By Josh Feit
First of all, a quick followup to an item from a couple of weeks ago, when I wrote: “Trump’s Case Against US Olympian David Hearn for Vandalizing the Reflecting Pool (since abandoned by Trump’s own DOJ) > North Seattle Couple’s Case for Recalling Katie Wilson.”
Yup. Last week, King County Superior Court Judge Patrick Oishi dismissed the request for a recall. At a confusing hearing last Thursday, August 27, Oishi told the petitioners their case was “befuddling.” For starters, they missed a filing deadline and then withdrew their request. Seems like the Trump analogy was spot on. And in what seemed even more similar to Trump’s endless mishegas, the couple then claimed they had more info. Oh brother.
Barack Obama > Jimmy Carter
Speaking of Wilson and analogies to presidents, let me alert you to this one: With her econo-travel aesthetic, earnest policy brain, lefty-populist comfort zone, socially-awkward-bookworm personality, and (from what we hear about her behind-the-scenes leadership style) prickly isolation on the 7th floor—Wilson is Seattle’s own Jimmy Carter. If this analogy isn’t tracking for Gen Zers and Millennials, ask the internet about solar panels, sweaters, and thermostats. Carter, an outsider who was a elected during America’s post-Watergate call for goodie-goodie governance, eventually started to tank in the polls during his presidency. I initially thought Wilson’s high-wattage smile and unbridled joy in civics would confound the naysayers, critics, and bitter media. But—recall effort or not—recent polling indicates this mayor is in trouble.
Thanks to Wilson’s socialist label and sudden, surprise rise, the analogy that used to come to mind was more encouraging: Wilson was Seattle’s own Zohran Mamdani. But Mamdani veers toward a presidential analogy of his own. And it’s the opposite of a one-termer like Carter who got mired in “malaise.” Mamdani’s soaring popularity, confident charm, and big-ideas agenda make him like Barack Obama, an incorrigibly popular two-term president.
As Mamdani continues to wow the public and generate hope with his own gleeful project of sweeping governance (sweltering subway stations as pools of sustainable energy being the latest Mamdani lightning bolt) a pal in New York asked me why Wilson was having so much trouble in Seattle. I don’t think this fully explains it, but the fact that he’s a he and she’s a she has evidently allowed the media to normalize an unbridled condescension, giving their anti-Wilson bias free rein.
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50 > 0
Protesting density, liberal Boomers and Xers often quote Joni Mitchell’s famous line, “They paved paradise and put up a parking lot.” Unwittingly, their knee-jerk “Development=Bad” mantra prioritizes car-dependent lifestyles. By stalling new housing development, they are locking pervasive car culture in place, thwarting the density needed to create walkable neighborhoods and expanded transit service. I derisively call it Joni Mitchell Politics.
So, as summer comes to a close, let’s applaud the Seattle Office of Housing and City Councilmember Dionne Foster’s pro-housing politics. Thanks to legislation they passed earlier this summer, OH used $6 million to acquire the site of a former gas station, mini-mart, and parking lot on East Montlake Place E. in the upscale Montlake neighborhood to build 50 below-market-rate condos. There’s currently zero affordable housing in the pricey area.
Under Seattle’s Housing Affordability and Livability Agenda, adopted in 2015, high-income communities like Montlake that lack affordable housing are known as “high opportunity” neighborhoods.
In her summer wrap-up newsletter, Foster noted the housing win: “Through acquiring property in a high opportunity neighborhood in Montlake we are locking in a future for affordable homeownership in a neighborhood that currently does not have affordable homeownership.”
Josh@publicola.com
Ben S.
I favor what I call “managed capitalism” which is what YOU might call wishy-washy running dog liberalism… and I am happy with it….
there are lots of exceptions but for the most part I believe that the production and distribution of goods and services should be done by non-governmental entities and that they should be taxed and regulated by the government… Call me an Eisenhower liberal!
Housing? God forbid that government goes beyond (the enormous part of housing which it already does) which is regulating the design and financing of housing…. we may not do it very well but that’s a separate issue… I don’t see how else you could do it… But the actual implementation within the rules? Let plumbers and carpenters make money.
If you really want to dig into the difference between Mamdani and Wilson, I would start with their backgrounds, beliefs and campaign. Mamdani was a proven, elected politician backed by a strongly organized, sizeable party-like membership organization with a ( relatively) strong ideological identity. Wilson is the product of a network of advocacy non-profits and public sector professionals (bit of a rotating door between those worlds) with a solid but small organizing team sailing with the winds of change in a boat (oof I should ditch this metaphor) built on an urbanist, wonkish, technocratic belief in competence over ideology. Despite Quintet’s argument above, socialism–whatever it means–appears fairly popular when embraced rather than obliquely referenced. The aversion to both the label and a meaningful ideological commitment by Wilson evinces a belief that you can avoid antagonism in a class society but no matter how much Wilson seeks, whether out of sincere belief or political calculus, to appease the Seattle Times and its constituents, they will continue to advance their ideological and material interests by using her as a foil. Plus, sexism, simmering economic crisis and the protection racket that is urban policing.
OK so what is the commonly accepted definition of “socialism” in Seattle?
And what’s your own personal definition of “socialism”?
I used to think I knew what socialism meant but nowadays, I have no idea except I’m all for it when it benefits me.
