ANNOUNCER: Produced by Rooted in Rights,


a program of Disability Rights Washington.


Seattle City Council District Four,


Transportation and
Sustainability Candidate Forum.


Hosted by the Mass Coalition,
Transit Riders Union,


Tech for Housing, and
the Housing Consortium.


VICKY:  Welcome, I've Vicky of
the Cascade Bicycle Club.


This is the final of five of the forums


that we've been hosting over
the last couple of weeks,


the Mass Coalition.


I just wanna recognize
those organizations,


, Disability Rights Washington --


[FEMALE]: Seattle!


The name is 350 Seattle.


 Seattle [chuckles], sorry 'bout that.


Seattle Subway, Seattle Greenways,


Seattle Transit Riders Union,


Housing Development Consortium,
Sierra Club, Transit,


I already said that,
Transportation Choices Coalition,


Rooted in Rights and, of
course, Cascade Bicycle Club.


And with that I want to hand
it over to Erica Barnett.


I wanna thank all the
candidates for being here.


Thank you, Erica.


[ERICA]: Thank you.


Whoa, this is very loud.


Can everybody hear me okay?


Alright, so we are going to start out.


I know that Shaun Scott is on his way.


We're gonna start with
everybody identifying themselves


and giving a 10 second intro


that explains how you got here tonight.


And our timekeeper, Dave,
is sitting in the front.


He will enforce time


and I will jump into questions after that.


Everybody'll have a
minute to answer questions


in the beginning,


we'll see how that goes.


We may shorten it later on.


People are going to be
going around with cards.


If you have questions in the audience,


write your questions down.


They'll be handed up to me.


You can also text your
questions to 718-710-1773


and if you need that number again,


just wave your hand and let me know.


Alright, so we're gonna
start from stage left


with Cathy Tuttle.


What's your name?


How'd you get here?


CATHY: Is there a microphone?


I can shout.


My name's Cathy Tuttle.


I'm running for district four
and I got here by bicycle.


[audience applauds and cheers]


FRANK:  Hello, my name is Frank Krueger.


I'm a renter down in
Wallingford by Gas Works Park.


I'm a small business owner of
 years here in district four


and I'm here because I
wanna help people in Seattle


and I'm a fare weather biker,
not very in the winter.


BETH:  Hi, my name is, that is loud,
my name is Beth Mountsier.


I'm a 33 year resident
of Seattle and I've lived


in the district for 29 years.


[ERICA]: 10 seconds!


I got here by way of car via Ravenna


downtown to Renton for
a transportation meeting


to Redmond at my job this morning.


DAVE: Time's up.


[ERICA]: Next. [claps]


So I'm gonna say, just
because I don't have a mic,


I will be enforcing time as will Dave.


JOSHUA:  Hi, my name's Joshua Newman.


I'm running for district four.


I arrived here on 62.


[audience cheers and claps]


ETHAN:  Hi, my name's Ethan
Hunter and I got a ride


from my mom today.


[audience laughs and claps]


HEIDI:  My name's Heidi Stuber.


I'm an organizational change expert,


autism advocate, single mom,


and I did drive my Prius here.


[group chatters]


EMILY:  My name is Emily Myers.


I am a scientist at the
University of Washington


and my mom and my aunt and
I all took the 75 here.


Yes, I made them do that.


[audience laughs]


SASHA:  Hey, everyone.


My name is Sasha Anderson.


I am a social worker, a collaborator,


and my fiancée and I got
here in our Les-buru.


[audience laughs]


That's a Subaru.


I had to do it.


[ERICA]: Alright, first question.


One minute and if you can speak,


I know this is somewhat contradictory


but if you can speak slowly and clearly


instead of a mile a minute
so that our transcriber


has an opportunity to
get down what you say


for people who are visually impaired


and also if you can introduce yourself,


just say your name right before
you answer every question


and if you don't do
that I will remind you.


Many people in our city
have barriers to traditional


affordable housing such
as an eviction record,


a criminal record, physical disability,


substance use disorder and
mental illness and other issues.


What strategies would you apply,


would you employ, this mic is very weird,


to ensure that those people
have access to housing


that meets their needs and we
will start with Frank Krueger.


Here, I'll give mine up.


FRANK:  Hello, Frank Krueger and I should mention


I also biked here.


That's why I'm gonna sweat a little bit.


I was fortunate to be in Portland recently


and was talking to them
about what issues they face


in helping people who
have received vouchers.


That's one year of rent
payment but they still couldn't


find affordable housing.


The issues are you want to
stay in your neighborhood


but there might not be enough
affordable housing there.


We need better tools to
help people find apartments


they actually qualify for
because a lot of people


waste a lot of time looking
around and shopping around


for these apartments.


We could also do better
to help them increase


their credit score and
work on a co-signing fund


for people who can't get the
qualified apartment they want,


the city can set up a fund
to co-sign and help them


get into affordable housing
even with the vouchers.


Thank you.


[ERICA]: We'll go straight down the line.


BETH:  Great, I'm Beth, again.


Well, the list that you gave, Erica,


is a real varied list
of the types of people


who may have barriers to
housing and I think the way


you assist those people in
finding housing varies also.


People who are purely low income


but maybe have jobs and so on,


need things such as subsidies, vouchers,


to get in housing.


People with mental health,
substance abuse problems,


depending on what stage
they are in their recovery,


they may need more supportive
housing which is what you get


through, essentially,
wrap around services,


and the kind of housing that's delivered


by non-profit builders
and then there's just


you mentioned also
people who face evictions


and things like that.


In those cases, I think
some of the changes


that we're making to
the state and local laws


to make sure that people
who have evictions


or other marks on their
record have a fair chance


to get housing as anyone else.


JOSHUA:  Hi, Joshua Newman.


Let's admit that
fundamentally the challenge


with housing is a result of
the massive wealth inequality


that we're seeing in the
United States as well


as in Washington State.


Over the last 40 years,


tax structure has squeezed the government


because corporations and the
wealthy haven't been paying


their fair share and what that
has resulted in is that the,


is that the state governments
haven't been able to afford


things like public housing
or mental health institutions


for people who can't
take care of themselves.


So we can't fix the federal
tax system here in Seattle


but we can address housing
issue with some local solutions.


Critical is that we have
to build more homes,


we need to build more
shapes and more sizes.


We need to increase the number
of people who are allowed


to live in a,


in a house and in as structure


and we need to continue
to do things such as --


DAVE: Stop.


JOSHUA:  Housing vouchers.


ETHAN:  Ethan Hunter.


So to start, I support subsidies
for low income families


so that they can get into housing.


I also want to make sure that
when people face eviction


that the eviction notice,


the eviction is extended
so that they can find


a place to go longer
than what they have now.


Looking at the things like,


for investing in mental health
care for people need that,


making sure that people
who are in local income


have outreach to look
into getting better jobs,


better educational opportunities,


and then taking a housing
first approach for people


who currently don't have homes,


making sure that over a period of years,


they're able to get into housing


and then stay in that
housing so that means


that when developers build new buildings


they need to set aside a number of units


for affordable housing for
those low income families.


HEIDI:  My name's Heidi Stuber and
I think when you're facing


this sort of shortage of
housing we are in Seattle,


the people with barriers
are always gonna lose.


So I think the first thing
we can do is dramatically


increase our housing
supply and I think we need


to increase density in the urban villages


like we're talking about but I'd also like


to see us increase low impact
density across the city


in single family zones
and I think more housing


will lead to more options for more people


and less of this game of musical chairs.


For people that have serious barriers,


we do need government supported solutions.


We need temporary and transitional housing


background services and we need


permanent supportive housing.


So we have to identify
the funds to increase


government supported housing as well


and I absolutely support
changing some of the laws around


and giving more tenant rights
and protection from evictions


and manning the box so that people


with different backgrounds


don't have more barriers to housing.


SHAUN:  Shaun Scott.


I think that one of the things
that we need to be looking at


is replenishing the
Seattle Housing Authority


which currently has a
program for rent vouchers


that allow people that
are sort of on the verge


of experiencing displacement as renters


to be able to sort of cover
the gap from where they are


to where they need to be.


This was something that I saw very,


vividly up close as a former
editor of Real Change News.


The single biggest stressor
for folks that are experiencing


houselessness or on the
verge of getting displaced,


so loss of a job, a reduction in hours,


an increase in rent
and so that's something


that I think we absolutely
have to address first.


I also think, secondarily,


for a long term solution
we need to get to a point


where we're having very
difficult conversations


about raising the rest of revenue


in order to pay for construction
of new forms of housing


because without those revenue sources,


a lot of this conversation
is frankly very academic.


So we need to have that fight


over progressive revenue sources


to get to where we need to be.


DAVE: Okay.


EMILY:  Emily Myers.


So when we talk about
the barriers to housing,


what we really need to make
sure is that we're addressing


like all the different kinds
and so when we're talking


about evictions and people who
have gone through evictions,


I think what we need at the
city level is more legal support


for those folks because, right now,


there's one lawyer in
the city that actually


helps those folks out
and they're, you know,


it's not guaranteed
counsel the way that we do


for our other legal programs.


I think we need to increase just,


we need a massive public
investment in public housing and,


as Shaun's point, we do need
to have a hard conversation


about where that money's gonna come from


to increase both mixed income housing


and improve our renters rates
locally as well as providing


permanent supportive
housing for folks who need


that kind of help too.


SASHA:  Sasha Anderson.


