Seattle City Council Sustainability & Transportation Committee Special Meeting 8/9/19

Good afternoon, everybody.

Welcome to this special meeting of the Sustainability and Transportation Committee.

It is August 9, 2019. It's 2.01 PM.

My name is Mike O'Brien.

I am chair of the committee, joined by my colleague, Council Member Pacheco.

Thank you for being here, especially the second meeting this week.

So I appreciate you creating the space for that, Council Member Pacheco.

I'm staffed today by Kelly.

I'm going to walk through the agenda really quick.

Before I do that, I just want to acknowledge this came from a press event.

Excuse me, a few blocks from here with a number of folks in the audience were there.

I want to thank members of the Mass Coalition, including Rooted in Rights, Transit Writers Union, Seattle Neighborhood Greenways, Cascade Bike Club, Sierra Club, 350 Seattle, Seattle Subway, and any other folks who are part of that press event and for your ongoing advocacy.

And we will be talking about that here in committee meeting in just a moment after we get through public comment.

The agenda today, we will have a briefing on the Move All Seattle Sustainably, or MAS, transportation package, followed by an ordinance relating to construction of protected bicycle lanes.

This is listed for a possible vote, but my intent is not to actually vote this out, just to have a discussion today.

Also going to have a resolution on funding the bike master plan implementation plan.

That will also likely just be a discussion, and we'll come back to that.

Agenda item number four is a red light camera briefing.

Agenda number five is a multi-modal parking resolution that's listed for a briefing and discussion.

Council Member Chayka is leading on that work, thank you.

And then finally we have an ordinance related to the Green New Deal for Seattle.

We discussed this in our committee meeting on Tuesday.

We'll have a brief discussion today.

I was originally thinking of potentially voting this out of committee but I'm not planning to do that today, but we'll talk about that item when we get to it.

So unless there's an objection, we'll go ahead and approve the agenda.

Seeing no objection, the agenda is approved.

Now we're going to move to public comment.

We have about 20 folks, 25 folks signed up.

So I'm going to give folks 90 seconds, a minute and a half.

I'll call you up to either of the microphones.

Asuka Jax is first, followed by Ryan Packer, then Philip Weiss, and Yasser Alfrag.

Thanks for allowing me to be here this afternoon.

It's great to see you, Michael Bryan.

It's important and urgent that we pass this mass transit package and the Green New Deal on Monday.

It's important.

We need to stop climate change.

Thank you, Zuka.

Ryan?

Sorry, I'm Ryan Packer, and I'm excited to be here as a part of the Mass Coalition.

Really excited to talk about signal policy.

I know, really exciting.

We have a pedestrian safety crisis right now in Seattle.

39 pedestrians were killed or seriously injured.

from January to June this year.

I was here last week to talk about that.

The only way to make serious progress on this is comprehensive systemic change in the built environment.

70% of pedestrian collisions happen at intersections and 67% of collisions with pedestrians happen at locations with traffic signals.

So the best way, comprehensive change is to have a signal policy.

The Mask Coalition's transpiration package asks for a signal policy that is comprehensive and not car-focused.

Recently, there appeared at light rail stations in the Rainier Valley signs highlighting that people should make themselves visible.

This week, SFD had to lift a car off of a pedestrian at South Alaska Street.

We need design changes, not lecturing.

Thanks.

Thanks, Brian.

Philip?

Howdy, my name is Philip Weiss.

I live in Eastlake and I'm a part of welcoming Eastlake and since I have a little bit of extra time than I planned, I do want to say that I really think that a couple of the items on the agenda will really help Southeast Seattle and really need it, but I also want to talk a little bit about how these things are good for all of Seattle.

In particular, items in the mass coalition package relieve bottlenecks for transit at a number of choke points, including one at Fairview Avenue North, which is used by the number 70 serving East Lake.

Yesterday, I waited in Eastlake for the 70 going north at 5.30.

Forty minutes later, still waiting, these were the delays for the next six coaches as listed on One Bus Away.

