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Seattle City Council, time to wake up: An open letter to our first-year councilmembers

Yesterday needs to be this City Council’s worst day if 8 out of 9 of them want a chance at another term. They pulled one of the most chickenshit moves I’ve ever witnessed from my years covering city politics when they decided to hold an expensive special election for the voters’ initiative 137 rather than put it on November’s high-turnout general election ballot. They did this for the sole purpose of weakening its chances because they know the more Seattleites who vote on the initiative, the more likely it will be to pass.

The Seattle City Council (minus Tammy Morales) is admitting that their opinion on the initiative is unpopular among the people they are elected to represent, and they are pulling a chickenshit procedural trick in order to circumvent the people’s will. Not only are they wrong to do this, they should stop and think for a moment about the implications for their political prospects in this city.

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A post shared by Councilmember Tammy J. Morales (@cmtammymorales)


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It didn’t help that they then retreated to their offices to remotely approve a contract for more jail cells to imprison low-level offenders because the outcry of public opposition in the council chambers was too loud. It also didn’t help that they somehow didn’t anticipate last week how unpopular it would be to roll back the minimum wage law. Not sure how many more signs folks will need before realizing they are making deeply unpopular decisions.

Here’s what I think is going to happen. Councilmember Woo will be toast in November, losing her second City Council election in the span of a year. It won’t be close. One down. At the same time, the voters of Washington House District 43 (entirely within the bounds of Seattle) will elect Shaun Scott despite a majority of the City Council endorsing Republican Andrea Suarez (who pretends she’s a Democrat because she thinks her voters aren’t paying attention). Suarez may not even make it into the general election depending on how late primary ballots turn out, that’s how out of touch this City Council is with the people they represent (Full disclosure: My family recently hosted a fundraiser house party for Scott’s campaign because he’s great). Seattle will then hold a special election, and we will pass I-137. But even worse for this Council, they decided through their action yesterday to turn the I-137 vote into a referendum of the city’s support for investing in affordable housing (spoiler, we want more) as well as a symbolic referendum on this City Council. Not a smart move, y’all.

Is it too late for them to save themselves? For Tanya Woo, yeah it’s too late. I also doubt Sara Nelson can reform her image, either, since she’s the leader of it all and she’s up for election next year (she’s welcome to try). But most of the others are still in the first years of their first terms. They get to use the “I was new and didn’t know better” card one time, and this is a great time to deploy it because that card expires soon. They are clearly getting advice from the wrong people right now, but there is no law that says they must continue following them into the abyss. They were elected by the people, and the office belongs solely to them and their constituents. It doesn’t matter how much corporate PAC money was spent to get them into office, they don’t owe those funders anything.

Kick your cynical bad faith advisors to the curb and go out into your community in search of real problems to solve to make our city a better place. Untie from the sinking ship that is Council President Nelson and be your own leader. Seattle is still a big small town, and elections are still usually won based on community support.

If councilmembers don’t turn things around fast, they may not even make it to 2027. Coucilmember Tammy Morales suggested during yesterday’s meeting that by not prioritizing their consideration of I-137, they likely ran afoul of the City’s Charter and could face recall elections. I personally do not like recall elections and hope it doesn’t come to that, but that’s the path this Council is walking (running?) down. Once you start taking actions to defy the will of the people, recall is the people’s recourse.

I love Seattle, and I believe in our city’s potential to be the city the rest of the nation looks to when trying to solve big problems. That’s why I love writing Seattle Bike Blog. This is my love letter to our city. We don’t always rise to our potential, but folks here never give up. Then every once in a while, we do something extraordinary. We are due for something extraordinary.

None of what I said above will happen on its own, but I believe the people of our city will put in the organizing and volunteer work to make it happen. Seattleites are desperate to make housing more affordable, and we are beyond sick of being told by elected leaders year after year that for some reason we can’t do it. That’s the energy behind I-137. If you all won’t do it, then we will. We’re not going to continue sitting on our hands pretending like there’s nothing more we can do while more and more people get priced out of our city’s cheapest apartments and forced to sleep in the fucking rain.

As our elected leaders, you can join us in an extraordinary victory as we create social housing that people can afford, or you can fight us. But if you fight us, you will lose. You made a big mistake yesterday, now you gotta figure out how to make it right. Which side of Seattle history do you want to be on?

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Comments

21 responses to “Seattle City Council, time to wake up: An open letter to our first-year councilmembers”

  1. Sachi Wilson

    You are so right. Seattle is still progressive, even if many voters need some caution while doing it. And Tom, thanks very much for your strength as an advocate and educator.

  2. John Rothschild

    Actually, I think the present city Council is great. This is a bike blog and not a political blog and you should keep your political attitudes, not related to bike issues, out of the blog. Your rhetoric about the city Council has nothing to do with general bike issues. Keep to the issues and cut out the rhetoric.

    And I disagree when you say Woo will be history. You probably do not read any criticisms of the west coast liberals who cannot govern but in case your readers want to read an alternative viewpoint, this opinion piece says it all about the past Seattle political leadership and that of other cities on the west coast. https://www.heraldnet.com/opinion/kristof-why-west-coast-liberals-cant-get-out-of-their-own-way/. Nicolas Kristoff is a liberal and excellent columnist for the NY Times who ran for governor of Oregon. He argues that just because we are liberal, we do not have to be incompetent in governing. The east coast liberals can govern.

    Given what Tom Fucoloro writes, he wants to continue the inept and incompetent past liberal governing policies of Seattle that hurt all of us citizens. Nicolas’ article is directed specifically to the rheortic that Tom writes about.

    John Rothschild

    1. Aaron

      what John said. stick to bikes or loose readers

      1. R. Shackleford

        They just gained a reader by posting this letter. Infrastructure is inherently political.

