Council adopts vehicle exhaust noise legislation On Monday, the City Council adopted legislation that I sponsored to simplify enforcement of existing law prohibiting excessive vehicle exhaust noise.  Enforcement currently requires use of a sound meter, which police officers usually don’t carry, and meters require calibration. SPD noted in the committee discussion last week that they […]

Community Resident Preference Policies During passage of the Mandatory Housing Affordability program for Chinatown/International District (C/ID) last year the Council passed a companion resolution in order to try to address the concerns that the community had about the impact of the zoning changes, in particular impacts that would accelerate displacement of longtime C/ID residents. One […]

Vehicle Noise Legislation: Relief for Alki Coming SOON As a beachside neighborhood and a regional destination, the Alki neighborhood and nearby areas face unique public safety and health challenges, especially during the warm-weather months. Residents, community groups, and visitors from elsewhere have expressed concern about public safety, and the growing impact of motor vehicle-related noise […]

Homelessness Investments Outcomes A couple weeks ago, I promised an update on how funds invested by the Human Services Department were spent on in homelessness in 2017 and what were the outcomes. In 2017, HSD invested $54 million in prevention, emergency and housing services for people experiencing homelessness.  CBO identifies $61M in total spending for […]

Ship Canal Water Quality Project Update On Tuesday my Civil Rights, Utilities, Economic Development, and Arts (CRUEDA) committee received another update from Seattle Public Utilities (SPU) on the Ship Canal Water Quality Project (SCWQP).  You can watch their presentation here. The SCWQP is a joint project with King County (with a 65% City/35% County cost […]

Vacant Building Monitoring Program Report You may recall last August the Council passed legislation to make it easier for the City to demolish vacant buildings; I wrote about this legislation at the time. This legislation was one step towards addressing the significant increase in complaints about vacant buildings; between 2013 and 2016 the City saw […]

GREAT NEWS – South Park Community Center Late Night Hours Added For those of you that have been following last Fall’s report and recommendations of the South Park Public Safety Taskforce, you will know that that I have been working with community members towards the implementation of these recommendations. You can read my last blog post […]

20 Tenant Households Displaced in Highland Park Last Wednesday, while I was walking from my house to the Highland Park Action Council (HPAC) meeting I noticed one of the large apartment buildings in my neighborhood was boarded up.  I didn’t know why that had happened, and because I work hard to keep up on what […]

Councilmembers M. Lorena González, Lisa Herbold, Teresa Mosqueda and Mike O’Brien issued the following statement in response to the “construction pause” announced earlier today: “Collectively we – the primary sponsors of the business tax currently being discussed in Council –  represent 750,000 people who call Seattle home. “Under our plan, called the Progressive Tax on […]

Nature’s Scorecard On Tuesday, the Puget Soundkeeper and the Washington Environmental Council provided my committee a briefing on their joint project, Nature’s Scorecard.  Under the Clean Water Act cities are required to manage stormwater runoff and ensure that combined sewer overflows occur no more than once per outfall per year. Nature’s Scorecard is an easily […]