I think with such a
diverse group of people


that were mentioned,


for instance folks who are
dealing with evictions,


mental health issues,


or experiencing cost burdened
households, there is no one,


there is no one size fits all approach.


So you really need to take
a look comprehensively


at what a person is going through


in order to offer subsidies
as well as, pardon me, for,


in order to have more folks


be included in and access housing.


I'm gonna leave this one here, you guys.


Sorry about that.


CATHY:  Cathy Tuttle.


So we clearly need a lot
more housing in Seattle.


It's something that we're
hyper aware of, in fact,


we've been very aware of
for the last 10 years.


We haven't done a lot with
providing more housing.


We need very aggressive
inclusionary zoning.


We need housing first.


Housing first means that
people will get houses


no matter what their condition is.


If they're disabled, if they
have substance use disorders,


if they have mental
issues, they need housing.


That's the only way we're
going to really address


the citizens who are the most
vulnerable in our community.


We need to be building a lot more


and changing a lot of zoning laws


and a lot of city policies
to make that happen.


[ERICA]: Alright, I'm just gonna shout.


Can people in the back hear me okay?


Great.


Cross cut, sorry,


it's gonna feel like I'm
really shouting at you guys,


[group laughs]


Cross cut estimated that
it'll take well over 300 years


at the current rate of
funding to build sidewalks


where they're missing in Seattle.


How will you address this
challenge and what steps


will you take to make
Seattle streets, sidewalks,


and intersections safer and
more accessible for everyone


including for people with disabilities?


Let's start with Beth.


BETH:  Thanks, Beth again.


Yeah, it's a real challenge
in terms of infrastructure


throughout the city and especially
north of what used to be


the city boundaries where we're missing


sidewalks and things.


I think, you know, part of
what we need is to triage,


what are the things that help people


to get to the places they need to?


Sidewalks are really important,


especially for kids who
are walking to schools.


I know one of the ways
we prioritize things


in the city of Redmond is
where are the key sidewalks


to move amongst children
getting safely to school.


But it's all sorts of
pedestrians improvements


and other safety improvements that we need


for our streets.


So whether that's bike lanes
or it's well marked crosswalks


or the kind of signalization that we need


so people can get across or
the kind of infrastructure


where you put a median in
so there's a safe harbor


getting across a big wide street.


So a myriad of investments that we need.


I don't have a great idea for
the infrastructure funding.


This is something I've been
advocating for for a long time.


[group chattering]


JOSHUA:  Joshua Newman.


I've been thinking about
sidewalks for a long time.


I was the former
president and board member


on Maple Leaf Community
Council which includes


the neighborhoods north of 92nd street


where the boundary was, right,


so there's a lot of our neighborhood


or my former neighborhood
where we didn't have sidewalks


but also true out in the
south end in Columbia City


and the south end as well too but,


as an engineer, these
are the kind of problems


that I address regularly at Boeing,


these sort of large systemic
problems that also have


essentially a technical solution.


I've been supportive of,


I think we need a bond message


that we will borrow the money.


Seattle has an excellent
bond rating and we'll be able


to borrow the money
relatively inexpensively


and get the sidewalks built.


We need to be able to
do it with low costs,


especially with green
storm water infrastructure


and working with the
contractors as well as S-Og


to improve the process


and look at the nitty gritty details --


DAVE: Done.


ETHAN:  So where I will, oh, Ethan Hunter.


So where I live in the U district


there actually are sidewalks
probably it isn't so much


in the residential areas
because of construction,


building the new apartment buildings,


the sidewalks are being either torn up


or just have debris on 'em so
those need to either be fixed


or cleared off so that
people with disabilities,


specifically wheelchairs can get by


and then to Beth's point,


looking at especially where
students are walking to school,


making sure that there are sidewalks there


so that they can safely get
to and from school on foot.


I think there needs to be street lighting


or lighting on the
sidewalks so that people


can safely get home by
foot and then making sure


that we look at places


where we can have protected
bike lanes for bikers.


Biker, pedestrian safety is
obviously key going forward


especially with how many
people we have in the city.


So I'll look at every
idea possible to help


those people move to and from work,


to and from school safely.


DAVE: Okay.


HEIDI:  Heidi Stuber.


When it comes to sidewalks specifically,


I think there is a revenue problem


which the Cross Cut
article was talking about


and I'd like to look at
developer impact fees as a way


to own sidewalks which is
asking developers to create


a revenue stream when
they build new buildings


and that they benefit greatly from


and help put it back into the community


where those developments take place.


And I think that's one place.


A great example of this
in my neighbor is south


of the Calvary Cemetery and
it's near University Village


and they used funds from
both the Move Seattle Levy


and from U Village to help create


about two and a half blocks of sidewalks


and when I was knocking on doors,


almost every other person told me


how much that sidewalk meant to them,


how it was easier for
their kids to get around,


people could take, who had disabilities,


could get now down to the commercial area


and to the University Village.


So I think we need to look at
creative solutions like that


and use the funding that
already exists in the city


and put some impact on the
developments in the area.


SHAUN:  Well, for close to two decades,


I've been a caretaker
for my sister, Nicole,


who has Cerebral Palsy.


Most of that time I was a
member of SEIU 775 Northwest


so this is an issue that hits
home for me and for my family.


I want to see the city
do more to partner with


the Seattle Disabilities
Commission to actually


heed the recommendations that
we already have on the table


for all we can do to make our streets,


our public spaces, more accessible.


I think it's upwards of 30%
of the total city service area


is wrapped up in our
streets and our sidewalks.


So we're talking about
making those more accessible


for everybody or for a
specific group of folks


who have disabilities.


We're talking about
making the city as a whole


much more accessible and I think


if we start from the bottom,


start from addressing the
concerns of the most vulnerable,


suddenly we're gonna
find that that opens up


and all of us are gonna


have a little more joy in
our sidewalks, green ways,


that are a lot more walkable


and that will encourage pedestrian use.


[ERICA]: Just a reminder,


please say your name for people


who are visually impaired in the audience,


before you speak.


EMILY:  Emily Myers.


So when we talk about
accessibility and sidewalks,


I think we need to be making
sure that accessibility


is in the forefront of our minds


and not just an afterthought
after we've already


made the plans and that's
often how it happens now.


As someone who worked in a classroom


for adults with disabilities


and taught transportation through college,


that kind of framing is
really important to me


and we know that when
you increase curb cuts


for people in wheelchairs,


then we also see moms with
strollers out walking more.


So it, these types of accessibility issues


are important across
the board for everybody.


We need to be looking at
progressive revenue streams


in order to generate the
money in order to do this


and I think there are
like parking lot taxes


and things like that that
we can be pulling money from


that we're not currently
utilizing for sidewalks.


SASHA:  Sasha Anderson.


First, I'd like to thank
you all for bearing with me


as I completely choked
on that first question.


[audience chuckles]


Sometimes no matter how much you prepare,


you still just don't
quite get it so thank you.


In regards to sidewalks,


I think what we need
to do is re-examine money


that we already have in the budget.


For instance, Heidi brought
up the Move to Seattle Levy


that was passed specifically


to advance more pedestrian access,


bicycles, and transit in the city.


Additionally, in 2017,


the transportation equity
program was created


and that allows up to $ million
a year to be invested in,


specifically, in communities
that are cost burdened


communities of color to
enable transportation


including sidewalks to be
more easily accessible.


We have revenue out there.


We do need more in order to
get the extensive network built


but we also have revenue currently --


DAVE: That's it.


CATHY:  This is gonna get old,
going back and forth.


Cathy Tuttle and I am,


or was the founding executive director


of Seattle Neighborhood Greenways


and pedestrian action is something that,


or pedestrian safety is
something that is very much


at the forefront of my mind.


About 27% of Seattle streets
do not have sidewalks


and the reason that we
could only afford to put in


about 10 blocks of
sidewalks a year is that


they cost so much.


They cost about $300,000 per block face.


That means close to half
a million or sometimes


a million dollars per block.


I say that there's a role for home zones,


that is streets without sidewalks


where they can slow streets
down where cars are guests.


I see sidewalks as having
a lot of emitted carbon


and a lot of storm water impact.


I don't think we need
sidewalks everywhere.


We need them some places,


certainly for safer routes to school,


safer routes for seniors but
there are a lot of places


where sidewalks are not the answer.


We need to treat our
streets as public spaces


that we can all use as people.


FRANK:  Hi, Frank Krueger.


Every morning in Wallingford,


I watch an elderly couple
make their way over


one particular crosswalk with large curbs


and every morning I feel terrible about it


and want to help them.


So I am a proponent to
make sure we push along.


Cathy mentioned that
sidewalks cost $300,000,


eased ramps on crosswalks cost $20,000.


So I understand our slowness


but we do have the money,


we're just using it in the wrong places.


We have red light cameras
and that fund was supposed


to go specifically to
helping infrastructure


around the schools but
that money has made its way


into the general fund
and now we're spending it


on a variety of tasks.


I want to make sure that we use the money


that we devote to tasks for those tasks.


Lastly, I wanna hold
developers accountable


for the permits that include sidewalks


but have yet to build them.


On North Lake Way,


there is a drive up with a bunch of boats.


It's a very dangerous
part of North Lake Way


and it doesn't have any
sidewalks because the developer


hasn't kept up their commitment.


I would push to make sure that happens.


[ERICA]: The overwhelming
majority of Seattle


is zoned single family.


What, if any changes,


would you propose to allow
different types of housing


in these neighborhoods in the future?


We'll start, we're just
gonna jump one every time,


so we'll start with Josh.


