A month and a half into her term, Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson delivered her first "State of the City" address. Speaking at Langston Hughes Performing Arts Institute this week, she gave rough outlines for how she plans to address homelessness, affordability and public safety.
Wilson’s speech was filled with echoes from her campaign. Her goals still include building 1,000 emergency shelter units in her first year; looking into publicly-funded grocery stories to ensure nearby access to fresh food for residents; and convening a panel to develop gun violence prevention measures.
Gun violence
Wilson started by acknowledging two Rainier Beach High students who were shot and killed last month at a bus stop near the school. She said the fatal shootings are “one of the hardest things that has happened this year in Seattle.”
“We have to do better for our kids,” Wilson said, pointing to other recent, fatal shootings in Pioneer Square and Chinatown International District.
As part of that work, Wilson said, the city will tap experts to better understand and develop gun violence prevention measures. The city is also restoring late night police patrols in the Chinatown International District, which it stopped last year. Seattle police didn't have enough staff to maintain the patrols, which ran between 2 a.m. and 5 a.m. on Fridays and Saturdays, according to the International Examiner.
Surveillance
Surveillance technology was another issue. Wilson had opposed surveillance cameras during her campaign due to concerns about immigration officials using that information to target people. On Tuesday, she took a more measured approach to the question of whether the city should use surveillance cameras to detect crime.
Wilson said she knows that the cameras, called CCTV, are a contentious issue, and wants “to get this right.”
"I have also been moved by what I've heard from families and communities impacted by gun violence. I understand how CCTV cameras have been a useful tool to solve crimes and can reduce profiling and protect witnesses," she said.
Affordability
Wilson's overall goal is still to make the city affordable.
She announced an “affordability agenda” that focuses on housing, childcare, food and making it possible to start a small business in the city. On the housing front, Wilson wants to improve and expand existing programs that support affordable homeownership.
“That means making it easier and cheaper to build backyard cottages, providing down payment assistance, partnering with community land trusts, and supporting legacy homeowners in neighborhoods like this,” she said, referring to Seattle’s Central District.
On homelessness, Wilson said the city would conduct outreach ahead of posting removal notices at encampments to better connect people with services while also working to expand shelter and supportive services. She said the city is exploring administrative and legal tools to expand emergency housing and shelter.
“We have been working closely with the city’s budget office and philanthropic partners to secure the funding we need to ensure that everyone has a warm bed to go to at night,” Wilson said. She recently spoke at an event where the city’s social housing developer announced that funding for housing had come in much higher than anticipated.
What's the cost?
One thing Wilson intentionally left out of her speech: how much all this would cost.
“You might have noticed that I did not put price tags on a lot of the items I mentioned today,” Wilson said, adding that more information on the budget and revenue would be provided in the coming months.
Wilson acknowledged that her goals are ambitious and that she might not accomplish it all, but said there’s “a lot more to be gained by starting that conversation, by looking at what we need and where we want to be — and then figuring out how to get there.”
