Nikkita Oliver is Running for Mayor: The local Black Lives Matter organizer, poet, teacher, and lawyer announced her campaign to take on Mayor Ed Murray this morning.
“Everything in my history tells me this is not what people like me do that we don’t get this kind of opportunity and that we don’t get to make change in this way,” Oliver told Crosscut. “And I think that’s the exact reason why folks like me and folks sitting at this table should be running for office. We need to change the narrative and we need to be a transformative presence.”
“I’m running to win,” she told the South Seattle Emerald.
Oliver is Running as a Member of “The People’s Party”: The party calls for “a political organizing body which is directly accountable to the people and the communities” and promises a “participatory government structure where the people—not corporations, politicians, or developers—determine what growth and innovation looks like for our Seattle.”
On the Issues: Oliver’s website calls out rent increases and displacement and says, “Developer driven re-zones and growth are swallowing our city whole!” (Murray has supported upzoning certain parts of the city to allow for more density.) She spoke to the South Seattle Emerald about Murray’s record on racial justice issues, including his recent promises to invest in new programs for young black men. Oliver has also been an outspoken opponent of police funding, the new police precinct known as “the bunker” in north Seattle, and the new youth jail, which Murray initially supported and has now says needs a “second look.”
“The current state of bureaucracy is a manifestation of what happens when bigotry and racism go unchecked and unchallenged;” her campaign website reads, “when politics and politicians work for their own interests and the interests of corporations; when progressive speak is not met with progressive action; when the people are silenced in the name of an outdated political process and democracy becomes nothing more than a meaningless slogan.”
A Day Without Women: Across the world, some women will take today off work and avoid shopping at non-women- or person of color-owned businesses. Some say that’s a protest of privilege. Find everything happening in Seattle today, including a march at 6 pm, right here.
What’s Next for Detained Dreamer Daniel Ramirez Medina? The depends on which court hears his case. Before Chief Magistrate Judge James Donohue today, Ramirez Medina’s lawyers and lawyers for the Justice Department will debate whether his case should be heard in immigration court, which is housed within the Department of Justice.
Trump Administration Says Nevermind About that Whole Seeing You in Court Thing: “Lawyers for the White House dropped their appeal of the federal court decision that blocked the implementation of the first travel ban nationwide,” Sydney Brownstone reports.
What Caused a Flood of Sewage Into Puget Sound? According to preliminary findings from King County, an electrical failure last month at the West Point Wastewater Treatment Plant “caused flooding and a massive dump of sewage into Puget Sound,” KUOW reports. “First, an electrical failure shut down the pumps that move treated wastewater into the sound. While electricians were trying to fix that, devices that measure how much raw sewage is in the plant also failed. Tanks filled up, and the plant flooded.”
The Next Seattle Neighborhoods to Be Upzoned: Downtown and South Lake Union. The city council began that process Tuesday.
NIMBYs Lose in Los Angeles: Anti-growth Measure S failed.
Pronto Bike Share Is Shutting Down at the End of March, but What If You Have a Membership? “All members will have remaining balances credited to their cards on file automatically once the system shuts down (so make sure your card info is up-to-date),” reports Seattle Bike Blog. “And that’s it. No more Pronto.”
The Takedown You’ve Been Waiting for of the Latest Seattle Times Editorial Board Garbage: Seattle Transit Blog: “The Times’s core request—to provide so much capacity for car traffic that a complete closure of I-5 would have little effect on car travel times—is geometrically impossible.”
New Study Shows Sanctuary Cities Could Lose $870 Million Under Trump: Buzzfeed reports that the left-leaning Center for American Progress, National Immigration Law Center, and American Immigration Lawyers Association estimate cities in 32 states could lose $870 million through the loss of five federal grants it President Donald Trump follows through on his promises to strip funding from cities that don’t cooperate with federal immigration enforcement.
A Reminder As Grist Hires Brady Walkinshaw and Promises More Environmental Justice Coverage: The site recently laid off its only full-time environmental justice writer. The site has now hired Nikhil Swaminathan, formerly at Al Jazeera America and The Nation, as an editor responsible for “equity coverage.”
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