Seattle Forward

Bruce Harrell's Vision for Seattle's Future

Yesterday, Mayor Bruce Harrell addressed the people of Seattle and shared his vision for the future of our city. I've provided links below for you to read or watch his speech.

 

I have returned to City Hall at the Mayor's invitation to help him with strategic initiatives, and I'm delighted. It just feels good to be back and fully engaged working to advance Mayor Harrell's agenda.

 

As the Mayor highlighted in his remarks today, there is a lot to do, no shortage of challenges right out of the gate: homelessness, restoration of parks and public spaces, public safety, the longstanding inequities we see in education, economic opportunity, and criminal justice, to name just a few.

 

You can read the Mayor's address here or watch a video of his swearing-in and speech here. I believe you'll like what he has to say and the vision he casts for Seattle.

 

What Yesterday's Election Means for Seattle's Future

There are still votes to count but it is clear from last night's results that the pragmatic, rational progressive candidates came out on top. Finally!

 

Congratulations to Mayor-elect Bruce Harrell, Councilmember-elect Sara Nelson, and City Attorney-elect Ann Davison. Each of you campaigned hard, shared your vision for our city, and achieved stunning victories. Well done.

 

This is very good news for Seattle's future, something I wrote about last January 5 in my Seattle Forward column. I'm repeating it here because it's more important than ever as our newly elected officials take office and begin the process of governing.

 

Here's what I wrote last January. I'm very confident our new leaders can make this vision even better and work to achieve it.

 

Seattle needs a vision reset.

 

The mayor is not seeking re-election. The school superintendent has resigned. The police chief was pushed aside by the city council. The coronavirus pandemic has left us isolated. Downtown is desolate. Where and how we work is being transformed. Many essential workers are struggling mightily to keep up and pay the bills. Our infrastructure systems are inadequately maintained. First responders are overloaded and stretched thin. Campers have taken over many of our parks, green spaces, and sidewalks, preventing others from accessing them safely. Ideological and political divides are pushing us further and further into our dogmatic corners. Herein, opportunity presents itself. 

 

The urban theorist Richard Florida argues cities and surrounding regions will thrive as we move beyond the pandemic, just as they have following previous calamities: “Covid-19 is a once-in-a-century catastrophe, but it also hands us a once-in-a-century opportunity to rebuild communities to be more equitable and more inclusive, as well as more livable.”

 

America has lifted itself from calamity before and, unexpectedly, created a more equitable and inclusive society. Robert Putnam and Shaylyn Romney Garrett document these sweeping recoveries in their new book, The Upswing: How America Came Together a Century Ago and How We Can Do It Again. They propose a return to a “we” approach to public policy, business practices, and community affairs, a new communitarian mindset, if you will, instead of the intense “I” focus that permeates American society today.

 

Religious leaders are making the same plea. Pope Francis, in his latest book, Let Us Dream: The Path to a Better Future, encourages new approaches to bridge our divides, focused on making the world safer, fairer, and healthier for everyone. Rabbi Jonathan Sacks in Morality: Restoring the Common Good in Divided Times traces today’s crises to the loss of a strong, broadly shared moral code and the elevation of self-interest over the common good.

 

From Ideological Extremes to Common Purpose

 

So, while Seattle’s city government is adrift, consumed by the tyranny of the urgent and ideological extremes, and, in my opinion, lacking a broadly shared overall vision for where the city is headed, let’s grab this opportunity to cast a new vision of the city we want to build for an equitable and inclusive future for everyone.

 

I would guess most Seattleites desire an economically and culturally vibrant city built on a foundation of excellent schools, clean energy, efficient and diverse transportation options, affordable housing, and robust arts and sports entertainment. I also believe we sincerely want to tackle two of the most persistent challenges we face – racial inequity and how best to help those living unsheltered.

 

So, here’s some vision casting for your consideration; hopefully, it stimulates further discussion.

