In response to the idea, dozens of temperance-minded citizens signed a separate petition protesting the idea of passing such an ordinance. They stated, “We believe that the passage of such an ordinance would reestablish in our city the disreputable variety theater and dance house against which we earnestly protest. We believe that such places are detrimental to the best interest of our City and do our citizens a thousand times more harm than can be compensated by all the revenues derived therefrom.”

After consideration of the petitions, the Council’s Committee on Police, License and Revenue reported a split decision. The minority believed that the Council should go ahead with the ordinance, claiming that a license system “would keep the places to be regulated under proper control and restraint,” and noted that the petition bore the signatures “of the majority of the best business men of our city.” However, the majority – which reported “adversely” on the idea – won the day, and liquor was kept separate from other entertainments for the time being. Nevertheless, it was not long before the temperance movement lost the battle and Seattle’s saloon quarter once again became a fully operational entertainment district.

See other Archives Finds of the Month here:

http://seattle.gov/CityArchives/Exhibits/finds.htm

For other interesting images and textual items, check out the Seattle Municipal Archives’ photostream on flickr:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/seattlemunicipalarchives/

and don’t forget we’re also on YouTube:

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In one example, three Mount Baker neighbors wrote a joint letter to the City Council in 1920 requesting an ordinance to prohibit playing baseball within 50 feet of “any dwelling, garage, or other private owned property.” The neighbors complained [sic throughout], “we have suffered all kinds of damage to windows, shrubery, fruit trees, lawns, gardens, and buildings by the boys who congregate in a vacant lot ajoining us. What incentive is there to labor with gardens shrubery or lawns if they are constantly exposed to the danger of being ruined in one sunday afternoon.” They closed their letter by asking, “Are we obliged to bear with this state of affairs when we are at the same time taxed so heavily for the upkeep of playgrounds all over the city?”

Almost forty years later, a funeral parlor located across from Broadway Playfield (now Cal Anderson Park) complained that baseballs were wreaking havoc on their property and endangering people on the sidewalk. Their letter stated, “Last Spring a ball was hit through a second floor window narrowly missing the head of an elderly lady sitting in her apartment in our building. Last Sunday a ball came over the fence hitting a light cable, was deflected into the street and hit a parked car. Except for the cable, it would have broken the Cathedral glass window in our new mortuary building.”

The Parks Department had previously hoped to fix the problem with an educational campaign, by posting notices at the field and alerting coaches to the issue. The funeral parlor, and apparently also the Council, found this to be an unsatisfactory response, prompting the department to take another look at the question.

The Superintendent of Parks acknowledged that “the more lively baseball and improved batting eye of some of our Broadway players have proved that our present fencing is inadequate.” He said they had considered prohibiting “hardball” from the field, “but this playfield has a long history of hardball playing and we have no alternate site to offer.” His suggested solution was building a 40-foot-high fence, but he noted that the estimated cost of $2,391.00, “including state tax,” was going to have to come out of money committed for some other project.

See other Archives Finds of the Month here:

http://seattle.gov/CityArchives/Exhibits/finds.htm

For other interesting images and textual items, check out the Seattle Municipal Archives’ photostream on flickr:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/seattlemunicipalarchives/

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Fair Housing Month is celebrated across the country in April.  Designated by the US Department of Housing and Urban Development, it marks the date of April 11, 1968, when President Lyndon Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1968.  The Act expanded previous legislation and prohibited discrimination concerning the sale, rental, and financing of housing based on race, religion, national origin, and sex. Title VIII of the Act is also known as the Fair Housing Act (of 1968). 

The City of Seattle also passed its Fair Housing ordinance in April 1968 after a 10-year battle.  The hard fought struggle for that legislation is told in an online exhibit on the Seattle Municipal Archives website. 

In 1975, the legislation was broadened to include additional categories of discrimination including:  sex, marital status, sexual orientation and political ideology.  The Seattle Women’s Commission introduced proposed amendments in 1973 but it took almost two years before the amendments passed.  The Seattle Human Rights Commission, the American Civil Liberties Union, and the Seattle Atlantic Street Center were among the groups that supported adding the additional categories, while apartment owners and real estate agents were among those who opposed the amendment.   Jeanette Williams, as chair of the Human Resources and Judiciary Committee, shepherded the legislation through.  The Mayor signed it in August, after it passed narrowly in City Council, by a 5-4 vote.

