- My name is Angela Brown, and my business is Brown Angel Skin & Hair.

A plant-based, clean beauty product line, that features vintage Black actresses on the labels.

My business is a micro business, and I was concerned about taking that risk to get this new concept out.

The Comcast RISE grant has giving me an opportunity to take that risk, and scale up my business and take it to the next level.

I feel that my business helps increase representation for Black women on the shelf.

- [Narrator] This month on Civic Cocktail, we take a look back at 2022.

The biggest issues.

- Freedom of speech is not without consequence.

You can say whatever you want, but that doesn't mean that you get to say it without consequence.

- Homelessness is not because people are lazy or weak, but that there are structural reasons why people are unhoused.

- Black media matters today, tomorrow, and forever.

So let's start there.

- [Narrator] And some of the notable success stories.

- There are less homeless encampments today than there were in the beginning of the year.

We have made progress.

- I was very touched by the story about the US Men's soccer, sharing their revenue with US Women's Soccer.

- In Washington State we have the largest number of folks of color in the house with 25 members.

- [Narrator] Join us for a lively discussion with local thought leaders.

(audience applauding) - Hey everyone, and thank you for joining us live here tonight and streaming online for the special year in review edition of Civic Cocktail.

I'm your host, M nica Guzm n. Now, 2022 has had its share of twists and turns in Seattle and beyond, surging inflation, and a landmark abortion law overturned, a strike in our schools, and an enduring homelessness crisis, a surprising set of midterm elections, concerns over public safety, the health of our media and democracy, and a pandemic that's slowly, we hope, winding down, and the Mariners finally made it back to the playoffs.

(crowd cheering) You know that, that whole story, it's all on its way to what?

To to political progress, to more lasting solutions, to a better city, or just more of the same?

We have a great panel here to help us understand where 2022 brought us and where we might be headed.

So tonight we're gonna mix some serious talk with some questions that are, you know, a little fun.

Our lives are not all doom and gloom, right, right?

That's right.

So let's get started.

Please join me in welcoming Omari Salisbury, founder of Converge Media, Ann Davison, Seattle City Attorney, Karen Lee, CEO of Plymouth Housing, and Jamila Taylor, representative for Washington State from the 30th district.

Round of applause again.

(audience applauding) All right, let's start with the visuals.

What was the strongest visual image for you all from this year?

Let's start with Jamila.

- For me, I believe the strongest visual image was reflecting on how far we have to go on our housing crisis.

The fact that we are seeing activism in many different communities that haven't been engaged in the conversation of where we need to place our important housing options and permanent supportive housing, seeing folks come together, making sure that there's equity across the board, and across the county as we are responding to this crisis.

- So what's the image that stands out, the new affordable housing complex coming up or protest?

What, what's that image in your mind?

- [Jamila] I would say the activism.

The activism and seeing more people engaged in the political process, and it's not, it doesn't look the same for everyone.

It's not always on the street, sometimes it's having that important conversation at the kitchen table, in the grocery store, amongst your friends and your neighbors.

- [M nica] Karen, how about you, the strongest visual image?

- My strongest visual image was really at the beginning of the year, just the sheer number of tents that were downtown, all throughout downtown, and just seeing individuals just walk out in the middle of rain, snow, anything, just to live their lives, so, so that was the starkest and saddest visual for me.

- Thank you, Ann?

- For me, it really is a personal note, it has culminated in being so thankful and seeing my name on the door of the city attorney's office, and frankly, it was humbling to see my name, and humbling to know that I've been placed in that position to make important decisions for our city and to be accessible, to be a city attorney that is here and present in conversation, and I take that to heart with a lot of seriousness, and it really was just a fantastic day to see that happen for me, and to take my kids and have them see that, and that we work hard, and we pitch in where we can, and use our skillset, where we can, to help, and that it culminated into this.

- Omari?

- For me, the strongest visual would be October 20th.

It was a candlelight vigil for my good friend D'Vonne Picket Jr, and less than a mile from here right on Martin Luther King and Union.

And the reason why it stood out is the sheer number of people, the Seattle Police Department had to close MLK, but also the diversity of people, you know, I mean, I've been saying for a long time, you know, Black folk been dying, been getting killed, murdered, and, you know, oftentimes, you know, it's not nothing, it's just the truth, people don't care.

You know, we turn our humanity on and off in this city, but, you know, and around D'Vonne Picketer Jr. we saw humanity on 10 across the Emerald city, and so that was the most vivid image to me.

- Thank you.

So I wanna ask this next question, maybe a bit more of a challenging one.

What's something you changed your mind about this year?

And instead of going down the line, I'm gonna pick Karen.

- I started wearing my hair natural.

- Oh, is that right?

- And why that is...

I did not do, thank you.

I did not do it today because I was going...

I'm on this show.

But as a Black woman of color, we were raised to never wear our hair in its natural state, and you were raised thinking that your hair was ugly.

And so just recently in my life, I've decided, you know, my hair is beautiful.

It's part of me, and it represents all the pieces of my culture, and I can still be professional and wear my hair the way it naturally is.

So that was my biggest change this summer.

- Rad, sweet.

(audience applauding) Ann, what's something you changed your mind?

- For me, it really was about understanding how deep the fentanyl crisis really is- - [M nica] The fentanyl crisis?