 

Confessing Original Sins

 

Let’s start by being a city that openly acknowledges our nation’s original sins of slavery and the vicious slaughter and horrible treatment of Native Americans, and the persistent racism these sins birthed — real estate redlining, mass incarceration of nonviolent offenders, police violence, banking discrimination, public education that leaves so many behind, to name just a few. These racist practices and policies became woven into the fabric of our daily lives, crushing in their consequences. If we committed to honestly wrestle with this history, we would be guided by the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s warning, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” We would give voice to those most affected by these wrongs, work to mend the damage, and make economic investments designed to build opportunity and wealth within the affected communities, a form of 21^st Century reparations if you will. We would be a city that reaches high toward racial equity and justice for all.

 

Focus on Children

 

How about a city that so loves, nourishes, and invests in all of our children that they soar and push the limits of their potential. If this were our vision, we would follow the science of early child development in the all-important birth-to-five window of opportunity, making sure every child gets the strong and fair start they deserve. We’d do that by making high-quality, affordable, and accessible childcare available to working parents, so no family pays more than 7% of their household income for the childcare they need. We would provide free, high-quality, universal preschool to our three- and four-year-olds so every child enters kindergarten ready to learn, erasing the kindergarten-readiness gap that today sees one-third of all Seattle children and one-half of children of color start school already behind. Tragically, kids who start behind often stay behind, which is why it is so crucial to invest early in what works best to prepare kids for kindergarten.

 

And, we would erase the racial inequity that has existed in our public K-12 schools for far too long, a dysfunctional system that every year leaves behind about a quarter of our children of color when they fail to graduate from high school. Done right, these efforts would buttress the work of parents and — as the evidence clearly shows — would achieve measurable and wonderful outcomes for our kids: higher education achievement, fewer teen pregnancies, less involvement in the criminal legal system, better health, and higher earning power as adults. These steps alone would transform lives and be a major step toward racial equity and lasting economic prosperity.

 

Shared Prosperity

 

How about a city that continues to pursue public policies designed to strengthen economic opportunity, like we did with the higher minimum wage and paid sick-and-safe leave, while also, and importantly, honoring our small and large businesses and applauding their job creation. A city that nourishes a win-win compact between employers and employees — businesses thrive and acknowledge their employees as their most valued asset and treat them as such with excellent wages, strong benefits, and long-term retention and development plans. Too idealistic? Take a look at those local companies that have already created exemplary win-win work environments — Costco, Dick’s Drive-In Restaurants, Expedia, Nordstrom, Zillow, Alaska Air, Redfin, PCC Community Markets, to name just a few.

 

Justice for All

 

How about a city that has a criminal legal system that values the dignity and worth of every person, those engaged in criminal behavior and their victims. If this were our vision, we would be a city where our police officers worked diligently as true partners with the natural guardians who live, work, study, and play in our neighborhoods. This would be a city where law enforcement focused primarily on those offenders causing the most harm, especially crimes of violence and crimes directed against our most vulnerable residents — children, the elderly and disabled, immigrants, those experiencing homeless, and those living in poverty. A city where everyone respected and valued our police officers because of their exemplary behavior of dignity and fairness toward everyone. A city where we first and foremost sought reconciliation and restorative justice, but also held offenders accountable to protect the health and safety of all.

 

How about a city that recognized the oppressive harms of untreated substance abuse disorder and mental health crises and offered truly on-demand, medically-based treatment services instead of leaving people to fend for themselves wandering our streets, living unsheltered, some preying on others, and causing further harms. This would be a city that stopped waiting, hoping some other level of government would step in with a solution. We would step up and act to solve this very obvious problem by providing the evidence-based help needed, starting with safe off-the-street housing, like tiny houses, rented hotel rooms, and more enhanced, 24-hour shelter. At the same time, and very importantly, we would stop ignoring, excusing, or allowing ourselves to be paralyzed by the harmful criminal acts some of these same individuals commit, a tolerance that has created chaos in parts of the city and caused many to lose confidence in the city government’s ability to keep our neighborhoods safe.