The Open Housing ordinance was amended again in 1979 to prohibit discrimination based on age and parental status.  After the amendment was introduced by the Housing and Urban Development Committee, President of the Apartment Operators Association, Inc., Donald Haas, sent a letter to members of City Council stating his opposition.  On May 2, 1979, he wrote, “Many owners are telling me that they will withdraw their vacancies from the open rental market before letting them be wrecked by irresponsible teenagers and undisciplined children.”  Seattle’s Department of Human Resources pointed out to Councilmember Michael Hildt, Chair of the Committee, on April 4, 1979, “The proposed amendment to the Fair Housing Ordinance will not change the housing shortage in Seattle….but letting the elderly compete on an equal basis with others for housing they can afford will be of the utmost significance in allowing them to function independently as long as possible.”

In 1985, Jeanette Williams, then chair of the City Operations Committee, introduced proposed amendments to the fair housing ordinance that would include creed and disability.  Representatives of the Rental Housing Operators (RHO) of Seattle wrote to express their disapproval.  “The requirement of remodeling existing housing so that a handicapped person may live anywhere is an unreasonable burden placed on private landowners,” wrote R. Drake Bozath and John Misner, representing RHO.  The amendment passed in 1986.

In 1999, the open housing legislation was broadened to include gender identity.  Seattle joins in the rest of the nation in celebrating Open Housing Month.

Resources used: Jeannette Williams Subject Files, Series ID 4693-02, Boxes 55-57, Seattle Municipal Archives

http://www.seattle.gov/cityarchives/

Responding to the complaints, the City Council’s Health and Sanitation Committee paid a visit to the landfill to see its operations in person. Compared to the city’s previous practice of “dumping in the Bay and littering the same, to be washed backward and forwards by the tides,” they found the dump’s method of burning and covering the trash to be preferable. They did, however, urge “all due caution” in preventing odors, writing that “at no time should the sun be allowed to shine upon the [trash] any longer than a man can cover up or burn it.” If these measures were observed, the committee believed the dump would “ultimately be a blessing rather than a curse to all parties concerned.”

However, in the ensuing two months, the Committee had received another petition complaining about the site, and at that point acknowledged the problem with dumping trash “so near dwelling houses.” They recommended that garbage be “taken farther out of the city and burned in a fenced place to prevent the above floating away by the tide.” City Engineer R.H. Thomson suggested a site on Railroad Avenue between Connecticut and Atlantic Streets for this purpose.

However, moving the dump further out did not eliminate complaints about garbage odors. By the following summer, there were enough protests about the smells from garbage wagons traveling through the city that the City Council passed Ordinance 4955, which ordained that “any wagon, cart or other conveyance used in the removal of swill within the City of Seattle shall have a tightly closed body, box or receptacle for the swill…to prevent the escape of any odor, or the escape or leakage of swill.” The ordinance also prohibited the transport of garbage except between the hours of 10:00 pm and 8:00 am.

See other Archives Finds of the Month here:

http://seattle.gov/CityArchives/Exhibits/finds.htm

For other interesting images and textual items, check out the Seattle Municipal Archives’ photostream on flickr:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/seattlemunicipalarchives/

and don’t forget to visit our YouTube channel:

http://www.youtube.com/user/SeattleArchives?feature=watch

Mayor Norm Rice, April 27, 1993,  Item 72831, Seattle Municipal Archives

Norm Rice first served on Seattle City Council from 1979 to1989, then served as Mayor from 1990 to 1997. 

Norman B. Rice was born May 4, 1943 in Denver, Colorado. After attending Highline Community College, Rice earned a bachelor’s degree in communications and a Masters of Public Administration at the University of Washington. Rice holds honorary degrees from Seattle University, the University of Puget Sound, and Whitman College. Before entering City government, he worked as a reporter at KOMO-TV News and KIXI radio, served as Assistant Director of the Seattle Urban League, was Executive Assistant and Director of Government Services for the Puget Sound Council of Governments, and was employed as the Manager of Corporate Contributions and Social Policy at Rainier National Bank.

