Schmitz Park Property Acquisition On Monday, years of work finally came to fruition. It was December 2015, just a week after my election was certified, and before I took office when I toured Bruce Stotler’s property on the southeast edge of Schmitz Park. I was joined by the Southwest Historical Society and Forterra (a land […]

Campbell Building Historic Landmark Legislation On Tuesday, November 28 the Civil Rights, Utilities, Economic Development and Arts Committee passed legislation to complete the landmarks designation process for the Campbell Building. The Full Council will vote on Monday, December 4th. The Campbell Building was built in 1911, and is an iconic location in the Alaska Junction, […]

My Thanks There is much to be thankful for as I write this on Thanksgiving Day eve.  There are individual people to be thankful for their contribution to making Seattle a better city.  There are groups that I am thankful for as well who, in raising their voices together and with my occasional helping hand, […]

City Auditor Releases Hate and Bias Crimes Report As chair of the Council committee with oversight of civil rights issues, I thank the City Auditor’s Office for their report released earlier this week, Review of Hate Crime Prevention, Response, and Reporting in Seattle. Addressing hate and bias crimes is vitally important, especially given the national […]

South Park Public Safety Task Force Report Released On Tuesday, the report and recommendations of the  South Park Public Safety Taskforce were presented in the Gender Equity, Safe Communities and New Americans Committee chaired by Councilmember González. The task force was created during the Council’s budget process. The report makes recommendations for both short-term and […]

Public Hearing on Officer Involved Shooting of Charleena Lyles The tragic shooting death of Charleena Lyles, a mother of four young children, last weekend is a stark reminder of how the calls for police reform nationally must continue to be addressed by Seattle locally. On Tuesday I attended the vigil for Ms. Lyles and heard […]

South Park Public Safety Task Force Update During the 2017 budget process, Councilmember González and I co-sponsored a budget action to create a South Park Public Safety Task Force during 2017. South Park had the 3rd highest number of gunshots reported in Seattle neighborhoods during 2016, and the highest increase over 2015, according to Seattle […]

Sweetened Drink Tax Yesterday, in the Affordable Housing, Neighborhoods and Finance Committee the public finally saw the newly proposed bill for the sweetened drink tax.  This has been an issue that I’ve been tracking closely for the last couple of months as I’ve had several concerns about not only how to spend projected revenue, but […]

Regarding the Shooting on Alki Councilmember Gonzalez held her Gender Equity, Safe Communities, and New American’s committee this morning.  On the agenda was a presentation about the Seattle Police Department’s response to gun violence.  Although I am not a member of the committee, understanding how deeply our community was impacted by this tragic event, I […]

NCIS Update from the City Auditor I wrote a blog post about the New Customer Information System (NCIS) a little over a year ago. NCIS is a joint Seattle City Light (SCL) and Seattle Public Utilities (SPU) project to replace the Consolidated Customer Service System (CCSS) – the old SCL and SPU billing system. The old system supported billing […]