West Seattle, Washington
24 Saturday
Back in February, the City Council‘s public hearing to listen to comments about proposed rezoning was adjourned with a long list of people still waiting to speak. They promised another chance. An all-day public hearing tomorrow (Monday, May 19) brings that chance. In case you’ve missed the mentions in citywide media, here’s how it was announced by the office of Councilmember Joy Hollingsworth, who is leading land-use issues:
The Select Committee for the Comprehensive Plan, chaired by Councilmember Joy Hollingsworth (District 3), will hold its second public hearing on the Comprehensive Plan and associated legislation on Monday, May 19.
The Select Committee will hear public comments on amendments to the interim HB 1110 legislation. Interim HB 1110 legislation is designed to ensure that Seattle meets the June 30 implementation deadline for the state’s Middle Housing bill. When work on this interim legislation is complete, the Select Committee can begin considering Permanent HB 1110 legislation.
This public hearing will be separated into two sessions, with individual registration windows for each session. Session I at 9:30 a.m. is reserved for remote public comment. Session II at 4 p.m. is reserved for in-person commentors. Each speaker will be provided one minute to give their comments. Individuals will only be permitted to comment at one session. The Select Committee may recess if there are no registered speakers present at any time. The Select Committee will recess for lunch between Session I and Session II.
Meeting information
WHO: Select Committee on the Comprehensive Plan
WHAT: Public Hearing (two sessions)
WHEN: Monday, May 19
9:30 a.m. for remote public comment
4 p.m. for in-person public comment
WHERE: Council Chamber, City Hall, 600 4th AvenueHow to register
Session I: Registration for remote speakers – 8:30 a.m. to 10 a.m.Register here: seattle.gov/council/committees/public-comment</a>
Session II: Registration for in-person speakers – 3:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m.
In-person public comment will be accepted beginning at 4 p.m. in Council Chambers, at City Hall
Speakers must be registered in order to be recognized by the Chair and will be called in the order registered. Registration for each public hearing session will end at the established time.February 5 Public Hearing Attendees
Members of the public whose registered speaker’s numbers were not called at the February 5 Comprehensive Plan public hearing will be required to re-register for the May 19 public hearing. There will be a separate, clearly marked check-in location for these individuals. City Council staff has been provided with a list of names to work directly with these individuals to ensure their public comment is heard in a timely manner.Submit Written Comment
You may also submit written public comments to the Select Committee on the Comprehensive Plan by email to council@seattle.gov. Written comments should be received by Monday, May 19, 2025, at 5 p.m.
HB 1110 is the bill passed last year by the State Legislature that basically ended single-family zoning, as explained in this city document.
While the City Council gets much of the elected-official attention, state legislators are the ones with the power to make many types of laws that affect you. All three of our state’s legislators, House Reps. Joe Fitzgibbon and Brianna Thomas, and State Sen. Emily Alvarado, are scheduled to speak with the West Seattle Democratic Women at the group’s next meeting, 5 pm Thursday (May 22), and all are welcome. This is their first public joint appearance in West Seattle since the Legislature’s adjournment. Since the WSDW has dinner meetings (at the West Seattle Golf Course, 4470 35th SW), RSVPs are requested well in advance, but you can also email them to ask about attendance without dinner – all that info is in our calendar listing.
By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor
Mayor Bruce Harrell was so impressed by West Seattle Arcade during an Alki mini-tour today, he vowed to figure out how to better promote it and other beach businesses to the rest of the region – and even to tourists who visit Seattle from afar.
The arcade was one of four businesses Harrell visited during an invitation-only mini-tour that concluded with a Q&A gathering. We were invited to cover it, though the mayor’s staff set “no recording” as a requirement for sitting in on the gathering, so we don’t have video of that.
Harrell started his tour at Natalie’s on Alki, where Natalie’s son Vinny showed him how they make their popular drinks, including sugar-cane juice fresh-squeezed from cane grown, and imported from, a family farm in Vietnam.
Asked if they had any specific concerns with which the city could help, the Natalie’s team said no. But at the next stop, Fire Tacos, they expressed concerns about the bus stop/layover area right outside their restaurant’s front windows, blocking the view and leading to loitering.