- And not that it changed my mind, but it really, the gravity of it, and the seriousness, and the urgency of it has really culminated in me realizing this is not something that we can spend even one extra day talking about, it is urgent, urgent, and the number of deaths from that is a direct line up on the data graph.

So it is a serious issue, and so for me, just the urgency of it is what has culminated this year.

- Jamila?

- I would say, recognizing how significant our crisis around access to behavioral health.

It didn't seem as bad as it could be until the pandemic, but the safety net was decimated, and what I changed my mind about is standing by around making sure, not making folks think that the pandemic is over, and that folks are getting the resources that they need, making sure that they know that we need it at every level, we need to make sure that we're addressing folks in crisis, folks who are not in crisis, sometimes we're overmedicating, self-medicating, and it manifests its way in different parts of our community, and so I just can't sit by and watch, you know, folks vilify our neighbors and our family members around having a substance use crisis or a mental health crisis, and I had to go head long into it, and talk about it out in the campaign.

- Omari?

- Yeah, I mean, for me, I don't know if it's something I changed my mind, but something we doubled down on is that, you know, and no disrespect to our elected officials here is the government ain't coming to save us, especially Black folk, you know what I'm saying, we got to save ourselves.

And so we've doubled down on, you know, if you notice Converge, you know, you guys might notice we ain't caught up in the Twitter wars between all these people and all these things going on, or, you know what I'm saying, a lot of stuff.

We put our energy in our community, we put our energy in empowering young people about making films, you know what I'm saying?

That uplift our community, about bringing all these young, I tell people all the time, I can spend an hour down at City Hall arguing with Ann, or I can spend an hour teaching a young person how to use a camera, and which one's going to be more powerful?

So we just doubled down on the fact that we not looking to government to save us, government has a role, but we got to save ourselves.

(crowd cheering) - Right.

So, Jamila, we're gonna turn to you and the legislature.

What are the most important policies passed by the Washington State legislature this year?

- I would say that we held the line on police accountability.

There was a strong call from our conservative members of the legislature to roll back everything, to blame community for the challenges that we see, and the fact that Washington State led on police accountability in the nation, and yet folks are saying it's increasing crime, and what have you, when the crime rates are at astounding rates in other states, even worse than ours.

So it's not tied to a police accountability reform.

So we held the line on 90% of it.

Of course, there were some adjustments that we needed to make happen, especially around behavioral health, but holding the line on police accountability was most significant in my opinion.

- All right.

Now Seattle, we're in Seattle and even when we talk about our region, we tend to talk about Seattle.

So what's a big story that happened outside Seattle and you think didn't get enough attention?

- Oh, I would say outside of Seattle, we're still, there's still a significant concern over the dam in eastern Washington, whether to dismantle that, and it's really a federal issue, but it's something that impacts our Native American tribes here in the state and our fishing rights, and how do we hold true to treaties?

Our country has a storied, a problematic history, as it addresses the harms of the past towards communities of color in particular, and so I would say, you know, that is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of, you know, there's just so many challenges, I could go on for days and days and days, and I'll probably use a cuss word.

So I won't make my parents mad today.

- Yeah, what's something that you think that from within the city, you know, what's something that Seattle doesn't understand about the region, because we're here.

- So I think for me, being in south King County, I think folks in Seattle really don't realize that it is not as progressive as it is here in Seattle.

Sometimes it's a race to prove your progressiveness in Seattle, whereas I'm in a district where we have folks who will go to the school board and say, "We need to expel all the Black kids."

They will say this on a regular basis.

They will say things like, we should, you know, secede if the city is federal wage, we should secede from the county, that we have to be on our own, that we have active folks in the Proud boys, and other organizations that have a problematic history, and so, when we are thinking about how folks of color are navigating in spaces where it is not safe, like on the campaign trail, one of the folks who was running for the state rep who was shot with a BB gun as he was putting up his campaign signs, it is just not the same.

The civility is not as comfortable down in some of the other areas, even in south King County.

- The last several years have been marked by protests, movements, calls for change, some of those have come up tonight already, whether they started this year or earlier, Jamila, which of them left the biggest mark on 2022?

- I mean, I, we still have more work to do on police accountability and the fact that there are so many policies that have the entrenched anti-Blackness involved in it.

When I got statistics just the other day about how there are more fraud investigations on folks who are Black in terms of TANF, in other quote unquote welfare fraud, I mean, it's the disproportionality that happens to us, and in terms of policing and filings in the criminal legal system, it's not a criminal justice system at all, and all these impact all the other abilities for us to engage in community and support ourselves.

We have solutions in community, but a lot of times we have leaders even in progressive Seattle that are so paternalistic and don't believe that we can actually have programs and services that can help our own, as well as, you know, support the state.

- Thank you, we have a round of rapid response coming up, but first I'm gonna turn to Omari.

So Omari, we've seen... (crowd laughing) Oh, get ready, all right.

We've seen a pointed effort by media, nationally and locally to diversify the stories we tell and who's telling them so that we can understand ourselves better.

What's an example of somebody getting that right in 2022 and where is that effort lacking?

- So first of all, Black media matters today, tomorrow, and forever, so let's start there.

You know, and when you talk about other media and other people, you know, I mean, we ain't concerned with them because we concerned about the people.