JOSHUA:  Josh Newman.


When it comes to affordable
housing over all,


this question is spot
on and it is critical


of how Seattle needs to
decide and move forward


to go through city council,


the question of course being,


what are we going to do with
our single family home zones?


I support allowing up to four
units on single family lots


[audience members cheer]


throughout the city.


We need to,


single family homes were
wonderful in the 20th century.


My family and I lived in
one, put up on a small lot,


very fortunate and blessed
to be able to do that


but the single family
homes are not appropriate


for the future.


So first you need to let up
to four homes on each lot.


Second, we need to
relegalize housing types,


multi-family housing types
such as authority homes,


apartments that were silly,


foolishly outlawed a few years ago


and then address the, again, racist --


DAVE: That's it.


JOSHUA:  That's it.


[audience laughs]


ETHAN:  So the zoning issue is
one of the biggest issues


that I hear when I go door to door.


DAVE: Name, please.


ETHAN:  Ethan Hunter.


So it's one of the biggest issues I hear


when I go door to door.


As one of the fastest growing cities


and regions in the country,


if we're serious about allowing


for people to move here and having,


giving them a place to live,


we already have to allow
for more multi-family homes


where there are currently one home --


[select audience members cheer]


As Joshua mentioned, or
if there's a large home,


four homes need to be there.


I also wanna make sure that
when we're going forward


as we up them that we do so first


in your major transportation hubs


that we're incentivizing
people especially people


in single occupancy vehicles
to get out of their cars,


onto public transportation, onto bikes,


or by foot doing things like that.


And then to,


when we do that we can preserve
some of the neighborhoods


in Seattle where it's
still single family zoned


but allowedly single
families and neighborhoods


are gonna have to be up zoned to allow


for normal two family homes
as more people more here.


HEIDI:  My name's Heidi Stuber and
knowing what a high percentage


of our residential zones are given up


to single family zoning,


I'm really excited about
the ADU and DADU legislation


because I think that's a great way to add


low impact density across the city.


I do agree that we should
have higher up zoning


near workforce and transit
hubs with great connections


to transportation to make more dense


and livable urban villages but
I also really like the idea


of creating density across the city


into these single family zones


and like we were talking about
in the barrier conversation,


I'm raising a child that
will have a major barrier


to getting a house as a disabled
person and I think a lot


about his generation and
will they be able to afford


to live in the city they
were born and raised in?


And I think the only answer
to that is to increase


housing supply and spreading
it across the city,


not just in the urban villages,


but coming into the single
family zones with adding,


being able to add density --


DAVE: That's it.


That's it.


Next candidate.


SHAUN:  Well nothing brings
people in Seattle together


quite like conversations --


DAVE: Name, please.


SHAUN:  Shaun Scott.


When I was a student at the
University of Washington,


I looked very, very closely
at Seattle's history,


a long history of white
supremacy as it was


enacted in our current zoning code and so,


if we're serious as a city
about meeting the cross sections


of racial justice and
environmental justice


and having a city where
people don't have to travel


very, very long distances
from home to work,


we have to get serious about confronting


our current zoning regime.


The conversations that we
have about where we're gonna


put all the housing,


how many duplexes that we want,


how much multi-family housing we need,


are gonna be immaterial because
our current zoning regime


makes that, those kinds
of arrangements illegal


in 75% of our city.


So we're gonna have to
change that to confront


where we've been as far
as our past with racial,


with respect to racial discrimination


and where we want to go with
respect to climate justice.


EMILY:  Emily Myers.


So I want to be clear that is in fact


a climate justice issue
when we talk about housing


and how to build it up in our city.


We are gonna have a
massive influx of people


into this region because it's gonna be


one of the few regions that's left


in the next 20 or 30 years if we continue


on this path towards climate change.


So we need to be building housing up,


we need to be absolutely
ending exclusionary housing


and exclusionary zoning and
that means building more,


the missing middle housing,
triplexes, duplexes,


and things like that while
simultaneously making sure


that we're building up our
infrastructure and transit


around our neighborhoods so that people


can still get around
without having to rely


on their cars and without
having to rely on parking.


SASHA:  Sasha Anderson.


One thing that I'm bringing up with folks


when I talk about zoning is, in 1957,


there was a mandatory down zone in Seattle


and before that some of our most desirable


and livable neighborhoods,


Queen Anne and Wallingford,


were directly spoken about


in the neighborhoods for all report,


were a beautiful mix of
single family housing,


triplexes, duplexes,
multiple houses on one lot


and it worked.


Those neighborhoods are, today,


what they are because of
the zoning that existed


before the mandatory down zone in 1957.


I think this is so important to bring up


because it shows that we already know


this type of zoning works.


It's not something that's scary.


It's something that makes
neighborhoods livable, affordable,


easy access provides
easy access to transit


and it's something that
we should return to.


Thank you.


CATHY:  Cathy Tuttle.


Last week I went in
Wallingford, South Wallingford,


and I was knocking on doors
and went to a beautiful house,


knocked on their door and
talked to a woman for awhile.


She was very positive about
everything I was saying


and then she asked about putting
a mother-in-law apartment


and a backyard cottage on the
property and what I thought


about it and I said it's a great idea.


I can see, ADUs, DADUs and duplexes,


all sorts of housing
for all sorts of people


in our neighborhood.


She shut the door in my face.


[audience chuckles]


So, two doors down,
there was a three-plex.


You wouldn't know it from the outside


but there were three unrelated
adults living in a house


that had three separate
doors, same size lot.


We can have very aggressive zoning.


We can have affordable
housing zoning overlays.


We can have the density that
we want, a gentle density,


in neighborhoods --


DAVE: That's it.


CATHY:  Thanks.


FRANK:  Frank Krueger.


I come from the generation
that cannot afford


to live in houses,


cannot afford to buy houses in Seattle.


Currently you need to
make over $120,000 a year


to comfortably afford a house.


If you look at the charts,


you'll see a nasty down
trend starting around 


and carrying on to today
where very few people


can afford to buy a new house.


That's why I am excited
about ADUs and DADUs.


My friends have all come up through it.


I'm especially excited about
the current legislation.


I've come around a bit on it.


At first I thought that owner occupancy


was an important thing


but there was a recent
environmental impact survey,


Appendix A, I hope you'll all read it.


It gives a very convincing
argument why we don't


exactly need owner occupancy
requirements on top


of the idea that it might
be unconstitutional.


So I'm very excited
actually for the progress


that we're making in this territory.


Of course, we can do
a lot more to improve.


Thank you.


BETH:  Beth Mountsier, again.


Yeah, complex problem
and one that some of us


have been working on
and I think the approach


of accessory dwelling units,


DADUs are good,


but as other people have pointed out,


pre-war throughout our
neighborhoods were triplexes,


duplexes, all sorts of ways.


Some of those little apartment
complexes that we all love,


you basically can't build them
right now on a single family


so I think everyone on
the panel is in agreement


that we need a change


but I would also say I would approach this


from an architect's point of
view and I was trained at UW.


I have a Master's degree
and was practicing


and this applies whether it's in


the single family neighborhoods


or in the middle of our urban centers,


one of the things that people, I think,


are really reacting to is
the transition in our city


that's happening very
quickly and it's the quality


of the design and the
fact that it really needs


to be thought out in terms of
how you are a complementary --


DAVE: That's it.


[ERICA]: Alright, next
question is about RapidRide.


What will you do to deliver
the RapidRide expansions


promised in Move Seattle
and how will you ensure


that bus expansions are high
quality for transit riders?


ETHAN:  So, as someone who takes,


Ethan Hunter.


[audience chuckles]


As someone who rides the bus everyday,


having different bus
options to get to and from


where I need to go is
critical going forward.


I'll work with people
in the sale department


of transportation to make this happen.


I support the RapidRide expansion.


At the same time,


I also wanna make sure that the buses


not just in district four
but throughout the city


are going, are moving more
frequently so that means


good things like route 70, that it,


that things like route 70 are coming


every seven or eight minutes
during high traffic hours


instead of every 15 or 20
where people are waiting


these longer times.


Public transportation,


the mic just cut out,


public transportation is
something that I wanna see people


getting on going forward.


Getting single occupancy
vehicles off the road onto buses,


as I mentioned earlier, onto
bikes as well or on foot


and so things like RapidRide


and expanding the already
existing bus routes


is something that I'll work --


DAVE: That's it.


ETHAN:  Work to help people --


DAVE: That's it!


HEIDI:  I think with the Move Seattle Levy,


we have such a great opportunity both,


oh, Heidi Stuber!


We're reminding each other.


We have an opportunity
both to expand RapidRide


and to think of the local
neighborhood bus routes both


and I think both are a
part of what's inherently


getting more people using
public transportation


and so we need more
RapidRide to make it easy


to get to work and we
also need the local routes


that connect people in our district,


many to light rail,


we don't have enough neighborhood routes


out in this part of the city.


When I'm out knocking doors,


a lot of people me that and that they lost


their neighborhood
route in their RapidRide


and so I think it's about good management


of the Move Seattle Levy
funding and I'm a big believer


that we need to elect people
who are financially literate


so they can use a good
job using the resources


that we've already all agreed
to put into this process.


SHAUN:  I think with the, the arrival of --


DAVE: Name.


SHAUN:  Shaun Scott.


With the arrival of light rail


in the last decade in the city,


I think we made a mistake
as far as the fact


that we reduced a number
of bus lines that provided


very, very useful,


what are known in the
urban planning world,


as redundancies, right,


so sorts of bus routes,


places where people are
gonna be walking and busing


and also have access to light rail.


