West Seattle, Washington
09 Monday
Did you know the State Senate has a Page program for youth? Here’s a news release we received about a Chief Sealth International High School student who just spent a week participating:
Luis Bravo Espinoza, 16, served as a page in the Washington State Senate during the week of February 18th.
Pages are sponsored by the Senator from their legislative district, or by another member in the legislature. 34th District Senator Joe Nguyen sponsored Bravo Espinoza’s week in the Legislature.
“We really enjoyed having Luis here with our team in the legislature this week” said Nguyen. “I hope that he had fun at the Capitol, and was able to learn plenty!”
The page program offers a hands-on opportunity for students to find out how state government works. The educational experience is furthered by guest speakers. It also includes classes with topics like budget writing and how a bill becomes a law, which culminates in pages creating their own bills in a mock committee setting.
“Seeing how everything works was one of my favorite parts of being a page,” said Bravo Espinoza. “I liked running errands and becoming familiar with the buildings and all of the people.”
Pages also have the opportunity to work on the Senate floor while the Senate is in session. Their maroon coats and credentials allow them access to all parts of the Capitol Campus.
“I just found it really interesting how everything works here – this program has absolutely led me to have more of an interest in politics,” added Bravo Espinoza.
Bravo Espinoza is in 11th grade at Chief Sealth International High School. In his free time, he volunteers at his local library and helps with different community-outreach events. He spent a few weeks last summer in Spain through the Washington Work Fellows Program, sponsored by Washington State Lieutenant Governor Cyrus Habib.
Want to know more about the Senate Page Program? SenatePageProgram@leg.wa.gov
Last night – as we chronicled live for more than four hours – 107 people spoke at the City Council’s last major public hearing before they vote next month on the Housing Affordability and Livability Agenda’s Mandatory Housing Affordability upzoning plan. Before that final vote, councilmembers are set to debate and decide on myriad proposed changes next Monday. Here’s the agenda, with links to everything proposed so far. P.S. If you’re still catching up on what HALA MHA would do in your area, here’s the city’s interactive map.
(Substituted Friday morning: Seattle Channel video of Thursday night hearing)
5:38 PM: Click into that stream and you’ll be watching the event we’re at City Hall to cover – the City Council’s last big public hearing before its vote next month on HALA Mandatory Housing Affordability upzoning. (You can follow along with the agenda, and its relevant materials, here.) It’s been eight months since the council’s hearing in West Seattle; this one is for the entire city, and the chambers are full – with five of the 9 councilmembers here (Lorena González is chairing in the absence of vacationing committee chair Rob Johnson; also here are Lisa Herbold, Debora Juarez, Teresa Mosqueda, Kshama Sawant). We’ll be chronicling highlights as they happen.
First to speak is a representative from the SEIU. “Middle- and low-income workers will continue to be priced out of the city” if there’s not more housing stock, she says, expressing support for HALA MHA.
Second is also a HALA MHA supporter who says the process has taken too long. “Working families are struggling,” she says. “… More people need housing, and this is the chance to mitigate that need.”
Third and fourth are two members of 350 Seattle’s “housing team.” They say “housing is a climate issue” and express relief that “MHA is so close to the finish line.” They express opposition to some proposed amendments including the ones that would reduce the level of upzoning in some areas (including part of West Seattle).
Fifth is another MHA supporter who says, “We’ve been working on getting to the Grand Bargain [with developers] since the Nickels administration.” (That former mayor left office in 2009.)
Sixth, a representative of the city Planning Commission, in favor of MHA, who says they’re excited about its potential to “distribute more development capacity” to neighborhoods that could use it.
Seventh, the first opponent to speak, who says “tech bros” who are “strip-mining the city” and “venture capitalists” among others will continue to “pour in” and redevelop the city. She says that she and her husband feel they are being “pushed out of Seattle” so it’s “time to leave.” She draws a smattering of boos.
Eighth, an opponent who calls MHA “fundamentally flawed.” She also says she supports Councilmember Herbold’s anti-displacement proposal (announced yesterday). She wants to see neighborhood planning restored.
