City council elections in Seattle, Washington (2021)

CRISIS BRINGS OPPORTUNITY

WE’VE GOT THE CHANCE FOR A MAJOR RESET IN THIS TOWN AND I’LL BRING THE PRACTICAL, EXPERIENCED LEADERSHIP NEEDED TO GET SEATTLE ON THE RIGHT TRACK

Economic recovery is my top priority and it’s time for the voice of small business on City Council to support Seattle’s struggling small businesses and bring jobs back to the downtown core and neighborhood business districts.

Delivering basic city services is the main job of local government and it’s time to refocus parks, libraries, transportation, police and fire instead of frittering away public resources on pet projects.

Trust in government is at an all-time low and it’s time to elect leaders who will be held accountable for delivering measurable results.

Economic Recovery

Our city is facing an unprecedented economic challenge. The COVID pandemic has devastated both families and communities and exacerbated the longstanding challenges to starting and growing a small business in Seattle. As our city comes back to life, it’s crucial that we work together to ensure our economy prospers because our local businesses and workers are the heart of our city. Helping them must be an “all hands on deck” priority. For me it’s all about jobs and sustaining Seattle’s vibrancy and liveability.

Here’s how I’ll help on City Council:

1. Bring a neighborhood business owner’s perspective

Small businesses create jobs, spur innovation, and make up the fabric of our neighborhoods. But we’re struggling. Thousands of small businesses have closed and tens of thousands of people have lost their jobs. Seattle’s working families are hurting but Council’s not taking meaningful action to help. There hasn’t been a small business owner on City Council since 2009 and I’ll bring that missing perspective. I know what small businesses need and I’ll advance effective policies to help them survive the pandemic and thrive.

• Suspend collection of the B&O tax on businesses in hardest-hit sectors until revenues return to pre-pandemic levels

• Invest in business recruitment to bring jobs back to Seattle

• Allocate more federal and state COVID-relief dollars for direct financial assistance to neighborhood business districts

2. Get Downtown Seattle back on the right track.

We need a proactive and strategic plan to revive our downtown core which is the economic engine of our region and contributes 50% of the revenue needed to keep our city running. Unfortunately, for years, City Council has neglected to support downtown-area businesses and arts venues which have been devastated by COVID and rising rates of crime. Doing nothing isn’t an option anymore. As we bring workers back, it’s time to address the downtown crime crisis. I will also work to bring needed amenities to the neighborhood, including a downtown school, major grocers, and improved streetscapes and activated open spaces.

3. Plan for the long-term.

Seattleites will soon return to work and school but achieving a long-term, strong, and equitable recovery will require significant investment and focused leadership. I’m talking workforce Significantly expanding city support of neighborhood business districts, expediting building permits and business licensing, and incentivizing green technologies. Most of all, we must lead with creativity and deliberation to build Seattle back better.

Homelessness

What’s going on in Seattle is more than a political failure – it’s also a humanitarian failure. Spending has doubled, but the number of people experiencing homelessness has skyrocketed. Our homeless neighbors are not a monolithic block, these are individuals with very specific needs. Unfortunately, the city has pursued one-sized-fits-all policies that ignore the realities on the ground. These policies have wasted more than tax dollars – they’ve wasted lives. We can do better. But first, we need to tackle several big challenges:

The City must fundamentally restructure our response to the homelessness crisis and put in place a model proven to work in other cities.

• We must quantify the number of people experiencing homelessness in Seattle, understand why they became homeless, identify their specific needs, and determine the cost to deliver those services and housing. Right now, City spending is based on guesstimates extrapolated from the county-wide Night Out count. For the money we’re spending, Seattle’s unhoused deserve better.

• We must implement individualized case management and a real-time, centralized database or portal that’s accessible to service providers and City agencies to ensure continuity-of-care and help individuals get into the housing that meets their immediate needs. Right now, the left hand doesn’t know what the right hand’s doing and there is no coordination among providers.

• The City of Seattle must directly fund mental health and substance abuse treatment services, contract with those providers, and get individuals into that treatment. Right now, King County directs resources for these services and there’s not enough capacity to meet the need in Seattle.

This isn’t rocket science and we don’t have to recreate the wheel. We just have to have the political will do do something different that actually works.

The City must ensure it’s funding truly effective social service organizations and programs, including enforcing the standards it already has. To tackle this difficult problem, Seattle should only partner with organizations with a proven track record of delivering results and implementing metrics to hold them to it. Unfortunately, the city has a poor record on both monitoring and accountability.

