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This one is a no-brainer. District 4, my district, should elect Shaun Scott to the City Council.
There are elections where you vote for someone you believe in, and there are elections where you vote against someone you think would be harmful. Both are true in this race.
Shaun Scott does not shy away from big ideas. He is not afraid of making bold changes. His ideas for Seattle’s Green New Deal are appropriately and necessarily big. He’s not going to spit B.S. at you and pretend that adding some electric car chargers is going to solve climate change. He’s going to talk about how to build a ton of affordable housing near improved transit service. He’s going to talk about completing the Bicycle Master Plan even when it gets politically difficult. And he’s going to talk about not just how our city’s carbon emissions are bad for the climate, but how the pollution from burning those fossil fuels disproportionately impacts the health of working people and communities of color.
But it’s not just his ideas that are exciting. Scott has also inspired a movement. He maxed out on the city’s democracy voucher system in record time, almost making a joke of the program’s limits. He encouraged his campaign staff to unionize, which is extremely rare even in union-friendly Seattle. And his staff and a ton of volunteers have been putting in huge amount of time tabling, knocking on doors and in many ways innovating what a political ground game looks like in Seattle’s still-new Council district system.
His campaign is rewriting Seattle’s election rules and creating a new path to power. It would be a good thing for the city if they are successful because their model of organizing is truly grassroots and based on optimistic energy that, frankly, most other Council campaigns are lacking. Scott makes me feel like our city really can do what it takes to become the affordable, equitable and sustainable city I believe it can be.
His opponent, Alex Pedersen, fought against light rail. That’s right, he opposed the 2016 levy to fund a major expansion of Sound Transit light rail. Worse, he still stands by his opposition to the levy. And now he wants to represent this district while two of its three light rail stations begin service? No way. We need big changes to accompany these new stations with strong priority for walking, bike and bus access and more nearby affordable housing. And Pedersen has shown that he’s not the person to do that job. (more…)