6 PM: Ninth, a speaker who says that MHA will lead to more displacement. So she wants the 23rd/Jackson urban village to not be upzoned. She specifically appeals to CM Sawant, saying her district, 3, has had “sacrificial lambs” already displaced. She draws strong applause (we should note that the pro-MHA speakers had drawn some applause too).
AHEAD: THE REST OF OUR 4 1/2 HOURS OF AS-IT-HAPPENED COVERAGE: Read More
10:07 AM: This August, you’ll be asked to approve a six-year replacement for the expiring King County Parks Levy. County Executive Dow Constantine is officially announcing it at an event under way right now at Steve Cox Memorial Park in White Center; we’re there and will add video and event details later. Here, for starters, is the news release:
Executive Dow Constantine today announced his proposal to renew the current King County Parks Levy, scheduled to expire at the end of the year. His proposal for the August ballot would generate an estimated $738 million over the next six years to expand and connect regional trails, improve access to green space and recreation, and keep the county’s parks and trails clean, safe, and open.
The current King County Parks levy – which voters approved in 2013 – will expire Dec. 31. On Feb. 21, Executive Constantine sent to the King County Council a proposal that will expand and improve access to the county’s 200 parks, 175 miles of regional trails, and 28,000 acres of open space.
“This proposal isn’t just about access to parks and recreation – although that is plenty. It is about a generational investment in our environment,” said Executive Constantine. “The levy is entirely consistent with my priorities to restore and protect our rivers, forests, and farms, while also doing our part to tackle climate pollution. Voters have approved the Parks Levy three times since 2003. No matter how much things grow and change around here, our values stay the same, guiding us to support investments that make stronger, healthier, and happier communities.”
Highlights of Executive Constantine’s plan include:
Building and designing regional trails, including missing links and crossings over rivers and highways
Improving trailheads by adding parking and signage
Repairing trails for hiking, mountain biking and horseback riding
Replacing 11 ballfields
Rehabilitating play area equipment in six parks
Maintaining park infrastructure, such as pathways, roofs, fencing, and electrical systems
The levy would cost 16.82 cents per $1000 of assessed property value, which would cost the owner of a home valued at $500,000 about $7 per month.About 80 percent of King County Parks’ operational budget is funded by levy.
Under Executive Constantine’s proposal, about $60 million would be allocated to King County cities to support local parks and recreation; an additional $35 million would go for grants to cities to protect and acquire open space. It would provide Woodland Park Zoo with $36 million for conservation and environmental education programs for under-served youth. It would also provide $8 million to the Seattle Aquarium for construction of their new Ocean Pavilion.
Executive Constantine’s proposal would also provide continued funding for the Community Partnerships and Grants Program, which, over its 15-year existence, has created dozens of public amenities across King County with partners that contribute the necessary additional capital, in-kind resources, and volunteer time to develop new or enhanced facilities.
About $1 million per year would go toward equity-focused grants to increase access to and use of recreation facilities in communities that are currently underserved or face other barriers. …
The news release continues here. The levy would generate almost twice the $396 million the expiring levy was expected to bring in.
11:11 AM: The half-hour event (clips added above) also included this area’s County Councilmember Joe McDermott as well as other speakers including King County’s Department of Natural Resources and Parks director Christie True. While no White Center/West Seattle-specific projects were mentioned, it was noted that the current levy funded improvements at Steve Cox Park including the field that served as the event’s backdrop.
“If you take away affordable housing, you have to replace it.” That’s how one community member at tonight’s Delridge Neighborhoods District Council meeting summarized their take on the goal of proposed city legislation announced earlier in the day by West Seattle/South Park Councilmember Lisa Herbold, who wants to bundle it with consideration of HALA Mandatory Housing Affordability, the subject of a council public hearing tomorrow night. Here’s the announcement sent by Herbold’s office:
Councilmember Lisa Herbold (District 1, West Seattle, South Park) will introduce an anti-displacement ordinance that would authorize additional displacement mitigations for housing projects located in South Park, Rainier Beach, Othello, Bitter Lake, and Westwood-Highland Park. These neighborhoods have been identified as having a high risk of displacement and low access to opportunity, according to Growth and Equity: Analyzing Impacts on Displacement and Opportunity Related to Seattle’s Growth Strategy, in the Comprehensive Plan Seattle 2035, an analysis conducted by the Office of Planning and Community Development.
