(WSB photos unless otherwise credited)

By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor

The main event at last night’s Alki Community Council meeting was a conversation with District 1 City Councilmember Rob Saka, in his fourth West Seattle community Q&A in a little over two weeks

ACC president Charlotte Starck said she wanted to “set the stage for the conversation” with the context that Alki isn’t just another neighborhood, it’s a “gem for the city of Seattle … but the city does not seem to manage to the crowds when they flex,” and that means a lot of chronic problems go unchecked.

Before she got into specifics – starting with questions received before the meeting – Saka introduced himself, saying “you don’t just win and turn it off .. I’m here right now putting in the work …” and giving a shoutout to his support staff, two of whom were present, district-relations director Leyla Gheisar and policy adviser Heather Marx.

Starck had opened with the topic of dangerous driving along Alki, including two crashes in the past year involving allegedly drunk drivers and cars ending up in the water.

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5:48 PM: Tomorrow, King County Elections certifies results of the August 1st primary. The two candidates advancing to the November 7th general in the Seattle City Council District 1 race will be Maren Costa and Rob Saka. Just out of the WSB inbox, five of the six candidates who aren’t advancing have sent an “open letter” saying they all are endorsing Costa:

An Open Letter to Seattle’s District One Residents,

We, the undersigned, Seattle City Council District One candidates, proud residents of West Seattle, passionate believers in the future of our great city, hereby endorse our one-time opponent Maren Costa to be the next Seattle City Council member representing District One.

We endorse Maren for the same reason we sought the office; we love Seattle and we want to see it thrive.

Over these intense past five months of campaigning, Maren has shown herself to be a serious, caring, quick study. Her growth on the campaign trail was evident to all of us. She found her voice in the truest sense. She learned how to be real in public, and we can attest, that is no small feat. At every forum, debate or community event, Maren was there – showing up with authenticity, humor and self-effacing charm. What you see is what you get; no “consultancy speak” – just Maren.

She has experience fighting for justice and a better world. She has management skills and a healthy dollop of guile gleaned in the cutthroat grind of high tech. She has the persistence and patience of a parent and a partner.

This group endorsement is more notable because some of us have non-trivial policy differences with Maren on some of the issues that dominated this campaign season. But, in spite of those differences, we believe Maren’s openness, transparency and candor make her more likely than her general election opponent to be a successful collaborator on the Seattle City Council.

Onward,

Phillip Tavel
Administrative Law Judge

Preston Anderson
LICSW, MPA

Stephen Brown
President, Eltana Bagels

Lucy Barefoot
Outreach Specialist, Office of the Secretary of State of Washington

Mia Jacobson
Longshoreman

We received the letter from Tavel, who says he is the group’s spokesperson (and we’re asking him a few followup questions). The only primary candidate not on the list is Jean Iannelli Craciun.

8:46 PM: First a note – we’ve corrected Tavel’s profession and first-name spelling, which were erroneous in what was originally sent to us. Meantime, we asked Tavel for a little more on how the group endorsement came about; he said he, Anderson, and Brown were talking post-election and agreed that they felt “District 1 would be in considerably better hands with Maren”; they invited the others to join them, including Craciun, who did not sign the letter, Tavel says, because “she had already endorsed Maren and… was the first to do so.” (Costa also says Craciun had previously endorsed her.) Meantime, Saka’s campaign has sent a news release reacting to the group endorsement, saying he “expressed his deep shock and dismay with the decision of his former opponents to endorse Costa, a move he believes contradicts the spirit of change and progress that their campaigns initially advocated for” and quoting him as calling the group endorsement a “political stunt.” … (added) Costa, meantime, told us when we asked for comment on the group endorsement, “I was quite surprised and thankful for my fellow candidates’ support. We all got to know each other quite well on the campaign trail. Good group.”

In a three-hour online meeting that concluded an hour ago, our area’s largest political organization – the 34th District Democrats – made their pre-primary endorsement decisions. Here’s how that shook out in the three major local races for which the incumbents aren’t running again:

SEATTLE CITY COUNCIL DISTRICT 1: With almost 200 members in attendance, the group nominated four of the eight candidates for consideration. That first vote ended with Rob Saka at 50 percent, Maren Costa 24.6 percent, Phil Tavel 11.9 percent, and Preston Anderson 11.1 percent. 60 percent is required to win an endorsement, so this went to a second ballot between Saka and Costa; he won the sole endorsement with 63.7 percent. (For context, departing incumbent Lisa Herbold won the 34th DDs’ endorsement four years ago, and they gave a dual endorsement to her and Shannon Braddock in the first D-1 election back in 2015.)

