Seattle City Council victories usher in a new era

The progressive candidates for Seattle Metropolis Council received … as a result of all the candidates had been progressive.

However that doesn’t imply they had been all the identical. Delicate however vital distinctions separated the contenders. For probably the most half, the winners sign a brand new sensibility that ought to present itself in an apparent manner: extra residents will get their calls and emails returned from Metropolis Corridor.

Rob Saka, Pleasure Hollingsworth, Maritza Rivera, Cathy Moore and Bob Kettle — all endorsed by The Instances — had at the least one factor in frequent of their profitable campaigns. They consider police have a job to play in public security, together with specializing in social issues and unarmed regulation enforcement alternate options. That appears apparent, but it surely wasn’t.

Essentially the most hanging instance occurred within the metropolis’s most progressive neighborhoods. In District 3 — Capitol Hill, Central Space and Madison Park — Hollingsworth squared off towards transit activist Alex Hudson. Throughout an Oct. 10 debate, Hudson couldn’t deliver herself to say that police had been vital to the neighborhood’s well-being. As a substitute, when answering a query about public security, she meandered about Seattle being a “pretty place” whereas contending cops principally didn’t make a distinction.

“One factor about Capitol Hill is, that is dwelling to the East Precinct. Our law enforcement officials are proper right here on this neighborhood, and we’re nonetheless seeing these crimes,” Hudson mentioned.

This was an ideological — not a sensible — stance. And what occurs to ideologues when they’re elected to public workplace? They tune out those that don’t agree with their worldview. It’s loads simpler to remain comfortable in an echo chamber. Exhibit A: Outgoing District 3 council member Kshama Sawant, who was infamous for poor constituent providers.

In future, when small enterprise homeowners complain about damaged home windows and residents fret about gunshots and property injury, the brand new council members usually tend to be empathetic. That will likely be a welcome change and it’s elementary to growing sound coverage.

One other word in regards to the Nov. 7 election: A giant thanks to all of the neighborhood teams equivalent to Seattle CityClub that hosted candidate debates and put them on-line. For residents (and editorial writers), these boards had been a useful useful resource to listen to the candidates in their very own voices. To be an engaged, knowledgeable metropolis, we want much more of those alternatives.

Voter turnout was lower than earlier years — 46% in Seattle, in comparison with 55% in 2019. One motive might be that there was no apparent boogeyman this 12 months as there was in 2019 when Amazon dumped $1 million into Metropolis Council campaigns and skilled a torrential backlash. Additionally, lots of the candidates sounded loads alike. It took some digging to find out the variations. The easiest way to treatment that is discovered within the earlier paragraph — extra venues for candidates to current their opinions on to voters.

One path Seattle shouldn’t take: shifting native elections to even years, the place metropolis candidates would compete for consideration with state legislators, members of Congress, and probably contenders for governor and president. A bill that will have allowed cities and cities to make the swap died within the Legislature earlier this 12 months. It ought to face an analogous destiny sooner or later.

It’s arduous sufficient to carve out time to totally vet metropolis candidates within the common election, not to mention the August main, which drew 45 hopefuls for Seattle metropolis races alone.

Metropolis Corridor is about to expertise monumental change. To those that voted, thanks. To the organizers who helped inform the voters, thanks. To the profitable candidates, congratulations. Nicely performed.

Now comes the arduous half. Let’s get to work.