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Big ideas for the city from the head of the Downtown Seattle Association

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Big ideas for the city from the head of the Downtown Seattle Association


Jon Scholes, President and CEO of the Downtown Seattle Affiliation (DSA), has some concepts, each large and small, on tips on how to carry downtown again to its former glory.

In an editorial within the Seattle Occasions, Scholes supplied up 4 suggestions to assist the event of a brand new downtown:

  • Make the streets of downtown secure and welcoming
  • Return extra staff to the workplace
  • Do no hurt
  • Make it simpler to find new companies and investments downtown

DSA is a enterprise group with 650 members. One among its targets is to create and keep a vibrant downtown.

On KIRO Newsradio’s Gee & Ursula Present, Scholes addressed all 4 suggestions.

Make the streets of downtown secure and welcoming

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“We’re shifting in the best route, however nonetheless have extra work to do. I’m not declaring victory. I don’t suppose we must always. However I feel underneath the management of Mayor Bruce Harrell, we’re clearly in a greater place than we have been a yr in the past,” Scholes stated. “And I feel I’ve rather a lot to stay up for over the following couple of months as nicely.”

Scholes stated that Seattle has seen a 50% discount in crime within the first two months of 2023 in comparison with a yr in the past. He famous that downtown had 140 homeless encampments final yr in comparison with 10 or 12 now.

Man arrested after pointing a handgun at a girl in downtown Seattle

“It is a totally different downtown than a yr in the past, even six months in the past, and we have to proceed to remain the course so that everyone can come right here and really feel secure and welcomed and that it’s a wholesome and clear setting,” Scholes stated.

Return extra staff to the workplace

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“Staff have been a part of that over many, many a long time. We didn’t construct a digital financial system within the metropolis. We constructed an financial system that’s actually a bodily one,” Scholes stated. “So these staff are clients for small companies, they’re clients for the flower outlets and salons.

“It drives numerous tax income that has been necessary to all of those metropolis companies that all of us take pleasure in our park system, common preschool in our metropolis, the record goes on, “Scholes continued. “So there’s a extremely robust connection to people working in a central metropolis to the well being of our total metropolis.”

Gee Scott famous that folks might save as a lot as $2,000 a month by NOT working downtown. There are commuting, parking, and time investments that work towards Scholes’s purpose.

“We’d like extra childcare funding in our metropolis and within the downtown. And fortunately, we now have tons and many preschools and different childcare alternatives. However we want extra, we want housing extra carefully related to our downtown. So there are many issues we have to do to make it simpler, extra handy, and extra inexpensive to entry downtown. And we’ve made numerous investments in these areas over the past a number of years.”

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Do no hurt

Scholes stated that Seattle should make it simpler to return again to town for companies.

“We have to make it simple for small companies to reopen and new ones to relocate. We have to make it simpler for staff to entry downtown to have an amazing transit system that’s clear and secure and wholesome, and dependable.

“We have to make the most of underutilized buildings, underutilized blocks that the general public owns. These are our belongings as taxpayers, and the way can we get extra use out of them, which goes to be a very good deal for downtown to carry extra housing in doubtlessly extra childcare, retail eating places creating alternatives for small companies to find and if we do this, proper, and we’re profitable, that’s extra tax income that’s generated for our metropolis and county as nicely.”

Make it simpler to find new companies and investments downtown

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“Many cities are aggressively placing into place incentives, tax breaks, and investments to spur renewal. That is the best method to catalyze financial alternative and restore the downtown tax base, which is important for a wholesome and financially secure metropolis authorities,” Scholes stated in his editorial.

“The well being of our complete metropolis’s tax base is actually tied to a wholesome downtown,” Scholes advised KIRO Newsradio. “Half the worth of economic property in our cities positioned downtown is accountable for about 50% of all of the enterprise taxes paid by town authorities. So all of us have a stake right here in our metropolis for a wholesome downtown and a wholesome tax base.”

In his editorial, Scholes stated that the federal government and different stakeholders have to not solely have extra concepts however tips on how to realistically execute them.

“It’s time for daring, particular, and measurable actions to additional the revitalization of the guts of town,” Scholes wrote in his editorial. “When profitable, this achievement will present broad profit for all of Seattle and the area.”

Hearken to Gee Scott and Ursula Reutin weekday mornings from 9 a.m. – 12 p.m. on KIRO Newsradio, 97.3 FM. Subscribe to the podcast right here.

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Seattle, WA

SPD investigating incident where local resident's dog was shot, killed at Seattle cemetery

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SPD investigating incident where local resident's dog was shot, killed at Seattle cemetery


A Seattle woman is working with the Seattle Police Department (SPD) and is seeking justice after she claimed her dog was shot and killed at a cemetery in December.

The local resident, Julia Einarsson, was finishing up a walk with her dog, Remy, at Evergreen Washelli Cemetery near Aurora Avenue on Dec. 17. The dog became spooked by a passing coyote and started barking, disrupting a large gathering by a nearby grave.

More local news: 5 taken to hospitals in 3 car crash in Issaquah

“I had him between my knees to hold him back, and he backed out of his harness and then ran around the car and barked at the family,” Einarsson told KIRO 7. “Scared the family.”

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According to Einarsson, Remy didn’t bite anyone in the group, but did run up to them and barked at them from a few feet away. Everyone in the group got in their car after Einarsson asked them to, except for one man. The unidentified man tried to make the dog stop barking before walking over to his car and pulling a gun out of his jacket, firing at Remy.

