I have a grumpy neighbor who hates bicycles.  We are surprisingly good friends despite our differences, and we regularly debate this issue. He drives his BMW to go a few blocks to the grocery store, and he thinks all bicycles should be banned from city streets. I remind him that I am a bicycle rider, and I pay […]

Upcoming Office Hours We are once again bringing City Hall to District 6 on Wednesday April 5! Please join me at the Ballard Public Library from 4:30-6:30pm. Bring your questions and concerns about your neighborhood. There is no official sign-up and one-on-one meetings will be available based on first-come, first-serve. Greenlake Community Center The Green […]

The Full Council did not approve the conditional street vacation of Occidental Avenue South for the proposed arena project by a vote of 4-5 yesterday (Bagshaw, Herbold, Sawant, Juarez and González voting no; Harrell, O’Brien, Johnson and myself voting yes)….

The City Council’s Transportation Committee voted 4-1 (O’Brien, Johnson, Harrell and myself voting “yes,” Bagshaw voting “no”) this week on whether or not to approve a conditional street vacation on Occidental Ave S in SODO. A street vacation is a…

The City Council received a briefing this morning about the proposed Sound Transit 3 expansion of our regional light rail and bus network. The draft includes several large projects in Seattle, including lines to Ballard and West Seattle and a…

The following article was sent out in my City View Newsletter, which you can sign up to receive here. Yesterday, the City Council voted 7-2 (Councilmember Herbold and myself voting “no”) to spend $1.4 million to rescue from insolvency the…

In October 2014 Seattle joined many other municipalities in welcoming bike share as a component of our public transit system. One hundred and forty thousand rides later, the bike share program Pronto continues to grow, but now requires a public investment to continue operations and to expand its network.  We faced a decision to either […]

Later today, I will vote “no” on legislation that would, if approved, have the city government purchase the insolvent Pronto bike sharing network and all of their bicycles, stations and equipment. Instead, I will propose amended legislation that will position…

One of the largest and  most visible structures in Seattle is I-5. Construction of the Interstate from Mexico to Canada destroyed many neighborhoods and neighborhood connections. From the day the freeway opened you could see it, hear it and smell it, but it was hard to get over, under or around. To this day it […]

Yesterday was the last Full Council meeting of 2015 and it was jam packed: 52 agenda items, 3 ½ hours of deliberations. We started with a resolution expressing our support for Seattle’s Muslim community in the wake of increasing anti-Muslim…