While noting that Metro is a county, not city, system, Harrell promised to have his staff look into the stop-location situation. The restaurateurs also recalled a recent incident in which police had requested video from their security cameras’ outdoor views, and Harrell noted that the Real-Time Crime Center that’s about to launch will be able to utilize private cameras, with their owners’ consent: “We think that’s going to be a game-changer.”
Speaking of games, shortly thereafter, he was off to West Seattle Arcade, where the mayor talked with proprietors Elyssa and Matt Cichy and played two games, the Godzilla VR one shown above, and push-button basketball:
The Cichys asked the mayor to “keep Alki safe,” saying that crime/disorder is a major concern, while noting that their businesses – WS Arcade and Gary’s Place – were founded in no small part because they thought it important to give young people something to do. They also told him about working to keep their prices reasonable, after the mayor offered the unsolicited observation that an outside-the-city gaming business which shall go nameless seemed pretty pricey to him. He added that people should be coming to WS Arcade, and other Alki businesses, from all around the region, and cruise ships too. And he promised to return: “You’re going to see me back here with my posse.”
The mayor was then driven back eastward to the final stop, Christos on Alki, where invited business and community leaders were gathered, and City Councilmember Rob Saka sat with the mayor in the center of the room.
Unlike Saka’s High Point meeting on Wednesday night, this one was focused around giving attendees a chance to ask questions and make comments. Harrell declared that “supporting small businesses” was a priority. In addition to Alki businesspeople, those we recognized in the room included reps from Alki Community Council, Alki Beach Pride, A Cleaner Alki, Alki UCC, and the West Seattle Chamber of Commerce. City reps included deputy mayor Jessyn Farrell as well as reps from SPD and Seattle Parks.
The mayor opened by touting recent drops in crime stats. Those don’t tend to address street-disorder concerns, though, which were brought up by one businessperson, who asked Harrell if he would be willing to shut down Alki Avenue to vehicle traffic in the summer, to eliminate stunt driving. “Not really,” the mayor replied, then asking for a show of hands if anyone else favored the idea; we didn’t see any go up. Another crime/safety issue raised was the difficulty in getting through to the non-emergency line for reporting some situations; city reps said they’d look into that (though it’s been said elsewhere that they’re staffing up the call center after attrition problems), and the mayor suggested AI might be a solution. In another tech topic, Harrell was asked about gunshot detectors; he said he remains a supporter but the city’s budget woes are getting in the way.
Another major topic of concern was unlicensed vendors on Alki, blocking beach access and taking customers away from the year-round bricks-and-mortar businesses. It was pointed out that these are not small one-off cart operators, but rather well-organized multiple-tent entrepreneurs. Suggestions for making the area less attractive to them included landscaping the “grassy sand” areas of the beach and installing some accessible parking spaces.
Parks’ Jon Jainga (at right in photo above), whose portfolio includes the rangers, reminded everyone that summer changes, including Alki’s earlier closing time, start one week from tonight, and said the rangers would be working later too, with their days split into 9 am-7:30 pm and 2 pm-12:30 am shifts. He said the rangers will be empowered to give unpermitted vendors “cease and desist” letters telling them to move, and if they don’t, they’ll be able to call in police “for citations and removal.” If they simply move off Parks land and go onto right-of-way, SDOT will be contacted to deal with that, he added.
WHAT’S NEXT: We’ll be following up to see what happens with a couple of key things Harrell (who is running for re-election this year) promised that his staff would investigate – including promoting Alki businesses and possibly moving the bus stop/layover location at 61st/Alki.
By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor
In a White Center warehouse full of baby and kid gear from diapers to car seats, two elected officials and others gathered this morning to decry the president’s tariffs as “Trump’s Baby Tax.”
WestSide Baby‘s warehouse hub was the setting for U.S. Senator Patty Murray and King County Executive Shannon Braddock (a former WS Baby board member) to warn about the bite tariffs will take out of young families’ budgets, among others.
“The baby tax is not just expensive, it’s dangerous,” warned Sen. Murray, first elected 33 years ago as a “mom in tennis shoes” (and sporting that type of footwear for the occasion, as was Braddock).