    2. Tom Fucoloro

      Affordable housing is absolutely a biking issue. I’ve been consistent about this for the entire time I’ve written this blog. We can expand affordable access to safe biking in two ways: 1: Build more bike facilities near affordable housing and 2: Build more affordable housing near our existing bike facilities. Both are important. So yes, an attack on I-137 is relevant to Seattle Bike Blog.

      1. DB

        100% agree. Thanks for everything you do Tom!

    3. George

      I read this because it’s a bike blog, and I’m a cyclist. To the extent it deviates to other topics, even if they affect transportation, I’m probably not continuing to read. I may or may not agree, just saying I don’t read this blog for what I define as non-cycling issues.

      And “chickenshit”. Really?

    4. Robert Strader

      This city council was bought and paid for by corporate PAC money and should be called out. This blog has consistently worked to inform it’s readers of important issues facing our urban environment and I applaud Mr. Fucoloro for his efforts. These issues are cyclist issues because they are about our urban infrastructure which is paramount to increasing safe riding for all. Give em Hell Tom!!!

    5. Susan Helf

      Hi John,
      Tanya Woo is she one of the worst, most incompetent members of the Council and has never won an election. She lost to Tammy Morales and then was appointed to an empty seat by the clueless Council. Alexis Mercedes Rinck will easily beat her in November. Sara Nelson and Cathy Moore resent and fear ity residents who attend Council meetings and have set up a nasty us/them relationship with their constituents. All the Council has done since they took office is repeal useful legislation passed by the previous council. I am eager to see them all gone except for Morales, Strauss and Rinck. And, contrary to what the author of the blog wrote, Seattle didn’t elect the clueless bozos, they were bought and paid for by the downtown chamber.

  3. Greater Ballard

    The citizenry voted to replace almost the entire city council, yes? It should be expected that the new council would change previous direction in response to that voter mandate. Packing city council meetings to shout down people that think differently than you doesn’t make you right. It just makes you an Orwellian pig shouting two legs are better than four.
    They didn’t want to be shouted at, knowing they would not be listened to? Shocking they didn’t follow your script, but then we didn’t elect you, we elected them. Voters wanted change, too bad you don’t like it.
    Why are we not just subsidizing low income people’s rent payments, instead of flailing away at the housing supply side, which has never worked anywhere. Seattle politics, where brilliant minds gather to pool their ignorance with questionable logic to reach stupid conclusions.

    1. Kyle

      It’s fair that the council governs with the a centrist ideology. I don’t like their policies, but generally speaking those policies are what they ran on, and they won. That is democratic.

      However, using delay tactics to mess with a ballot initiative is decidedly un-democratic. This is an important distinction.

      Regarding housing – the way I see it is that the supply cannot the demand. Giving people money for rent would increase the demand while doing nothing about the supply. I don’t see how that would solve any problems.

    2. John D

      Supply side housing works all over the world and is very well supported by research. Just take a look at Austin or Phoenix. They have their own problems, but rent prices are flat or dropping despite a rapidly growing population and economy.

      https://www.lewis.ucla.edu/research/market-rate-development-impacts/

  4. Arianna Y

    Thanks Tom.

    I agree with this sentiment and I’m glad you’re using your platform to express your concerns about local government. It is tempting to create an urbanism in aesthetic terms only that only provides amenities for the select few. But transportation advocacy is situated in an broader environment where equity, housing, education, health and safety and all manners of political matters all play a role.

    This city council seems to not realize that it’s governing Seattle, one of the most economically productive areas in the world. Where the city should be doing more to invest in its people, in its infrastructure, since we know these investments will pay back dividends.

    Early primary results are promising and I hope this momentum is carried into the next city council elections. I think there can and should be a strong case for what a progressive Seattle can look like, and not just rely on a story about the inaction and failures of the current City Council.

    Love the blog. Keep up the good work and good advocacy.

  5. reuben

    Thanks, Tom. Keep it up!

  6. Apu

    Affordable, accessible housing and social equity are absolutely cycling-related issues. If one has to live very far away from work (or even worse, if one is homeless) getting around by bike is much harder and riskier.

    Walkable and bikeable cities don’t exist in a vacuum. One has to do the hard policy work (and yes political work) to make them happen.

    That’s why the same European countries that have adopted social housing also have much better cycling infrastructure, and all around quality of life, for all residents in all walks of life.

    Thank you for posting this Tom. It is super relevant to me as a cyclist and as a Seattle resident.

  7. Isaac

    This is a great post. Thanks Tom!

  8. Muraco Kyashna-tocha

    RIGHT ON TOM!!!!
    RECALL TIME NOW!

  9. Michael

    Great article, Tom! Some seem to be offended by your beliefs or your choice of language (lol, really?), but cycling is not just about the bike you choose to ride on, the gear you choose to ride with, or the speed or skill with which you ride. It’s inherently political to introduce safe cycling infrastructure and urbanism in a city and thus the representatives who make decisions for us inherently matter.

  10. Susan Helf

    I would get recall 7 of the 9 current City Council, including Sara Nelson, the most toxic, twitchy, unpleasant and unqualified City Councilmember in our history; Cathy Moore, who called the police on members of the public who were giving testimony in CC chambers because she was “scared;” and Bob Kettle, the Douchebag in Chief. They all hate democracy and they are pissed that they can’t just put everybody in jail. Seattle deserves a progressive council, not these hateful whiners.

    1. Susan Helf

      I agree completely about these hateful, whining losers!

  11. Kwan Wah Lui

    Some of the readers seemed to forget that people who fight for bicycling rights in the city is also ‘political’. Thank you Tom for being intersectional and letting the readers know that majority of those city council members are incompetent and shut down a democratic process. They will be held accountable accordingly.

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