercial development at the prominent site. Supporters, like neighborhood activist Mauricio Martinez, think CASA Latina is perfect for Rainier Avenue: "CASA Latina provides a valuable service to immigrants," many of whom live in Rainier Valley, Martinez says. AMY JENNIGES