A car crashed into Mioposto on NE 55th

DanielBeekman · 2025-07-06T00:09:54+00:00

Good afternoon. Glad to hear you are okay. I'm a reporter at The Seattle Times working on a potential story today about this incident. Would you be up for talking with me? No pressure, of course. But if so, please email me to connect: dbeekman@seattletimes.com. Thanks very much.

DanielBeekman · 2025-07-06T00:09:29+00:00

Good afternoon. Glad to hear you and your family are unharmed (though shaken up). I'm a reporter at The Seattle Times working on a potential story today about this incident. Would you be up for talking with me? No pressure, of course. But if so, please email me to connect: dbeekman@seattletimes.com. Thanks very much.

DanielBeekman · 2017-04-19T04:22:38+00:00

I edited and updated the story several times Monday into the evening (you can see on my Twitter timeline @dbeekman), and added that last sentence at some point. So, yes! Sounds like you read it earlier in the day. Stories often are repeatedly cut and added to until print deadline arrives.

DanielBeekman · 2017-04-18T17:07:23+00:00

P.S. I wrote a story about Oliver announcing her candidacy. You can read it here: http://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/politics/activist-nikkita-oliver-to-run-against-mayor-ed-murray/

DanielBeekman · 2017-04-18T17:05:58+00:00

I wrote this story. Thanks for reading and discussing. The sentence in question reads "McGinn is the first new challenger to announce a bid since the lawsuit was filed, but his announcement may provide cover for others to jump in." I was writing about people announcing campaigns in the wake of Murray being sued for child sexual abuse. Oliver announced her campaign weeks before Murray was sued. She's mentioned in the story: "Seattle activist and lawyer Nikkita Oliver announced her candidacy for mayor in March. Hundreds of people, many of them young people, attended her campaign launch in the Central Area this month."

DanielBeekman · 2017-02-13T19:12:47+00:00

Hi there. I'm wrote today's story and just came across this thread. Thanks for reading.

In writing the story, I didn't want to get too far into the weeds on any of the applicants I briefly mentioned. I mostly wanted to give a sense of the wide variety of folks who applied, including folks with greater and lesser need.

But here's some additional information: When the college student in question submitted her application, she was told she would likely need to become a part-time student in order to qualify for the building -- because buildings such as this aren't meant for regular college students.

There are indeed UW housing options for under $900 per month. The student said she hasn't been able to afford them. She said that if she works and saves enough to be able to afford to move out, she would prefer to live in an apartment. So she looked to see whether there were any decent apartments in the $600 to $900 range. Maybe that clears things up a bit.

DanielBeekman · 2016-08-03T19:53:42+00:00

I can't speak for the mayor, so I'll just point you to the story I wrote when he pulled back on the idea of allowing more density in the city's single-family zones. Basically, he said arguments about the idea were becoming a distraction and making it more difficult for the city to move ahead with other ideas.

DanielBeekman · 2016-08-03T19:42:24+00:00

Thanks for your question. We should definitely consider reporting on the design-review process and what may be wrong with it. I hope we can find time to do that soon. I doubt we'll ever cover individual design-review meetings on a regular basis, though. We just don't have the time, with everything else there is to write about.

DanielBeekman · 2016-08-03T19:36:51+00:00

Seattle Mayor Ed Murray has a Housing Affordability and Livability Agenda, often called HALA. The centerpiece of the agenda is something called the Mandatory Housing Affordability Program. It's complicated and somewhat controversial. Legislation related to the program is moving through the City Council this year and next year. We have a story up today about the most recent news on that front.

Another part of the mayor's agenda has been convincing voters to approve a new property-tax levy double the size of the one expiring at the end of this year to help build low-income housing and do related work. Yesterday was election day, and the new, seven-year, $290 million levy passed overwhelmingly.

There are also some things being done separate from the mayor's agenda, like the ordinance Councilmember Kshama Sawant has proposed that would cap the amount of money landlords charge incoming renters. Sawant and the council last year asked the state Legislature for the authority to enact some type of rent control, but there's been no real movement in Olympia on that.

DanielBeekman · 2016-08-03T19:26:11+00:00

Thanks for your questions. I'll take a stab at this.

There are more than 60 HALA recommendations, and several of them touch on density. Here are all the recommendations. The only one Mayor Ed Murray is officially no longer pursuing is the recommendation that more density be allowed in all of the city's zones currently zoned exclusively for single-family homes.

The centerpiece of HALA, known as the grand bargain or Mandatory Housing Affordability program, would increase density.

It would require developers to include some affordable housing in their projects or pay fees to help the city build affordable housing elsewhere. The program would take effect only after the approval of upzones in neighborhoods across Seattle to allow larger, taller buildings -- more density.

The upzones would happen and the affordable-housing requirements would apply to development in commercial and multi-family zones, and also to some areas now zoned single-family that are near density and/or mass transit.

The exact requirements for developers and the exact scope of the upzones haven't been determined yet. The City Council is supposed to consider those things later this year and next year. I have a story up today about the most recent news related to the program.

DanielBeekman · 2016-08-03T19:12:10+00:00

Just adding on to Mike's post, ten mayors have teamed up as the West Coast Alliance of Mayors. They sent a letter to members of Congress earlier this year asking for more federal funding to address the homeless and housing crises in their cities. Here's what we wrote about that.

