Bainbridge Islanders,
Within one week, the city experienced the high and the low of community engagement. A week ago Thursday, the City hosted an in-person Community Visioning Workshop to discuss the future of the Winslow Area with great participation. Approximately 87 members of the community attended. The attendees respectfully engaged with one another. There were four breakout tables. The attendees discussed opportunities, constraints, housing, mobility, open space, and environmental concerns. The mood was genuinely positive and hopeful. Staff received a multitude of comments to sift through and develop alternative scenarios. This meeting is what we hope community engagement will be.
A week later, this past Thursday, the City hosted a virtual workshop to again seek input on the future of the Winslow Area. The virtual workshop was intended to provide an option for those who could not attend the in-person meeting or found it more convenient to attend remotely. City staff and the consultant team from LMN set the meeting up and were ready to welcome the community to the virtual meeting. And then it happened. To our horror, the meeting was Zoombombed with nasty offensive scenes. Our consultants, who have hosted multiple similar meetings, worked as hard as they could to delete and prevent the offensive images. But the Zoombombing continued, and the offensive scenes could not be deleted. We had no other option than to cancel the meeting and shut down the link. In our effort to make the virtual meeting as open and as easy as possible, we may have inadvertently made it easier to be Zoombombed.
The City and our consultants, LMN, are investigating how the Zoombombing occurred. LMN was the host of the meeting. It is noted that several Zoombombing incidents occurred in other cities in the region. We will have a plan in place to help prevent future attacks. The meeting has been rescheduled to the evening of August 9.
Before closing, I need to say, I am looking forward to this year’s blackberry picking season. I’m watching the wild blackberries for ripeness and planning what to wear when I go blackberry picking. Of course, I will wear a long sleeves shirt and pants, but I have seen others with homemade “blackberry picking tool belts” that make me envious. I also have seen “blackberry picking sticks” that allow one to reach way into the bramble to pick more berries. I would like to see what people have planned for their blackberry tool belt and picking tools.
Best,
Blair King
City Manager
