Category: Transportation

City Council, Transportation

Saka: People Who Support Keeping “Curby” Are Anti-Immigrant, Radical “Defund the Police” Carpetbaggers

By Erica C. Barnett

In a 2,100-word, emoji-filled email blast (that’s about three times the length of this post!) announcing a compromise that will keep a traffic safety divider in place while allowing cars to park in the bus lane on Delridge Way SW, City Councilmember Rob Saka blamed a “radical proxy ‘war on cars'” for demonizing his efforts to remove the divider. The barrier, a standard-issue hardened centerline identical to hundreds installed around the city, was installed as part of Metro’s RapidRide H project.

As PubliCola reported exclusively in 2023, Saka wanted to remove a standard eight-inch divider that prevents drivers from making illegal left turns across two lanes of car traffic, a bus lane, and a sidewalk into the parking lot of the daycare his kids attended, the Refugee and Immigrant Family Center. Saka, who was a corporate attorney for Meta when he sent a series of increasingly heated emails Seattle Department of Transportation employees in 2021 and 2022, complained that the hardened centerline was “triggering” and “severely traumatizing” to immigrants who “have faced significant trauma during their perilous journeys, including by navigating divisive structures and barriers designed to exclude lives in the US.”

Saka has consistently portrayed the lack of left-turn car access into the small preschool as an issue of racial and social justice, and his newsletter doubles down on that canard, accusing people who oppose eliminating the divider of “targeting the very immigrant families they claim to support” by denying cars from turning left into the parking lot.

In Saka’s version of reality, “radical” “anti-car ideologues” from other parts of the city are the only ones who opposed his proposal to remove the traffic-safety divider. These extremists, Saka wrote, would “rather villainize and punish drivers than support real multimodal safety. Local anti-car, anti-mode choice activists have attempted to make this project a rallying cry for direct action against transportation options that involve cars. I reject the false choice. This project has always been about safety for everyone — bikes, buses, pedestrians, and yes, cars. That’s the Seattle I believe in — coexistence over culture wars.”

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Saka did not identify who, precisely, is against “mode choice” or how preventing left turns into one preschool parking lot prevents people from driving cars.

On a roll, Saka accused the “activists” who opposed his $2 million folly of supporting Trump’s anti- immigrant policies and being connected to the “Defund the Police” movement, accusing these unidentified adversaries of “White Saviorism” and saying that he sees through their “insulting and revealing” opposition to the barrier’s removal “[a]s a Black man, son of immigrants, and survivor of poverty and foster care.”

It’s a striking escalation in Saka’s rhetorical battle against supporters of a project that was, again, built by the Seattle Department of Transportation to support safety for residents of West Seattle who use the new bus lane and improved sidewalk, along with a new bike lane across the street.

“Seattle loves to call itself pro-immigrant, yet some of the loudest ‘progressives’ opposing this project are targeting the very immigrant families they claim to support,” Saka wrote. “Why the outrage and sudden personal vendettas here? Why do some seem paralyzingly focused, even hellbent, on strictly policing and enforcing the desired traffic patterns and left turns by immigrants in a narrow 140-foot stretch in Delridge—but nowhere else in our 84-square-mile city?”

At the risk of repetition, the city of Seattle has installed hundreds of these hardened centerlines around the city, including in wealthy neighborhoods; to my knowledge, the one on Delridge is the only one that has been the subject of a high-profile campaign to remove it, which is why the opposition emerged. In Ballard, the city recently upgraded an identical (but much longer) hardened centerline on 15th Ave. NW to a broad median with street plantings, preventing people from driving over the curbs to turn left into oncoming traffic.

Saka continued, accusing safety advocates of actively “harassing” immigrants, effectively allying with Trump and his deportation agenda.

“Amid a resurgent Trump agenda threatening immigrant rights, we should be uniting to protect—not harass—these communities. As the son of a Nigerian immigrant, I see through the hypocrisy — and so do the families and workers affected. Real immigrant justice means backing up words with action.”

Saka even went so far as to connect support for the fully vetted, constructed safety project to the so-called “Defund movement,” saying that while “local immigrant families, other working families, small businesses, workers, and nonprofits in the area” support tearing out the divider, the opposition has come “[m]ostly from activists outside Delridge, and many outside West Seattle — many of whom pushed failed “defund” policies — now trying to block a safety project that helps communities they claim to support but don’t actually live in. The hypocrisy speaks volumes.”