Once you, what I don't understand is how come people don't uplift the ethnic storytellers that are there?

Seattle Time's got a hundred year lead on us, you know what I'm saying?

Komo, Fisher, Sinclair, now a hundred years since the Fisher Brothers got that frequency, why is it now that us, Black media, the smallest media in the room here, have to give them tips on how to tell better stories about Black folk, you know what I'm saying, with a hundred year lead on us?

The bigger question is this, is how corporate America and these advertisers, and by the way, any of you CEOs that are out there, marketing directors, your ad agency, the people who buy your ads are lying to you.

They're not spending no money with Black people.

So the thing is, what's happening is you see local and national media doing all, they're covering stories about race and everything else because them dollars ain't coming down to Black media, it's not coming down to Asian media, it's not coming down to Hispanic media.

So the mainstream media, the advertisers still stay there, and in the boardroom they're like, no, we're spending money uplifting the Black voice, but the dollars never reach the Black community.

So all you CEOs, you marketing directors, just know that your ad buying agency is lying to you.

They ain't never talked to us, they ain't never talked to nobody else, so you need to have a meeting and you need to ask, how come Converge don't have one Christmas ad from none of these people?

We got, the reach that we have, not one advertiser is advertising for Christmas on us, and what that comes back to is these people who you say are doing the job telling stories and everything else, that's 'cause they got the resources and the dollars to do it, but people like Converge, like the South Seattle Emerald, like Rainier Avenue Radio, like KRIZ, and KZIZ, the Medium, the Facts, we will continue to do more with less.

So no, I'm not given the Times, Komo, or any other legacy media a tip on how to cover Black folk better.

I'm sorry, we'll keep that bag of magic to ourselves.

(crowd cheering) - So then who is giving you hope?

Who's doing it right?

It is it the South Seattle Emerald, you mentioned several of these, is there someone participating in the dynamic in the way that you would want?

- Yeah, us, that's what I'm saying.

And the best thing is, see what you guys don't understand is that mainstream media is concerned about everybody watching them.

Us folk is only worried about us.

So we been doing, are you serious?

The Facts is over 50, 60 years old.

Wait, you know what I'm saying?

I mean, some of these news outlets have been delivering the news back when you can find an ad for the Coon Cafe in the Seattle Times.

So I mean, so what you need to understand is there's two worlds of media here.

There's this world that you guys consider the whatever and then it's us, 'cause we know it's for us by us, and so us folk including podcasts like the Up and Up and all these other Black podcasters that are there, that's our media.

We ain't concerned about what y'all doing.

- Are you part of Seattle media?

Do you consider yourself part of Seattle media?

There's an us to that, right?

- So let's be clear, okay, that Converge Media is an enigma in the United States of America because we're one of the few ethnic media outlets, go to our studio and on the wall it says, Black Media Matters.

You know it 100% we're one of the few ethnic media outlets in America that's consumed by the mainstream, but our programming is for Black people, but you know what you come to find out, that the issues that affect Black people turn out to affect all 800,000 people in the city.

- Of course, right.

- And so now, the city, we're also mainstream because what we report on is impactful for everybody else, and issues that impact poor people, if you fix things with poor people, come to find out poor people and Black people, it impacts a lot of people.

So our aim has never been to be mainstream, and I'm not anti-mainstream, there's a lot of my friends that are there, but just know that Converge started off to make our big mama and our auntie and our grandmama and our cousins and everything in the Central District proud, and as we continue to program to is the Black people in the market.

Now, if the whole city consumes, and a lot of you do, and thank you for your support, it's donation season by the way, you know, on our website, thank you for your support, but that's what keeps us grounded.

We're grounded in our community, we're grounded in our neighborhood.

We know who we talking to, we talking to our neighbors, we talking to our grandmamas and aunties and teachers and everything else.

Important stories for the city, Seattle shows up, especially if somebody's getting bullied, because you know, Black folk, we've been underdog, well since the beginning.

Any story, some of our biggest stories have been when people getting bullied in the city and they'll call Converge, 'cause we'll come, you know what I'm saying?

But we know who we talking to and that's our community.

- So speaking of getting bullied, let's go a little broader to Twitter, Elon Musk and free speech, that's the debate that's really heated up this year, is about speech, with Elon Musk bringing his free speech absolutism to the platform, and there's lots of different strategies out there for dealing with misinformation, keeping it in check.

What did we learn in 2022, if anything, about how to treat speech right?

- Man, well, I mean, first of all, I'm not a constitutional historian, but it says that the Congress of the United States should not make any law abridging the freedom of speech or whatever, you know what I'm saying?

That's Congress with the free speech, this is a company, but we've become so lazy here, imagine how lazy we are, there's somebody who owns a company and now, it's like, oh, is this free speech?

And that's a company, press off.

(crowd laughing) You see what I'm saying?

Like, how can this even be a debate?

And then the other thing when you go, I'm sorry, but the... A lot of our followers don't have the luxury of Twitter.

So just to let you know, it's a luxury to sit there and read all these threads, the Twitter files, 25, whatever, you know how many people follow Converge or consume our media that are essential workers with two and three jobs, and it would be a luxury to sit there and be on Twitter to be like, oh, what's whatever.

You see what I'm saying?

