Giving My Thanks to You I look forward this time of year to the opportunity to reflect on all that I have for which to be thankful. On this Thanksgiving Day eve, there are individual people to be thankful for their contribution to making Seattle a better city.  If you are working for your community, […]

Bus Commutes on 1st Avenue West Seattle bus riders are facing unacceptably long wait times on 1st Avenue to get back home in the evening. Earlier this week my office sent a request to SDOT Director Zimbabwe to examine options to speed up traffic. The email that I sent to constituents earlier this week requested […]

Now Live – Vacant Building Monitoring Program The Council passed legislation during budget last year to implement a fee-based enhanced vacant building monitoring program. The enhanced vacant building monitoring program went into effect on June 1.  I will continue to monitor its effectiveness and receive monthly reports from the department. As the program rolls out, […]

Center City Streetcar Could Impact Other Needed Transit Investments, Such as a Sound Transit 3 Tunnel for West Seattle Last week Mayor Durkan announced updated construction and operations cost estimates for the proposed Center City Streetcar on 1st Avenue. The construction cost estimate has increased to $286 million, and operations costs have increased to $28 […]

This Week’s Budget Update This week the Budget Committee met to consider specific budget proposals to amend the proposed budget, on October 30, October 31, and November 1. Next week, Councilmember Bagshaw, as Chair of the Budget Committee, will present a proposed budget balancing package on November 7th. That balancing package will be considered for […]

Prepaid Postage for Returned Ballots As you may have heard, last May the King County Council approved the King County Elections request for prepaid postage for every voter in the County so that they could return their ballot through the mail without a stamp. King County Elections conducted two prepaid postage pilots last year.  By […]

Center City Streetcar: Pressing the “Pause” Button I thank Mayor Durkan for pressing the ‘pause’ button on the Center City Streetcar through her executive order to stop work. This step is necessary to ensure that the independent review earlier ordered by the Mayor is meaningful. Had work proceeded as scheduled—especially in awarding a construction contract—it […]

This Week in the Budget The Council began meeting today as the Budget Committee to consider identification of particular budget issues relevant to individual City Departments. Here is the schedule through Tuesday, October 17. Today we discussed Councilmember ideas and budget proposals for each the Office of Planning and Community Development, Seattle Department of Construction […]

Comp Plan 2035 The 2035 Comprehensive Plan is the 20-year framework for most of Seattle’s big-picture decisions on how to grow while preserving and improving our neighborhoods. The Plan guides City decisions on where to build new jobs and houses, how to improve our transportation system, and where to make capital investments such as utilities, […]