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Photo from Rep. Steve Bergquist newsletter
Renton’s 11th District Representative Steve Bergquist has asked his district for their top safety priorities, and dozens of Renton residents responded. Representative Bergquist shared the results of his online survey here, and summarized them in his E-newsletter.
Many readers gave detailed comments about their concerns, including paragraphs of specifics, and they are included in the survey results.
Italics are quoted from Representative Bergquist’s newsletter:
Thank you so much to those of you who responded to our community safety survey in the last E-Newsletter—I really appreciate you taking the time to share what kind of support is the most meaningful to you and your family.
In response to the Supreme Court’s State v. Blake response, SB 5467 received the highest percentage of votes in support. This bill would encourage substance use treatment in response to possession and require a jail sentence if individuals do not comply with treatment. The only bill that received a higher percentage of votes in opposition than support (the only bill most survey respondents did not like) was SB 5624, enacting decriminalization of possession and providing support for expansion of substance use disorder treatment programs.
(Legend above: Blue was supported by survey respondents, orange was opposed.)
Respondents indicated that greater confidence in law enforcement, more police presence, knowing that people’s basic needs are met, removal of institutionally racist practices, and having lots of people out and about are the things that make them feel safest in their communities. People responded that inattentive drivers, car thefts, mass shootings, the presence of homelessness, gun ownership, and drug use make them feel unsafe in their communities.
Representative Bergquist then extends a personal invitation for residents to make an appointment to meet with him and our other 11th district legislator David Hackney.
Join my 11th LD seatmate, Representative David Hackney, and I for a Mini Town Hall on Saturday, March 18th from 1-4pm at Refuel Café (401 Olympia Ave NE Ste 102, Renton, WA). Please email my legislative assistant, Syd, at Syd.Locke@leg.wa.gov to sign up for a 15-minute time slot to chat with us between 1pm & 4pm. Sign up to swing by, say hello, and enjoy a coffee on us!
I appreciate Rep Bergquist extending this invitation, and encourage residents to take this time to get to know our legislators and personally discuss your concerns and ideas with them. The issues on the survey are timely, as Representatives Bergquist and Hackney will soon be voting on many of them including key drug legislation (fixing “Blake” decision) and police pursuit legislation, both of which have recently been addressed by bills passed last week in the Senate and forwarded to the House.
Not sure I trust Bergquist to turn over a new leaf. He’s been pretty vocal in supporting defunding the police and other nonsense.
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Did I miss an article? Or will you do one about Renton council members Ed Prince and Ryan McIrvin wanting to keep fentanyl use decriminalized?
Their idea has killed over 300 extra people in the last two years in King County alone based on the extra deaths before and after the Blake decision.
I hear you, but in my opinion, the extra deaths from decimalizing Fentanyl is lower than the total deaths simply because it’s more available now.
But it’s very fair to pin some of this tragedy on those that want to turn Washington into an open-air drug bazar.
I have not discussed the letter signed by the three Renton council members in my blog yet, although I agree it is timely to do so. I just noticed in Rep Bergquist’s survey that almost 3/4 of the respondents favor using the possibility of jail for drug users who consistently refuse treatment (to encourage people to go to rehab), so the three council members views expressed in the letter are out of step with the survey results.
I believe it is known that people are nervous about change, so when it is a case where the change is done or it is a public threat to safety than I also believe that people need to be encouraged to make said change, even if that should include incarceration.
Correct. It’s not like anybody enjoys throwing hurting people in jail; it’s just that we need the possibility of jail to convince people on drugs to get treatment.
I can see how some people think this is unnecessary, but taking drugs is temporarily so much fun that they need something existential to get the drug user to snap out of it.