“I appreciate Mayor Durkan’s efforts to address the displacement impacts of development by proposing to introduce legislation that the Council requested in 2017 by Resolution 31754. As described in the March 2018 status report to the Council, a community preferences policy will be useful for our non-profit developers. Nevertheless, we also desperately need a tool to address the displacement that occurs when for-profit developers build. Displacement is a challenging issue and we need many tools to address it,” said Herbold.
Councilmember Herbold will this week send the proposed bill to the Council’s Introduction and Referral Calendar. Councilmember Herbold has requested that the Council hear this bill concurrently with the MHA Citywide legislation.
“This ordinance would use authority granted under the State Environmental Protection Act (SEPA) to create a requirement for developers to mitigate the impacts resulting from the loss of affordable housing in those areas of the city that, if we didn’t do so, the result would be a failure to fulfill our obligation to ‘affirmatively promote fair housing’ — in other words, in areas where disproportionate displacement of communities of color and other protected classes is likely to occur,” Herbold said. (See upper left-hand corner of this image.)
“MHA Framework legislation, passed in 2016, Section 2.A.2.a, stated: The Council intends to consider whether to include higher performance and payment amounts, subject to statutory limits, for those areas where the increase in development capacity would be likely to increase displacement risk. Resolution 31733, passed in 2017, stated: The Council intends to consider a range of strategies to increase affordable units sufficient to offset the affordable units at risk of demolition due to new development.”
“I’m proud that the Council has a long legislative record of its commitment to address displacement. Now it’s time to act again,” Herbold continued.
“I have, over the years, expressed my great concern that the City describes MHA as ‘housing displacement mitigation tool,’ but has badly analyzed how development removes more affordable housing than the resources from MHA are sufficient to replace.
“For example, in the case of the University District MHA upzone in 2017, the City estimated that only 40-275 units of existing affordable units of housing would be demolished over 20 years. The EIS estimated likely demolition by identifying specific redevelopable parcels and quantifying their existing housing (zero, for parking lots and commercial buildings). The “full build out” scenario wherein construction occurs on all redevelopable parcels to the full capacity of the proposed rezone was estimated to result in the demolition of 275 homes over 20 years. In less than 2 years, based upon a Council Central Staff analysis of new development projects that are currently in some stage of having their Master Use Permit issued or Early Design Guidance reviewed and that are subject to the new zoning put in place in 2017, 96 units of affordable units are already planned for demolition.
“Using the same approach used in the University District in 2017, the City estimates that over 20 years 574 units of housing will be demolished in MHA rezone areas. My concerns about displacement today are heightened, especially considering how far afield the University District estimate has proven to be.”
This announcement comes on the eve of the council’s HALA MHA public hearing, 5:30 pm Thursday at City Hall downtown (600 4th Ave.), as previewed here Monday.
In case you missed Mayor Jenny Durkan‘s second State of the City address today – there it is on video. You can also read the transcript here, beneath highlight links. Of neighborhood note:
-The mayor mentioned WS three times – first, “…touring small businesses in Hillman City, Georgetown, and West Seattle” (we covered visits last year in February and in November); second and third, these back-to-back transportation references:
… We will expedite bringing light rail stations to Ballard and West Seattle.
This spring, we’ll expand our first-last mile shuttle from beyond West Seattle to South Seattle, so we can connect more people to transit. …
-Speaking at North Seattle College, as she referred to the expansion of the Promise free-tuition program that started at its sibling school South Seattle College (WSB sponsor) and is expanding systemwide with the help of the recently passed levy, the mayor announced something new: Assistance for Promise students who need help covering other costs such as textbooks.
-She also announced that Seattle Colleges will be a partner in a new paid-internship program connecting Promise students with major employers including Harbor Island’s Vigor Industrial.
