Defensive
Two weeks ago, in the wake of an audit that found “significant”
problems with the city’s contracts for defense services for the
indigent, the city council unanimously passed a resolution giving
Mayor Greg Nickels two weeks to come up with a politically
“independent” process for choosing public defenders. [“On the
Defensive,” Erica C. Barnett, August 16]. On Friday, August 24, Nickels
responded—by selecting his own six-person panel, including
his own legal counsel, Regina Labelle, and two departmental staffers
who answer directly to Nickels. Late on Friday, council president Nick
Licata responded, vowing to pass an ordinance that would force the
mayor to abide by the council’s directive and create an independent
body to choose public-defense contractors. ERICA C. BARNETT
Displaced
Residents of the Lock Vista Apartments in Ballard are fighting to
keep their low-rent complex from being converted into
condominiums. Lock Vista resident Mona Lang says the sale of the
large, five-building complex—home to many artists and elderly
people—is a symptom of a larger problem in Seattle, where there
is no cap on the number of apartments that can be converted to condos
in a year. “Affordable housing is disappearing all over the city,” she
says. “Not everybody can buy a condo.” Residents are getting
together a petition and working with the Seattle Displacement Coalition
in the hopes of halting the conversion of the building, where the
average rent is about $775 a month. JONAH SPANGENTHAL-LEE
Departure
David Heurtel, the deputy director of Seattle Center, is
resigning. He intends to stay in the city but says he not
leaving for another job. “There wasn’t a watershed moment or some
drama,” Heurtel says. “I’ve just been looking at where my life is going
and where the Center is going. It’s time to turn the page and let
somebody else take over.”
Heurtel came to Seattle Center three years ago from Montreal, where
he worked as an entertainment attorney. Since then, good stuff has
happened at the Center—the Vera Project and SIFF Cinema moved
in, and the Center’s Century 21 Committee started talking about getting
rid of some of the ugliness (like Memorial Stadium).
Dave Meinert, a businessman and activist in the music community,
says Heurtel’s departure is a loss for the Center. “Heurtel is a
visionary, entrepreneurial guy. Sometimes entrepreneurial, visionary
people have difficulty working in bureaucracies.” BRENDAN
KILEY