“He repeated several times, ‘I’m very sorry, I’m very sorry. Do you want me to call the police?’” Einarsson said. “I said ‘I don’t even know what to do. I just need to get my dog to the emergency room.’”

She rushed to get her dog help, but Remy died approximately an hour later at a local animal hospital. According to Einarsson, she never saw the man again.

“I talk to (Remy) every day,” she said. “I tell him that I’m sorry that I couldn’t save him.”

According to KIRO 7, Einarsson rescued Remy after he was found on the streets and moved from shelter to shelter. She had him for approximately 2.5 years.

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More on local animal shelters: Tacoma animal shelter caring for 264 dogs, highest number in 7 years

Seattle Police confirmed with KIRO 7 that the department is investigating the incident. As of this reporting, the Seattle Police Department (SPD) located a shell casing at the scene. The department is asking for any information regarding the large group that was visiting a grave on the east side of the cemetery on Dec. 17.

Einarsson is hoping the man turns himself in.

“Remy was my world,” she said. “Why did he have to kill him? Why couldn’t he have just joined his family in the car?”

Contributing: KIRO 7

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Frank Sumrall is a content editor at MyNorthwest. You can read his stories here and you can email him here



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Day and time for Seattle Seahawks' finale vs Rams announced

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Day and time for Seattle Seahawks' finale vs Rams announced


The day and time for Seattle Seahawks’ Week 18 meeting with the Rams is finally set, although it unfortunately doesn’t come with a chance for the Hawks to sneak into the playoffs.

Seahawks officially eliminated from postseason contention

After the conclusion of Sunday’s slate of NFL games, the league announced that Seattle’s trip to Los Angeles’ SoFi Stadium will kick off at 1:25 p.m. next Sunday, Jan. 5.

The game previously had no announced day or time and had the potential to be played next Saturday or in a primetime slot, especially when it remained possible that it could be a de facto NFC West championship game. Any hope of that ended Sunday night when Washington’s overtime win over the Atlanta Falcons officially eliminated the Seahawks from postseason contention.

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The Rams (10-6) have clinched the division after winning nine of their last 11 games, while Seattle (9-7) will have to settle for just a winning season in their first year after moving on from Pete Carroll and hiring Mike Macdonald as head coach.

If the Seahawks beat Los Angeles next Sunday, they would become the first team since the NFL instituted a 17-game schedule in 2021 to finish a season with a 10-7 record and miss the playoffs, according to Seattle Sports’ Cameron Van Til.

The radio broadcast of next Sunday’s Seahawks-Rams game will be carried, as always, on Seattle Sports 710 AM, KIRO Newsradio 97.3 FM, and the Seattle Sports, KIRO Newsradio and official Seahawks apps. Coverage will begin at 10 a.m. with the pregame show.

The TV broadcast of the game will air on FOX.

More on the Seattle Seahawks

• After trio of injuries, Seahawks’ Nwosu back in sack column
• Does Seahawks DL Leonard Williams have a case for DPOY?
• ‘Like a torpedo’: Seahawks CB Devon Witherspoon continues to wow
• Bump: What Charbonnet, McIntosh add to Seahawks’ run game
• Seattle Seahawks players put in good word for former coach Pete Carroll

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Baltimore Orioles Considered ‘Best Fit’ Trade Match for Seattle Mariners Ace

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Baltimore Orioles Considered ‘Best Fit’ Trade Match for Seattle Mariners Ace


Corbin Burnes is back in Arizona preparing for his first season with the Arizona Diamondbacks. He had $210 million reasons sign that six-year contract.

But it also puts the Baltimore Orioles in bit of a pickle.

To date, the only free-agent starter the Orioles have signed is pitcher Tomoyuki Sugano, one of the most accomplished pitchers in Japanese baseball history. But at 35 years old, he’s not seen as an ace at the MLB level.

The O’s still have Grayson Rodriguez, Zach Eflin, Dean Kremer and Albert Suarez. But two other pitchers, Kyle Bradish and Tyler Wells, are basically out for most, if not all, of 2025 due to elbow surgeries.

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So, the Orioles can look in free agency, where a former Orioles starter, Jack Flaherty, is considered the top second-tier option, or they could try and swing a trade.

That could include Seattle Mariners right-hander Luis Castillo, who has been rumored to be on the trade market. MLB Trade Rumors gauged potential suitors for Castillo and listed the Orioles in the “best fit” category.

Why would the Orioles be a good fit? The Mariners are in need of some help in their infield and the Orioles are lousy with infielders, both at the minor league and Major League level.

MLB Trade Rumors noted that the Orioles have reportedly inquired about Castillo this offseason, but, naturally, nothing has happened — yet.

In the piece, the proposed trade could look something like Ryan Mountcastle, who can play either corner infield position but is more suited for first base, along with a pitching prospect like Cade Povich.

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The Orioles have a system that is flush with prospects, so finding a package that could work for both sides may not be that difficult. But a Major League-ready infielder is likely a necessity.

For a starting pitcher of Castillo’s caliber, his cost is controlled through at least 2027, as he makes about $24 million each season. He comes with a vesting option in 2028 through $25 million before he becomes a free agent in 2029.

He may have a losing record for his career (73-76), but he has a solid 3.56 ERA and he strikes out nearly 10 hitters per nine innings. He also has three All-Star appearances.

It’s not as easy as a trade, though. Castillo has a no-trade clause, a result of the long extension he signed with Seattle. So he would have to approve a deal to move cross-country.

But if the Orioles can swing that kind of a deal, it would help both teams next season.

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