-Okay, thank you. Whoa.
Thank you for being here on a great fall morning.
We got the weather to cooperate
and we got the A Team with me right now.
Very excited.
Very excited to talk about what we're trying to do.
I want to just mention a few names
as I start who aren't standing with me,
but they're around. First of all,
I want to talk about many of our community and labor
partners in this work and to the city workers
from so many departments
who are really making a difference not just downtown,
but throughout this city.
Special members of my team
including Andrew Myerberg and Sarah Smith,
Deputy Mayor Tim Burgess, Natalie Walton-Anderson,
Leandra Craft,
Michelle Nance
and especially Steve Barham from IP and Ben Dalgetty.
I want to thank you because these are folks --
I slaughtered Ben's name.
I see. Dalgetty. Where's Ben? -Over here [inaudible]
-Did I slaughter it?
-You got it right the second time.
-See? Got it right the second time.
Ben and others do a lot of work behind the scenes.
And we thought coming into fall
we would try to recognize some of the great work
that goes behind what we do.
I want to start with a quote
to sort of give the context of why we are here.
And, again,
I want to thank the community leaders for being here.
"Safety and security are the most basic job of government."
That came from our Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg,
a person that I've had the pleasure of working
with for the last three years.
"Safety is the top priority of our administration
and has been since day one."
I think we've made that clear to the people of Seattle
and that's what they expect.
And we've made significant strides
over the last three years.
We hear that everywhere we go. But there's so much work to do.
And I've said on many occasions we don't take victory laps
when people are sick and dying on the streets,
we don't take victory laps
when we see some of the egregious violence
that we continue to see in our street -- on our streets.
So, today, I'm issuing an executive order
to guide our actions and define our approach moving forward.
First, we will --
we are formally establishing the Downtown Activation Team,
affectionately known as our DAT.
Our pilot is conducted to focus cleanings
and connecting people to services working in partnership
with the community.
And if you --
if any of you have ever been involved in sports and athletics
in any way, you know it's always about the team,
it's about the team, it's about the team.
No one is more important than the team.
And the people that are doing this work
are clearly the leaders doing this work
so we wanted to recognize them.
Second, we are submitting two pieces of legislation
to the city council that will help protect the city staff,
the contractors,
the partners doing this essential restoration work.
It will provide flexibility and tools to address
illegal street vending and trafficking of stolen goods.
Now, what that means is that we actually should have the right
to clean our streets uninterfered,
that you should not be in harm's way
when you are doing this work,
that we need to protect you doing this work
and we need to define that.
And, so, this executive order and proposed ordinance
clearly defines that.
The second piece of the street vending people
are we are very proud of our legitimate street vendors.
We want them to thrive
and we want our residents and tourists to thrive.
And this is sort of a cool thing we do in our streets
to activate areas.
But we also have no tolerance for unlawful
illegal street vending and for people
that are skirting around the rules
and even participating in the illegal trafficking of goods.
No tolerance for that.
So, these executive -- these ordinances that
we are submitting are intended to define that ill activity
and give us the tools to enforce that.
Third, we are announcing our Restoration Framework
which defines our compassionate
and coordinated approach to public safety
and public health challenges in public safe -- in public spaces.
Now, fortunately or unfortunately,
I'm sort of the face of the city
when it comes to narrating what we're trying to do.
And while some of you say,
"Man, that's an ugly face," now why you guys laugh at that,
some may say it's a good-looking face.
What we have to understand is it is the face of compassion
and a humanistic approach to what we are trying to do,
that in all the work that we've done in our administration,
quite honestly, I hire people
that have the same kind of wherewithal
to reflect the actions of this team.
This team do not wake up every morning with their fists balled,
unless we lost a big football game or something.
But, other than that,
they wake up with a passion to help people
and clean the streets.
So, our framework are intended
to look at exactly what our plan is.
And we've learned from many lessons
on what we can do better.
And, so, we've defined for the public consumption
and sort of measure with data our framework.
The Downtown Activation Team brings together
city departments and service providers
to coordinate cleaning and restorations,
place-based activations and compassionate responses.
