TYE FOR FIVE PLATFORM

 It has become all too easy for politicians to ignore our advocacy while insisting they're our allies during election season. I'm running on a platform that uplifts the demands laid out in the 2022 Solidarity Budget: green infrastructure, deeply affordable housing, and safe streets for all residents. Community members have already told us what they need to live and thrive in a safe and healthy Seattle; it's about time someone in office fights to make that vision a reality.

Public Safety through Public Health

Community safety is found in our built environments. By investing in green spaces we make the air cleaner to breathe, and the streets cooler during heatwaves. In building pedestrian and cyclist centered streets, we will save countless lives. And in making our parks and public spaces open, clean, and accessible, we will build a better Seattle, for all.

    • Expand pedestrianization of arterials, especially areas identified for redevelopment; Aurora Ave Project and Greenlake Ave.

    • Increase sidewalks throughout the District; investigate areas ideal for mix-use development, offering greenery, seating, and opportunities to gather and support small businesses.

    • Increase investments in bus hours and frequencies; when people can use transit more easily and reliably, they will. Scale up Metro labor by budgeting for pay increases.

    • Expand the protected bike lane network; this will save cyclist lives.

    • Seek a car-free Pike Place Market, pedestrianization of Waterfront Highway into a raised park.

    • Expand access and build more public bathrooms and reopen all public bathrooms with expanded services. Redirect millions spent on sweeps.

    • Reduce public spending on preventable diseases and deaths through expanded access to harm reduction best practices.

Build Green Housing & Protect Renters

As a founding co-chair of House Our Neighbors I helped envision, launch, and pass I-135, the Initiative for Social Housing. The Council must now invest heavily in our newly formed public developer to massively build union-built, green, mixed-income housing which will cut emissions from its two largest sources: buildings and transportation. The Passive House model also provides safety from heat, smoke, and offers community space in every building.

    • Invest $20 Million into Seattle’s Social Housing Developer. As seen in globally, a large share of social housing contributes towards more affordable prices for a major proportion of the entire housing market.

    • Transition from green building incentives to green building mandates; our City will not meet our goal of reducing total core greenhouse gas emissions 58% by 2030 or become carbon neutral by 2050 if green development is optional.

    • End Exclusionary Zoning beyond the state mandate. We must build sky scrapers for social housing. After 100 years, Vienna has housed 500,000 residents socially and 89% of Singapore’s population lives in public housing.

    • End or drastically overhaul the design review process. Offer developers options for expedited permitting processes when strident green build standards are met/exceeded (see Passive House).

    • End predatory leasing practices; pass legislation to end the renter abuse of price fixing by practice of organized, algorithmic rent increases.

    • Extend current Landlord Rent Reporting legislation (which is set to sunset by the end of 2025) indefinitely; support broad access of this data by the public.

    • Maintain Existing Rentals: Implement a review process by which current rentals in the private sector would be flagged prior to sale to determine suitability for rehabilitation and purchase by the City for social housing.

Pass Equitable & Progressive Revenue

Seattle is home to 50,500 Millionaires, 121 Centi-millionaires, and 10 Billionaires and yet, our state has the most regressive tax structure in the nation, leading to unconscionable disparity and human rights atrocities. This is unacceptable. We must pass progressive taxes, sharing the wealth of the very top who’ve profited on Seattle’s abundance for the sake of our collective community wellbeing.

    • Impose tax on long-term capital gains above $250,000, which would target only the truly wealthy, to pay for essential services.

    • Explore a Luxury Sales Tax for non-essential, only-affordable to the wealthiest items such as jewelry, yachts, private jets, and real estate valued at over $1M; include rebate options for low-income homeowners.

    • Make changes to the JumpStart tax to increase revenues for general expense purposes (increase rates, expand number of businesses, etc.).

    • Defy austerity budget cuts; reallocate funds from the most expensive method of addressing social issues (police, courts, and prosecutors) to ensure continuation of vital services that actually meet people’s needs.

Protect and Nurture our Youth and Elders

Seattle’s austerity measures have left our schools underfunded, our wading pools empty, and our elders and their care providers largely to fend for themselves while the police budget ballooned to over $300 million per annum. Protecting and nurturing will always yield results over reactive punishment. We owe this to our youth and elders.

    • Disrupt the school to prison pipeline: no more bonuses for police as schools are closing. Invest in teachers and counselors, and safe facilities and programs and staffing to keep our youth safe and in school.

    • Fully fund our schools and teachers; support the Washington Educator Association demands for accessibility, living wages, school meals, and on-boarding of diverse educators.

    • Implement an Elder’s Advisory Committee to allow a direct line from our senior and elder population to our legislative body.

    • Collaborate with healthcare professionals and unions to support labor and bargaining for healthcare industries including assisted living facilities, nursing homes, and home care health workers.

    • Support UW students in their fight against campus housing privatization.

Build Community Power

Out of the 2020 Movement for Black Lives, a broad coalition of over 200 organizations (racial and climate justice, service providers, housing and transit advocates) pushed for a budgetary path by which Seattle can allocate money away from the endless cycle of sweeps and jails, and towards true community safety, built by the people of Seattle. I will increase Participatory Budgeting funds to the requested $60M; community control of resources and co-governance will be how we build a more just and safe Seattle.

“We know that those closest to the problems are closest to the solutions, and time and time again our communities have offered solutions to the thorniest problems facing our city.”

—Seattle Solidarity Budget