She urged anyone and everyone concerned to urge Congress to take back its power over tariffs, which she said are not supposed to be something presidentially decreed.
Braddock noted the recent presidential comment that tariff costs might just mean a kid gets “2 dolls instead of 30,” and observed that many families can’t afford any gifts. “Working families should not be collateral damage in a trade war … we need a federal government that works for us, not against us.” Here’s the entirety of how she and Sen. Murray opened the briefing:
Allie Lindsay Johnson, starting her second year as WS Baby’s executive director, said the nonprofit that assists tens of thousands of families has already noticed many baby-item brands raising their prices. But “car seats, strollers, cribs are not luxuries, they are absolute necessities.”
But, Sen. Murray observed in her opening remarks, most of them are made in China, currently facing a 145% tariff as ordered by the president. Lindsay Johnson suggested at least “tariff exemptions” should be considered for items like these.
Speakers also included a Ballard store owner who said her suppliers were trying to hold off major prices as long as they could but can’t hold off much longer, and a mom of four, ages 1 through 14, holding her youngest, saying she wanted to speak out “because if not me, who?”
In Q&A, we asked Lindsay Johnson for more specifics on what WestSide Baby has noticed so far. She named several manufacturers/suppliers. We and another reporter also asked Sen. Murray for specifics on what Congress could do and what people could do to express their opinions:
Afterward, we also asked Lindsay Johnson about any other financial hardships they had faced or expected to face as a result of changes in D.C. She said that half of WS Baby’s bulk diaper purchases are federally funded and the grant covering that for a few more months is not likely to be renewed.
Meantime, this is the bipartisan bill to which Sen. Murray referred, co-sponsored by Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa.
At the midpoint in King County Elections‘ filing week, five people have filed to run for King County Executive. The person currently holding the job, West Seattleite Shannon Braddock, is not among them, as she had already said she didn’t plan to run for the permanent job. On Tuesday – more than a month after she was sworn in – the County Council finalized her appointment to serve the rest of the year in the term to which Dow Constantine was re-elected. You’ll recall that he left to become CEO of Sound Transit. That left a vacancy on the ST Board, which has permanent seats for all three county executives in the ST service area. So on Tuesday, King County Councilmembers also formally appointed Braddock to the ST Board, meaning that even with Constantine’s move, there’s West Seattle representation on the board, at least through year’s end. Meantime, she announced a “200-day plan” to shape her County Executive work; see its toplines here.
Want to run for one of the offices up for election this November? The official week to file with King County Elections runs today through Friday. The full countywide list is here; here are the non-judicial seats voters in our area will vote on in the primary:
*King County Executive
*Seattle Mayor (incumbent Bruce Harrell filed this morning)
*Seattle City Attorney
*Seattle City Council citywide Positions 8 and 9
*34th District State Senator (appointed incumbent Emily Alvarado filed this morning)
*34th District State Representative Position 1
*Seattle Port Commission (countywide) Positions 1, 3, 4 (incumbent Toshiko Hasegawa filed this morning)
Interested in running for something? Info’s here. Meantime, you can watch this page for at least two daily updates on who has filed so far. The primary is August 5; the general election is November 4.
4:15 PM: Several people have asked today if any protests/rallies are planned in West Seattle tomorrow (Thursday, May 1) in addition to the ones announced for downtown Seattle and elsewhere. So in case you’re wondering too: The only people we’ve heard from are the “Old Tyme Adults for Democracy,” who’ve rallied at Admiral/California previously – the sign in our photo is from their first one – and plan to be there 2-3 pm tomorrow, with a “street rally for democracy, and they invite community members to join them. (Anything else locally? Let us know.)
12:10 AM: We’ve also received word of a planned faculty/staff walkout at South Seattle College (WSB sponsor) at 10 am Thursday, with a rally at the clock-tower plaza, “to protest state and district-level budget cuts on the backs of our college’s underpaid student support professionals.”
