Transit Riders Union, and the urban. we will be hearing
tonight from candidates running for Seattle City Council
position nine which is a citywide position rather than
representing a specific district um and as an aside,
there is also an election this year for city council position
eight happening although we chose not to host a forum for
that race. Um our moderator tonight is Erica C Barnett.
Erica is a local reporter covering politics,
transportation, housing, homelessness, and urban. She’s
been a ride editor at publications such as Huffington
Post, Strangers, Seattle, Weekly, Shakespeare, The Austin
Chronicle, and many, many more including at her own website,
Paola. She is also the author of Quitter, a memoir of
Drinking relapse and recovery which was published last year
and you can find Her@paola.com or on Twitter at Paola News our
questions for this evening were submitted to Erica from all of
the cosponsored organizations as well as from audience
members who submitted questions during registration. Um we’ll
also be taking questions from the audience during the form
itself through the Q and A box. So, be sure to submit your
questions there rather than in the chat box which we won’t be
moderating as closely. Um tonight, captioning is
available and can be shown or hidden on your device and we’ll
be sharing recording and a full transcript after the event as
well. Uh if missed it. You can also check out the recording
and transcript of our mayoral candidate forum which took
place last week. and with that, I will turn it over to our
moderator. Erica, thank you so much for being here. Good
evening, everybody. Um I’m excited to be with you all on
this beautiful night. I’m hosting this forum for city
council position nine which is Clara mentioned um is an open
seat which means that everybody in Seattle can vote in this
election. Um thanks to the Mass Coalition and all the partner
organizations for making this conversation possible. Um the
format for is as follows. We’ll kick things off with a couple
minute introductory statement from each of our three
candidates here tonight Followed by questions that each
of the candidates will get 90 seconds to answer um and Ingrid
will be um monitoring time and letting you know uh via um
cards that you can see on your screen um when you’re running
out of time and there will also be a uh an auditory queue um in
the form of a very lovely uh beep So, please try to stick to
90 seconds um and then during this portion of tonight’s
forum, each of the candidates will have 90 Seconds, 190
second opportunity to uh to jump in uh provide additional
context to one of their answers to respond to something another
candidate said um and to use that opportunity just um jump
in verbally wave your hands like mad. Um get at me in the
chat, whatever it takes. um and uh and and please do use that
opportunity um and then after the We will have a lightning
round of yes or no and very short answer questions and now,
it is my honor to introduce the candidates for Position nine
Seattle City Council Sarah Nelson, Brianna Thomas, and
Nikita Oliver and we will begin with an opening statement by
Nikita Oliver.
Good evening or early evening everyone. My name is Nikita
Oliver. I use they them pronouns. I am a community
organizer, attorney executive director, adjunct professor,
renter, and worker and I’ve organized with no dapple
mascots advocated for divestment from from Wells
Fargo and advocated for municipal bank and progressive
taxation. We’re in a state of emergency. the climate
catastrophe is now housing affordability, homelessness,
and an economic recession. If our city is to address these
issues we need elected who can bring together intersecting
communities and industries for bold solutions now to solve
these crisis, we must first take an approach in a sinner’s
racial equity and worker power to eliminate racist
exclusionary zoning, build great workforce housing, have
safer streets, a walkable city, and a fully funded, equitable
transportation system. We need a just transition multi systems
alignment, a 2024 comprehensive plan that reflects these
commitments, accessibility and universal design and we need to
have a pipeline to green union jobs as a candidate endorsed by
the MLK Labor Council, ATU 587 Transit Riders, Seattle Sunrise
Movement, Puget Sound Sage, former Council member Michael
O’Brien, Current Council member Tammy Morales, Senator Saldana
State reps, Johnson Harris Stallion Simmons. I know that
I’m a candidate who can bring together partners across
bureaucracies, labor bipoc worker, grassroots communities
to address the climate crisis have a walkable city, transit,
and housing for all
Thank you. Um next uh Brianna Thomas.
Good evening, everybody. I am Brianna Thomas and I’m running
for city council position is the inter said and I am running
because I have spent the time working inside the systems that
you all know well um have the propensity to get in our way.
The bureaucracy that you could cut through red tape with a
machete ideally, the frustration about how we have
so many problems that our interface right this second and
not enough. It’s not enough motion not enough passion to
get in there and do the work. I think think in the last 5
years, I’ve been working with the Seattle City Council. I
have seen the importance of turning rhetorical phrases into
actual real results whether that’s working for labor,
standard policies or you know, partnering with many of you on
this video tonight. Last year, we were renewing St. Tbd. I
understand that it takes months sometimes to go from a really
good idea that for a very obvious problem in our
communities I think that made manifest passing policies that
help the most vulnerable Right now, I am proud to be endorsed
by former council member Larry Gossett by Deborah Inman by
Mona Dos by Cindy Ryu, by Senator Steve Hobbs because
they know that we do need a regional approach to these
challenges and that I am the person who’s phone call they
want to take when it’s time to get down to the nitty gritty of
it. I’m looking forward to talking tonight about
environmental sustainability about what equitable
development looks like and how we can all have a conversation.
That doesn’t hit each other against each other but really
meaning is a conversation about what we’d like to see for our
future, our cities, and quite frankly, uh you know, I I’m
running for future old Brianna because I want to age in place
in the city and I want to be able to get around on transit
while I do it. So, I look forward to this conversation.
Thank you for having me. Thank you. And next we’ll go to Sarah
Nelson
Hi, everybody. Thank you for this monumental effort to get
us all together. I really appreciate the opportunity I am
a small business owner running for city council because I
believe that Seattle’s going in the wrong direction and I’ll
bring the practical experience leadership that’s needed right
now at heart. I’m a policy nerd who watches the Seattle channel
for fun. I served as Richard Conn Council member Richard
Collins LA for close to 10 years starting in 2002 when he
was transportation share on through presidency when um when
they’re planning the tunnel and uh so I learned a lot about
transportation planning and how it should be made in the
intricacies thereof. My husband and I own Fremont Brewery. If
you’ve ever been to our tasting room, you know how much um real
estate we dedicate to bike racks but it’s never enough and
we will. We also requested that SAT install racks in the street
to keep cars from parking in the thirty foot no parking zone
but basically we subsidize our employees gift cards. We give a
lot of free beer to local pet and bike nonprofits including
sponsoring many of cascade bike clubs, major rides like um Stp,
My top priorities are economic recovery and getting um back to
the main job of local government which is delivering
basic services and that’s relevant tonight because
transportation is one of the charter services that have been
underfunded and um little bit mismanaged one of my priorities
on under transportation is to prioritize the advancement of
Et’s model integration policy framework to bring together the
bike freight, transit, and pedestrian master plans into
one uh modal plan to prioritize investments. There are tensions
in the uses of our streets and so uh having a consistent
coherent policy toward planning uh is necessary and that’s the
kind of leader I’ll be attention to I’m endorsed by.
I’ll get that in the next thing. Thank you. I appreciate
everybody respecting the time and remember, as as I said
before, we uh went live. You can always go for less 90
seconds if you want. That means we’ll get some more questions.
Um okay, so our first uh question um goes first to
Brianna Thomas. Should Seattle strive to be a fifteen-minute
city and if so, how
Yes, please. I would love that. Um so, I think that we all
discovered during COVID when mobility around our communities
was limited due to a global pandemic that each of our
neighborhoods became more important than ever. I live in
the West Seattle Junction where I am fortunate to not live in a
food desert. I am fortunate to have access to health care and
important to have a reliable transportation on the island
and I’m fortunate that I am in a part of the city that has
access to many many schools and even got a movie theater. Not
to mention ay but that that ability to have all those
things that I need in my community is a supreme
privilege and it shouldn’t be. we shouldn’t have to worry
about food access. We shouldn’t have to worry about reliable
transit. We shouldn’t have to worry about whether or not
someone can see um an an urgent care provider in the case of an
emergency. So, building communities that do have all
those things right there. live, work, play, thrive in a
fifteen-minute bubble should be all of the city. Yes.
