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Category: Seattle

  • Voting in my hometown

    Seattle's voters took a bold step in 2013 when they decided to begin electing seven of nine members of the city council by district rather than at-large across the entire city. The change meant that challengers with ideas and energy could win by connecting with voters rather than simply collecting enough donations to finance name recognition across a jurisdiction of 650,000 people.

    Leading up to the November 2015 election, three incumbent council members have been defeated or chose to retire rather than face the new district-based challenge. I'm hopeful that regular folks get a stronger voice and it's easier for fresh perspective to make it to city hall.

    Three issues are key now:

    Urbanism and transit. Smarter, more dense building and higher quality transit would help make Seattle a more dynamic city, make it a more affordable place to live and lessen the contribution to climate change. Unfortunately most of the political power in Seattle has backed the single-worst transportation project in memory: the downtown tunnel. Instead of replacing the existing viaduct with dramatically improved transit and making the street grid work better, it would bypass downtown with a tunnel freeway. Today the 60-year-old viaduct remains a serious risk in an earthquake and a huge opportunity has been wasted. Politicians who supported this project despite clear alternatives should be held responsible. 

    Homelessness. Part of building a more vibrant, urban city is taking care of each other. It's simply immoral that thousands of residents in a place as rich as Seattle lack shelter each night. The best way to end homelessness is to provide people with a home through temporary housing and long-term programs. It's dishonest for politicians to say they support more housing and then oppose land-use changes that would create more supply.

    Character. My views on this issue were reinforced by my experience running for Seattle City Council under the old city-wide system in 2011. It matters if candidates stand up for their beliefs and stay intellectually consistent as they absorb new facts. Politics is a way to make positive change in the world; it shouldn't be a game. I support candidates who stand for something. 

    Though I moved away from Seattle a couple years ago when I joined the U.S. Foreign Service, I still own a house in Columbia City and it's still home. Here's how I'm voting:

     

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  • New talent coming (finally!) to City Hall

    Longtime Seattle politicians are deciding to retire rather than face reelection under a new district-election system that requires them to talk to voters instead of just raise money.

    This is great news. City hall will get new talent and may ultimately be more responsive. There’s at least a chance for smarter transit and other policy that reflects the more urban city Seattle is becoming.

    I’m excited about the news elsewhere this week, too. In New York the longtime assembly speaker Shelly Silver is finally on his way out after being charged with $4 million in shakedowns – an open secret that everyone in local politics there long suspected but wouldn’t mention. In my current home, Mexico City, local elections got underway, less than 20 years after residents were first given power to directly pick their mayor. The energy at the local level seems in contrast to frustration with state and federal corruption and crime.

    Simpsons_mobSeattle thinks it’s more innovative than either of those places. But in fact its council mostly represents people who benefit from the status quo. There’s been only one upset in recent years. Most of the time incumbents raise so much money that they scare away most challengers.

    The new system leaves two of nine council seats electable citywide, a constituency of 640,000 people – the size of a congressional race – that costs serious money to reach. As a result they’re in hoc to the several hundred mostly conservative donors who can write the maximum $700 check for their campaigns. These donors were largely behind the disastrous downtown tunnel project since many of them stood to gain.

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  • 3 easy votes to break from status-quo politics

    I moved away from Seattle last month to join the U.S. Foreign Service but my hometown is still home. For everyone who has asked how I'm voting, here are a few thoughts.

    Voters in Guinea's first democratic election; from cnn.comFrom my temporary perch in Washington, D.C. — on my way to a tour in Mexico City — the potential of Seattle is more clear than ever. It's also obvious that Seattle desperately needs a break from its status-quo politics. The ongoing generational shift is bringing new ideas for business and culture to the growing city, yet political power has barely shifted. Life in Seattle may be too good to encourage radical change so here are three easy votes that could help improve the direction of the city:

    McGinn for Mayor. Mayor Mike McGinn is generally right on policy: creating more livable neighborhoods, improving transit, promoting high-speed internet and taking care of the homeless. I'm impressed with his authentic outreach to communities throughout the city and attention to neighborhoods where residents don't write checks to campaigns or have the luxury of attending many town meetings. He has strong principles and stands for his convictions, plus he has steadily improved as a manager. His accomplishments so far have required overcoming active opposition since day one from the Seattle Times, the downtown business community and the city council, where several members actively sought to block him because they wanted his job. This is also a vote against state Sen. Ed Murray, who has run a vacuous campaign filled with half-truths and who has patched together a coalition by not actually standing for anything.

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  • Former Gov. Booth Gardner, R.I.P.

    I didn't make it to the funeral for former Gov. Booth Gardner this weekend but still I'm in awe of the man and the dedication to public service that he inspired. My smirk in this old photo belies deep respect.With booth gardner

    In the mid-80s I was a working-class kid from suburban Seattle who was over the moon to intern at the state capitol in Olympia. Though I was literally the least important of his constituents, Gov. Gardner took time to chit-chat and pose for an official photo. (Too bad I couldn't be bothered even to take off my trench coat, straight from the Burien Lamont's!).

    Gov. Gardner was a class act whose two terms made the state a fairer, more sustainable place. He also helped inspire me to get involved in public policy — there's a squiggly line from attending dry hearings of the Puget Sound Water Quality Authority as a middle school student to running for public office 20 years later. I felt his influence again a few years ago when I was organizing an event on the "death with dignity" initiative for a community group and gave him a call. Though he wasn't well enough to make it, he still found energy to share his views.

