Category: Transportation

City Council, King County, public safety, Transportation

Shannon Braddock Appointed Acting County Executive; Saka Says He Opposed Traffic Diverters In His Neighborhood Because of Equity Concerns

1. On Tuesday, the King County Council unanimously appointed Shannon Braddock as acting King County Executive; previously, Braddock was deputy county executive to Dow Constantine, who took a new job this month as CEO of Sound Transit. Braddock previously worked at the county for 15 years, starting as chief of staff to former councilmember Joe McDermott; she also ran unsuccessfully for Seattle City Council in 2015 and for state senate in 2018.

Braddock will be the first female county executive in King County history. At yesterday’s meeting, several male council members praised Braddock without mentioning this historic fact—including two who did mention Braddock’s father, former state legislator Dennis Braddock, saying he should be proud. It fell to Councilmember Teresa Mosqueda to note that Braddock’s appointment marked “a big moment for our county.”

Councilmember Claudia Balducci called Braddock’s appointment “a milestone that should be and will be celebrated,” and asked the council to move quickly to appoint Braddock not just acting but full county executive through November, when a new county executive will take office, “so that we get the stability and the value of the complete and total confidence that we have in Shannon through November.” (As acting executive, Braddock can be removed and replaced at any time.)

When Balducci asked what the process would be to vote on Braddock’s appointment through November, council chair Girmay Zahilay abruptly called the council into a closed-door executive session, and the meeting ended without a clear answer on whether the council will appoint Braddock permanently or go through a second, separate process, potentially considering other candidates. Balducci said she plans to introduce legislation to appoint Braddock as full county executive at the council’s next meeting on April 15.

Balducci and Zahilay are running against each other for county executive; a third candidate, county assessor John Arthur Wilson, is also running.

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2. When he isn’t denouncing the words of people who left the council years ago, Rob Saka is head of the Seattle City Council’s transportation committee, which got a briefing from the Seattle Department of Transportation Tuesday about the city’s efforts to deploy new automated traffic enforcement cameras in school zones and to site five new full-time automated speed enforcement cameras.

After SDOT staffers laid out their plans to pick the best locations for the speed cameras by studying safety and equity issues at potential camera sites, Saka raised an objection: The city council, he said, had already decided where the new cameras should go. “So, Alki-Harbor Avenue, Magnuson Park, Golden Gardens, and probably Belltown,” Saka said. “So, boom! There’s four for you… We took care of the siting for ya.” That, an SDOT staffer noted quickly, is not how the process works; the state law authorizing automated traffic cameras requires an equity and safety analysis, and that—not vibes or the volume of neighborhood complaints—becomes the basis for placing the new cameras around the city.

Before the camera discussion began, Saka took a few minutes to respond to a public commenter who called out Saka’s opposition, as a neighborhood resident, to two proposed traffic diverters that would prevent people from cutting across the 26th Avenue SW greenway in the North Delridge neighborhood. The commenter, who identified himself as Max, noted that the diverter was supposed to reduce cut-through car traffic on 26th, the main cycling route in the area after SDOT canceled a planned northbound bike lane on Delridge. The diverter was canceled after residents objected that it would slow down car traffic, among other complaints.

Saka said his opposition to this and other traffic calming measures was a matter of “equity” because North Delridge is a “food desert” and the dividers, at SW Brandon and SW Genesee, would have prevented people from accessing “fresh food” in the neighborhood.

“It makes no sense,” Saka said. “It’s a head scratcher, in my view, to install a traffic diverter and prevent left-hand turns in a food desert, rendering Delridge the only single point of access to any fresh foods [or ] vegetables whatsoever. … It doesn’t make a lot of sense, from my perspective, to install such a drastic, draconian measure that has a a significant impact on neighborhoods and communities.”

This is hardly the first time Saka has raised “equity” objections to projects designed to protect vulnerable road users. In 2023, PubliCola reported on Saka’s fervid opposition to another traffic-safety divider, installed as part of a major transit upgrade on Delridge and also intended to protect cyclists and pedestrians. Saka compared the 8-inch divider, which prevents illegal left turns into the parking lot of the preschool his children attended, to Trump’s border wall, and set aside $2 million in last year’s budget to remove it.