 

Paying Attention to Basics

 

How about a city that carefully tended its environment and infrastructure — increasing our tree canopy, preserving open space and parks for all to enjoy, maintaining in good order our bridges, roadways, bike, and pedestrian pathways, community centers and sports fields, sewer and storm systems, electrical grid, and our Tolt and Cedar clean watersheds. A city with a maintenance and repair plan rigorously followed and funded, a far less expensive approach in the long run than emergency repairs.

 

Moving Taxation into the 21^st Century

 

Thinking even more boldly, how about a city that champions across the state a fair and equitable tax system to modernize Washington’s unjust, inadequate, and antiquated system that extracts a higher percentage of household income from our poorest families than it does from our wealthiest. As our local economist and nationally-recognized state tax expert Dick Conway has said, “If you want to address income inequity, adopt a state income tax and eliminate all other state and local taxes.” A tax system created in the early 1900s can’t adequately, nor equitably, serve our needs today. We would be a city known for advocating tax modernization based on fairness and sensitivity to our current economic systems and practices.

 

Lifting Up the Common Good

 

How about a city that unites around the common good, works to understand different opinions, and practices the politics of inclusion and compromise without the divisive rancor and personal attacks so common today. A city that restores the “we” spirit Putnam and Garrett describe, and that Pope Francis and Rabbi Sacks have prayed for. A city where people come together to achieve shared goals, just like we’ve done in the past with the cleanup of Lake Washington in the late 1950s which stopped the discharge of 20 million gallons of raw sewage into the lake every day, the adoption of Forward Thrust in 1968 that created community centers, fire stations, swimming pools and expanded parks across the city, the Sound Transit light rail system being built now, voter approval in 2018 of the Seattle Promise free community college benefit, and the remodeling of our libraries and fire stations in recent years.

 

How about a city with elected officials who cared more about the effective and efficient delivery of city services — about governing — than about advancing their own political careers or scoring points with the radical fringes of our political landscape. A city where people viewed city government as consistently and effectively getting good things done for everyone. A city where we valued the common good above all else. Imagine what we could do and what it would mean.

 

Just imagine. A child born in Seattle immediately cared for not just by her parents, family, and neighbors, but by an economy that gives her parents time off to nurture her and quality childcare and prekindergarten services that foster her development and allows her parents to continue working. As she grows, she attends an excellent public school that works equally well for everyone, regardless of the color of their skin. She enjoys parks and playgrounds as a healthy way to meet friends and stay active. She witnesses the most vulnerable among us protected and cared for. She knows the police officers and firefighters in her neighborhood, and they know her and understand her family and their community values. As she enters the workforce as an adult, she finds many well-paying jobs to choose from at iconic Seattle businesses. Is that too hard to imagine?  I don’t believe so.

 

Yes, sometimes Seattle’s government and political environment can feel like it’s locked in a hamster wheel, constantly moving, yet not progressing. We — you and I — can change that with a compelling vision for the future, a future based on shared values, and an unwavering commitment to the evidence of what works to strengthen the common good.

 

This is my vision for Seattle. What’s yours?

Seattle Mayor: An Incredibly Clear Choice

Voters will soon choose a new mayor to lead our city. The choice could not be more clear-cut.

 

One option is the current City Council president, M. Lorena Gonzalez, who grew up in eastern Washington, is a lawyer, and was first elected to the Council in 2015. Lorena's legal career focused on representing workers and victims of discrimination and police brutality.

 

The other option is Bruce Harrell, an attorney who has represented nonprofit organizations, telecommunications companies, and people who have experienced blatant discrimination. Bruce spent twelve years on the City Council before retiring in 2019.

 

Both candidates are intelligent, committed to public service, and care deeply about our city and its people. Both are political progressives who want to create more opportunities, especially for those on the margins. Both want a city where everyone prospers.

 

However, their visions for Seattle's future are incredibly different, most significantly regarding homelessness, policing, and their perspective of our job-creating businesses.

 

Gonzalez envisions a city with a dramatically reduced police force that pursues only the most serious crimes, leaving many misdemeanors, including property crime, unchecked. She has no real plan to bring those living unsheltered inside or stem the proliferation of tent encampments in our parks and on our sidewalks and says if elected she will continue the current approaches of the City Council. She's actively hostile to the downtown businesses that pay the bulk of taxes that fund city services. She promises to abolish all single-family neighborhoods, an astonishingly blunt action that will only create years of legal and political squabbling.

