Northwest Reports

The Hidden World of WA Surveillance

Federal relief funds are financing new surveillance technology across the state. Reporter Brandon Block discusses why privacy advocates are concerned.
If you walk around downtown Seattle and look closely, you may notice that you’re being watched. From traffic cameras to automated license-plate readers, surveillance technology is all around us. And thanks to new funding from the American Rescue Plan, many cities across Washington and the country are buying even more technologies that can collect personal data. 
As Crosscut reporter Brandon Block discovered, the laws that govern this kind of technology are limited, and vary from city to city. 
Police and other city departments say these new devices and software will help them do their jobs far more effectively. But privacy advocates say they allow government agencies to track innocent people, with little regulation or transparency around how sensitive data is being used or shared. 
For this episode of Crosscut Reports, host Sara Bernard talks with Block about his tour of existing surveillance technology in downtown Seattle; what kinds of surveillance federal funds are now making possible in police departments around the state; and the potential ramifications of all of this. 
Read our full report on surveillance in Washington here. 
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Credits
Host/Producer: Sara Bernard
Reporter: Brandon Block
Executive producer: Sarah Menzies
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If you would like to support Crosscut, go to crosscut.com/membership. In addition to supporting our events and our daily journalism, members receive complete access to the on-demand programming of Seattle’s PBS station, KCTS 9.

Biking Every Single Street in Seattle

Reporter Conor Courtney explains how cyclist Danny Roberts began the passion project — and what the journey meant to both of them.
In late 2021, freelance writer and photographer Conor Courtney noticed some strange patterns on the fitness app Strava. An acquaintance, Danny Roberts, was posting about riding his bike all over Seattle—but not on typical bike-friendly routes. He would consistently zig-zag back and forth on every street in a given neighborhood.
Turns out Roberts was doing this for a specific purpose. He’d decided to bike every single street in the city of Seattle. In the end, it took him about 13 months of riding hard. And Courtney thought it was worth asking why. 
Along the way, Roberts found unique, hidden corners of Seattle and learned a whole lot more about the city he loves. But he was also hit by a car and suffered fairly serious injuries. That didn’t stop him.
In this episode of Crosscut Reports, host Sara Bernard talks with Courtney about Roberts’ unusual project and what it meant to him; the joy and challenges of riding bikes in Seattle; and why Courtney was inspired to report on this project in the first place.
Read our full report on Danny Roberts' Seattle cycling journey here.
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Credits
Host/Producer: Sara Bernard
Reporter: Conor Courtney
Executive producer: Mark Baumgarten
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If you would like to support Crosscut, go to crosscut.com/membership. In addition to supporting our events and our daily journalism, members receive complete access to the on-demand programming of Seattle’s PBS station, KCTS 9.

Fixing a Fundraising Gap in WA Schools

PTSAs can reduce resource gaps, but also exacerbate inequities among schools. Reporter Venice Buhain shares local efforts working to change that.
Seattle public schools, like most public schools, don’t all have the same resources to offer students. And they tend to rely on parent-led fundraising to fill in the gaps. But that can exacerbate the inequities that already exist, as wealthy families can often afford to donate the money and time that low-income families can’t.
Crosscut associate news editor Venice Buhain recently dug into this issue in Seattle, exploring why these fundraising efforts, run by Parent Teacher Student Associations (PTSAs), have recently come under scrutiny.  Some parents and advocates now hope to change the paradigm altogether.
For this episode of Crosscut Reports, host Sara Bernard talks with Buhain about what these parents are doing to make PTSA-based fundraising more equitable, with the goal of reducing the schools’ significant disparities in staffing and supplies.
Some local PTSAs, for instance, have begun pooling resources and distributing raised funds among schools in their neighborhoods – and questioning why parent groups are relied on for fundraising in the first place.
Read our full report on the effort to change PTSA fundraising in Seattle here. 
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Credits
Host/Producer: Sara Bernard
Reporter: Venice Buhain
Executive producer: Mark Baumgarten
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If you would like to support Crosscut, go to crosscut.com/membership. In addition to supporting our events and our daily journalism, members receive complete access to the on-demand programming of Seattle’s PBS station, KCTS 9.

