By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor
As Seattle’s most populous peninsula, West Seattle has transportation challenges that are widely known.
Right?
Not necessarily widely known by all the candidates who showed up at the West Seattle Candidates’ Forum at Youngstown Arts Center last night, co-sponsored by the Delridge Neighborhoods and Southwest District Councils (whose members represent most of the major community groups/organizations around the peninsula).
As noted in our first “toplines” report last night, neither candidate for mayor showed up (explained as “due to a series of events”), so the forum was focused on the four council races, from which six of the eight candidates appeared.
Moderators Chas Redmond from SWDC and Pete Spalding from DNDC chose a set of questions that all participating candidates faced – with a few changeups, particularly for the candidates who answered the main questions the quickest.
The big one was an open-ended question about how to handle West Seattle’s transportation/traffic challenges. It was worded a little differently each time, but usually included a component about state ferries at Fauntleroy bringing in volumes of traffic that largely uses West Seattle as a thoroughfare to downtown.
We’ll get to the questions race by race – each section below will start with our video of the candidate’s (or candidates’) opening statements, which were supposed to be :30 but weren’t precisely timed, so a few, as you’ll see, are longer:
Both candidates for Council Position 8, the one Richard McIver is leaving, were on hand. We’re starting with them, but note they weren’t first in the forum – in fact, when Spalding asked the transportation question, Robert Rosencrantz said, “Even having heard other candidates talk about this one, I don’t have a good answer.” He did suggest that in general, “additional bus service and vanpool hours” would be helpful to ease traffic.
In a wry nod to Rosencrantz’s reputation as more of a road supporter than him, Mike O’Brien then quipped, “You’re not trying to get people out of their cars, Robert, are you?”
“Yes!” exclaimed Rosencrantz.
O’Brien then went on to muse that dealing with the Fauntleroy-Vashon-Southworth ferry run’s effects on West Seattle is “a difficult problem.” (No one knows that more than the Fauntleroy Community Association, which has been on the front lines of dealing with Washington State Ferries for years; FCA president Bruce Butterfield sat in the front row at last night’s forum, taking notes.) O’Brien continued, “Business district traffic is good, but nobody wants traffic THROUGH their neighborhood, so how do we get it out of there?” Transit, he suggested, including “bus rapid transit” (the future RapidRide) – and then he made the only new suggestion of the night on this topic, suggesting that if foot ferries between Vashon and Downtown Seattle were more frequent, fewer cars would be ferried to and through Fauntleroy. (The foot ferry is run by the county, it should be noted, as is the Water Taxi run between West Seattle and downtown.)
Other topics: How to help small businesses survive and thrive? This is where we heard the word “disagree” for the first time, more than an hour into the forum – Rosencrantz supports scrapping the city’s “head tax” and “square footage taxes,” while O’Brien, noting he and his wife run a business, said he opposes scrapping them, but does think “the city needs to do a good job of letting businesses know, we appreciate you being here.”
All candidates were asked about the possibility of Seattle annexing what remains of White Center after Burien’s North Highline South annexation is complete; both said the people who live there have to decide, though Rosencrantz mentioned working on the project that became the Greenbridge redevelopment, and said re: White Center, “If they voted to become part of Seattle, I think it would be terrific.”
Asked about parking issues – in particular, the Junction residential neighborhoods that are interested in RPZs while the city is not proposing them right now – Rosencrantz insists he will pursue a rule change to allow neighborhoods to decide whether they get parking meters or RPZs: “I’d say to SDOT, the neighborhood makes the call, you implement it.”
O’Brien was more measured on the point – “It’s clear SDOT has a serious image problem in the neighborhoods” – laughter rippled through the audience – “Probably some structural problems too … Regarding RPZs: If the neighborhood thinks it’s appropriate … but we need to make sure it’s not just one or two people who are not representative … If it is park and hide, we need to make sure SDOT is open to solving those problems.”
