Part of Mike McGinn's inexpensive mayoral campaign strategy has been to make himself available through 18 town-hall meetings around the city.

The last of them were scheduled this weekend, and they ranged from more than 100 attendees at a meeting in Wallingford on Friday night to a meeting Saturday morning in the Chinatown International District with a dozen volunteers and only one voter.

On Saturday morning, McGinn, in a jacket and tie and drinking Vietnamese coffee, chatted with the meeting's single attendee about how he would make Seattle's transportation policies more "holistic." Then he declared the meeting a "good volunteer bonding session" and the group had lunch at the Wrap and Roll, a Vietnamese restaurant on Jackson Street.

Turnout was much better Saturday afternoon at the Van Asselt Community Center. By the end of the hour-and-a-half set aside for the meeting, nearly all of the room's 40 chairs were filled. A large group from the Somali community was there to announce that the African community's new PAC, the United African Public Affairs Committee, has endorsed McGinn.

Mohamed Sheikh Hassan, a Somali community leader in Southeast Seattle, said the group talked to both candidates and was impressed by McGinn's empathy and genuine willingness to listen. During the meeting, McGinn answered questions about curbing gang violence, police priorities and keeping small, immigrant-owned businesses alive.

Someone with Joe Mallahan's campaign used a video camera to record both events.

McGinn has made an effort to gain support in Southeast Seattle, even establishing an office there near Othello Station. Southeast Seattle was the only part of the town carried decisively by Mayor Greg Nickels.