That's not, they're not, Twitter does not determine freedom of speech, and any elected official here, Jamila and Ann'll tell you that when they went out there on the road and they went into the streets in public meetings and everything else, that's where freedom of speech happens, and the day that freedom of speech is restricted in the neighborhood, in the community center, in the church, then you got a problem, but this is a private company, man.

Delete the app if you don't like it and move on.

(crowd cheering) - And one thing I will add is that freedom of speech is not without consequence, you can say whatever you want, but that doesn't mean that you get to say it without consequence.

The rise in comments on Twitter, you know, anti-Black comments, it's the highest rise, 500% rise in anti-Blackness.

I mean the folks are bold about how angry they are against Black people.

For what?

For the advocacy that helps their entire nation?

This is crazy.

- If anything then it, all that does is let people, especially white people know, like, hey, look at your people, you know what I'm saying?

Its brought it out, you know, I mean one thing here in Seattle for sure that we talk about is Seattle really does have a lot of white people that voted for Obama, got Michelle's book autographed, but don't like Black folk, even put the Black Lives Matter sign in the window, but be scared when somebody Black might come to they door asking for directions.

- They're okay colonizing neighborhoods.

- So this is what I'm saying is like who we reach, and this is what you guys need to understand though, is just like, yeah, it's all bad, people are talking crazy everything else, but man, this is why community media is important, 'cause when I go to my community, they're indifferent, they're like, yeah, Twitter, I don't know man, I gotta get ready to go to my second job, tell me what's going on down there at City Council.

You know what I'm saying?

What's going on down the street?

It's a luxury to be consuming for hours on Twitter, and just know that a lot of poor folk and a lot of marginalized folk and people that we talk to don't have that luxury.

- [M nica] Thank you.

So before we get to rapid response, Omari I hear you're a sports fan, and there's something about sports.

- See now she can make me smile.

- Here we go.

There's something about sports, the way it gets us all to root for the same things, that brings us together like nothing else, so how did Seattle sports connect us in 2022?

- All right, now you guys get to see happy, y'all, (laughs) I got something for you.

Man so let me tell you this and I'll lead up to it for sure, you know what I'm saying?

But, you know, Sue Bird, the OL Reign, the exceptional season that the OL Reign had, you know what I'm saying, and the elevation of women's sports here, here in the city of Seattle, but man, those Mariners.

(crowd laughing) And I got two things to say, right?

And one is the public facing and one is the behind the scenes facing, right?

And the public facing, you know, as somebody who grew up on, in the Central District and somebody who Alvin Davis as a little kid used to give tickets, and I'd walk from the Central District bound down to the Kingdome and you saw all these amazing players, even like Gaylord Perry and all these people inside the Kingdome.

You know, it was such an experience like I'm a Mariners fan, not because of wins and losses, I'm a Mariners fan because as a little kid, the Mariners, you know what I'm saying, Alvin Davis reached out and said, "Man, follow the Ms." Oh, there's nothing to the Mariners, that's why I'm saying now all these seasons you'll find me there 'cause I love the Mariners, and this year, you know what I'm saying, that whole belief, people laughed at it, remember back even in May they start off high, then in May people are like, ah, you know, all these guys are too young maybe next year, but to see a city believe and bandwagoners is cool.

I love you too, you know what I'm saying?

But for the lifelong fans to be there and for the Mariners to go and man I was there, you know, there was a few people who left, but all 18 innings we were there, you know what I'm saying, we were there.

But the back side of that though, right?

And so the Mariners this season, they let people know that you could believe again, and you know, in my community, sometimes all we have is our hope and our faith and our belief, you know what I'm saying?

And seeing those Ms go out there and pull a whole city together was powerful, but something else happened with the Mariners behind the scenes, right, that people might not know, is that behind the scenes Converge was able to work with the Mariners as far as sports coverage, right?

And so even our photographer Liv Lyons, who's back there, one of the few Black women photographers in all of Major League Baseball, you know what I'm saying, was there at the ballpark.

She's also over there at Climate Pledge now with the Kraken.

But the Mariners' community outreach, you know what I'm saying, and what they did is amazing, and so what the fans see with the Ms, and what people don't see with the community behind the scenes, the Mariners did an amazing job.

I will say this is that, man to see Steve Ballmer go crazy in the Pledge, talk about bring basketball back, the Sonics back, that was live too.

I'm hopeful for the Sonics, I know that'll bring our community together.

- Yes, we will talk about that soon.

Alright, thank you, so here we go into Rapid Response, and this is the challenge, can you respond in a few words?

I don't know, I'm skeptical, we'll see.

(laughs) All right.

What is the single best thing about living in Seattle right now?

For convenience sake, we are gonna go down the row.

Jamila?

- Okay.

- Oh, all right.

Can you do it?

You can do it.

The single best thing about living in Seattle right now, go.

- People, the people.

- The people?

- Yes.

- That's good.

All right, the people.

Karen?

- The environment.

- Yes.

- The beauty.

- There's some beauty, Ann?

- Custom coffee on every corner.

- Got a lot of caffeine around here.

Omari.

- Yeah.

Regardless of displacement and gentrification, the sunrise and the sunsets remain the same.

- Yes, yes, beautifully said.

What show is the most binge watch worthy that you have seen, and if you don't watch TV, pick an album, pick something else in culture, Jamila?