They were also asked about spending for arts and human services, but offered little more than agreement those are all important parts of the city budget. And when asked about moving forward the city’s Skatepark Master Plan, Rosencrantz restated his theme of “let the neighborhoods help this take shape,” while O’Brien cited the slogan “Skateboarding is not a crime” and suggested it’s appropriate for the city to invest in helping skateboarders’ talents grow. He went on to mention West Seattle-based skatepark designers Grindline, saying he understood they’d had some trouble working within city guidelines, and that it would be great if they could build a park in the city – apparently not aware that Grindline is exactly who’s designing the skatepark at Delridge Playfield, across the street from the site of last night’s forum.
licata and israel –
In the other race with both candidates showing up at the forum, questioning kicked off with the White Center annexation issue. Incumbent Councilmember Nick Licata sounded supportive of potentially annexing White Center, saying “in the long run (it) will help those residents and businesses and the city of Seattle” and observing that the area has “great potential” while also currently having “greater needs.”
Challenger Jessie Israel called attention to the six years she’s spent working in White Center as part of her King County Parks job and said she sees her potential role in making sure the city has the funding it would need to provide servies “so that if citizens choose to incorporate, that option is open to them.”
How to support small businesses? A technical/marketing ombudsman in city government would help, said Israel, who also voiced support for “streetscapes in our business districts.” Licata acknowledged that the Council and city staffers are often too “distracted, focusing on larger projects downtown” and need to give more attention to neighborhood business districts; at this point he also brought up the thorny issue of revisiting neighborhood plans, saying they need to look at the health of business districts as well as other neighborhood components.
Then the transportation question, with the focus on traffic flowing in off the Fauntleroy ferry; Licata suggested “go(ing) back and working with the community for an overall solution – the ones proposed in the past don’t pencil out – (proposals) like moving the ferry (downtown) result in problems. We need to devote city staff and the community to enumerate what priorities are for various problems.” He went on to mention the request for federal money for the South Park Bridge, and said addressing Fauntleroy ferry-related problems could use those types of funds if the city prioritizes it.
Israel’s transportation suggestion was to speed up the “Seattle process”: “How many times did we vote on the monorail before we didn’t actually build it? Timelines counted in decades are no longer going to cut it.” She suggested a greater use of “neighborhood circulator” buses “so you can park in one place and move around in a neighborhood without your car.” She also contended that the city has not lobbied hard enough for the “new pots of money becoming available for urban transportation.”
Regarding paying for human services, Licata and Israel both agreed a better “revenue stream” has to be identified and tapped into, but didn’t suggest what that might be. Asked about their positions on community poilcing, Licata said he’s advocated for it and that the city remains on track to implement it next year; Israel dug into crime specifics – “the number one thing I hear about is that burglary rates are up, kids are killing kids with guns” — she says the city needs 200 more police officers immediately: “I don’t think we can phase this in, we need to do this now, we are long overdue.”
Finally, on arts/culture: Licata talked about pushing forward “cultural overlay districts,” and Israel offered him compliments for that work.
We only have David Ginsberg, a High Point resident, on video, since Councilmember Richard Conlin was not at the forum, represented instead by his campaign manager Sara Nelson.
On Conlin’s behalf, Nelson said, “He truly believes more buses and high-capacity transit, including an extension of light rail to West Seattle, would be a big part of solving problems here. Whatever we wind up with for replacement of The Viaduct has to pay attention to the needs of West Seattle.” (This is the only time the word “Viaduct” appears in our notes, by the way.) Nelson said Conlin is “committed to getting the Legislature to devote funding to transit – maybe an MVET [Motor Vehicle Excise Tax].”
Ginsberg’s biggest suggestion is to revive the West Seattle streetcar line: “If we had one, Morgan Junction to Admiral, people would get along without a car, do their shopping … (And) we clearly need a rail-based rapid-transit system to West Seattle, it’s got to come. RapidRide is a great interim solution but it’s going to take a lane of The Bridge and it’s not true ‘bus rapid transit’ – we need rapid, grade-separated mass transit to come to West Seattle.” He suggested a Transportation Benefit District could be created to provide Sound Transit with more money to bring light rail to West Seattle faster than currently projected – “I’m not sure I’ll be alive by the time it gets here, it’s so far out into the future.”
Moderator Redmond threw in a new question here – how could West Seattle handle a disaster that cut it off from the rest of the city? “Big problem since we don’t have a hospital,” Ginsberg agreed. “Wouldn’t it be nice if some small part of (Providence Mount St. Vincent) was a hospital we could still use in an emergency?”