Elections, homelessness, housing, Mayor Harrell, Police, Transportation

PubliCola Questions: Mayoral Candidate Katie Wilson

“Harrell’s the status quo, and it’s not working,” Transit Riders Union leader Wilson says.

By Erica C. Barnett

Mayor Bruce Harrell has been in office for 16 of the last 18 years. Katie Wilson, general secretary of the Transit Riders Union, says he represents a “status quo” that isn’t working for the city.

Wilson is a longtime advocate for progressive causes. She played a central role in many successful local organizing efforts, including efforts to raise the minimum wage in Seattle and several suburban cities (most recently in Burien, whose leaders are so mad about the higher minimum that they’re suing Wilson and the Raise the Wage Burien campaign to overturn it.) She served on the city’s progressive revenue task force, which recommended a number of options for progressive new fees and taxes, including the local capital gains tax Councilmember Cathy Moore proposed last year. And she has been a prominent local voice on renters’ rights, fighting for key tenant protections inside and outside Seattle as part of the Stay Housed Stay Healthy Campaign.

As a progressive activist who’s never run for office before, Wilson acknowledges she’s well outside the Seattle establishment. But she says this year’s election—in which Proposition 1A, a funding measure backed by social housing advocates, roundly defeated a tepid alternative backed by Harrell—shows that Seattle supports social housing and wants it to work. When Wilson and I spoke earlier this week, I started by following up on an earlier conversation about how this year’s victory for social housing inspired her to run.

PubliCola (ECB): When we talked before, you said you were inspired by the success of Prop 1A and that that was a factor in your decision to run. Can you say more about that – what does social housing’s victory say about Seattle voters’ willingness to elect a more progressive mayor?

Katie Wilson (KW): I think what it really shows is just how out of step the current mayor is with the people who he’s supposed to represent. Prop 1A won in a landslide and Harrell is the face of the opposition campaign that was funded by the Chamber of Commerce.

It shows that the voters want action on affordable housing, and that’s what I want to see. We need people who are going to stand up and work for the city and not just obey corporate backers. Everyone got mailers in their mailboxes with Harrell’s face plastered on them that were funded by Amazon and Microsoft and the Chamber, and I think voters are smart and can see through that, and it shows that voters are eager for big action on affordable housing.

ECB: What kind of action would you take on affordable housing if you were mayor right now, including social housing?

KW: If we had a mayor right now who wanted to see the social housing developer work, there are very easy things he could be doing. He could make sure social housing gets the same density bonuses in the comprehensive plan that other types of affordable housing are getting. I think we need to go big. Councilmember Zahilay has proposed a billion-dollar bond for social housing. I would like to explore how we can do one of those at the city level. We would need some research into bonding capacity and mechanisms by which it could be paid back with rents.

We’re seeing discussions going on now around the comprehensive plan, and some decisions will be made this year. I think we need more housing almost everywhere, especially in great neighborhoods that already have parks and schools and grocery stores and small businesses, and I think adding more people more residents to those neighborhoods will make them even more vibrant.. And I think we need to have a strong anti-displacement approach, especially in neighborhoods like the Central District and South Seattle that have already been impacted by displacement to make sure that people who brought their homes years and years ago are able to pay their property taxes so they’re not displaced.

Seattle now is a city of 56 percent renter households and it’s rough out there. I think there are ways that we can strengthen our renter protection laws—like clamping down on rental junk fees, deceptive practices, and algorithmic pricing.

ECB: The council that voters elected in 2023 is, safe to say, considerably more conservative than you are on many issues. How would you bridge that political gap to work with a council that may not agree with you on the best goals or policies for the city?

KW: Obviously we’re not going to agree on everything, and there may be things that I couldn’t get done because of that. I do think that we want some of the same things, like seriously addressing homelessness and public safety. I think there’s a way to get beyond ideology and have a fact-based, evidence-based conversation about what actually works. I think it’s very important to have honest differences of opinion in public and work together behind the scenes.

In the moment we’re in, we need to be prepared for whatever is coming down from the federal level over the next few years—whether it’s attacks on civil rights, budget cuts, or other things that harm Seattle residents. And I don’t think our current mayor has a plan. One piece of this is new progressive revenue. The last city budget cycle was hard, and the only reason we didn’t see truly devastating cuts to public services was the JumpStart progressive revenue tax, which I played a key role in passing in 2020—coincidentally, one of the two years in the past 16 that Harrell hasn’t been in office.

