New technologies are revolutionizing transportation in Seattle and elsewhere. It is becoming easier and easier to live, work, shop, learn and play in the city without owning a car, a change that makes Seattle more affordable as car ownership carries...
Category: Past Councilmembers
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Women in the Workplace: Mobile Electrical Distributors
Colleen Hallett has a stock of stories to share about being a woman who owns a 
traditional blue-collar business, an electrical supplies firm on Lake City Way Northeast.
She says, “One day a guy came into the counter. When I asked, if I could help him, he said, ‘Oh, I’ll wait for one of the guys.’” “Finally my part-time truck driver came in and asked the guy what he needed. After he ordered, the truck driver had to turn to me to find out where the part was located.”
Hallett, president of Mobile Electrical Distributors since 1998, laughs at the memory. She says, “I guess the guy just wanted to wait.” Hallett has been working at the family-run business since 1967. She … Continue Reading »
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Seattle’s Got Distinction
If you’re assembling an “Only in Seattle” file, you’d have to include June 6th, the night that the Seattle Symphony showcased music inspired by Seattle hip-hop icon Sir Mix-A-Lot. 
Sir Mix asked for “a couple of ladies” to help him out with his signature song, “Baby’s Got Back.” Upwards of three dozen women crowded onstage and boogied while he rapped and the symphony played. The free-form performance quickly went viral across the country. Few, if any, symphony orchestras anywhere can match that claim.
Mix’s dance-a-lot is only one of the happenings that make Seattle stand out as a city where the unusual is usual. Every day brings us more evidence that Seattle’s got distinction.
For example, as we speak, Seattle is fine tuning … Continue Reading »
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Study Shows Gun Violence Begets Gun Violence
With a City Council vote in June of 2013, Seattle became the first city in the nation to fund direct research on gun safety. The Council took this action because the National Rifle Association consistently blocks research funding at the...
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UP #354: Should we build rail on First Avenue downtown?
This past Monday, the Council granted my request to delay voting on Resolution 31526, relating to the proposed Center City Connector (CCC) street rail project slated for First Avenue. The resolution would have both adopted the City Connector Transit Study Locally Preferred Alternative (LPA) and would have endorsed efforts to pursue federal funding for the […]
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Visit with Councilmember Rasmussen to Discuss Topics of Interest to You & Your Neighborhood
Join Seattle City Councilmember Tom Rasmussen At the Queen Anne Community Center 1901 1st Ave W 6pm—8pm Tuesday, July 29, 2014 Here’s your opportunity for a one-on-one discussion with the Councilmember and his staff about topics important to you We look forward to meeting you! Accessibility Accommodations Upon Request Please Call 206.684.5398
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UW Harborview Doctors Link Gun-Related Hospitalizations to Future Injuries, Crime and Death
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: 7/7/2014
Council President Tim Burgess
UW Harborview Doctors Link Gun-Related Hospitalizations
to Future Injuries, Crime and Death
Study Funded by City Council Pinpoints Where to Focus Violence Prevention Efforts
SEA...
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Corporations Can Dictate Contraception? My Thoughts on the Hobby Lobby Decision
I confess that I was totally blindsided. I never expected the Supreme Court would rule the way it did, five justices – all male, by the way — agreeing that requiring family-owned corporations to provide insurance coverage for contraception somehow violated a federal law protecting the corporation’s religious freedom.
A corporation’s religious freedom? I guess that’s what really stunned me. It was outrageous enough that, writing earlier in the infamous Citizens United decision, the court had declared that corporations have First Amendment rights to free speech. Now the court’s majority has decided that corporations – at least those owned mainly by families — are also entitled to freedom of religion.
If one follows this convoluted line of reasoning, corporations apparently … Continue Reading »
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Revising Seattle’s Green Building Standard
Should the City scrap its green building regulations in favor of Europe's Exemplary Buildings or Passivhaus programs?