The DAT will build on a model of our unified care team.
And that is exactly what we learned from in what we can do
when we have a unified team working together.
It brings dozens of city departments
with partners and providers,
like the Downtown Seattle Association,
we'll hear from John Scholes in a minute, our MID ambassadors
who are really a strong part of our team.
And I broke bread with them recently
and I have to tell you they inspire me
and I hope I lend some inspiration to them
to realize how they are transforming our city.
And, We Deliver Care,
another great example of when community comes together
with resources and commitment what we can do.
In practice,
SRAs, otherwise known as scheduled restoration actions,
include scheduled sidewalk and street cleanings
multiple times a day in select areas,
environmental changings like street lightings on Third Avenue
that will soon expand beyond the test block,
frequent garbage and trash cleanups.
We need to do more to enhance artistic
and creative expression in these spaces building
on the success of what you see,
nearly 50 murals that we've painted.
We've installed them citywide in the last two years.
This is a means to activate areas with beauty,
with art, artistic expression.
We need to stabilize these areas,
work with service providers to connect those and help --
to help and make arrests when necessary.
This is a comprehensive approach which allows us to do this.
So, elements of this plan
and the work of the Downtown Activation Team
you've seen the results.
They've already begun.
And we are seeing positive early results along Third Avenue,
which we know we can replicate as we also expand to Chinatown,
International District and Little Saigon.
We are very intentional about always including that area
in our Downtown Activation Plan.
Since September,
DAT has completed nearly 200 restoration actions
downtown and 43 --
-Stop the sweeps!
You're -- -Okay, go ahead.
-Murdering your own constituents!
Stop the sweeps!
-I hear you. Thank you. Thank you for the feedback.
-Stop the sweeps!
-Thank you. -Stop killing people!
Stop killing [inaudible] --
-DAT has completed nearly 200 restoration actions --
200 restoration actions and 43 in Little Saigon
where we started earlier this month.
That means graffiti removals,
power washing and connections to services
as we make our public spaces more welcoming to all.
Now, we've already seen the projected impacts
of that work in the Pike/Pine treatment area,
a 27% decrease in violent crime. Well, let's clap to that
because I just need some positive reinforcement now
that we are doing the right thing.
And, overall, 14 decrease in emergency calls
as well as a 30% decrease in emergency
and medical responses compared to last year.
-[inaudible] poor people!
-I would like to take the moment
to acknowledge the horrific stabbings --
-Stop the sweeps! -We all hear you, ma'am.
Thank you, ma'am.
-You're killing people [inaudible] --
-You are heard. You are heard.
-[inaudible] things they need to survive!
-Thank you for your advocacy.
-[inaudible] doing this!
All you have to do is help your own constituents
so they don't die outside!
-Thank you. -Why don't you do that?
Why don't you [inaudible] --
-I would like to take a moment to acknowledge
the horrific stabbings
that occurred last week in Little Saigon.
Now, my heart goes out to the victim and their families
and my thanks to our first responders
who apprehended the suspect and provided critical care.
We have the officer --
and it's unfortunate that we have to speak
over this young lady. But we have the officer
who apprehended the suspect here with us today,
Sergeant David Sullivan -- Sergeant David Sullivan.
Please let me shake your hand, sir.
Sergeant David Sullivan -- ma'am,
if you have any decency,
you would let us honor this officer --
you would let us honor this officer
that saved lives yesterday. Thank you very much.
Now, Sergeant David Sullivan represents the great work
that SPD officers do every single day
to keep our neighbors safe, every single day.
Thank you, Sergeant Sullivan, for your quick action,
for your commitment to the city and for indeed the lives
that you have saved.
I also know that the incident commander here
is acting Captain Randy Ward who's a personal friend.
And I just wanted to acknowledge your work
and your leadership as well as incident commander making sure
that again we are working together as a team.
Now, I invited them here today
to recognize their bravery and action to make a point
that I hope we all can agree on,
there are no easy answers to quick fixes to the challenges.
-[inaudible] your [inaudible] and your open [inaudible] --
-What Sergeant -- Sergeant -- -You're killing people!