What started as a city levy to fund preschool (announced in West Seattle), and expanded to add other levels of education including free community-college tuition (a program with roots here), would grow again if it goes up for renewal this year and gets voter approval. Mayor Harrell announced the proposal today. From the official announcement:
… Some highlights of Mayor Harrell’s proposal include:
–Child Care Expansion: More thandoubling access to affordable child care slots to 1,400 a year and providing direct payments to support the retention of 5,000 child care workers citywide.
–Nationally Acclaimed Preschool Program: Expanding the Seattle Preschool Program to 3,100 seats, improving access for families across the city.
–Youth Mental Health and Safety: Bolstering youth mental health services for Seattle students through new school-based health centers, expanded staffing, and telehealth support.
–Seattle Promise: Free tuition and expenses for up to two years at Seattle Colleges, available to all Seattle public school graduates.
–Apprenticeships and Workforce Development: Creating a new Path to Trades program to help graduates enter careers in skilled trades.To renew the expiring FEPP levy, Mayor Harrell is proposing to levy a $1.3 billion property tax over six years, costing the median assessed value Seattle homeowner $0.61 per $1,000 assessed value, totaling about $654 a year. Research continually shows that investments in early learning and education have long-term economic, health, and social benefits for children and society.
The expired six-year levy, which passed with 68% approval in 2018, was described in our coverage that year as costing the median homeowner $249 a year. The mayor is sending it to the City Council, which will decide whether to send it to voters in November. That’s also when King County plans to ask voters to renew the Medic One/EMS levy; before then, the King County Parks Levy is up for a renewal/expansion vote in August, as we reported earlier this year.
(WSB photo – worker at High Point ballot box holding stickers offered to voters)
The voting is over and the vote-counting has begun in the April “special election.” The only measure on ballots in our area was the renewal of the levy that has funded the Automated Fingerprint Identification System for almost 40 years, starting at a rate lower than the just-expired version. The first vote count shows it passing with almost 60 percent approval:
KING COUNTY PROPOSITION 1
Approved – 151,495 – 59.72%
Rejected – 102,189 – 40.28%
17 percent of ballots were in by the time KCE did its first count. As of the latest ballot-return count, they’d received 20 percent. Next count will be out tomorrow evening.
(WSB photo, September 2023, tour of Myers Way encampment with then-Gov. Inslee)
By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor
Three Seattle City Councilmembers and three King County Councilmembers came to West Seattle this afternoon with a message intended for an audience in Olympia:
They gathered at Arrowhead Gardens to implore state leaders to fully fund the Right-Of-Way Encampment Resolution Program (explanation and stats here), which paid for the much-publicized 2023 cleanup across the street in the Myers Way woods, as well as others including one beneath the First Avenue South Bridge. They want the state to fully fund the program’s $75 million cost, instead of the proposed $45 million, which they say would only cover the cost of maintaining housing for the hundreds of people the program has taken off the streets so far.
Speaker after speaker emphasized that this is a program that works – and it’s not cheap, because it takes outreach workers a lot of time to develop relationships with clients and get them to “come inside.” First speaker, Carolanne Sanders Lundgren of Purpose.Dignity.Action, observed that “relationship is our special sauce.” Those who followed her included King County Councilmembers Teresa Mosqueda, Girmay Zahilay, and Claudia Balducci (the latter two are also running for County Executive) and Seattle City Councilmembers Alexis Mercedes Rinck, Cathy Moore, and Dan Strauss. Here are the speakers in their entirety:
Mosqueda stressed that local leaders “need to have the antidote to what’s happening on a national level … (where) chaos is raining down on us,” and this program is “the gold standard … The way we get people inside is by maintaining those trusted relationships.” She said 91 percent of the people living in encampments taken on by the program left the streets, and that three-fourths of them “stayed housed.”
“This is not just another government initiative,” insisted County Council Chair Zahilay. “It’s one of the most effective programs in the nation.” Yes, he acknowledged, there’s a budget crisis at every level of government, “but when we’re talking about an effective program (that has) built trust and saved lives … let’s fund what works.”
One of the non-governmental speakers was Diane Radischat, president of the Arrowhead Gardens resident group. She talked about how difficult it was to initially get help for the campers in the woods across the street – where even now a new tent has popped up, with RVs nearby too – but “we cannot afford to give up on them … do we just think everyone will be fine? The state can’t just say no.”