39-minute delay, 51-minute delay, 40-minute delay, 51-minute delay, 35-minute delay, 35-minute delay.

That's my screenshot in there.

It's very typical.

Secondly, on requiring protected bicycle lanes in the Bicycle Master Plan to be built as part of repaving projects, there's really loud opposition to bicycle lanes in Eastlake and around the city.

But they don't speak for all Eastlakers.

Passing the bill means that projects get done based on quantifiable criteria, not giving a vote.

or veto to the loudest, the most threatening, or the people who can sink the most money into opposition.

So I really appreciate it if you guys would pass that.

Thank you.

Thank you, Phil.

Yasser?

Yasser, you're going to be followed by Merlin Rainwater, then Rosario Medina, and Jesse Moore.

Hi.

Thank you for letting me speak today in front of you.

This is my first time being in the city council.

I just want this package to support the south Seattle and the southern part of Seattle, like biking in the city and downtown, sometimes I feel safe, not all the time, but biking on Rainier is really, really risky or anywhere near Georgetown, Rainier Beach, Beacon Hill, like we need more bike lanes, protected bike lanes, giving us like head start instead of cars.

It's so common on Rainier that if I go forward and a car is turning right that like I've been on many, many close accidents and it's really, really scary.

We need more protected bike lanes.

But I'm also here to ask that we need to tell the third company's bike share programs to let the the riders park their bikes off the sidewalk.

So people with disabilities can walk or roll on the sidewalks.

And it's really common to walk in downtown or anywhere in Seattle and see a line bike blocking the whole sidewalk.

And it's really unfortunate seeing that.

For me, a really privileged person, I can just pass on top of it.

But it's really, really sad.

Thank you.

Thanks, Yasir.

Hi, my name is Merlin Rainwater.

It's a privilege to be here today.

Thanks for all of these items.

I'm here to strongly support the mass transportation package and the items related to bike lanes and completing the bicycle master plan.

I just returned from about four weeks in Europe.

I spent four days at the European Cycling Federation's VeloCity conference in Dublin.

I got to hear a lot about what's being done around the world to promote bicycling.

And then I spent 10 days in Berlin visiting old friends.

And I got acquainted with the young son of one of my longtime friends.

He told me that he was very excited to hear that I was from Seattle.

And he said, isn't Seattle like an eco-paradise?

I mean, doesn't everybody ride bikes?

I mean, don't you have these great I said, I'm really sorry to tell you, but Berlin is doing a lot better in that regard than we are in Seattle.

We don't have anything close to a connected network of bicycle lanes.

We have mass transit that's constantly stuck in traffic.

We have a long ways to go before we can be the paradise that you imagine us to be.

So I hope that we pass all these measures and I can go back to Florian and say, we're on our way.

Thank you.

Thank you, Marilyn.

earn that reputation that we do have globally.

Hi, so my name is Rosario.

I am here asking for funding for the Georgetown South Park Trail and here supporting the mass transit package and other South End projects that were left unfunded.

So my great-grandfather, Jose Tito Barron, he came to Georgetown in the late 50s and during that time he was able to freely walk and bike in the Duwamish Valley before it was heavily industrialized.

And sadly, in the last 50 years or so, my family and my community have not been able to do that safely.

And I would like to be able to walk and bike in my community and all over South Seattle, but sadly, it is not safe right now.

With safer walking and bike paths, my community will be able to commute safely and be healthier individuals and leave a smaller carbon footprint.

Thank you for your time.

Thank you, Rosario.

My name is Jesse Moore.

Jesse, hold on one second.

I saw the Batman shirt.

I see you.

Zoom in on that, but whatever.

We'll move ahead with Jesse.

Go ahead.

I see.

That solidarity is great.

My name is Jesse, and I live and work in Georgetown.

That is part of the greater Duwamish neighborhood, together with Soto, Georgetown, and South Park.

In the last 14 years, since I've lived and worked in the greater Duwamish, I've seen projects, repaving projects like Corson, Ellis Avenue South, East Marginal Way South, the East Marginal Way Corridor repaving project.

