Looks like the man a lot of people were hoping would take down Nickels has other plans for the fall:

Steinbrueck will be spending the first of the next four years in Cambridge, Mass. He landed a prestigous urban design fellowship at Harvard University, as he says, “researching the politics, principles and plan for urban sustainability of U.S. cities.’

Full release from AIA Seattle in the jump.

NEWS RELEASE

Steinbrueck to Join Harvard University as a Loeb Fellow
For Immediate Release: April 17, 2009

Seattle, WA — Former Seattle City Councilmember Peter Steinbrueck, FAIA will spend a year in Cambridge as a Loeb Fellow at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design beginning September 2009. The fellowship year at Harvard will provide Steinbrueck the opportunity for concentrated research on U.S. urban policy and global environmental challenges at the national level.

On receiving the Fellowship, Steinbrueck said, “Through this Fellowship, my challenge will be to study the politics, principles and best practices of sustainability, and then to examine how to advance these strategies in U.S. cities for global impact.” He added, “We’re entering a new era. It will require extraordinary political leadership to bring about the changes we know are necessary. I look forward to bringing back to Seattle the knowledge I will gain from this experience to help strengthen Seattle and region. “

Lisa Richmond, Executive Director of AIA Seattle, nominated Steinbrueck for the Loeb fellowship. Richmond, herself a Loeb Fellow, said of the announcement, “Peter’s work in Seattle, developing policy to promote sustainable communities, is ground-breaking, and deserves this national stage. During his time at Harvard, he will have a unique chance to share Seattle’s leadership on urban and environmental issues with a national audience, and in turn bring back fresh inspiration to guide our city’s future.”

After retiring from the Seattle City Council in 2007, Steinbrueck had several choices as to where to put his efforts toward influencing progressive public policy . While Steinbrueck has been encouraged over the past year to consider a run for Mayor, after much careful consideration he decided the year of study at Harvard was the best choice for the long term. “I have been honored by those who have considered me a worthy candidate for Mayor and deeply appreciate the support I have received from the community”, said Steinbrueck. “As we approach Earth Day, I am thrilled about the opportunity through the Loeb Fellowship to continue my work to improve our quality of life and the environment in Seattle and around the nation.

The Loeb Fellowship, founded in 1970, is a unique opportunity internationally that provides a year of independent study at Harvard for outstanding mid-career professionals in fields related to the built and natural environment. Recipients are given full access to the many programs and schools of Harvard University including the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, the Graduate School of Design, Harvard Business School, Harvard Law School, the Kennedy School of Government, and M.I.T. Primarily the focus is on architects, landscape architects, urban planners, and urban designers, but also professionals participate from related fields such as filmmaking, journalism, non-profit administration, the arts, and government service. For more information about the Loeb Fellowship, go to www.gsd.harvard.edu/professional/loeb_fellowship/.

Steinbrueck, an architect, is principal of Steinbrueck Urban Strategies, LLC and a Board Member of AIA Seattle. He served 10 years on the Seattle City Council from 1997 — 2007, and was Council President in 2001-2003. In 1999 he received the Young Architect Award from the American Institute of Architects, in 2002 the Public Sector Achievement Award from the National Alliance to End Homelessness and he was inducted into the AIA College of Fellows in 2006. In 2006, Seattle Magazine named him among Seattle’s “Most Influential” people.

Eli Sanders was The Stranger's associate editor. His book, "While the City Slept," was a finalist for the Washington State Book Award and the Dayton Literary Peace Prize. He once did this and once won...

24 replies on “Steinbrueck to Harvard (Not City Hall)”

  7. Peter,

    Thank you for your service to Seattle, and hopefully you will come back to Seattle full of new ideas and energy. We’ll miss you.

  8. Can someone buy some nice clothes for McGinn? All of his press shots make him look like a unicycling activist, not a mayoral candidate.

  9. We need a debate between the only real candidates, McGinn and … um … sorry, was there anyone else?

    Maybe Dan should run too.