If the ROW ERP program winds down, warned Balducci, “people will go (back) into the revolving door.” She said the program is “the win win win we all want … we cannot accept the (results) of failing to fund this program.”
“I hear from people who don’t want to see people go away, they want to see people get housed,”said Councilmember Mercedes Rinck.
Her council colleague Moore, who chairs the Housing and Human Services Committee, then explained that this is actually the second time the Legislature proposed reduced funding for the program, but the first time, they found other money to cover the gap – this time, they’re out of options. “If this budget is not restored, the. program will effectively end this summer, but we still have time to fix this problem – we can’t afford to slide backward.”
The third Seattle councilmember to speak, Strauss, agreed, saying hundreds of people have been brought inside and families reunited: “We have to keep this program running.”
A King County Regional Homelessness Authority rep with whom we spoke after the briefing said they’re working at a site in Ballard now but already making plans to ramp down in case the funding can’t be restored.
We asked organizers what they want constituents to do. The reply: Contact Gov. Ferguson, your local legislators (in our area that’s Sen. Emily Alvarado and Reps. Joe Fitzgibbon and Brianna Thomas), and three leaders in particular: Senator June Robinson, Representative Timm Ormsby, and Senator Jamie Pedersen. The budget goes to a final vote by April 27 – this Sunday.
As usual during the State Legislature sessions, the Monday afternoon City Council “briefing meeting” included an update on the status of bills of interest to the city. One of those bills, councilmembers were told today, “is not advancing” – HB 1423, which would have allowed the use of cameras to enforce vehicle-noise laws. The bill had passed the State House but didn’t come to a vote in the full Senate before the most-recent deadline for that to happen. It had been seen as a potential tool for street disorder in neighborhood such as Alki and Belltown. HB 1423’s sponsors included 34th District State Rep. Joe Fitzgibbon of West Seattle, so we’ll be asking if he might try it again next year.
Tuesday is when voting ends in the April 22 special election – and you have one measure to vote on, King County Proposition 1, renewal of the levy that pays for the Regional Automated Fingerprint Identification System. This goes back almost 40 years, first approved by King County voters in 1986. The renewal is for seven years starting at 2.75 cents (or less) per thousand dollars of property valuation; that’s lower than the 3.5 cents with which the previous renewal, approved in 2018, began (dropping to 2.9 cents by last year). So what is this used for? Not just criminal-justice matters, according to the FAQ on its website. It’s the only countywide measure on Tuesday’s ballot, but five school and special-purpose districts have measures to decide too. As usual, your deadline for turning in your ballot is 8 pm Tuesday at a King County Elections dropbox or getting it to the US Postal Service early enough to ensure it’ll be postmarked no later than Tuesday.
Shannon Braddock is now King County Executive, succeeding Dow Constantine, who started his new job as Sound Transit CEO today.
Both are West Seattleites. But the role will likely move to someone from another part of the county at year’s end; Braddock says she is not going to run for the job, which will be on the ballot this November.
Nonetheless, it was a jubilant moment as the King County Council – including two members running for Executive – voted unanimously to appoint Braddock as acting executive (with one more vote later this month to finalize the appointment until November election results are final). As she took the oath from Judge Ketu Shah, Braddock became the first woman to serve as King County Executive. You can see her take the oath, get a standing ovation, and then deliver her first speech, starting about 3:19 into our first clip:
Afterward, Braddock talked with WSB contributor Anne Higuera about the “200-day plan” she hopes to carry out if she is appointed to keep the job intil the election, as well as how the county plans to proceed constitutionally despite what’s happening in Washington, D.C., and her hopes for public-safety funding getting a state boost:
Until today, Braddock was serving as deputy county executive, an appointed position. That role in turn is now held by Karan Gill. (This page on the county website has been updated to reflect who’s doing what, for now.)