None of these have resulted in a single recommendation from the bike master plan being built.

Our neighborhoods still don't have a single piece of all ages and abilities infrastructure built by the city of Seattle.

I'd like to see our Complete Street Ordinance have some teeth, so I support legislation that would help things get built while we're doing repaving.

65,000 people come to and from work every day in the Greater Duwamish.

within the largest industrial center in the state of Washington, and we do this with less sidewalks and bike infrastructure and fewer bus options than any other major employment center in our city.

It's no wonder why 73% of people drive alone.

We want to get that down to 51%.

Like we say in our comprehensive plan, we need to support safe, separated places for people to walk and bike.

So please fund what's in the Bike Master Plan, a safe connection between downtown Soto and Georgetown, the Georgetown to South Park Trail, and make investments in the greater Duwamish neighborhoods.

Thank you.

Next up is Brie Geinkeld, followed by Matthew Lang, Marcy Carpenter, and then Kimberly Kinchin.

Hi, I'm Brie Geinkeld, and I'm going to keep it really short and sweet.

I just want to make sure that we recognize all the people who are here today to support the mass transportation package, since I don't think we're all going to get to speak.

So could everybody who's here to support the mass transportation package raise your hand?

That's a lot of folks on a two o'clock on a Friday afternoon.

Keep them raised for Gordon's photo.

Let's do it one more time for Gordon.

And thank you all for being here.

Thanks, Bree.

Hi, my name is Matthew Lang, and I am the lead organizer at the Transit Riders Union.

I'm very supportive of a mass coalition transportation package, everything that's outlined in that package.

Myself, I am primarily a car driver because I teach parkour and acrobatics throughout King County and have to haul the equipment all over the place.

I believe that physical health is key to our children's future, even as physical education programs are being cut day by day.

As climate change continues and the air we breathe becomes less breathable, we must invest in all modes of transportation and keep our bodies moving.

Speaking of children, I just witnessed a 13-year-old girl that was planning to testify today because of a arrest outside of City Hall because of a strike message painted on the walls of City Hall.

The police came in a storm of six vehicles and no less than 20 officers.

They were acting in an aggressive nature toward this young woman, 13 years old again.

I heard one jeer at her, you can't strike if you don't have a job.

Is that right?

I was repeatedly blocking from getting her information so that I could get in touch with her parents and get the right legal support that they needed.

Our children are scared and are acting out in the only ways they know how.

They are part of the Green New Deal movement.

They are here in support of their communities.

Good children.

We must adjust our policies so that their future isn't as bleak as it looks right now.

Thank you.

Marcy Carpenter is next.

Thank you.

My name is Marcy Carpenter.

I live in West Seattle.

I volunteer around the city, the county, the state, and all over the country.

I'm here today recovering from a fractured rib that I incurred from a sidewalk that was pushed up by a tree root.

I think that Seattle needs to do a much better job of keeping track of the areas of town where these things are prevalent and take measures to solve the problems before there are more injuries like mine.

I support the mass transportation package and the other programs that you're looking at today.

But I want to say something about bike and scooter share.

You can build all the parking that you want, and you can have all the lanes that you want, and they all are very good, and they all help.

And I want people to have all modes of transportation available to them.

But if there are no consequences for people who park illegally, none of it is going to matter.

I encounter, on a regular basis, bikes that are, a bike corral with bikes that are littered outside the bike corral and blocking sidewalks.

It's not working now.

There needs to be a geo-fenced area, maybe something like what Washington, D.C.

has done in the capital area.

I've been there twice this year.

There were lots of people riding bike and scooter share and very, very, very few improperly parked bikes.

Thank you.

Kimberly, Kimberly, you're going to be followed by Jesse Simpson, then it's Cedric Kellner, or Edrick Kellner, and then Margaret McCauley.

So thanks for this agenda.

Everything on it looks fantastic.

I want to talk about money because we have to pay for all of this stuff and we deserve all of this stuff.

So I ask the committee and the council and everybody in this room to keep fighting for truly progressive revenue sources.