So we need to reinstate some of those.


I think refunding,


we're making sure that the
transportation to every district


is something that we're providing,


making sure it's adequately
funded is something


that will go a long way as
well in the event that we need


to have Seattle do something
like it did in 


in saying that we need to
take the onus from Olympia


and honor our own,


actually go build the kind
of bus routes that we need.


Also making sure there that
our east-west bus connections


are where they need to be because I think


that's a missing component
a lot in this conversation


in talking about making
sure that our bus routes


and sort of last month's
solutions to that problem,


decisions to where they
might live in the district.


EMILY:  Yeah, I think, Emily Myers.


Thanks for bringing up
the east-west bus routes


'cause I think that's really important.


Another thing that we
haven't talked about yet


in this question is the
fact that we're actually


really, really short bus
drivers and drivers in general


and that's something that I
learned through my conversations


with ATU 587 which is
the bus drivers union


and some of the other driver unions,


that we just don't have the
capacity even if we do expand


our bus routes right now
to hire enough people


to actually staff those
buses or places to store


the buses when they're
not actively on the roads.


So we actually need to be
looking to at like public lands.


Where do we store buses
when they're not running


and how do we hire in,


how do we hire more folks to
drive those buses because,


obviously, they don't move
if there's not people there


to operate them,


making sure those are
good living wage jobs


and people can support
themselves on those as well.


SASHA:  Sasha Anderson.


So I was looking today at
the climate action plan


that was released by the city back in 


and it's 37 pages long and
it goes into very deep detail


on bus routes, bicycles,
pedestrian access,


and how to get people
to and from their work


and home outside of the
single occupancy vehicle.


They go into a lot of detail


about who the lead department is,


what resources they have
and what resources they need


but one big area where they're
lacking a lot of detail


is in public engagement.


This question came up
at an East Lake forum


about the RapidRide along
East Lake and there was a lot


of opposition to it because
people weren't feeling heard


or that they knew why it was happening.


I think focusing on public
engagement in order to gain


political will to actually
implement more RapidRides


is a great starting place.


Thank you.


CATHY:  Cathy Tuttle.


So I totally agree with
Sasha that the bus RapidRide


is a climate issue.


First and foremost,


I think we need safe, convenient,


fast buses being the best option.


That's what we need to do
to make sure that people


are traveling that way.


I actually want to talk to
Emily sometime about the idea


of automated vehicles because
I think that's the way


our buses are gonna be ending up going.


I think that that, it isn't
only a labor question,


and I think that we can
optimize our bus routes


and get everybody into
buses if they are, in fact,


the most convenient,


safest best option for
getting around the city


east, west, north, south


and it is gonna be something


that really dramatically
impacts our climate.


FRANK:  Hi, I'm Frank Krueger.


I think the worst but most
important lesson we learned


from East Lake is the
unfortunate thing that happens


when you pit buses versus bikers,


when we have to make that decision.


I think that in almost all cases


when it comes to Move Seattle,


the city has spoken and we want to prefer


protected bike lanes over parking spots.


We want to have a better RapidRide.


In terms of emissions,


we have very strong goals for the city.


By 2015, we want to be carbon neutral.


By 2040, we want an electric bus fleet.


We are a long ways from getting there.


So while we certainly have
a lack of bus drivers,


we also have a lack of buses


and we need to start purchasing more


and converting our current
gas buses over to be electric


and our current hybrid
buses to be purely electric


and I wanna see Seattle commit
to their environmental goals.


BETH:  So, on a normal day, I'm,


I'm Beth Mountsier, everyday [chuckles],


and on a normal day I commit from Ravenna


over to Redmond by bus.


I connect with the local metro,


switch to sound transit
regional express there.


I was down in Redmond today
because metro had convened


transportation planners
from around the region


to talk about the next phase
of metro and where they go.


Metro Connects is the major bus planning


to connect urban centers,
employment centers,


but the main topic today was equity


and the needs of people who
don't necessarily commute.


They need buses late at night
to get home from their job


or not buses.


So the real first mile, last
mile is the kind of changes


that we're innovating on.


Speaking of buses, so
there is already a plan.


Metro is a King County
function, not Seattle function.


We pay by voting for to
buy more bus service --


DAVE: That's it.


JOSHUA:  Hi, Joshua Newman.


It just so happens that I,


we're gonna need to
make some hard decisions


and we're going to need to
remove arterial street parking.


We have to start prioritizing other uses


and car alternatives.


We have to make it easy to
get around without a car.


I just published yesterday
off the Seattle Transit blog,


an op-ed that called for exactly this


and suggested some solutions on what to do


with that extra space once we get it.


Furthermore, in Seattle
we'll work on legislation


that makes that a standard
and so that it's simplifying


the permitting to change the street


and then for me to increase,


we do need more drivers
and we just need simply


to raise their pay and hire more.


It's more complicated but essentially,


we pay more and more people will apply.


And in my last few moments,


I just want to point out the one candidate


that didn't have the bravery
to show his face here tonight.


Alex Pedersen worked for
awhile on the D Board tunnel,


he opposed sound transit three
and he opposed Move Seattle.


So when I want your support --


DAVE: That's it.


JOSHUA:  I want you to vote for --


DAVE: That's it!


JOSHUA:  For one of us.


DAVE: That's it.


[audience cheers and applauds]


[ERICA]: I'm gonna take
over the mic for a minute.


This feels good.


[group chuckles]


Alright, you have cards
in front of you that say


I agree and on the other
side they say I don't agree.


Those are your two options.


So these are yes or no
questions and we're gonna do


a quick lightning round.


I will read out what
people's responses are


and we're gonna do this
at lightning speed.


Do you support rent control?


Alright, the no's are, oops,


the no's are Beth, Joshua and Heidi.


Everyone else says yes.


Question two, do you support
the legislation proposed


by Council Member Mike
O'Brien to make it easier


to build backyard cottages
and mother-in-law apartments?


Everybody says yes.


[audience member claps]


Do you support congestion pricing?


[audience members clap]


Frank and Heidi say no and
everyone else says yes.


Do you support utilizing


electric scooter sharing in Seattle?


Everyone says yes.


You guys, this is a controversial.


[audience laughs]


Do you support shallow rent
subsidies to enable people


at risk of becoming homeless
to stay in their homes?


Everyone says yes except
for Frank who says no.


And this is a couple from the audience.


Do you support transportation
network company fees,


so fees on like Uber and Lyft?


And I believe this would be wanting them


to pay for transportation
and other amenities.


Everyone says, yeah, hold those up.


Everyone says yes except
for Ethan who says no.


Do you support demand
based pricing for parking?


So, basically paying
more when demand is high.


Everybody says yes except
for Emily who says no.


Alright, if you have
questions for the panel


and you haven't gotten them in yet,


wave your hand, get a card, write it down,


and they'll bring it up to me.


Okay, next question
we're gonna start again


and I will relinquish the
microphone in a moment.


We are going to start with Heidi.


Describe your experience
advancing racial equity.


How has it informed your
approach to land use,


transportation, and public outreach?


[MALE]: How much time?


[ERICA]: Let's do 45 seconds.


[audience chatters and laughs]


In the interest of getting


as many audience questions as possible


I wanna encourage you to be succinct.


HEIDI:  My name's Heidi Stuber
and I started my career


teaching environmental
science in inner city Chicago


as a part of a program that talked a lot


about racial equity and
justice and starting my career


as a 21 year old in a
neighborhood that dealt


with a lot of generational poverty,


immigration issues and
extreme gang violence,


actually informed my
worldview my entire life.


As a white woman, I bring a
lot of privilege to the table


and it's really important
that I recognize that


and think about the ways
in which we have systemic


systems of racism and classism
built into our education,


our transportation and our housing policy.


So I absolutely think the
city council has to keep that


at the forefront of their
mind as they make decisions.


SHAUN:  So as the outreach coordinator
for the office of arts and,


Shaun Scott.


I'm Shaun Scott.


I used to work as the outreach coordinator


for the office of arts
and cultures attempt


to revamp King Street
Station into a cultural hub


and so we used our tool kit
to hold over three dozen


focus group sessions where
we talked to 300 Seattleites,


stakeholders in the arts
economy about what we could do


to make King Street Station
a more inclusive space


that's representative of everything


that the city has to offer.


The fact that I'm the only
African American candidate


in this race I think is a policy failure.


It speaks to, place would help
you see in over a generation,


and so we need candidates and
campaigns that are willing


to name Seattle's long and
ugly history of white supremacy


for it is and also advance
solutions about what


we're gonna do to keep that
from happening in the future.


[select audience members cheer]


EMILY:  Emily Myers.


As a union organizer and
as a woman in science,


I've used my, I've fought
for equity inside of science


for the last 10 years
that I've been a scientist


and so that kind of framework
of racial and gender equity


is really important to me.


I think it's the lens
that we should be applying


to any decision that
we're making at the city


and do that I would say
that when we are looking


at transit specifically,


we should be looking at
fare enforcement issues


so that people are not facing misdemeanors


and therefore deportation
if they're caught


by fare enforcement and
we should be looking


at what communities in our city


are lacking for transportation,


for public transportation, and four,


we're running for four but
we're gonna represent the city


as well so making sure


that our communities have transportation.


SASHA:  Sasha Anderson.