Norm Rice Campaigning for Seattle City Council. Item 77389, Seattle Municipal Archives

Beginning in 1978, Rice served eleven years on City Council, including a term as Council President; he also served as chair of the Energy and Finance and Budget Committees. Rice facilitated the development of more equitable cost allocation and rate design procedures for Seattle City Light as part of his work on the Energy Committee; his accomplishments on the Finance and Budget Committee included the passage of the Women and Minority Business Enterprise Ordinance and the elimination of City investments in firms doing business in South Africa.  Rice also worked to improve public safety in Seattle and advocated for the use of local funds to improve conditions for disadvantaged Seattle citizens.

            Elected as 49^th Mayor of the city of Seattle in 1989, he was re-elected in 1993.  During his mayoral term, he also served as President of the U.S. Conference of Mayors from 1995 to 1996.  Rice worked to secure federal, state, and local funding for public-private partnerships in redevelopment efforts in downtown Seattle.  He sponsored a citywide education summit and worked to lower Seattle’s crime rate.  He worked to find partnerships between city officials and social workers to locate private funding for services to the homeless.

Mayor Norm Rice at the US Conference of Mayors, 1994. Item 77373, Seattle Municipal Archives.

 Following his public service to the City, he became president and CEO of the Federal Home Loan Bank of Seattle from 1998 to 2004. His wife, Constance Rice, is a respected educator and former vice-chancellor of the Seattle Community College system.  In 2007, Rice joined the Evans School of Public Affairs at the University of Washington, lecturing on civic engagement.

Open to the public for research, the Seattle Municipal Archives holds records relating to Rice’s City Council and Mayoral terms.  Included are:

• Councilmember Norm Rice Subject Files, 1973-1992.  Record Series 4674-02.
• Councilmember Norm Rice Finance Committee Records, 1980-1984.  Record Series 4674-03.
• Councilmember Norm Rice Public Safety Committee Records, 1986-1987.  Record Series 4674-04.
• Councilmember Norm Rice Energy Committee Records, 1987-1989.  Record Series 4674-05.
• Norm Rice Speeches and Statements, 1984-1989.  Record Series 4674-06.
• Mayor’s Office Central Files, Record Series 5200-07.
• Mayor Norm Rice Departmental Correspondence, 1990-1997.  Record Series 5272-01.
• Mayor Norm Rice Subject Files, 1990-1997.  Record Series 5272-02.
• Mayor Norm Rice Speeches and Statements, 1989-1997.  Record Series 5272-06.
• Mayor Norm Rice Photographs, 1978-1997.  Record Series 5272-07.
• Norm Rice Campaign Materials, 1978-1996.  Record Series 5272-09.

Explore more of the Seattle Municipal Archives’ collections on our website:

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Martin said that she investigated 368 cases during 1910, involving 730 calls and 1616 interviews. Her work included:

• Investigating sixteen runaway girls, of which ten were found
• Sending seven women to the State Insane Hospital
• Reporting two women to their probation officers
• Sending about a dozen girls and women to maternity homes
• Removing four girls from the Mammoth skating rink and one from the Dreamland dancing pavilion
• Referring twenty women to employment agencies
• Reporting three girls to truant officers
• Ensuring the arrest of two men for seduction
• Finding a kidnapped girl
• Holding two forced marriages “to legitimize five children”

Her report stated that “the number of young wives who have been deserted by their husbands is increasing each month,” and wondered if there was some way the men could be compelled to work to support their families. She encouraged the establishment of some sort of workhouse or laundry for women serving time in the city jail, feeling “it would be far better for these women than sitting playing cards.” And she expressed special concern for women between 45 and 70 years old “without home or friends” who were not served by existing programs for younger women, and who could not get into the existing Old Ladies Home, which had a long waiting list. She hoped a municipal lodging house could be founded so that these women had lodging options other than the county hospital or poor farm.

