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The Week's Under-Reported Stories: On District Tensions, Land Grabs And Fish Clogging

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A supporter of Seattle City Council Member Kshama Sawant.

The week's roundtable panel at KPLU featured Bryan Cohen, of the Capitol Hill Seattle Blog, Alex Hudson, of Seattlish and Mike Lewis, interim online managing editor of KPLU.org

The three joined host Gabriel Spitzerwho first wanted to ask for reaction to the Black Lives Matter protesters who took over a Sen. Bernie Sanders presidential campaignevent in Seattle earlier in the week.

Cohen said the video that initially circulated widely of one of the protesters didn't include all of the footage of the context of the protesters' message. When he saw the complete video days after, he then understood how personal the issue was to both protesters.

"It really changed the whole tone of the speech and what they were doing," he said. "It humanized the whole thing a little bit more."

Hudson agreed. She said the vitriol from the attendees who resented the interruption drowned out the protestor's "valid points about her life."

Plus, she said, the event was exactly what protesters should be doing:  Force leaders and elected officials to confront society's uncomfortable truths. "In many ways, that is the single most democratic thing that somebody can do."

Lewis said the more thoughtful reaction occurred days after the event, particularly in a revealing Q &A in the Stranger's Slog. "It really adds a lot of perspective on what she was thinking and what she was trying to accomplish," he said.

As for under-reported stories, Cohen said the new city council districts might be as much defined by internal warring as they are by district-to-district competition. Take, for example, District 3

If you look at the data post-election, he said, it reveals deep divisions within districts. In District 3 for example, incumbent Kshama Sawant won the primary race by 18 points, but there were precincts in the district where her opponent won overwhelmingly. 

In Broadmore for example, he said, Sawant, a socialist, pulled in les than 10 percent of the vote. Her opponent, Pamela Banks, scored much higher in the Lake Washington-area precincts. How will these districts work post-election, he wondered, if a polarizing candidate is elected? Will the at-large seats matter more as a result?

"It does kind of make you wonder if this is going to be true for many of the districts that these at-large candidates (will) become the conservative candidates," he said.

Lewis said he remains fixated on the weak transportation infrastructure. In March, an overturned fish truck put the city in gridlock for nine hours. Since then, there have been periodic stories but very little has changed. "It's been surprising to me that there's been silence for a little while and the city is not set to get back to the public with a plan until January," he said.

Hudson said the city made two big land decisions recently. One was to push to to buy back beach-access land claimed by adjoining property owners, thereby cutting off a public pathway to the water.  "The mayor has said he heard the community," Hudson said, "and that he is going to use any tool in his power to get that land back."

The other decision was to sell off a swath of city land on Sixth Ave. and Yesler Way to a company that will develop 140 units earmarked as low-income and workforce housing.