Seattle Metro News and Events for Feb. 17-23, 2016

Seattle Association of Black Journalists Offers Scholarship

The Seattle Association of Black Journalists has a scholarship to help African American students in the Puget Sound region who are pursuing college careers in journalism.

The scholarship was established to honor Patricia Fisher: a Puget Sound native, journalist, educator and role model for her support of young people and her contributions to the community.

Awards are based on scholastic achievement, financial need, community service and a serious interest in print, photo, broadcast journalism or multimedia/ online, and non- fiction writing. Scholarships range from $500 to $2,500.

The deadline is March 1.

To get more information go to the website.

If you have any questions, e-mail Jamon@aol.com.

County Council Issues Black History Month Proclamation

The Metropolitan King County Council this week celebrated the continuing contributions of African-Americans in the United States and throughout the world by proclaiming the month of February Black History Month in King County.

African American History month was the idea of historian and educator Dr. Carter G. Woodson, who hoped to raise awareness of African Americans’ contributions to civilization. As the founder of the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History, Dr. Woodson created Negro History Week to be celebrated in February, the birth month of Abraham Lincoln and former slave and African American abolitionist Frederick Douglass.

The first Negro History Week was celebrated in 1926. In 1976, as America celebrated its bicentennial, Negro History Week became Black History Month, a celebration recognized in the U.S. and Canada.

Members of the Board of the Black Heritage Society of Washington, Inc. were on hand to receive the recognition from the Council.

Mayor Delivers State of the City Address

In his State of the City address before the Seattle City Council Tuesday, Mayor Ed Murray expanded the City’s commitment to support education, job opportunities and success for all of Seattle’s youth. He also pledged to hire an additional 100 police officers above the 100 net new officers he has already budgeted, and offered new initiatives to support small businesses, foster the arts, and activate urban parks.

“Today the State of the City reflects the 21st Century dreams of the 1962 World’s Fair: a vibrant city driven by technology and science, creating jobs and innovation in everything from transportation to health care,” said Murray in a packed City Council Chambers. “The State of the City also reflects our worst fears from the Great Depression, as issues of homelessness and inequity continue despite decades of effort on the part of this City to resolve them.”

The mayor cited Seattle’s current successes, including 63,000 new jobs in the city in the last five years, an unemployment rate of 3.5 percent and median income at an all-time high.

But the mayor noted that some communities are not fully benefiting from the current growth, especially African American and East African male youth between the ages 14 to 24. Seattle is one of 14 cities to receive a grant from Bloomberg Philanthropies’ Innovation Teams program, which aims to enhance the capacity of City Halls to solve intractable urban problems and improve the lives of residents. The team’s first charge is to assess and address disparities facing young Black men.

Murray challenged Seattle’s employers to help double the number of available positions in the Mayor’s Youth Employment Initiative to 4,000. The City will partner with the Center for Children & Youth Justice to train outreach workers to engage young men and link them to school, jobs, training and other services. The City will also create a first-in-the-nation program to respond to the 40 percent of youth-violence cases that involve violence against a family member, reducing the need for youth detention. Seattle will also provide an additional $200,000 for Career Bridge, a proven program that puts individuals with criminal records on a path to success through job training, education and other supports. Seattle will also partner with Seattle Colleges to create a new College for Working Adults to help lower-wage workers increase their earnings or change careers.

To address the opportunity gap and the persistent disparities in our public schools impacting children of color, Murray will build on last year’s launch of the Seattle Preschool Program with a the first citywide Education Summit in more than 25 years.

As part of the City’s efforts to ensure that neighborhoods remain affordable and livable, the mayor today announced new initiatives to support small businesses and nurture art and culture as Seattle grows. The Commercial Affordability Advisory Committee will identify issues that lead to displacement of small businesses in growing Urban Villages and recommend actions that support affordable commercial spaces. And to support Seattle’s vibrant arts and cultural community, another major employment sector, the mayor announced that a significant portions of King Street Station will be permanently rededicated with 15,000 square feet of public arts space and new affordable spaces for small businesses.

In his address to the Council, Mayor Murray noted that “public safety is an area where we have made significant progress, yet still have significant challenges. Even with the progress we have made in the past year, much more needs to be done to address property crime.”

Under the leadership of Police Chief Kathleen O’Toole, crime overall fell 7 percent citywide in 2015, including a 30 percent drop in auto thefts and a 20 percent drop in crime in Southeast Seattle.

To respond to community concerns about property crime, the Seattle Police Department are forming a dedicated team focused on bringing down property crime rates. The department is now using many of the same strategies that have been effective in addressing chronic crime and drug dealing downtown in other neighborhoods in the city. The department will also improve the efficiency of the City’s 911 response system.
The mayor’s complete State of the City remarks as prepared are available at seattle.gov/mayor.