So I learned pretty much
everything that I know


about racial equity by taking classes


and working with Anita
Hill when I was doing


my double masters degree
at Brandeis University


in sustainable development
and co-existence in conflict


and what we focused on time and time again


was checking your privilege,


was working as hard as you could


to make sure every policy
you were working to institute


was talking with the people who were going


to be directly affected and
impacted by those policies,


to really sit with the groups


that you say you're
working for to make sure


they're telling you what you need


and what you should be doing.


Thank you.


CATHY:  Cathy Tuttle.


I got my first look at equity and the city


by working with the
Seattle Parks Department.


I was a project manager
and planner for 40 parks


and community centers and
the resources that were given


to parks and community centers
in high income communities


were a lot more than they were


in the low income communities.


This continued in my work


with Seattle Neighborhood
Greenways where the streets


that we actually provide to people


are completely inequitable.


For example, Rainier is a
street that has been trying


to get safe bike lanes on
it for almost a decade now


and it's something that we need to look at


as privileged people to know that --


DAVE: That's it.


FRANK:  I'm Frank Krueger.


I quit my job 15 years
ago and started my company


specifically to help exploited immigrants.


I worked in the tech sector
and it was quite common


to have people come
over, take their VISAs,


take their passports, hold
them in a safe without people,


and give them small wages.


I work to make sure everyone
received a high wage,


an equitable wage throughout my company.


I'm proud to have helped a
bunch of people come to America,


get their green cards and become citizens.


I continued that work with
the Horn of Africa services


down in Rainier Beach.


I worked as a study program,


an afterschool math and
science program, STEM,


where I had 13 year olds doing calculus.


I believe --


DAVE: Time.


BETH:  Beth Mountsier.


So I think we've all acknowledged


that in probably northeast
Seattle we all have


a certain amount of privilege
and I agree with Shaun.


It's a failure of our
society that we don't


have more candidates
of color or low income.


My experience and I would
say local governments


have been late to the table
looking at all policy choices


through a lens of equity, not equality,


spending the same amount of
money but as Cathy points out,


the inequities and the lack
of equity in investments


throughout the city
have really not made it


an even playing field for everyone.


We'll be elected as district
four representatives


but I would be working
for everyone in the city.


JOSHUA:  Joshua Newman.


Yes, it is an example
of our white privilege


that even in this case one
person of color in this race,


previously two with Abel Pacheco,


but that small group does
reflect how white privilege,


to acknowledge that.


Working to address it,


we need to continue utilizing
and extend the application


of the Seattle race and
social justice toolkit.


The recent report on congestion pricing


was an excellent example of this.


On just about every page,


there was an example of how
equity is affected by that


and how the different
solutions are affected.


Personally, I work as
an engineer at Boeing.


Again, I've been in meetings
where it's all men in the room


and I've made an explicit
example when I'm having meetings,


when I'm organizing them --


DAVE: Time.


[group laughs]


JOSHUA:  To change it.


[audience laughs]


ETHAN:  So I was fortunate enough to graduate


from Garfield High School
just a few years ago


which is one of the most
racially diverse schools


in our state so I saw firsthand how kids,


especially black kids and
Hispanic kids were affected


by racist policies that
were enacted years before.


There were AP classes in Garfield


where it was all white kids.


I think we can all agree that
leaving just kids of color out


doesn't mean that they're
capable of being in an AP class


so that's racism right there
in our Seattle public schools.


That needs to be dealt with.


I'm also fortunate enough
to work as a line cook


in South Lake Union where
many of the people I work with


are immigrants who came
to this country looking


for a better life, for better jobs,


protecting them from deportation --


DAVE: That's it.


[ERICA]: The United Nations climate report


tells us we have about 11 years to reduce


our greenhouse gas emissions
by about more than 50%.


Given that more than 50%
of Seattle's greenhouse


gas emissions come from transportation,


what are the highest priority
actions to put Seattle


on the path to de-carbonization?


SHAUN:  Well, I think, Shaun Scott,


what we want to do is, first and foremost,


look at the fact that our
city busing for our schools,


95% of those buses are still
running on fossil fuels


and that's unacceptable
and deeply symbolic


of the debt that we're
leaving future generations


as far as exposing them to,


kicking the can down the road


for not reducing our emissions.


I think, secondarily,


we want to look at divorcing
our city's pension fund


from fossil fuels.


Currently, , city employees


have their retirement funds,


I don't know what kind of
future we're gonna have


to look forward to with
those retirement funds


at the rate that we're going
in but while we're still


sussing out how that's gonna look,


we wanna divorce those pension
plans from fossil fuels


and, third, I think that we need to end --


DAVE: Okay.


Emily Myers.


EMILY:  So the climate report was
actually one of the reasons


that catalyzed me into this race.


As a scientist, obviously,


climate change is
extremely important to me.


So around transportation,


we need to be getting people


out of single occupancy
vehicles into public buses,


finishing the and
supporting the master plan,


the bike master plan,


as well as looking at
proactive draw down solutions


where we actually are drawing
carbon out of the atmosphere


and I'm partnering with climate scientists


to come up with those solutions as well


and then looking into green leases


because buildings are the
second largest polluter,


carbon emission, sorry,


the carbon emissions and right now


there's no incentivization
for landlords to --


DAVE: That's it.


EMILY:  Clean their buildings up.


DAVE: When I say that's it, I mean it.


EMILY:  Okay, sorry.


[audience laughs]


SASHA:  Sasha Anderson.


I'll do my best.


I think in order to meet these goals,


we need to make it as
absolutely easy as possible


to take public transportation


and to get out of our
single occupancy vehicles.


I think that can be
done through incentives


and also through kind
of the stick approach.


You really focus on
implementing congestion pricing


immediately in order to gain revenue


that can also be used to
make public transportation


lower cost or free to get
people in light rail and buses,


out of their single occupancy vehicles


is an urgent approach
that we need to take.


I'll also add in, oh.


[audience laughs]


I was gonna talk about trees!


[audience laughs]


CATHY:  Cathy Tuttle.


Three words, I guess:


Dense walkable neighborhoods.


That's where we need to go.


And we also do, between
those neighborhoods,


need to make transit
reliable, frequent, cheap,


and the other thing I wanna bring up too


is a climate impact that is tangentially


a part of the environment
impact is Puget Sound energy.


Right now we are relying
on it when we should be


moving over to city light and
other local energy sources.


So let's change that and
dense, walkable neighborhoods


are where we really need to go.


That's gonna help us get to
that % reduction in 10 years.


FRANK:  Frank Krueger.


I'm actually very
excited because I believe


that Seattle is in a unique position


to be a model green
city for all the world.


We get 90% of our power
from renewable hydro-power.


Clean power.


Another 5% from renewable sources.


We are in a unique
position to do a great job


at all of this.


I don't wanna let buildings off the hook,


this is a question about power,


so 50% is buildings and they are,


they've shown good progress
but they are on a decline


and they need to step up
to make their goals.


I'd like to see the state
and the city embrace


self-driving cars.


All these frames are electric.


We should be pushing for
more electric vehicles.


I believe that we should also
clarify our municipal code


to ensure that...


BETH:  Beth Mountsier.


I'm also trying to do bullet points.


I agree we need walkable,
dense neighborhoods


where it makes it easy to get around


but not all trips can be done walking


or carrying your groceries.


As someone mentioned, I think,


the highest percentage
of the greenhouse gases


are from single occupancy
vehicles so one of the things


is we're switching over
to electric vehicles.


The city to investing in
and requiring developers


to put in charging stations


whenever it's still a
barrier to why people


don't necessarily buy electric cars.


We need to work with the state legislature


to bring back the tax credits
for electric vehicles.


The bus fleets are being
converted to electric.


They're expensive though
which is why our kids'


school buses haven't been
converted and then finally,


I do agree on the buildings.


One of the advantages of
potentially a city renewing itself


is going toward clean energy.


JOSHUA:  Joshua Newman.


We know what the solutions are.


We've all been talking
about them and it comes down


to having denser neighborhoods
and making it easy


to get around without cars.


Again, we need to remove
our arterial street parking.


But what really is going
to make the decision


for the next city council is
who's going to be brave enough


to actually have these hard conversations


and be able to find ways
of working with people


who are unsure about that
future and who are scared


about that future to implement these plans


and I've done it repeatedly
with hard conversations.


So in addition to giving
up or taking less cars


we need to be able to build
that solar or renewable energy


in the next 10 years to replace
all of our fossil fuel needs


including for cars.


ETHAN:  So as the youngest candidate in the race,


climate change will
effect me the longest --


DAVE: Name!


ETHAN:  As hopefully I'll be here the longest.


So, and I lost my train of thought, sorry.


[audience laughs]


So going forward,


I wanna see single occupancy
vehicles off the road.


That's the number one thing
I think we can do here


in the city of Seattle


to help with climate change going forward.


So that means getting people
onto buses, onto bikes,


or traveling by foot.


I also wanna see for Seattle
public school students


having the, or giving all
Seattle public school students


a free ORCA card to get around.


[select audience members cheer]


If we can get these kids
either walking to school


or on a bus rather than driving to cars


which a lot of high school students do --


DAVE: That's it.


ETHAN:  Done.


HEIDI:  Heidi Stuber.


The privilege of going last
is that all the great things


have already been said
and I agree with, I think,


all of them.


Yes, to more dense,
walkable neighborhoods.


Yes, to increasing
access to public transit.


Yes, to incentivizing weatherization


whether you're a homeowner,
a small business owner,


or a landlord.