Sarah Nelson is next.
Absolutely And uh I think that the confluence of these
organizations are uh and and the way that you push the city
to um to recognize your priorities and get them done is
is how we do it. Bringing people together to advance ways
in which people can get around their neighborhoods safely and
quickly. It also requires support for neighborhood
business districts and uh service providers and uh and
neighborhood So, density, multi modal transportation options,
and and then healthy business community, etcetera. So, I am
not going to use my 90 seconds. I do believe however that um
how to pay for it is an issue and you’ll hear me saying this
more than once tonight. Um there we can go back to the
voters now that I’m in the threat of um you know uh
raising you know going back to for the $60 that’s still on the
table by the enabling legislation for um ELF is is a
potential source of funding. Thank you. And uh finally,
Nikkita. Oliver. Absolutely. Yes. we need a 15 minute.
walkable city but the real question is, how and how do we
do it equitably? Uh we need to first eliminate exclusionary
zoning. Uh it has made it so the density. uh 80% of it is
being built on 12% of the land and ultimately, it’s also
displacing uh low-income communities by communities,
worker communities. So, as we move towards this walkable
city, we need to build around transportation hubs that are
preexisting and transportation hubs that we will know exist
and and we have to prioritize Social green, uh affordable
workforce housing so that workers can live close to where
they play, where they live, where they access services. We
also have to acknowledge that and in many neighborhoods where
people have in this place, there’s a lack of access to
groceries, services, amenities, and so many of our workers
travel long distances to maybe the one grocery store in their
neighborhood. I live in the Rainier Beach neighborhood and
we literally only have one safe way to access. So, really
addressing the issues around What are the services that
people need to access doing that in lockstep with our
transportation development and developing our housing plan
that prioritize workers and low-income communities around
this transportation Hubs and services and amenities is going
to going to be key to doing it in an equitable way. Thank you.
Um our next question is an audience question. um submitted
before the forum um and it is how do you balance the need for
public open spaces and recreational areas with the
need for affordable permanent housing for people experiencing
homelessness and for this one, we’ll start with Sarah Nelson
Sarah, you’re on mute.
sir. We can’t hear you. Yeah, I know. I’m trying to find a
little thingy. We balance it by addressing effectively.
Finally, our um our homelessness emergency that has
been an emergency since 2015. I don’t think that we should be
asking how do we balance uh everyone being able to access
the commons and um and allow for people to as a last resort
have to have no other options. So, I take on this question is
that we’ve got to restructure our uh our response to the
increasing numbers of people living unsheltered and provide
real solutions like uh in a in a variety of short, medium, and
long-term housing. I’m sure that everybody who’s listening
agrees with this. The point is why has it not been done and
how do we go forward and I think that it hasn’t been done
and because of a failure of leadership, a failure of
understanding and be able to to deliver the services that
people need and and uh and I would say that mental health
and substance induce uh substance abuse disorder are
key part of solving this problem and so um you know, so
let’s let’s make some progress on this issue and then talk
about um open space and and and how um whether or not uh
etcetera. I’m I’m getting off track but uh I don’t think it’s
an either or I think that these are um the first is our
humanitarian and policy failure of being able to deal with
homelessness and um it’s immoral that we haven’t gotten
past this Um I’m going to use my prerogative to ask a very
quick follow up which is um since the question was about uh
parks and recreational areas. Do you support um removing
encampments from parks in certain circumstances? Yes, I’m
not going to go into you know, the certain circumstances
people have got to be provided housing obviously
But that was the crooks of the question. When was it not Yeah.
Thank you. Um okay, next. um on this question on Nikita Oliver
Erica, do you actually just mind repeating the question
because I lost track of it listening to I apologize. Yeah,
no problem. It’s uh how do you balance to be for public open
spaces and recreational areas with the need for affordable
housing for people experiencing homelessness? Thank you so
much. Yeah so I think first off, We just just have to
accept the fact that exclusionary zoning has meant
that uh majority of our city is not sharing the density that’s
needed to be built. So, there are neighborhoods that do have
parks and green spaces while neighborhoods like the one that
I live in um in the Rainier Beach area has taken on a huge
amount of density um and has eliminated the possibility of
us having those green spaces in our fifteen-minute walk area.
It’s also made it so many of us cannot afford to live here. I
live in the very edge of Rainier Beach So, addressing
exclusionary zoning. open up for neighborhood residential,
the whole of the city, sharing the density that needs to be
built. um and having affordable housing. As I said earlier
around Key transportation hubs and prioritizing workforce
housing and transitional housing um and supports for our
neighbors and outside is going to be key if neighborhoods that
have been denied access to green spaces are going to have
those spaces. So, it really is a matter of sharing the density
and the bur of addressing our health and affordability crisis
to ensure that every neighborhood has access to
green spaces and affordable workforce housing. and Brianna
Thomas. Yeah. Thank you for this question. I thought about
golf courses. You guys remember when we have that conversation
about whether or not we should take all the golf courses out
of the city of Seattle and put affordable housing on it and it
was quite the this is this makes me think of that space.
one, I think there is absolutely a need for green
space. It’s part of our one of the best things about living in
Seattle. We’ve got beautiful parks. We’ve got nationally
recognized parks and people should be able to to walk to
them. I think underlying the question as well is how are we
going to have a conversation about putting affordable
housing in every corner of the city to Nikki’s point and and
you know, they’re absolutely Exclusionary zoning is the
scourge of our land Use code. It is how we got to the place
that we are right now that not in my backyard attitude has put
it in everybody’s backyard and everybody’s park and
everybody’s playground and everybody’s sidewalk. So, we
need to have a real hard conversation with ourselves
about why we let that go on for generations at a time and let
folks end up in the condition that they in which is
foundational inhumane and an embarrassment to us as a city
within a state of emergency that’s been around for over 5
years. Um I think that one of the other things that we’ve got
to really focus on is incentivizing small landlords
that are good actors to continue to be good actors to
continue to support the naturally-occurring affordable
housing um that you know, you still find a small pockets of
in West Seattle but it’s quickly diminishing across the
city as a whole and figuring out how we can incentivize
folks to return and to encourage black ownership of
those properties because that’s how we’re going going to deal
with the huge gap that gotten in the intergenerational
wealth. Alright, the next question is about um traffic
enforcement. What is your position on police involvement
with traffic enforcement? We’ll start with uh Oliver I think
police should be out of traffic enforcement. Um it is one of
the biggest reasons why we see pretext stops. Um it is a
highly racially disproportionate uh and the
community’s like Rainier Beach or Aurora or the Central
District where there are over police communities. Those stops
happen at higher rates and may result in incidents of of Es or
even police brutality. So, removing police officers from
that particular form of enforcement is a way of
creating safety and there are other means of of addressing
traffic issues that don’t include cops Brianna Thomas.