 

Sound incredible? Consider the evidence.

 

As president of the City Council, last year Gonzalez recklessly pledged to slash the police budget by 50%, even though that would necessarily lead to the loss of hundreds of dedicated police officers who ensure neighborhood safety, favoring instead shifting money to undefined, untested, and nonexistent alternatives to police protection. She allowed the debate over policing to become so antagonistic, so disrespectful of the women and men who serve our city, that the police chief — the first Black woman to lead our officers — resigned in protest.

 

Over the past 18 months, nearly 300 officers have left the department, many in total dismay and disgust over the City Council's approach to policing. This reduction in our police service is staggering and unprecedented; it represents about 22% of the total number of officers. These departures led the current police chief to recently inform the Council that he cannot deploy enough officers for each shift, leading to dramatically slower response times to 911 emergency calls.

 

Last summer, Gonzalez was a lead sponsor of a measure to defund the police recruitment and retention office that could have possibly staunched the flood of resignations; the Mayor rejected it, but a Council majority led by Gonzalez overrode the Mayor's veto. Two months ago, Gonzalez reinforced her "defund the police" advocacy when she answered a direct question on whether she would cut the police budget by "50% or more," she answered "maybe." Just last week, James Robart, the federal judge overseeing reform of our police department, said, "I have seen too much knee-jerk reaction and not enough forethought . . . there is an essential requirement for public safety." No kidding.

 

The Gonzalez approach to policing creates unnecessary risk at a time when violent crime has surged to the highest it's been in the past ten years, a documented increase comparing the January-July period each year between 2012 and 2021. 

 

On the other hand, Bruce Harrell seeks reform without risking public safety or demonizing the many officers who serve our city with professionalism and integrity, treating all people with dignity. Harrell understands safe neighborhoods are essential for shared prosperity. He appreciates the vital work of our police officers and isn't afraid to say so. He will rebuild our police service so that we all can have trust and confidence in our officers.

 

Harrell's record demonstrates that he has been a leader for effective reform. Seattle police officers wear body cameras today because of his insistence. He wrote and won passage of the first-ever anti-bias policing ordinance. He helped to repeal a reform-blocking, innovation-impairing 1970s law that prohibited hiring police commanders from outside our police department, arguing successfully that the police chief should be able to hire the best candidate wherever they come from.

 

The choice is glaring when it comes to homelessness as well.

 

Despite the homelessness crisis we can all see across our city, Gonzalez was the only City Council member to vote against the formation of the new Regional Homelessness Authority designed to chart a new, more strategic, and more outcome-focused approach. She voted to eliminate the extraordinary social workers and specially trained police officers who visited tent encampments to encourage people to accept emergency housing and services. And, Gonzalez opposes Compassion Seattle's Charter Amendment 29, a measure on the November ballot written by a group of homeless service providers, neighborhood and business leaders that will compel the city government to take a fresh approach based on the successes achieved in other cities.

 

In July, less than a month before the primary election, The Seattle Times wrote a story detailing the mayoral candidates' positions on homelessness. In that story, the paper reported, astonishingly, that Gonzalez did not seem to be prioritizing the issue and did not see any need for a change of direction on homelessness policy. “González has relied on her record [on homelessness] rather than promising a change in direction,” the Times wrote. “Her website didn’t mention the word ‘homelessness’ until Thursday, after The Seattle Times asked for more specifics about her plans.” 

 

On the other hand, Harrell supports the formation of the Regional Homelessness Authority and sees it as an opportunity to reset our approach and address the crisis as a truly regional problem. He supports Charter Amendment 29 because it will create an action plan to expand behavioral health services — mental health and substance use disorder treatment — and create 2,000 new emergency housing units within twelve months so those living outside can be brought inside. Harrell believes we can do better on homelessness and is not satisfied with the status quo.

