Nickels Newsletter - May 2006

Dear Friends,

When I presented my State of the City address at the beginning of March, I was pleased to be able to say that Seattle is one of the safest major cities in the nation. It's still true, but guns have been involved in far too many crimes in our city. The tragic deaths of six young people on Capitol Hill and other gun violence that has taken place since then, make it perfectly clear that much more needs to be done about our gun laws. Once again, I was moved by the compassion of the people of Seattle -- this time for the innocent victims of the Capitol Hill massacre. The public tributes and memorials were respectful and moving, and brought together people of all ages and walks of life. Now it's time to channel our sorrow into action.

I recently attended a summit on gun crime hosted by New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Boston Mayor Thomas Menino. I joined with more than a dozen big city mayors to discuss the challenges we face in combating gun crime in our cities. We are on the front lines of gun violence and it's up to us to find ways to keep firearms out of the hands of criminals. We can't wait for federal efforts -- they're stretched so thin that the more than 100,000 gun dealers in the United States are inspected on average just once every 22 years.
Read the news release

When it comes to gun laws, our state has some of the weakest laws in the country. That has to change. I am urging the lawmakers in Olympia to pass common-sense gun laws to help keep firearms out of the hands of criminals and give cities more tools to protect our neighborhoods from gun violence.
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As we head into summer, we set aside a month to raise awareness about the importance of fostering children, to celebrate our diversity and to encourage the use of pedal power over gas power. May is "National Foster Care Month," "Asian Pacific American Month," and "National Bike to Work Month." I hope you have a chance to take part in some of the many events around these observances.

Sincerely,


GREG NICKELS
Mayor of Seattle

Chinese president visits Seattle

Seattle is truly the gateway to Asia and the recent visit by Chinese President Hu Jintao attests to that. I think he had a better time in this Washington than the other. It was truly an honor to welcome President Hu, Madam Liu and their delegation to our great city. The president’s visit will help strengthen the broad and diverse ties we have with China.

Al Gore returns to Seattle

It was a pleasure to welcome former Vice President Al Gore back to Seattle. He is a great champion and supporter of our fight against global warming. The vice president was here to present the movie about his crusade to expose the myths and misconceptions about global warming and inspire us to action. "An Inconvenient Truth" was a crowd pleaser at this year’s Sundance Film Festival. The vice president joined me here in March to announce my Green Ribbon Commission’s recommendations for meeting the Kyoto targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. And mayors from across the country continue to sign on to my challenge to embrace the Kyoto goals for their cities -- to date we now have 231 mayors on board.
Read more about climate protection

Honoring outstanding students

Growing up in our society today is not easy, so it’s especially heartening to honor young students who have overcome obstacles and challenges and still give back to the community. Thanks to generous private donations to the nonprofit Alliance for Education, I was honored to present to each of the 25 outstanding Seattle middle school students a letterman’s jacket and a $500 award. There are now more than 147 Mayor’s Scholars since the program started in 1999. To apply, students wrote essays about how they give back to their community and how they would use a $500 cash award. All of these students are hard workers with a strong sense of direction. I'm so proud of their values, and of their commitment to school and their neighbors.
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Ground broken for Chinatown gate

(Photo by Rebecca Ip, courtesy of Northwest Asian Weekly)

Our Chinatown/International District will soon have its first traditional Chinese gate at Fifth Avenue South and South King Street. Chinese gates grace Chinatowns in major cities throughout the world, except Seattle. Efforts to build a gate in Seattle go back 40 years, so it’s been a long time coming. It’s wonderful to see the dream of a community finally come true. And what a wonderful way to welcome people to our Chinatown/International District and celebrate Seattle’s diverse history.

National Foster Care Month

One of the ways to help build strong families and healthy communities is through fostering and adopting children. This month we recognize the important work of programs such as the Casey Family Programs for their commitment to help foster youth across the nation. Based in Seattle, the Casey Family Programs has spent the past 40 years dedicated to the vision that all children in America deserve stable, permanent and loving homes. Seattle is committed to ensuring our children are nurtured, safe and given every opportunity to succeed through our funding and support of homeless shelters, transitional housing, youth services, school programs for at-risk families, and our success in getting the state to extend foster care for certain young people to age 21. I encourage everyone to volunteer for organizations that help foster youth, such as the Boys and Girls Clubs, YWCA, Childhaven, Tree House, and Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA).

Second grader names new fireboat

Kadi Camara, a second-grade student at Alternative School #1, entered the winning name for the Fire Department’s new large fireboat which will be commissioned next January. At a naming ceremony, Kadi and I were joined by Fire Chief Gregory Dean (r.), Dorian Sanchez, chairman of the Nisqually Tribe (l.), and tribe member Bob Sison (next to Kadi). Students were instructed to submit one name of Northwest Native American origin and write a paragraph explaining why the name they chose was the best name for the new fireboat. A panel of judges chose the winning name "Leschi." Kadi’s winning entry said, "Chief Leschi was a good leader of the Nisqually Tribe. He gave his life for his people. People like me and my native friends want to honor him very much with his name on the fireboat." Kadi and her family received a certificate for dinner for five cooked at Fire Station 5 by our award-winning Cordon Bleu firefighter chef Lt. Mike Poole and a ride for five on the fireboat. And our new small fireboat, which will be called Engine One, just had its first sea trials and will be commissioned by July.
Read the news release

May is Bike to Work Month

We are in the middle of Bike to Work Month and are on the way to making Seattle the most bike-friendly city in the nation. I’m committed to keeping Seattle moving whether it’s by automobile, transit, foot or bicycle. My vision of a bicycle-friendly Seattle is to increase bicycling, as well as cycling safety, by completing the Urban Trails System, increasing the number of bike lanes, developing and putting in place a new bicycle route signing system, and making sure that all City projects and programs consider bicycles.

Keeping Seattle moving

With the onset of summer, the 2006 road construction season is getting started. And to help drivers plan their trips, we have an interactive online map highlighting planned or ongoing work around town. This summer we will step up our roadway repaving and construction, but even that will not address the growing backlog of repairs needed to maintain our streets, bridges, sidewalks and bike lanes. While we’re committing more resources to improving our transportation infrastructure this year, we have only a fraction of what we need to maintain streets and bridges. Over the past decade, we have lost two-thirds of the dedicated revenues to fix our streets and bridges due to a statewide initiative, Supreme Court decisions, and loss of gas tax revenues. That’s why we still face a $500 million backlog in transportation projects and it will double over the next 10 to 15 years. I will propose to city council to put before the voters a funding package focusing primarily on major maintenance and pedestrian and bicycle safety improvements.
Read the news release