- Oh man, I have been watching Wednesday on Netflix.

- All right, we got Wednesday fans?

- I did.

- Cool.

- I didn't think I would get into it real quick, but I did, and I'm rewatching the Wire.

- Oh, nice, legend.

- Me too.

- Legend, Karen?

- This is a movie.

- Okay.

- But it's the Woman King with Viola Davis.

- Yes, thank you.

- If any of you have seen the power of the women in that show.

- [M nica] Good stuff.

- I told my daughter if she were nine, she's now 26.

I would've made her watch that with me every Friday night.

I probably would make my son watch it too, but it's just an amazing movie.

- Great, okay Ann?

- I am just quintessential sports, so sometimes I rewatch the Tour de France.

I know that sounds really weird, but I really love- (M nica laughs) - That's awesome.

- And Premier League soccer.

I mean, I really just do enjoy watching sports.

- [M nica] All right, great, Omari.

- Yeah you guys can watch the same thing I watch and binge, the Day with Trey every morning at 11:00 AM Monday's through Friday on Converge Media Network.

- [M nica] You heard it here, folks.

All right, so gonna remind us about the few words so we can get through these 'cause they're fun.

What's your favorite getaway in Washington state?

- Ooh, anywhere with warm water.

So the hot springs.

- Oh yeah.

I was like, where is that?

Yes, the hot springs.

- A hot tub, you know?

- The hot tub, also good.

Karen?

- Well, I live in the 30th district.

- Yay.

- So- - Did you vote for me?

- I did.

- Thank you.

- I did.

And so it's very close to Federal Way, so Saltwater State Park, Dash Point State Park.

Just, they're just gorgeous, they face west.

- Ann?

- I'm just gonna say Magnuson, it's the closest park to me where I've got trails, water, everything.

It's fantastic.

- Beautiful park, Omari?

- Hurricane Ridge.

- All right, we got fans.

What book are you reading or most looking forward to reading?

- I'm getting into Afro-futurism, so I want to read all of Octavia Butler.

(crowd cheering) - Which is great, Karen?

- Oh my gosh.

I always have four or five books open at any given time, and then I saw a couple really good books over here, and then I always have management books going.

So I'm trying to think out of the 10 books I have, Michelle Obama's latest book.

- There you go all right Ann?

- Reading is work for me, so I don't necessarily choose to read in pleasure.

So I go back to sports I'll say.

- Sports coverage.

- Yeah, that'll work, Omari?

- Yeah so there's a book called "Unseen," and it's the unpublished history of Black History in the New York Times, so there's thousands and thousands of photos, mostly black and white, of Black history from New York Times photographers.

The name of the book's "Unseen."

- Unseen, all right.

All right, one more.

If you could have dinner with one national figure and one local figure, Jamila, I'm gonna give you a minute, okay.

If you could have dinner with one national figure and one local figure, who would it be?

(M nica humming the Jeopardy tune) Okay, Jamila?

- Why- - [M nica] Oh wait, oh, oh, was that a hint for me to start elsewhere?

I'm sorry, you know, you're right.

Let's go the other way, gosh, where was my head?

Omari, start.

- Y'all, all right.

If I could have dinner with any one national figure, it would be Bob Kendrick.

Bob Kendrick is the president of the Negro League Museum in Kansas City, you know what I'm saying?

I think that would be an amazing dinner, and anybody local, it would be T'wina Nobles, 'cause T'wina is lit and- - [M nica] Can you say a bit about who she is?

- T'wina is a representative.

- A senator.

- A senator, sorry yeah, senator, state senator down there.

I don't know the exact district, but representing Tacoma and man, and T'wina is just, I mean, she is on fire, and she is, man I think that she's really like, what's next?

You know what I'm saying?

I had opportunity quickly to be meet her down in Tacoma and I think a dinner would be real interesting.

- [M nica] All right, there it is.

Okay, Ann?

- Locally, it would be with a friend of mine though, who is an author, Tom Hansen, who wrote "American Junkie."

I do spend a lot of time just learning from him, what his life has been like, and when he tells me he wished that someone had cared enough to help him stop his addictions before he hurt himself, I take that to heart, and so that would be what I'd do with that, I'd probably have to go internationally, and I would say my all time favorite band is Midnight Oil.

So I would say Peter Garrett of the, the lead singer for the band.

- What was the band name?

- Midnight Oil, they're done and gone, but they sang a lot about environmental songs and political songs and historical songs, so to me it's great.

- Cool.

All right, yeah.

Karen?

- I'd like to have dinner with Nancy Pelosi.

- Oh yeah, she should have some stories.

- Yeah.

- Wait, that's the national figure, now local?

- Chris Gregoire.

- Chris Gregoire.

- She's my old boss and we need to go to dinner.

- Okay alright.

Chris, if you're watching, you gotta catch up.

Good, Jamila?

- Oh my, oh all right.

Nationally, I still wanna have dinner with Kamala Harris to continue to hear from the perspective of being close to power, but being pushed out of the room, and that happens every single day here, especially as Black women, we get invited to do the work and then others take credit.

Locally, pretty much I would love to, to meet with Dow Constantine.

He's the King County executive who supposedly represents all of King County, but I feel that a lot of- - Can I come too?