A couple things that
haven't been mentioned yet


that I think are really great ideas


is the low cost ORCA LIFT pass.


I'd like to see those
income limits increase


to include the middle
class to make it easier


for more people to use
public transportation.


Same with the HomeWise program


which is the weatherization program.


When I knock on doors,


very few people know about this program.


The income limits are
actually more inclusive


than the ORCA and that's it.


[ERICA]: Alright, we're gonna do


another quick lightning round


and the first question
comes from the audience.


How would you have voted on the head tax?


[MALE]: Oh, yeah!


[audience chattering]


[ERICA]: Sorry, do I agree or
disagree with the head tax


is the question to ask yourselves.


Alright, so saying no are
Beth, Joshua, Ethan and Heidi,


and everyone else says yes.


Do you support automated
traffic enforcement cameras?


Everybody says yes except
for Heidi, Shaun and Sasha.


Do you support speed limit reductions?


Everyone says yes except for Ethan.


Do you support banning right on red?


Do you support banning right turns on red?


Alright, the no's, banning
on, like New York did,


the no's are Beth and Ethan.


Do you think that Lyft, Uber
and other ride share companies


should be required to include
wheelchair accessible vehicles


in their fleets?


[audience chuckles]


Everyone says yes.


Is the city doing enough
to implement Vision Zero?


[audience laughs]


Everyone says no.


[audience claps]


Everyone apparently knows


what Vision Zero is so that's great.


Do you support funding
the center city connector?


Everyone says yes.


And did you support the
decision not to build


a bike lane on 35th Avenue Northeast?


[MALE]: Hell no!


[ERICA]: Or did you support
the decision not to?


[FEMALE]: Make the question more clear.


[audience chattering]


[MALE]: Do over.


[ERICA]: Everybody put your signs down.


Do you support the bike
lane that didn't get built?


[audience chuckles]


On 35th?


[audience chattering]


I'm not sure this is more clear but,


[audience laughs]


everybody says yes.


That one's a wash.


[ERICA]: Alright, we're gonna
move to audience questions.


[FEMALE]: So nobody agreed
with the mayor on that?


Everybody supported the bike lane on 35?


FRANK: Yes.


HEIDI: I'm a little mixed.


[ERICA]: Alright, these
are yes or no questions.


So this is a question from the audience.


DAVE: Okay, how much time?


[ERICA]: 45 seconds.


We're gonna race through these.


Please be specific.


How will you fund building
more affordable housing


and housing for people who
are experiencing homelessness?


EMILY:  Emily Myers.


Our plan to build more
progressive revenue source


comes from tax on businesses
that looks at high income,


like the top 5% and
compares those to the low,


the lowest income workers in
that business of certain size


and taxes based off that and equity.


I think that not only
is this a more fair tax,


to be taxing on, to be
taxing on pay disparities,


but also because it's a lot
easier to build a movement


around something because who's
gonna come out and say like,


I think that we shouldn't be taxing


based off pay disparities and inequities.


So my tax is an inequity
tax on big businesses


that pay their CEOs millions of dollars.


[audience claps and cheers]


SASHA:  One thing that I would,
sorry, Sasha Anderson.


I'd like to look at progressive taxes


coming from the real estate
excize tax known as the re-tax.


Portland, Oregon is doing
something where they take


the 1% of real estate from
commercial real estate property


and they direct it to green job training.


I think we can direct that
to more affordable housing.


I also would really like
to sit down with Microsoft


and have a conversation with
them about how we can utilize


the $500 million that they pledged


to actually start building
affordable housing.


Thank you.


CATHY:  Cathy Tuttle.


I'd love to see community land trust.


I'd love to also see
housing be able to be built


all year round.


Right now we're in a situation


where the deeply affordable
housing is just permanent


and allowed to go out to bid once a year


and actually while I'm
talking about that too,


I think our permitting
system is pretty broken


at the city level and it's something


that we can do something about


that will allow housing to be built faster


and more affordable.


So those are all the kind
of wonky recent things


that I think we can do to make housing


more affordable quickly.


FRANK:  Frank Krueger.


In the long run,


I would like to see the
state adopt an income tax.


I think it's our fairest chance


at having our progressive
tax that we can make use of


but in the short-term we have to deal


with our current problems
currently and for that


I think that we've asked too much


of our property owners already.


I don't wanna see anymore
levies against property owners


and honestly I don't
wanna see anymore bonds.


I don't think that
putting the city in debt


is a smart way to make
progress in the future.


It's not gonna last for long.


So what's left?


Well, the head tax that
we all mentioned already.


Unfortunately, I believe that businesses


do have to spend more but
I would like to make sure


that the business acts
itself as a progressive tax


and that small businesses are
not unduly burdened with this.


BETH:  I think it's gonna take
a mix of different things


to produce more and the
question was specifically


about subsidized housing,
not just affordable housing?


[ERICA]: Both.


BETH:  Okay, both.


Okay, so I would say,


I worked on the best
in human services levy


with now Attorney General Bob Ferguson


but then a council member
to come up with a plan


that would build more housing
and deliver human services.


The re-replacement,


we already have a tax that produces that


as well as the documentary reporting fee.


I do think Microsoft's
investment in the $500 million


is meant to be a revolving
fund and so that,


it should incentivize cities to go,


especially a suburban city,


to redo their codes but
also to provide money


so that nonprofit developers


could get their foot in the door.


DAVE: Time.


BETH:  I'd like to say much more. [chuckles]


JOSHUA:  Joshua Newman.


Again this comes back to the inequality


of the last four years
in the United States


and the state of Washington
and we do need to implement


some kind of income tax


or perhaps a wealth tax in Washington.


I would be supportive,
I wanna see a public,


expanding public and private partnerships.


Because of that inequality in the past,


the wealthy corporations
haven't paid enough.


They're sitting on the capital.


Now they should share it.


I opposed the head tax but
I think we should implement


a payroll tax which is more equitable


and also implement a city bank.


A state bank would be good


but we could do a city bank in Seattle


and let me just say that Emily's idea


of a pay disparity tax
is freaking awesome.


[audience laughs]


ETHAN:  Ethan Hunter.


So I agree with Joshua having
that city bank in Seattle.


I love Emily's idea about the tax.


Truth is that companies like Amazon,


large corporations like Amazon,


have helped to make
Seattle less affordable


for so many of our citizens so these large


and major corporations
are going to have to start


putting more back into the community


and that means going forward,


we are gonna have to look at something


like a tax on Amazon and Microsoft.


I also make sure though that small


and medium-sized businesses
aren't being unfairly taxed


at the same rate as
these large corporations


but if we're gonna be
serious about funding


some of these projects,


these large corporations
who have gotten away


with murder for years with
paying no money in taxes


need to start paying their fair share.


HEIDI:  Heidi Stuber.


We're talking a lot about
taxes and I think any solution


to our progressive taxation
is a state level issue


and I support our state
legislatures looking into that.


On the city level,


because we have limitations
on what we can do,


I think we have to make really
good use of the resources


we already have and as a business woman,


I'm a big believer in
looking at our budget,


especially the homelessness
budget which is quite large


and seeing how we can better utilize that


to make sure we're creating more temporary


and transitional housing
with wraparound services.


Tiny home villages are
relatively quick, inexpensive,


and dignified solution and
I think we need to look


at more things that we can
build quickly to get more people


into shelter that aren't
as extensive as big permits


for housing developments
which also need --


DAVE: That's it.


SHAUN:  Shaun Scott.


I'd like to see a retooled,
rebranded, if you will,


employee head tax.


I would like to see the city


use a real estate speculation tax.


I would like to see congestion pricing.


I would like to see the city
dip into its bonding capacity


because long-term fiscal
solvency or whatever


is not really gonna be worth much


where we're headed at this rate


and I'd rather have a
planet that we can live on


in four years as opposed
to a credit rating


that we can't use because the
world is literally on fire.


[audience cheers]


I also think it's the case
that there are a number


of candidates in this
race who will be fine


for a chamber of commerce support


but are also saying that
they're gonna be interested


in pursuing progressive revenue solutions


to which I say good luck.


[select audience members clap]


[ERICA]: Alright, next question.


What will your approach be to
encampments in the district


and in the city?


SASHA:  Sasha Anderson.


I can't remember the news
source but I saw yesterday


that the time that folks
in encampments now have


to collect their possessions
and leave is virtually zero,


that navigation teams are
showing up immediately


and taking apart camps and
it's an inhumane approach.


I think we need to work
more with folks out there


in the LEAD program to find
different ways to engage people


and connect them with
services who are currently


living in encampments.


[ERICA]: Sorry I stepped on you there.


That was for my website.


TheCIsForCrank.com.


[audience laughs]


ERICA:  It's the only plug I'll make.


[audience laughs]


CATHY:  I'll make another plug.


It's a great blog.


[audience laughs]


Cathy Tuttle.


And, yes, we need a lot
more places for people and,


yes, to the LEAD service
which is the law enforcement,


social service workers that go
alongside of police officers


as camps are being cleared


but clearing is clearly not working


because people are working
from Ballard to the U District


to downtown and then in
kind of an endless circle,


a horrible circle, and these
are people that live here.


We need to provide life
support services for people,


immediately toilets, water, shelter.


We need, I mean, the
ultimate wraparound service


is housing and we need to
provide that immediately as well.


Right now,


DAVE: That's it.


CATHY:  We're not doing enough.


FRANK:  Frank Krueger.


