(Added 4:52 pm, full video)

Just wrapping up at the Senior Center of West Seattle, Mayor Jenny Durkan‘s first “town hall” event – part speech, part Q&A, part resource fair with multiple city departments tabling. She took half a dozen questions, but heard even more about local concerns during a pre-event walking tour of Junction businesses:

That photo is from Virago Gallery (on Alaska west of California but moving soon) – we’ll have a separate full report on the walking tour later. We’ll also have full video from the Senior Center event, at which center director Lyle Evans introduced Durkan as the “first woman mayor elected in Seattle in more than 100 years.” He also lauded her for choosing this location and shining a light on the “Silver Tsunami.” (Later she joked that she had a solution for what she re-termed the “gray tsunami” – “Don’t go gray.”)

The mayor sounded the themes of her State of the City address – including her concern that the city is in danger of losing its soul if issues such as affordability are not addressed. She also touted the Seattle Promise program for two free years of community college for all graduates of Seattle Public Schools, and the ORCA cards that will be provided to all public-school students.

She brought up the “shock” delivered with the new property-tax bills, acknowledging that too is adding to the affordability crisis, and that landlords will be passing the increases on to renters.

Problems won’t be solved overnight, she warned, and she knows people will be frustrated.

Transportation – “you can’t come to West Seattle without talking about transportation,” she acknowledged. She mentioned Sound Transit 3 and light rail, and hopes of speeding it up. She then mentioned the impending d “Traffic in West Seattle is going to get much, much worse in the next three years and it’s not the mayor’s fault – you look at what’s coming online – the viaduct’s being torn down, 1st Avenue’s being torn up for the streetcar, the Convention Center (is resulting in) buses coming out of the (transit) tunnel and onto the street … we’re going to have to look at innovative solutions to get past this time.” That will include transit. “We’ll work with Metro,” she promised. “We’ve got to get people out of single-occupancy vehicles out of this time … we have more cars than we have room on the streets.” But as she had done in her State of the City Address, she declared that Seattle is “the best city anywhere” – in no small part because of the “eclectic nature of the individual neighborhoods … Every one of our communities has its own feel, and that’s what we’ve got to preserve.”

Yes, the demolition of the viaduct will lead to what she sees as temporary traffic trouble, but she envisions a “collective gasp” when people see the viaduct-less waterfront.

She acknowledges concerns about HALA – “we’re not going to undo HALA and upzoning because we have to have growth and density … but I (also) don’t believe ‘one size fits all’ … so we’re going to listen to you … (and will) have a process that’s meaningful.” She says that in some places she asks people who wishes growth would just stop – a lot of hands go up – and then she asks how many people were born here, and most hands go down. (Note – she did not ask that here.)

Then to Q&A. First person to speak is from Highland Park Action Committee co-chair Gunner Scott. He mentions that they have been asking for transportation infrastructure improvements “for 70 years – 70 years.” There is a plan for density, but no plan for improving that infrastructure. He also mentions that Highland Park is hosting a third encampment. And he invites her to visit Highland Park. She accepts the invitation, also says SDOT can look at the improvements (editor’s note, which they have), and says that Camp Second Chance – the third encampment Scott mentioned – seems to be successful and that encampments are needed because there’s no place for

Next question: How will the Seattle Promise college plan be funded? There’s no more room for added property taxes, the questioner asks, because “we’ll break.” Durkan says that she is aware of the tax burden, but “if we don’t do right by our kids … we will have to spend more time on them in other systems.” She says many people who are frequently booked into jail “are discharged into homelessness.” She says that “full buildout” of the college program would be about $7 million a year – “not only can we afford to do it – we’ll look at some of it in the family levy” and other unspecified places. “I know we’ve got to make choices.” And she says she’s asked all her department directors to provide budgets with potential cuts.

Next question: David Toledo brings up a work-readiness/arts program that started in 2011 that was initiated by Mayor Mike McGinn and cut by Mayor Ed Murray. Durkan says it’s “critical to have kids exposed to the arts” and promises “additional programs like that.” She mentions her pre-Town Hall walk and the apprentice who she met at Virago Gallery. She says arts are vital to “the soul of the city.”

Next question: Diane Vincent, identifying herself as a lifelong renter whose Social Security barely covers half of her rent, and she’s been on a waitlist for a senior apartment for three years. The mayor’s Office of Senior Citizens is being shut down, she says, but she needs retraining because she has to work “to survive.” Her Social Security went up $12 – her rent went up $200. The city isn’t offering help for senior jobs, she said.

The mayor’s reply included a mention that she is asking the state for tax breaks for landlords in affordable rentals – so that tax increases don’t automatically mean rent increases. Vincent follows up about jobs. Durkan mentions job losses imminent because of automation and uses “self-driving vehicles” as an example.

Next: What about free college for adults to help with retraining? Durkan reiterates the success of the Seattle Promise’s predecessor program, 1 free year at South Seattle College (WSB sponsor) for graduates of certain high schools’ graduates, and says she hopes it might eventually be more than that.

Final question is from someone who identifies herself as a “second-generation landlord” who also says she was on one of the HALA focus groups and she is happy about the upcoming upzoning, but she also wants to see permitting sped up. She also wants to see more mental-health and addiction services, saying her brother was homeless because he needed help “and it took us two years to get him help … (the system is) broken. Addiction and mental health go hand in hand. .. We wait for people to (seek help) but if someone is (unwell) they are not going to come to a rational decision.”

Durkan says everyone in the room likely has been touched by the problem. Overall, she says, she is a “data-driven person” but knowing the numbers doesn’t assist in solving the problem. “There is not a one-size-fits-all solution for homelessness. … They all need the same solution, a home, but how you get them there … is different.” She then notes the city/county/regional group that’s convening to “work and coordinate better” to try to find solutions. “It’s a longer-term (solution) … it took a long time to get where we are.” She does get to one solution for some – methadone for heroin addiction, but Seattle has one provider, she says, and they are maxed out at 1,400 people. She says she’s in favor of increasing services but “we’re going to have to do it together” and urges the community member to continue advocating.

“Seattle’s only Seattle if people like you show up not only in these rooms but (in their personal lives) and not only demand a better city, but work for a better city.” She promises to “listen … and we’ll do what we can.” And she wraps at 1:45 pm. The resource fair continued on for another 20-plus minutes.

Full video and more photos to come!