VIDEO: Mayor Jenny Durkan’s first State of the City address
(Substituted 5:40 pm: Seattle Channel video of the State of the City speech and introductions)
11:08 AM: Click the “play” button and you’ll open the live Seattle Channel stream of Mayor Jenny Durkan‘s first “State of the City” address, which she is presenting at Rainier Beach High School. We’re watching too, and adding notes of interest below.
First, she’s being introduced by City Council President Bruce Harrell and RBHS student-body president Nyshae Petty. Harrell mentioned others in attendance including West Seattle/South Park’s City Councilmember Lisa Herbold and School Board rep (and board president) Leslie Harris.
11:16 AM: Durkan is now speaking, after Diana Bautista talked about her studies at South Seattle College (WSB sponsor) in the 13th Year Promise scholarship, which Durkan plans to expand into a two-year program at more colleges, serving more high-school graduates.
She says this is an “unprecedented and for many painful period of growth,” but that Seattle is “the best damn city anywhere.” She says her nickname at City Hall is “the impatient mayor,” and says the crisis of affordability and homelessness threatens “the soul of our city” and is “the central challenge we face … the moral issue of our times.” She also promises that the city will “stand up” for its values in the face of “attacks from the other Washington,” before getting back to the homelessness/affordability crisis: “People experiencing homelessness are us – moms and dads, brothers and sisters, sons and daughters.” She says the crisis has been “years in the making and will not be fixed overnight.”
Adding affordable housing requires “speeding up permitting” and increasing density, Durkan says, and more units such as backyard cottages. And she reiterates that it’s a regional crisis, not just a city issue, which is why she’s working with King County Executive Dow Constantine (another West Seattle-residing elected official mentioned as being in the audience). It’s also not just a government issue – “it’s going to take businesses, philanthropists, neighborhoods, people of faith, community organizations … every one of us.” It’s not just about creating housing but about creating “true .. equitable economic opportunity.”
11:33 AM: She’s now talking about a new plan – free year-round ORCA transit passes for all Seattle Public Schools high-school students “by this fall,” and for Seattle Promise college attendees too. She will work with the City Council to do this. And then she is back to the Seattle Promise plan (announced at SCC on her second day in office) for “two free years of college education and support” so that more young adults get the educational background that’s required for so many of the jobs that would otherwise be unattainable.
11:43 AM: She has moved on to talking about the other city-funded educational efforts – the Families and Education Levy and the levy-funded Seattle Preschool Program, which are to be combined when they next go to voters, saying college readiness goes back to the early years. And she calls for new protections for domestic workers.
She then touches on other city services – power, trash, utilities, “the fire and police services that keep everyone safe,” street services (telling the story of one of ~50 SDOT workers who worked on Christmas Eve “to make the streets safe and passable). She lauds city workers, but also warns that a budget deficit “is on the horizon.”
Now, traffic, which she says “is going to get worse before it gets better.” But she says it’s good news that “more people are using transit and fewer people are driving alone in their cars, and we need to keep that trend going.”
And then crime – “we have to acknowledge that parts of our city do not feel safe,” declaring that people must be safe in their homes and on the streets and in schools. “Schools are meant for joy and learning … not for lockdowns and mass shootings.” She promises to fight for “common-sense gun-safety laws” (without specifying what those might be). And she says that she wants citizens’ help in choosing the next police chief, starting with a survey you can take online [added – here it is].
11:58 AM: About the environment, she takes another dig at the White House by saying that “we believe in science” here, and then she says environmental justice is vital, and that the burdens of environmental problems so often fall on underserved communities: “South Park, Georgetown, South Seattle – I have heard you!” she declares.
And she goes on to speak of a rosy future, saying that Seattle is where the future has been invented – aviation, tech, medicine, and more.
Looking to the near future: “And next year, in 2019, the Alaskan Way Viaduct will finally come down, and it will be amazing … it will open the door for a waterfront for all … 20 acres of new parks and public spaces … it will reconnect Elliott Bay and its maritime heritage” to the rest of the city.
In closing: “I love Seattle to my bones … and I know we will do the right thing and build a more affordable, inclusive future … Will it be easy? No. It will take grit … Let’s resolve together that next year we can look each other in the eye and say the state of our city is more just … even stronger … that life for all who call Seattle home is better, because of our resolve, our actions, and our love.”
12:05 PM: The speech is over. We’ll substitute archived video for the live window atop this story as soon as we can, and will attach a link to the full text when it’s available.
2:29 PM: The mayor’s office just sent what it says is a transcription. Not on the city website yet so we have cut and pasted it after the jump (the spacing is as sent):
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