Housing Bond Proposal Last Friday, Councilmembers Bagshaw, González, Johnson, O’Brien, Sawant, and I signed on to a proposal to fund additional affordable housing for Seattle residents. The proposal is a measured approach that adds $29 million in bond financing for housing which, if leveraged with other resources, could support additional affordable housing. The housing production […]

Resolution on HUD Guidance Regarding Criminal Records On Monday, 6/13/16, the Full Council unanimously voted to pass Resolution 31669. This Resolution will inform landlords of their legal obligations under the Fair Housing Act to consider as tenants people with arrests or criminal records, who have been cleared of a crime or served their time. Access […]

Revised ST3 Plan: Light Rail to West Seattle Three Years Sooner! The Sound Transit Board has announced a revised ST3 plan that reduces, by three years, the projected timeline to bring light rail to West Seattle. The revised plan also accelerates light rail to Ballard by three years, adds a new station to the existing […]

Today’s Vote: Update on Preservation, The Missing Piece of our Affordable Housing Strategy. The Council voted this morning in the 2016 Housing Levy Select Committee to pass the amendments supporting the new housing preservation program first proposed by myself and then supported and developed with the help of Councilmember Mike O’Brien and his staff. I […]

BREAKING NEWS: Alaskan Way Viaduct to be closed beginning April 29 WSDOT announced this afternoon that they will be closing the Alaskan Way Viaduct beginning on April 29, two weeks from now, while the tunnel boring machine tunnels beneath the structure. WSDOT estimates the closure will be for two weeks. I’ll have more information next […]

District 1 Office Hours I am happy to announce that I will soon be starting my District 1 office hours. Every other week I will be holding office hours from 12:00pm – 7:00pm; the in-district office will rotate to help best serve all communities in District 1. I’m still working on finalizing a schedule and […]

Letter to Sound Transit re: ST3 ballot measure The Mayor and Council sent a letter to Sound Transit providing the City’s comments about potential projects for an ST3 ballot measure in November. For District 1, the letter states Seattle’s support for building light rail from Downtown Seattle to West Seattle, and lists West Seattle to […]

On Monday the Council passed legislation to allow for better citywide distribution of state-licensed marijuana stores. It’s a classic case of a citywide policy with implications throughout Seattle’s neighborhoods: currently, over half of permitted stores are in District 2 (SE Seattle and SODO) and District 5 (North Seattle), while District 1 (West Seattle and South […]