Seattle Forward

SODO Arena Street Vacation Committee Vote

The City Council’s Transportation Committee voted 4-1 (O’Brien, Johnson, Harrell and myself voting “yes,” Bagshaw voting “no”) this week on whether or not to approve a conditional street vacation on Occidental Ave S in SODO. A street vacation is a formal process where the City Council decides whether or not to grant public right-of-way in exchange for fair market value and other public benefits.

This street vacation has been sought as part of a proposal to build an arena for basketball and hockey teams. After proposing several amendments to strengthen the conditions of the vacation, I voted to approve the vacation. Here’s why.

Sound Transit 3 - Time for Feedback

The City Council received a briefing this morning about the proposed Sound Transit 3 expansion of our regional light rail and bus network. The draft includes several large projects in Seattle, including lines to Ballard and West Seattle and a second transit tunnel through downtown.

The light rail has gotten a lot of positive press recently with the opening of the Capitol Hill and UW stations and the resulting large uptick in ridership. A front-page Seattle Times story this morning highlighted our city as having the fastest growing bus ridership in the nation.

Put simply, transit matters and it is important that our local leaders get this plan right. To do that, we need robust public engagement.

The Long Road to Effective Management of Our Police Department

When Kathy O’Toole assumed command of the Seattle Police Department in June, 2014, she inherited a police department rife with staggering management challenges. For years, ineffective management had led to inconsistent practices, a lack of accountability, very poor tracking of resource deployments, out-of-date technology systems in need of dramatic overhaul, and a stagnant management culture highly resistant to change.

To put it bluntly, our police department was a mess, redeemed only in part by the individual efforts of officers and civilian employees who continued to do their jobs as best they could. Chief O’Toole has taken steps to build a stronger, more effective management environment, but it’s going to take a long time to right this ship.

The City Council recently received a report commissioned by Chief O’Toole to determine proper police staffing and deployment levels. Chief O’Toole delivered the study to the Council with this cover letter.

At a very high level, the study concludes we should hire an additional 61 to 93 officers above the Mayor’s 2014 commitment to hire 100 net new officers, which aligns with the Mayor’s more recent announcement of an additional net 100 officers by 2019. The report provides good context and helpful comparisons to other cities that will lay the groundwork for specific actions by SPD leadership.

The report also raises some important policy questions we must answer as a city: