Latest from Nickelsville

I took the liberty of reprinting a letter that Scott Morrow sent out about meeting with Phil Fujii from the Mayor's Office on Monday. This is certainly an improvement from where Nickelsville was with the former Mayor.
>
> Greetings Friend of Nickelsville!
>
> We hope this Alert finds you well, and that it tells you two things:
> Firstly, what happened at our meeting Monday with Seattle Mayor Mike
> McGinn’s Deputy Mayor of Operations – Mr. Phil Fujii - and secondly
> how things are going since our recent move to Greater Mt. Baker
> Missionary Baptist Church.
>
> Eight Nickelodeons – including oldtimers and newcomers, past campers
> and present, staff and supporters, young and old, – presented our case
> to Mr. Fujii. Here it is:
>
> The Nickelodeons want to meet directly with the Mayor. After being
> treated as second class citizens by the former Mayor, a change of
> policy in this area is badly needed. Mayor McGinn and Nickelsville
> should meet and become powerful friends and allies: We both want to
> do more with less, and we both want to engage and empower. Meeting
> with the Mayor is a crucial way to begin working together.
>
> Our goal is a permanent site in the City of Seattle for up to 1,000
> homeless people, and we understand that we need to make a deal among
> friends for this to succeed. Our deadline is May 5th, when we move
> from Mt. Baker Missionary Baptist to a permanent site.
>
> Mr. Fujii said that he had been anointed by the Mayor to work with
> us. He was hoping the Mayor could drop by for a minute and meet us,
> but unfortunately he was double-booked. He said the Mayor wanted to
> work something out. Mr. Al Poole, from the Human Services Department,
> has been delegated the responsibility to bring together an
> Interdepartmental City Meeting, and figure out if the city could work
> with Nickelsville.
>
> You may recall that Mayor Nickels never would meet with us, or respond
> to our letters. What’s more, when we tried to seek an appointment,
> they turned off the elevator and locked the stairwells on us so we
> couldn’t get to his office!
>
> Compared to that, the meeting with Mr. Fujii was huge progress. Our
> friends at SHARE – who we expect will be with us at the meeting with
> the Mayor – have worked with Mr. Fujii when he was at Vulcan. Not
> only was he a straight shooter there, but he got things done. He
> understood how a poor people’s organization worked, and was
> encouraging and respectful. So we have hope.
>
> PLEASE WRITE MAYOR MCGINN AND THANK HIM FOR THE PREPARATORY MEETING
> WITH DEPUTY MAYOR FUJII. ENCOURAGE MAYOR MCGINN TO MEET WITH US AND
> OUR SUPPORTERS, SO THAT WE CAN ALL SUPPORT THE WORK OF THE
> INTERDEPARTMENTAL COMMITTEE AND QUICKLY REMOVE ANY ROADBLOCKS THEY
> MIGHT ENCOUNTER!
>
> Now here’s the Second Part of the Update:
>
> The move from New Hope Missionary Baptist Church to Greater Mt Baker
> Baptist Church went well! The camp’s population is around 60 and
> needs more tents, blankets and tarps to expand. Neighbors have been
> very friendly.
>
> Here are the donations we particularly need this week:
>
> --Funds for dumpster, porta potties, and cell phones. These costs are
> over $2,000 a month, and we’ve fallen behind again! Please DON’T ruin
> your own credit rating helping us. Please DO get the groups you are a
> member of to start helping us, and tell sympathetic friends of our
> need.
>
> --We’re out of Tents! The new site is a little bigger than the old
> site, plus tents have a limited life span anyway. Other building
> materials are also needed, especially pallets and plywood, nails,
> tarps of different sizes, also sleeping bags and blankets, firewood,
> propane for cooking grills, rope and duct tape.
>
> Thank You for your help with the upkeep and building of Nickelsville,
> as we work toward getting our permanent site.
>
> CONTACT INFORMATION:
>
> Mayor Mike McGinn
> Deputy Mayor of Operations Phil Fujii
> P.O. Box 94749
> Seattle, WA 98124-4749
>
> Mike.Mcginn@seattle.gov
> phil.fujii@seattle.gov
>
> Send Copies of Correspondence to
>
> Nickelsville
> P.O. Box 2548
> Seattle, WA 98111
>
> scott@nickelsvilleseattle.org
>
> Nickelsville is presently located at Mt. Baker Missionary Baptist
> Church. It is on South Jackson Street, at the SW Corner of 25th &
> Jackson. The camp is on the far south end of their property, on S.
> King and 25th.
>
> The Camp Phone # is 450-5268. The Staff Phone # is 450-9136.
>
> DON’T BE A STRANGER!
>

>