 

As for the business community, as president of the City Council, Gonzalez routinely denigrates our city's business leaders — the very people who create jobs and ensure our prosperity. During this campaign, she even refused to complete the Downtown Seattle Association’s standard candidate questionnaire to which all the other leading candidates responded. You'd think the City Council president would want to attract new businesses and nurture the ones we have.

 

On the other hand, Harrell understands the value of companies of all sizes to the people of Seattle. These businesses are our job creators, and they make downtown and our neighborhood business areas vibrant, attractive places to work, live, and play. Through the business tax, the property tax, and the sales tax, these enterprises pay over half of the city's total tax revenues, which are used to fund essential city services. And unlike Lorena, Bruce fundamentally believes that the mayor of Seattle should be willing to talk to every major constituency, including those he may disagree with, in the effort to find common ground and shared purpose.

 

As for housing, on primary election night, Gonzalez said she would abolish all single-family zoning in Seattle. Consider the implications if you live in Beacon Hill, Rainier Valley, West Seattle, Lake City, Greenwood, Ballard, Wallingford, or Fremont. Gonzalez would rezone all these neighborhoods — and many more — to allow large multi-family apartment buildings, triplexes, duplexes, and condominiums. Her primary election night statement was consistent with the answer she gave The Seattle Times in late June; when asked if she would eliminate all single-family zoning, she answered "yes."

 

Harrell understands the significance and complexity of Seattle's housing supply shortage yet doesn't believe the answer is to completely wipe out single-family neighborhoods. He favors increased density where it makes sense, for example, along major transit corridors and arterials, including those in single-family zones.

 

As for leadership style, Gonzalez has allowed the politics of exclusion to dominate, the "us versus them" approach of confrontation and denigration of opponents. It's an approach largely responsible for the City Council's paralysis and dysfunctionality on so many issues and the public's appallingly poor perception of the Council. 

 

On the other hand, Harrell favors the politics of inclusion, compromise, and getting things done. He values inviting everyone to the civic table for honest, rational discussion and effective governance. He believes in seeking counsel from subject-matter experts, studying best practices, investing in initiatives that create real solutions, spending taxpayer dollars carefully, and avoiding loud rhetoric, division, and continual one-upmanship.

 

Bruce Harrell is the Mayor Seattle needs.

 

If you agree, here are two things you can do right now.

 

First, you can support Harrell with your endorsement and your financial contribution. You can do that at the Harrell for Mayor website. Contributions are limited to $550 per person.

 

Second, look at the independent expenditure political action committee Bruce Harrell for Seattle's Future, a diverse group of individual Seattleites who have come together to help elect Harrell. This committee is separate from Bruce's campaign but shares the goal of electing him as our next Mayor.

 

I urge you to join me in supporting Bruce Harrell for Seattle's Future. If able, please support this effort financially. There is no limit on the amount you can contribute; donations have ranged from $25 to $25,000. (Corporate contributions are not accepted.)

 

Your financial support will be used to communicate with Seattle voters exactly why Bruce Harrell is our best choice for Mayor.

Seattle Needs A Vision Reset . . . Quickly

Seattle needs a vision reset.

The mayor is not seeking re-election. The school superintendent has resigned. The police chief was pushed aside by the city council. The coronavirus pandemic has left us isolated. Downtown is desolate. Where and how we work is being transformed. Many essential workers are struggling mightily to keep up and pay the bills. Our infrastructure systems are inadequately maintained. First responders are overloaded and stretched thin. Campers have taken over many of our parks, greenspaces and sidewalks, preventing others from accessing them safely. Ideological and political divides are pushing us further and further into our dogmatic corners. Herein, opportunity presents itself.  

The urban theorist Richard Florida argues cities and surrounding regions will thrive as we move beyond the pandemic, just as they have following previous calamities: “Covid-19 is a once-in-a-century catastrophe, but it also hands us a once-in-a-century opportunity to rebuild communities to be

Downtown Seattle is Booming, but . . .

Seattle’s downtown is booming.

