1. There are a couple of names to add to the list of people who may run for retiring U.S. representative Jim McDermott’s[1] seat that I didn’t note yesterday: state senators David Frockt (D-46, North Seattle) and Reuven Carlyle (D-36, Queen Anne). Both men told the Seattle Times they are considering a run[2].
Socialist city council member Kshama Sawant, who I did have on the list, told the Stranger yesterday that she wouldn’t rule out a run.
Another name I’d add to the parlour game is state senator Pramila Jayapal (D-37, Southeast Seattle); like Sawant, Jayapal doesn’t live in McDermott’s district, but residency is not a requirement. I have a message in to Jayapal, who got her meteoric political start by holding a press conference with McDermott himself one week after 9/11[3] to denounce the frightening rise in antiMuslim bigotry.
Already on the list: King County Council member Joe McDermott (no relation) and state representative Brady Walkinshaw (D-43, Capitol Hill). Walkinshaw was already officially in the race. And give the young man credit for having the nerve to declare against icon McDermott in the first place—and for nudging him out; Walkinshaw has already raised more than $200,000. There’s also former U.S. attorney Jenny Durkan.
2. It was a day of speeches at city hall yesterday where three brand new council members (West Seattle’s Lisa Herbold, North Seattle’s Debora Juarez, and the U District’s Rob Johnson) were sworn in; a fourth new council member, at-large member Lorena González, officially took office November.
Kicking off the new districted council, all nine members took their turn at the microphone yesterday. And after the new council unanimously voted Southeast Seattle council member Bruce Harrell in as the new council president, Harrell got to make a second speech.
Some highlights:
Nobody Saw This Coming: District Six (Ballard, Fremont) council member Mike O’Brien totally stole the show. Nothing against O’Brien, who’s a well-liked, successful council member, but with four new members in the house, plus the inimitable Sawant packing the place with her “Tax the Rich” sign waving fans, it wasn’t supposed to be O’Brien’s day; O’Brien was first elected in 2009 and has been re-elected twice now. But damn. Calling attention to (and that’s an understatement) the city’s homelessness crisis, O’Brien was sworn in by a recently homeless woman. And his subsequent speech (and hers!) directly addressed homelessness at length, including O’Brien’s demand for the next housing levy to be as “big and most robust as possible.”
And extra props to O’Brien for best response (or best F-U.) Remember that his opponent and detractors during last year’s election pilloried him for supporting a tent city in Ballard. O’Brien made it super clear yesterday that he would not abide the reactionary vitriol in his district.
O’Brien said:
We hear too many stories like Courtney’s in Seattle. Seattle is changing rapidly, and while our economy is booming today, too many people are struggling to survive in our city.
We all know the rent is too damn high, we all know we are severely short of the number of affordable housing units we need, and we all know Seattle is currently under a state of emergency around homelessness.
We must do something to address this cognitive dissonance of economic realities in our city, where some families are feeling the boom and others are feeling the bust.
In my new term as Council member to District Six, I will continue working on these issues that are gripping the city—housing affordability and homelessness—because I know my district is feeling them too.
We must center the experiences of families like Courtney’s, families struggling to find a place to call home. We must focus on addressing the challenges they face if we are going to be a truly equitable city.
So in the coming year, I want to focus on ensuring the next Seattle Housing Levy is as big and robust as possible, so we can create more affordable housing for more people who need it.
Meanwhile, while Johnson, as expected, did wonk out and focus on planning (for 2065!) and “decreased dependence on cars,” “an efficient interconnected transportation system,” and “carbon neutrality,” I was hoping for a bolder statement from the council’s premier urbanist (many saw the 2015 election as a victory for urbanists.) Perhaps, though, I’m too far gone on the urbanist jag. After the ceremony, when I debriefed with a fellow reporter and complained that Johnson didn’t talk enough about transit, they responded: “Are you kidding? That’s all he talked about.”
I will give this to Johnson. Having his (three) adorable kids up on the dais seemed politically cloying, but as his wife hustled the little girls off the stage in a chaotic living room scene, and Johnson quipped, “welcome to life as a working parent,” his real world sensibilities undercut my cynicism and resonated off his speech about working “to overcome hurdles [to help] those who want to call Seattle their home.”
Best Anecdote goes to Herbold. Populist Herbold began her speech by name checking former president Jimmy Carter, explaining that a low-income youth jobs program started by Carter got her her first job—as a janitor at her hometown city hall when she was 13. Herbold’s shout-out—and poetic story arc—synced up perfectly with her speech.
We must make sure people aren’t left behind. Only the top 5 percent of our region’s earners have seen their wages rebound to prerecession levels. Where 10 years ago more than 50 percent of our workforce lived in Seattle, today only 40 percent does. The people who make our city prosper must also have the chance to prosper themselves.
What’s hard to miss about Herbold—and this was true of Juarez’s speech as well— is that her political sensibility is just as righteous and left wing as Sawant’s. The difference seems to be that Herbold (and Juarez, who also noted Carter-era programs) don’t need to rely on what sounds like central committee rhetoric.
Best Summary. With the addition of council members like populist Herbold and the first Native American, Juarez—along with badass civil rights attorney, the council’s first Latina, González— council president Harrell, who’s half African American, and has, to-date, been the council’s race conscious barometer, made a point of recognizing the historic changeover.
And, for the first time, with so much back up, he sounded more comfortable than ever with the social justice focus. (There’s power in numbers, it seems.) Here’s how Harrell capped off the day:
The rights of workers and underrepresented communities are right now in the national discussion being obliterated. Listen to the presidential rhetoric you hear…about immigrants being barred from coming to this country. They don’t seem to understand the concept of corporate responsibility, their obligation for other concerns other than just extracting profits. I am convinced that through the advocacy of council members Sawant and Herbold that these kinds of voices, your voices, will be heard in unprecedented levels in city hall. I expect to be reminded constantly and loudly.
And then, noting the addition of the two new people of color on the council, Juarez and González, Harrell concluded: “The city needs to be led by people who know what it means to be without power.”
Go to the 1:22:20 mark from yesterday’s council meeting[4] to hear for yourself the crux of Harrell’s remarks about how “brutally…underrepresented populations are treated,” when he begins by talking about crying with Juarez at the ceremony for John T. Williams, the Native American woodcarver who was killed by Seattle police in 2010.
At that time, Harrell, the only minority on the council, led the call for police accountability[5].
References
- ^ retiring U.S. representative Jim McDermott’s (www.seattlemet.com)
- ^ Both men told the Seattle Times they are considering a run (www.seattletimes.com)
- ^ holding a press conference with McDermott himself one week after 9/11 (www.seattlemet.com)
- ^ Go to the 1:22:20 mark from yesterday’s council meeting (www.seattlechannel.org)
- ^ led the call for police accountability (www.seattlemet.com)