(all laughing) - I would just love for our local leaders to know that we have state representatives who have perspectives on the Black community that is not in Seattle, and, you know, obviously the gentrification has led to a number of folks moving into south King County, and we have a perspective that is rarely ever brought to the table, and so, you know, why am I never brought to the table?

- [M nica] All right, thanks everybody.

Karen, now you're in the hot seat.

Seattle declared a state of emergency for homelessness in 2015, you just took the reins at Plymouth Housing this summer, so be real with us, seven years in, is this a chronic issue we're just gonna have to manage, or can we really turn it around for everyone struggling with it?

- Well, I think we can turn it around and I think it just takes will, homelessness has been around since biblical times, and I really don't think that the solutions are different.

You know, the homelessness that we see, the visible homelessness that we see on the street, that's a culmination of a breakdown in all of the societal safety nets.

It's visible racism.

It's addiction.

And I don't know if you all know the statistics, so I, you know, there's no perfect homelessness count.

If you go to the regional housing authorities website, they will, you know, they mention that.

But the point in time count is about 13,000, we believe there's about 40,000 that have, that are unhoused, but what percentage does anyone here think the Black representation of the 13,000?

I'll give it a hint, because we are about five to six percent of the Seattle population.

Does anyone care to guess?

- Omari?

- Ain't no number, but it's disproportional.

- You're right, it's 25%, and it's very similar for Native Americans.

And no wonder when you think about where Black people are in terms of income, in terms of over incarceration, in terms of the fatigue of having to live in a society that is not friendly, fights to keep you out, and it's just quite, you know, quite sad, but I remain hopeful for a number, a number of reasons.

I think that Bruce Harrell and his administration are on the right track, and they're committed.

They're doing what they can with the power that they have.

I think that the Seattle community understands that homelessness is not because people are lazy or weak, but that there are structural reasons why people are unhoused, there's income inequality, and then of course we have addiction, and the drugs today are 10 times more powerful than what we grew up with, for those of us who were around in the seventies.

So I am hopeful because I know that, that despite our differences, we believe in dignity, and none of us like to see people living on the street, and so I just carry that belief forward.

The people that I talk to, people come up to me and they'll say, I know who you are, you're the, you know, you're the new person at Plymouth, and they'll launch into why it's so important and why permanent supportive housing is so important for the people that are on the street, that are suffering.

So I have tremendous hope that we will solve it, it just takes will.

- So this year, Tacoma, Kent, and Portland all passed or tightened camping bans, and as many of you probably saw, New York just announced a plan to hospitalize some mentally ill people who are living on the streets.

We want to help people in our city who are struggling, is it time to be more heavy handed on homelessness?

- Well, heavy handed in terms of are we gonna fight homelessness?

Absolutely, it's time to be heavy handed.

Now, the technique that New York City is going to use, I don't know that I would agree with that, so we'll have to wait and see what happens.

I don't think that hospitals are the solution to homelessness.

I think housing and the right programs, the right treatment for individuals, on-demand treatment, now, today, if a person comes up to Jamila and says, "I am ready.

I am ready right now.

I am not gonna use drugs anymore, can you help me today?"

I think the bed wait is 277 days or, and then 200 hours to even have a navigator come talk to you.

So your will is not gonna be there by that time.

And that is what we need, on-demand places where social workers who know this work, peers who know this work can help you begin to make good decisions about your life, and not hospitals when you're gonna be stacked up along the wall, right?

- Absolutely.

- A bed.

A bed, a place to live, the support that you need, you as an individual need to become housed and become stable, and then start to get your life back together.

- [M nica] Thank you, Karen.

So Ann, we're gonna turn to you now.

There are lots of concerns out there about crime and public safety as you know, a very, you know, top issue on people's minds, what's something you learned about what it's going to take for all Seattleites to feel and be safe in our city that you didn't know in 2021?

- I think, again, I focus on, and similar to what Karen shared is, is how serious situations are for people who are hovering along the competency line, and then when there is interaction then with criminal activity, because a lot of people are victimized and then they are the most people that are not going to be able to self-organize or self-advocate for needing to have assistance as far as being a victim.

In addition to then if they are caught in a cycle of that where they are involved in criminal activity and then going through the criminal legal system in a cyclical way, and we are not understanding from a social response, we need to be taking a notice of that and making sure that that does not continue in a cyclical way.

So to me it really is just more of the underscoring of how serious that is, and that at the misdemeanor level particularly, when we talk about root causes, this is where we need to be making sure we have meaningful intervention and we don't wait until then there is a felony involved and then it's a more serious crime and a more serious event for that person.

- The public perception on crime and policing and law enforcement as you know, it's soured over the last few years.

So can data help us understand which fears are warranted and which are not?

- [Ann] I think data is important and our Seattle police have been doing a fine job of gathering data in that regard for many years, but historically at the city attorney's office, that has not been the case.

So I have brought in a data analyst, I've always intended to bring a data transparency team to the city attorney's office to understand what has been going on there to inform me so I can make better decisions, but also to inform the public as a whole, because it is one of the public safety partners, and unless we can understand what is the data telling us, we then have that disconnect between people's sense of fear or safety and then the numbers that either reflect it or don't reflect it, and it's that incongruence that we all walk around with.

And it's a subjective sense, when someone says they're afraid, they're not right or wrong, right?