The most important thing
I ever get from anyone


is that I have someone
living under my porch


and I wanna make sure that
they are taken care of


and receive help.


I wanna make sure that we move money away


from the navigation team and
devote it to social services


such as hygiene programs and restrooms.


We are doing good work with our rest stops


where people can come
in early in the morning


and get themselves cleaned up for work


or whatever their day is gonna consume.


We need to focus on bath
and hygiene but encampments


have to be temporary.


I would like to endorse
tiny houses and those kinds


of self-governed communities.


We've seen that,


I'll stop.


BETH:  Beth Mountsier.


With regard to encampments,


I do think that the policies
being enacted right now


are fairly inhumane and yet
I understand the frustration


of communities who feel like things


are just sort of out of control.


It's not fair, it's not good,


that kids show up at school
and there are needles


on playgrounds and all
those other sorts of things


but I think what the
triage that needs to happen


is there's different populations of people


who are living on the street.


The people who are mentally
ill, need mental health services


perpetuate the pendulum,
substance abuse, same.


Other people are simply, they're working,


they're living in their
vehicles but they can't afford


to get into housing.


There's a way to triage
to get them a house.


They have stable jobs.


They just don't have first class.


JOSHUA:  Joshua Newman.


Fundamentally, people are
living in tent encampments


because they have nowhere else to go


and chasing them around to somewhere else


they don't have anywhere to
go is just throwing good money


after that and inhumane but
it's also not compassionate


to just allow our neighbors
to continue to live


under the freeway, under peoples' porches,


and on the side of the road.


So in the near term and
triage is the right analogy,


in order to address it
rapidly and quickly,


we need to establish FEMA style tent camps


like they do after natural
disasters and I think


we need to establish them in
each of the seven districts


throughout the city.


After that, we can start working
on more permanent solutions


such as the tiny homes,


additional rental support, et cetera.


ETHAN:  So my long-term goal, obviously,


would be to get the homeless
population into, in Seattle,


into housing but in the short-term,


we need to look at
different options in which


they can live safely
throughout our communities.


I just spoke with a
gentleman earlier here today


who works with an organization
called Nickelsville


and what they're doing is
providing housing for people


around the city for short periods of time,


then helping them
transition into their jobs


or other forms of housing.


So things like that.


Over on 45th and 15th in
the University District,


the church is actually
taking their parking lot


and allowing for people to
live in their tents there,


things like that because then
they have access to bathrooms,


able to clean themselves.


They can go out and find a job.


I have more to say.


HEIDI:  Heidi Stuber.


The unauthorized tent
encampments are not a safe,


sustainable, compassionate
solution for anybody


and coming in and asking people to move


like they did recently
on the encampment on I-90


and they just moved across the street,


that doesn't work either.


We need more shelter.


We need lots more shelter.


We need shelters to be 24 hour shelters.


We need to transition overnight shelters


into more of a hostel
model where people can come


with their partners, come with their pets,


come with their belongings,
stay in a secure room.


We need more tiny
villages and we need more


of the authorized tent
encampments like those


are across the city in church parking lots


with services and hygiene facilities.


SHAUN:  I think this is, Shaun Scott.


I think this is in many ways a question


of cruelty versus compassion.


The side of cruelty is very much the side


of criminalizing folks for being poor.


The side of cruelty is
wasting $ million a year


on ineffective sweeps.


The side of cruelty is saying
no we shouldn't actually


have treatment centers
where people who are clearly


going through opiate withdrawals


or other substance abuse issues.


I think the side of compassion says okay,


scan the city's community
service officer program


to go into some of these encampments


to direct people to services.


The side of compassion is
the side of taxing the rich


to actually pay for the
housing that everybody says


they're enthusiastic about.


The side of compassion
is the side that says,


as the chief of police said
that we can't arrest our way


out of the problem of
homelessness and we're gonna


have to move in the
direction of actually being


as inclusive of a city
as we pretend to be.


[select audience members clap]


EMILY:  Emily Myers.


So on our path here to
permanent and affordable housing


and permanent supportive housing,


we have to be looking at what
is the most humane solution


and what is the most
cost effective solution


and neither of those are sweeps.


Sweeps are neither humane
nor are they cost effective


so we should be looking at
more sanctioned encampments


that provide services
like bathrooms, showers,


laundry services for people
who are living unsheltered.


We have, we need to provide
trash services as well


and sharps containers, things like that,


to actually help people where
they're at and meet them there


rather than trying to hold
people up to an expectation


that is just unfeasible and
then we need to be increasing


our youth --


DAVE: That's it.


[ERICA]: Alright, this is
gonna be the last question


and then you'll each have one minute


for a closing statement.


What will you do to improve
biking and pedestrian access


to the existing and future


light rail stations in district four?


CATHY:  So we're opening two new
district four stations


in the Ravenna Roosevelt area
and in the University area


and then people from district
four will also be going up


to the North Gate station.


So all three of those need
to have really good access


for people who walk and bike.


Right now, it's an uphill battle
and it's a long term battle


that should have been
won about 10 years ago.


It's insane that we're still talking


to the department of
transportation about it.


We need excellent ways for
people to walk and bike


to these stations and we
need great bus drop-offs.


I am so tired of taking the bus


to the University --


DAVE: That's it.


CATHY:  Station route, it's --


DAVE: That's it!


[audience chatters]


FRANK:  Frank Krueger.


I would like to see more greenways.


I've seen the proposals for Brooklyn.


We've gone with Brooklyn
without it being an active road


for quite awhile now and
you'd think we've demonstrated


that we don't quite need it in parts


and I would like to see parts
of that turned into greenways


and better pedestrian safe zones.


On top of that,


it's a bit tricky because
we have these three


light rail stations here in district four


but somehow I live a mile and a half away


from every one of them.


I don't wanna walk a mile and a half.


I guess I'm a little bit lazy
so that leaves me with biking


but I don't always wanna
be sweaty so I actually use


a onewheel, an electronic device,


and I wanna make sure that the city


is embracing electronic
devices such as those,


EUCs, and scooters and
clarify our municipal code


and allow --


DAVE: Time.


BETH:  Beth Mountsier.


I was gonna go where Frank was going.


The innovations and sort
of first mile, last mile,


without killing pedestrians
at the same time


because I know people are concerned


about scooters being
on sidewalks and so on


but it is an uphill,
literally in some cases,


[audience laughs]


to get to those light rail stations


and you want those kind of advantages.


I bus in the morning to my stop.


I walk home in the local
area and I think all of us


make those choices but a lot
are from longer commutes.


They're farther than the walk,


so we need to work with the city.


We need to go to work for pedestrians


in terms of what they need
but also those bike lanes


can potentially have
multi-use for scooters,


other sorts of things like that.


JOSHUA:  Joshua Newman.


First off, this comes back to density


as we've talked about
before but we do need


to continue to expand the
number of housing units


that we can build near
light rail stations.


This offers something not
just for new residents


but also for current residents


when they're downsizing perhaps.


I've said it before, we'll say it again.


We need to remove the on
street arterial street parking.


That space needs to be
dedicated to pedestrians


and to car alternatives
such as bikes and scooters.


Scooters need to be allowed to share


and capped at 12 miles an hour


and finally on 43rd Street
between the future station


as well as UW South,


I would turn that into a pedestrian plaza.


ETHAN:  So if we're serious about
solving climate change


and reaching our goals that
we talked about earlier,


we need to get single occupancy
vehicles off the road.


So allowing for more houses,


more two family homes to be built


near major transportation
hubs like the ones


that are being constructed
right now and also understanding


that bikes and walking to work
or wherever you need to go


is part of the solution.


So if we're doing things, like
the mayor's decision on 35th,


to eliminate a protected bike lane,


that's not helping us in
where we want to get to


which is helping solve the climate crisis.


So bikes, on foot, electric
scooters as was mentioned,


and just getting single
occupancy vehicles off the road


and if we're not having,


if we're eliminating things


like protected bike lanes on 35th --


DAVE: That's it.


HEIDI:  Heidi Stuber.


We need to make it easy and safe


to access all the light rail stations.


Like we said, we're gonna
have three in district four.


We're gonna be good users
of the ones in North Gate


and I've taken my bike and
gotten on the light rail


and taken it downtown and it's really hard


to get your bike off and exit on downtown


so we need to think about
getting bikes on and off as well.


The elevators are often full.


I've had to carry my bike up a stairway


when an elevator was out of service.


So that's something we can do.


I also think we need to look
at dense pedestrian areas


near the light rail
stations and do like they do


on some downtown crosswalks
where they close,


they open all the
crosswalks at the same time,


I don't know what that's called


so everyone can cross really easily


and I also think, that's it.


[audience chuckles]


SHAUN:  Well, the good news is that we have two


 mayoral candidates
in the general election


who promised to take
action on implementing


our city's bike master plan.


The bad news, of course,


is that one of them was elected


and has shown no leadership on that issue.


The other, Cary Moon, has
actually endorsed me in this race


and so following the
leadership that she showed


on the campaign trail to
actually have climate goals,


that's something that I would like to do


as far as implementing and seeing through


the bike master plan.


Secondarily, I think
following something that Metro


was able to implement,


I would like to see an
electric vehicle shuttle


that can actually take people
from light rail stations


to sort of blocks within the district.


It's something that,
there's a Jamaican American,


some Jamaican American immigrants,


my grandfather started --


DAVE: That's it.


SHAUN:  A similar kind of service.


EMILY:  Emily Myers.


