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 […]

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 […]

Highland Park Find It Fix It: May 25 Next week I’ll be participating in a “Find It, Fix It” Community Walk in Highland Park on Thursday, May 25th, along with the Mayor and City department staff. It all starts at the Highland Park Improvement Club (1116 SW Holden) at 5:30 p.m. for refreshments and information […]

Duwamish Greenbelt Tree Settlement If you haven’t heard already, this week City Attorney Pete Holmes announced a settlement of the case against some of the parties involved in the illegal cutting of trees in the Duwamish Head Greenbelt on City property.  I wrote about this late last March and again in June. As a reminder […]

International Women’s Day On Monday, the Full Council, in collaboration with the Seattle Women’s Commission, Proclaimed March 8, 2017, International Women’s Day. This is an opportunity to look back on progress made, celebrate Women’s acts of courage, and call for women to continue to do extraordinary acts to improve the lives of women in all […]

Priority Hire This year we celebrate two years since the Priority Hire legislation was adopted. This program maximizes the City’s investment in public infrastructure to help residents secure apprenticeship and journey level employment opportunities on city funded public works projects What is Priority Hire?  Prior to the 2015 passage of the Priority Hire legislation the […]

Court Victory With pronouncements, unconstitutional Executive Orders, alarming nominations, and immigration raids coming from Trump administration, many of our neighbors, family, and loved ones are rightly feeling vulnerable.  In light of these daily events, today’s news was a huge victory for the values of nondiscrimination, in particular beneficial to members of the LGBTQ community. Today’s […]

University District Rezone and Upcoming Vote on Important Amendments Coming Up On Tuesday, 2/7/2017, the Planning, Land Use and Zoning (PLUZ) Committee voted on amendments to the proposed legislation to change the zoning in the University District and require all developers to contribute to affordable housing. This is the first area-wide rezone that, if passed […]

Housing Issues Source of Income Discrimination (SOID) Law SOID is important new comprehensive tenants’ rights legislation, enacting one of the Mayor’s Housing Affordability and Livability Agenda (HALA) recommendations.  The final bill created a new protected class for people with alternative sources of income, created a new “first in time” requirement to make the housing application […]

Budget Wrap Up I’ve been writing to you weekly since September with updates on the deliberations on the proposed 2017-2018 budget.  This will be my last budget update of the year because on Monday, the City Council adopted the 2017 City of Seattle budget and 2017-2022 Capital Improvement Plan. As part of the biennial budget […]