How Washington Cities Shape State Law

Politics reporter Joseph O’Sullivan details the Association of Washington Cities' sway over the Legislature.
One of the most powerful lobbying forces in Olympia is the Association of Washington Cities, a nonprofit that represents the state’s 281 cities and towns. It has influenced lawmakers, defeated bills, and even written its own legislation — and often gets its way.
Crosscut state politics reporter Joseph O’Sullivan has explored the many ways the Association has recently wielded its power. In collaboration with McClatchy reporter Shauna Sowersby, O’Sullivan looked at the influence of the Association through major legislation that came up in this year’s session.  
Legislation like the “missing middle” housing bill, which passed this year only because of an unprecedented bipartisan push, had been blocked by the Association for years, for example. And this session, the organization drafted a bill that would make it harder for citizens to obtain government records, arguing that overfrequent records requests, made by a small number of individuals, waste staff time and money.
For this episode of Crosscut Reports, host Sara Bernard talks with O’Sullivan about the Association; how this level of influence is par for the course for many Olympia lobbyists; and the Association’s attempts to chip away at Washington’s Public Records Act, which, if successful, could make our view of state government more opaque.
Read our full report on the Association of Washington Cities and how power works in Olympia here. 
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Credits
Host/Producer: Sara Bernard
Reporter: Joseph O'Sullivan
Executive producer: Mark Baumgarten
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If you would like to support Crosscut, go to crosscut.com/membership. In addition to supporting our events and our daily journalism, members receive complete access to the on-demand programming of Seattle’s PBS station, KCTS 9.
 

Fighting Chronic Homelessness in One Small City

Reporter Mai Hoang discusses the growing issue in Central Washington and the efforts to build permanent supportive housing.
Big cities like Seattle and Spokane get most of the attention when it comes to homelessness in Washington state. But housing instability is not limited to the borders of major metropolitan areas. 
For this episode of the Crosscut Reports podcast, we look at a smaller Washington city that has gotten less attention when we discuss homelessness or possible solutions: Yakima. Like larger urban areas, the Yakima region has recently seen significant growth in the number of people experiencing chronic homelessness and housing instability.
Host Sara Bernard talks with Mai Hoang, Crosscut’s Central and Eastern Washington reporter, about one solution that service providers are doubling down on right now: permanent supportive housing. 
It’s a longer-term alternative to emergency shelters for the unhoused, and the system includes services such as case management and connections to various forms of health care. Data shows permanent supportive housing works, but challenges remain – not least, finding the funding to sustain it.
Read our full report on permanent supportive housing in Yakima here. 
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Credits
Host/Producer: Sara Bernard
Reporter: Mai Hoang
Executive producer: Mark Baumgarten
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If you would like to support Crosscut, go to crosscut.com/membership. In addition to supporting our events and our daily journalism, members receive complete access to the on-demand programming of Seattle’s PBS station, KCTS 9.

Learning from the Legacies of Black Artists

Writer Jas Keimig discusses their work profiling current creators and researching the lives of those that shouldn't be forgotten.
Seattle has been home to Black artists of great renown, from Jimi Hendrix and Ernestine Anderson to Jacob Lawrence and August Wilson. But those big names are by no means the only ones from our city deserving of recognition. 
For this episode of the Crosscut Reports podcast, we’re peeling back the curtain on a massive multimedia project that seeks to shed light on artists past and present who have helped shape this city and region. 
Black Arts Legacies is a series of written profiles, videos, photography and a podcast, all highlighting the vital and ongoing role of Seattle’s Black artists and arts organizations. 
Freelance writer and critic Jas Keimig joins host Sara Bernard to talk about their role in Season Two, writing a number of profiles of some of Seattle’s most influential painters, poets, musicians, dancers and directors. Keimig shares stories of a few artists they’ve profiled, as well as their thoughts on the power and importance of the project as a whole.
Read, watch and listen to the Black Arts Legacies project here.
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Credits
Host/Producer: Sara Bernard
Reporter: Jas Keimig
Executive producer: Mark Baumgarten
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If you would like to support Crosscut, go to crosscut.com/membership. In addition to supporting our events and our daily journalism, members receive complete access to the on-demand programming of Seattle’s PBS station, KCTS 9.

Supporting Girls’ Education in Afghanistan

As the Taliban tightens restrictions, Marnie Gustavson's nonprofit finds workarounds. Reporter Hal Bernton shares the WA native's history of advocacy.
Journalist Hal Bernton took his first trip to Afghanistan back in 2009, to cover the war for The Seattle Times. There he met a Washington woman, Marnie Gustavson, and learned about PARSA, the Kabul-based nonprofit aid organization she has now led for 16 years. Through PARSA, Gustavson, who spent part of her childhood in Kabul, has helped run schools, improve orphanages and train teachers and social workers.
Bernton returned to Afghanistan in 2012 and continued to cover both the war and PARSA’s efforts over the years, as well as one of the issues that has amounted to a new, urgent crisis in the country: the draconian effect that Taliban control has had on women and girls. 
Now, even as the Taliban regime’s severe restrictions have sought to remove girls and women from public schools and public life, Gustavson has continued PARSA’s work, helping launch new efforts to run classrooms out of people’s homes.
For this episode of Crosscut Reports, host Sara Bernard also talks with Bernton about his own experience reporting in Afghanistan, and why now is not the time — for him, anyway — to forget these stories or America’s promises to the Afghan people.
Read our full report on PARSA, its history, and its new work in Afghanistan here. 
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Credits
Host/Producer: Sara Bernard
Reporter: Hal Bernton
Story Editor: Donna Blankinship
Executive producer: Mark Baumgarten
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If you would like to support Crosscut, go to crosscut.com/membership. In addition to supporting our events and our daily journalism, members receive complete access to the on-demand programming of Seattle’s PBS station, KCTS 9.