Tuesday is Election Day, snow or no snow, so if you go out tomorrow, and haven’t voted yet, you might consider a stop at the ballot box or mailbox. Ballots in West Seattle and the rest of the city have only two issues, both Seattle Public Schools levies:
*Seattle School Prop #1 (Operations Levy)
*Seattle School Prop #2 (BEX V Levy)
Prop 1 is a three-year levy, Prop 2 is a six-year levy, and each requires a simple majority to pass. Each link above takes you to official info including pro/con arguments and full measure text; for the school-by-school project list for Prop 2, go here. Voting deadline is 8 pm Tuesday; ballot dropbox locations are here; you can also send you ballot via the US Postal Service, no stamp required.
(WSB photos)
By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor
Phil Tavel says his main motivation for wanting to join the Seattle City Council has only intensified in the four years since his first try.
“When I ran the last time, I wanted to represent our district … in the four years since then, I can’t think of anything that’s gotten better. My desire to help the city work better has only increased.”
It’s been three months since Tavel registered his intent to run, as reported here in October. Now he’s running at full speed as of his campaign kickoff last night at Easy Street Records in The Junction. Here’s what he and his featured speakers told the crowd:
That’s community advocate Pete Spalding speaking after Tavel in the first clip; he was preceded (second clip) by Peel & Press proprietor Dan Austin, who emceed; Easy Street’s Matt Vaughan; local business advocate Lora Radford, entrepreneur Joe Jeannot; and Husky Deli‘s Jack Miller. Responsiveness to small business is a central theme for Tavel, a lawyer who himself has been, among other things, a small-business owner. We sat down to talk the night before his kickoff:
By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor
“I’m running.” That was how City Councilmember Lisa Herbold opened a coffeehouse conversation with us this morning, announcing that she’s seeking a second term as the District 1 (West Seattle/South Park) representative on the council. She says that while she has a reputation as a “policy wonk,” she and her staff have “gotten the most satisfaction” out of working directly with constituents. “From getting a streetlight fixed … to getting SDOT to build a stairway,” Herbold says it’s been “powerful” to connect residents with the people in city government who can help, to “amplify their voices.” We talked about a lot more, of course, including her response to critics on a variety of issues – so check back in about an hour as we add the rest of the story. Herbold’s declaration means at least five people are now in the D-1 race, looking ahead to the August primary.
ADDED 11:50 AM: Working for the district, Herbold says, doesn’t just mean individual constituents’ issues, which were also a reason for running that she cited when announcing her original run in February 2015. She adds that she’s proud of “policy work that has specifically helped the district.” She’s been recounting that in lengthy weekly updates, published online and sent to her mailing list. Just a few she lists: The noise-ordinance work requested by Alki residents; advocating for shore power to be part of the T-5 project; a ready-to-work program in High Point; safety advocacy in South Park.
Others are listed on her campaign website, including commitments made during her 2015 campaign. “And there’s still a lot of work to be done.” Impact fees is high on that list – she mentions transportation and utility fees – and “addressing displacement issues” (right now, evictions are in the spotlight).
We observe that it’s been a rocky four years for the council in general.
Last week, we reported a fourth candidate had joined the City Council District 1 (West Seattle/South Park) race, popcorn entrepreneur Jesse Greene. Last night was his first public campaign event, a kickoff pizza party at Talarico’s in The Junction. We were there to record the speeches, starting with his, which lasted 15 minutes:
His themes were the same as in our interview last week. Before he spoke, the gathering heard from three introductory speakers:
The first speaker, Lora Radford, has also been announced as a speaker at D-1 candidate Phil Tavel‘s kickoff this Thursday; she tells WSB that she hasn’t endorsed a candidate but is speaking to promote small-business advocacy in the campaign. Also speaking at the Greene kickoff were South Park community advocate Carmen Martinez and former state Commerce Department director Brian Bonlender. Along with Greene and Tavel, two other candidates have registered campaigns in District 1 so far: Brendan Kolding and Isaiah Willoughby.