As mayor, I will work to pass progressive revenue to make sure we do not go into a financial death spiral. I was on the progressive revenue task force, which came out with a list of options, which are not all shovel-ready. Unfortunately, the mayor has shelved that. We need to pick it back up and have a long-term, short-term and medium-term plan for revenue, especially if we’re going into a recession.

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ECB: In your recent piece about what the left has gotten wrong on homelessness, you talked about how people on the left need to acknowledge that some unhoused people cause visible disorder and other problems because of mental illness and drug addiction. Beyond acknowledging it, what will you propose doing to address unhoused people with addiction and mental illness, who tend to face the most barriers to stable housing?

KW: We know what works, we have models that have been pioneered here in Seattle that are proven to help get people off the streets, and what we’re lacking is the political will to scale those solutions up.

I think what we’re seeing from the current administration is a tendency toward cheaper Band-Aid solutions that don’t actually work, and that’s why we have twice as many people sleeping on the street as  New York City, which is mind-boggling.

We have an excess of studios right now. I think we need to put people into those studios. I’m not suggesting something like a rapid rehousing voucher, where after six months someone is homeless again. It would still be time-limited, but maybe more like five years. A lot of the homeless population just needs a home. I also think we need to do rapid acquisition of buildings with intensive case management and wraparound services for people who are cycling through the criminal justice system system. We need to have strategies for both those sections of the population and we need to prioritize them using both existing resources and new revenue.

Continue reading “PubliCola Questions: Mayoral Candidate Katie Wilson” →

City Council, Elections, housing, podcasts, Transportation

This Week on PubliCola: March 9, 2025

Sara Nelson gets a challenger, Republican Ann Davison says immigration crackdown is an “issue of local control,” and we discuss new revelations about the mayor’s 1996 arrest.

By Erica C. Barnett

Tuesday, March 4

PubliCola Questions: Seattle City Council Position 9 Candidate Dionne Foster

City Councilmember Sara Nelson has her first viable challenger: Washington Alliance for Progress director Dionne Foster. Foster, who previously worked for the Seattle Foundation and in the city’s Office of Policy and Innovation, says she’ll focus on environmental justice, housing development, and “addressing the [police] hiring shortage.”

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Wednesday, March 5

SoDo Housing Plan Advances, Republican City Attorney Says Trump Immigration Order Violates “Local Control,” Saka Says No to Restrooms, Yes to Cars

Three quick stories in Afternoon Fizz: Councilmember Nelson’s proposal to allow housing in the city’s stadium district moves on to full council; Republican City Attorney Ann Davison joins a lawsuit over Trump’s anti-immigrant executive order; and Councilmember Rob Saka says we shouldn’t build new public restrooms “unless and until” the ones we have are clean.

Thursday, March 6

Sound Transit’s CEO Search Should Be About Leadership, Not Political Deals

In a guest op-ed, two transit advocates argue that we need a transparent process for appointing a Sound Transit CEO, rather than one in which the presumptive frontrunner, King County Executive Dow Constantine, wields enormous power over the hiring process and appointed half the board that will make the hiring decision.

Saturday, March 8

Seattle Nice: Council Elections Heat Up, Republican City Attorney Joins Sanctuary City Lawsuit, and the Harrell Gun Story Gets More Complicated

On this week’s podcast, we discussed Dionne Foster’s campaign against Sara Nelson, Ann Davison’s decision to join the anti-Trump lawsuit, and KUOW’s reporting on Mayor Bruce Harrell’s arrest in 1996, including an account from the woman who says Harrell brandished his gun at her family in a casino parking lot.

Guest Contributor, Opinion, Transportation

Sound Transit’s CEO Search Should Be About Leadership, Not Political Deals
Image via Soundtransit.org

By Francois Kaeppelin and Trevor Reed

Imagine applying for a high-powered job where you get to pick half of the hiring committee. That’s exactly what’s happening at Sound Transit, where King County Executive Dow Constantine is asking his own appointees to give him the top job.