Here are my promises to you:

• I’ll work to ensure clear, evidence-based benchmarks. Words aren’t enough – when lives are in the balance, we need to measure result.

• I’ll fight to end the practice of allowing providers to repeatedly miss basic benchmarks without consequences.

• I’ll look for new ways to keep citizens informed about what approaches the city is taking to homelessness; what’s working, and what isn’t. This is a problem we must tackle together. You deserve to know what the city’s doing, what it’s costing, and how it’s turning out.

In the short-term, we should address dangerous living situations with real alternatives.

Unfortunately, it’s increasingly clear that encampments are a safety risk for both residents and surrounding neighborhoods. From exploitation and crimes committed against homeless residents, to property crime issues in surrounding neighborhoods, to health and hygiene issues, encampments are a problem – not a viable solution. Seattle owes it to all of our neighbors, housed and unhoused, to find another plan. Here’s what I believe:

• Every individual deserves safety, dignity, and a fair chance at opportunity. Our current system of unregulated encampments can’t provide any of that. It needs to end.

• The “Housing First” model is the most effective way to provide stability for individuals in crisis.

• Ending encampments can open doors, not close them. We need to give folks a place to go to get off the street and introduce some stability. That means doing a better job of coordinating repeat contact tracking and connecting those who are willing to get help with resources.

• Temporary housing is a crucial part of the solution. “Stopgap” measures like tiny home villages can help provide safer, stabler housing to homeless individuals waiting for permanent placement. That’s where lives change for the better – not under overpasses.

• We must target investment in shelter and permanent supportive housing for women with children. Right now, their numbers far exceed capacity.

In the longer-term, we need more permanent supportive housing and a coordinated regional approach. The truth is, Seattle can’t go at it alone. Most resources related to homelessness are at the county, state, and even federal level. I support working to strengthen those partnerships. Here’s what I will make sure that partnership entails:

• Increase information-sharing between agencies to reduce crossed wires.

• Prioritize securing long-term, stable housing by tracking local need and housing stock. An effective regional system will match individual-level needs with regional resources.

• Invest more long-term resources in providing drug and mental health treatment to those ready to receive it. We know it’s the most single cost-effective ways of ending the cycle of homelessness.

The bottom line: We need to get folks out of tents and RVs. Unregulated encampments are unsafe and inhumane. As we address this crucial public health and public safety issue, it’s important to provide short-term and long-term alternatives for our homeless neighbors. I’ll make sure the city is working with the most effective partners and solutions. Our neighbors, housed and unhoused, deserve nothing less.

Government Accountability

If we want to make real progress, it’s time to address the way the city operates. I believe that government accountability means:

• Rationally and clearly identifying the problem

• Seeking input from all stakeholders to develop effective solutions and minimize unintended consequences

• Justifying the dollars spent to implement those solutions

• And finally, measuring the performance of those solutions and changing course if necessary.

To make that happen, we need to make a few changes:

1. City Council needs to do a better job of bringing those affected by policies to the table. Seattle is a city full of incredible talent and resources – our neighborhood leaders, non-profits, local businesses, and residents all have something to offer.

2. I’ll oppose passing quick-fix legislation on big issues without proper input. Unfortunately, on issues like the head tax, City Council often leaps before it looks.

3. It’s time to stop throwing money at the implementation of the legislation without considering the negative trade-offs.

Public Safety

CALL TO ACTION

ON GUN VIOLENCE, CRIME, AND SPD STAFFING

POLICING: We need to reform the police in a manner that keeps communities safe and holds officers accountable for misconduct — and then fund accordingly. I support a balanced approach to improving the police that has earned me the support of leaders like Rev. Harriett Walden, Founder of Mothers for Police Accountability, and Victoria Beach, Chair of the African American Community Advisory Council.

My opponent’s plan to abolish the police won’t improve public safety nor advance equity. But my plan to reform the police will.:

• Reestablish the Community Policing Teams which served as a liaison between residents, neighborhood business owners, people experiencing homelessness, and patrol officers. This builds trust between SPD and community through familiarity with neighborhood issues and relationship-building.
• I’ll push for improved accountability measures and disciplinary protocols in SPOG’s new contract and tie its renewal with compliance to the terms of the consent decree.
• I’ll push to recruit trainees from Seattle’s majority-BIPOC neighborhoods. This will reduce language and cultural barriers as well as build public trust and improve accountability.
• I’ll advocate to bring back the Seattle Police Academy which provided the de-escalation, anti-bias, and protest management training that isn’t taught at the state-run academy.
• Nearly 100 of the 258 items in the 2017 Police Accountability Ordinance, brought forward by the Community Police Commission, have not yet been implemented. I'll work to identify and implement the most important of these priorities. Community voices matter.