KING COUNTY COUNCIL DISTRICT 8: Two of the three candidates for the position Joe McDermott is leaving were nominated for consideration. Seattle City Councilmember Teresa Mosqueda just missed winning the endorsement by coming in a fraction of a point below 60 percent. The group then voted on whether to dual-endorse Mosqueda and Burien Mayor Sofia Aragon, but decided on “no endorsement” instead. They’ll be able to reconsider for the November general election.

SEATTLE SCHOOL BOARD DISTRICT 8: Only one candidate was nominated for consideration out of the three vying for the seat Leslie Harris is leaving. Gina Topp (a former 34th DDs chair) got the nod.

ALSO OF NOTE: The 34th DDs took various other endorsement votes but weren’t scheduled to vote on whether to endorse the Veterans, Seniors, & Human Services Levy. County Executive Dow Constantine moved to bring it up, noting that ballots will be in the mail by the time the group meets again July 12th. After voting to allow a vote, attendees endorsed the levy.

By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor

“All these changes are good, but where is the student voice in this?”

That was said by one of the few students at tonight’s community-safety forum at Chief Sealth International High School, three months after a student’s shooting death at nearby Southwest Pool/Teen Life Center.

“There needs to be more communication with the students …we’ve been kind of left in the dark,” continued the student, Satomi. “We need to hear ‘we understand that this is tough’ … even for a middle-schooler, they understand the loss, that a sibling or friend could be gone at any time … this is a huge issue because of gun violence.”

Communication was the intent of the forum, organized by the Chief Sealth PTSA and featuring an onstage panel with school and city officials – along with Sealth principal Ray Morales and adjacent Denny International Middle School‘s principal Mary Ingraham, panelists were Seattle Public Schools‘ regional executive director of schools Chris Carter and executive director of operations Marni Campbell, Southwest Precinct commander Capt. Martin Rivera, City Councilmember Rob Saka‘s district-relations director Leyla Gheisar, and Seattle Parks‘ interim recreation-division director Brian Judd and interim deputy superintendent Daisy Catague.

To Satomi’s point, the panel did not include a single student. But the event was intended to listen as well as inform, Morales explained, describing it as a “continuation of a listening session with mostly East African families back on February 1st,” a little over a week after 15-year-old Mobarak Adam‘s death in a restroom at the pool/teen center, Seattle’s first homicide of 2024, for which no one has been arrested.

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By Sean Golonka
Reporting for West Seattle Blog

Two Seattle city councilmembers — District 1’s Rob Saka and citywide Position 8’s Tanya Woo — appeared tonight at the monthly meeting of the area’s largest political group, the 34th District Democrats, talking about ongoing city issues including transportation and the contested minimum wage for gig workers.

Saka and Woo’s appearances come as the city, with a council dominated by first-year members, is in the midst of a major year for long-term planning, with an update to its 20-year comprehensive plan in the works and an eight-year $1.35 billion-or-more transportation levy set for the November ballot.

Also tonight, the 34th DDs voted to oppose a trio of Republican-backed statewide initiatives headed for that same ballot, including proposals to repeal the Climate Commitment Act – major environmental legislation designed to cut greenhouse-gas emissions – and to repeal the capital-gains tax.

Saka and Woo talk transportation, public safety, more

Saka, who was elected to represent District 1 last November, said his legislative agenda in his first year “has largely been set for me” as chair of the transportation committee in a year the city is pursuing a new transportation levy, valued at “a minimum” of $1.35 billion.

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(Sunrise photo by Theresa Arbow-O’Connor – remember, no Water Taxi this weekend)

Mostly from the WSB West Seattle Event Calendar, here are reminders for the rest of today/tonight:

EXPANDED FAUNTLEROY YMCA HOURS: Second week for the Fauntleroy YMCA (WSB sponsor) soft-opening its newly expanded hours – 9 am to noon and 4 pm to 7 pm, Mondays through Thursdays.

TODDLER READING TIME: 10:30 am Wednesdays at Paper Boat Booksellers (6040 California SW).