Stop [inaudible] --
-Hey, ma'am, I'm not killing anybody,
but -- I'm not killing anyone.
I don't do that.
-[inaudible] everyone who are [inaudible] outside!
-I'll keep plowing it away and I thank you for your patience.
-[inaudible] to the cold you [inaudible] --
-Thank you. Yeah.
-[inaudible] there's so much blood on your [inaudible] --
-The One Seattle Restoration Framework
that we're sharing with you today
reflects a need for a compassionate
and coordinated approach expanding our definition
of safety to reflect the experience of our residents.
We have turned around police recruitment
and this becomes very critical.
-[inaudible] who are dying on the streets [inaudible] --
-We've turned around from historic lows
and made it quicker and easier to apply.
We currently have 16 applicants a day up
less than six a day in 2022.
An example would be -- We are adding the largest number
that we have in the first time in years and for -- by the way,
anyone interested in earning a 103,000 starting salary
plus a signing bonus, go to seattlepolicejobs.com.
We've created more response options like launching CARE
or our third public safety department who
so far have responded to nearly 1,000 incidents since launch.
And our fire department's Health 99 Overdose Response Team
who responded to 400 calls this year.
Now, we are --
yeah, thank you,
I was getting used to the silence here for a minute,
just threw me off actually to get the silence.
Keep going, keep going with it. I've got the rhythm now.
So, we are investing in focus placed interventions
and activations to ensure public spaces are welcoming
and accessible to all.
This means that when we see disorder and suffering
on our streets, we don't ignore it.
We work on it, we work on it.
We work on compassion and urgency.
So, our framework is very simple.
Strategies 1 and 2,
to reduce gun violence and high-impact crime areas,
respond to the most serious
and dangerous situations harming families,
students and neighborhoods.
Just last month, in October, our police department recovered --
or seized over 150 firearms for over 1,600 last year --
or for over 1,600 this year.
Now, Strategies 3 and 4,
to improve emergency and opioid
responses and to expand options to deescalate
and get people in crisis help.
Now, Seattle is the first city in the country
where firefighters and EMTs
can administer a new overdose treatment drug
that's already saving lives,
that's the buprenorphine strategies
we are doing in addition to the Naloxone/Narcan product
that we have been using for people in urgent crisis.
Strategies 5 and 6,
to activate neighborhoods
and engage communities to invest in places
where people in most need and connection
with connection to services and focused improvements.
Now, our first responders are going to do
this incredible work every single day
and that's what our Restoration Framework does.
So, let me close by saying this --
Our 13,000+ employees are all part of this team.
And while you see what we're up against,
why I listen to what her saying is that is actually
the voice of compassion.
I place no judgment on what she's arguing for.
She's asking us to not kill people and not hurt people.
So, what she doesn't realize that --
What she doesn't realize is that she's actually being heard.
She doesn't realize she's actually guiding what we do.
I'm actually talking to you, ma'am.
Do you want to listen for a minute?
Do you want to listen for a minute or you just want to talk?
So, apparently, you just want to talk.
But I'm going to talk over you.
Your words actually resonate with what we're trying to do.
Our framework is designed to lead with compassion,
but also to be, quite frankly,
tough on the bad people that are harming our streets.
We will be databased, we will be compassionate
and we will be strong.
As simple as that.
And I cannot do it without a strong team with me.
So, once again, thank you.
And, community, thank you.
This is a home for many.
And, with that, we are going to introduce John Scholes,
president and CEO of the Downtown Seattle Association,
my friend. And, John, we're going to see
how you can navigate through the noise here, my brother.
All right. -Thank you, Mayor.
You know, it wasn't too long ago
that we made public policy by listening to the loudest voice
and it resulted in 500 police officers leaving our department,
it resulted in response times going beyond our city objective
of seven minutes for priority one calls,
it resulted in the most people dying on our streets
than we've ever seen,
it resulted in tents taking over our parks.
That's how we made public policy in this town
a couple of years ago.
Thankfully, that's not how we're doing it anymore.
Thankfully, we've got a mayor with courage and backbone
and conviction to get results to help people off the streets,
to distinguish between those that are out hurting
and need help from those that are out hurting other people
and need to be held accountable.