While I do not support abolishing the police, police reform is among my top priorities. Put simply, I believe that everyone who dials 911 has the right to a fast, effective, and fair response. The “fair” part is no less important than “fast” or “effective”. Seattle’s Police Department MUST do better. I’ll work hard from day one to ensure that happens.

GUN VIOLENCE: In the first half of 2021, there were 230 gun assault cases, including 9 homicides – the highest number of incidents in a month since 1984. Clearly we’ve got an emergency on our hands and the only way to reduce gun violence is to treat it as the public health crisis that it is and direct all the resources and policy tools we can at preventing a continued escalation. My approach is simple: fund what’s working and invest in new strategies. But first, City Council needs to step up, speak out, show some heart to the families grieving the loss of a loved one, and most importantly, have the courage to lead on gun violence prevention.

• Identify the community-driven approaches that are working to prevent gun violence, divert people out of the school-to-prison pipeline, support people already in the prison system, and reintegrate people back into the community and invest more funding in the organizations doing the work such as Choose 180 and Community Passageways.
• Support the Silent WAR Campaign to address ongoing violence in the African American community. Founded by Reverend Harriett Walden of Mothers For Police Accountability in 2011, its mission to stop the violence, increase the peace, and break the silence.
• Gender-based violence is a major cause of gun deaths as well as a precursor to homelessness, unemployment, mental illness, addiction, and a continued cycle of violence. So we must do much more to to prevent gender-based violence by targeting resources at survivor-driven mobile advocacy with flexible financial assistance to enable survivors to exit their abuse, preferably before engaging law-enforcement. I will allocate up to $4 million to expand the work being done by the Coalition to End Gender-Based Violence.
• Firearms in the home are a significant risk factor in domestic violence so we need to support research into the effectiveness of firearm removal enforcement in preventing domestic gun violence. This will lend support for expanded public education about Extreme Risk Protection Orders as a tool to get guns out of the hands of people at high risk of harming themselves or others with a gun.
• Get guns off the streets through gun buy-back programs, tightened gun registration laws, and more investigatory resources.
• Prioritize funding for youth violence prevention programs in the Seattle’s Families, Education, Preschool, and Promise Levy.

SEATTLE FIRE DEPARTMENT: You know how when you call 911 because an elderly person collapsed and can’t get up and the paramedics come right away, take vitals, stabilize the person and then rush them to the emergency room? Or you smell gas in your apartment even though your oven’s off and a fire engine comes right away? Or when the lithium battery in your son’s remote-controlled truck starts the house on fire and you hear a siren moments later? Well, I do. I want to talk about the dispatchers, paramedics, firefighters, Health One units, and everyone else at SFD who respond to crises and put their lives on the line to keep us and our loved ones safe because they don’t get the attention or resources they deserve when we discuss public safety.

Seattle’s tremendous growth over the past decade has resulted in a sharp increase in the number of emergency responses, but SFD’s staffing has remained relatively static. In fact, SFD has fewer firefighters than in previous years. On top of that, our homelessness crisis has dramatically increased the number and type of emergency responses, particularly incidents in encampments and abandoned buildings. And then came the pandemic and SFD stepped up to run the cities COVID-19 testing and vaccination sites. All of this has resulted in severe staffing and resources shortage – in personnel and equipment. The Seattle Fire Department is an overlooked but equally critical component of our public safety network. These first responders have come to my aid several times — and Seattle can do better by them. So, I will:

• Fight to ensure they have the resources they need to perform their duties safely (funding the replacement of bunk suits, for example) and that staffing levels keep up with the sharply increasing demand for their services.
• Push for pay increases for paramedics to incentivize the department’s EMTs to go through the additional medical training in order to increase the number of paramedics we’re losing to retirements and meet the rising demand for Medic One responses.
• Advocate for expanded mental health resources and healthcare benefits for all firefighters because the performance of their duties subject them to significant health risks and emotional stress.

HOUSING

Although we’re facing an urgent homelessness crisis, even more Seattleites are at-risk of displacement. Rent and home prices are so high that people across income levels – teachers, firefighters, students, blue-collar workers, retail employees -- find it increasingly difficult to find housing they can afford close to their workplace or even within Seattle. I want Seattle to be a city where my kids can afford to live, not just a playground for the ultra-rich. So, we need more affordable housing but, let’s face it, we won’t be able to subsidize our way out of our housing affordability crisis. What do do?