The District 1 City Council race is intensifying, with 7 months until the primary. On Friday, we broke the news of a fourth candidate in the race, Jesse Greene. Now there’s news that the first candidate to register his intention to campaign, Phillip Tavel – who also ran in 2015 – has scheduled his official launch event. Thursday night at 6:30 pm (doors open at 6), he and supporters will gather at Easy Street Records – here’s the official flyer (PDF). Four candidates in all have registered campaign intentions (formal filing is in May, but paperwork is required sooner in order to fundraise), also including Brendan Kolding and Isaiah Willoughby. Incumbent Lisa Herbold has yet to announce whether she plans to run for re-election
By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor
He’s an entrepreneur, a graduate student, and now a candidate for the Seattle City Council District 1 seat: Jesse Greene plans to file paperwork today, with a public candidacy-announcement event on Monday.
The proprietor of Uncle Woody’s Popcorn is the first of this year’s D-1 candidates to contact WSB before turning up on the city/state websites showing campaign filings. We sat down for a coffeehouse chat on Thursday.
Greene is a West Seattle resident whose popcorn business is headquartered in South Park; he also owns a construction firm based in Sumner, where he grew up (though there are other local roots in his family – he mentions a grandparent who is a West Seattle High School alum). He says his entry into politics is inspired by time he has spent serving on the State Advisory Council on Homelessness – the issue that is motivating his run.
By Brian Bergen-Aurand
Reporting for West Seattle Blog
The February 12th special election is three and a half weeks away. Voting starts in days.
The only measures on the ballot in our area are two Seattle Public Schools levies. The district is asking voters to approve both the “Replacement for Educational Programs and Operations Levy” and the “Capital Levy” (BEX V) measures.
As part of a series of community information meetings, Deputy Superintendent Stephen Nielsen addressed about a dozen teachers and parents last Tuesday in the Alki Elementary School lunchroom. Nielsen presented a brief overview of the proposed 2019 levies and fielded questions and comments for an hour. (See the Seattle Public Schools website for more information on these meetings and the levies.)
While schools throughout the city are scheduled for some sort of upgrade, renovation, or replacement, Alki Elementary is the only facility in West Seattle earmarked for a new building, should BEX V pass. (Here’s the full citywide project list/map.) And this replacement plan provoked several important questions during the meeting.
ORIGINAL REPORT, 11:58 PM TUESDAY: More than tbree years have passed since then-Mayor Ed Murray proposed the upzoning plan eventually named HALA Mandatory Housing Affordability,to affect commercial and multifamily property citywide, as well as other property in the city’s “urban villages.” Now it’s moving toward a final vote, expected in mid-March. First, councilmembers will consider potential amendments to the plan. Wednesday morning at 9:30 am, they will look at 10 amendments proposed for West Seattle, as well as 1 for South Park, plus dozens in three other City Council districts. From the agenda documents, here are short descriptions of the 10 amendments proposed to modify what HALA MHA upzoning would otherwise do in West Seattle:
1-1
Intersection of SW Carroll St and Beach Dr SW
Do not rezone the Residential – Commercial node at the intersection of SW Carroll St and Beach Dr SW.
That’s the area by Weather Watch Park, best known businesswise for La Rustica.
1-2 through 1-6
Single-family zones within the West Seattle Junction Residential Urban Village: Modify all proposed rezones from Single-family within the West Seattle Junction Urban Village to Residential Small Lot.
Otherwise, the single-family-zoned areas there are slated for upzoning to Lowrise 1.
1-7
West Seattle Junction Residential Urban Village: Triangle Area
Increase proposed maximum heights of Neighborhood Commercial zones within the Junction triangle area from 75′ to 95′.
The Triangle area went through its own planning process early this decade.
1-8
Area west of Fauntleroy, south of SW Graham Street
Reduce the proposed zone designation in the Morgan Junction Urban Village south of SW Graham Street and northwest of Fauntleroy Way SW to a less intense Lowrise multifamily zone designation.
That would be LR2 instead of LR3.
1-10
Area bounded by SW Barton, Barton Pl SW and 21st Ave SW
Reduce the proposed zone designation within the Westwood-Highland Park Urban Village in the area generally between SW Barton Pl and Delridge Way SW from Lowrise multifamily to Residential Small Lot.
Here’s an explainer of RSL and other zoning designations.