As King County Executive, Constantine holds a built-in advantage on Sound Transit’s board: He personally nominated half of its 18 members and sits on it himself. With the rest of the board filled by top leaders from Pierce and Snohomish counties, their appointees, and the state Secretary of Transportation, Constantine still wields disproportionate influence over who gets the job. No credible hiring process would ever allow an applicant this level of influence over their own selection.

Think about that for a minute: the person who appointed half of the board members is now asking them for the agency’s top job. While Constantine has stepped aside from voting on his own candidacy, the people he chose are still there, making the decision.

This isn’t just a technical oversight—it’s a blatant conflict of interest. When those in power have a direct hand in choosing their own decision-makers, it becomes nearly impossible to say that the selection process is truly fair.

A second issue with this appointment is that Sound Transit has chosen to keep much of this process behind closed doors. The agency has publicly stated that state law allows them to hold secret hiring meetings. But the law they cite doesn’t require this secrecy—in fact, it explicitly encourages transparency, urging public agencies to seek community input even when not legally required to do so.

While other agencies openly disclose CEO candidates, Sound Transit has chosen, once again, to shield the process from public scrutiny.

The lack of transparency is compounded by hiring criteria that favor insiders over expertise. The job posting includes a requirement for an “understanding of the local cultural and political landscape.” At first glance, this requirement sounds reasonable—but in practice, it creates an artificial barrier to outside talent and reinforces the same system that has failed to deliver on-time and on-budget transit projects. Instead of recruiting the best leader for the job, Sound Transit is making it easier for a political insider to take control.

The new CEO will be responsible for making decisions that impact your daily commute, whether you’re heading to work or getting around the city. If political favors influence the selection process, there’s a real risk that the agency will prioritize insider interests over public benefit. This could lead to delays, rising costs, and a transit system that fails the millions of people who rely on it.

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For Sound Transit to deliver on its promises, the public must have confidence in its leadership selection process. While Dow Constantine brings decades of experience in public service, the next CEO should be chosen based on their qualifications and vision—not because they have been around the longest or have the right political connections. A truly accountable process requires public disclosure of finalists, clear evaluation criteria, and meaningful public input.

Other cities have recognized that effective transit leadership requires fresh perspectives, not just political familiarity. Canada’s VIA Rail, for example, brought in international talent to modernize its intercity network. Seattle needs a CEO who can bring innovative solutions to the agency’s long-standing challenges.

Sound Transit is responsible for billions of taxpayer dollars and the future of mobility in our region. This decision must be made with full public trust. To make this possible, the Board must:

• Fully disclose the criteria they’re using to judge candidates;

• Publicly disclose the list of finalists before making a hiring decision;

• Host a public hearing on the finalists; and

• Establish a structured public feedback process to inform the CEO selection.

If Sound Transit is confident they have the best leader, why keep it a secret? Riders deserve transparency—before it’s too late.

Francois Kaeppelin is a transportation policy researcher focused on transit governance, infrastructure development, and equity. He currently serves as Legislative Advocacy Director for Seattle Subway, working to advance transit governance reform in the Seattle metro area. Previously, he conducted research at the National Center for Sustainable Transportation and the UC Davis Institute of Transportation Studies, focusing on the impacts of freeway construction on communities of color, barriers to transit-oriented development, and regional transit coordination in California.

Trevor Reed represents the East-King sub area on Sound Transit’s Community Oversight Panel and is founder of Transportation Reform. He completed his Master’s degree at University College London where he worked as a researcher at the Omega Center for Mega Infrastructure and Development focusing on how governance structures impact the efficient delivery of transit projects internationally. His work concerning traffic’s economic impacts has appeared nationally in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and PBS’s Nightly Business Report.

City Council, Parks, Transportation, Trump

SoDo Housing Plan Advances, Republican City Attorney Says Trump Immigration Order Violates “Local Control,” Saka Says No to Restrooms, Yes to Cars
The city’s most deadly areas for people walking, biking, and rolling are in South Seattle, including Rob Saka’s West Seattle district.