And when someone says that they feel safe, they're not right or wrong, it really is a subjective thing, and they should be respected, but we wanna at least line up and have it be as congruent as possible so that everyone can feel safe in their neighborhood.

- So I promised we would get back to the Sonics, fun fact about Ann, in 1996 when the Sonics went to the NBA finals, she was there 'cause she worked with the team.

So.

- I did.

- So it's your fault the Sonics lost.

- No!

- Oh, okay.

I ain't know where it was going.

- And will we ever get- - Getting 'em back?

- Will we ever get the Sonics back?

- I mean, I'm so hopeful and always wear my Sonics gear, but I did, yes.

I was so fortunate to have moved here in January of '96 and six months later we were in the NBA finals, and this is why I fell in love with this town because it was electric back then and we just quintessentially need to have the Sonics back.

- Okay, all right, well, we'll see, we'll see, counting down, all right, now it's time for a lightning round.

Here's what that means, it's even less than a few words.

I see Omari giving me like, what is this?

All right, we're gonna do thumbs up, you know, kind of in the middle if you're not so sure, or thumbs down, audience, please feel free to join us in this, this will be fun, look around, and the question is basically what will most likely happen in 2023, right?

So if you agree it'll happen, give us that big enthusiastic thumbs up, and you know, if not, et cetera.

You, we good, we good?

We good with the rules?

We got this.

Okay, here we go.

In 2023, the pandemic will actually feel completely over.

Ooh.

Some mixed, no okay, all right.

The Mariners will reach the playoffs again.

(laughs) All 10 thumbs up right there.

Ron DeSantis will succeed Trump as the GOP's defacto leader.

(crowd booing) - I'm not legitimizing that question.

- [M nica] All right, all right.

Ann, are you abstaining?

- I've gotta be hopeful.

- Oh, you had up, okay, you had up.

All right, all right, and okay interesting.

Most workers will have a change of heart and come back to the office, that's- (laughs) - The workers I know ain't never leave the office.

- [M nica] Yeah, that's right, that's right, that's true.

Washington state will break its all-time heat record of 120 degrees set in 2021.

What do y'all think, feeling, saying no?

Okay we got some climate optimism over here, okay.

The war in Ukraine will end.

You're not, yeah Omari's not so so sure.

Okay, all right, all right, some mixed, some mixed answers here.

And the Kraken will win the Stanley Cup.

(crowd laughing) - I'm trying not to get fined over here, okay.

- That's right, some things you just have to say yes.

All right, cool.

Well, we're gonna wind down with some closing questions and they're going to look ahead to 2023 a bit more deeply.

So what gives you all hope going into 2023?

What's the thing that gives you the most hope?

Where do I begin this time?

Let's see, I'm gonna begin with Ann.

- Okay.

- Yeah.

- I am hopeful for '23 because I spent this first year in office reconnecting with other public safety partners that has just not been in existence for a long time, and that includes functioning, operationally working with Seattle police, with King County prosecutor, because it is, crime is goes around and it is not a neat and tidy scene in one location for misdemeanor or felony, and there was just not ongoing dialogue that was happening, and so I've established that and I see that continuing and building, and that is a positive thing because then we can understand how we can improve it better when we are actually communicating, so setting that up and being hopeful that that all continues and grows and people start to feel a difference with that.

- All right, Omari, how about you.

- Man I mean, so I'm hopeful that this city, that this fair Emerald city who, like I said, turns on its humanity with a light switch, turns it on and turns it off, that they keep it on, and so, you know, this whole thing, people talk about crime and everything else and you know, crime is surging and all this stuff, but you know what?

All this stuff that been affecting Black folk, poor folk, marginalized folk, we've been waving the flag for 30 years.

You know what I'm saying?

It is generational.

We've been saying something, y'all have ignored us.

You guys have ignored us until it came to your doorstep, until it came to your affluent neighborhood.

Now all of a sudden people are like, oh man, oh crime, it's this, it's that, and these are the things that we've been saying all along, and so now that Seattle's humanity is switched on, you know what I'm saying, now that people are paying attention again, maybe you guys will realize the same things we've been saying, when you talk about inflation's high, we can't afford our food.

Yeah, we've been saying that, you know what I'm saying?

Everything that white people are complaining about now, we've been saying for decades, but you never listen to us.

So now that it's at your doorstep, your humanity is turned on, you wanna make a change, why don't you make a systemic, systemic change, not just for yourself, but something that'll impact poor people, and Black people, and marginalized people too.

So I'm hopeful that the city of Seattle won't go back in, you know, kind of like the Black Lives Matter signs and everything, it kind of just came out the window, went into the closet, you know, that's what we do in our city.

Hopefully, I'm hopeful that in 2023, that real change, you know, beyond being a dope newspaper, real change won't just be a buzzword that we do at the water cooler, but people will actually dig into it and make a change and actually listen to these communities that have been impacted for years, well before it was just a headline somewhere.

(audience applauding) - Karen, what gives you hope going into 2023?

- Well, Plymouth serves 2000 formerly unhoused individuals today, and I'm excited because we're bringing on new projects, so that number of 13,000 that are currently unhoused will at least be 12,750 by the end of the year, and I believe we can do this, community members, there are less homeless encampments today than there were in the beginning of the year.

