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Mayor Mike McGinn today announced details of the Seattle Jobs Plan, a vision for next-generation economic development that creates a sustainable economy with shared prosperity in Seattle and the Puget Sound region. It consists of a framework of new and existing policies, programs, engagement strategies, and investments that, together, will help create quality jobs, protect the environment, and ensure that taxpayers get true value from the city of Seattle’s public investments.

“It’s tough out there. People are hurting. We have important choices to make to position ourselves for the future – to be competitive, to take care of the environment, to take care of each other,” said McGinn. “I am making job creation a core priority for my administration, a priority supported by my Youth and Families Initiative and Walk Bike Ride. We need to start transitioning toward the future. I will fight hard to expand quality job opportunities and will make sure city government is doing all that it can to partner with businesses big and small to help us meet the future.”

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Posted by: Aaron Pickus, Assistant Communications Director

Congratulations to Budget Director Beth Goldberg, Finance and Administrative Services Director Fred Podesta, Finance Director Glen Lee and Office of Economic Development Director Steve Johnson, whose appointments were all confirmed today by the City Council. Congratulations also to Anne Levinson, who was confirmed today as civilian auditor for the Office of Professional Accountability.

Beth Goldberg being sworn in as Seattle's Budget Director

Posted by: Aaron Pickus, Assistant Communications Director

Today I had the pleasure of honoring six outstanding individuals and organizations at the eighth annual Mayor’s Arts Awards ceremony at Seattle Center. The occasion also marked the opening of the Bumbershoot Visual Arts exhibition. (What we know as Bumbershoot began as the Mayor’s Arts Festivals forty years ago today).

The recipeints all spoke eloquently and passionately about their committment to the arts and Seattle. They are:

• Juan Alonso, visual artist
• Book-It Repertory Theatre
• Dennis Coleman, artistic director, Seattle Men’s Chorus & Seattle Women’s Chorus
• Reel Grrls, nonprofit media production organization engaging young women
• Sergei Tschernisch, president, Cornish College of the Arts
• Velocity Dance Center

You can read Juan Alonso’s great e-mail HERE.

Seattle’s artists and non-profit arts and culture contribute so much to the city’s vitality – to our economy, our neighborhoods, and our national profile. These recipients have all helped make Seattle one of America’s top cities in arts and culture.

Please join me in celebrating their coninued success and in thanking them for their extraordinary contributions to our quality of life.

Posted by: Mayor Mike McGinn

Last night The Stranger and the Washington Bus hosted a public forum at the Hunter Gatherer Lodge in Capitol Hill to discuss the Seattle Nightlife Initiative. The Mayor’s Office is doing outreach as well, to community groups and precinct councils, but The Stranger made an excellent point. We weren’t talking to people where they will be most affected by the Initiative – in the bars and clubs themselves.

The Stranger and the Bus brought out dozens of people we might not typically hear from in a public input process like this, to ask questions of a panel which included Mayor McGinn, Alan Rathbun from the Washington State Liquor Control Board, Bob Scales from the City Attorney’s office, Dave Meinert, music and nightlife advocate and one of the organizers of the Capitol Hill Block Party, Seattle Nightlife and Music Association president Pete Hanning and Deputy Police Chief Clark Kimerer.

There were some great questions about how the staggered hours proposal will work and requiring new tenants and home buyers in nightlife areas to sign an agreement recognizing that nighttime noise is an inevitable side effect of living in a vibrant, active area. Meinert replied that some municipalities already have this requirement in place, so it’s certainly possible, and Hanning pointed out that a building across from his bar, the Red Door, requires tenants to sign that type of agreement before moving in. Meinert argued that though club and bar owners should be accountable for the noise they produce, and home buyers and renters should research their new neighborhoods before committing, some of the burden should fall to developers. “There can be two buildings next to a club, one where you can hear nothing and one where you can hear everything. The City can do a better job regulating developers to make sure all new buildings are shielded from noise.”

We caught up with Toby Crittenden from the Washington Bus after the forum to get his take on the event. The Bus is all about getting young people engaged in politics and building a progressive coalition that transcends some of the specific issues that divide us. He told me that nightlife reform is a great opportunity to energize young voters and activists because it makes them realize what a huge impact these policy decisions, usually made behind closed doors by people in suits, have on their everyday lives. “What I love about this issue is that it makes people who don’t think they’re political, realize that they are.”

Toby says – YOU are the Bus!

We closed out the night with music by DJ J-Justice. Mike Nipper of the Emerald City Soul Club spun before the panel got started.

Stay tuned at the Mayor’s blog for more on the Seattle Nightlife Initiative.

Posted by: Words: April Thomas, Pictures: Jen Nance

What Are You Working On? will be a regular feature on the mayor’s blog. We thought it would help give a little insight into life in our office – just what are we up to on the 7th floor?