Yeah, absolutely. But we’re going to make sure that we
remember we have to bargain that change in working
condition and that means sitting down at the table with
Spo as we have tried several times in the last few years to
not, you know, or any of our shared goals for the outcomes
there. Um I think the other thing to consider is whether or
not the penal of speeding, right? Like is that what are we
what are we are we really changing human behavior by
having police officers frightened folks that are black
and brown because we have learned to be frightened of the
police. What do we solving here with this problem and is it
pretext for revenue collection and if so, where else can we
get that revenue from? Um but I think that’s really what to me
speaks to the heart of how we’re doing that line of
business Yeah. Stop talking now.
and uh Sarah Nelson. I have to note that I completely
misunderstood. The last question. I thought that the
question was, how do we balance parks and people living in
parks? So, I am sorry I gave the wrong. I get an answer to
the wrong question. Anyway, um I think that uh a good place to
start with um the racial disparities in traffic
enforcement is to uh have better cops and um so why are
we just accepting that we will have um racism in policing
forever If that is one reason why we would consider not
having police officers enforce traffic laws. So, I would start
there. Uh I do recognize what Rihanna said is this is a
contract issue and so that would be a heavy lift. I think
that um community policing would be a better use of funds
for Sd. I recognized that also sometimes police officers
encounter situations where uh it is good to have a uniformed
police officer and um We do need to discourage people’s
speeding through neighborhoods to attain our vision. zero
goals. So, um how to balance all of those competing
interests. I’m not really sure. it’s a complicated question
that um I can’t say absolutely yes or no to Alright. Um next
question is about zoning which some of you have uh brought up
already. Um this is a very comprehensive yes, Brianna
here. I’m going to use a 90 seconds. Oh, there’s there’s
your hand up. if you’re doing it. Exactly right. Yeah, just
let in. Um thank you so much. I’m going to use my 90 seconds
to ask uh candidate Nelson a question. um on that response,
I understand that you studied the intersection of policing
and race as part of your PHD and so I think that it’s fair
to ask um how you the intersection of race and
policing in the city particularly with traffic stops
and II. Just I just wanted to just follow up on that because
I do think you’ve got a subject matter expertise there. Well, I
also have um okay, I’m just going to jump in and say um for
this answer. Um so it’s a little unorthodox. Um I’ll uh
I’ll give Sarah a 60 seconds to respond
what I learned about uh the intersection of gender race
class is that uh training is the most important thing above
the subject Position of the person who is actually uh in a
position of power So, that gets, you know, so and and not
just training but cultural mindset. I was looking at women
um police officers and how they treated poor uh women, you
know, uh black women from the faves. So, uh but I understand
that stops are often used to uh to get somebody for another
crime completely. So um or not a friend just a check. It’s
it’s harassment, etcetera. So, I recognize think what you’re
getting at there. I’m I’m done. Thank you. Alright. Yeah. Next
question. Um we’re going to talk about zoning. Um city’s
comprehensive plan will be updated during your term. Uh
what role con zoning changes play and redress the the legacy
of Redlining and building a more sustainable future and I
think I’m still correcting the order. I think Brianna is first
on this one. If not, we’re starting with that. Yeah, I
think we’re going through the order what we are now. Here I
am. Um yeah, I think uh I think that you know, all of us have
touched on that and several of our answers beforehand but we
do have to recognize that the history of Redlining has
predicated the outcomes of communities, their educational
outcomes, their economic outcomes, their health
disparities, the children in South Park are still suffering
rates of asthma at three times the rate of children in the
north end of our city and so when we’re talking about how
we’re going to build, it’s gotta be from a position of
understanding that The infrastructure that we’re
building needs to be sustainable. It needs to be
green and it needs to build us toward an environment uh bold
city moving forward because we are still absorbing
environmental refugees. People are still moving to Seattle
despite what the news tells you and we should be building the
city for the future right now Um and then when it comes to
building workforce housing, I think that making sure that we
are continuing to concentrate poverty is a major major
culture shift for the city of Seattle because we have such a
history of doing so. We need mixed income housing and we
need to figure how we’re going to advocate for stronger MFTE
returns because right now, 12, years of housing, 12, years of
tax credit only gets you 4 years of affordable housing.
making sure we are advocating for our positional to expand
that program and it’s benefits to the community will be key
Thank you. Uh next is Sara Nelson.
Can you please repeat the question? Sure. Um the question
is um the city’s comprehensive plan will be updated during
your term. What role con zoning changes play in addressing the
legacy of redlining and building a more sustainable
future So, uh we do need more housing and yet we also have to
prevent the displacement of people already here. So, uh so
it’s two fold. So, when you talk about zoning changes, uh
we need to increase density. We need to encourage uh
residential infill so that people can age in place and
also perhaps uh generate more income to be able to stay in
their homes and then uh building more units that will
free up the uh they they might be market rate. I would but
there uh there is um you know the pool we’ve already in the
MFT but there’s also um the mandatory housing affordability
funds and matching those with perhaps more federal and state
grants to be able to create more subsidized, affordable
housing. So, zoning changes have to happen. First, one
place to do that is uh is the plan right now that it’s a
proposal to allow for housing on top of uh religious
organizations. Uh well on the property of religious
organizations that would require land use and uh that
the organization would be the provider of that housing. So,
infill and and different ways of going about to create
exactly uh workforce housing uh level units in uh in places
that have born the brunt of um of our racist history of
redlining. It’s those communities that we need to
focus on. Uh first Alright, thank you. Um and Nikita.
Oliver. So, in 1923, a guy by the name of parliament,
Bartholomew, a known segregationist is who helped us
develop our plan for city but exclusionary zoning in place to
market it. Things like our industrial lands and then you
put redlining on top of that and our racial wealth gap is
deeply steeped in the lack of access not just to affordable
housing but also a lack of access to home equity. So, as
we move into our comprehensive plan, 2024, yes, we need to
have neighborhood residential throughout all of the city and
also protect our industrial lands. We have to have a plan
for what you call Coops Community Land Trust and home
ownership look like withstanding the fact that many
white families have built their wealth out of their home
equity. So, prioritizing home supports for bipoc communities
is going to be key if we’re going to see the racial wealth
gap be addressed as a part of our comprehensive uh 2024 plan
and then there’s also just building mass amounts of
workforce, affordable housing, many of our bipoc communities
and Workers are cost burden spending way more than 30% of
their income on housing and around 60% on transportation.
This prevents families being able to save it, prevents them
from being able to buy homes and and when things happen like
a health crisis or they lose a job, we pushed even further
into debt. So, thinking about our comprehensive plan as it
aligns with our goals for closing that racial wealth gap,
having more opportunities for home ownership and building
workforce. Affordable housing in the city is going to really
be key to addressing up. Alright. thank you. and I want
to just remind anybody um who’s watching on Zoom that um if you
want to submit a question, uh please do so in the Q and A box
not in the chat. Um next question is about public
transit. Um free public transit, um major cities from
Paris to LA are contemplating free public transit. some like
Tala Estonia and entire country of Luxembourg already have it.
Olympia Inner City Transit went fairly starting in January.
2020, do you agree with this goal and if so, what will you
do to pursue free transit in Seattle in our region and if
not. Why not? And we will start with Nikkita. Oliver.
Absolutely. Yes. we need free transit and I want to
acknowledge young people at Rainier Beach High School who
fought for the Orca Opportunity program because I saw that
students needed free transit. Uh I want to acknowledge that
we’ve seen programs like the US program actually be very
effective in the 90s um and with Stanley that in that time
where people could live close to work and school but we know
that free transit helps families. We know that free
transit is really important for building a city that is
accessible but free transit is not So, we need to find ways to
fund it and thinking about uh how seventy to about 80% of our
transit in our is subsidized. We could be working with the
county and the state to see if there’s the possibility of the
county having a small payroll tax one that does not pay the
city tax to be able to have a regional plan for a free
transit through King County Metro because it’s not just
people living in Seattle who are having issues with a lack
of access to transportation is a regional issue. I run a King
County program for young people who struggle to get access to
resources in Seattle because they don’t have access to an
equitable transit system once they hit eighteen 1920,
Twenty-four, there’s not equitable services for them.