1-11
26th Ave SW between SW Barton & SW Roxbury ST
Reduce the proposed zone designation within the WestwoodHighland Park Urban Village along 26th Av S from Lowrise multifamily to Residential Small Lot.
(Close-up maps for each proposed amendment are toward the start of this document from the meeting packet.) The council will discuss these, and the amendments proposed for three other council districts, at Wednesday morning’s meeting (9:30 am, City Hall, live coverage as usual via Seattle Channel) with more discussion planned February 8th. An evening public hearing is planned February 21st, and then the council is scheduled to vote on amendments February 25th.
ADDED WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON: The video of today’s council committee meeting is now available online.
Those are the three people who will be representing you and the rest of the 34th District (including West Seattle, White Center, Vashon/Maury Islands, part of Burien) when the Washington State Legislature starts its new session tomorrow in Olympia. From left are Reps. Eileen Cody and Joe Fitzgibbon, re-elected unopposed in November, which is also when about-to-be-sworn-in Sen. Joe Nguyen was elected. Before the session starts, the trio held an hour-plus Town Hall-style gathering Saturday morning at Delridge Community Center. Each began with a short introduction and summary – along the lines of the conversations we’ve already published (Cody and Fitzgibbon here, Nguyen here). After a few minutes, they opened the floor to comments/questions. We have it all on video, plus part of the introductions:
If you don’t have time to watch, here are our topline notes:
That chat with West Seattle Junction Association executive director Lora Radford was one of the stops for City Councilmember Teresa Mosqueda on a visit to West Seattle on Friday, as she launched a half-year tour of the seven council districts, starting here in D-1. She is one of two at-large councilmembers, elected to citywide Position 8 a little over a year ago. We asked her for a quick description of the tour’s start:
She has more West Seattle stops planned on Friday, January 25th, including the Duwamish Tribe Longhouse and 2:30-4:30 pm “coffee/office hours” to meet constituents at a TBA location.
By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor
Next week, as many West Seattleites grapple with downtown-bound Viadoom, at least three will be heading the other way:
The state Legislature convenes on Monday, so your 34th District state legislators (all of whom live in West Seattle) will be going south, to Olympia.
Before then – State Reps. Eileen Cody and Joe Fitzgibbon and Sen.-elect Joe Nguyen are offering you a briefing and Q&A this Saturday morning (10 am January 12th, Delridge Community Center, 4501 Delridge Way SW).
We checked in with Sen.-elect Nguyen for this December story – and then sat down to talk with Reps. Cody and Fitzgibbon recently to get their take on what’ll be big this year.
8:35 PM: Our area’s largest political organization has a new chair: Gina Topp was elected tonight to lead the 34th District Democrats. She succeeds David Ginsberg, who decided after one 2-year term not to run again. Topp had previously served as treasurer. We’ll add more details from tonight’s meeting after our crew returns.
ADDED EARLY THURSDAY: First, the pitches made by Topp and the other two chair candidates, on video:
A third candidate has now entered the race for the District 1 (West Seattle/South Park) City Council seat. After Brendan Kolding‘s name appeared Wednesday on the list of those who have registered campaigns, we contacted him to find out more, and he responded with this announcement:
Seattle Police Lieutenant Brendan Kolding has announced his plans to challenge City Councilmember Lisa Herbold for the Council District 1 seat in 2019. “City Council is very much in need of an experienced law enforcement professional,” stated Kolding. “Seattle is in a public safety crisis, and the fine men and women of the SPD do not feel supported by City government. Officers are leaving the Department faster than their replacements can be hired, and the City Council was reluctant to approve the collective bargaining agreement that has been worked out between the Seattle Police Officer’s Guild and the City’s labor relations team. SPD is grossly short-staffed, and this problem will only be exacerbated by the passage of I-940. I am running so that our police officers can have someone on City Council who supports them and will fight for their ability to serve the people of Seattle.
