Category: Councilmember Godden

Wednesday my legislative aide, Monica Ghosh, and I took a couple of armfuls of raincoats and jackets to Mary’s Place. The coats, collected from closets on the Second and Third floors of City Hall, were greeted with happy chatter.

Mary’s Place is a day shelter for women and their children. It was established in 1999 in response to concerns over homeless women’s need for a place to have their needs met: meals, laundry, medical care, the use of a phone, and a way to apply for housing and employment.

The facility flourished when it occupied space in the basement of the First Methodist Church on Fifth Avenue. But, when the congregation moved to a new site on Denny Way, … Continue Reading »

Originally published in the Seattle Times, 24 January 2013

Changes to Seattle’s program will make it easier for the elderly and low-income families to receive reduced rates.

Greenwood resident Ethel Palmer qualifies for Seattle’s utility-discount program, but for a short time the city didn’t think so.

Palmer, 88, maintains a house with her 92-year-old husband. She regularly files her paperwork for the utility program, which cuts participants’ Seattle City Light bills by 50 percent and Seattle Public Utilities bills by 60 percent.

But last year, she suddenly noticed her bills skyrocket.

The city had lost her application, and she fell out of the program. Palmer had to travel in person to the Seattle Human Services Department, which administers the program, to sort out the … Continue Reading »

It’s only been six months since Seattle banned single-use plastic bags. That’s just six months since some customers were caught unaware and found themselves either walking out of a grocery store juggling a dozen eggs, a loaf of bread, and a pound of butter or paying a nickel for a paper carryout bag.

In those six short months, Seattleites have adapted. So much so that, surprisingly, a majority says they like the ban and how it is helping adjust behavior—reducing the plastic bag waste found on our beaches and in Puget Sound. Among four grocery stores surveyed, plastic bag use dropped by almost 15,000 bags per month.

This morning, Seattle Public Utilities (the organization charged with implementing the ban) provided a progress … Continue Reading »

If you want the world to beat a path to your doorway, you’re told to invent a better mouse trap. And that’s sort of what’s happening with Nicole Howell, a recent graduate of the Pratt Institute for Design in New York City.

She has invented an updated – wait for this – trash can. She calls her invention “Toss with Care.”

How to describe it? Well, it’s a means of dividing a regulation round garbage can into three wedges. One wedge contains trash; another, recyclables, and a third, compostables. Each segment has a separate removable bag that canbe reused, or in the case of compostables, ideally would itself be compostable.

The design is simple, yet practical. The idea of having … Continue Reading »