We can do that in Seattle. For a long time, we didn't.
And you saw the results.
I'm grateful for the mayor's leadership, his compassion,
his conviction for creating One Seattle
and for the results we're seeing.
Since September,
we've seen drug observations and activity and dealing
and using in this area cut in half,
we've seen a reduction in violent crime,
we've seen fewer people suffering on our streets
because of the coordination and collaboration and work
from the folks behind me
and many others that aren't here today.
I've been with this association for 16 years,
I've been in this role for 10 years,
I've never seen the level of coordination,
cooperation and intention to this issue
and making this a safe,
welcoming, delightful part of our city for everybody.
And that's what we expect, that's what we deserve.
So, thank you, Mayor.
This is the mayor's One Seattle vision in action.
Look at all the folks around here,
working together on shared objectives, measuring results.
It's not performance. We saw what performance got us,
a lot of suffering, a lot of crime.
This is about outcomes and we're seeing outcomes.
And I want to say thank you to our team members,
the folks you see in yellow, in blue,
in green standing around me.
We've increased our cleaning activities
over the last couple of months,
we're working to bring more art and activation
to support small businesses to bring more businesses
into this part of town.
This is the lobby of our city,
this is everybody's neighborhood.
Everybody has the right to come down here
and feel safe and delighted, have a great experience.
And we are well on our way to delivering that.
Thank you, Mayor Harrell,
for your leadership to our council members,
to our chief of police
and to other public officials here today.
Where did you go, Mayor?
-He's over there. -Okay.
I'm going to turn over to an incredible leader
and small business owner in our community
who's about to open a new business just around the corner
from us, Jamila Conley.
-Thank you, John. Thank you for your remarks.
Good morning, everyone.
And I want to say, as John said, I'm opening a new business.
I am owner and CEO of WeRise Wines,
which is a new wine company focused
on bringing community back into downtown
while bringing better access and awareness
to small producers, small businesses.
And I was very intentional in doing this.
Prior to that,
I worked in tech
and I was a part of the mayor's One Civic partnership,
which was the city partnering with tech companies
post-pandemic of how do we bring workers back downtown.
And one of the things the mayor said back then was,
"Look, I want to look at strategies to bring people back,
get people back engaged in downtown."
He said, "I wanted to drive more light into downtown,
I wanted to bring down the boards."
And he did that.
The mayor, he delivers on all the promises.
And now, as an entrepreneur, when I started this journey,
when I was starting to look for real estate,
I was very intentional in wanting to be downtown
and wanting to continue to be part of that revitalization,
even if I was no longer in tech.
And I have to say that,
over the past six months from signing my lease,
going through construction,
I have continued to see downtown become a better
and more safer space that he is cleaning up these streets
and then,
through the Department of the --
the Office of Economic Development in the city,
they are helping small businesses succeed,
they are helping small businesses navigate the process.
So, the rhetoric around
"the city is hard to work with" just isn't true.
There are resources to help small businesses,
there are resources to help with expediting.
And, small businesses, they are the backbone of this city.
So, I just want to say thank you to the mayor
for continuing to practice what you preach,
seeing those results
and helping small businesses thrive in this community.
And we're definitely getting there.
And thank you to the Downtown Seattle Association
for all that it's doing.
It's been incredible to already be a part
of this community in downtown
and I'm excited to grow and thrive
and continue to help this community build itself back up.
So, to everyone in Seattle,
thank you for sticking with us as we go through this change.
And I'm going to welcome Jaclyne to this -- to the mic.
-Thank you.
I cannot follow -- I have to read my note
because I'm nervous as heck here today.
My name is Jaclyne
and I have had the privilege of calling Little Saigon my home
and -- for the past three years.
And I'm also honored to serve the Chinatown
International District Public Safety Council.
Sorry. Can you hear me? Okay.
So, I'm -- a responsibility
I take very seriously as part of the Public Safety Council,
I've been with them for almost two years,
and it's great to be in that -- oh, see,
I'm stuck, I'm so sorry, to be -- because I'm a runner.
