Seattle Forward

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

Curbing Prescription Drug Abuse: A Practical Step

Yesterday the Council’s public safety committee approved a resolution supporting a new prescription drug take-back program in King County. The County is currently recruiting pharmacies willing to host drug take-back drop boxes. Pharmaceutical companies provide funding for the program; pharmacies won’t have to pay at all.

I cosponsored this resolution with Councilmember González to draw attention to a practical step we can take to curb prescription drug abuse.

News reports have focused recently on the epidemic of opioid abuse. We have seen local usage of narcotics such as heroin rise dramatically, resulting in a spike of deaths related to drug overdoses. And we know that these two are linked: prescription drug abuse leads to heroin addiction.

We also know that youth and young adults are most likely to experiment with opioid pain relievers using pills that came from a friend or family member’s prescription. Putting the pieces together, we can reduce abuse by reducing the availability of excess prescription pain medication in people’s homes.

For years pharmacies have collected unused over-the-counter medicines. Only recently, however, has the legal landscape changed to allow pharmacies to collect unused controlled substances like OxyContin, Vicodin, Valium, and Ritalin.

Encourage your local pharmacy to participate in this new program. They can sign up by contacting Taylor Watson, the program manager at King County ([email protected]).

This resolution will be considered by the Full Council on Monday, April 4.

Seattle’s Clean Water Supply

I’ve been reading about the city of Flint, Michigan, where local, state, and federal government agencies utterly failed to protect its population from lead in its water supply. When that city switched its water supply to the Flint River, it did not add to the water anti-corrosive chemicals that prevent lead in pipes from seeping into the water. As a result, the residents have been poisoned by their own water for nearly two years. It’s a horrible story.

Lead poisoning is not to be taken lightly. The Centers for Disease Control states that there is no safe blood lead level in children; the damage to development can be permanent.

Flint’s story led me to ask Seattle Public Utilities about our drinking water here in Seattle. Fortunately, we have a much better system in place to protect our water supply: We have protected watersheds that supply excellent source water. We have a state accredited lab that runs every day of the year, where chemists, microbiologists and limnologists (what is limnology?) analyze more than 20,000 samples and produce more than 150,000 test results annually. We have more than 150 sampling stations throughout Seattle and the Utility’s wholesale systems. We monitor for lead continuously and don’t have it in our source water.

The Utility’s latest water quality report is here. We are indeed blessed with an abundant and very clean city water supply.

But, individual users still could have water quality issues if the pipes between the city supply pipes and your faucet are bad. Older homes may also contain lead contamination from lead paint. If you are planning a remodel or a demolition of an older home, make sure you take steps to mitigate for lead exposure.

Final Decisions on 2016 Budget

The Full Council voted to adopt the City’s 2016 budget today, incorporating changes Councilmembers have made from the Mayor’s proposal over the last two months.

The Mayor’s proposed budget provided us with a good start, including funding for a hospital-based gun violence intervention program at Harborview Medical Center.

I’m happy to report that all of the items I pushed for were adopted into the Council’s final package. These included funding to study an educational center for immigrants and refugees with foreign professional degrees, increasing dedicated funding for arts programs, support for small manufacturers, advancing a study to incentivize shared parking facilities in private buildings, expanding funds for the reentry and job assistance program Career Bridge, and language to direct City staff to work with Seattle Public Schools on student population growth planning.

I also have been working closely with community leaders and Councilmember Harrell to provide City support for a new “Opportunity Center” in southeast Seattle. This budget will provide nearly $2 million in seed funding for this project, which is expected to include job training, affordable housing, meeting space, or other amenities a community-led process will help determine.

Round 1 Budget Proposals

Budget deliberations have kicked into high gear here at City Hall. The first deadline for proposals to secure a baseline support of three councilmembers comes this Wednesday. After a couple more rounds of discussion over the next three weeks, the proposals that receive majority support will be put together in a balanced budget package.

Earlier I wrote about what I liked in the Mayor’s budget. Here are some additional proposals I’m excited to advance for further consideration by the Council:

Letters from Second Grade

This week I visited a 2^nd grade classroom in my neighborhood to talk to them about life in the city. They each wrote letters to me expressing their concerns. Here are a few of them:

Dear Councilman Burgess, I am concerned about car break-ins. One day my family went out for dinner. When we came back, there was a big hole in the car window. My dad was upset that he lost his work backpack. I was so scared.

Dear Councilmen Burgess, Hi! I am 7 years old. And I am concerned about drugs. This year I have been seeing a lot of drugs. I HATE DRUGS! And I also am concerned about cars and speeding. We almost got in an accident a couple of days ago. Also, I hate trash. It can make animals sick. I am worried about animals especially the ones in the water. Can the city help?

The Rapid Evolution of Transportation

New technologies are revolutionizing transportation in Seattle and elsewhere. It is becoming easier and easier to live, work, shop, learn and play in the city without owning a car, a change that makes Seattle more affordable as car ownership carries many obvious (and not-so-obvious) costs. Nearly 17% of Seattle households do not own a vehicle, according to a recent study. Seattle ranks 10^th in the nation in the percentage of non-vehicle households.

Of course, a critical piece of this dramatic change is ensuring a functional and flourishing public transit system. On Thursday, councilmembers will review funding proposals to lessen cuts to Metro bus service throughout the city next year.

This past Monday afternoon, the Council voted 8-1 to advance the transportation evolution by approving a 117-page bill that contains many solid improvements for the City’s regulation of the “for hire” industry, including companies like Uber, Lyft and Sidecar.

Final Vote on Taxis, TNCs

Today the Full Council voted to pass a bill that places new regulations on emerging app-based transportation network companies (TNCs) like UberX, Lyft and Sidecar. The legislation places important and necessary safety regulations around these new services, including insurance requirements equivalent to those in the taxi industry. The Council was unified on this issue: safety and consumer protection must come first.

The legislation also places a cap of 150 on the number of vehicles that can be logged into a TNC app at any one time. I do not favor a cap. I voted for an amendment to remove the cap three weeks ago and again this afternoon, but that amendment failed 3 to 6. We will be monitoring the impact of the cap – and the broader changes in the industry – closely over the coming year.

The legislation also calls for 200 new taxi licenses to be issued over the next two years and allows flat-rate for-hire vehicles to pick up passengers who flag them down.

You can read more of my thoughts on this issue or my description of the committee vote in earlier blog posts.

Vote on Taxis, Caps for App-Based Transportation Network Companies

Update: the Full Council vote has been rescheduled for Monday, March 17.

This evening the City Council voted in committee to expand the number of licensed drivers who can drive for app-based transportation network companies (TNCs) like UberX and Lyft. The latest version of the legislation had capped the total number of TNC driver endorsements at 300, but the committee changed the limitation to 150 drivers active on a single TNC system at any one time. This approach allows for unlimited TNC driver endorsements to be issued, but limits the number of vehicles on the road for a TNC.

Two weeks ago I wrote to explain why I do not favor a cap. I voted for no caps today; when that measure failed to garner a majority of votes I supported this compromise proposal.

This debate has layered complex policy choices with the recognition that the City’s regulatory function will directly affect people’s livelihoods. I know none of my colleagues made this decision lightly and we will monitor its impacts closely.

Thoughts on Taxis, Flat-Rate For-Hires and App-Based Car Services

The intensity of the debate about regulations for taxis, flat-rate for-hire vehicles and app-based services like UberX and Lyft has been rivalled only by its complexity. With a meeting this morning on this issue, and a final vote coming soon, I wanted to share my position in more detail.

Let’s start with the basic question that many have asked: why regulate this industry at all? Why not just let the free market take control?