So, working with the county pursuing progressive taxation
are all going to be really key aspects to building a system
that has high levels of service and it’s free so that more
people will be willing to use it Thank you, Sarah Nelson.
My question is, why are we going to let people who can
afford transit and the businesses that are
participating in the the commute reduction program which
subsidize Orca cards. Why are we going to be letting people
that can afford it and uh and businesses off the hook and uh
if we do that, how are we going to replace the Fair Box
revenue? Um and II agree that um that there that there ways
to reduce or make free transit for people that are low income
or who cannot uh basically, low-income people and one model
for that is the US system. It could be expanded citywide that
increased ridership and and uh was successful in in the
localized area. We could offer something like that Um Orca is
uh the orcas can be tweaked to be means tested and uh the
problem is that there jurisdictions who are involved
in the Orca program So, that could be complicated but that
would be a place that I would start but again, um making
something free for businesses and people who can’t afford it.
I don’t, why would we do that? right. Uh Brianna Thomas and I
apologize. I got uh I got the names out of order this time. I
have to do that at least once before it’s the law. So now
I’ve done it and we’ll return to the same order on the next
question but uh for now, Brianna, you’re up Alright,
thank you. Um yeah, I absolutely support the goal of
free transit for all um but we do want to recognize that right
now, we have made transportation accessible,
particularly transit for quite a few groups of people Um with
the Svg, we made it accessible for essential workers. We have
bus passes available for Seattle public school students
um and 60% of the revenue that we collect right now is from
corporations. So, if you want to talk about who’s actually
paying for a thing, it is currently 60% being paid for by
corporations sponsorship. Um you know, it’s not an Amazon
text but I will take it as a start. I think one of the other
things we have to think about is not just whether or not free
transportation is is the goal but good transportation should
be the goal. A free bus that comes every 30 minutes on a
route that needs service. Every fifteen doesn’t actually solve
the problem. I think we’re all aiming at which is increased
transit ridership So developing transit in places that makes it
easier for folks to get to making sure those Service hours
are being distributed and I’m talking like early, early
morning, late late at night because not everybody is a nine
to five worker. People don’t do business and move around the
city just during daylight hours. We need to make sure
that transportation is accessible to everyone in
Seattle around the clock and I agree with that. In fact, we
need to build build out a more robust and thoughtful regional
approach with our partners over at King County but I don’t want
to get in a trap of sacrificing good transit for free transit
Thank you. Um our next question um is about greenhouse gas
emissions. Seattle’s greenhouse gas emissions are not on track
to meet our city stated climate goals, transportation accounts
for 60% of Seattle’s emissions. So shifting to low carbon modes
like transit biking, walking and rolling is a climate
necessity If elected. what is the highest impact action you
would take to make this happen? and we’ll start with Brianna
Yes. For a backpack. Um so, definitely transportation
infrastructure being built so that people are getting out of
their cars Also, green development and infill are we
know that you know, buildings are the number two polluter are
the number one. So, let’s build transportation. So, we’ve got
less cars on the road and let’s make sure that the
infrastructure we’re building around the city is green is
sustainable and does encourage a fifteen-minute walkable
neighborhood so I don’t have to get in my car to do a thing and
I will not a believer that answer Sarah Nelson. Alright.
Well, um my contribution to this will be to serve as a
bridge to work more effectively with the private sector and
partner with businesses on solutions because we’re never
going to reach our carbon neutrality goals unless we
figure out ways to get the business community to step up
their investments in electric vehicles. encourage mode ship
by mode shift by participating in the commute to production
program providing bike racks, showers, etcetera and who
better to initiate this reset this um reaching out for um for
for uh better than a small business owner who has uh who’s
business has a reputation for um for sustainability. So, what
I’ll be focusing on is increasing participation in CR
CTR by 30% within the first 2 years in office and incentivize
um other ways to uh get more businesses online. So, um and
speaking of bridges, I will uh also try to Delo the four SA
programs that currently work on reducing greenhouse gas
emissions and transportation Uh right now, it Streetcar Transit
and the bike program and if the goal is to reduce greenhouse
gases and transportation, these programs should be working
together, not competing for resources, because cooperation
will lead to faster implementation of our climate
goals. Um infrastructure planning will be more cohesive
and the value adds in The investments will be multiplied
Thank you to Oliver So, in my understanding is that 50% of
the 60% is single occupancy vehicles and so we have to get
cars off the road and that is a part of having this
transportation system that allows multi modal
transportation that is safe uh where people can walk cycle um
take public transit to work, school childcare and as we’ve
already said earlier, doing this in lockstep with the
development of housing ending racist exclusionary zoning,
having an infill strategies that have multiple options of
housing are all key. There’s also having social affordable
green housing. Um we have to build green now and so as a
city council member, I want to push us as a city to make that
commitment that all new buildings will be green and
acknowledge that it’s time to get off oil and gas and move
forward into a green economy and that has to happen with a
just transition though. we need to do it in partnership with
Labor to ensure that those workers that are transitioning
to have access to pensions have access to job retraining um and
that we do so in a way that honors the labor movement. So
having pre apprentice apprenticeship programs, uh
pipelines to unionized jobs will also be a really big part
of building a comprehensive green Seattle that has a green
economy
Alright. Um we have gotten a bunch of questions about
sidewalks um and so I’m going to sort of encapsulate all of
them as um both. what will you do to build sidewalks in areas
of the city that are missing sidewalks and um and how will
you ensure that sidewalks are clear and accessible for people
who are biking, walking and rolling and um we will start
with Sarah
Um we have made promises to uh North Seattle and South South
Seattle, Southeast Seattle to build sidewalks and uh um it’s
likely that we’ll not reach our goals. The the most expensive
part about building sidewalks is dealing with the drainage
issues. So, we need to prioritize our investments and
we should be putting sidewalks on major arterial so where they
where they don’t exist right now. Uh for example on Aurora
between 115th and 145th that is a with frequent transit and
should have sidewalks. So, we we should be targeting
sidewalks if we can’t build them all, then, we should be
targeting them along frequent transit first uh in Southeast
Seattle, there are uh there are many streets that um
neighborhood streets that could benefit from these natural
drainage systems if we can’t get sidewalks everywhere, then
there are the community has been asking for uh walkways and
natural systems have the advantage of providing AAA,
soft curve. That could be uh implemented faster for uh to
accommodate the need for sidewalks and safer streets
there but um the pet master plan calls for sidewalks near
um frequent transit and uh has a point system for deciding
where to you know, how to prioritize where to put them
but we should be putting sidewalks first on our with
frequent transit. Thank you. And Nikita. Oliver.