We have made progress, so I believe we can do it.

I believe we can house all of our citizens.

(audience applauding) - Okay, Jamila?

- I would say, I think legislatively, I think we have so much more work to do in a few areas, one is the developmental disability space, one of the most marginalized communities where there is disproportionality that we need to take care of folks who need our help desperately, and Washington state is lagging, is behind.

We also need to make sure that folks stay focused on our behavioral health resources.

We, in the last biennium, we invested nearly a billion, a billion dollars in building out infrastructure, addressing the compensation rate for providers, making sure that resources are in areas.

And you know, 988 is coming online right now, so you have an alternative to calling 911 when someone's in crisis, then we don't have to rely on law enforcement that needs tools.

They need tools, they need tools.

They've been asking for tools that are not around just sending someone to an emergency room or to the jail, they've been saying that.

Now there are political leaders within law enforcement that will say other things, but what I'm saying is like, when you're talking about someone who's in crisis and you know that they need help, we need to have the on-demand treatment, the on-demand resources.

And then most importantly for me as a Black legislator, I wanna make sure that folks see Black leadership in particular, be seen as someone who's able to uplift all, even though it's coming from the lens of Blackness, because when we have folks who are talking about perspectives that you may not be familiar with, it is not about taking away from you, it's about enlarging the pie and making sure that the pie is actually helpful for everyone, and so when you talk about the representation that we have in Washington State, we have the largest number of folks of color in the house with 25 members, and you think about that, 25 members of color who are in all areas of our state, who are representing districts that are still primarily white.

So when you're thinking about what representation is, it's, to me, it's representation plus shared values, and being comfortable in leadership that doesn't always take the same form that you think it should take, and you should be comfortable with accountability.

I mean, we've been held accountable to a whole lot of things that we don't have actual power to address, but let's talk about the accountability of the power structure that needs to be reformed to be truly inclusive, to be healing, to help us get to the root causes, because folks of color have been talking about the root causes instead of being on the surface.

So I am hopeful that our leadership will be taken for what it is, is valuable for our whole community, valuable for our whole community, and to ensure that we're moving in the right direction.

- All right, now I wanna hear your boldest prediction for the new year, your boldest prediction for 2023.

So, so see that limb go out on it, just go out on that limb.

Looking for, all right, Karen, you look ready.

I don't know something tells me you're ready.

- I'm very ready.

- Go for it.

- So many of you may not know what week this is, so I'll just have to let you know, our country has two service academies.

One is the Naval Academy and one is the United States Military Academy, which is the one that I went to, and the Army-Navy football game is Saturday.

- Ah, here we go, here we go.

So my bold prediction is that Army will beat Navy this year and next year.

- [M nica] Okay, you heard it here first, folks.

- That's bold.

- That's bold, yeah.

Omari would know, right?

Omari, what's your boldest prediction?

- Yeah, it's a prediction, but you know it's gonna be a reality, that Converge is gonna continue to reach the Black people and Black community and uplift their stories across the Pacific Northwest, you know what I'm saying?

Of course we're rooted here with Seattle, we just opened a production office in Portland, we're over there in Spokane, and yeah, my prediction is, is that Black folk all across this part of America are gonna come home to Converge.

- All right.

Ann, how about you?

- I was very touched by the story about the US men's soccer sharing their revenue with US women's soccer, they've split the revenue, that is by choice between the two CBAs.

I find that so astonishing as a former soccer player, when I finished playing collegiate soccer, there was just nowhere to go, nothing to do, and that was it.

So I predict we will see more of that.

I hope we will see more of that because that gender pay disparity is huge, and it is systemic.

It is part of the structural things that has been built when we're talking about sports, and as a woman that worked in NBA sports and met my ceiling, 'cause I certainly can't play, that was a huge story for me that has come out in the last couple days and I predict we should see more.

- All right, all right.

(audience applauding) And Jamila, take us home on this one.

- Black leadership, Black leadership, Black leadership, that we are here to support the whole community and one of the things that I think will be important is addressing our housing policy.

Everything from homelessness, all the way to middle housing and zoning and permits and all the things that we think about how everyone needs to have access to quality, affordable housing.

We will get it done this year, we will get it done.

- All right.

There it is.

Okay, very last question, and this one is, what is the one word that sums up 2022 in Seattle?

One word.

(M nica humming the Jeopardy tune) Jamila.

- I think hope is still- - Hope.

- It's still important.

- Thumbs up to hope, Ann?

Yeah, sorry, oh, I know, I know.

I'm keeping y'all on your toes, I know.

- I hope I don't take your word now.

- Uh oh.

- Reawakening.

- Reawakening?

- Was that that your word?

- Wait, seriously?

- Close.

(both laughing) - Okay, Karen, I'll give you a minute.

Omari?

- It's four words.

Long live the postman.

- Long live the postman.

All right, and Karen?

- Resilience.

- Mm, resilience.

Unfortunately, we are out of time for the night, that went fast.

A huge thanks to our panel for joining us tonight.

Thank you.

(audience applauding) All right, well, what a year it's been, and we are in for another big one next year, and you heard all the bold predictions, so keep them in mind.

Thank you to our audience here at Town Hall, and all of you at home.

Have a good end of the year everyone, and good night.

Thanks again.

(audience applauding) (upbeat electronic music)