This is Sol Villarreal, Community Engagement Coordinator for the Mayor’s Office. One of the many things he’s working on right now is the Seattle Youth Commission. Over the summer Sol’s been meeting with Commissioners (Seattle residents, ages 13-19) to restructure the Commission. Beginning this year, the Commission (formerly the Mayor’s Youth Council) has official status as a policy advisory body to the mayor and City Council, like the Design Commission or the Immigrant and Refugee Advisory Board. Sol meets with the members of the Commission to help them decide how they want to run things – will there be a Chair of the Commission? How can other young people give feedback and get involved? What’s the best way for them to leverage their unique expertise to meaningfully influence City decision-makers?

According to Sol, getting to work with the Youth Commission is the best part of his job. It reminds him of when he worked on Obama’s presidential campaign – he’s training a new generation of activists in Seattle.

SYC will begin meeting on September 9^th. To get involved, check out http://seattle.gov/syc/getinvolved.htm or text FOLLOW @SYCUPDATES to 40404.

Stay tuned here at the Mayor’s blog for an update after the first meeting.

Posted by: Words: April Thomas, Pictures: Jen Nance

There have been a few questions recently regarding marijuana enforcement in our city.  We’ve put together a FAQ to help answer these questions.

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Posted by: Aaron Pickus, Assistant Communications Director

I say “neighbors” because I’ve been a proud R.V. resident since 1994.

The Valley, as we well know, has over the years been maligned in the press. At times, we’ve felt ignored, humored, and frankly dissed by the City. I’m not here to say that those feelings aren’t based in some sort of reality. Like many of you, I’ve at times felt frustrated, and angry at my elected officials.

I clearly remember Columbia City in ’94-’95. We had boarded up buildings, cars speeding through the district, (why would anyone bother to stop in a dead business district) rampant crack sales, and worse. As neighbors, we decided to do something for ourselves. We pitched in, worked together, and got a lot of great work done. We certainly didn’t wait for the City to come and save us. Over the course of time, the City started to take notice, but our re-birth was a grassroots effort. You can read details in former Department of Neighborhoods leader Jim Diers’ excellent book Neighbor Power.

My wife and I choose to live in the most diverse zip code in the U.S, and we couldn’t imagine raising our bi-racial daughter anywhere else. The Rainier Valley in general, and Rainier Beach in particular, have a lot to boast about. I’ll put Kubota Gardens up against any City park any day of the week for sheer beauty. How about authentic food from all over the world? It’s hard to beat the Valley. Tell me where else in Seattle you can witness a scene like what took place at the Rainier Valley Heritage Parade/Street Festival? The richness of our diversity on display is a powerful symbol of America at its best.

Here is what the Mayor’s Office has been working on since Mayor McGinn came into office:

1) The Youth and Families Initiative seeks to collaborate with other institutions, and community partners to develop a comprehensive approach to supporting youth from pre-birth through post-secondary education. We are committed to ending racial disparities in education, child care, children’s health, economic opportunity, and the criminal justice system.

2) Walk Bike Ride will make walking, biking, and using transit the easiest choice for as many Seattle residents as possible. This will be accomplished by how we design our communities, build our streets, and invest in transportation priorities, and work with other jurisdictions on the vision for our region.

3) Engage Seattle will ensure that anyone who wants to be involved with the community can do so in a meaningful way. We’ll do this by improving the quality of public outreach in all City Depts., improving constituent services, building stronger relationships with community organizations, by leveraging volunteer service to help grow social capital, and helping to develop future leaders.

4) The Seattle Jobs Plan will work to create the foundation for shared prosperity by smart investments in our physical infrastructure, our people, and our natural environment. We’ll strive for “high road” standards to create family wage jobs. We’ll remove obstacles to innovation, and entrepreneurship, while supporting existing sectors like health care, maritime, and industrial. In every case, we are working closely with caring residents and caring leaders who love this community as much as I do and want to build toward their vision of what their community can become.

I am part of this administration because my values are the Mayor’s values. We care about building a Seattle that is fair, equitable, and inclusive. We care about a Seattle that is safe for all and we care about a Seattle that is environmentally sustainable.

We’re serious about walking our talk. If you would like to hear more about how we’re engaged or tell us what you’re working on, I hope you will call or email me directly. No one knows your neighborhood as well as you, and you are critical to our ability to lead in a way that ensures we are as responsive and as thoughtful as possible in times that are as complex and challenging as these.

With respect,
Darryl Smith
Deputy Mayor of Community

Posted by: Deputy Mayor Darryl Smith

Mayor Mike McGinn will be hosting three town halls in the coming weeks. These town halls are an opportunity for Seattle residents and business owners to discuss their concerns directly with the mayor, Police Chief John Diaz and other city leaders.

Pioneer Square Town Hall
September 13, Monday
6:30 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.
Alaska Club Ballroom in the Courtyard Marriott
612 Second Avenue

International District/Chinatown Town Hall
September 23, Thursday
6:30 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.
International District/Chinatown Community Center
719 Eighth Avenue South

Rainier Beach Town Hall
September 30, Thursday
6:30 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.
Rainier Beach Community Center
8825 Rainier Avenue South

Posted by: Aaron Pickus, Assistant Communications Director

Every day, Mayor McGinn receives between 30 and 300 letters and emails. Lots of calls, too, but we try to encourage people to put their message down in writing so the mayor can hear from them in their own words. We thought you might all be interested in knowing exactly what happens to a letter or email on its way from your mailbox to the mayor’s desk.

