'He wanted to show everybody you could do it different': Today So Far

• Hundreds gather in Seattle in remembrance of D'Vonne Pickett Jr.
• Why can't we just put out wildfires?

This post originally appeared in KUOW's Today So Far newsletter for October 21, 2022.

I wrote this headline: "Community mourns after death of Central District leader, business owner." It's 100% true, but I have to admit that when writing stories like this, I always feel that no headline hits the mark. A good headline is to the point and provides a good overview. When appropriate, it can be witty, but it must deliver the need-to-know information right away.

But a story like this, about a person like D'Vonne Pickett Jr., becomes too substantial for a headline — you can't fit it all in.

I did not know him. I have never lived in the Central District. If I had, I may have known him as that entrepreneur and local leader — so, headline covered. Others may know him like they do the local shop owners in their own corner of the world; the people who provide the personality of an area, who your kids know, whose names come up in neighborhood meetings as a common point of reference. These people are the foundation of a community.

In the role of a reporter, I can tell you what you need to know. I can report that Pickett was shot at a bus stop not far from his store, The Postman, and that he died soon after being transported to Harborview Medical Center. I can relay that the Seattle Police Department has arrested a suspect. You can read that he was a local athlete, father, husband, youth mentor, and more with Central District roots going back generations. But I can't convey the influence of a man like Pickett that was so significant it inspired hundreds to gather outside The Postman last night, lining Martin Luther King Jr. Way, overflowing into the street, in the glow of candlelight. That kind of powerful impact is something felt up close and deeply. That kind of impact won't end this week.

“He wanted to show everybody you could do it different," Pickett's wife KeAnna told the large crowd gathered outside The Postman last night.

It makes me think about my U-District barber, my go-to flower shop in Wedgwood, the bartenders at my Roosevelt dive, the baristas out on Bainbridge Island, and so many other faces who make the places I've lived a true community. Who are the people who make your community what it is? What is their impact on your life?

The Central District has suffered a community loss this week. Given the outpouring of love that has happened in such a short period of time, I have a feeling that Pickett's legacy has not ended.

Read more here.

Hopefully, by the time you read this newsletter, rain will have arrived in our area. That's good for a couple reasons, as I've stated here before, starting with air quality.

The air quality in our region went from hazardous to awesome overnight. The rain is expected to keep conditions good. Nearby wildfires could also use a nice downpour. While lowlanders are breathing a sign of relief, there are still mountain towns that remain close to the wildfires. The mountain town of Darrington has had "a real quiet and almost eerie atmosphere throughout the community," according to Mayor Dan Rankin. Rankin has been in Darrington for decades and has never seen such smoky air.

Fingers crossed that the rain closes the chapter on this year's wildfires. The Bolt Creek fire for example, has been burning across 14,000 acres this fall, near Skykomish. Such a large fire burning for so long has prompted a lot of locals to ask, "Why don't they just put it out?" Well, that's easier said than done. Wildfires aren't like building blazes that you see being sprayed down on TV. The general strategy for wildfires is to let them burn themselves out, while protecting property, infrastructure, and lives. It's more about containing the blaze until a nice, rainy cloud arrives.

"We worked all day for two days to control seven acres," Don Ferguson told KUOW. He's with the Southeast Washington Interagency Incident Management Team, aka the group of firefighters responding to the Bolt Creek fire.

"So that just kind of shows you dumping water from the sky is not a good way to put a fire out. What we need is season-ending weather."

AS SEEN ON KUOW

Candles light the sidewalk near The Postman in Seattle's Central District in remembrance of D'Vonne Pickett Jr. Thursday, Oct. 20, 2022. Pickett died a day earlier at a bus stop near his shop on Martin Luther King Jr. Way. (Jason Pagano / KUOW)

DID YOU KNOW?

We've talked a lot about unhealthy, smoky air recently. These names get thrown around because the region's AQI takes a dive. What is an AQI?

The Air Quality Index is the way experts and government agencies measure air quality. It could be fossil fuel pollution, or wildfire particulates, or Cheech and Chong that are clouding up a region's air. AQI is basically a color-coded chart that uses a scoring system from zero to 500. The lower the score, the better the air quality is.

• Green (good) is zero through 50
• Yellow (moderate) is 51-100
• Orange (unhealthy for sensitive groups) is 101-150
• Red (unhealthy) is 151-200
• Purple (very unhealthy) is 201-300
• Maroon (hazardous aka get the hell away) is 301-500

When reporters are saying the air is bad out there, it generally means conditions are at least in the orange.

ALSO ON OUR MINDS

9th Circuit judges say Seattle officials 'just stood aside' during the Capitol Hill Occupied Protest

A lawsuit stemming from a 2020 fatal shooting in Seattle's CHOP zone is being heard by a federal appeals court. The case has been brought by a mother who lost her son in CHOP. She alleges the city created a foreseeable danger after protesters occupied a nearby park and interfered with first responders. A panel of judges on the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals seems to sympathize with that argument.

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