Don't back down in the face of scare tactics like those that the mayor used to kill the head tax.

This city is so rich.

It is so rich, but its riches are held captive by a small number of people with obscene amounts of unearned wealth.

And it's unearned because it was amassed on the backs of the undercompensated public, all of us.

And more than what all that money can buy, those undeserving wealthy value the unearned and disproportionate power that their wealth gives them to lord over the rest of us and over our public institutions and policies in our very lives.

We could pay for the mass package.

We could pay for Seattle's Green New Deal, for safer streets, for more and better maintained public toilets.

for affordable housing, public education, free, fast, frequent, accessible public transit, and so much more.

We can do that if you and we fight to take back the unearned wealth of gazillionaires and billionaires and invest that wealth in the public that it belongs to.

Thanks.

Jesse.

Hi, I'm Jesse Simpson.

I volunteer with the Capital Hill Renter Initiative and share the cities.

I'm here to speak in favor of the mass transportation package.

I mostly get around the city by bike, and I experience feelings of danger all the time.

Constantly, when you're going around biking in the city, you have to worry about right hooks, left hooks, cars overtaking.

And we know that people only actually get around by bike in a mass way if we build out safe and connected bike infrastructure, infrastructure that your mother or your child will actually be using.

That means we can't leave like one, two block segments of just mixed traffic as Estada's tended to do.

That means we need to focus on making sure that everyone in the city can get around by bike.

And I urge you to build out the bike master plan as quickly as you can and save money by implementing it wherever you're already ripping up the streets.

Thanks.

Thanks, Justin.

Is it Cedric?

We're going to hang on.

There we go.

Hello, my name is Padraig.

I'm here to support increasing the amount of money from red light camera funds to safe routes to Seattle and physical changes that make it safer to walk and roll in Seattle.

Tuesday I was on the bus with my grandma and brothers and two big car crashes on Rainier and MLK made it impossible for our bus to take us to Rainier Beach.

We had to turn around and go home.

Please make our roads easy for people to be safe and difficult to be fast and dangerous.

Thank you.

Margaret.

I would like to say in a personal capacity, I support all of the things that are in front of this committee today.

But most of all, I'm here to represent the Seattle School Traffic Safety Committee, which is one of the city boards and commissions.

And the committee is very enthusiastic about number four, I believe, on the agenda, the red light camera money redirection.

We were very dismayed in 2018. To see money from the red light camera fund be directed to the general fund and away from Safe Routes to School, we have been mapping the problem areas in Safe Routes to School, and there are many of them.

So we're really excited that that money will go back to Safe Routes to School, and we are also excited about the expansion of money going to Vision Zero.

We would like to say that we think that that should go to physical infrastructure changes, which will help people drive safely, use all of our roads safely, and we would like that to take primacy over the enforcement prong of the Vision Zero program, because we feel like it's much easier for people to use the roads safely when the infrastructure is in place, and that can be the enforcement we need rather than The unintended, inequitable byproducts of enforcement that we have been advised, the committee has been advised, happen too often in our communities.

So, thank you.

Thank you, Margaret.

Doug McDonald is next.

And then, Doug, you're going to be followed by Liz Dodds.

And then, let's see, maybe Estes Mietz, Esty, thank you.

And then Pauline Monsenas.

I'm Doug McDonald.

I'm here in support of almost everything, but principally to reinforce what Marcy Carpenter said.

Yesterday I sent around 20 pictures of the new bike corrals in the University District, all of them with no bike share bikes in them, and bikes littered on all the surrounding corners and blocks.

You can build, to quote Marcy, all the bike corrals you want.

And if you do not have an enforcement mechanism that requires people to park their bikes in the bike corrals, you're wasting your money and missing the point and not protecting the sidewalks for people who need sidewalk access.

There are two other reasons that are problematic.

One is that the bike share program is shriveling, which is a difficult problem, and the fact that they've raised prices 60% means that the people who should be enforced against can probably afford to pay because bike share is being priced out of the ability to be used by people of modest income or low income.