I I believe that when we make
decisions around our budget, it shows our values and where we
align and our city has continued to say that we do not
value disability justice. We are being inherently ableist in
the the way that we’re addressing the pedestrian
master plan by not focusing clear resources and to building
sidewalks with curve cutouts so that community members that are
in wheelchairs or other modes of movement around the city can
access public transit services and amenities. So, we cannot
talk about a walkable city if we not make the clear and
needed investments and sidewalks especially in Aurora
or in South Seattle where I live where people are walking
great distances to access public transit and this
attaches to our vision zero goal. If we’re going to
actually get to um ending fatalities serious fatalities
uh while people are walking or in cars, sidewalks are going to
be a huge part of of doing that. So, when it comes to the
Seattle Levy where we’ve actually failed right now to
meet our goals, we need to find a way prioritize in our budget
that 91 million dollars that we said said we were committed to
for the pedestrian master plan and be committed to be in a
city that honors disability justice and get sidewalks and
curb cut outs in place not just in the areas where we know
transit is located but especially in the areas where
we know children are where we know uh community members
accessing affordable housing are because it’s really
important Thank you uh Brianna Thomas. Yeah. and I do disagree
a little bit with Sarah on the prioritization of arterial with
transportation because I do think our neighborhoods that
house our elders and our children and our folks that are
definitely able. they need sidewalks too. They need
sustainably. I’m not sustainably. I’m so sorry
y’all. I’m just hot in here. I’m not sustainably but like
predictability and how they’re going to move through their 15
minute neighborhoods if we want neighborhoods to be 15 minutes
walkable. you gotta have somewhere to walk. I think one
of the more innovative things that we to do is just to let
the train go crazy. I mean, that dude is the G of civil
engineering for the city of Seattle. So, let’s just let his
team go wild and then make sure they’re doing it through a
racial equity lens which is based on my understanding of
the impetus of those folks coming to work every day. They
would do that anyway but I think we just have to start
trusting some of our not policy makers but actual civil
servants, you know, folks who come to work every day for the
city of Seattle do so because they do want to solve problems
their communities and they have subject matter expertise that
policy makers frequently get in the way of. So, maybe we just
need to do a better job of listening to the experts we
already have working for the city of Seattle day in and day
out and follow their direction. Alright. Um thank you. Um next
question is about uh to stay healthy and keep moving streets
um which I’ve never really know the difference but um the
streets that are closed down to cars open to people on bicycles
on foot on skates, in wheelchairs. Um what should
happen to those streets? There’s Twenty-five miles of
them and should they be expanded and um we’ll start
we’ll start this question with Nikki Oliver I think that we
should definitely maintain the 25 miles that we have and that
we should fandom that shows that we are that we as a city
are actually committed to moving towards being in a city
that’s not just about cars but one of the problems right now
with the stay healthy keep Moving streets is that they’re
mixed modalities. So, um they do have limited pedestrian
safety because there are still cars moving through those
spaces or other things um that could bring harm to pedestrians
that are that are moving there. um decreasing the number of
them that’s that have mixed modalities and increasing the
number really does our commitment to becoming a
fifteen-minute walkable city II want to follow up and um and
I’m going to actually follow this up with this for all all
three candidates because I’m I’m seeing another question I
think is relevant Um are there any streets that um in
particular that you might prioritize for another type Uh
you know either for this a similar treatment with
completely closed not mixed modality or just um other
places where there shouldn’t be space for cars Yeah, I think
roads that we could do this on are um on Beacon Avenue and
Rainier Avenue South decreasing uh the areas where folks can
park prioritizing, having a bus lanes, changing the way which
those arterial are physically set up is going to be really
important for achieving our vision. zero goals. Um each of
those roads has the propensity for people to drive at the
speed that they feel comfortable driving at and so
changing the way those roads are structured uh prioritizing
public transit be really key parts of both creating safety
and developing a transit system that is equitable and
accessible for everybody. Alright, thanks and uh we’ll go
on to Brianna Thomas
I’m going to repeat the question back here. Who was it?
Do we, what do we do with the safe streets? Yeah. Should they
stay or should they should the 25 miles stay open and should
they be expanded? Okay. Well, first, you would have
recognized that a lot of people on this call that are watching
right now have been advocating for this exact thing for years
and years and years and it took a pandemic to make it real. So,
yay. You never know how you’re going to get there but we did.
Um I do think that we should make these these streets and
these changes permanent but I think that’s going to take
infrastructure investments that are substantive. We just
learned about how hard it was to get a sidewalk to make sure
that we do have um you know, we are building in alignment with
our vision zero goals and You know, it’s not just what kind
of infrastructure but like Allegra infrastructure, right?
Like ages, genders, ethnicities, abilities,
everybody needs to be able to move through these corridors
and I think if I had to pick where I would do it, I’d
prioritize and you know, I understand the city’s big and I
don’t mean to sound like a downtown or or a person who
works downtown um but you know, Pike Pine seems like a fairly
healthy port considering that we’re considering uh uh moving
toward a lid. Let’s just get that whole chunk for feed only
and um you know, increase people’ ability to connect,
reconnect neighborhoods without having to do so in a way that
is so car reliant Uh thank you and Sarah Nelson.
Um one final note on the sidewalks. They’re because um
nobody said how we are going to pay for all the sidewalks and
and my point is that we have to prioritize one other way to
make streets safe is through Chicas that slow down traffic.
So, um there is the potential for uh increasing the usage of
that like um on seventieth between Roosevelt’s I mean
between twelve and fifteenth and uh some other places
Infinity Ridge, etcetera between third and in Palatine,
etcetera. So, that is another option. Um When we talk about
safe streets. Yes, let’s maintain those those
Twenty-five miles. Um most of these streets are in uh
neighborhoods and so I don’t how um how eliminating cars
completely is going to meet that goal if people have to get
to and from their homes uh but uh if we do expand the program,
I think that we should prioritize around um affordable
housing. uh hubs and because uh that is a place where a lot of
people have some more people have some mobility issues and
uh that is uh I think that if you’re going to have to pick
and choose where then that would be a good start. Thank
you. Um next question is about sound transit realignment. Um
you may or may not end up being um on the sound transit board.
Uh whoever gets elected um but um either way, what are your
priorities for South Transit realignment and station
planning in Seattle? um and uh and how could Seattle get a
transit more quickly? and uh this will go first to uh I
forgot the order. I think Brianna is on
Um I’ll take it as a West Seattle resident. I’m not going
to lie. I got a little bit of self interest here and making
sure that West Seattle gets delivered on time and it’s
close to budget as we can get it done but you know, I think
we do have to recognize it unless you are a member of the
Sound Transit Board, there are barriers to that. Um the impact
of any given council member to get that work done in a timely
manner. I think part of that though is relationship I think
the fact that I’ve been endorsed by Steve Hobbs who is
not always the most popular person but is the Senate
transportation chair like when you’re working across levels of
government You’ve gotta be able to get a call back from
somebody when you’re when you’re making sure that things
are getting done in a way that is equitable, that is timely.
that is responsive to the community. um and
The end. Uh Sarah Nelson. Alright, so we repeat the
question please. Sure. it’s about um how Seattle can get
the rapid transit that it needs sooner and um and what um what
would you prioritize as part of Sound Transit Transits
realignment process Alright, I’m going to focus most of my
question on that. Um so the um the 8 billion dollars shortfall
is a huge blow to sound trends at three but I do support King
County Executive Do Constantine and Mayor’s Durkin in Balducci
for slowing the for standing firm on not taking um you know,
a hatchet to the project list yet. they want to slow. They
want to have some more time and not do it over the summer and I
think that’s good for the projects that are of interest
like the West Seattle and the ball and etcetera. So, I do
think that with the economy picking up and the possibility
for getting federal funding that uh that waiting on um
cutting projects is the best thing to do. I staffed Richard
on transit board. So, I was in the room when that alliance and
um station locations of Stwo is being determined and during a
stationary planning, it was our office that that that pushed
sound transit to change the Brooklyn Station engineering to
allow for several floors on top. So, um we fought hard for
the inclusion of a station at South Graham and at 130 and
we’re disappointed that it was not funded in San Tan at two
but it will be in sound Transit three. Unfortunately, the gram
at the 130 station will come online fast enough at the same
time that the link uh the Lynnwood Link segment comes on
board. I think what’s most important though is not
changing the headway time from 6 minutes to 8 minutes which is
planned for the summer. If you have a Cadillac um system, not
a Cadillac but it why are we with increased ridership going
to um with the new stations increase uh headway as well
Thank you. And Nikita. Oliver. So, my understanding of the
sound transit board is that um earlier this year, they
presented three realignment plans and just early in June,
they talked about either an expanded capacity approach or a
plan required approach and what it seemed like they were
leaning towards was a plan required approach which means
they restructure the order of projects in order to address
the 6 billion dollars gap. Uh the goal of those should be to
deliver Sthree as on time as possible with lots of workforce
housing around it and the best alignment plan is going to be
one that prioritizes working people who are coming into the
city, low-income communities impacted by displacement and
those communities farthest from work and school that lack
equitable access to transportation. Um this is for
addressing the climate catastrophe. It is essential
for addressing the whitening racial wealth gap and it’s
essential for ensuring that our workers are able to move
through the city or in and out of the city and an effective
and quick way which ultimately is really what building. um our
subway system and having an effective transportation should
really be about is ensuring that people can move
effectively through. We have a huge equity issue and so any
realignment plan that does not first focus on community that
are receiving high rates of displacement communities with
lots of workers or bipoc communities is not one that
aligns with the needs of our city and our region. Thank you.
