The Parks and Green Spaces Levy Oversight Committee has completed a report on the first two years of work on the $146 million levy approved by the voters in 2008. The City’s general fund has been strained by the recession, and the Parks Department is facing difficult challenges in keeping its operations going. However, the [...]
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July 1, 2011January 6, 2023News Releases
Seattle’s Legislative Strategy Worked
This year Seattle set out to challenge a saying that’s often quoted about how the legislature operates: “It’s Republicans against Democrats, East of the mountains against West of the mountains, and everyone against Seattle.” We worked closely with our legislative delegation, reached out around the State with our Seattle for Washington campaign, spent a lot [...]
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June 28, 2011January 6, 2023News Releases
Making Community Tree Planting Work
Seattle residents love planting trees, and Seattle has been helping them to do so for many years. We have an array of tree planting programs scattered among different Departments, without either central coordination or dedicated oversight to ensure that trees are planted in a coherent fashion and are maintained and retained after planting. On Monday, [...]
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June 23, 2011January 6, 2023News Releases
Roosevelt Neighborhood and Transit Oriented Development
In 2008, voters approved the Sound Transit II ballot measure, which funds light rail from the University District through the Roosevelt neighborhood in Northeast Seattle, continuing on to Northgate and Lynnwood. Light rail transit stops are great places for additional housing and job development, and the Roosevelt neighborhood has recently endorsed an update to neighborhood [...]
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June 23, 2011January 6, 2023News Releases
Regulating medical marijuana
Since the State Legislature adjourned in May I and others have been trying to figure out who won and lost when it comes to medical marijuana. My conclusion is that just about everyone lost when the legislature and governor called an end to the 2011 session without a coherent approach to regulating access to medical [...]
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June 22, 2011January 6, 2023News Releases
SR 520 Project Moves into Final Decision Making
On Thursday, June 9, Washington Department of Transportation (WSDOT) published the Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) for the SR 520 Bridge Replacement and HOV Program. This begins the last stage in a decision making progress that started in 1997. The next step will be a federal Record of Decision (ROD) and then formal approval of [...]
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June 16, 2011January 6, 2023News Releases
ARCADE focuses on “The Good Life Reconsidered”
Former Seattle Planning Director Ray Gastil is enjoying life as a consultant on urban planning and, lately, as the guest editor of the latest edition of ARCADE. The quarterly magazine on design and the built environment is produced by the Northwest Architectural League with a great standing staff and a guest editor for special editions. [...]
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June 16, 2011January 6, 2023News Releases
Why Does Seattle Have a Multi Family Tax Exemption Program?
Seattle’s multi-family tax exemption (MFTE) program has come under fire recently. It has been suggested that the program subsidizes apartments that are too expensive, and that the program effectively serves as a subsidy to developers to build projects that they would have built anyway. As is often the case, the reality is more complex. The [...]
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June 14, 2011January 6, 2023News Releases
Seattle Farm Bill Principles adopted by Council, to go before National League of Cities
On Monday, May 23, the City Council adopted Resolution 31296, supporting the Seattle Farm Bill Principles as policy guidance to the Federal Government in the renewal of the 2012 Farm Bill. Our goal is to have Seattle’s actions will serve as a model for other jurisdictions. On June 4, I presented the Farm Bill principles [...]
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June 9, 2011January 6, 2023News Releases
Emergency Preparedness Review Initiated by Council
The City Council and my Regional Development and Sustainability Committee will conduct a review of the City’s emergency preparedness, with special attention to lessons learned from the recent earthquakes in Chile, New Zealand, and Japan. Over the next few months, City staff and guest engineers, professors and scientists will brief Councilmembers on what was learned [...]