News Sep 10, 2014 at 8:00 am

26-Year-Old Halei Watkins Thinks New Rules for Local Elections Give Her a Chance to Win

She’s a Planned Parenthood organizer, a Northgate resident, and a renter. Kelly O

Comments

2
One reason why the city council is full of old folks is that it's pretty hard to get excited about someone whose background is a few years as a field organizer at Planned Parenthood. If Halei Watkins really has dreams of local politics, she should get some experience working on an issue that's actually relevant to the city. Renters' rights seems like a good start.
3
@1: you're a dick.

good luck halei; I fear jean godden rules NE seattle until she decides not to.
4
I fear the lede was buried with this one. Youth and ageism isn't the issue, the issue particularly in that council district is money. Ms Watkins will be running in the district of the person who bankrolled the entire campaign for districting: Faye Garneau. Garneau will want the return on her investment: lower costs for development in her district, more policing in her district, more investment...etc. That's the issue that should be followed closely for this race.
5
We should chage the lines so McGinn should, she seems bright but maybe a bit more experience would be good.
6
I'd vote for her (and with only her name on the ballot, she'd win).
7
@5, nah, I'd really love to see the debates that occur if McGinn ran against O'Brien. You thought last Mayoral election was "we're almost the same"...
8
@2: this is not Jean Godden's district - this is the only district without an incumbent living in it. Godden is in District #4 (Wallingford, U District, Laurelhurst)
9
@8: o thx - I saw N and thought NE.

I miss judy nicastro.
10
@10, I miss Judy too. She got married, had a kid and lives in the burbies. Sellout:/.
11
@2: Jean Godden's only experience before she was elected was as a gossip columnist.
12
Good luck Halei! You have my vote when the time comes.
13
She's planning to raise $200K and has already hired an expensive campaign consultant? For a campaign in a district with maybe 135 precincts? I'm sensing less of a door-knocking ground game and more of the old dialing-for-dollars and papering mailboxes with slick expensive mailers. Or maybe she uses all that money to hire her doorbellers at $15/hour.
14
Nah, she sounds to rational and logical. Seattle will most likely reject her. Granted, northern Seattle has more brains then the People's Republic of Capitol Hill, but still, she may be too reasonable for this city.
But then again, North Seattle has people who actually work and not the trust fund, wealthy white ultra-liberal/fascist brats that other parts of the city has, so she has a shot. I'd vote for her, because at least she sees affordability as a complex issue and not just about "fifteen dollars an hour and fight the evvvvvvvillll capitalist pigs!" (but ignore that my husband is one of those wealthy capitalist pigs)
15
@14: you're a dick.

the people you imagine exist in "other parts of the city" don't exist. go jerk off to dori monsoon.
16
@15
*yawn* The facts state otherwise:
http://crosscut.com/2014/02/12/politics-…

And why would I, a libertarian/anarchist, want to listen to conservative radio?
17
"Before young urbanists get freaked out by all this talk of North Seattle sidewalks and impact fees, listen up: She also wants to incentivize development around transit hubs and in urban villages"

..."urbanists" (aka The Stranger staff) need to recognize that these issues are the same and that district 5ers largely want the same things as people downtown. You want a less car-centric downtown? Then you need to build sidewalks and transit that allow people to commute in without cars. You want affordable housing? Then you need to invest in connected urban neighborhoods, not just stacking low income housing on the outskirts of town without transit access and patting yourself on the back.
18
There's nothing at all wrong with people in North Seattle and Arbor Heights wanting sidewalks to be completed, on any and all levels. They're essential for safety, and most of these annexed areas were but promised this -- or were promised this -- as part of annexation. Where are they?
19
Thanks for turning your myopic gaze toward my 5th CD.

Just to do a little housekeeping, nobody currently lives in and represents the 5th CD.
There are plenty of cars because there aren't plenty of transit options, including the fabled sidewalks I hear so much about. So, we will be asked and taxed on our mobility (cars) so that many others can continue to enjoy their mobility (don't be such a bunch of assholes, would it kill any of you to say thank you for funding my bus with you car tabs?)

Remember that districts are population proportional. CD5 has just as many people but more land mass, we are the Canada of Seattle (tm).

The new candidate has 3/4 of this about right. The hole in her game is that if she is intent on championing dense living without cars then I suggest that she get away from the park and ride hub of Northgate and figure out how those car-less folks would get to the jobs that are concentrated in other parts of the city, and find the impact fee nexus of having those developers help fund bike lanes, sidewalks, and have bike lockers (or something similar) in place of the dreaded car parking spaces.
These people are not all going to telecommute, and they are not all retired, they will have to go to work a distance from their homes that isn't really "walkable" for most people.

Also, take a close look at the urban village 2035 map, overlay the Sound Transit light rail plan, and reconcile the zoning map with the plan for fixed rail.
How will people access that transit from the sea of SF homes with limited bus service, sidewalks, and bike paths.

Lastly, what is the industry in north Seattle? We are going to have LR running north and south, downtown is going to be played out, so find a purpose, and it sure as fuck isn't whatever comes out of Eugene Wasserman and Faye Garneau's mouths.
20
Thankfully candidate Watkins actually mentioned actually funding and building sidewalks! Try and get anything out of the other entrenched CCM's on this subject and you will be patronized, or worse lied to. Meanwhile these same CCM's run around touting x, y or z biking project and people in wheelchairs or with strollers are stuck in their homes or apartments because it's to damn dangerous to walk IN A STREET with drivers who'd just as soon run you over than slow down. Progressive city my ass. Pampering the already pampered and being smug is more like it. Rock on Watkins, Sidewalks For All!
21
Ms. Watkins, if you want my vote as a homeowner in your 5th District, then help us grab the attention of Mayor Murray and amend Washington adverse possession law (or, "Squatter's Law", RCW 7.28.070) AND carry out its enforcement. Some of these squatters take over houses by providing low-paid assistance to the now-deceased deed holders, and if they stay in them long enough, by law they can be "grandfathered in" and claim the deeds. Meanwhile, they turn properties into waste dumps and attract crime to our neighborhoods. Don't just help us with lowering rents for citizens. Help us who are trying to maintain modest homes and decent neighborhoods to refine existing outdated property laws.
22
The Typical American politician is far older, far racially Whiter, and far, far wealthier than the typical American citizen: smells like Rich, White , Older Person Privilege . . . o.O --- http://www.politicalcompass.org & http://www.inequality.org & http://www.splcenter.org .

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