There are now 328,000 jobs located downtown, a 52% increase since 2010. Nearly 90,000 people now live downtown, including almost 5,000 children. In the decade ending in 2019, 286 new buildings were constructed, 4,050 new hotel rooms were added, 17.5 million new square feet of office space was built, and 27,209 new residential units opened for occupancy.

Since 2010, the number of restaurant jobs downtown increased by 47% and restaurant sales nearly doubled. Each year, 15 million people visit the Pike Place Market; four million enter museums; three million attend sporting events.

These statistics are included in the Downtown Seattle Association’s annual State of Downtown Economic Report presented last week to a cheering crowd of city leaders.

Clearly, downtown Seattle is thriving and driving the overall vitality of the city. And citywide there is reason to cheer, too. Just think about what we have going for us—the nation’s cleanest water, a carbon free electric grid that produces some of the lowest cost electricity in the country, the largest public transportation expansion underway anywhere in the nation, a quilt of wonderful neighborhoods, and a physical environment that offers sea and fresh water on our doorstep and mountain vistas less than an hour away.

All good news, for sure.

Now, here’s the bad news.

Many Seattleites are being left behind and may never participate in a meaningful way in our booming economy. There are many reasons for this stark reality, including families trying to raise young children and having to pay exorbitant childcare costs on top of steep housing prices. One of the most significant contributors, however, is our failure for decades to provide all of our children with the strong and fair start they need and certainly deserve in the first five years of life. This failure perhaps more than anything else has blocked their ability to thrive and achieve their full potential.

Consider this fact. At the beginning of each new school year, kindergarten teachers assess the readiness of their students to learn. It’s called the Washington Kindergarten Inventory of Developing Skills (WaKIDS); it measures a child’s age specific social-emotional, physical, language, cognitive, literacy, and math capabilities. This assessment is key to understanding where kids are in their development and helps guide teachers in their work with individual students.

Tragically, In Seattle, the WaKIDS assessment shows that one third of our children enter kindergarten without the skills and abilities they should have; they are already behind.  And it’s worse for children of color, one half of whom are behind just as they are starting their K-12 journey. Children who start behind, often remain behind.

The inequity in access to high-quality early learning opportunities experienced by so many of our neighbors has been building for decades.  For many working parents, high-quality early learning options are simply not accessible, and even for those who are doing well, the costs are significant, often prohibitive.  While the rest of us enjoy the economic good times, we are ignoring an injustice that shatters a child’s confidence which predictably for some leads to huge negative consequences—dropping out of school, criminal behavior, inability to find meaningful employment, social disconnection—consequences which ultimately affect us all.

We can change this by making sure every child regardless of their neighborhood, the color of their skin, or their family’s economic status has a strong and fair start.

Nearly 50 years of academic research shows that kids who have a high-quality early learning experience in the first five years of life will achieve higher educational attainment, have better health, higher earning power as adults, and less involvement in the criminal justice system. The most recent studies also show that these kids can successfully break the bonds of intergenerational poverty.

A child’s brain is ninety percent formed by the time they reach five. Important social skills—playing well with others, following directions, verbally processing feelings—and cognitive abilities stimulated by exposure to a broad vocabulary and group project play increase dramatically in these early years. These crucial skills are much harder to acquire later without this early foundation.

And yet, not all children in Seattle, or across our state for that matter, are receiving the opportunity for a strong start. Our systems of childcare and preschool are fragmented, too expensive for many working parents, and not designed to achieve the best outcomes. As a result, as the evidence shows, many of our children fall behind before they even get started.

We can fix this decades-long failure if we apply the science of early learning. The return on investing in high quality early learning programs is strong, certainly worth every dollar. It’s the best investment we could possibly make for our children’s sake, and for the rest of us, too.

So, let’s create a universal yet voluntary early learning system that spans the all-important prenatal to kindergarten years with high-quality child care services for infants and toddlers, high-quality preschool for our three- and four-year old kids, and tailored supports for families facing challenges.