Okay?
I'm not going to read my notes anymore
because it's throwing me off.
So, basically, I'm a runner and I run around
the International District, Little Saigon.
And I run at night.
I even have SPD think I'm crazy running at night.
But, for me, I see them, it's my community,
I don't want to be afraid.
Okay? I run during the day, I run during the night.
As I run through the city, Little Saigon,
when the light was turned off underneath the freeway,
I talked to my Public Safety Council,
the next day the lights were on.
So, I think what makes a real difference
with me being a Public Safety Council is I learned be here,
I'm the voice of the community.
But you know what? We all need to be heard.
And I think -- basically,
what I'm trying to say is it's our community,
everyone needs to know they hear us.
And that's what I've learned being in this council
is they really hear our voices.
And if I'm the one that needs to do that, heck, I will do that.
And, so, I've learned a lot.
I've subscribed to so many newsletter in the city
of Seattle and that's how I've learned
that everything is happening.
It can't happen overnight, but it's there.
And we know what happened last week with all the stabbings.
You know, it's scary,
but that's something that we see that we are working on.
Okay?
But you know what I've seen in the couple of weeks?
I've seen the city being cleaned.
And I thank everyone here for doing that.
I've never seen the street go, "Oh, wow, how clean it is."
So, we are working.
You know, city, everyone here behind me.
And it's great.
Like I said, I have -- before being in the council,
I didn't even know that was happening.
But there is so much happening around here.
And I'm very thankful for being here today.
I didn't read my notes.
I probably didn't say whatever I needed to say.
But what I'm saying today comes from my heart.
So, thank you.
-Thank you, Jaclyne.
-Simone? -Good morning, everyone.
My name is Simone Walcott
and I'm the Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion,
otherwise known as LEAD, project manager for Downtown Seattle.
And I have a special focus
and we're in the Third Avenue Project.
The Third Avenue Project is a partnership between the city's
Human Services Department,
We Deliver Care, LEAD case management at REACH,
as well as the Purpose.
Dignity. Action.
Project Management and Data Team.
Over the past two years,
the Third Avenue Project, otherwise known as TAP,
has been providing de-escalation and
milieu management service to the [inaudible] --
-[inaudible] your mic's not working [inaudible] --
-Oh, I need to be louder?
-Yeah.
-Oh, I can be louder. Is this better?
-There you go. -All right, awesome.
Thank you. All right.
So, over the past two years,
the Third Avenue Project, otherwise known as TAP,
has been providing de-escalation and
milieu management services to the upper Third Avenue corridor.
They've done this work by deploying We Deliver Care's
Skilled Safety Team.
They operate 15 and a half hours a day every day of the year
to meet the needs of the community.
Along with their average milieu management duties,
they also respond to phone calls from businesses
who would like assistance with specific challenges
that they're encountering.
My notes are frozen. There we go.
So, community feedback for this project has been really,
really important.
So, we survey businesses in the TAP area
monthly just to gauge their satisfaction.
And, while satisfaction remains high
with the Third Avenue Project itself, people
who live and people who work in the upper Third Avenue
are still saying, "We need more.
We need more resources and we need more help in this area
to make a larger impact."
So, a key aspect of WDC's work
is building deep connections with the individuals
who are frequently present in this area.
Over the past two years, they've created this By Name list.
And, currently, we have over 1,400 unique individuals
on that list that are frequently in Third Avenue
and have had significant impact on the neighborhood.
Along with that work,
as they're meeting people,
they're also getting information about most
of these individuals' unique needs and circumstances.
And, so, it's because of these efforts,
and this is really cool,
that for the first time
the city now has a clear picture of the number of people
and the depth of the need that's been feeding into the dynamics
that we've been seeing in Third Avenue for years.
And it's with this data that WDC refers individuals
that have the most sustained impact
to LEAD for long-term case management.
And, as a result,
our LEAD case managers at this time have placed 50 people into
either temporary shelter in CoLEAD
or permanent housing
through the King County Regional Homelessness Authority.
And, that being said, it's really important to acknowledge
that the amount of shelter and housing resources
that we've had access to is far from sufficient
to meet the scope of the need.