1. First we need to retail existing, naturally affordable rental units, over 50% of which are owned by small, mom-and-pop landlords. That means we need to be very careful about measures that make it difficult to rent and maintain their properties. Otherwise, they are forced to sell their properties, resulting in market-rate redevelopment.

2. Seattle needs to add new family-wage and market-rate housing. I support targeting new housing growth along frequent transit corridors and in urban centers and facilitating the creation of “missing middle” housing such as backyard cottages, duplexes, and townhomes. These housing options also create more paths to ownership because they are generally less expensive than high-rise residential units.

3. We should fast-track new affordable housing construction. Projects like the Third Door Coalition, which help implement land use and regulatory changes to reduce the cost of affordable units, are key to getting very-low-income and chronically-homeless individuals into stable housing.

4. We also need to think outside of the box on housing, like legislation requiring that the City have the option of purchasing for-sale multifamily properties in the City for use as affordable housing. I also support a proposal to allow religious organizations to create affordable housing units on their property.

Housing is a complex issue with no silver bullet. But, together, we can make a real dent in our affordability crisis.

Environment

It’s time to put the environment, particularly climate protection, back on the City’s agenda as a top priority. I worked in Councilmember Richard Conlin’s office at a time when Seattle was on the cutting edge of environmental policy. He established the Office of Sustainability and Environment which established the Green Building code. I helped write and advance the legislation to eliminate plans for a third transfer station in Georgetown and mandate recycling and composting. There’s so much more the City must do to advance environmental justice, improve the water quality of our lakes, streams and the Puget Sound, and reduce our carbon footprint. There’s no time to waste and as a lifelong environmentalist, I will act with urgency to reprioritize our stewardship of our air, water, natural resources. Here are ways I’ll start:

1. Promote and incentivize scalable green technology and renewable energy solutions. Like biodigesters that turn solid waste into energy. Many small businesses like Fremont Brewing want to take sustainability to the next level but can’t afford the expense because these technologies are priced for larger companies. Incentives would grow the market for such technologies which would lower their cost , create jobs, and help protect our planet

2. Promote the use of Cross Laminated Timber. CLT uses a plentiful renewable resource, wood, to replace concrete in buildings and its production is far less carbon-intensive than producing concrete. Because it’s less expensive than concrete and steel, its use could jump start the construction of affordable housing. It is also more flexible than concrete so it’s better able to withstand damage from the inevitable Big One and smaller earthquakes. Finally, growing the market for CLT would spur the creation of a CLT production facility in Seattle, creating well-paying manufacturing jobs.

3. Refine and expand the Living Building Pilot project and make it a permanent tool to incentivize greener buildings. Living Buildings standards surpass even the highest level of LEED Buildings in energy and water conservation, greenhouse gas emissions reduction and the use of environmentally friendly building materials. Most important, they are designed to change the behavior of the people in them so that workers and visitors use stairs more often and practice the values of conservation and climate protection in their daily lives.

4. Incentivize the inclusion of electric vehicle charging stations on private property.

5. Here in Seattle, we’re long on rain as my mother-in-law from Houston would say. We could be using more of that rain falling on our homes and buildings to water our plants and flush our toilets. I’ll expand the Rain Wise program that incentives homeowners and building owners to collect rainwater from roofs and I’ll strengthen Seattle Public Utilities water conservation incentive program to encourage incentive the use of grey water in buildings.

6. Work to finish the Missing Link of the Burke-Gilman trail. This project has been in the works for over twenty years and it’s been litigated up the wazoo. We need to encourage more cycling along this corridor to reduce C02 emissions and promote health so let’s get this done already!

7. Speaking of multimodal, I’ll promote human-powered water transportation as a viable alternative mode of transport for people and goods. We’ve got a lot of waterfront and a lot of private boat docks and marinas but very few publicly accessible facilities to land and secure a kayak, canoe, stand-up paddle board or small sailboat. I also support nascent efforts for a passenger ferry line on Lake Union. Both of these ideas will help people get out of their cars for their commutes which will obviously benefit our air and water and giving people places to launch and moor a kayak for example will also increase recreational enjoyment of Seattle’s gorgeous waterways.

