Written by Dann Mead SmithPresident Cindy opened our meeting on a beautiful, sunny spring day reflecting on the importance of sharing our Rotary story with others. She encouraged us to use our phones at meetings to share Rotary and our meetings with the goal of encouraging others to join us.
She reported on the District Conference that was held in Spokane last week and specifically mentioned our own Mark Wright’s interview with Bill Gates and the Rotary International President at the event.
She announced that our own Fr. Steve Sundborg is the 81st recipient of the prestigious Seattle-King County First Citizen Award this year and is being honored at an event this week. You can learn more about the award here.
We had several visiting Rotarians at the meeting as well as visitors from Uganda that included two students.
We told each other about where else other than Seattle that we would want to live during the Greet and Grin. David Woodward with Jevon Powell on guitar led us in a spirited version of The Old Settlers Song about the old days in Puget Sound due to Washington being ranked #1 of all the states last week. David Brenner reflected on how two lodges that he recently visited in Tulsa and Tacoma have moved away from being service club buildings which led him to think about “what does it take to sustain a vibrant community” with lessons for Rotary and our club.
Craig Wright led us in a remembrance of our longtime member, Jerry Costacos, who joined our club in 1978 and recently passed away at 92 years old. Craig has been friends with Jerry for years through their connection in the Greek Orthodox Church. Craig suggested that “we tell someone we love them” today to honor Jerry. Craig mentioned Jerry’s motto of “life is for living” and said that the reason why he loves Jerry is that he gave Craig “a piece of his heart” over the course of their friendship. You can read Jerry’s Seattle TImes obituary here.
Joel Paget introduced us to our new member Alex Fan, who was recently appointed as the director general of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office of the Republic of China. He covers six Western states out of their office in Seattle. Taiwan is Washington’s sixth largest trading partner and over 10,000 Taiwanese live in our state.
Past president Tim Bendokas presented Faith Ireland in our Rotary Legends series. Faith was one of the first women in our club when she joined in 1987. Some highlights from her remarkable career: attended Highline High School and the UW, one of two women in her Willamette University College of Law class, opened her own law firm in 1974, first woman board member of the Washington Trial Lawyers Association, appointed by Gov. John Spellman to the King County Superior Court, and elected to the State Supreme Court in 1999. She has also set 15 powerlifting records! Cindy mentioned that “You are my hero,” based on her time working in Olympia when Faith was also there as a Supreme Court Justice. Susie Roe introduced our featured speaker, Mayor Jenny Durkan, a Notre Dame and UW law school grad who was in private practice before President Obama appointed her to be US District Attorney in 2009. She mentioned some of the similar issues that Mayor Durkan is tackling that the first woman mayor of Seattle, Bertha Landes, also had to deal with back in 1926!
Mayor Jenny Durkan opened by thanking us for our commitment to serving Seattle, it’s “truly remarkable.” She remembered our “principles” and said that we need that kind of approach in the city and that it fits with her goal of “having everyone at the table.”
She focused on making the “Seattle of the future, one that we can all believe in.” She mentioned that our infrastructure was not ready for the growth we are seeing in the city, resulting in the challenge we are seeing in transportation, housing, and delivery of core services. She said that the city is not affordable for everyone. “We need a city that innovates and plans for the future. And a place where people can live, raise a family and feel welcome, we need to build the city that we want.”She highlighted two key projects: the new waterfront with no viaduct and Seattle Center where the new arena is under construction.
She encouraged us as business owners to think about giving students in the city internship opportunities through the city’s new business opportunity program. If we have room for interns, then please talk to her office. “We have a cadre of students that are hungry and smart and that will carry us into the future.”
She answered questions on:
- how to make sure Seattle is connected to the region – she is addressing the “distrust of Seattle” that she encountered when she became mayor and mentioned how jobs and housing anywhere in the region benefit Seattle
- tackling homelessness – she mentioned the new collaboration with King County to have one regional authority to address issues surrounding the homeless
- What keeps you up at night? – “who sleeps?” she said. And then mentioned that “those that are left behind and those that have the least are the ones that keep her up the most.”
- the problem of not enough places to park close to transit – “we need to do more” and she again mentioned her focus on the region and not “stopping at the city’s borders.” And she mentioned increasing the capacity of passenger ferries and the city’s new Ride2 program that “delivers riders to transit.”
Jaime Mendez gave a sneak peek of next week’s program on artificial intelligence software and mentioned that there will be a special one-hour discussion after the formal lunch program concludes that will focus on China’s use of artificial intelligence and facial recognition technology. So be sure to make plans to stay after next week’s meeting for this hot topic discussion!
This week's Totem was written by Dann Mead Smith. 