King County Elections is about to send out a new round of ballots. The April 22 special election is three weeks from today – and you have one measure to decide, King County Proposition 1, renewal of the levy that pays for the automated-fingerprint ID system. Here’s how it’s explained:
This proposition would reauthorize King County to levy an additional regular property tax to support the continued operation and enhancement of the regional automated fingerprint identification system (AFIS) program and would replace the voter-approved levy that expired on December 31, 2024. The AFIS program is designed to improve the ability of law enforcement agencies within King County to aid in the administration of justice. Among other activities, the AFIS program provides enhanced forensic fingerprint and palmprint identification technology and services.
The proposed levy would be authorized for a seven-year period with collection beginning in 2026. During the first year, the tax would be levied at a rate of 2.75 cents ($0.0275) or less per one thousand dollars ($1,000) of assessed valuation on all taxable property within King County. For example, a home assessed at $885,000 in 2026, would have a maximum levy amount of $24.34 in the first year. Annual increases in each of the succeeding six years would be limited to the statutory rate set forth in chapter 84.55 RCW. Qualifying seniors, veterans, and disabled persons would be eligible for exemption from the levy under RCW 84.36.381.
The 2.75 cents is a lower rate than the renewal levy in August 2018, which started with 3.5 cents per $1,000. Meantime -oOnce you get your ballot, you have until 8 pm Tuesday, April 22, to get it into a dropbox, or you can send it via USPS Mail as long as it’s postmarked by that date.
While adding new types of enforcement/safety cameras has been under discussion in recent years, the city already deploys several types, including school-zone speed-enforcement cameras, red-light cameras, and transit-lane cameras. Are they making a difference? That’s one of the issues set for discussion when SDOT talks about cameras at 9:30 am tomorrow with the City Council’s Transportation Committee, chaired by District 1 Councilmember Rob Saka. You can watch the meeting here and/or get the basics by looking at the slide decks and memo already linked to the agenda. (Info you’ll find includes the fact the city hasn’t installed a new red-light camera since 2013 – West Seattle has two – and new school-zone cameras on the way include California SW near West Seattle HS and SW Admiral Way near the permanent site of Alki Elementary.) This meeting includes a public-comment period, and the agenda has info on that too.
As we noted after King County Executive Dow Constantine‘s appointment last Thursday as the new CEO of Sound Transit, he will likely be succeeded – at least temporarily – by Deputy County Executive Shannon Braddock, who like Constantine is a West Seattle resident. If the King County Council votes tomorrow (Tuesday, April 1, 1:30 pm meeting, streaming here) to appoint Braddock as acting county executive, she will make history as the first woman ever to hold that position. Braddock has worked in local government for 20 years, according to her bio on the King County website, including serving as chief of staff for both Constantine and for former County Councilmember Joe McDermott. Braddock is not among those who, so far, have announced they’re running for the executive position, which became up for grabs when Constantine announced – months before his Sound Transit appointment – that he did not plan to seek a fifth term.
Less than one month to go for the State Legislature, and while the spotlight is on big concerns like the budget and education funding, other issues are moving along too. Among them, the proposal to allow cities to use cameras as a tool to enforce vehicle-noise rules. The city is backing and tracking that bill, with neighborhoods like Alki and Belltown complaining about vehicle noise. The State House version of the proposal, HB 1423 – with co-sponsors including 34th District State House Rep. Joe Fitzgibbon – is now making its way through the State Senate, where it has a hearing tomorrow afternoon in the Senate Transportation Committee (of which 34th District State Sen. Emily Alvarado is a member). If you’re interested in commenting, the bill’s official infopage has the link you can use (as well as full text of the bill); if you want to watch the committee meeting, set to start at 4 pm Monday, you can do that on this TVW page.
Four notes this afternoon as cuts in D.C. reverberate here in “the other Washington”:
(WSB photo, last Saturday)
CARE-A-VAN SUSPENDED: The state Health Department’s Care-a-Van mobile health service was part of the resource fair at Westwood Village last Saturday. That was one of its last stops before the state learned the feds have defunded it, tweeting this morning:
We received notice from the CDC that our funding for Care-A-Van has been terminated, effective March 24, 2025. As a result of this unexpected decision, we must immediately suspend Care-A-Van operations. Thank you to all of our requesters and community partners for your support.