When your letter is delivered to the Mayor’s Office, it is opened and time stamped by our Supported Employee, Krista Leimbacher. After the correspondence staff review the letters to check for time-sensitive materials like legal documents, Krista scans them into the computer. Our interns at the front desk do some tricky data entry to get your letters assigned to policy staff members in the Mayor’s Office in our database. Those policy staffers work with employees in city departments to get the information needed to answer your questions or address your concerns. Once they have all the information, they write a first draft of a response to your letter and turn it in to the mayor.

Once or twice every week, we meet in Mayor McGinn’s office to go over the drafts we’ve written. He reads your letter (yes, he reads them) and our proposed response. More often than not, he has input to offer on the tone or style of our draft letters. He answered correspondence for Congressman Jim Weaver for several years in his early twenties, so he has strong feelings about treating a constituent with respect. That means speaking directly to someone’s concerns, not dancing around the subject. Sometimes, though, it’s not just the language that needs to be changed. Occasionally he sends us all the way back to the drawing board.

This is the moment when the really good stuff happens. Mayor McGinn reads your letter and says “You know, this person is absolutely right. Something needs to change here.” Maybe it’s a neighborhood project that would benefit from thinking outside the box. Or a policy that doesn’t quite make sense. So the policy staffers go back to the department and ask them to take another look at the policy. It takes a lot of time and staff resources, but we are committed to making sure that every voice, speaking about every issue, no matter how small, is heard and acted on.

When we receive dozens or even hundreds of similar letters on a single subject, we often send the same response to many of them. We try to modify that response to address individual concerns, but sometimes ideas get lost in the shuffle. We have received more than 10,000 letters and emails so far this year. If we missed yours, or failed to address your concerns, please let us know.

We can’t guarantee that everyone who writes a letter will get what they want. But we want you to know – your letters make a difference.

To write to the mayor, send an email to mike.mcginn@seattle.gov (please email if possible. Think of the trees!) or write to:

Mayor Mike McGinn

Seattle City Hall 7th floor

600 Fourth Avenue

P.O. Box 94749
Seattle, WA 98124-4749

Posted by: Words: April Thomas, Pictures: Jen Nance

[NOTE:  The following blog post is a letter Jon Scholes, vice-president of advocacy and economic development for the Downtown Seattle Association, wrote to The Seattle Times today in response to Sonia Krishnan's front-page story inaccurately characterizing short-term parking fees as a city policy meant to "discourage driving."  Scholes's letter is posted here with his permission.]

Hi Sonia,

I’ve got to come to the City’s defense in regards to your story this morning on parking fines.  The characterization that the “goal” of the City’s parking enforcement program is to “discourage driving” is entirely inaccurate as is the implication that parking Downtown would be easier to find and more plentiful if the City didn’t enforce parking rules (or were less effective in enforcing the rules).

It is very important to the vibrancy of the Downtown neighborhood that metered on-street parking is managed in a way so that those spaces are available to serve people in need of short-term parking.  There is a limited supply of on-street parking Downtown and we aren’t making any more of it.  Parking rules – and the fines and officers deployed to enforce those rules – are key to making sure this finite resource is available to as many people as possible who come Downtown by car to shop, eat, go to the market, etc. and need short-term parking.

Without parking rules in place and fines to enforce those rules, drivers would have fewer opportunities to park on the street Downtown, not more.  We’d see more blocked driveways, illegally parked cars in load zones and spaces tied up all day by the same vehicles.  All of these scenarios would negatively impact individuals driving and looking for parking Downtown and restaurants, hotels, retail stores and other businesses who depend on their customers’ ability to find parking Downtown.

There is a limited supply and a high demand for parking Downtown.  Making on-street parking free and/or eliminating fines will not increase the supply or make it easier for people to drive Downtown.  It fact, it would do the exact opposite.

Best,

Jon Scholes

V.P. of Advocacy and Economic Development
Downtown Seattle Association
600 Stewart Street, Suite 200
Seattle, WA  98101

Posted by: Aaron Pickus, Assistant Communications Director

Every first and third Thursday at City Hall, local bands play a free concert at lunchtime. Hundreds of downtown workers, parents with young children, City employees and other Seattleites gather on the plaza to eat their lunch and get a little dancing in before they head back to work. The program, supported by Seattle Metropolitan Credit Union, Seattle Parks and Recreation, Summer in the City and Triamp Group, promotes local artists by exposing them to new audiences. Last week Latin Expression, a 12-piece salsa band with a devoted local following, got everyone moving on a beautiful August afternoon.

Below you can see Liz Birkholz, Project Manager here at the Mayor’s Office and confirmed salsa devotee. She convinced the rest of us to check out the action on our lunch break. This week is Clinton Fearon and Boogie Brown Band, at noon on Thursday, August 26th. The full concert calendar is available here: http://www.seattle.gov/arts/community/seattle_presents.asp. Join us sometime.

Posted by: Words: April Thomas, Pictures: Jen Nance