LOW-LOW TIDE: Out to -1.8 feet at 12:51 pm.

RECYCLING/COMPOSTING 101: Free Earth Month presentation at Senior Center of West Seattle (4217 SW Oregon), 1-2 pm. Details in our calendar listing.

FIX-IT WORKSHOP: Repair your broken item instead of replacing it! Weekly event, 5:30-7:30 pm at West Seattle Tool Library (4408 Delridge Way SW, northeast side of Youngstown Cultural Arts Center).

BOSTON MARATHON SENDOFF RUN: Meet at West Seattle Runner (2743 California SW; WSB sponsor) for a special 6:15 pm group run:

We want to send off the folks heading out to Boston. It will be a chance for us to celebrate your accomplishment and also for those who don’t yet know one another to connect beforehand in case you want to meet up in Beantown or strategize and share tips. Everyone feel free to wear old Boston gear or blue and yellow in support of those running.

We run at 6:15 pm, any distance you choose. We will have refreshments back at the shop after the run for social hour.

Meet at the shop. Email lori@westseattlerunner.com with any questions.

FREE ART CLASS: Watercolor mixed-media class, at Youngstown Cultural Arts Center (4408 Delridge Way SW), 6-8 pm.

TRIVIA x 4: Four places to play tonight. At 6 pm, Locust Cider (2820 Alki SW) offers trivia … Larry’s Tavern (3405 California SW) hosts Wednesday-night trivia starting at 7:30 pm … Quiz Night begins at 8 pm at Beveridge Place Pub (6413 California SW) … and at 8:30 pm, trivia with Phil T at Talarico’s (4718 California SW).

LIVE MUSIC AT THE LOCOL: 6:30 pm. 21+. Rotating performer slate. (7902 35th SW)

MUSIC BINGO: Play weekly at The Good Society (California/Lander), 7 pm.

34TH DISTRICT DEMOCRATS: 7:30 pm online meeting including City Councilmembers Rob Saka and Tanya Woo, plus some endorsement decisions. More info, and registration link, here.

SKYLARK OPEN MIC: 7:30 pm signups for West Seattle’s longest-running open mic. (3803 Delridge Way SW)

If you’re planning a presentation, meeting, performance, reading, tour, fundraiser, sale, discussion, etc., and it’s open to the community, please send us info for West Seattle’s only comprehensive event calendar! westseattleblog@gmail.com – thank you!

This Wednesday (April 10), two city councilmembers – District 1’s Rob Saka and citywide Position 8’s Tanya Woo – will speak at the monthly meeting of our area’s largest political group, the 34th District Democrats. All are welcome at the online meeting. After each councilmember speaks, they’re scheduled to answer questions. Also on the agenda (see it here) for the group’s meeting, members will vote on several proposed endorsements. The meeting is set to start at 7:30 pm (after a 6:30 pm pre-meeting program) and you can get the link by registering here.

(Seattle Channel image)

4:17 PM: Tanya Woo has joined the Seattle City Council as holder of citywide Position 8, at least until the November election. She was sworn in immediately after her appointment to the council on a 5-3 vote. Woo was the choice of Council President Sara Nelson and Councilmembers Bob Kettle, Cathy Moore, Maritza Rivera, and Rob Saka; Councilmember Joy Hollingsworth voted for Linh Thai, Councilmember Tammy Morales for Mari Sugiyama, and Councilmember Dan Strauss for Vivian Song. Woo will serve until the November election, in which whomever the voters choose – whether Woo or someone else – will serve the final year of what was Teresa Mosqueda‘s term before she was elected to the King County Council.

4:49 PM: As noted in the official announcement of the voting results, Woo “will chair the Sustainability, City Light, Arts, and Culture committee. She will also serve as the Vice Chair of the Libraries, Education, and Neighborhoods Committee and as a member of the Housing and Human Services, Land Use, and Transportation Committees.” Council President Nelson had said committees – where much council business gets done before reaching the full council for votes – would not start meeting until after the new councilmember was appointed.