And there are now, I think, going to be, I suspect, there'll only be 4,000 bikes in Seattle in the July count, unless some have arrived, despite the tariffs recently.

Is it a problem?

Well, I walked up from 2nd and Cherry, where I got off the bus.

2nd Avenue is totally blocked, and there's a bike right now blocking the entrance to City Hall, so you couldn't come in the 4th Avenue entrance with a wheelchair, because the jump bike is there.

A couple other points.

On the signal stuff, We so badly need leading pedestrian intervals.

Esad announced a big program.

They're going to expand the program to 144 more in five years.

Are you kidding?

There are cities around the country that are doing that every year and have 2,000 LPIs in place now.

Why can't something get done as if it were a matter of real urgency to protect pedestrians?

I'll only say one more thing, which is that I ride the bus all over.

I rode the 7 down to Graham, which has actually been stopped now the other day and rode back.

I live in North Seattle.

Something has to be done about Rainier Avenue.

I mean, this is terrible.

It's the pedestrian conditions, the transit is so slow.

Money is being spent on things all over this city when a priority that should be addressed by citywide is to stop the mess on Rainier Avenue and make it a safe place to drive, to walk, to bike, and a convenient place to ride the bus.

Thank you.

Liz Dodds.

Good afternoon.

My name is Liz Dodds and I live in the Bryant neighborhood.

So much has been done in Seattle in the past few years on bike safety and bike lanes.

I'm happy about that, but as everyone in this room knows, so much more needs to be done.

So I'm here to support the MAS package.

And I couldn't bring my five-year-old and two-year-old grandsons with me, but I just want you to picture in your mind what I got to experience this morning.

On a nice day in Seattle, as we did this morning, the two-year-old is in the trailer behind me on my bike.

Hugo and Marshall is in front of me on his bike.

He's five years old.

And there could not be a happier person in the world as his little legs go around and around.

And he sings to himself and talks to himself as we bicycle along.

So as you're thinking about all of these great bicycle measures, please keep Marshall and Hugo in mind.

Thank you.

Thank you, Liz.

Estes, is that?

Well, hello.

My name is Estes.

Oh, thank you.

And I know a couple of people have already talked to the problem of people in wheelchairs getting blocked by bicycles and other things along the ways.

One thing that I wanted to add to this is a general request to make sure all the parts of the great plan have better coordination.

For example, the bicycle plan and access transportation is one example right now.

there are many times there are problems where access drivers cannot get to the sidewalk to pick up riders because the bicycle the bike lanes are in between where they go and the sidewalk and people with disabilities that need to access those access vans can't get to it because the bicycles get in the way.

Things like that, there are a lot of parts of this great plan that needs much better coordination, much better, in a way, talking between one department and the other, we all familiar with roads being repaved just to be dug again because they didn't think about the one part of the road that needs to be dug for something.

Please get a better coordination between different departments that all work towards that great plan.

Thanks.

Next, you're going to be followed by Claire Richards, then Brett Hillier, and then Bob Anderton.

Well, as you guys know, I was at the news conference.

So you've heard that.

I'm just going to kind of maybe add to that.

I definitely support the Mass Coalition's goals.

So transit is my favorite part of that.

And I like bus, in particular, because it's very flexible.

It goes where you want it.

So I like to see more dedicated lanes for buses.

bus only on 3rd Avenue extended all the way to Broad Street, and I was thinking about how many routes would that impact practically the entire North End, because they're sort of funneled.

There were lots of routes start there.

It'd be going to all of Queen Anne, and Interbay, Magnolia, Ballard, and Freibont, and Crown Hill, Greenwood, all the way up to Shoreline College, and the city of Shoreline, and Aurora Village, and all over East Green Lake.

And even there's routes to go to Northgate and also to U District, kind of more local routes that are not main route, not the 41 and the express routes.

So I see that as a, you know, I would like to see more of that.

Before I leave, thank you, Mike, in particular I appreciated that the last committee meeting a few days ago, you were addressing people by first name and you were really friendly about the public comment period.