Nelson’s answer on behalf of Conlin focused on getting communities grants to work on their own disaster plans.
Regarding human services: Ginsberg, who has worked in the banking industry, suggests that a lot of people who become homeless “are victims of preadatory lending practices, and I’d like to see the city say, ‘stay in your house, you are the victims of a horrible mishap’.” He says banks often don’t have the paperwork on predatory loans that go bad, so they might as well find a way to let people stay in their homes till they can get their financial house back in order.
Per Nelson, Conlin believes the 10-year plan to end homelessness isn’t good enough, and is committed to not cutting social services “in times of economic need.”
Redmond wrapped up their section of the forum by going back to the topic of transportation: “How can we improve the bus system – especially if you’re not going downtown (from West Seattle)?” For Conlin, Nelson mentioned the county’s often-criticized split of bus resources weighed more heavily to distant suburbs than many say should be the case; Ginsberg said, “circulator buses that get people where they live to transit stations.”
David Bloom‘s longer-than-30-seconds opening statement is the only video in this race, since Sally Bagshaw was honoring a longstanding commitment to a “public safety walk” in North Seattle – “a walk I’ve been on before,” Bloom noted pointedly toward the start of his section of the forum. With Bagshaw’s campaign manager Kathy Nyland sitting next to him in her place, he went on to talk about the neighbors who were on that “safety walk” because they’re worried about prostitution and drug activity in their neighborhood and don’t think enough is being done about it – or at least that police don’t have enough resources to tackle it. Nyland said “open dialogue” is a good way to fight crime.
They both made quick work of the White Center annexation question – saying it’s up to people in that area to decide what they want.
Asked about neighborhood planning, Bloom expressed concern that “funding for the process is minimal … I’m concerned about the city (having) misplaced priorities in terms of the budget, with capital funding for huge downtown projects like $300 million for two-way Mercer, plus South Lake Union subsidies primarily (for) a private developer, while we’re closing schools, talking about building a jail, cutting library services …”
Bagshaw would agree with Bloom on the neighborhood-planning issue, said Nyland – particularly “neighborhoods (that) said the first time around that we’ll take density if x, y, z happens, but it’s questionable now whether x, y, z was fulfilled.” Both are worried that updating only 3 neighborhood plans a year, when the city has 38 in all, is too glacial a pace.
Then, the transportation question, including dealing with ferry traffic through West Seattle: “I haven’t thought about that issue,” Bloom admitted. “I’d want to know what neighbors’ concerns are, what are Washington State Ferries’ interests, what would it take to mitigate the traffic impact?”
So did Bagshaw have a position? Nyland said, “To be honest, ferries have not been amongst the dialogue that I’m involved in.”
As a longtime social-justice activist, Bloom eagerly tackled the question about human-services spending: “I’m concerned about the mayor’s 2010 budget with ‘hold the line’ on 2009 spending, no cost-of-living increases, cutbacks in advocacy programs … if we just provide bare-bones service for people, it isn’t enough. We spent more than $50 million for a trolley to South Lake Union, for example, while at the same time important programs are going begging just for a couple million dollars.”
Assailing “missed priorities,” Bloom then noted that areas of the city including parts of West Seattle have infrastructure that is “literally crumbling … arterials … some neighborhoods (that) don’t have sidewalks … we need to begin to invest in our neighborhoods, and in programs that serve homeless people.”
Nyland offered, “(Bagshaw’s) guiding principle is her morals, and those would remain her guiding principle when it comes to funding.”
About the parking issue – specifically, some Junction residents favoring an RPZ to keep “park-and-hiders” from taking over all the neighborhood parking spaces, but facing opposition from SDOT — Bloom said he doesn’t think “the city should dictate policy from City Hall … I would listen carefully to the concerns of neighbors.” Nyland suggested “a more transparent conversation” at an early stage of a review might help achieve a conclusion that worked better for neighbors.
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No more major candidate forums are currently scheduled in West Seattle this election season; ballots are starting to arrive in the mail. But in the mayor’s race, two televised debates are coming up in the next week: Sunday at 6 pm on channel 7, Wednesday at 7 pm on channel 5. Meantime, all WSB political coverage – including previous forums in West Seattle and elsewhere – is archived here. Voters’ guides with much more info about the candidates and ballot initiatives are linked here.
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