This morning at 8:00 a.m., the Early Learning and K-12 Education of the State Legislature had a meeting. The Legislature's website describes the committee: "The Senate Early Learning&K-12 Education Committee considers policy and finance issues related to schools and learning from birth through twelfth grade and preparation for later learning experiences."

If you're interested in the nitty gritty of what's going on at the legislative level, they provide meeting agendas and, once each meeting begins, the meeting materials. (The links for meeting materials are located at the bottom of specific agenda pages.)

The Early Learning and K-12 Education Committee's main page lists, on the right sidebar, links to related committees and to TVW, for RealAudio files of committee hearings. All this is great, but it can be a challenge to wade through and translate all of this information! Thankfully, there are many organizations out there focused on, and interested in, education issues. Take a look below at our list of co-presenting organizations: they can be great resources of information, and potential places to get involved!

It may be hard to think about 2010 when you're so excited about relaxing at the end of 2009, but the show goes on here at CityClub! In January we'll be taking on the nation's economic and business climate with two men who are incredibly qualified to tackle the subject. Are we on the way to recovery, and is it sustainable? Save the date: January 15! No idea who David Tang and Blake Nordstrom are? Never fear - check out these bios.


DAVID TANG

Mr. Tang is the Managing Partner, Asia for K&L Gates and his law practice concentrates in the areas of foreign investment, cross-border financings, mergers and acquisitions, real property related transactions.  He has more than 25 years of transactional experience in the Greater China market.  Mr. Tang was managing partner of Preston Gates&Ellis LLP from 1995-1999.  He is based in the Seattle and Beijing offices and speaks Chinese.  Mr. Tang is a member of American Law Institute and included in Best Lawyers and International Who's Who of Business Lawyers.  He served on the Board of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco from 2002 - 2008 and as its Chair from 2006 - 2008.



BLAKE NORDSTROM

As president of Nordstrom, Inc., Blake Nordstrom has an extensive background in merchandising and company operations. The company’s Board of Directors appointed Blake president in August 2000. Blake is also a Director on the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco.

A fourth generation family member, Blake began his career at an early age working in the stockroom of the downtown Seattle store. After managing Nordstrom Hillsdale in San Mateo, Calif. in 1989, and then the downtown Seattle store in 1990, Blake was appointed vice president and general manager of the Washington and Alaska region in 1991. He was named co-president in 1995 with responsibilities including operations, the Shoe division and Nordstrom Rack. Later he also took on the role to support the Credit division. In 2000, Blake assumed the position of president for the Nordstrom Rack group, supporting all aspects of store operations, expansion and marketing prior to becoming president of Nordstrom, Inc. in August 2000.

Building Changes, a local non-profit, "engages in a multi-faceted approach to ensure that housing and service delivery systems meet the needs of all homeless populations". Building Changes was formerly named AIDS Housing of Washington, and executive director Betsy Lieberman's experience and expertise shines through in her publication history.

• Breaking New Ground: Developing Innovative AIDS Care Residences (October 1993)
• From Locked Up to Locked Out: Creating and Implementing Post-release Housing for Ex-prisoners (Published July 2003; updated and re-released September 2005)
• Housing is Health-Care: A Guide to Implementing the HIV/AIDS Bureau Ryan White CARE Act Housing Policy (Summer 2000)
• AIDS Housing Handbook Series - 1) Financing AIDS Housing (1998); 2) Rural AIDS Housing (1998).
• Put Your House in Order: An Introduction to Asset Management (2003)

Join Betsy and the rest of our stellar panel - there's still time to sign up! - on Friday, May 22 for our "Hard Questions about Housing" program.

CityClub's next program, "Hard Questions about Housing", is part of our Rapid Response series. We've gotten a couple of our pre-event questionnaires back from our panelists, and we're happy to share!

If you have no idea what this program is about, here's a little sample of the questions we'll be asking the folks on the panel: Is housing still part of the social safety net? Foreclosures have affected many families, and as more people lose their jobs, some face the specter of homelessness. How do experts in the housing field see the challenges and opportunities of the coming decade? What new pressures will we see in the housing market due to economic conditions? Is the Ten Year Plan to End Homelessness still viable? What can we expect from the Housing Levy this fall?

David McCracken of the University of Washington and Linda Hall, Development Director at YWCA of Seattle King County, have sent us some nuggets to think about and some suggested reading to get your brain grinding before you come to the May 22 program!

Things to Think About for Next Friday's forum:

(click here to register!)

McCracken has published on the subject (see below for links!). Hall had this to say:

"I have a personal interest in tracking movements toward downsizing the single family home and figuring out what to do with the very large homes being built.  I recently read the following on a creative communities blog:

…exurban communities are a unique challenge. The houses within them are big, but not generally as big as, say, Victorian mansions in San Francisco that can be subdivided into apartments. So they’re not great candidates for transformation into multi-family rental housing.  I did visit a housing development last year that offered 'quartets,' McMansions subdivided into four units with four separate entrances. These promised potential buyers the status of a McMansion with the convenience of a condominium, but the concept felt like it was created more to preserve the property values of larger neighboring homes than to serve the needs of the community’s residents …

I still dream that some major overhaul can occur: that a self-sufficient mixed-use neighborhood can emerge. That three-car-garaged McMansions can be subdivided into rental units with streetfront cafés, shops and other local businesses." (Allison Arief)

To describe the topic in one or two sentences, our panelists say --

McCracken: "Homelessness is a shocking failure of our society, and it is not inevitable. Each of us – not just governments and charities – needs to be a part of ending it."

Hall: Housing touches everyone from the day they are born. Each of us has a set of unique experiences and values that directly impacts how we think about and react to this topic.   For me, the topic isn’t 'hard questions about housing'—the true topic is 'hard questions about the future of our community and its people'."

As your homework, our panelists ask you to think about the following questions --

• Do you know homeless people? What difference does it, or would it, make?
• History has a great deal to teach us. What lessons should we be referencing to help us navigate the upcoming ten years?

Finally, McCracken leaves us with this thought: "Reading Real Change and talking with vendors and other homeless people have transformed my understanding and attitudes.  Finding a way to interact with, talk to, and know homeless people is a good way to begin seeing this as an issue of individual human survival."

Links to Learn More:

Tent Cities Bridge Growing Gap - Seattlepi.com Op-Ed by David McCracken

Panelist-Recommended Reading:

The Scandal of the Gospels: Jesus, Story, and Offense, by David McCracken (McCracken says: Also relevant […] about Jesus on offenses and scandals.  I doubt that the word “homelessness” appears in the book, but homelessness is the major scandal of our society and, like Jesus, it still scandalizes the religious and the non-religious.)

Citizen Hobo: How a Century of Homelessness Shaped America, by Todd DePastino