Great Program Threatened by Ugly Reality

Q13 did a strong piece on the Post-prison Education Program, one of my favorite organizations, run by the fiery Ari Kohn. One day, this mild-mannered man is going to explode, and I along with him. Ari received the Change Agent of the Year Award at the 2008 Real Change annual breakfast. One of the reasons I admire prisoners advocates so much is that they almost never win, but the whole time, their faces are pressed up against the glass. As bottom-up perspectives on America go, theirs is a breathtaking view.

State Senator Adam Kline, who appears in this news story speaking in favor of Ari's program, is the exceptional legislator who understands that policies which constantly grind the poor into the dust often produce blow-back and are not in society's best interest. But most lawmakers are cowards, driven by fear and responsive to their fearful, ill-informed, constituencies, and as any amateur psychologist knows, fear is the root of hate. That's politics in America: ugly as a monkfish and twice as dumb.

It's Rude to Gloat, But ...

While the Nickels administration has been fairly effective at describing homeless encampments as dangerous, disease breeding havens for the drug-using criminal class in the print media, and in the Seattle Times in particular, yesterday's coverage of the Real Change Organizing Project protest encampment and rally was, from a City perspective, way off script.

Radio play was remarkably sympathetic and in-depth. Liam Moriarty's excellent KPLU coverage came in addition to a shorter piece within their regular newshour, so that was a two-fer. Our Organizing Director Rachael Myers went head to head with City Human Services Director Patricia McInturff on KUOW's popular news talk show The Conversation. Both delivered their messages like the seasoned pros they are, but the call-ins that followed leaned very heavily Rachael's way. I did twenty minutes on KIRO710's popular Dave Ross show, and was able to deliver some of the deeper context that's been missing so far. The interview on this clip follows Ross' opening monologue on the perplexities of the "pay it forward" coffee craze. There was a nasty bit on Dory Monson's KIRO Talk Show, but that's predictable. Peter Steinbrueck took that one on. A braver man than I. When I checked, the podcast wasn't up yet.

Television coverage was just as good. Q13's coverage was sympathetic in the extreme, and caught a good bit of the amusing Tim Ceis ambush yesterday morning. Michelle Millman at KIROtv did us right, and KING5 did a strong piece as well. While Ken Schram's KOMO monologue on symbolic help to the homeless wasn't part of our coverage, you'll want to watch it anyway. In the print realm, the PI ran a balanced piece with a photo on page one that wasn't bad at all, even if they did completely follow the City's framing. They also won my love and respect by printing an amazingly on-target guest editorial by a former greenbelt camper. The Seattle Times resisted the temptations of pack journalism and blew us off altogether. Guess my corporate lapdog poll hit a nerve.

The DSA's Panhandling Offensive?

The Downtown Seattle Association is working the media over a manufactured increase in panhandling. They landed an article in today's Puget Sound Business Journal on the 38% increase in panhandling they say they can document over the same period last year. Then Fox News on Q13 got tipped on tomorrow's PSBJ story, and the DSA got a twofer out of the deal with a Thursday night news spot as well. The "spike" in panhandling was the lead story after the tragically robbed girls' choir.

Q13 came down to Real Change to get the crazy guy's side of the story.

I don't seem to be able to link directly to the story, but you can find it here at Q13. I have to try and do something about that wild-eyed thing. Kate Joncas seems so much calmer than I.

Apparently the DSA's pandhandling education campaign is failing, and downtown begging is up by thirty-eight percent. That's what the DSA is saying anyway.

The guy named Tim Harris says that DSA's numbers have no science behind them and that the DSA is using bogus data to inevitably push for Tacoma-style toughness toward panhandlers, which makes me look a little like some commerce-hating, panhandler-loving, conspiracy prognosticating nut case. All too true.

Some guy named Tim Harris is in the PSBJ talking about this too. "The thing with the Metropolitan Improvement District numbers," he says, "is that there's no science behind them. The areas that they have people in change. Their focus on what they're documenting changes. Sometimes their ambassadors are looking for panhandlers and sometimes they're just handing out brochures to tourists. It undermines the validity of their numbers."

Oddly, the article says at one point that MID "readily acknowledges" the lack of science in their "data," but then later they say their counting methods are consistent. I suppose what they mean to say is that their methods are consistently unscientific.

To tell you the truth, I have no idea what the DSA is up to. I've called to ask, but haven't heard back yet. One assumes that an organization doesn't alert the media that panhandling is seriously on the increase without some sort of larger intent.

I'm actually not a big fan of panhandling. But I'm not wild about pushing the poor into the sea either.

In other media news, the Seattle Channel has placed the Ten Year Plan League of Women Voters panel discussion of a few weeks ago on-line. Once again, I appear dissatisfied with how things are shaping up, starting about thirty-five minutes into the broadcast.