Saka does not include any evidence that opponents of removing the safety barrier are from outside his district; that they oppose immigrants; or that they supported defunding the police.

The compromise the city reached with Saka will create a new detour around the curb, making it more convenient for drivers to access the preschool parking lot. It will also include new signs letting drivers know they can park in the dedicated bus lane during off-peak hours—restricting the lane’s intended use as public transit for people who live in Saka’s district but don’t own cars or choose not to drive.

City Council, Elections, King County, Transportation

County Council Gives Itself a Little ($315,000) Gift; Saka’s Effort to Divert Traffic Safety Funds to Sidewalks Fails

1. CORRECTION: The original version of this story suggested that Councilmember Girmay Zahilay, who did not respond to our initial request for comment for this story, had used his additional funds to pay for a mailer to his constituents. This was inaccurate—Zahilay did not use the funds for the mailer. We regret the error. 

All nine King County Councilmembers got an unexpected gift last month: a $35,000 add to each of their district budgets, to be spent any way they want.

The one-time funds, allocated by verbal agreement in an obscure (and non-televised) meeting chaired by County Council Chair Girmay Zahilay, was originally going to be a loan to each office, payable next year, but the four members of the committee agreed that requiring repayment in a tight budget year might put councilmembers in a tight position next year. (The county is facing a $160 million two-year budget deficit).

Instead, the committee opted to use “underspend” from last year’s central administrative budget, which totaled about $1 million, to pay for the one-time $315,000 add. Underspent funds become available in the next budget year.

Balducci opted out of the money, saying her office did not have a deficit.

In an email to Zahilay late last month, Balducci wrote, “I want to go on record as saying I don’t think we should do this. I believe it is bad practice and possibly borderline unethical…. It is a bad look for the council to lard up our own budgets this way, especially as I am hearing this additional funding is possibly being used for public communications from offices whose members are up for election.”

2. City Councilmember (and transportation committee chair) Rob Saka tried unsuccessfully to redirect future revenues from new speeding cameras toward new sidewalks, rather than the Automated Traffic Camera Fund, which is slated to receive 20 percent of the revenues from five new 24/7 speed enforcement cameras across the city. (The rest will go into the city’s general fund). Saka’s proposal would have reduced funding for traffic safety programs by 25 percent.

The state legislature adopted new regulations on automated traffic cameras last year, including a change to allow civilian police department employees, rather than just sworn officers, to review traffic camera tickets.

During public comment, several traffic safety advocates asked the council not to divert funding for sidewalks. “The reality is that pedestrians in Seattle, by and large, are not dying because of a lack of sidewalks,” pedestrian and bike advocate Ethan Campbell said. “They’re getting injured and killed while trying to cross roadways designed for high speeds,” like an 83-year-old woman who was struck and killed by a driver who fled the scene in SoDo earlier this week.

The money in the traffic safety fund would pay for safety projects, including improvements that “support equitable access and mobility for persons with disabilities; transportation projects designed to reduce vehicle speeds; and pedestrian, bicyclist, and driver education campaigns.” Saka’s amendment would have also routed 15 percent of revenues from red-light cameras to sidewalks by reducing the amount that goes to traffic safety projects by 25 percent (from 20 to 15 percent) and cutting the amount of red light camera revenues that go into the general fund.

Saka had more success with an amendment asking the Seattle Department of Transportation to “review and evaluate” a specific list of 10 locations as possible sites for the five new speeding cameras. The list is a familiar one: It consists of places where people tend to race their cars late at night. In the past, Saka told SDOT representatives that there was no need for them to come up with their own list of locations for speed cameras, because the council had already did their work for them by making the list of racing sites.

In reality, the 2024 state law requires cities to do an equity analysis before siting traffic cameras; that analysis has to “show a demonstrated need for traffic cameras based on rates of collision, reports of near collisions, travel by vulnerable roadway users, evidence of vehicles speeding, and anticipated or actual ineffectiveness or infeasibility of other mitigation measures.”

Most of the locations on Saka’s list, notably, are not on the city’s own Vision Zero High-Injury Network.

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.