SENIORS PLAN PROTEST: As noted in our West Seattle Event Calendar, we received an announcement that residents at Brookdale Admiral Heights (2326 California SW) plan a protest outside their building at 3 pm Saturday. The announcement says they’ll be protesting cuts to programs as pursued by the federal DOGE operation.
PREPARING FOR APRIL 5 PARTICIPATION: West Seattle Indivisible is leading two sign-making events this Sunday in advance of the April 5 “Hands Off” rally at Seattle Center, protesting cuts to programs/services – one at 11 am Sunday in High Point, one at 3:30 pm in Admiral. (They want to be sure you know the venues have limited space.)
CITY COUNCIL COMMITTEE: The City Council’s new Federal Administration and Policy Changes Committee, set up to help councilmembers stay informed on D.C. changes affecting Seattle, will have its second meeting Thursday (April 3) at 2 pm, focusing on housing issues. (This is a “select committee,” so all councilmembers are on it.) Citywide Councilmember Alexis Mercedes Rinck sent this announcement today with details.
By Anne Higuera
Reporting for West Seattle Blog
If you feel like there have been more reports of shootings in the last few years, it’s not your imagination. Seattle Police are responding on average to twice as many reports of suspected shots fired as they did prior to the pandemic and 20% of the citywide incidents from 2021-2023 have been in District 1, which includes West Seattle.
Why is it happening and what changes can be made to bring those numbers back down? A new City Auditor’s report on gun violence is being presented tomorrow (Thursday, March 27)to a City Council committee with an eye toward increased cooperation and more effective ways to marshal data to reduce the injuries, deaths, and fear that come with gunfire.
The Governance, Accountability & Economic Development Committee will hear the results of the audit, which was at the request of the committee Chair, Council President Sara Nelson, and Mayor Bruce Harrell. What the audit found is that while a number of different agencies, including public health, have been gathering information about gun violence, they haven’t been collecting or sharing it in a consistent way. The audit pointed to more systematic programs used in a number of other cities — Baltimore, Indianapolis, and Portland — where sharing the data regularly within public agencies, coupled with a public information campaign to address gun violence, has resulted in a significant decrease in gun incidents and injuries.
The biggest takeaway from the audit is, “communicate, communicate, communicate,” but it also urges stronger data analysis and taking advantage of any resources that are available. It pointedly mentioned that the US Department of Justice offers a 10-step “roadmap” for reducing violent crime, for which the DOJ’s Office of Justice Programs offers technical assistance free of charge to communities. Auditor’s staff took advantage of this assistance for the purposes of the audit, noting, “Before our audit, the City had not been following the Violent Crime Reduction Roadmap nor using free technical assistance from OJP.”
The question about why there’s been such an increase in guns being fired (and a similar increase in injuries and deaths) since 2020 doesn’t have a single answer. The audit does note that the number of guns stolen in the city is also up since 2018. But it focuses most on clues in the data that have the potential to yield actionable next steps. Patterns like time of year (gun violence spikes in the summer), location (a particular park or street corner), who is involved and why, whether there is other crime in the area, can help focus violence prevention efforts in specific places rather than responding to calls of “shots fired,” when it’s already happened. A suggestion to potentially bring in the city’s Community Assisted Response and Engagement (CARE) Department was another key recommendation.
The committee meeting starts tomorrow at 2 pm in the Council Chamber at City Hall. There is an opportunity for public comment shortly after the start of the meeting for which you must register ahead of time, as the agenda explains.
By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor
State legislators are two-thirds of the way through this year’s session in Olympia – 71 days down, 34 to go.
And now they’re digging into the biggest challenge of all – the budget. Both houses released their proposals today (here’s the Senate proposal overview, and here’s the House proposal overview).
One week before that, our area’s three legislators – 34th District State Senator Emily Alvarado and State Representatives Joe Fitzgibbon and Brianna Thomas – held an hourlong “telephone town hall” last Monday night (March 17).