Basic City Services

Local government’s primary responsibility is to deliver basic services. It’s not sexy, but it impacts our daily lives perhaps more than anything else. Unfortunately, with our failing bridges, pot-holed roads, community centers in disrepair, inaccessible parks and open spaces, and communities that don’t feel safe, it looks like Council is asleep at the wheel. I’ll be committed to my job of overseeing and adequately funding core city services. After all, that’s what we pay for. I believe that local government should keep its promises and I’ll fight for the city to keep those promises. Enough said!^[10]

Housing For All

Seattle is facing a dire housing crisis that city policies can solve. With the city’s Comprehensive Plan implementation on the horizon, now is the time to think big and bold about housing in Seattle.

Affordable Housing We must rapidly build affordable housing throughout the city by increasing investments in social housing, ending zoning laws which have segregated Seattle, and prioritizing housing for Seattle’s Black Trans & Queer communities.

House our Neighbors The city should invest in green social deeply affordable housing making building, acquiring and preserving affordable units a number one priority. We must also work collaboratively with the King County Regional Homelessness authority to develop comprehensive upstream and downstream solutions that prioritize peer navigators, bridge and supportive housing, hoteling, safe zones, and dignified tiny house villages.

Stop the Sweeps The current city policy of destroying encampments established by the unhoused is cruel, inhumane, and needs to end immediately. We do not have enough housing, non-congregate shelters, bridge and transitional housing for all of our residents who are living outside. Sweeping people with nowhere safer to go is unconscionable and only worsens the public health and safety crisis. Additionally, it makes it near impossible for support workers and peer navigators to find residents once appropriate housing and support options are available.

Radical accessibility The City of Seattle should create a fund inside the Seattle Parks and Recreation Department to support people who use the parks for housing, enabling parks to help sustainably and humanely address the needs of unsheltered people while expanding green spaces in the city and absorbing unneeded roadways. Ending sweeps and utilizing those dollars for garbage pick-up, sanitation, mobile hygiene stations (including showers and clothes washing), accessibility of public restrooms and water stations, and mobile clinics and supports is essential to reduce harm and increase health and safety. We must also leverage harm reduction strategies to immediately improve health and safety outcomes for all of our residents living outside.

Solidify an effective regional approach to addressing the housing affordability and homelessness crisis.

Divest from Harmful Punitive Systems to Invest in Holistic Community Health & Safety

Seattle spends far too much of its revenue on cops and courts, while our communities lack basic necessities. City policies can change to invest in human needs. We must address the root causes of harm, invest in culturally responsive community-led care solutions, and stop punishing people for the failures of the system.

Following the recommendations of Seattle’s 2018 “Workforce Re-entry Work Group,” we must stop criminalizing homelessness and sex work.

We must allocate funds historically used on a problematic model of policing to invest in housing, childcare, and support systems for our youth.

It’s time to end Seattle’s contract with King County Jail.

Seattle can lead on racial justice by ending the practice of collecting city revenue through fines and civil asset forfeiture, and can civilianize 911 for a more effective emergency response.

Environmental Justice

A Seattle Green New Deal can eliminate climate pollution by 2030, address historical injustice and to create thousands of good jobs. SEATTLE FOR A GREEN NEW DEAL has already been leading the way and it is time that the City Council follow the lead of the people.

1. In a cosmopolitan, 21st century city, public transportation should be universal and free.

2. To address and alleviate present and historic wrongs, Seattle must formally collaborate with the Duwamish and other Coast Salish nations to arrive at a stewardship plan for Seattle -- a city named for a Duwamish Chief.

3. To lead a just transition to a sustainable future, Seattle must empower and employ Black, Indigenous, Latinx, and women-led construction companies in building social housing and infrastructure.

4. Fossil fuels are responsible for 86% of all residential and commercial emissions. The City of Seattle should fund a just transition by replacing fossil gas systems for all low-income residences while requiring commercial buildings to reach Carbon Zero by 2025. Pay for replacing fossil gas systems for all lower income residential buildings and require commercial buildings to eliminate their emissions in five years.

5. Because transportation is Seattle’s largest source of carbon emissions, we must mandate and incentivize employers to allow workers to labor from home.

Children, Youth, and Families Deserve to Thrive

City policies can give young people, parents, and households the support they need to thrive -- not just survive -- in Seattle.

The COVID-19 pandemic has reintroduced the need for municipal broadband internet. We must identify a funding source and timetable to provide this 21st century infrastructure to a 21st century city.