Thanks for asking, Quintet! I’d say socialism refers to the democratic control of the economy and the social surplus, something like “to each their needs, from each their ability.” This can take a number of forms but probably requires significant public ownership of production.
I think what both Wilson and Mamdani/DSA mean is basically nordic style social democracy represented by an expansive social safety net or social wage or whatever and, to some degree, capital controls. “Socialism” in the sense these electeds use it is a fairly mild redistributive program that makes little change in how either the economy or state function–the economy remains organized around profit and the state taxes those profits (and perhaps incomes) in order to fund goods and services the for-profit market will not, or not at a rate that meets need (e.g. housing or baby formula), provide.
Me, I’m a whole-hog communist who believes in the abolition of capital/the value form and the state, and the free association of producers organized around the meeting of social needs.
All that aside, to me, the bigger question–for you, for Wilson, for Mamdami–is what is “capitalism”? After all, since capitalism actually exists and by-and-large rules out lives, it’d be great if we had a good definition of it.
Being mayor (of any city) is mostly about how you handle the police department. Forcing out the police chief may have been the right thing to do but it wasn’t good politically. As your colleague explained very well, the public can’t know the whole truth since that would violate the contract agreement. If she explained why the old chief wasn’t doing a good job the city would get sued. It looks like she is hiding something because she most definitely is. She has to. The Seattle Times front page article about the firing was huge. Much of the city now thinks she fired a good police chief that was popular with the African American community. Of course it is more complicated than that, but for a white mayor this isn’t a good luck.
It will quite likely blow over. She will hire a new police chief. There will be great fan fare as the new chief will say all the right things. Then folks will shift focus to other aspects of the city (parks, roads, water, sewer, electricity, transit) and how she is managing those. So far she appears to be doing a pretty good job.
No, the real crap hasn’t even hit the fan yet. Mayor Katie’s best bet is just make Andre Sayles permanent police chief and just be done with it. He won’t be any worse than Barnes…. likely not any better either, but at least the stinking mess would be over with. The police union is calling all the shots anyway. Seattle cops have so much more power than the mayor. Mayors lose elections…
I really doubt any qualified outside candidate would want to even interview with Mayor “defund the police” Wilson. It’s a terrible job even with a pro-law enforcement mayor in power. It’s not the Mayor’s fault, but Seattle has a several top leadership jobs that have become such bullshit, they can’t be filled by any qualified candidate. The KCRHA? Shit job nobody wants. Sound Transit? Dow is now running it because no transit expert would want to. Add SPD to the list. All toxic jobs!
Other than paint a few bus lanes in and most improvements to public libraries… Mayor Katie isn’t going to do much because the City and State budgets are dumpster fires.
I didn’t vote for Wilson and I don’t see much change in Seattle either positive or negative.
I’m still willing to give her the benefit of the doubt since I think she’s smart enough to realize that people don’t really want “socialism”…. whatever the hell “socialism” actually means for even people who support “socialism”…. basically these days socialism means… What does it mean? The “workers, peasants and intellectuals” take over Boeing and start building airplanes without management? or maybe it means the kind of social medicine which was started by the Kaiser in the 1870s? or maybe it means something as middle-of-the-road Republican as the IRS should be fully funded to actually collect the taxes which are authorized?
Glad Dionne Foster helped get a few subsidized condos built. However I am less enthusiastic about her. Word is she was in part responsible for the collapse of the effort to temporarily lower MHA fees to unlock a lot more housing than her few condos. If she is just in favor of subsidized housing, we are in trouble. We don’t have anywhere near the amount of money it would take to build the amount of housing we need relying on just subsidized housing. We need the private sector to build at scale and she seems less than enthusiastic private building. We need all kinds of housing to get the job done.
Thank you for spelling “free rein” correctly.
If downtown feels alive it is because the waterfront park is completed (all decisions made under former Mayors). That has entirely changed our downtown. But the recent Bite of Seattle shooting illustrates a backslide on gun crime. Public safety on transit and downtown needs to continue to be adequately funded to keep downtown and Seattle and Seattle Transit systems, safe and usable.
Based on her personality, Katie needs a much more ‘visible’ press secretary who is out there 24/7 countering the right-wing narratives from the local media that seem mostly motivated by the ‘socialist’ label and wanting to “defeat socialism” as the enemy of business. Showcasing support for the “right kind of business” with local examples will put the local press on the defensive and highlight GREED as the real enemy in Seattle and across the country, not those standing up for affordability and working families. Shifting to offense is the right strategy at this point because if you keep racking up wins, it throws your opponents off balance.
The Montlake affordable housing project is great case in point, but we didn’t hear enough about it in the local press. Katie should be walking the beautiful tree-lined streets of Montlake with a mic and camera like Lurie does in San Francisco (he is always walking around SF neighborhoods video-highlighting the good), and asking the simple question of whether a teacher or sanitation worker should be able to afford to live in Seattle’s beautiful neighborhoods?
More bitter media?
Using “a pal in New York asked me why Wilson was having so much trouble in Seattle” to establish that Wilson is in trouble is pretty weak. I did not investigate the poll, and I doubt Seattle has the market to support high-quality polling on something like this. But maybe I’m wrong.
In 30 years, I have never seen a Seattle mayor have this much success. The World Cup was great. I see the improved bus routes, traffic safety measures, and drinking fountains every day. Downtown feels alive since Wilson took over.
I supported Wilson in the election, and she has far exceeded my expectations so far.