Many more individuals in the community still need help.
And, so, LEAD will continue to provide case management
to individuals initially encountered
in the Third Avenue area,
even if they end up moving to other parts of the city
as the neighborhood evolves
under the Downtown Activation Plan.
And we just want to say we deeply appreciate
the city's approach to continuing to prioritize
the complex needs of the populations that we serve,
even if they're less frequently seen in this area.
And we remain dedicated to using the data and relationships
that we've cultivated through the Third Avenue Project
to accomplish that work.
Thank you. -Thank you, Simone.
Thank you, Simone, John, Jamila, Jaclyne for your teamwork.
And thank you for my team.
The one thing we knew when we have press conferences like this
outside that you run some level of risk.
I just hope that you heard something that I said
because it was a good speech if you missed it.
It was loaded with data and inspiration.
In fact, I'm going to repeat it.
No, I'm not going to repeat it.
But I will repeat my thanks for all of you.
I have my chiefs here.
our team here, police, care, community, compassion, love.
And my father told me a long time ago, he said,
"Son, if you have a good team with you,
you can move mountains."
And I have a good team with me.
So, thank all of you for being there.
And, with that, we will take some Q&A I believe.
And, Jamie, could you help me out a little bit?
He's the teacher.
I'll let him call on the students.
Go ahead, Jamie. -Mayor Harrell,
do you connect the reduction in disorder downtown
with the increase in disorder on 12th and Jackson?
And if your plan is to expand the same tactics
you used downtown to Little Saigon,
then where are you expecting people to go after that?
-Yes, very good question. And let me --
I will try to repeat the question in the answer
so people can -- who didn't hear your question.
There is a connection between some of the work
we're doing downtown and how it affects Little Saigon.
I think the data was suggested --
I actually have some data
to look at the number of scheduled restoration actions
that we do here, that we're doing there.
And let me pull a data point that I want to share with you
as I answer your question directly.
We've completed 200 restoration actions downtown
and 43 in Little Saigon.
The fact of the matter is there are some people
who are trying to find their way.
And sometimes that way could be involved
with drug trafficking or drug use.
They can migrate up to Little Saigon.
And we include that in our plan.
And, so, what we're trying to do is, again,
coordinate our efforts on treatment.
Even people that are sick and unhealthy
and that are killing themselves with drugs,
they sometimes have a need to recreate, to talk to people.
They are still human beings.
So, our approach, in a very integrated way,
is to make sure that they have the right to clean the area.
We can't interfere with that.
But we want to coordinate with the great work
that LEAD are doing and with We Deliver Care,
our treatment providers, and our Health Department at the county.
The county has a role here.
They run the Health Department.
They have a role in what we're trying to do.
And you're seeing increased efforts from the county
in this approach.
So, where they will go will be sometimes dependent upon them.
Some of them will be arrested. I make no mistake about that.
We are making arrests. Some of them will get treatment.
So, I use an acronym in my office sometimes,
it's called ACT.
We have to ACT, A, C, T.
We may have to arrest, we have to clean and we have to treat.
You arrest bad people,
you clean dirty areas and you treat sick people.
So, what you will see are people getting treated aggressively.
But we also want to make sure
that we don't have tolerance for unsafe conditions
and unclean conditions.
And, so -- but to answer your question directly,
certainly, there's a correlation.
We know by name where people are and where they're going.
So, we're enhancing our efforts.
We're putting a framework together to address it.
And it is working.
-We've got [inaudible] and then Louie.
So -- sure.
So, the question is, "Is this a game of displacement?"
I don't use this term,
but some of people say whack-a-mole
or something like that.
Right? So, let's just get it out there.
You know, I'm a very transparent mayor.
No, it's not.
It's a game of aggressive treatment
and disrupting activity. We have to be disruptors.
Now, having said that,
this problem was not created overnight.
I used to walk these streets --
well, I don't want to tell you my age.
I used to walk these streets a long time ago,
I'll just put it that way.
That this epidemic of fentanyl,
this is a new situation
that Americans are dealing with in this country.
