What will homelessness outreach, Amazon, and the city of Seattle look like post pandemic?

Bill Radke reviews the week's news with Crosscut editor-at-large Knute Berger, Publicola editor and publisher Erica Barnett, and New York Times technology correspondent Karen Weise.

The time has finally come - everyone over the age of sixteen in Washington is eligible to receive the Covid vaccine. But that doesn't mean everyone will get it right away. This week the CDC paused use of the Johnson and Johnson vaccine to investigate a link to an extremely rare blood clotting disorder. How will that effect Seattle's vaccination schedule?

Even with the Johnson and Johnson pause, it's starting to seem like the end of the pandemic is in sight. Seattle has a history with disaster recovery - what can we expect this time?

One thing that has returned since the pandemic began is homeless encampment sweeps. On Friday a homeless encampment near Meany Middle School in Capitol Hill was removed in preparation for students returning to in-person classes on Monday. Some school board members asked that the camp not be swept, saying that kids should see adults behave compassionately. What does compassion look like in this scenario? And where will the people that were living in the encampment go?

Finally, Amazon is still figuring out how to respond to the union vote that was held at one of their warehouses in Bessemer, Alabama. While Amazon won the vote, in a letter to shareholders released on Thursday, CEO Jeff Bezos said that "I think we need to do a better job for employees." This comes at the same time that new data from Amazon shows that Black, Latino, and female employees are under-represented in their best paying jobs. It also comes on the heels of Amazon’s call for employees to return to an “office-centric culture as our baseline” - meaning they want employees back in the office by the end of June. Is this the beginning of a change in workplace culture at Amazon?