1. A proposal from Seattle City Council President Sara Nelson to allow up to 990 units of housing near the city’s two stadiums as part of a new “makers’ district” passed out of Nelson’s committee last week, but it faces an uncertain future at the full council, where two staunch opponents—Bob Kettle and Dan Strauss—will make their case that allowing apartments in a historically industrial area will decimate the city’s maritime industry.

The Port of Seattle and maritime industry unions have argued that allowing people to live near the stadiums—primarily on First Avenue South—would add so many cars to the area that trucks moving to and from the industrial waterfront would get stuck in traffic, making Seattle less competitive with other port cities. They also argue that the proposal reneges on the city’s promise to preserve existing industrial zoning in perpetuity, and that it’s a dangerous and environmentally unhealthy place for people to live.

In a 13-minute speech, Kettle hit all the highlights of this argument, saying the area is vulnerable to a Love Canal-style environmental disaster, that the Port itself is vulnerable “in a cutthroat shipping industry,” and that the geology of the area, which was built on unstable “fill,” would leave residents vulnerable to liquefaction in an earthquake, even if the new buildings were built according to modern earthquake standards.

“How about if you’re walking your dog in this little area, in this little neighborhood, you know, what happens?” Kettle said. “You’re trying to play catch with your kid, or you’re trying to bring in your groceries—a code-enforced building is not going to help you when you’re out there walking the dogs.”

Proponents argue that the area hasn’t been industrial for years (besides entertainment businesses like the Showbox SoDo and a strip club, it’s mostly abandoned and underutilized warehouses), and note that hotels and offices are already allowed in the area under the industrial lands update the council passed in 2023. (And, of course, the maritime workers who oppose housing also work every day in the same liquefaction zone).

“If thought this would this was going to damage irreparably the port, or put it into a position within 100 years where it would not be a strong, viable entity, I would not be doing this,” Nelson said.

The proposal, which passed 3 to 2 (with Mark Solomon and Maritza Rivera supporting Nelson and Joy Hollingsworth joining Kettle in opposition), will go to the full council on March 18.

 

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2. City Attorney Ann Davison put out a statement last week denouncing efforts by the Trump administration “to coerce local authorities and to commandeer local jurisdictions into carrying out the duties of the federal executive branch, while punishing those who dissent.”

Davison is a Republican who was active in the “Walk Away” movement headed up by “Stop the Steal” conspiracy theorist Bradon Straka, one of the January 6 rioters who was later pardoned by Trump. She ran for City Council against Debora Juarez, lost, ran for lieutenant governor as a Republican, lost againagain, and became city attorney after defeating a police abolitionist in the backlash election of 2021.

Davison issued the statement after joining a lawsuit that accuses Trump of violating the Constitutional separation of powers by unilaterally directing the government to withhold federal funds and take legal action against “sanctuary” jurisdictions, like Seattle, that bar police and other officials from assisting with federal immigration enforcement.

Davison’s statement stuck mostly to the strict legal questions raised by the federal order (although it did take a moment to praise “our diverse, vibrant, and invaluable immigrant communities.”) “This is an issue of federal overreach into areas of local control,” the statement said.

The statement marked a departure for Davison, who has not previously weighed in on partisan politics. Whether Davison voted for Trump, Harris, or another candidate in 2024 is unclear; her office did not respond to a question about whether she supported Trump. Her past campaign donations include small contributions to former Republican secretary of state Kim Wyman and Joshua Freed, an unsuccessful Republican candidate for governor who went on to head the King County Republican Party and condemned Republicans who voted for Trump’s impeachment after the January 6 riots.

3. City Councilmember Rob Saka took a couple of strong stands in the past week.

First, during a presentation about an audit that found deficiencies in the Seattle Parks Department’s cleaning and maintenance of park restrooms, Saka argued against expanding public restrooms.

“[M]embers of the public always want to expand the number of restrooms, not just in Seattle, but in LA and across the country … and I don’t—I’m not sure that’s the best approach here in Seattle at this point, at this juncture, unless and until we’re in a better position to make better progress on addressing the cleanliness and accessibility [and] properly maintaining our existing restrooms,” he said.

Had Saka been around five years ago, he might have been aware of a different audit from the same office—this one recommending that the city open more 24/7 restrooms, specifically to help people living unsheltered who have “extremely limited options to avoid open urination and defecation, especially during the night.” Had he been on the council the following year, he might have taken part in a debate over  whether homeless people deserved access to restrooms and running water during the pandemic (the city decided they didn’t, and homeless Seattle residents experienced repeated outbreaks of hepatitis A and shigella.)