So, we have to disrupt. Pray, pray, pray, pray, pray.
Okay. That would have been a shot.
Okay. And now they're circling back.
Okay. To some extent,
we have to disrupt and we have to have the right policies.
And, yes, there could be some displacement.
Yes, people have --
but I've said and I will continue to say this,
even people who are sick have a desire
and a right to recreate, to be somewhere.
So, if someone's just standing around in between what they're
doing, we have to be smarter to figure
out what can they do to recreate.
These are not people that I hate, contrary to some yelling,
that I know a lot of these folks personally.
These are people I grew up with in the Central District
back in the '60s.
So, we will disrupt. We will treat.
All hands on deck.
And that's why my partnership --
our partnership with the county
becomes critically clear from a health perspective.
We'll go to Louie and then [inaudible]
-Mayor, I requested data from the Seattle Police Department
and it said that crimes in the CID
were consistent throughout the year
compared to other parts of the state where [inaudible]
A lot of businesses and residents
tell me that you feel overlooked.
Will you have --
how many resources will you have in the CID throughout the year
or will there be resources to translate because,
oftentimes, I hear from residents and business owners
that there's a language barrier
[inaudible]
they're not getting the help that they need from the city.
-Very good.
So, the question is Chinatown International District
feeling overlooked,
not getting some of the resources
that they are demanding. First of all,
I think many of you know, you know,
I grew up with family right there my entire life
in the Chinatown International District.
It is very personal to me having played there as a kid
and looking at the flower shops that my mother's sisters own
and my uncles own.
But you are right that they deserve more resources.
And that is exactly why we are including
in our very intentional outreach strategies more resources
in Chinatown-Little Saigon area.
We opened up a park there and we had to make some adjustments
because bad actors had come to the park.
So, what you're going to see in our framework
and in our executive order will be increased activity,
increased resources,
increased focus on the Chinatown International District.
And, as I said, the effect of what we're doing downtown
and how it affects the Chinatown International District, my team,
many of whom are here right now,
monitor that on a daily activity literally going up there
to see by name who is going where such
that we can adjust our strategy.
So, we will continue to double down on what we're trying
to do in the Chinatown International District
because they certainly deserve it.
And that's consistent with my love for that particular part
of the town given my personal history.
-Mayor, in terms of sustainability --
-Yes.
-You know, in terms of making arrests,
the number of arrests that can be made,
whether or not these are being booked into the jail,
is all of this really sustainable with the resources
that the city has?
-Yes, it is a question of sustainability.
And the question is, "Yes."
And, so, again, if you look at --
and that's why we drafted the framework
if you look at even gun violence what we're trying to achieve.
When we announced many,
many months ago we were negotiating another jail,
for example,
in Des Moines
because we were looking at what we had to do
when we have to make -- pray, pray, pray, pray.
Okay. That always scares a mayor when pigeons are flying over.
We had to come to the realization
that we have to be able to book some people
to clean up our streets and get people sometimes treatment even.
And now we are very pleased with the agreement
we did reach finally
with the county to increase the number of beds to 135.
And we have excess capacity even
if we still needed it at Des Moines.
So, we believe we have set up the framework and the policies
for it to be sustainable.
The city council right now --
I don't know if I have any city council members here.
I do not have any city --
oh, they're literally doing the budget now.
I am very happy that they are aligned
with what we're doing from a public safety perspective.
And, so, we think that we proposed a budget
that's sustainable, we have the right contracts in place
and I know I have the right team in place.
So, between teamwork,
resources that are in the budget and policies
that we're changing through the executive order,
this is sustainable.
And, quite honestly, that's the whole purpose of the framework.
Policing -- and I'm going to stay in my lane a little bit,
Captain Ward, here.
But policing sometimes is reactionary.
You have to react to what happens.
And we saw, as I mentioned earlier from the sergeant,
what happens when you act well.
But you also have to be strategic
and you have to have a place-based approach.
The SRAs, Scheduled Restoration Actions,
are a means to let everyone know,
oh, we're cleaning up the area, we're going to do our job.
So, we think this is sustainable and it's a smart approach.