“I am also running because City Council has failed to adequately address the homelessness crisis. I support the creation of FEMA-style shelters. These would be warm, dry places with healthy meals, laundry facilities, ample security, and access to critical services such as mental health care, substance abuse treatment, and job placement. The goal would be to find permanent housing for people within a regional network. It is undignified, unsanitary and unsafe for people to reside in the tents, vehicles, and other makeshift shelters that are currently scattered across Seattle. Many of these living situations are illegal, and for good reason. The solution is not RV lots, tent cities, or tiny villages. Instead, we need to provide basic emergency shelter with concentrated services aimed at elevating people into a more stable lifestyle. Once that is in place, we need to direct people who do not have homes to that option and not allow our sidewalks and parks to be used as campgrounds.”
Kolding, 36, has served on the SPD since 2008. He joined the Policy Unit in 2012, where he was actively involved in the development of key policies related to the federal consent decree. When the City was found to be in initial compliance with the consent decree in January, Kolding returned to Patrol and served as a sergeant at the West Precinct. Promoted to lieutenant in July, he currently serves at the North Precinct. He has been a voting member of the Force Review Board since 2014.
The Kolding campaign will be launching a website in the near future.
In 2017, Kolding applied for the opening on City Council that resulted when former Councilmember Tim Burgess, himself a retired SPD officer, became interim mayor.
Kolding holds a BA from Gonzaga University and an MA from Marquette University, both in political science.
He and his wife have lived in West Seattle for nine years. They have three young children. Kolding is actively involved in the community, coaching basketball at the YMCA and serving as president of the Holy Rosary School Commission.
Kolding has sought elected office before – running for State House in 2014 and 2016.
The first to register a campaign for the District 1 position was Phillip Tavel (here’s our October report), a West Seattle lawyer who ran in 2015; second, Isaiah T. Willoughby (here’s our December report). Incumbent Herbold has yet to announce whether she plans to run for re-election.
By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor
“Incredible!”
That’s how Joe Nguyen reacted on Election Night to news the first vote count had him way ahead in the race for 34th District State Senator.
“Insane!”
That’s how things have been since then, he told us during a recent conversation … and he’s not even officially in office yet.
We requested an interview to check in once the vote was certified, and sat down to chat on a recent Saturday morning at C & P Coffee Company (WSB sponsor) – where, one month earlier, we photographed him rallying supporters – including U.S. Rep Pramila Jayapal – for one last campaign push.
Two weeks ago, the City Council talked about a “best-case scenario” for moving toward a vote on HALA Mandatory Housing Affordability upzoning, since the city Hearing Examiner upheld most of the plan’s Final Environmental Impact Statement. Today, neighborhood advocates sent us the schedule that councilmembers are circulating – including a deadline of tomorrow for potential amendments, and a final vote on March 18th if all proceeds without a hitch:
The timetable is not yet (as of this writing) on the official city page for the City Council’s Select Committee on MHA. The amendments will be closely watched, as our area’s Councilmember Lisa Herbold noted at the meeting earlier this month that they could be a way to address some of the concerns that led to the appeal.
We’ve continued watching the city’s list of candidates who register City Council campaigns for next year. A second candidate has registered to campaign for the District 1 (West Seattle/South Park) City Council seat – Isaiah T. Willoughby. He doesn’t have a website but the information on file with the city does include an e-mail address, as well as the organizational title “Promoting Healthy Minds and Spirits,” so we sent a note requesting more information. He sent this reply: “Read this article; everything you need to know about me.” It accompanied this link to a 1997 Seattle Times report about him and his siblings being raised by adoptive parents in a family helped by the Times’ Fund for the Needy. Willoughby’s filing comes almost two months after Phillip Tavel became the first candidate to register a campaign for the seat currently held by Lisa Herbold, who has not yet announced whether she will run for re-election.
From our partner site White Center Now, video of Thursday night’s North Highline Unincorporated Area Council Q&A/briefing with three local elected officials, all West Seattleites who represent this area as well as White Center/North Highline: 34th District State Reps. Eileen Cody and Joe Fitzgibbon and County Council Chair Joe McDermott. (34th District State Senator-elect Joe Nguyen was also expected but unable to attend due to multiple conflicts; we interviewed him today for a post-election, pre-Legislature followup that you’ll see here within the next few days.)
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