What’s at Stake in the Seattle City Council Races

With 45 candidates vying for a district seat, a lot could shift this fall. Crosscut reporter Josh Cohen talks it through.
Today, at the launch of Seattle’s 2023 campaign season, we examine some of the biggest issues our city faces. Crosscut city reporter Josh Cohen recently spoke with campaign consultants, pollsters, pundits, and representatives of big business and labor to get a sense of what’s at stake in this election and what voters might want.
Complicating these issues, and the search for solutions, is that the Seattle City Council could face a seismic shift: Four incumbents have announced they will not seek re-election, and a fifth, Teresa Mosqueda, is running for King County Council; if she wins, that will leave her seat open too.
For this episode of Crosscut Reports, host Sara Bernard talks with Cohen about what exactly voters might choose in November. While the Council has almost always been left-of-center, and is likely to remain so, the possibility of change leaves plenty of room for speculation.
Read our full report on the Seattle election and the issues likely to be at the center of it here. 
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Credits
Host/Producer: Sara Bernard
Reporter: Josh Cohen
Executive producer: Mark Baumgarten
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If you would like to support Crosscut, go to crosscut.com/membership. In addition to supporting our events and our daily journalism, members receive complete access to the on-demand programming of Seattle’s PBS station, KCTS 9.

How Bikes Became Instruments of Police Enforcement

Seattle was an early adopter of the use of bicycles in law enforcement — especially as a form of crowd control. The SPD first put cops on bikes in 1987, but the “Battle of Seattle” WTO protests in 1999 began an era of more aggressive tactics.
In recent years, bike cops have routinely anchored crowd-control efforts at events or demonstrations. Now, the use of bikes, and the crowd-control methods Seattle cops developed, have spread across the country.
This kind of bike policing seems to be here to stay, but there are questions about its use. Freelance investigative reporters James Stout and Jordan Gass-Pooré asked some of those questions in a joint project with Crosscut and Type Investigations. Among other things, the reporters examined the history of SPD bike usage as well as dozens of use-of-force complaints involving Seattle police officers and their bicycles filed during the social justice protests of 2020.
For this episode of Crosscut Reports, host Sara Bernard talks with Stout and Gass-Pooré about their findings, and about how SPD might deal with the problem: The latest report from Seattle’s Office of Inspector General on the SPD response to the 2020 protests has called for an overall apology and a reevaluation of bike-policing tactics.
Read our full report on the use of bikes in police enforcement here.
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Credits
Host/Producer: Sara Bernard
Reporters: James Stout, Jordan Gass-Pooré
Executive producer: Mark Baumgarten
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If you would like to support Crosscut, go to crosscut.com/membership. In addition to supporting our events and our daily journalism, members receive complete access to the on-demand programming of Seattle’s PBS station, KCTS 9.

The Assault Weapons Ban and More From the WA Legislative Session

Crosscut politics reporter Joseph O’Sullivan and Axios reporter Melissa Santos break down the biggest developments from the 2023 legislative session.
It was a busy legislative session in Olympia. By the time lawmakers adjourned on April 23, a slate of new bills affecting gun ownership, abortion, gender-affirming care and housing were on their way to Governor Inslee’s desk to become law.
Host Sara Bernard examines it all in this special episode of Crosscut Reports, recorded live during the virtual portion of the Crosscut Ideas Festival on May 4, 2023.
Crosscut state politics reporter Joseph O’Sullivan and Melissa Santos, a reporter with Axios Seattle, joined Bernard to discuss these new laws, how the Democrats in the majority were able to pass them and the political and cultural impact they may have on the state and national level.
The guests also chatted about Gov. Jay Inslee’s recent announcement not to run for a fourth term and the Legislature’s last-minute failure to find a fix for the state’s temporary drug possession law – a failure that Gov. Jay Inslee sought to remedy by requesting a special legislative session to settle the matter.
Read all of Crosscut's legislative coverage here.
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Credits
Host/Producer: Sara Bernard
Reporters: Joseph O'Sullivan, Melissa Santos
Executive producer: Mark Baumgarten
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If you would like to support Crosscut, go to crosscut.com/membership. In addition to supporting our events and our daily journalism, members receive complete access to the on-demand programming of Seattle’s PBS station, KCTS 9.