Meantime, it should be noted that before this afternoon’s vote, councilmembers got one last chance to speak, offering general praise for all eight finalists. D-1 Councilmember Saka called it a “very, very tough decision.” He said the process is admittedly “imperfect” but the voters will have an “immediate” chance in November to have a say on who holds the job from that point on. He said he’d received “hundreds of emails” and also said “we need to move beyond over-politicizing the process” despite these “hyper-politicized times.” He added that “no one’s beating down my door for endorsements … I’m just a dad from Delridge” but said decisions like this are what he and his colleagues were elected to make.

By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor

Voting begins this week in the general election, with three major open seats in our area – Seattle City Council District 1, King County Council District 8, and Seattle School Board District 6.

At its monthly lunch meeting this past Thursday, the West Seattle Chamber of Commerce hosted two half-hour mini-forums with the candidates in two of those races. We’ve already published our coverage of the Q&A with the County Council candidates (see it here). Here’s what happened when City Council D-1 candidates Maren Costa and Rob Saka shared the stage to answer questions asked by local journalist/broadcaster, and Chamber board member, Brian Callanan. (The Chamber’s new executive director Rachel Porter made it clear first that the organization does not endorse candidates and was presenting this as an opportunity “for our business leaders to hear from those who wish to represent us.)

Below are brief summaries of the questions and responses; as with our usual coverage format for events like this, these are paraphrases except for any words/phrases inside quotation marks.

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By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor

In just one week, ballots will be mailed out for the general election, and you can vote as soon as you get yours. The two West Seattleites contending in the highest-profile local race, Seattle City Council District 1, continue an intensive campaign schedule in the meantime, with another side-by-side Q&A forum Tuesday night.

This one was presented by Westside Interfaith Network, Our Lady of Guadalupe, and the League of Women Voters, at OLG’s Walmesley Center, moderated by local journalist/broadcaster Brian Callanan (serving in a volunteer capacity). The questions for candidates Maren Costa and Rob Saka spanned a variety of topics; after an hour of asking questions planned by forum organizers, Callanan turned to audience questions submitted in writing during the event. (We counted about 40 people in attendance.)

Our video, unedited, starts and ends with the opening and closing statements from each candidate. Below it, we briefly summarize the questions and answers, in the order they were asked and answered.

Unless a phrase/sentence is within quotation marks, it’s our summary, not a direct quote, and we’ve kept our summaries to the portions of the replies that answered or attempted to answer the questions. For the full replies, watch the video.

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As promised, we recorded this afternoon’s City Council District 1 candidate forum at the Senior Center of West Seattle, organized by a member. Though the organizer had hoped for all eight candidates, the turnout was six plus a representative – here’s how they were seated at the table, left to right: Maren Costa, Stephen Brown, Jean Iannelli Craciun, Rob Saka, Preston Anderson, Jules Williams from Phil Tavel‘s campaign (the candidate was at a memorial), and Lucy Barefoot. Moderator was Paula Barnes from the League of Women Voters; questions were asked by attendees. For those without the time and/or interest in watching video, we’ll add text summaries of their replies in about an hour. P.S. There’s another forum tomorrow night at the West Seattle Democratic Women‘s meeting – info in our calendar listing.

ADDED 11:11 PM: The summaries are below, after our photo of moderator Paula and organizer Erica:

What you see below are our summaries/paraphrasings of what the candidates said, not direct quotes aside from any word, phrase, or sentence inside quotation marks.

First, self-introductions in which they were asked to list the big issues they want to work on:

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(WSB photo: L-R, Stephen Brown, Maren Costa, Rob Saka, Phil Tavel, Preston Anderson)

By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor

For the second time in five days, candidates for Seattle City Council District 1 answered questions side by side this afternoon. Five of the eight candidates participated in a forum presented by the 34th District Democrats at Youngstown Cultural Arts Center in North Delridge.

Like the King County Council D-8 forum that had preceded it (WSB coverage/video here), this one was a prelude to the 34th DDs’ endorsement meeting next week. Five of the candidates participated – Maren Costa, Preston Anderson, Rob Saka, Stephen Brown, and Phil Tavel; a sixth, Jean Iannelli Craciun, was expected, but sent a last-minute message citing a “scheduling conflict.”

Rachel Glass moderated the forum, asking questions the organization had planned in advance. Here’s our video:

For those who don’t want to – or have time to – watch the video, we also summarized their replies. Take note that our summaries do not represent everything they said, nor are they direct quotes unless you see words/phrases/sentences within quotation marks. We’re summarizing the questions, too.

First, self-introductions.

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