Then, during a presentation on traffic violence earlier this week, Saka apparently felt compelled to respond to a comment made by Councilmember Alexis Mercedes Rinck about her decision to live car-free. “I appreciate Councilmember Rinck’s point of view,” Saka said, but noted that even in dense San Francisco, where he vacationed recently with his family, people still have cars.

“As vibrant as their transit system is, I was struck by the fact that nearly every street, arterials and non-arterials alike, on both sides of the road, there was there was parking!,” Saka said. “Parking! Available on both sides of the street! [Which] again, highlights the importance of choice! These modes are a choice. And even in San Francisco, the second most dense city in our in our country, people still choose to drive.”

One thing Saka may not have noticed, especially if he wasn’t driving, is that it’s incredibly hard to find a parking space in most of San Francisco. There are simply too many cars for the limited number of spaces, and most neighborhoods have residential parking zones, restricting visitors to no more than a couple of hours. Except in areas with heavy car traffic (like downtown, where some parking lanes convert to driving lanes at rush hour), Seattle also generally has parking on both sides of the street.

Courts, Mayor Harrell, podcasts, Police, public safety, Transportation

Seattle Nice: Harrell Fires Ex-Police Chief, Metro Killing Raises Transit Safety Questions, and What IS Art, Anyway?
I had AI generate “a beautiful sunrise” on a freeway wall as an example of what would qualify as “art,” according to Mayor Harrell. It’s fine I guess?

By Erica C. Barnett

Continuing with the era of good feelings on Seattle Nice, we had some mostly cordial disagreements this week on the issues of public safety, graffiti, and the firing of former police chief Adrian Diaz, although it’s hard to say we fully agreed on any of it (would it be Seattle Nice if we did?)

We started with this week’s biggest news—Mayor Bruce Harrell’s decision to finally fire former police chief Adrian Diaz, nearly seven months after formally removing him from his position and replacing him with interim chief Sue Rahr. (Harrell’s selection of Madison, Wisconsin chief Shon Barnes as permanent police chief, announced this morning, hadn’t happened yet when we recorded on Thursday).

Diaz was accused of sexual harassment, gender discrimination, and several SPD policy violations stemming from a long-rumored affair with his chief of staff, Jamie Tompkins. After his removal as chief, Diaz went on a right-wing talk show to announce he was gay, calling the allegations against him “absurd.” He’s been receiving a salary of more than $350,000 since May.

Sandeep gave Harrell his flowers for firing Diaz after months of diligent investigation; I said the situation was more complicated than that, noting that former Office of Police Accountability director Gino Betts was shown the door after some on his staff complained that Betts had slow-walked the OPA’s own investigation into Diaz, slowing down the process and potentially keeping Diaz on the payroll longer than necessary.

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We also discussed the murder of a Metro bus driver in the University District earlier this week. Like many local elected officials, Sandeep said the tragedy demonstrated the need for more police, security guards, and fare enforcement officers on buses and at transit stops to prevent future violent crime.

I argued that the murder—the first such killing in more than 26 years—would not have been prevented by flooding the transit system with officers, nor does it demonstrate that “transit is dangerous.” (Murders and assaults, obviously, do contribute to a perception of danger, as the killing of a bus driver on the Aurora Bridge did in 1998. After that tragedy, elected officials and the drivers’ union also said buses were unsafe and called for more police.)

Even if flooding the system with police was an effective strategy for preventing crime, it would be financially impossible for King County to put an officer on each of the hundreds of buses that are running at any given time in order to prevent assaults on bus drivers, or retrofit all its buses with inaccessible driver compartments, as some are already suggesting. Such assaults, though terrible, are fairly rare: According to the Seattle Times, there have been 15 reported assaults on bus drivers in the first 11 months of 2024, down from 31 in 2023.

Finally, we talked about the graffiti arrests I reported on earlier today. If you think the tone of my story is too relentlessly neutral, and you’re wondering how I REALLY feel about government officials defining what is “art,” listen to this segment and find out.