Martin praised the cooperation she had received from the Police Department, but did have some suggestions for improvement, particularly greater enforcement of the curfew law. She noted that “Children of tender years, both boys and girls are on the streets until very late hours at night,” and that if everyone knew the curfew would be enforced by all officers, “I feel sure the work of looking after young girls would not be so hard.”

See other Archives Finds of the Month here:

http://seattle.gov/CityArchives/Exhibits/finds.htm

For other interesting images and textual items, check out the Seattle Municipal Archives’ photostream on flickr:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/seattlemunicipalarchives/

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A bill based on the Chicago law was introduced about a month later (after a second urging by the police chief), but languished under discussion for another 18 months. During that time, citizens and other interested parties made their views on the proposed law known to the council. Owners of sporting goods stores wanted the law to forbid secondhand and pawn shops from stocking the regulated weapons. If the law was passed as drafted, they were concerned that “legitimate dealers will adhere strictly to its terms while the second hand and pawn shops will violate it freely, selling to anyone, licensed or unlicensed. In this way we will be at a greater disadvantage than now.”

Another store owner protested the proposed $25 yearly license fee to sell firearms, claiming it “operates to the benefit of the big Gun dealers and will bring the death knell of such firms as our own.” He stated that his store had been “doing a straightforward, honest, clean business in Seattle for the past twenty odd years…and no one can point the finger of reproach at us for furnishing arms to crooks.” He claimed the law “will never prevent crooks getting guns, but will make it difficult for honest citizens to obtain them for legitimate use.”

However, the other side was speaking up as well. One woman wrote in support of the proposed regulations because “every fool nowadays can by [sic] a weapon and come and shoot other[s] down.” She wrote of talking to a woman whose cat had been stolen; the woman had told the writer she would “fix the party so she would never again take a cat” by shooting her. The writer believed that if guns were harder to obtain, there “would be less crime and expense to the country.”

The ordinance was finally voted on and passed in January of 1916 – but was promptly vetoed by Mayor Hiram Gill. He disliked both the sellers’ license fees and the buyers’ permits, saying the latter created a hassle for law-abiding citizens “who purchase weapons for the protection which they will give women at home,” while criminals would always find a way to get a gun. He also argued that most weapons were not used for criminal purposes, claiming that “the greatest protection which homes have is where the ordinary criminal believes there is a firearm.” He added, “Many people have been killed with axes, and you might just as well legislate against them.”

Councilmembers were not persuaded by the mayor’s arguments – they voted to override the veto, and the passed bill became Ordinance 35790.

See other Archives Finds of the Month here:

http://seattle.gov/CityArchives/Exhibits/finds.htm

For other interesting images and textual items, check out the Seattle Municipal Archives’ photostream on flickr:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/seattlemunicipalarchives/

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Item #77386

Seattle Municipal Archives holdings contain historical materials documenting correspondence, visits, and campaign materials of US Presidents as early as Al Smith’s presidential run in 1928 to photos as recent as Congressman Barack Obama’s visit in 2008.

Photos:

The US Conference of Mayors Climate protection Summit, President Bill Clinton

President Clinton with Mayor Norm Rice (above)

Congressman Barack Obama with Mayor Norm Rice

Mayor Braman greeting President Johnson at Sea-Tac, 1966.

Resources in the Archives:

Messages from the President of the United States, Lyndon B. Johnson, on Natural Beauty, Education Program, Crime, Right to Vote

Writings About J.D. Ross,  – Correspondence from President Franklin D. Roosevelt

President’s Summit for America’s Future

On Flickr:

Al Smith presidential campaign ad, 1928

Democratic party sticker, 1960s

Carter-Mondale letterhead, 1976

Call for the 1976 Democratic National Convention

Geraldine Ferraro bumper sticker, 1984

In 1940, the City passed Ordinance 69816, which granted leaves of absence to City employees who were in active military service. The Civil Service Commission was unsure whether this ordinance should apply to women serving in the reserve units, and wrote a memo to the Law Department in 1943 looking for guidance.

