Other News

We meet a woman who combines tap dancing with social justice . A pediatric oncologist shares his story of being pulled out of his comfort zone . And a woman talks about how she chose to shout her diagnosis from the rooftops , only to find out later that she was misdiagnosed.

One thing that hardly anyone warns you about when you have kids is how much time you will spend worrying about them. From the moment they enter the world until, well, as long as you are alive, you worry — about everything.

Sam Blackman was about a year into his career as a pediatric oncologist, when he got a page on Friday afternoon. It was from a doctor at the Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital across the street.

In her early 20s, Ginny McClure got some bad news. It was the kind of news people tend to be embarrassed to share. Ginny resolved to not be ashamed — to shout it from the rooftops, even. Still, there are certain subjects you don’t really want to talk about with certain people, like your parents. For Ginny, that subject was sex.

If you’ve spent any time walking around Seattle neighborhoods, you’ve probably spotted a “Fantasy A” poster bearing the name and image of a young African-American man. His handmade fliers promote performances at local clubs and bars where he shares details about his life through rap music. He spends about six hours each day putting up posters. “I’m a musician with autism and I write songs about my personal struggles,” Fantasy A said.

The Merkle Hotel is a vestige — one of the last residential hotels in Western Washington geared toward housing low-income people. These hotels were once commonplace in this region, particularly in Seattle and Tacoma, but also in many other towns with sizable populations of transient and/or immigrant workers.

KNKX reporter Will James reflects on the closing of the Merkle Hotel , what may be the last remaining low-income residential hotel in Tacoma. Professor Marie Wong gives a history of single room occupancy hotels in the Chinatown International District in Seattle. An elected official talks about how she still uses food banks . We then visit a bicycle-based needle exchange program in Olympia.

Krystal Marx is a City Councilmember in Burien, a suburb south of Seattle. Earlier this year, she posted to Facebook with an unusual confession. "I'm an Elected Official," Marx wrote, "and I Go To the Food Bank. "

Residential hotels once filled a crucial niche for low-income workers and immigrants, a bridge between affordable housing and a shelter. These Single Room Occupancy hotels, or SROs, used to dominate the streetscape in Seattle’s Chinatown-International District. Now they’re nearly extinct. It’s a story that caught the attention of Marie Wong, an Associate Professor at Seattle University. It appealed to her background in urban planning, but also to her background as a Chinese American growing up

“A volunteer-run, bicycle-based, 365-night-a-year street outreach program with basic emergency supplies and syringe exchange and naloxone distribution…. In Olympia, Washington.” That’s how volunteer Cassie Burke describes the Emma Goldman Youth and Homeless Outreach Project, or EGYHOP.