Um the next question is about road pricing which um which is
uh an issue in the last um elections 4 years ago um and it
still hasn’t happened. Um should the city continue
pursuing a road or congestion pricing system uh and uh if so,
what would your top priority be for such a policy for example
uh would it be to control traffic congestion, fun transit
walk, bike infrastructure or reduce carbon emissions and
pollution and we’ll start with Nikita.
First of First of all, congestion
pricing is is pretty regressive in the way that we’re set up
right now. So, it’s not to say that it’s wrong but it is to
say we have to acknowledge that um there are workers and folks
in our communities that it will deeply impact so that there
isn’t a huge equity analysis in place. It’s going to be very
problematic. The part of that is if we’re not building
transportation the way I just described the last question,
prioritizing communities that have been displaced by our
communities and workers and what we do is we take money
from those folks who are coming in Um and we’re not even
prioritizing their access into the city with equitable free
transportation and so if we were to put congestion pressing
in place in the downtown corridor specifically in order
to address our climate issues and to have funding to build
out transportation. Um it really needs to go towards
funding transportation projects in this communities that have
been displaced or have the farthest distance to travel to
get to work school or or child care Alright, Brianna.
This is still super contentious but um I’m going to say I
support congestion pricing because my understanding is the
people who are driving into downtown right now are affluent
car owning lawyers. That’s who’s in our apartment. That’s
who’s in our garage. That’s who’s driving in most right
now, day in and day out and if we are trying to figure out
multiple ways to try to tax people who have resources, then
these are the people who have resources and I don’t disagree
with Nikita that folks who are coming into work in town who
are not landed Gentry owning folks who are not committed to
our environmental goals Um but I do I do disagree that that we
should leave that money on the table. I would prioritize
spending that money on um additional infrastructure for
transportation and housing and Sarah. Yes, we should pursue
congestion. Nikita has got their hand up. Oh, sorry. Um
let’s uh go to Nikita. Thank you. Yeah. I just want to say
II. actually don’t think it’s just lawyers that are driving
into downtown. I think it’s construction workers. Um many
of whom are struggling to even find places that they can park
that are affordable. I’ve heard this from many of our folks in
the trades including folks like our carpenters, uh folks that
are in the iron workers that coming into downtown is already
incredibly expensive just by the sheer fact that there is no
parking. So, I do think there is a huge equity issue knowing
that we’re a city that has a lot of development happening
and there are workers who would be deeply impacted by
congestion pricing. So, just how when it comes to the income
tax That has to be a 1% flat rate. We’re talking about what
is equity look like with that. I think similarly with
congestion pricing though, it’s important to move us forward if
there’s not an equity dialogue about fluids impacting, we may
just put another aggressive tax in place Thank you. Um and now
we’ll go back to Sarah.
congestion pricing. achieves all three goals. It achieves uh
you know, transit and revenue and equity. look Um so,
getting uh you know, it it could be that less people drive
into town because it might be more because it might be
prohibitive and that will help buses. We’re all talking about,
you know, transit service and congestion pricing helps
transit. It also provides a revenue source that that could
be used for transit or biking infrastructure when poor people
come into town then they have to pay parking and so there’s
already a barrier for that and yes, some people do drive and
that is a burden and but I think that the benefits of uh
of congestion pricing far outweigh the negatives. We need
more revenue for all the things we’re talking about tonight and
uh and um it would make it much easier for buses to circulate
and that equity lens. Thank you. Um next question. Um how
would you prioritize our limited transportation
revenues? For example, if you could choose between new bike
and pedestrian lanes versus new vehicle infrastructure which
would you fund and if you answer both, um please explain
how you will raise new progressive revenues dedicated
for transportation and we’ll start with Brianna
I would definitely prioritize uh by the infrastructure for
sure because I think we’re trying to build a city where
people can actually bike around. I am not elegant on a
bike y’all. I do not ever think to take a bicycle anywhere on
the count of the fact that I am not foundational graceful but
um I think that creating opportunities for people like
me to be more open to putting on a helmet and at least biking
around their communities opens the door to folks being able to
use it more holistically across different parts of their life,
right? So, I think that if our goal is to build infrastructure
that encourages behavior just like our investments in transit
and equitable development are there to to incentivize
behavior. We really do have to meet people where they are and
I think that that infrastructure shouldn’t be
prioritized for communities that are the same communities
we’ve been talking about all day. They’re they’re the ones
that don’t have sidewalks. They’re the same ones that
don’t have, you know, the the curb cuts that they need to
have over the community and so I think I would like to learn
more about what those investments could look like for
people like me on offense to the folks that are already have
writers on the on the Zoom today but I think it’s getting
people like me that aren’t avid writers engaged in that in that
moving around town. That should be the goal and I’m going to
ask a quick follow up and then I’ll ask the other candidates
to also address this follow up um which is the second part of
this question. Um how would you and how would you uh raise of
revenues for transportation needs and uh you can say no, I
wouldn’t or if you say yes. um how would you go about doing
that? Now, we get this question about revenue quite a bit um
and I think that one I just want to say, I think the city
has done a heck of a job trying to find any progressive revenue
much less revenue that is solely dedicated. Um you know,
if it wasn’t for council member Russ work on Jumpstart, we
would have been in a 239 million dollars bigger hole
while we were trying to figure out how to allocate funds this
year. Um so good ups on the council for doing that. You
know II wish that we could figure out a mechanism at the
state level because we know that our tax system problems
start at the state level, not just the city level and we talk
about solutions but we’re always nibbling around the
edges. So, I would do, I’d put more energy into figuring out
how we partner with the state to turn this tax structure
right side up Thank you. Sarah Nelson is next. Alright. So, uh
I’ll just return to what I said before. we’ve we’ve got $60 on
the table that we can raise. uh you know, that we’re allowed to
right now. We don’t have to ask the legislature for that. We
have the ability to uh to put that to the voters like we put
the transportation benefit district to the voters and so
that is a source of funding that could go a long way for a
lot of the things that we’re talking about. Look, bikes,
pets, vehicles, buses, freight, travel on roads and bridges and
I believe that we need to chip away at the maintenance,
backlog and repair backlog and fix the infrastructure that we
have right now. that is good for buses. It’s good for bikes,
It’s good for pedestrians. So, um let’s fix what we have right
now and also uh generate uh make sure that we um that we
look at new investments through a um a uh lens that
incorporates the uh the priorities of all of our master
plans, Freight, bike, and um uh the last one that I’m
forgetting right now but um there needs to be a policy that
that that that guides these investments while maintaining
the infrastructure that we have. I mean, the West Seattle
folks there are waiting for their bridge to be repaired. We
don’t want other bridges to fail and we’ve got four others
that are in bad need of of repair. improvements. and uh
Nikita is not Yeah. So, I was very inspired last year by the
bike brigade that provided a lot of support to protest and
so as a part of bike brigade, um they were giving folks bikes
and I was able to to get one and so I started riding it
around the Central District near where I work and I will
tell y’all I am terrified. I’m terrified of cars. I’m
terrified that there’s no barrier between me and the
