Author: Sally Bagshaw (Sally Bagshaw)

After our visit to the San Francisco Navigation Center, our Seattle coalition — including King County Councilmember Jeanne Kohl-Welles, representatives from the Human Services Department, the Neighborhood Safety Alliance, the If Project, and Columbia Legal Services — walked to the San Francisco Department of Public Health’s Integrated Buprenorphine Intervention Service Center (IBIS Center) The opioid […]

“You make me feel like a human again,” a woman confided to a Union Gospel Mission’s Search & Rescue Team (Team) member after receiving a new blanket, some fresh bottled water and something to eat. Speaking fondly and respectfully of the people that he’d met in Greenbelt, UGM Team member Brian proudly showed off a […]

Last month King County Councilmember Jeanne Kohl-Welles and I went to San Francisco with a number of local friends to learn more about how San Francisco is assisting people who are living on the streets and struggling with drug addiction. National best practices can be emulated here in Seattle.  Combining a “housing first” approach with […]

My anger boiled over on December 14, 2012 when a young man shot 20 children and 6 adults at Sandy Hook Elementary, and later turned the gun on his mother and himself.  I grieved for the families and could only begin to imagine the empty places in their hearts that might never heal. I felt […]

We women have made great strides toward equality in many ways, but this past week we learned a sad lesson: Scratch the surface in Seattle and some serious anti-women sentiment begins brewing. For those who haven’t followed the local story, the Seattle City Council denied a public street vacation in SODO to support a developer’s […]

Seattle voters will soon have an exciting opportunity to consider a ballot measure asking whether we will support a regional light rail system, including a light rail line connecting Downtown to Ballard, with stops at South Lake Union, Seattle Center, and Interbay. The most recent openings of the Capitol Hill and University District light rail […]

I recognize the time and money that has gone into this street vacation proposal and I very much appreciate my council colleagues and applaud our sport fans and supporters who have come to dozens of meetings and events since 2012, making their wishes and recommendations known loud and clear. That said, I cannot fathom why […]

Friday night basketball games, high school proms, college applications, Monday morning math tests, and drama performances–these should be the biggest worries for youth and young adults in King County, not where they are going to sleep tonight. Sadly, hundreds of youth and young adults are simply trying to survive in our region. During this year’s […]

I met Jackie St. Louis and Judy Parker at 7:30 a.m. this past Thursday morning at the Metropolitan Improvement District’s (MID) Offices Downtown. Jackie and Judy are incredibly talented outreach workers. Those of us who live and work Downtown know the MID Ambassadors – the 90 women and men who wear bright yellow jackets — […]