Every part of Seattle actually has three city councilmembers – the district rep, and the two at-large members who represent the entire city. Approaching the midpoint of her first term, at-large Councilmember Sara Nelson visited the West Seattle Junction business district today. Her hourlong mini-tour was doubly relevant, as she chairs the council’s Economic Development, Technology, and City Light Committee, and is a business owner (founding Fremont Brewing with her husband in 2009) – she reminded the proprietors she met today that “I’m a small-business owner too.” Her tour guide was Junction Association executive director Chris Mackay, who first briefed Nelson on the state of The Junction – from public-safety concerns (including the recent hiring of private security) to event planning (with tens of thousands of people expected to converge on The Junction for West Seattle Summer Fest July 14-16. The big job is to keep The Junction “clean, safe, and fun.” They headed out to stops in three businesses – first, The Beer Junction:
Owner Allison has long been on The Junction’s Block Watch committee. She told Nelson the past three years have been especially tough for small-business owners, not just public-safety challenges, but also the 2 1/2-year West Seattle Bridge closure. Both Nelson and the assistant accompanying her said they could help with problems such as better connecting with other city agencies. From there, they headed south to Northwest Art and Frame for a chat with owner Dan:
He told Nelson things were going fairly well – his store started closing earlier, and that eliminated some problems they’d been having in the evening. He also talked about the difficulty of getting police response for thefts; Nelson said she’s working on an easier way to at least file after-the-fact reports. Meantime, she also listened as Dan spoke proudly of his half-century in business and at least one staff member who’d been working there his entire adult life.
Before Nelson’s hourlong visit wrapped up, she also stopped in at My Three Little Birds and heard about how businesses support each other by sharing real-time information on problems; Mackay noted she’s working on getting a better communication tool for businesses to use.
Before Nelson left, we asked about the day’s hottest citywide topic – Tuesday evening’s council vote rejecting the proposal she, Councilmember Alex Pedersen, and City Attorney Ann Davison had put forth to match city code with the new state law on drug possession. What now? we asked. Nelson said she wasn’t ready to talk specifics but “I’m not giving up.”
| 26 COMMENTS