Sometimes that's not always the case and it can get really adversarial, but it was really a nice experience.

We didn't feel put down and we felt included.

I appreciate that very much.

Thank you.

Thank you, Pauline.

Hi, I have not been here before either.

My name is Claire Richards and I'm here as a mom.

I have a three and a half year old son and I want to cry because I can't think of a future for him.

With climate change, I'm crying all the time because I don't know how Sorry, I must hide myself because I'm a researcher and I look at the data and I'm like, we are on a crash course with a disaster and we are not prepared.

As a society, we are not prepared and we are not taking this seriously enough.

This is only the beginning.

I think we need to support this package and we need to support more.

We need to become less reliant on fossil fuels.

We need to support equity and make this fair for everyone in the city.

And we need to think about what is going to happen when other people in the country in the next 30, 50, 100 years don't have enough water and they're coming to our city.

You know, I mean, seriously, people are not talking about this, but it's real, and I don't mean to be catastrophizing, but you look at the data, and that's what it says.

So I bike with my son, and we have a family bike, and we only go along the trails because we are terrified about going off the trails.

It would be nice to make the rest of the city safe for everyone.

Thank you.

Brett?

Good afternoon.

My name is Brett Hillier.

I'm a civilian employee of the Seattle Fire Department.

I work in Fire and Life Safety Systems Compliance and I administer the High-Rise Inspection Program.

And I just want to share with this chamber this afternoon that this morning I was biking to work as I do most every day and I was driven off the road by an 18-wheel semi truck which nearly collided with me despite me having the right-of-way and being in a separated bike lane on Alaskan Way South.

And I just want to urge this chamber to do whatever it can to implement the Bicycle Master Plan and create separated, protected bike lanes for everybody who chooses not to drive in this city.

Thank you.

Brad, I'm really sorry about what happened today, and I'm grateful that you're here in one piece, mostly.

And I know that must be terrifying, and we can do better.

Thanks.

Bob.

Sorry, Bob, you'll be followed by Apu Mishra.

And then Apu is the last person who signed up, although I think maybe someone else signed up there.

But go ahead, Bob.

Hi, I'm Bob Anderton.

I'm here as a board member of Seattle Neighborhood Greenways and as the founding attorney of Washington Bike Law.

I'm holding this Vision Zero sign.

Mostly what I plan to do is say thank you for actually taking action towards getting us to Vision Zero.

We all talk about it, but it requires action to make the streets safer for everyone.

So thank you for having this hearing, and please pass legislation that enforces it.

And based on our firefighter here, one of the things that I'd like to see are protected bike lanes that are actually protected, spring-loaded plastic whatever those things are called, don't really protect people, but big pieces of cement, even though it contributes to global warming, does separate physically, and I'd like to see more of that.

So thank you, please take action to make our streets safer.

Thanks, Bob.

Hi, thank you.

I want to urge support of the mass transportation package and also talk about my personal experience as someone who lives in South Seattle and commutes to downtown every day.

Right now, we still don't have a single safe and convenient route from South Seattle to the rest of the city.

And I think that's definitely something that is of urgency to many people.

And also within South Seattle, within their neighborhoods, there are a lot of particularly dangerous streets and we really need to have safer infrastructure so that people who are currently walking and biking can be safer and also the people who are currently not will feel empowered to get around by walking and biking transit and mobility devices and we can just have better and more sustainable neighborhoods.

Thank you.

Thank you, Apu.

Nigel Robinson.

And then if there are other folks who would like to comment, please just get in line behind Rigel.

Good afternoon.

How are you?

My name is Rigel Robinson, and I actually don't know too much about what you all have been doing on these issues already or what you're voting on today.

I don't live here.

I got off an Amtrak yesterday, and I'll get back on Amtrak on Sunday because it's my summer recess.

But when it's not summer recess, I'm a city council member in Berkeley, California.

I'm just here on vacation.

Berkeley is, I think, the third in the country in walkability for our commuters, fourth in the country for bikeability for our commuters.

exploring your city as a tourist today.

