Platform
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Lack of Affordable Housing
It’s time to put People over Property. We are bleeding the very people who love this city over profit margins. We can’t let this continue. More
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The Homelessness Epidemic
The homelessness crisis currently costs the city $1 billion a year. Let’s eradicate it, and put that money to good use. More
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Seattle Police Officers guild
Mike Solan and the SPOG have held this city hostage for decades. Its time for someone to take the fight to them and get rid of the mob in blue. More
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Wheeled Vehicles
We need to put People over Pavement. We have allowed highways and cars to dictate how our city grows, and that stops now. More
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Light Rail
Its time to invest in our future, and provide the service we paid for. We need to increase funding windows and improve relations to outer cities so that the Light Rail takes years, not decades. More
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Sports
Seattle is a sports town, and our teams should be ours. Our fervor and camaraderie should be civic duties just as much as supporting a museum or voting. More
Lack of Affordable Housing
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75% of Seattle is zoned for Single Family homes, severely reducing the actual space there is to tackle this problem, while only accounting for 5% of all homes built in the past decade. It is not and has not been sustainable, and transformative action must be taken. Both rent and loan prices have continued to rise at a massive rate. Many areas have fallen to ruin and disrepair because the land is more valuable than people in it.
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To truly attack the problem, areas where new builds can be done must be opened. Relic of redlining, and just bad urban planning. This is not the end of single family homes, but a recognition that housing must be built naturally, not by the ideas of what the city should be from 50 years ago.
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Many buildings throughout the city stand empty after their businesses and tenants were forced out over rising rents. Companies that own these buildings have come to the conclusion that the cost of taxes is less than the growth on the land. This can not be allowed to continue, and putting the buildings back on market immediately brings more supply. Some cities have already implemented this type of plan. Look further into the legality.
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There is just a pure lack of supply, and with new places to build, comprehensive apartment, townhome, condominium, and vertical builds of all kinds can take root.
Homelessness Epidemic
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The homeless account for ~13,000 people and are spread throughout the city. Harrell has done prioritized sweeps to push them into the CID, which has become a pain point for the community there. On top of this, there is constant threat in interpersonal space. Homeless fear and lash out, homed citizens fear for themselves and their businesses. The homelessness crisis currently costs the city $1 BILLION a year. Let’s eradicate it, and put that money to good use.
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With a focus on recidivism, the only logical approach is a housing first approach. Current homeless shelters can impose requirements that make the people who want to utilize the service less likely to or use it for a short while before returning to the street. A no-nonsense studio space with a shower, toilet, and bed with no restrictions on entry time, work, or pets. These people have things they care about just as much as the next person. Treat them like it.
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Extraneous requirements can make the service untenable, but light pressure in the right directions is good. Institute a works program (similar to Japan) where anyone can walk in with their resume and be matched with a job for their skill set and needs. Staffed social workers and therapists to take on needs.
seattle police officers guild
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The SPOG has reduced/removed/neutered any attempt to provide meaningful responses to crime and concern. I have written a book about this. $460 MILLION is too much for what is provided.
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Whether or not the current state of the SPD is problematic, the SPOG is led by a conspiracy theorist who makes his money off scaring the public into giving him more money. They are a rot on the system, and should be castigated as such. Any officer with ties to the SPOG will be required to un-align themselves with the SPOG and exist under the City Workers Union banner.
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Social workers in vans with granola and water are much more helpful post traumatic events than having a person in full battle rattle take notes and say they can’t do anything. Spread the strain over many more people than just keeping it to the SPD.
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Putting people in jail and just expecting them to become better is just a wash. Just like with the homeless problem, a passive work program and more diversionary focus.
Light Rail
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Incredibly effective at its very limited job, but expansion seems to be moving at a glacial pace. A proper subway system is the backbone of a city, and Seattle should have a much better one than we currently have.
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One of the major problems facing the Link is that their funding can be too slim and is a situation where the solution to the problem is to just throw more money at it. It should not take 10 years of construction to receive 5 new stations, and allowing the work to move quicker brings more jobs and more revenue over time.
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Congestion pricing must be paired with a positive outreach to set forth a rapid and robust plan to allow commutes by public transit from those cities. People moved out there due to high living costs here, and it is unreasonable to ask them to move back immediately. The park and rides that Seattle currently implements will continue to be filled, and spreading where those exist to other cities is going to be a need. The primary goal of public transit is to make it easier for everyone to go anywhere, and this is a key link of that.
Wheeled Vehicles
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Our city roads and highways are stuffed to the gills by cars and commuters. Bus traffic has been reduced after the implementation of the extension to the Light Rail. Clearing the streets of the influx of vehicles would do wonders.
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Seattle has about a quarter million commuting cars on a daily basis for work. It is unreasonable to expect the city to worsen the lives of its citizens for more highways. Implementing a similar system to London could bring in nearly $500 million dollars on its own. A caveat to the system should require businesses that make their employees come into an office in Seattle for work should be held liable, not the driver. All of the revenue from this system will go into…
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With more people looking to avoid paying the toll and clearer streets, buses will be faster, and need more places to go. Adding multiple bus routes with more concurrent buses will allow for more ease of use and a better overall time. Included in this will be a further focus on transit safety, with both a public campaign of good ridership values and Transit Safety on the most used buses.
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The city is dense, but it is very normal to want to try to go from one end of the city to the other without stops in between. Alongside the Light Rail, this will cut north/south travel time dramatically.
Sports
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Professional Sports in Seattle bring in billions of dollars in revenue on a yearly basis. The revenue aside, the local identity is staked in these systems with people finding community and joy on a regular basis. This money and camaraderie should not be reaching just a few people’s pockets, it should be utilized to build more infrastructure to continue to service fans and the city.
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It was abhorrent that Seattle’s NBA team was removed from it, and it should be considered a completely reasonable response that there be a barrier on the removal of the team again. Therefore, a joint public and government ownership plan, with the city operating the risk and the day-to-day with the public getting a say on GM/direction. No billionaire should ever have the chance to remove the team from us again.
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In line with the belief espoused above, working with the current ownership of each team to build a long term plan to pay for and gain local ownership over them. This could take decades to bring all of them in, but we can and should do this for the people of the city.
With your help, nothing is impossible.