cars. I’m tired that bike lanes don’t exist like I might be on
a bike lane on 1 Street and I turn on to another and there’s
no bike lane on that next street and so I think improving
bike lanes is definitely a priority so that more people
like myself who’s a novice, I don’t know what to do with the
big metal machines on the road when I am on my bike and in
fact, I think I get distracted at times and there are just so
many hazards. So, how can we improve the actual physical
infrastructure around um our cyclists? I would also say um
and this is a bit of a both and it’s how do we improve having
more access for our that is committed to buses for buses to
be more effective and can we have more opportunity for there
to be small buses that move east west between neighborhoods
to get people to our main um arterial where there are larger
transportation hubs so it’s easier to move through the
city. Um if you live east west off of uh uh transportation hub
so both lanes and also improving our actual um our
public transportation infrastructure as well. Thank
you. Um next question is about um parking and or sorry um
traffic enforcement Mayor Jenny Durkin has been slow to roll
out, automated automated enforcement cameras is
authorized by the state legislature and a pilot that
runs until mid 2023 camera enforcement could reduce bus
lane cheating and blocking the box when motorists when
motorists blocked the crosswalk that people especially disabled
people need to cross the street. How will you implement
this pilot program and would you like to see a permanent
program? What about This to include cameras on bike lanes
to deter motorists from blocking bike lanes and uh
we’ll start with um I believe Sarah Nelson Snacks is up. Yes,
Sarah. I do support automatic enforcement cameras because
they keep people safe and uh you know, the people are um
it’s a behavior modification tool and so we need people to
stop blocking the box stop blocking bus lanes and so I
think that we should go forward with this program and the uh
when we talk about adding them to bike lanes um there were
twenty-eight bike and ped fatalities in 2018 and 2019 and
of those were pedestrian and so if we were to include more
cameras, we need to, if we’re really, really focused on
vision Zero, we need need to decoupage in the in the
pedestrian fatalities and um figure out how can cameras help
reduce both and then accordingly because we’re not
going to be able to put cameras everywhere. There are limited
resources and so that’s how I would prioritize the expansion
of the program
Thank you, Nikki. Oliver. Yeah, I do support a roll out of the
program. I think that it needs to happen first in high-income
areas. I think a lot about one of my professors who used to
say that uh wealthy people can afford to speed or break the
law when it comes to traffic infraction because they can pay
the ticket and so um II just think it’s important that we
acknowledge that the equity issues that do very much exist
in our city. I think that in low-income areas what we need
to implement in order to decrease the likelihood that
people will be in bus lanes or be in bike lanes or caused um
of some sort of violence while on the road. is that we need to
have a strategy of community education. We should put up
signs letting folks know that fines will be coming. So, there
is an alert in that community um and that when cameras do go
up in any community, we should not be stealth cameras. These
cameras should be apparent. There should be a warning um
because the real deterrent should come from not wanting to
get the ticket. um and and also acknowledging that this is a
punitive response to something that through community
education uh quality barriers, uh better ways of letting
drivers know what needs to happen and what Lanes and
Rainier Valley where I live when the lanes change to having
single bus lanes, it felt like there had been no real
acknowledgement that that was happening and then all of a
sudden we’re not supposed to drive there. So, how do you
like communities know when and how things are changing so that
when we do put something like cameras in place, it’s not just
like a sudden punitive uh thing that’s happening Thank you. Uh
and Brianna Thomas. As much as I want revenue, I’m a little
bit concerned about the privacy concerns for communities. I
think Mickey is definitely thinking in the absolute right
direction. We talk about where we roll out the pilot programs.
You know, the ACLU has been part of the surveillance
working group since 2018 and they constantly uh flag the
challenges about maintaining surveillance equipment by the
state that can identify and track the movements of
individuals without markings, clear warnings, or a way for
community members to opt out. So, as much as I appreciate
what the pilot program is attempting to achieve and II
mean, certainly a firm believer in making sure we’re enforcing
all of our laws but I’m not sure that this is the right
mechanism to do so without understanding what the impact
on community privacy and community actual safety is by
putting it through surveillance impact report which by the way,
we are about two groups behind on our ready for that. We So,
we probably wouldn’t be able to evaluate it or get a response
until 2023 Alright. Um and this will be our last question um in
this uh first segment. Um the first is very long segment and
then we’ll do a quick runaround of uh short answers and yes and
nos. Um final question is how will you deal with the
controversy that often arises when a bus lane or bike lane is
added to the street in a way that slows down car traffic or
moves on street parking and we’ll start with Nikita
Yeah, I think controversy um is inevitable uh as we’re making
these changes and it does matter how we engage community.
So, um one thing that that our campaign does is community
listening post and it’s something we started in 2017
with our first mayoral campaign of engaging people where
they’re at and having real conversations about the needs
and what might actually be the reasons why they’re opposed to
it and then using those spaces for political education or
community education really letting people know that
changing this bus lane is actually going to open up
changing us into a bus lane will open up more opportunity
for access to public transit. I think they’re also has to be
some additional incentives um and communities like where I
live. Public transit is not effective. The seven does not
run on a consistent time frame. So, people are not necessarily
believing that the bus is going to be faster or more on time or
outside of the nine to 5 hours. um and so really actually
prioritizing what makes this change of having this bus lane
on the road actually useful for the community that it’s in so
that when it’s received, it’s actually received in a way that
meets the community needs. So, that requires being in
community, hearing from voices, organizing with the mass
coalition groups like Puget Sound Stage. um Rainier Beach
Action Coalition, um all groups that I’m already connected to
and would love to bring in to doing this very important work
for building a transportation system that works for everyone
and gets us to our climate goals. Thank you uh Brianna
Thomas.
Erica, can you please repeat the question? Absolutely. How
will you deal with the controversy That often arises
when a bus lane or bike lane is added to the street in a way
that slows down car traffic or removes on street parking.
Yeah. Um people make fun of the Seattle process but we’ve used
it for a lot of good things including getting community
engagement and making sure the decisions that we’re making
collectively are indeed collective decisions. One of
the things I’ve heard that folks MASS is our community
councils which you know, we took a good hard look at them
and they were exclusionary. They were racist. They were
they were biased against people that weren’t English speakers
and so we dismantled them in 2017 but we didn’t put anything
back in its place um to fill that vacuum and so I think that
making sure that the city as a whole is taking a look at how
we communicate information, not just individual organizations
but the city does have a responsibility to fill that
vacuum and then, you know, long story short, folks, you know,
we just, we just Rob Johnson out of town over a bike lane.
Wowzers. We gotta figure out how to have these communicate
these conversations in a way that does hold people in
positions of policy making authority accountable but that
community is also accountable for how they are going into the
conversation because as I mentioned before, this is not
an easy position that anyone on this panel is asking for and it
is very easy to vilify anyone of us for a position that we
take that is unpopular but and that pressure doesn’t get less
once you get elected. I assure you, it only ratchet ratchet.