As each provided a self-introduction, Sen. Alvarado said the state budget challenges were among the major issues that constituents are concerned about. Balancing the state budget is the biggest focus of the session, added Rep. Fitzgibbon, who is House Majority Leader. He offered the perennial critique that our state’s “regressive tax system” is to blame for state revenues “not ke(eping) pace” with the cost of providing services, and said both spending cuts and revenue increases would be needed. Rep. Thomas, recently appointed to the Legislature in a domino effect from former Sen. Joe Nguyen‘s appointment as Commerce Department director, noted that “we’re behind on Idaho and Oregon in our tax structure,” and said she can’t imagine being behind those states in any other areas.
Their intros quickly segued into Q&A they opened up to questions.
The leaders of West Seattle Indivisible say their membership is continuing to grow, so they’ve announced a two-part meeting for tomorrow (Sunday, March 23):
West Seattle Indivisible Meeting
Sunday, March 23
South Seattle College CAB cafeteria [campus map]
Newcomers: 1:30-3:20
General Meeting (newcomers welcome!) 3-4:30
Use north entrance
Free parking in North Lot
Free, but donations are needed and welcome
(If you’re having trouble seeing the video, go here)
That’s the Seattle Channel recording of the meeting during which the City Council’s Transportation Committee, chaired by District 1 Councilmember Rob Saka, got an update on the Sound Transit projects intended to bring light rail to West Seattle in 2032 and Ballard in 2039. Briefers were two managers from Sound Transit and members of the city team that’s involved with various aspects of the projects (one noted that more than 20 city departments are involved in one way or another).
Toplines included Saka saying he had sent a letter to Sound Transit yesterday (we requested a copy and just received it) but also describing himself as a “proud and enthusiastic supporter” of the projects. Minutes later in the public-comment section, Jordan Crawley of the Alki Beach Academy day care/preschool, one of the dozens of West Seattle businesses facing displacement because of the project, told the council that while their predecessors had worked closely with him and others, these councilmembers didn’t seem interested: “We don’t need letters of support or kind words, we need action.” (Crawley also clarified that he too supports the projects, but businesses facing displacement need more championing from the city.)
When Sound Transit’s Brad Owen and Jason Hampton led their briefing (here’s the slide deck), money was a big part of the discussion. Saka asked them to clearly state the current estimated cost for the West Seattle extension (around $7 billion) compared to the previous estimate ($4 billion). What share of that cost would the city have to foot? Saka asked. The ST reps said the city’s contribution was primarily two-fold – the plan to speed up permitting would save time, and time is money for ST; there had been talk (as reported a few years back) of “third-party funding” to help cover the costs of preferred plans – for example, tunneling into The Junction rather than elevated. What would that look like? they were asked. “Various” possibilities was the answer – some of which “might require voter approval.” All this is expected to come into clearer view this fall.
The city team (here’s their slide deck), in addition to noting the breadth of city involvement, gave some West Seattle examples of what they’re involved with, such as planning Pigeon Point environmental mitigation (the preferred alternative for the light-rail-only Duwamish River bridge would cut into the forested face of the point).
SUPPLEMENTAL READING: City Council central staff’s memo for today’s meeting delves more deeply into some of the issues.
By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor
Whether he is or isn’t Sound Transit‘s next CEO, King County Executive Dow Constantine didn’t say much about ST when he spoke to the West Seattle Chamber of Commerce this past Thursday.
Not that they asked him to – the announced theme was “King County Conversations,” and it was likely the last time Constantine would speak to the group as County Executive, a job he’s leaving after four 4-year terms. Here’s our video of what he said, after the Chamber’s executive director Rachel Porter introduced him; our summary follows:
He opened with some personal info, as if he were a new arrival introducing himself for the first time, rather than a quarter-century-plus veteran of elected office. He noted his dietary discipline (vegan, as was the lunch buffet catered by Peninsula Soul Food), his first job (Alki Spud), his daughter and parents’ ages (10 and nineties), among other datapoints. And he noted that he’s served as county executive through “global financial meltdowns, the pandemic, three governors, four presidential administrations, seven (Seattle) mayors … It’s been an interesting experience … the challenges we face are significant and often daunting.” Those challenges are ever-changing, he added.
First one he addressed was public safety, particularly on transit.
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