Category: Councilmember Bagshaw

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Magnolia Bridge Update

  The morning after the community meeting this week, I received an email from a neighbor asking very pointed questions about what’s next for the Magnolia Bridge. The neighbor’s questions reflected the deep frustrations voiced at the community meeting this past Monday night. Many people in Magnolia know a great deal about the history of […]

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Seattle Council Passes Tax on Business to Help Address Homelessness

Following more than five months of deliberation, the Seattle City Council passed an ordinance related to taxation, intended to help address homelessness.  The amended proposal establishes an annual tax of $275 per full time employee on the City’s largest businesses, those with revenues of more than $20 million  (about 3% of all businesses). The measure...

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Age Friendly: Respect and Social Inclusion

*Originally Published in the Queen Anne and Magnolia News “Every time I read or hear the words “the elderly,” I feel a lump in my throat,” writes Adrienne Ione, Founder of Silver Linings Integrative Health. Adrienne goes on to say, if we were to reference any one group as “the ____” it would be “so […]

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Building a Pathway Home at Fort Lawton

*Originally Published in Queen Anne and Magnolia News Hundreds of community members packed the Magnolia United Church of Christ for a public hearing on the Fort Lawton Redevelopment Plan last Tuesday, January 9th. People came from Magnolia and across Seattle to take part in a discussion about the future of Fort Lawton, land the city […]

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Success! One BLOCK at a Time

Last year, my visionary architect friend Rex Hohlbein and his architect daughter Jenn LaFreniere left their jobs and created the Block Project.  Thanks to their vision, Seattle homeowners are now saying, “YES in my backyard!” to solve homelessness. The BLOCK Project is more than your typical low income housing effort to move people out of […]

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One Table = Thousands More Homes

It’s been over two years since the King County Executive and the Seattle Mayor declared a state of emergency around homelessness. We have developed new policies, awarded contracts, and argued vociferously about approaches. Gratefully, we will now shift away from arguments toward a coordinated regional system to solve our homelessness crisis. We have made critical […]

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Council Approves Unprecedented Agreement to Redevelop KeyArena

SEATTLE – Council today authorized Mayor Jenny A. Durkan to execute a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Oak View Group (OVG) to redevelop KeyArena into a world-class multi-purpose sports and entertainment arena. The legally binding agreement commits OVG to project costs, including all project overruns, $40 million in neighborhood transportation improvements, and a bevy of...

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Highlights of our 2018 Budget

On Monday, November 20, we City Councilmembers held our final vote on the 2018 budget. This was my 8th budget as a Councilmember and it proved to be a challenging one. With many admirable programs deserving funding within the balanced budget, we had hard decisions to make. I approached the budget with four key priorities […]