We need a high-quality child care system that helps working families afford care if they earn 85 percent or less of the statewide median household income (about $63,000), so they don’t pay more than seven percent of their income for childcare. Families making more should pay on a sliding scale tied to their income. And, as other cities and states do, we need free, high-quality universal preschool for our three- and four-year olds so they are ready for kindergarten. This will bring our communities together, level the playing field for all of our children, allow parents to work and pursue additional education, further strengthening our workforce today as well as the pipeline of talent for tomorrow.

Successfully implementing an effective early learning system is the most effective strategy we can employ to erase the inequity so many are still experiencing despite these economic boom times. 

Two Cities, Two Children, Two Very Different Paths

The following article was sent out in my City View Newsletter, which you can sign up to receive here.

Ella is three months old, a firstborn child. She lives with her family in Seattle zip code 98118 in the Rainier Beach neighborhood in the city’s far southeast corner. Her mom and dad both work two jobs to make ends meet but still fight to rise above the poverty line. As new parents, they struggle with the challenges, wonder where they will find affordable, high-quality childcare to match their different shifts. Ella faces a mountain of obstacles as she begins her life.

Olivia is also three months old, also the firstborn in her little family. She lives in Seattle zip code 98117 in the Ballard neighborhood at the opposite northwest corner of the city. Olivia’s parents each have high paying jobs with flexible hours, leaving her at a private childcare center on her mom’s route to work. Olivia receives more support than she knows; she’s lucky to be living in Ballard.

Ella’s and Olivia’s zip codes are different by just one digit; their likely life trajectories are worlds apart.

Sadly, and to our long-term detriment, not every child born in Seattle receives the same opportunity for a strong

Youth Voice, Youth Choice Vote Week Starts Tomorrow

Last year the City launched a youth-focused participatory budgeting process, where Seattle youth will get to choose exactly how to spend $700,000 of City money. Youth delegates helped select 19 thoughtful proposals to be on the ballot, including funding for safe routes to schools, murals, job readiness workshops, or a youth-produced podcast on violence prevention.

Starting tomorrow, youth from the ages of 11 to 25 are able to vote for their favorite seven projects. Voting can be done in person at select locations or online. If you know a young person, encourage them to vote!

More details and a link to ballots are available here.

Full Council To Vote on Housing Levy Today

This afternoon the Full Council will vote on an ordinance that would send a $290 million Housing Levy to voters for consideration on the August 2, 2016 Primary Election ballot. If approved, the seven-year Housing Levy will serve as the largest investment in affordable housing the City has ever made. The Housing Levy proposal focuses on increasing affordable housing production and preservation, supporting homelessness prevention, and fostering home ownership for low-income residents. 

Since 1981, Seattle has chosen to generously invest in affordable housing for our neighbors, with a particular emphasis on those most in need. This year, the Council and Mayor have thoroughly analyzed and crafted a package that will provide affordable housing for thousands of Seattle residents.

After receiving the Mayor’s draft proposal in March, Council made several amendments that would:

• Allow levy funds to provide a grant or low interest loan to an owner of existing multifamily housing to make building improvements in exchange for putting rent restrictions on a certain percentage of units in the building;
• Allow for up to $30 million of levy funds to be used as short-term loans for acquisition and preservation of existing affordable housing; and
• Dedicate an additional $1.75 million toward homelessness prevention and housing stability services using interest earnings generated from levy proceeds. 

The Council’s amendments work within the existing funds of the $290 million proposed levy submitted to the Council by the Mayor.

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.

Apply for Affordable Housing Community Focus Groups

There are 10 days left to apply to be on the Community Focus Groups that will help guide the citywide conversation around the Housing Affordability and Livability Agenda (HALA).

Applications are available here. This link also includes some FAQ, which I’ve pasted below. The application deadline is Friday, February 26 at 8 pm.

If this sort of thing isn't for you, the focus groups are not the only way to provide input on how HALA proposals best fit into neighborhoods. Throughout 2016 and 2017, the City will host neighborhood meetings, open houses, telephone town halls, and other engagement opportunities for community feedback (click here for a timeline of engagement activities).

What is the purpose of the HALA Community Focus Groups?