It’s up. So one having a tough skin and two understanding that
normally that sort of outcry is coming from a place of people
not feeling heard by public servants and building something
to fill in that space. Thank you. And Sarah Nelson. One more
note on um on uh automated traffic cameras. Um anyway, uh
it is low income black and brown people that are on buses
that are slowed by affluent people in cars blocking the
lane. So, um I think that we have to look at who is being
slowed down when we choose to decide where to put those
cameras. So,
Look. like I said in the opening, we need to have a
policy to determine infrastructure and and use of
roads because we do have all these different competing
needs. Bikes slow down, transit. It’s been shown what
has happened on second and on some other um uh not on second
but on other streets and I’m less concerned about cars than
I am for free as uh I would. I went to the North Seattle
Industrial Association meeting this and on the uh that
competes, you know, that’s the one arterial. It’s a bridge
going over Fremont um bridge uh trucks and buses. use that. So,
uh that’s what I’m concerned about and that is why we need
an integrated model um plan to figure out how do we deal with
these competing issues so that it’s not a one-off decision
every time so that we don’t have to have it devolved into a
um uh the Seattle process. So, that’s it would be my answer.
Thank you everybody. Um and now, um I’m going to do a bunch
of lightning around questions. Um we’re just going to stick in
the same order um and so I apologize uh to uh to Brianna
who’s going to get to go first on all these but um if you look
on the bright side, uh you’ll be done first as well. So, um
how uh let’s see will you legalize apartments in more
neighborhoods to create more affordable sustainable, and
transit-oriented City Brianna. Yes, Sarah. Yes, Nikita. Yes.
Do you decriminalizing fair non payment on sound transit trains
and buses? Brianna? Yes. Yes. And Nikita. Yes. What is your
primary mode of transportation? Brianna? The sweet, sweet sea
lion.
biking car and
Definitely maybe. um at the no businesses should not be let
off the hook and Nikita Yes. And then let’s raise taxes on
businesses. should. King County Metro consider smaller buses to
use as feeders for mass transit? Brianna
Sarah. Sarah. maybe. and Nikita. Yes.
Would you push legislation to expand transit benefits to
lower wage or part time workers who work for large companies?
Brianna, I already did it in St. Bd. Yes, Sarah. Yes,
Nikita. Yes. Until we have free transit. Do you support Ranked
choice voting Brianna Yes. Enthusiastically, Sarah. Yes.
And Nikita Yes. I would have loved to have had it in 2017.
as a city council member. Will you finish the downtown street
car connection from Capitol Hill to Suffolk Union? Brianna?
Yes. Sarah. Yeah. and Nikita Yes. Will you commit to
requiring the Seattle Department of Transportation to
increase the maintenance of our roads and bridges? Brianna Yes.
and Nikita. yeah. II. Just want to like acknowledge like I
don’t think that this is entirely a city council role. I
do think the executive’s office plays a big role in the
administration of the budget. We do present a balanced budget
and get funding to them uh but there is some flexibility in
how they do determine how they spend those dollars in
relationship to the executives. So, I think that’s really a
question for our next mayor Actually, the council has used
the budget proposals a very effectively to um to uh to make
sure that money is spent uh according to their policy
decisions
Do you want to jump in?
I don’t know yet.
In theory, I do. I don’t know enough about that project. and
Nikita. I do support and I would prioritize affordable
housing first, the cost per unit, and the overall impact
when it comes to density would be better. Alright. Um since we
have a couple of minutes left, I want to give everybody an
opportunity to um make a closing statement Um if you
want to use this time to uh expand on anything that you
didn’t. um you had an opportunity to talk about um as
much as you wanted or um just to to let our viewers know a
little bit more about you and your policies They relate to
transportation, sustainability, and equity. Um that would be
great. So, uh we will start with Sarah
So, I’m just going to play clean up on myself. Uh the
streets that I was talking about where bikes have slowed
transit um and then, you know, you have to think about the
equity issue. Uh Pike Pine in Broadway and second um when I
was referring to sixty more dollars on the table, I was
referring to the VF. Um I also mentioned the transportation
benefit district I was not referring to that in the same
sentence. um and uh permanent supportive housing we need to
make uh land use and regulatory changes to bring that online
faster to provide those needed services and uh to the housing
insecure and also um definitely use public private partnerships
to bring affordable housing online faster. I was at the
opening of the Catfish Corner and that is an example of a
project that was very well done. um and uh we should be
doing more of that Alright, thank you. Uh Nikita. Oliver.
Thank you so much. MASS Coalition for the opportunity
to share space with y’all and to folks spending their evening
talking about this really important issues. Uh the
thought I want to leave you with is we’re in a climate
catastrophe. Uh we hear everyone talking about the heat
We experience the smoke last year. There will be wildfires
this year again and we cannot wait to make significant
strides on a just transition ending exclusionary zoning
housing affordability, and a transportation system that is
built equitably and locked up with the housing that we need
to build and that we need to pursue getting to our climate
goals not just by 2050 but to be quite frank. We need to get
there sooner and the only way we’re going to do it is by
building a city where that is walkable, that has amenities,
services, and access to resources for families and
their neighborhoods and I believe I’m the candidate to
make that happen with MLK Labor support ATU 5587 Transit
Riders, Seattle Sunrise Movement, Seattle, Puget Sound
stage leaders, The Working Families Party, uh Michael
O’Brien, Tammy Morales, uh state senators, and state reps.
I think that I can bring a cross section of community
together that that will allow us address this catastrophe
head on Thank you. And finally, Brianna Thomas. I’m going to
use my 90 seconds to explain something. I said when I
launched my campaign and people ask me regularly, how are you
different than your boss? And I said, I hate scooters. I don’t
hate scooters. The fun on Alki a couple days ago, it’s a
delightful What I do hate is them being in the middle of the
road and being a blockage for people that are just trying to
move through the city and I think my to that we just give
us some place to park them along with bicycles. You know,
if we had some place to put Ebikes and to put scooters and
to put private bikes on every corner. Well, not every corner
but most corners across the city that would also I think
improve people’s willingness and ability to use these multi
opportunities and not have to take cars everywhere. So,
that’s what I’d like to do with my 90 seconds and I would like
to say that I think that we are all working toward
transportation systems that either give people back time or
money because those are both in short supply. Thank you for
having me this evening. and thank you all so much for
participating in tonight’s Position nine city council
candidate forum and our candidates tonight again were
Nikita Oliver, um Sarah Nel, and Brianna Thomas. Um and
thanks to everybody who watched online. and um I am going to uh
turn my time, turn the rest of uh the time back over to Ingrid
to close this out um and just a final reminder that the primary
election is on August. 3rd and ballots will be dropping in uh
mailboxes across the city in just a couple of weeks. Thanks.
wonderful. Thank you. My name is Ingrid Elliott and I’m from
350 Seattle Action. I really appreciate your uh skillful
moderation this evening. Erica uh Barnett and thank you to all
of our candidates for being here Again, that primary
election is coming up on August 3rd. Very important date. So,
watch for your ballots in mid July. Uh I’d also like to thank
again all our cosponsor organizations, not only 350
Seattle but Cascade Bicycle Club Disability rights,
Washington, Seattle, Neighborhood Greenways,
Seattle, Subway, Sunrise, Seattle, Transportation Choices
Coalition, Transportation Rider, Transit Riders Union,
and the Urban If you missed any of the live stream tonight or
would like to share with friends, we’ll be sharing a
recording and a transcript via Email to all who registered and
also on social media. Thanks. for being with us tonight
everyone and have a great evening.