And, quite candidly, the data will show that it works.
-I wonder if you could just say a little bit more
about the pilot project specifically,
what as specifically as possible
will the DAT do that is different from the status quo.
-Yeah.
I'm going to see if any of my teammates
wanted to help me on this.
So, the question is,
"Is the DAT -- could you talk a little bit about the pilots
and whether it's sustainable
and how do we think it will play out?"
And anyone named Natalie Walton-Anderson could come up
if you so have that name.
Would you --
could you share little words about the sustainability?
And many don't know your title and who you are,
so please -- and your background.
You can just hum a few bars if you don't mind.
-Absolutely. Thank you, Mayor. Good afternoon.
Thank you for the question.
My name is Natalie Walton-Anderson
and I am the director of Public Safety
serving under Mayor Harrell.
My background, I've been a career prosecutor for 18 years.
I worked at King County at the U.S.
Attorney's Office and the city of Seattle
as the criminal chief.
And I just joined the mayor's
great team about five months ago.
In terms of your specific question, sir,
and I'm sorry, you said what -- you know,
what would be different about the Downtown Activation Team?
Well, first of all,
I think this team behind us
are doing coordinated efforts together.
So, we're utilizing existing resources in terms
of litter abatement, alley flushings,
power washing and cleaning of the streets alongside with SPD
to provide safety and security for our city teams
to do their work.
We have been doing that in Third, Pike and Pine
since the first week of September
and we have started the work in Little Saigon
as of November 1st. So, with that,
we are utilizing the existing resources in a coordinated way.
And we're really excited to bring on our community partners
that are here standing again, We Deliver Care, LEAD and REACH
to coordinate those services to make sure
that as we are doing these scheduled restoration actions
that we are also coordinating the treatment
that is very much needed to get to the underlying root
of some of the issues that are at present.
-Thank you. Thank you, Natalie.
Thank you.
-[inaudible] how long is this -- what's the deadline
[inaudible] Yeah, the question is -- sorry,
the question is -- so,
calling it a pilot gives us the ability to learn from it
and test new strategies.
And, so, we did not put a firm deadline on
whether we will stop the pilot in three months,
four months, five months.
We're going to make those decisions.
We're going to let the data lead us to
where we need to go on that.
And that's why we involve a group,
our Innovation and Performance Team.
Now, that's a team that monitors what we do and uses data.
And, so,
once we have concluded that we should end the pilot
and make tweaks and make it permanent,
I'll make that decision and we'll make that next year.
Yes?
-Well, wouldn't you run the risk if you were looking at data
and the data looks great, can you scale back [inaudible] --
-Yeah. No. So, that's not what we would do.
We would -- again,
the budget we proposed assumed
that the pilot would convert to permanent work.
We -- an example would be in the executive order
is that leaders doing some phenomenal work,
We Deliver Care doing phenomenal work.
But I know we, collectively as a team, could do better.
I want everyone to know each other.
So, when we get --
and this is one of the challenges that mayors have.
I recently talked to the newly elected mayor of San Francisco,
the newly elected mayor of Portland
and I talk to a lot of mayors.
One of the challenges they have,
they have a lot of teams and they have a lot of people,
but they're not working together as one.
So, this is a lot of intense work.
There's a lot of behind the scenes meetings.
They don't just wake up
and they're not random and reactionary.
So, a lot of it's not necessarily budget or resource
allocation, it is coordination.
And that's what a good mayor does.
And, so, it is sustainable.
And, again, we will look at the data.
But our goal is not to pull back on anything.
Quite frankly, it is to use our resources wisely
and be aggressive in what we do.
So, I don't see us pulling back at all.
I'm very pleased with what we're seeing thus far.
And, quite honestly, that's
why we took our time on the framework to do it right
and we issued this executive order at the time
we thought appropriate.
But I look forward to working
with our Innovation and Performance Team
to look at how we measure our progress.
-Thank you, [inaudible]
-Okay.
Thank you very, very much for being here.
Appreciate it.
Thank the pigeons for flying overhead.
And, most important, thank you, team.
Thank you, team.
Thank you very much.