PCOs, please pick up your literature!

This is a message out to all of our PCO's:

Here is how and where to pick up the Voters Guides for the General Election. They are at the home of Barbara Whitt and Burt Webb. The Guides are in boxes in front of their garage, and the lists and envelopes are in the house. Please call Barbara or Burt at 206-729-7410 for their address and to arrange a pick-up time.

If you need us to drop your stack off at your home, please let us know.

Our lists consist of the following:

Strong Democrats
Likely Democrats
Unknown
No Data

If you have enough to deliver to your entire list, please do.

The ballots go into the mail on October 15th. What we heard from some of our experienced PCOs at the September meeting is that it is most effective to go door to door, actually talking with people. It is less effective to just drop them on doorsteps. What this becomes is a timing issue. If you plan to talk with people, they're more likely able to remember that they have the voters guide because you will have engaged with them as you hand it to them. If we just drop it on their doorstep, it might get lost. So we're recommending that while door to door talking can be done at any time between now and November 2nd, drop-offs should be done as close to when the ballots hit mailboxes as possible.

Marked up lists should be returned to Brittany from the Coordinated Campaign when you are done. We always have hope that they will enter the data and make it part of the Votebuilder system. What I would like to see all of us focus on is the membership drive on the back cover, because that's where we get the bulk of our activist outreach. The more members we have going into the 2011 election year, the better!

See you out walking door to door!

Chad Lupkes
Chair, 46th District Democrats

Creating the Political Will to End Homelessness.

The Interfaith Task Force on Homelessness hosted the tenth of a series of workshops on September 15 for an in-depth look at the issues of homelessness, and concrete steps the community can take to address the problem. Task Force founder Reverend David Bloom, a resident of the 46th District and our endorsed candidate for Seattle City Council last year, delivered a stirring keynote address. He reviewed the history of governmental abdication of its commitment to investing in low-income housing – an abdication that, long before the Great Recession made matters so much worse, resulted in the explosive growth of nationwide homelessness over the last 30 years.

"[T]here was a time, not so long ago," he said, "when the federal government made a serious annual investment in low-income housing production. Significantly, and not coincidentally, that commitment terminated around 1980, the very time we began to see the dramatic growth in homelessness that has continued to this day."

Rev. Bloom issued a clarion call to action:

"The question for us is our collective will as a people—a caring and compassionate people—in our democratic society . . . to work against overwhelming odds to turn back the tide of greed and selfishness and indifference that stands in the way of ending homelessness. . . . As Martin Luther King, Jr. said in his famous 'Beyond Vietnam' speech delivered one year to the day before he was assassinated, 'A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death.' That is the path we are on today."

Rev. Bloom continued, "Unless we unite to redress [the problem of homelessness] with a new human rights movement, our best efforts to eliminate homelessness and to restore a more sustainable economy for everyone will never be enough." Homelessness is not a problem just for its immediate victims, he said. "We accept it as a permanent social condition at our own peril."

Click here to read Rev. Bloom's speech, including the practical things we can do right now.

Bill Block, Project Director of the King County Committee to End Homelessness, presented a report on "Progress and Challenges" to date, which provides further data on failed governmental policies that have exacerbated today’s problems – as well as notable local achievements in addressing them. Other workshops dealt in depth with youth and families at risk, School District data on homeless children, specific initiatives to provide shelter for all who need it, barriers to stability, and many other aspects of the problem. Nancy Amidei, in her panel presentation on "Developing the Political Will to End Homelessness" referred workshop attendees to the website of the 46th LD for its advocacy links, continuing work that she started at the University of Washington. For more information on the work of ITFH, you can go directly to the Interfaith Task Force on Homelessness website, which is also one of those links on our Advocacy page.

Resolution to support Streets for All Seattle

The following resolution has been submitted and will be considered at our September meeting. Please feel free to comment here on our blog.

RESOLUTION TO SUPPORT STREETS FOR ALL SEATTLE

WHEREAS many neighborhoods in the 46th Legislative District lack sidewalks and safe street crossings for pedestrians;

WHEREAS we, the 46th District Democrats, stated in our platform that: “better public transportation will promote equal opportunity and will improve the quality of life for all;” and that we support:

“1. Establishing public transit as a priority over road construction, so as to better serve the public and reduce auto use and emissions;
2. High-density development and economical rapid transit in urban areas;
3. Incorporating vital local concerns into transportation planning; ...
5. Reviewing Seattle planning and zoning to reduce automobile use by promoting density around transit centers and route intersections.”

WHEREAS, Seattle’s Pedestrian Master Plan and Bicycle Master Plan are underfunded (in 2008, only $12 million of SDOT’s $200 million budget was spent on bicycle and pedestrian improvements);

WHEREAS the Seattle City Council in February 2010 adopted a goal of achieving carbon neutrality by 2030;

WHEREAS Seattle voters have strongly supported transportation initiatives, including 69% for Transit Now (2006), 53% for Bridging the Gap levy (2006), and 70% for Sound Transit 2 (2008);

WHEREAS we believe improvements to pedestrian, bicycle, and transit infrastructure can help:
1. create livable, walkable neighborhoods that attract residents and employers,
2. increase mobility and quality of life for all members of the community, including the young, the old, the poor, and the disabled,
3. enhance street safety (there were 1,045 bike accidents in Seattle between 2006 and 2008), and
4. promote clean transportation choices that lessen our dependence on fossil fuels and reduce our production of greenhouse gases.

NOW, THEREFORE, on this 16th day of September, 2010, also known as “World Ozone Day,” the 46th District Democrats resolve as follows:

Recognizing that transportation budgets are typically separate from general fund accounts, we support the goal of increasing investments in infrastructure and services that promote walking, bicycling and transit as means of transportation in Seattle;

We support efforts to raise $30 million in new dedicated annual revenue to help stave off cuts in Metro bus service, double the city’s commitment to the underfunded Pedestrian and Bicycle Master Plans, and build critical elements of Seattle’s transportation infrastructure;

We further support investment in sidewalks and pedestrian infrastructure in areas of the city where sidewalks currently do not exist; and

The Chair of the 46th District Democrats should recommend a member of the 46th to serve on the advisory committee of Streets For All Seattle.

Submitted by Rep. Scott White