    No doubt many thousands of people were touched far more than me, which is exactly the point: our state and country need more like him. May he rest in peace.

  • Somber reminder during a wet holiday season

    I recently attended a fundraiser for a cause that almost everyone ignores: homelessness.

    That's where Operation Nightwatch comes in. The group provides basic services and housing for people who don't have shelter — more than 2,500 people on an average night in Seattle.

    Read that again: that's TWO-THOUSAND FIVE-HUNDRED people. The equivalent of six fully loaded 747s without shelter.

    Homeless_Seattle9The group's annual luncheon was held in Seattle's ornate Union Station and drew some 450 people, which qualified it as a garden-variety luncheon downtown. Homemade sandwiches, cookies and Tim's chips passed around each table were a distinctive touch.

    But the real impact was in the simple message that we must take care of each other.

    That's a stretch in our new Gilded Age, where everyone aspires to great wealth even if their chances of achieving it are diminishing. More than 11% of Americans live in poverty, according to the OECD, though you'd never know it from the topics discussed during the recent election season.

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  • No way to run a school system

    Now that two of three candidates to lead Seattle's public schools have dropped out of contention, the appointment of a new superintendant is a mere formality

    parent meeting at school, courtesy of westseattleblog.comAs with Seattle's national search for a police chief two years ago, when our interim chief was the last man standing, this was really no choice.

    Obviously any process that can't encourage top talent to Seattle highlights problems, but the important thing is moving forward. The new superintendant has a huge job and will need to put a premium on communications in order to succeed.

    As the parent of a toddler in neighborhood that's often called "transitional," it's clear that nothing is more important to the future of the city than quality schools. I know parents who are moving away (or plan to) because of the perception that local schools fall short. Some say they can deal with elementary school but no way will they send their kids to city middle or high schools. Others come to the Seattle area for work and immediately settle in the suburbs. We need these people and the economic base they form to make the city stronger.

    Assuming the new super is on top of the management basics, strong communications will make or break the job. Here are a few ideas:

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  • Seattle’s police crisis: Thanks for the feds

    With Seattle's police under federal scrutiny for using excessive force you would think everyone's top priority would be solving the problem.

    Abbott & Costello, courtesy of billy-ball.comYou would be wrong, apparently.

    It's a struggle to find something positive to say about Seattle's response to the police crisis. There's fault among the city council, the mayor, the media and unelected community leaders. It's an example of playing politics while fundamental problems fester.

    The city council. Sally Clark, Tim Burgess and Bruce Harrell (who I challenged last year) publicly sent a letter to the mayor complaining that they've been left out of the city's response to the Justice Department. All three have talked about running for mayor next year. Burgess, a former cop who oversaw the police department while the acts of excessive force occurred, only outlined a package of reform ideas on the day he rotated out of that post in January. And Harrell, who replaced Burgess as head of the public safety committee, criticized the mayor's "top-down approach" after working with the council failed to get anywhere. During the campaign his main proposal was to put a body camera on each cop and he used frustration with police as a racial wedge. Harrell reportedly didn't attend the meeting with the DOJ, mayor and other councilmembers yesterday.

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  • What it takes to transform a city

    It's exciting to see construction cranes popping up across Seattle's skyline. But it will take more than a handful of building projects to transform the city and make it sustainable.

    Seattle tower cranes, courtesy of craneblogger.comProjects such as housing in the parking lot of Seahawks/Sounders stadium and a new ferry terminal may make Seattle a "resilient city equipped to thrive in a challenging future," according to a local blog that I follow. Unfortunately most of the projects are on extremely long timelines and there's little political will to complete them to their potential.

    I'm optimistic about Seattle because the city is growing and attracting new human and economic capital. But we need to think bigger and act with a sense of urgency in order to seize on the opportunity.

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  • Hate to say I said so

    State transportation planners have announced that revenue from tolling of the future tunnel under downtown Seattle is half what they forecast. I expect this is the first of many problems with this flawed project.

    ElemaufusSpending billions of scarce dollars to let cars bypass a major downtown is a 21st century solution to a 1950s problem. Instead of facilitating sprawl we should be looking for ways to spend money more efficiently to strengthen the center city and move people and freight more effectively. 

    At what point will people decide to move away from Seattle rather than pay for this sort of thing?

    During my council campaign last year I argued vocally against the downtown tunnel — a principled stand that cost me the November election. A majority of the citizens who voted for the project in an August referendum did so, I believe, because they were exhausted by the issue and just wanted a solution, any solution. After that vote I predicted — correctly — that there's still lots of work to be done in order to make the project work.

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  • What makes a great waterfront

    Turning Seattle's underused central waterfront into a civic centerpiece will require political courage to learn from previous missed opportunities.

    seattle central waterfront tidelines and folds, courtesy of land8.netIt could be one of the great urban spaces of the world. I’m thinking along the lines of Union Square in Manhattan, La Rambla in Montevideo, the banks of the Kamo River in Kyoto and the boulevards of Paris. There are many great examples.

    Under the leadership of James Corner Field Operations, the folks who designed New York's High Line, planners have come up with ambitious ideas for when the viaduct freeway finally comes down.

    That's why I'm alarmed when I read short-sighted comments from politicians. “It’s pretty expensive, and I don’t know if it’s what Seattle is looking for,” said Councilman Richard Conlin, co-chair of the council's planning committee, according to the local blog Publicola. “I think we need to start getting realistic about what’s financially possible and more in touch with what Seattle residents are looking for.”

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