So the first thing that I would like to do


is start gathering the LimeBike
data so that we can actually


see where people are biking
who are using LimeBikes


and combine that with the biking data


that we already currently
have and that can help us


designate where we should
have protective bike lanes


because protected bike lanes
are safer for both bikers


and for people in cars,


so protected bike lanes
and building momentum


to actually get those
implemented and built.


Making sure that we have
designated bike and scooter places


at the light rail stops so that, you know,


scooters and bikes are not
left all over sidewalks,


to keep them clear,


and basically we need
to stop centering cars


in our decision making process


about how we improve
transportation in the city.


[select audience members clap]


SASHA:  Sasha Anderson.


I'd like to go back to the
climate action [coughs],


excuse me, plan that I mentioned earlier.


Again, that's 37 pages
that dives into deep detail


about everything all the
candidates are talking about,


all of us are talking about,


expanding greenways, making
scooters more easily accessible,


focusing on transit,
pedestrian walkways, bicycles.


We need to follow through
on a plan that was worked on


extremely hard to make sure
we're meeting our goals.


It's out there.


We need to build the political will


to hold our elected officials
accountable to follow through.


Thank you.


[ERICA]: Alright and now
we will have one minute


for our closing statements


and if you do it in less than that,


you get extra points.


[audience laughs]


FRANK:  Frank Krueger.


Thank you all for coming out tonight.


It was a real privilege
to get to speak to you.


This is the first time I've
had a forum with a bike crowd,


super trippy, great.


I hope you have the impression
that I'm an optimist


because I am.


I actually look forward to large problems.


I have worked with my
business around the world.


I have dealt with governments,
not just the United States,


but India, Bangladesh, Egypt.


I have dealt with bureaucracy


and dealt with inter-agency problems.


I love working through those problems


and coming to good solutions
and I hope to do that for you.


In addition to that, I
just want to announce that,


if you're in the Wallingford neighborhood,


we're having a waterway clean
up this Saturday at 10 A.M.


If you want a good excuse
to get out of the house


and go hang out around Lake Union,


please come join us at the
entrance to Gas Works Park


and help us clean up the North Lake.


Thank you very much.


Again, my name is Frank Krueger
and go to VoteFrank.org.


Thanks.


BETH:  Beth Mountsier.


I'll stand up this time


so I can see everybody in the back too.


I'm new to the campaign so
if many of you don't know me,


I filed right at the last minute.


I wanna say I jumped into
this race because I think


this district could help
lead the city in terms of


the sort of leadership that
we need on all the kinds


of issues that we've been talking about.


I've kind of dropped
hints but for those of you


who don't know me,


I have worked for over 20 years,


worked for the King County
Council and for the executive,


as I mentioned, I work
for the city of Redmond.


I've dealt with legislation,


what it takes in the way of partnerships


in terms of working back and
forth between elected officials


and I know the ins and
outs of a lot of the things


that we've talked about this evening.


That doesn't make me
necessarily more qualified,


it means that I have some
relevant experience though


in terms of how the city
works, how politics works,


how to get things done.


So thanks and it was really great


to see a biker crowd here tonight.


Thanks.


Extra points for being less than a minute.


[audience chuckles]


JOSHUA:  Joshua Newman.


I've been a lifeguard,
a preschool teacher,


and a pizza delivery driver.


I'm an engineer.


I've got a family of four kids.


I am deeply, deeply
concerned about the future,


their ability to live in
Seattle and raise families here


themselves in the future and the question,


you knew our grandparents
and parents knew that,


they were confident that our futures


would be better than theirs


and I don't think that most
of us can say confidently


that we feel the same
way about our children


and our grandchildren.


We need to work,


we need to change the city
in three fundamental ways.


We need to make it easy to
get around without a car.


Cars aren't our future.


We know that, we've established that here.


We need to build more homes
in more shapes and more sizes


so people can find housing
that fits their needs


and we need to build
enough renewable energy


in the next 10 years to completely replace


our fossil fuel needs.


We need to be brave
and we need to be bold.


Thank you.


ETHAN:  Ethan Hunter.


So thanks for everyone
who came out tonight


and thanks for all of the, my opponents,


for coming out as well
except for Alex Pedersen.


[audience laughs]


As the youngest person in this race,


I'll be dealing with
things like climate change,


affordability for decades
and decades to come.


So if we don't solve the crisis


of climate change right away,


as Bill Nye said just a
few weeks ago on the news,


if our planet is on effing fire,


it'll continue to be on
fire and sooner or later,


it's just gonna burn up and
we need to stop that now.


If Seattle continues to be
unaffordable the way it is,


I won't be able to live in
the city that I love so much


for a lifetime.


I'll be forced out because of the,


how expensive it is to
live in this city and then,


adding to that,


as a recent graduate of
Seattle public schools,


doing everything in my power
I can as an elected official


to support our students,
support our teachers,


make sure they have the
funding that they need


so that every child in the city can get


the education they deserve.
DAVE: That's it.


That is it!


HEIDI:  My name is Heidi Stuber.


Thank you all for coming out.


I think this group of
candidates in district four


is exciting 'cause I actually
believe we agree on more


than we disagree on.


I think we agree on increasing density.


I think we agree on


increasing access to
public transportation.


I think we agree on taking
action on climate change


and I think we agree on supportive
housing for the homeless.


And so I think that's really exciting


and so I think our district gets to decide


about what kind of leader
they want to elect.


So I'm a businesswoman and I specialize


in organizational change
and I really believe


that business should work well,


business should work efficiently


and business should work for everybody.


I'm also an autism advocate and a mom


and my position as a
mom influenced me a lot


in joining this race.


Rob Johnson was the only
parent of school aged children


and when he retired I thought,


the only parent needs to
be replaced with a parent


and better yet a mom
because moms get stuff done


and I think a lot about
what kind of leader we need


to take action on the big
issues facing our city right now


and how to --


DAVE: That's it.


That's it!


[audience chuckles]


SHAUN:  Shaun Scott.


I'm running in this race
ultimately, I think,


because I have a very
deep and abiding faith


in the people of Seattle
to do the right thing


before it comes time to have to do it.


As somebody who is a historian,


I take a lot of inspiration
from the initiatives


of 30 or 40 years ago
where Seattle got together


and said we're going to tax
ourselves and raise revenue


to try to build a subway
system to try to revamp


our park infrastructure.


Many of those things passed,
a lot of them did not.


The can was kicked down
the road and so I think


it's up to our generation
and this next generation


of leaders to actually see that vision


for climate justice through


and so I was happy to see Seattle Met


recently highlight our campaign,


Seattle Green New Deal as one
of more comprehensive plans


that have been put forward
to not only talk about


what we're going to actually construct


as far as our bike master plan,


as far as our street car connector,


but also who, which of these candidates,


seems most likely to actually


have the difficult conversations
about how we're going


to get that progressive revenue
from the business community


and from people who are
very well off in the city.


[select audience members cheer and clap]


EMILY:  Emily Myers.


I just want to take a quick
second to clarify my answer


about the parking fees.


The reason that I wouldn't
support that is mainly


because I don't trust the
private for profit parking people


who are running the parking
lots to not disproportionately


impact except people
with accessibility issues


and people with disabilities
who have to drive.


I don't trust that they would
do that in an equitable way.


So that being said,


I'm running because I think
we need scientific leadership


at the city of Seattle and
we've seen a huge increase


of scientists running for office


and I'm really inspired by that.


We need scientific,
collaborative leadership


in order to tackle the
biggest problems in our city


and that means that we also need someone


who's gonna build and
organize folks because we know


how hard it can be to pass,


pass progressive policy.


So it's important to have
someone that's an organizer,


I'm a labor organizer, I've
been endorsed by MLK Labor,


because I know how to get people on board


to get progressive policy passed.


Thanks.


SASHA:  Sasha Anderson.


So last week I was talking with a group


of my high school students who participate


in the mentoring program that I run


through Big Brothers Big
Sisters and we were talking


about civic engagement and
public service and they asked me


why our leaders in Seattle don't,


haven't addressed affordable housing?


Why do they have to move every year


because their rent increases?


And why can't they,


why can't they do afterschool activities


and participate in sports
because they have to go home


and help out with their younger
brother and younger sister


because their parents
can't afford child care?


And they asked me if smoky
summers are gonna be their normal


for the rest of their lives


because that's what they're afraid of.


And that's why I'm running.


I'm running for my students, for our kids,


for all of us in district
four and in Seattle.


My work is in negotiation,
mediation, consensus building.


DAVE: That's it.


My name is Sasha Anderson.


SASHA:  Thank you.


CATHY:  I'm Cathy Tuttle and I was,


I'm running because I
was called to do this.


I have been working in
community organizing


and climate action for the last 35 years


and I know that we have to lower
our carbon footprint by 50%


in the next 30 years and I am
the person who has the skills


and the connections and the
ability to get that done.


I have been building projects
for people in Seattle


for the last 30 years.


I've built 40 parks and community centers.


I've built a very successful
grassroots organization,


Seattle Neighborhood Greenways.


I am endorsed by people who
understand what my work is,


Richard Conlin, Alan Durning, Ed Lazowska,


Tom Rasmussen, Heather Trim,


and the rd District Democrats.


I know that I can get this work done


and I know we have to get this work done.


I'm asking for your vouchers,
for you to volunteer,


go back to the Cathy sign back there,


and for your vote.


I have a great new deal for Seattle.


I really wanna get it done here.


ERICA:  Thank you again to all of our candidates.


Let's give them a big round of applause.


[audience applauds]