INTERNATIONAL EXAMINER
Seattle’s Asian Pacific Islander newspaper for over 44 years
May 3, 2017 – May 16, 2017 — 1
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FREE EST. 1974—SEATTLE VOLUME 44, NUMBER 9 — May 3, 2017 – May 16, 2017 THE NEWSPAPER OF THE NORTHWEST ASIAN PACIFIC AMERICAN COMMUNITIES. FIND YOUR INSPIRASIAN.
CID Public Safety Coordinator is ready to engage By Chetanya Robinson IE Assistant Editor In late March, Sonny Nguyen was hired by the Chinatown International District Public Safety Steering Committee as public safety coordinator for the neighborhood. Nguyen’s hiring came after a succession of community-led efforts to address the neighborhood’s decades-old public safety problems. Following the murder of longtime CID public safety champion Donnie Chin in 2015 during a shooting between rival gangs, Mayor Ed Murray assembled a public safety task force in early 2016 to come up with recommendations for improving public safety. Nguyen was one of 19 members of that task force, which released a report with a list of recommendations that helped shape the Mayor’s July 2016 CID public safety action plan. Nguyen’s job as neighborhood public safety coordinator was one of three positions created by the Mayor’s action plan. The others were the Community Engagement and Outreach Specialist with the Seattle Police Department—a position held by Vicky Li—and for a Community Projects Manager with the City’s Department of Neighborhoods, held by Ben Han. Nguyen, age 26, has a background in community engagement through the Washington Bus Fellowship, and as a founding member of API Food Fight Club, an organizing coalition for young APIs. Nguyen is a few weeks into his new job, which will be funded for two years. In an interview with the International Examiner (edited for length and clarity), Nguyen spoke about what they’ve been up to so far on the job, the reasons for the CID’s public safety problems, and why they think the neighborhood doesn’t deserve its NIMBY reputation. IE: What does your job as public safety coordinator involve? Sonny Nguyen: Out of the Mayor’s public safety task force, there was a huge list of recommendations. Along with my job, there are two other positions that were cre-
Former Gov. Mike Lowry at the 2014 ICHS Bloom Gala. • Courtesy Photo
API community mourns death of civil liberties champion Mike Lowry By Ron Chew IE Contributor
Sonny Nguyen. • Photo by Chetanya Robinson
ated for public safety in this neighborhood. One is focusing someone at the department of neighborhoods to public safety in this neighborhood, and that is Ben Han. And then Vicky Li got hired as the Seattle Police Department Community Engagement and Outreach Specialist—working with SPD, working with the City, and then me working with the community and all of us working together to move forward the recommendations created by the task force last year. So a lot of that is meeting with folks and doing these kind of boring behind the scenes things, but what I’m most excited about is meeting with the community and figuring out what they want me to do. I work for the entire community. So actually starting this week I’m going all around Little Saigon to meet all the business owners and to get their ideas of what’s going to make a better, safer neighborhood for them so that I can incorporate that into my work plan. SONNY: Continued on page 5 . . .
Former Washington Governor Mike Lowry, an early champion of redress payments for Japanese Americans incarcerated during World War II and a passionate supporter of universal health care, passed away on Monday at the age of 78. Lowry was a much admired friend of the Asian American community during his long political career, which included serving as U.S. Representative for the Seventh District from 1979 to 1989 and Governor from 1993 to 1997. In 1979, as a first term Congressman, Lowry introduced the first piece of legislation to call for direct monetary reparations to Japanese Americans sent to concentration camps during World War II. Although the bill was unsuccessful, it paved the way for eventual passage of the Civil Liberties Act of 1988. “Redress was not a very popular subject during that time,” Tomio Moriguchi, a leader of the Japanese American Citizens League (JACL) during that time, recalled. “He was a colleague of Norm Mineta and several other Japanese Americans in the
Congress. None of them felt comfortable taking a stand on the issue. I remember that Norm said, ‘Mike was the one who taught me about redress.’ Mike was the spiritual leader of the redress movement.” Lowry appointed Ruthann Kurose, a Seattle activist, as one of the very first Asian American legislative aides in the U.S. Congress. She worked closely with him on coordinating his legislative efforts with community grassroots lobbying. Lowry also hired Bob Santos, long-time champion of the International District, to work as an aide in his Congressional office after Santos lost a bid for a seat on the King County Council in 1984. Commenting on Lowry’s death, Karen Seriguchi, former Northwest Regional Director of the JACL, said, “I felt that we lost someone who gave us hope that we actually had a chance of passing redress. He was the sole supporter who carried our cause in the early days. I don’t know what would have happened if he had not been around for us.” In 1993, As Governor, Lowry signed a bill calling for universal health care, although it never fully went into effect. But he continued his passionate support for affordable care even after his retirement. LOWRY: Continued on page 5 . . .