Seattle Forward

Our Creative Culture

As our city grows, we must act with urgency to stabilize families, artists, and small businesses because without them we lose one of the very things that has made us such a special city. We must invest in the culture of Seattle that has given us our unique identity and strength.

Seattle is the entertainment and cultural center of the Pacific Northwest. Creativity is in the water and in our blood. From musicians, to painters, to dancers, to writers and filmmakers, and many more—artists have given us voice and spirit. To make sure we don’t lose this valuable distinction in a skyrocketing economy, I am proposing to increase arts and culture spending.

Specifically, we should increase the allocation of the city’s existing admissions tax revenue dedicated to the arts from the 75% it is today to 80% in 2016, 90% in 2017, and 100% in 2018. This increase means millions of additional dollars dedicated to supporting artists and arts organizations all over the city, including more arts education in our public schools.

Rent Regulations, Housing Affordability and Local Control

The Council took several votes yesterday to address housing affordability in Seattle. First, we passed two measures regarding tenant protections and affordable housing preservation that I wrote about last week. Then we passed a resolution about local control of rent regulations with the following language:

The City Council supports efforts by the State Legislature to allow local governments to propose ordinances that significantly increase the supply of rent-restricted units and that protect tenants from sudden and dramatic rent increases, without causing a negative impact on the quality or quantity of housing supply, by modifying or repealing RCW 35.21.830.

This resolution is an endorsement of local control, not any specific policy. As I said explicitly before our vote yesterday, this resolution does not take a position on rent control.

After last week’s deadlocked committee discussion about a separate resolution that focused exclusively on rent control, it became clear to me that the Council needed a fresh start. Dogmatic rhetoric blocked pragmatic steps forward. As Council President, I drafted an alternative resolution that better captures the intent expressed by most councilmembers: to request local control for local solutions.

Affordable Housing and Tenant Protection Bills Pass Committee

This morning City Council’s housing committee passed two pieces of legislation I sponsored and introduced earlier this year related to affordable housing preservation and tenant protections. This bills will go to the Full Council on Monday.

One bill requires that, barring exceptional circumstances and a waiver from the City, landlords give renters a longer notice period (90 days) when they determine they want to either sell the property or have a family member move in.

The other bill requires owners of existing affordable housing to give the City’s Office of Housing and the Seattle Housing Authority 60 days’ notice that the property will be listed for sale. In some cases, preserving existing affordable housing can be more cost-effective than building new affordable housing; this ordinance gives local public agencies time to consider making a purchase offer on buildings when and where it makes financial sense.

Former Councilmember Sally J. Clark initially proposed these ideas and I sponsored the legislation after she left the Council. They are two pieces of a much larger housing affordability puzzle the City must put together to keep Seattle affordable and accessible to people from all walks of life as it grows.

Tomorrow the Council will consider many other pieces of the puzzle in a separate meeting.