  10. Those of us on the real sciences side of academia are always amazed when stuff like this goes down on the humanities side. The guy is a political activist and spent ten years on a west-coast city council. He as never published a paper or written a research book or done hard data analysis. And that qualfies him for a research position at Harvard? What does that tell us about the discipline of “urban design”?

  11. He’ll be back. Nickels will win re-election and Steinbreuck will run in 2013 when he doesn’t have to face an incumbent. Not that he couldn’t have beaten Nickels, but it would have gotten ugly and he would have pissed some people off. There is not a lot of money to go around in this town, best not to piss off the people that have it.

    That is unless Congressman McDermott decides not to seek re-election, then Steinbreuck will be all over that shit.

  12. @10: Does creating and passing complex land use legislation count as a paper? Political work is ‘real’ work, even if it doesn’t happen in a laboratory environment. It’s risky, public, and difficult. Being accountable not just to a supervisor or a department, but to 573,000 random people is demanding.

    The Clerk’s office has 10 years’ worth of Peter’s ‘papers’ if you need evidence of his aptitude.

  13. I kinda think Steinbrueck’s made a clever but not public-spirited move here. Nickels is extremely likely to fuh-luh-hatten the ponderous McGinn, then preside over four years of some very bad-blood-making local economic times. At the end of the next term, the economy might be solidly near or in recovery (if we’re lucky), and Peter can float back in on angels’ wings to trounce Nickels, who by then will probably be about 500 pounds of vulnerable I-Can’t-Believe-It’s-Not-Butter.

    If Peter ran now he would win, and I think having him as mayor over the next four years would cut down on the economic suffering to come, or at a minimum help us bear up under its weight better than Nickels will.

    So I wish Peter had chosen differently for the sake of the city, but at least now the suspense is over and we can settle in to watch exactly how Nickels chooses to bait, trap and skin McGinn for a nice rug.

  14. Why would anyone in their right mind want to be Mayor of Seattle? Why would Steinbruek ever want to return from a great place like Cambridge?

  15. You know, it would be a very big statement if the people who disagree with the way Nickels has run the city to leave that box on the ballot blank.

  19. June 5th is still a ways off. Maybe Ed Murray or Jeanne Kohl-Wells would like to join the mix. Nickels negatives are so high that anyone with some experience and some name recognition would be a serious contender.

  20. Zander – as you know

    Ed Murray is in waiting to go to Congress when Jim Mc Dermott retires

    He is not a fool, and that is the right path for him.

    Nickels will make it past the no snow blow blues, and, just keep on trucking. The mayor haters are sounding like a cult … voters are going to wonder wht all that is about.

    Mc Ginn is a dull dud. So far, he makes NO sense. Get him some better clothes and better weed.

  21. @14 Having lived there for seven years I can say Cambridge is a great town. But the weather sucks (except for a month in spring and fall), there isn’t anything you can really call a mountain in the region (the White’s don’t count – they’re just hills with really bad weather), and and and hmm well you can always hope he’s got family on the West Coast 🙂

  22. We couldn’t afford the “urban design” cult before the economy went south, and we sure can’t afford it now. Besides, if his wavering about running is any indication of his ability to govern, you’d never get a set answer on him about anything, but you’d know right after he screwed you.

  23. @21, I’ve lived in Cambridge and Seattle and there’s no comparison in terms of culture and prestige between the two places. I appreciate the irony of your weather comment, though. You may have a point about the mountain thing (I had my honeymoon in the White Mts and love that area, but the Cascades are something else).

  24. Geez,
    This has been the dumbest drama since Dan Savage was tried with licking door knobs.

    Steinbreuck is a wimp and light weight. He never had the balls to run, much less the resources, base of support and capacity to handle a real job.

    Playing with the dumb dumbs who wanted to run was just Peter’s way of staying in the limelight, his preferred and only area of distinction. He applied to Harvard and played footsie till he got the fellowship…..for one year.

    So then what?

    Peter will be back to flak for Children’s Hospital, his only source of income.

    Message to ECB: you’ve been duped, dope.

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