Our sister site Maple Leaf Life is reporting that last night’s Seattle Night Out could have been the last one, due to budget cuts. Here’s the full story from Maple Leaf Life:
By Mike Ullman, Maple Leaf Life
Wednesday evening thousands of Seattle residents joined in the giant block party that is National Night Out against crime. Our news partners The Seattle Times reports more than 1,000 blocks in the city celebrated.
It might be for the last time.
Night Out in Seattle is a function of the city’s six civilian crime prevention coordinators, who work directly with the neighborhoods but could see their positions axed, as we reported earlier.
Seattle faces a multi-million dollar budget shortage, and the six, including North Precinct coordinators Diane Horswill and Neil Hansen, have been told they’ll lose their jobs next spring when grant money runs out.
Today Marc Phillips, president of the Maple Leaf Community Council, let us know that “this is likely the last year (for Night Out) due to budget cuts.”
Horswill confirms: “I think it is important for neighbors to know that the services we provide including block watch, community meetings, security consultations, personal safety and Night Out will be gone,” she e-mailed today.
“Although the budget won’t be official until late Fall we (Crime Prevention Coordinators) were told that the 3-year-grant that we have been working under for the past year or so will be applied to other positions/programs as of 3/31/2011.”
The crime prevention coordinators do the time-consuming administrative work of orchestrating the neighborhood programs under their city contract, in addition to working directly with residents doing everything from setting up block watches to going door to door to warn about recent crimes. They were part of the police budget up until last October, when the positions were funded with the federal grant money.
“We’re encouraging folks to contact the mayor, Councilperson Burgess, and Chief Diaz to fund this vital service,” Phillips said.
13 responses so far ↓
1 Whopper // Aug 4, 2010 at 2:09 pm
Great, this must be part of Mayor McTunnel’s extensive program for coddling Seattle’s criminal class.
2 outside the box // Aug 4, 2010 at 4:48 pm
Am I missing something? What does it cost…on a per block basis…….$0??? Mayor doesn’t have to visit…fire engine is on duty, so working anyway. I think we could all figure it out without the assistance of 6 full time staffers!
3 Sean // Aug 4, 2010 at 4:51 pm
What is actually funded by the city? Hopefully, no the food. Not to be cynical, but how is a bunch of white people sitting around eating hotdogs and hamburgers in Phinney preventing crime? Take any $$ allotted to this and fund something of us. Not saying it’s not a worthwhile event (getting ppl to talk each other, etc), but would not associate it to crime prevention and certainly should not be funded by the city. The only thing I see it doing in my neighborhood is complicating traffic.
4 Whopper // Aug 4, 2010 at 5:26 pm
“how is a bunch of white people sitting around eating hotdogs and hamburgers in Phinney preventing crime”
What, we can’t get some welfare too?
5 Sean // Aug 4, 2010 at 6:10 pm
“What, we can’t get some welfare too?”
Don’t worry everything will be privatized in a couple years in King County anyway since they drained the ‘well’. Take for example the public school system and public libraries in King County….I have never lived in a city where public schools are shut down at such a rate and public libraries have to discuss closing their doors on scheduled days. Sorry if I have little empathy for budget cuts like the one mentioned here. King County is nothing but welfare; it just matters less when you can afford to send your children to private school and live in a neighborhood with little to no crime.
6 Mike Perry // Aug 4, 2010 at 7:50 pm
This is called the “Washington Monument Ploy.” Faced with the need to cut costs in a recession, bureaucracies typically pick options that are most likely to upset the public rather than those that’ll do the least harm or that might anger well-heeled special interests.
We could fund every single item being cut from libraries and schools, as well as these “six civilian crime prevention coordinators” for a fraction of what we’ll be spending on a tunnel rather than a simple, above-grade Viaduct replacement. And that’s assuming we don’t have multi-billion dollar cost overruns like Boston’s “Big Dig.”
Who benefits? I was at the First and Union viewpoint recently. Even at First the current Viaduct and any above-grade replacement doesn’t block the view of the waterfront, much less of Puget Sound. All those hundred of millions are going to increase the property values of those who own a sliver of real estate near the waterfront. That’s all they will do.
Make no mistake. Downtown real estate is Seattle’s prime special interest. It must be fed, even it the rest of the city gets starved for services.
7 Norm // Aug 4, 2010 at 10:07 pm
Self Service Night out Block Party guide:
Early next summer go to the National Night Out page to find the date.
http://www.nationaltownwatch.org/nno/
Go to the City’s Block Party Permit page.
http://www.cityofseattle.net/transportation/stuse_blockparty.htm
Apply for permit (which is free).
Notify neighbors.
Party On, dude!
8 christy // Aug 5, 2010 at 9:11 am
Sean, getting to know your neighbors does prevent crime. We had a neighbor who saw someone in another neighbors garage, and he thought hmmm I’m not sure that’s my neighbor but maybe it is so I won’t say anything. Then later he learned the neighbor had been robbed. He just didn’t know his neighbor well enough to know that this was an intruder, not the homeowner. Or what if you see someone climbing through a window–you should know if it’s your neighbor who is locked out, or if someone’s breaking in. And these block parties do help people get to know each other.
9 MonkeyPilot // Aug 5, 2010 at 9:37 am
Seriously, how much could this possibly cost? Especially with the rise of low-cost web and email communication, notifying people of an event like this is pretty cheap. Our family has been going to the Night Out for several years now, and it’s a really nice event. We look forward to it. But it really takes SIX people to coordinate? Please. We had a local volunteer run off some flyers and call/email neighbors ahead of time. Zero cost to the city, aside from one police officer stopping by to say hello.
10 james // Aug 5, 2010 at 11:45 am
i don’t think budget cuts is going to stop this. at least on our block we’ll still block off the street and have a bbq.
civil disobedience at its finest.
11 Tiktok // Aug 6, 2010 at 2:22 pm
I can’t see where this actually costs anything: you put up some cones on either end of the street, everyone shows up with food for the evening. Unless someone calls the police to complain about the street being blocked, you could do this every week, if so inclined.
12 ZoeDog // Aug 7, 2010 at 10:09 am
According to city code, one needs a permit to block off the street EXCEPT for the night out against crime block parties. That’s the one night where streets can be blocked without bureaucracy.
One could block off the street without a permit, but it might result in a ticket or whatever punishment the city describes for the offense.
I do not understand what the associated costs are. I think the story is slightly misleading. I think the community coordinators are responsible for coordinating the Night Out Against Crime efforts (which are???) and the community coordinator(s) are under threat of being cut.
13 Guy Phinney // Aug 9, 2010 at 11:37 am
I think that as long as there is a designated night every year when neighbors can simply register their street for closure via the city’s web site without a permit, I think this tradition may continue for little or no cost to the city.
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