Eight finalists for the city council seat left vacant by Teresa Mosqueda answered questions from the public last night at a forum in City Hall. Based on their answers, no candidate really represents the values that almost 60% of voters endorsed when they elected Mosqueda in 2021: more progressive revenue, more housing development, and less reliance on the carceral state.
Nevertheless, School Board Director Vivian Song set herself apart in the forum last night as the clearest advocate for progressive revenue and housing development. In recent days, as big business has rallied around failed council candidate Tanya Woo, labor and the urbanist left have coalesced around Song, even if she’s unlikely to become Mosqueda reincarnate. The political dynamic sets up the council with an ultimatum. If the new members want to shake their reputation as corporate stooges, they’ll pick Song. If not, then they’ll pick Woo.
The winner will get a say in how to deal with Seattle’s devastating budget deficit, the opportunity to overhaul old zoning laws, and contract negotiations with the Seattle Police Officers Guild, all areas where Mosqueda’s perspective will be sorely missed.
Revenue
While the forum mostly consisted of resume recaps and vague gestures toward “listening” to an unspecified “community,” moderator Alicia Crank asked several questions about budgeting.
The new council will have to balance Seattle’s $1.6 billion general fund in the face of a quarter-billion-dollar budget shortfall in 2025 and a similar gap in 2026. Mosqueda tried for months to pass a new tax to secure the revenue before she left the council, but ultimately she and her colleagues left the fate of public spending in the hands of new council members who mostly campaigned on an anti-tax platform. Yikes!
For the most part, the nominees will fit in with the tax-adverse council. Crank asked if, in light of the budget shortfall, the candidates support increasing taxes or making cuts. Every nominee said the City should search the couch cushions before imposing new taxes. Woo called progressive taxation a “last resort.”
The candidates mostly both/anded their way around the question, but later, a rapidfire question at the end of the forum drew lines in the sand. Crank asked the nominees if they support the proposals put forward by the Progressive Revenue Stabilization Workgroup, such as a capital gains tax and a CEO pay ratio tax. For “yes,” Crank instructed nominees to hold up a green paddle. For “no,” Crank told them to hold up a red paddle.
The Seattle Police Department’s Mark Solomon, Seattle Human Services Department’s Mari Sugiyama, and Song held up a green paddle to support progressive taxation. Civic Hotel owner Neha Nariya, Captain Steve Strand, former congressional staffer Linh Thai, blood donation advocate Juan Cotto, and Woo held up red paddles, meaning they do not support the progressive revenue proposals.
Rapid fore questions focused a ton on trees and the candidates looked confused. Here’s who supports progressive revenue proposals from the recent taskforce. https://t.co/u1QViBjwXM Strand also held up red for “no.” pic.twitter.com/eIY9NxT5wJ
— Hannah Krieg (@hannahkrieg) January 19, 2024
Even though Nariya, Strand, Thai, Cotto, and Woo do not support new progressive revenue, they failed to propose any specific cuts in an earlier question. People. You cannot have it both ways. The anti-tax squad all want to “look” at the budget for redundancies, inefficiencies, and programs that don’t deliver results. Strand, to his credit, specified that he would not cut funding to public safety, particularly the heavy police presence at 12th & Jackson and 3rd & Pine.
Zoning
The new city council will also have to pass a new Comprehensive Plan, which sets allowances for development across the city. You can blame the architects of Comp Plans past for the housing crisis of today. It is that serious.
Crank asked the nominees to name neighborhoods the City should exempt from upzones related to House Bill 1110, a recently passed state law that legalizes duplexes and fourplexes in most areas in Washington.
Thai, Nariya, and Song said that no neighborhood should be exempt amid a housing crisis.
The other nominees skirted around the question. They did not name specific neighborhoods, and instead leveled broad concerns about gentrification and displacement. While they did not name strategies to combat displacement, Song pushed back, arguing that the zoning changes would not happen “overnight” and so the City would have time to mitigate gentrification while also combatting the housing affordability crisis.
The issue of development may present the widest chasm between frontrunners Song and Woo, who actually advocated for “downzones” in an early interview with The Stranger. Song, on the other hand, runs in urbanist circles, endorses strong density advocates like District 4 candidate Ron Davis, and, most importantly, supports sweeping zoning reform, as she said in the forum.
Song presents the new council with an opportunity, particularly for Council Members Cathy Moore and Joy Hollingworth, to show their support for density, or at least a willingness to entertain a strong, urbanist perspective. Both Moore and Hollingsworth tried to fight back against NIMBY impressions—the Urbanist gave Moore a “hello, fellow kids” post, and Hollingsworth wrote an op-ed defending herself against a story by The Stranger about her anti-density advocacy in 2017. Picking Song could prove that Moore and Hollingsworth aren’t as afraid of development as some believe.
Cops
Surprisingly, cops didn’t come up in the forum! Like, at all. But it seems as if even the most lefty of the two nominees, Song and Sugiyama, won’t take too hard of stances against our boys in blue. Again, in this way, the nominees feel out of sync with the popular council member they would replace.
In 2020, Mosqueda proposed a cut to the Seattle Police Department’s hiring budget. It failed, and, after the protests ended, many of her colleagues started backing the blue once again. But she kept the spirit, railing against hiring incentives when Council Member Sara Nelson proposed and eventually passed them in 2022 in effort to hire the Mayor’s goal of 1,400 cops.
Song wrote in her application that Seattle needs a police force “scaled to the size and needs of a growing city,” which sounds like a call for more cops. Song declined my request for an interview, so that’s really all I know about her stances on policing.