Instead of cops and security guards, restorative justice coordinators, family support workers, counselors, and healthcare professionals belong in our schools. We can start by increasing funding to the Seattle Parks and Recreation Department’s My Brother’s Keeper and My Sister’s Keeper initiatives.

Elders and children deserve quality eldercare and childcare. Let’s partner with organized labor to raise wages for homecare workers, while eliminating antiquated zoning laws that make childcare facilities in much of the city.

Racial and Economic Justice

The wealth gap in Seattle is unjust and racialized. City policies can help to close it. When we alleviate the burdens of the most marginalized, all will benefit.

Following the recommendations of the City of Seattle’s 2018 “Progressive Revenue Taskforce on Housing and Homelessness,” Seattle must tax the wealthy to support people forced to the bottom of the economy.

Seattle has the power to implement commercial rent control. Especially as we recover from COVID-19, this would help reduce the rates of displacement seen in community small businesses, particularly those in the Central Area and South End.

Gig workers and contract laborers need a comprehensive Freelancer’s Bill of Rights that includes city ordinances ensuring timely repayment, portable benefits packages, and a ban on non-compete clauses that restrict worker mobility.

Following the lead of Evanston, Illinois, Seattle can be the largest city in the nation to provide reparations to eligible Black residents. They can be funded by additional budgetary cuts to the Seattle Police Department negotiated in the biennial negotiations between the City of Seattle and the Seattle Police Officers Guild.

We have much ongoing work to do in addressing the devastating impacts of stolen land and genocide upon the Coastal Salish peoples of our region.

Learn more about Progressive Revenue

Disaster Relief and Preparing for Disasters

When disaster strikes, people with the most wealth have the easiest time, and poor people and BIPOC are in the most danger. City policies could make a difference in preparing all of Seattle for the next time the air is full of smoke, or for when the next pandemic or earthquake hits us.

Ensure a just recovery from COVID-19, so that no one loses housing, people can re-enter the workforce, and COVID-19 doesn’t leave Seattle with even worse racial and gender wealth gaps than we had before.

Ensure racial, economic, disability, and gender justice in Seattle vaccine distribution planning.

Build infrastructure for disasters to come, building out neighborhood hubs and resourcing block-by-block preparations so that everyone has backup sources of water and power, air filters, masks and other necessities for when disaster strikes.

Assume that the federal government responds to disasters slowly and unevenly and prepare for Seattle to shore up our communities (especially those often excluded from federal disaster relief, like undocumented communities) when disaster hits.

Thriving Sustained Local Arts and Culture Community

Local artists and cultural workers are essential to the health of our communities. Arts and cultural practices promote the mental, social and spiritual health of our communities, and access to the arts helps young people thrive.

A thriving creative economy starts with the health and well-being of our artists, cultural workers, theatre workers, contractors and freelancers. The foundation of any community is the people. If we want to have a thriving creative economy it starts with ensuring that the workers have the things they need to thrive. Many workers in our creative economy are freelancers who have little to no control over when they are paid, are subjected to restrictive and exploitative contracts, and do not have access to benefits such as healthcare and paid time off. Everyone deserves the option to work where you want to when you need to, a stable and regular pay schedule, contracts that give workers legal claim to pay and benefits, portable benefits (where necessary and applicable), and protections from retaliation. In order for our local creative economy to be sustainable and thriving, the workers--the people who make our creative economy what it is--must first be sustained and thriving.

Learn more about our Arts Platform

Universal Healthcare

Healthcare is a human right. Access to quality healthcare, including mental healthcare, should not be dependent upon someone’s employment, marital status, immigration status, or gender. Ensuring that everyone has health care prevents expensive emergency room visits, reduces the spread of disease, and improves everyone’s health in the City, as well as reducing contact with the criminal legal system.

Guarantee mental health care to all Seattle residents who want it.

Guarantee full-spectrum health support for all Seattle residents who use drugs who want it.

Guarantee access to gender-affirming health care to all Seattle residents.

Support community schools which would include health services for youth and families.

Democracy and Participation

We need the people of the City, especially working people, to have more say in what goes on in our city. That means how we develop the city, and how we generate revenue and what we spend it on.

Ensuring full transparency and accountability for all aspects of the budget.

Scale up participatory budgeting so that people can spend revenue based on collectively identified community needs.

Build City processes designed for participation and accountability rather than elite control.

Fund neighborhood and community-based trainings for building local mutual aid projects and networks.

Ensure that participation in City processes is accessible to all Seattle residents, reimagining democracy through the lens of universal design.^[10]