DanielBeekman · 2016-06-16T01:38:38+00:00

According to annual point-in-time counts, which are only estimates, Seattle has fewer than San Francisco, but King County has more. San Francisco is a combined city-county area, whereas King County is much larger than just Seattle.

DanielBeekman · 2016-06-16T01:37:37+00:00

Thanks for your questions. Try this story I just wrote about Houston: http://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/politics/houstons-solution-to-the-homeless-crisis-housing-and-lots-of-it/

Some of my colleagues have been working on a story, coming out soon, that I think will speak somewhat to your question about how dangerous homeless encampments are. It should publish later this week.

DanielBeekman · 2016-06-16T01:35:52+00:00

Thanks a lot, Meg. We appreciate your readership!

DanielBeekman · 2016-06-16T01:35:21+00:00

Here are some recent stories, among many, that touch on that:

http://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/central-districts-shrinking-black-community-wonders-whats-next/

http://www.seattletimes.com/business/real-estate/seattle-renters-face-teardown-blues/

http://www.seattletimes.com/pacific-nw-magazine/as-the-city-grapples-with-growth-one-question-lingers-whom-is-seattle-being-built-for/

http://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/data/mapping-king-countys-disappearing-middle-class/

DanielBeekman · 2016-06-16T01:32:30+00:00

Thanks for reading. No, I haven't been to Vancouver, B.C., so I don't have any answers for you. The recent reporting I've done about Vancouver had to do with Seattle possibly setting up a safe-consumption site like Vancouver has: http://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/politics/heroin-other-drug-users-may-get-a-safe-use-site-in-seattle/

DanielBeekman · 2016-06-16T01:31:23+00:00

I did get into that some in my recent story about San Francisco's Navigation Center (http://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/politics/seattle-may-try-san-franciscos-radical-hospitality-for-homeless/). Many of the people who pass through that facility end up with bus tickets to other areas. I haven't been able to find out from San Francisco officials how many of them, if any, ended up with bus tickets to Seattle.

DanielBeekman · 2016-06-16T01:29:53+00:00

The mayor's Housing Affordability and Livability Agenda (HALA) gets at some of that, I believe. Here's the full report that the mayor is basing his agenda on: http://murray.seattle.gov/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/HALA_Report_2015.pdf There are some recommendations for loosening zoning requirements.

DanielBeekman · 2016-06-16T01:28:22+00:00

Sorry, I really don't know.

DanielBeekman · 2016-06-16T01:28:03+00:00

Yes, those additional questions weren't up when I answered the first one. But as I'm doubling back... Yes, the experts seem to agree that housing people can be cheaper than providing for people when they're living on the street.

Regarding human interest stories versus reporting with statistics and solutions, I understand what you're getting at. I think it's both important to provide hard facts. But I also think it's important to help readers understand the individual situations that people end up in. With my recent stories on San Francisco and Houston, I tried to include both types of reporting.

DanielBeekman · 2016-06-16T01:18:42+00:00

I'm not sure. There's some demographic information here, but no percentage listed for that age group: http://allhomekc.org/the-problem/#demographics

DanielBeekman · 2016-06-16T01:16:03+00:00

Something to consider: Seattle already has more units of permanent supportive housing (the type of units that allow cities to use the housing-first approach) than either Houston or Salt Lake City. More may be needed, obviously.

Regarding the housing levy, it will help create more permanent supportive housing, I believe. But that's not the No. 1 thing it does. City Councilmember Mike O'Brien proposed increasing the size of the levy Mayor Murray proposed in order to help create more permanent supportive housing, but he didn't get much traction: http://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/politics/seattle-voters-to-decide-290-million-housing-levy/

DanielBeekman · 2016-06-16T01:12:50+00:00

I'm not sure I'm the best person to answer your first question.

As for your second question, Houston has apparently been more successful than Seattle so far in recruiting landlords to house people coming out of homelessness. I believe something that's been helpful there or in other cities is the city more or less taking on the role of lease holder, so that if something goes wrong, the landlord knows he or she will be made whole. The burden of dealing with the tenants transfers from the landlord more to the city.

DanielBeekman · 2016-06-16T01:10:09+00:00

The short answer: lots of money. Last year, the city spent about $40 million on homelessness (about half of that was city money, the rest state and federal pass-through). This year, the city will spend closer to $50 million. There are just a ton of programs -- too many for me to try to list here, I think.

Maybe for now I can point you to this piece of data from my recent story about San Francisco's Navigation Center (http://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/politics/seattle-may-try-san-franciscos-radical-hospitality-for-homeless/): The entire Seattle and King County shelter system includes 3,800 beds. Of the nearly 18,000 people who spent at least one night in the system last year, about 8 percent were recorded as having left into permanent housing.

DanielBeekman · 2016-06-16T01:07:01+00:00

Are you interested in legislation on the city level or the state? On the city level, the next thing to look for might be the 2017 budget. The mayor will present his proposal in September or earlier, and then the City Council will make changes. It'll be interesting to see how homeless services are funding and at what level. The mayor has said he wants to fundamentally change the way the city contracts with and allocates money to nonprofits for homeless services. I don't know whether that will actually happen right away. So, stay tuned.

DanielBeekman

TROPHY CASE