Sugiyama, in a phone call with The Stranger, said she supports the Mayor’s goal of hiring 1,400 cops, though she’s not sure how to get them other than through hiring bonuses that have yet to solve the (subjective) staffing shortage. She said it’s “best not to look at [the department’s] budget” until the Seattle Police Department reaches that number—it wouldn’t be fair to make cuts until they have the number of cops they want.
Mosqueda also took a hard stance against the controversial bill to criminalize public drug use, which the council passed last year. Again, no word from Song, but Sugiyama told The Stranger she would have supported the drug bill.
While the public does not have complete information about all the nominees, it’s clear from the answers in the forum and from labor’s blessing that Song would be the most similar to the council member who left the seat. But don’t expect Mosqueda’s endorsement for anyone. She told The Stranger she’s staying out of it. The new council expects to appoint one of the eight nominees on Tuesday.
A moderate that wants to shift course away from the failed progressive social experiments that fueled the crime/drug/encampment crisis.
A moderate that wants to shift course away from the failed experiment of throwing money at the police for positions we never ever fill, and realizes that the crime and drug epidemic is not just here, but is fueled by China and Mexico (who use these things called trucks to get it here)
As NoSpin commented in the previous post on the vacancy, using Ms. Krieg’s analogy, if Clarence Thomas dies, then President Biden should appoint another hard-line conservative because that’s who held the seat before.
Does anyone else read Hannah’s columns for all the humor?
Again, if Woo is selected, than district 2 has TWO of 9 council members- a win for southeast Seattle. Although I’m not sure she would be the most expeditious pick.
And as far as the Stranger appearing to dislike pro- business candidates, aren’t many of the businesses in question the same minority owned businesses reviewed and lauded by the Stranger?
Song does her homework and is the only one of the bunch asking hard questions and digging into the finances on the School Board. Squishy Seattle political labels aside, she’s very smart and will learn up quickly. I also like Woo’s community background and principles. I’m happy to see these two as finalists!
@4
Not just Hannah’s.
The “strong urbanist perspective” the Stranger keeps trying to shove down people’s throats didn’t fare so well in Districts 3, 4, and 5, did it now?
@3 Thomas was appointed Mosqueda was elected
Finally! The C really is for “Crank!”
“…the rest of the corporate stooges…” Good god, grow up already. It’s your job as a ‘journalist’ to investigate and report. Give the Sawant (who ordered campaign supplies from Amazon) speak a rest, please. It’s disingenuous and doesn’t help make the points you think you’re making. And how do reconcile your hatred of all things business with your love of Taylor Swift? Shouldn’t you be listening to Crass or some anarchy-punk instead, 24/7, and living in a Tarp Mahal handing out foil and straws to the downtrodden?
To paraphrase what a friend said recently, my pronouns are ‘was/were’ because I’m so damn over it.
Millionaire Vivian Song is surely interested in housing as her husband is a developer and has been waiting for this moment for personal gain. They have done everything in their power to weasel in her way to office. Renting an apartment in Ballard while maintaining TWO multi million dollar homes in Capitol Hill to get a seat on the school board. Gross.
I can guarantee you nobody else in this race has gone to such lengths.
Lying is gross but expected of politicians.
Sorry, Han-Han… Mosqueda took her “big, progressive shoes” with her when she left.
The vacancy on the Seattle City Council will be filled by some of the moderate Council’s liking, not yours.
@12 and @15 As a renter, I don’t care if a developer makes a buck building new housing because more housing brings down rents.
Once again, I’m blown away by the thoughtful, well-researched insights Ms. Krieg has shared with Stranger readers in this article, as well as in her Jan 22 “Seattle City Council Picks from Crowd of Simps to Fill Vacancy: Loud Suckling and Lapping Sounds Heard from Council Chambers” piece.
Having thought through the opinions she’s given us privy to, firstly I want to say how much I value her passion for the subject. What Ms. Krieg writes deserves to be given thorough consideration, and an attempt needs to be made to understand her point of view.
Secondly, and from the perspective of a local who’s been various shades of tree hugging Green over the years, I want to say how important I think it is to give these new folks on Council an opportunity to get some work done.
I feel they deserve a chance to establish themselves and act on their values.
I say give ’em some roaming room at the outset.
They’ve gotta have some space to establish their respective goals and work styles.
And they deserve credit for having busted their tails to get elected in the first place.
Let’s give ’em a pat on the back and a measure of goodwill.
They undoubtedly realize that these first 100 days are gonna be important to prove that they have the interests of all of their constituents at heart, not just those of the people who put them in office.
Hopefully, folks who’re indignant about events that precipitated inauguration day earlier this month will be willing to look for some middle ground and strive toward building on points of agreement with opponents.
To borrow from something Otto von Bismarck is credited with having said about politics back in the second half of the 19th century: “If you like laws and sausages, you should never watch either one being made.”
I’d say that with the subsequent 125 years or so we’ve had of building on the principles of democratic governance, we’ve certainly got plenty of “vegetarian & vegan style sausage-making” options for working across the aisle and cooking up some meaningful compromises.
The City needs us all to contribute what we can, given the challenges at hand.
This community we love needs us to show each other some respect and civility while we work toward a future built on hope, fellowship, and the common good.
Other than that I say “Go Lions” this Sunday, and where’s the best place for some golden milk? Gotta love those cinnamon and turmeric aromas. 🙂
@16 Developers don’t “make a buck.” They make huge sums of money for themselves and their investors on the backs of renters, building shitty expensive cheap housing without parking, some that will look gross in 20 years.