Corporation Counsel A.C. Van Soelen went back to the federal laws authorizing the women’s units to determine their status. In the case of the WAAC, he cited parts of the act providing that “the Corps shall not be a part of the Army, but it shall be the only women’s organization authorized to serve with the Army, exclusive of the Army Nurse Corps” and that “the Corps shall be administered by the Secretary [of War] through the channels of command of the Army.”

Van Soelen also noted that the Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Civil Relief Act was amended to include the WAAC in its list of those in military service. As to WAVE and SPAR, he noted that the law established them as branches of the Navy and Coast Guard. Given this legal framework, Van Soelen found that members of these units “are in the ‘active military service’ of the United States and therefore within the provisions of Ordinance No. 69816, and you are so advised.” Based on this decision, the City’s female employees in military service were granted the same benefits as their male counterparts.

See other Archives Finds of the Month here:

http://seattle.gov/CityArchives/Exhibits/finds.htm

For other interesting images and textual items, check out the Seattle Municipal Archives’ photostream on flickr:

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Dept. of Parks and Recreation Facilities Maintenance and Devleiopment, Record Series 5804-05, Box 16 Folder 3. Seattle Municipal Archives

Seattle Times, March 9, 1970.

A manifesto by Whitebear on behalf of the UIATF to the City on March 24, 1970 stated “Since there is no place for Indians to assemble and carry on tribal ways and beliefs here in the white man’s city, we therefore, plan to develop: A Center for Native American Studies….,A great Indian University…..An Indian Center of Ecology…..An Indian School….An Indian Restaurant.”

“We entered our land,” Whitebear told reporters. “We are the natural inhabitants. We cannot enter our land illegally.”

After weeks of picketing and demonstrations at the local and federal level, negotiations resulted in a 99-year lease for an Indian cultural center on 16 acres (later expanded to 20 acres) in what would become Discovery Park. A ceremony on November 15, 1971 marked the agreement. In attendance were Senator Henry M. Jackson, Bernie Whitebear, Joyce Reyes of the American Indian Women’s League, and Mayor Wes Uhlman.

Whitebear was selected CEO of the UIATF and successfully coordinate fundraising for the building that became Daybreak Star Cultural Center.

Preliminary plans for Daybreak Star, Record series 5804-05 box 16 Folder 5.

Among other community service, Whitebear was a member of the Seattle Arts Commission from 1976 to 1978 and the Seattle Downtown Housing Advisory Task Force from 1989 to 1991. City Council honored Whitebear with a Resolution in 2000, declaring July 17 “Bernie Whitebear Remembrance Day” for his tireless work on behalf of Native Americans. Among the many other recognitions he received in his lifetime were: an Eagle Spirit Award from the American Indian Film Institute, a Life Achievement Award from the Boeing Employees Event Staff, a Citizen of the Decade State of Washington Governor’s Award, a University of Washington Distinguished Alumnus Award, and a Distinguished Citizen Medal from the City of Seattle.In 2003 the Leschi Community Council received a Neighborhood Matching Fund grant to create a Dreamcatcher memorial to two American Indian leaders: Bernie Whitebear and Luana Reyes. Located at 32^nd and Yesler Way, the artwork serves as an ongoing commemoration of Indian culture and as a focus for ongoing education. The Community Council worked with the Seattle Department of Transportation which owned the property; the artist, Lawney Reyes; and Arai/Jackson Architects and Planners to design the maintenance free and meaningful work of art to honor Reyes and Whitebear.

 
Seattle Department of Neighborhoods, Record series 5756-03. Box 44 Folder 16.

Related Topics:

• Race and Social Justice Initiative (RSJI), Office of Human Rights
• RSJI related blog articles
• CityStream Splash Back: Bernie Whitebear, 3/26/2010
  The Daybreak Star Cultural Center in Discovery Park is a beautiful facility that’s part of United Indians of All Tribes Foundation. The facility is due to one man and his belief that Northwest Native Americans needed a place of their own. Feliks Banel has the story of Bernie Whitebear.
• RSJI slide flickr gallery
• Seattle Municipal Archives