Not a good look for SPD: Today So Far

• The Seattle Police Department's bike garage is not a good look for the department.
• This summer tradition goes down the tubes in Whatcom County.
• A federal "Opportunity Zone" program appears to be bearing some fruit in South Seattle.

This post originally appeared in KUOW's Today So Far newsletter for July 14, 2023.

Quick hits

• Numbing the pain: Opioid crisis on the Olympic Peninsula
• Open heads of wheat roll in parts of the NW, but there’s not much there
• For this actor, 'Hedwig' is a love letter to the trans community

Let's talk about the Seattle Police Department and its bike garage. As first reported by The Seattle Times, SPD body cam footage shows officers in an East Precinct bike garage before they responded to a call about graffiti. The room they are in features a Trump 2020 flag, as well as a fake tombstone with Damarius Butts' name on it. Butts was killed by police in a downtown shootout following an armed robbery in 2017. Three officers were injured. Butts was shot 11 times. The tombstone likely originated from the 2020 protests against police brutality. How it got to the shelf in that room is unknown.

A journalist is supposed to explore multiple angles, keep an open mind, be critical. With that in mind, about all I can say is: This is not a good look. The Trump flag should never have been there. It could be a violation of state law that nixes partisan politics in such police settings. The tombstone? It's on a shelf, facing out, surrounded by a microwave, what looks like an internet hub with a mess of ethernet wires, and other items that you can't tell what they are because they are being stored on the shelves. This area is for storage. But the tombstone is featured, in full view.

SPD has responded by saying that these items should never have been displayed and that it supports the investigation by the Office of Police Accountability. In a statement, the department says the tombstone was not displayed as a trophy or with "pejorative intent," and that both items have already been removed.

I think of the desks that I've worked at over the years, and the items I've featured on my work shelves. An AP stylebook. A Clark Kent Funko Pop. A rock collection. A model Enterprise 1701-D. A few too many plants. Things that express personality, pride, and a personal touch within my work environment.

To have that tombstone up like that, it reasonably begs a lot of questions. Right now, there are people looking for answers. Investigations like this take a while, so don't expect those answers to come anytime soon. Meanwhile, all we have are the comments from SPD, and the family of Damarius Butts. For more on that, KUOW's Amy Radil has the story here.

The federal "Opportunity Zone" program appears to be bearing some fruit in South Seattle. The idea behind this program is to get more wealthy investors to put their money in lower-income areas that need the money. In this case, Jim Sinegal has helped with new housing at Judkins Park. Sinegal is the founder of Costco. The incentive the feds provide comes in the form of tax breaks — in other words, these projects could have a bigger bang for their buck.

“Well, we would certainly hope so,” Sinegal told KUOW's Joshua McNichols. “I mean, that’s obviously part of the allure.”

Going beyond the nuts and bolts of the federal program, in the end, it's about new affordable housing.

"I think having residents coming back to this area is going to help a hard-hit neighborhood that was really impacted by the pandemic," said King County Councilmember Girmay Zahilay.

McNichols has more on this here.

Communities are starting to realize that they're going to have to make changes, and maybe give some things up, in the face of climate change. In Whatcom County, this means no more tubing at the South Fork of the Nooksack River.

In short, river waters are getting warmer and shallower around this area. That makes things difficult for spawning Chinook salmon, which are protected under the Endangered Species Act. On top of that, tubing down the river is popular during spawning time, but it tends to scare and stress the fish. So the Whatcom County Council has decided to ban inner-tubing on this stretch. Hundreds of people participate in tubing here each year. Local businesses cater to it, too. So this decision didn't come without criticism.

“It seems like a small sacrifice for us to stop playing in their home for a while while we try to fix the impacts we have created," Whatcom County Parks and Recreation Commission member Carl Weimer said at a recent county meeting.

KUOW's John Ryan has the full story on this here.

AS SEEN ON KUOW

Code enforcement officer with the Port Angeles Police Department, Derek Miller, walks underneath a bridge while doing co-response with Pam Paine, an outreach coordinator with the Olympic Peninsula Community Clinic and Rediscovery Program on Tuesday, May 16, 2023, in Port Angeles. The peninsula has the highest rate of overdose deaths in the state of Washington. (Megan Farmer / KUOW)

DID YOU KNOW?

One factoid about black bears that you may have grown up hearing is that they don't hibernate or are not "true hibernators." Turns out, that's not quite true. It's more accurate to say that black bears don't hibernate like other animals, like groundhogs, bumblebees, or some squirrels. In fact, there are different types of of "hibernation" across the animal kingdom.

For bears, hibernation season can depend on where the bears are hibernating. If they're in an area with a warmer winter, then they're not sleeping as deeply. But in colder climates, they're pretty lethargic. The body temperature of black bears doesn't drop all that much during this time. This previously led scientists to conclude that they didn't really hibernate. They also stay pretty alert, and sometimes forage for food. Some give birth during this time. Still, a black bear's heart rate drops, its metabolism slows, it doesn't eat much, and it doesn't go to the bathroom, all of which indicate something physiological is going on through the winter season.

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