Here at Redmond City Hall in preparation of tonight's Coty Council meeting. Although not on the evening's agenda, Council will likely be forced to discuss the County's recent purchase of the Silver Cloud Inn in Overlake. Several community members have promised to protest tonight.
Conversation
Crowd gathering inside and outside City Hall. I have about 15 people in front of me to speak. Also overheard a person say, "There a are people who are undesirables," so I'm doing great, how about you.
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Hearing conflicting reports that people will be given either 4 or 2 minutes to speak. Hopefully the latter, otherwise we'll be here all night.
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KOMO is here, and interviewed one of the leaders of the group a few minutes ago. Group continues to grow outside, approximately 30 people.
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Starting off by recognizing the work of certain community members in providing support during COVID-19.
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Councilmembers vote unanimously to move an unrelated public hearing and the item to approve supportive housing in hotel areas to right after the public comment period, so people won't have to wait until the end of the night to hear the outcome of tonight.
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First speaker is virtual and from . Speaking in support of the funding for the Redmond Central Connector. Says it'll be a "transformational connection" for the city. Also supports the County's purchase of the Silver Cloud Inn and Redmond's support of it.
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Another person speaking in support of the Central Redmond Connector. Says it'll be a good multimodal connection for the city.
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First person speaking against the Silver Cloud Inn. Says it's a very school centered and child centered area. Repeatedly & mistakenly calling it a shelter. Is concerned about "keeping kids safe with a no barrier shelter."
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Says she cannot think of a worse location for a "no barrier shelter", which gets thunderous applause. "This is not the place for this kind of facility.... Please consider the quality of life of the taxpaying residents in the community."
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Next speaker says it's beyond belief that the city could put a low-barrier shelter in such a school-oriented area. Says he doesn't feel like that we're all in this together. "We all know crime is going to go up. We don't know how much, we don't know what to do if it does."
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I feel like I'm going to hear the same arguments over and over tonight, which is unfortunate. New commenter says that there will be mentally unstable and drug users. Citing examples in Seattle. Apparently her college aged son was offered a beer at a bus stop. The horror.
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She cites the example of the US pulling out of Afghanistan as an example of how government shouldn't act without consulting residents and neighbors.
I don't think those things are quite as related as she thinks.
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Next commenter outright lies and says that in the KOMO report from last night, Dow Constantine said that this facility would not allow drugs and is accusing elected officials of lying. One of the best examples of pot meet kettle I've ever seen.
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Dude seriously just dropped a "Democracy dies in darkness" line to oppose an affordable housing complex.
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Next speaker agrees with previous speakers about the hotel but isn't why he's speaking. He's instead complaining about jaywalking pedestrians and people entering the crosswalk when they have the walk signal.
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Instead of implementing a no right turn on red policy to solve this issue, he's instead suggesting that pedestrians be forced to wait three seconds after pushing the walk button before allowing them to enter the intersection.
That's actually kinda the opposite of best practices.
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In a nice change of pace, next person is speaking in support of stronger climate action from the City of Redmond. "Manitoba is burning right now... Presentations and plans aren't the same thing as product." Speaking for action & not just plans. Very similar rhetoric in Bellevue.
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Another speaker asking for more data and progress updates on climate change action. Actually cites the City of Bellevue's Environmental Stewardship Data Portal as a good example of a way to share the city's progress on CO2 reduction.
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The dichotomy in old white people is very fascinating. All three pro-climate speakers now have been older white men, and I've had to listen to the anti-communist older men behind me bemoan all of them.
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We officially have a person outside City Council holding a "Only Jesus Saves" sign.
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Woman in a Seahawks jersey is speaking in support of strong climate action - "10 years is right around the corner... Where were you ten years ago? I remember when Pete Carroll was hired as the coach of the Seahawks & when they lost the Super Bowl against the Steelers."
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And we're back to anti-Silver Cloud testimony. "We need to create a safe community for everyone, not just the community but for the homeless. Not just give them a meal and say, 'Here, shoot up.'"
I don't really think that's what anybody's saying here.
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First pro-Silver Cloud speaker in person this evening. Says he hasn't seen piles of feces and needles in the neighborhood. Thinks that pushing back against the hotel is an "idealistic appraisal" of the situation. Very reasonable sounding, honestly.
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Second pro-Silver Cloud speaker (me) got booed like hell. Still feeling good though. Immediately followed by an anti-Silver Cloud speaker who is afraid of the Seattle homeless getting pushed to the Eastside.
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I'm pretty sure one of the speakers just said that if drugs and alcohol are tolerated at this facility, it will provide a system of suicide rather than a system of actually helping the homeless.
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All these people whose testimony is effectively "We want to help the homeless but not like this" are lovely. It's so weird reading about NIMBY rhetoric on Twitter and then actually seeing it IRL.
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Third pro-Silver Cloud Inn speaker talking about how his young daughter received a flyer at her Kung Fu camp. "People aren't worried about crime, they're not worried about drugs, they're worried that it's a homeless person doing it."
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The hypocrisy of conservatives/NIMBYs being praised by their cohorts for being absolutely rude & personal in their testimony while liberals/lefties are urged to be polite & overly kind in theirs is really annoying. Not that I want things to be meaner, but I wish it was consistent
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People in their testimony will say that they want the time and ability to provide input to help the city but in the same breath say that they didn't have an opportunity to oppose it is very telling.
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Guy asking for the Mayor of Redmond to resign just got a resounding wave of applause and cheers from the Council.
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People that are confident enough in themselves that they feel their interests as wealthy homeowners possibly align with the interests of a homeless person and they feel confident to claim that this project would be bad for homeless people can kindly be quiet.
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"Shoving the homeless into a jail like hotel isn't going to help the homeless."
Exactly, you get it. So putting in unnecessary rules and regulation and security requirements making the residents feel othered is a bad idea. Glad we're on the same page.
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