I have felt so incredibly safe in your very protected bike lanes, admiring the dedicated bus lanes.

Despite Berkeley's numbers, it's clear that Seattle, you are leading the country in mobility infrastructure, and I just wanted to congratulate you.

It's hilarious, actually.

I was delighted to see that on this entirely random day that I decided to stop by City Hall to say hi to some friends.

You happen to have a committee meeting starting in 15 minutes.

to do even more on these issues.

And I'm really impressed by all you've been doing.

And I would align myself with the incredible activists here today, demanding that you be courageous in the fight against climate change.

But personally, I'm mostly just here to congratulate you and tell you to keep it up.

Very good to meet you.

Thank you, Roger.

Nice to meet you.

We try to schedule Friday afternoon meetings, not just for advocates, but for tourists to come through and visit.

So glad that piece of the business worked.

I will just, I acknowledge, you know, Seattle is seen as one of the safest cities, not just in the country, in the world.

And we continue to have way too many fatalities and serious injuries, despite being one of the best.

And frankly, the data this year shows a significant increase over recent years.

So there's a lot of work to be done, but it is nice to hear from folks from another city saying that they feel like we're doing well, which we've reminded.

But as Merlin said earlier, some of the people, sometimes the praise is a little more than we actually live up to, so we have some work to do that.

I also want to just mention, We're passing a Green New Deal resolution on Monday, moving towards a climate pollution-free city by the year 2030. And one of the things we're going to be looking at is prohibiting new natural gas hookups, which you guys did about a month ago.

So I'm really grateful for your city council's leadership on that.

I believe the first in the country to do that.

So thank you.

All right.

introduce yourself and we'll have you sign in after you give comment.

I'm Carrie Nathan.

I just recently moved back to Seattle and grateful to be here.

I'm grateful we were able to get rid of our car and we live fully car free.

We walk, we bike, we bus.

I would love to bike more with my kid, but I'm nervous to do so.

Understandably, as many of you know.

So I would love to see more of these things get passed, get funded and be done so quickly.

I also have to use mobility aid from time to time.

So I understand what it's like to try to walk on these sidewalks when they're broken up.

And I can only imagine what it must be like to have to deal with these bikes everywhere.

So I encourage some creative solutions to these types of problems.

And I would also ask that Seattle work harder on getting these sidewalks in better condition and getting sidewalks throughout the city and places where they don't exist.

So thank you for the work you've done, and thank you for continuing to do that work, and let's do it as fast as we can.

Great, thanks.

If I could just ask you to sign in when you're done.

Right there?

Yep, and then David, there are two folks actually in front of you, behind you.

So just, okay.

All right, David and Anna, we'll work our way through it.

My name is David Goldberg.

About in 2003, I actually coined the term complete streets, working with a bunch of national folks who were trying to implement what was then called routine accommodation.

I said that sounded like a crappy hotel room.

They said, what do you got?

And I said, well, how about complete streets?

And we were thrilled back in 2008, I believe it was, when Seattle became the first big city to adopt a complete streets ordinance.

I was a little bit chagrined when I joined the Pedestrian Advisory Board several years ago to realize while we do a pretty good job of auditing for Complete Streets, we don't do a great job of funding and sticking to the solutions that are recommended through those Complete Streets audits.

So I'm really encouraged to see some legislation that puts some teeth into our Complete Streets ordinance.

As somebody who was on the Pedestrian Advisory Board and worked on the Pedestrian Master Plan, it's also been frustrating to see that plan, along with the Bike Master Plan, Transit Plan, and other of our modal plans, get short shrift often when political winds blow against something, and it feels that, someone said earlier, the loudest voice or the most moneyed voice tends to prevail.

So I really appreciate your taking these steps, and thank you very much for having this hearing, or meeting.

Hi, my name is Lolly Conkler and I'm a Seattleite and I live in the Ravenna Wedgwood neighborhood and was part of the Safe 35th coalition that attempted apparently futilely to maintain the original design as set forth by Estad originally and maintain the bicycle master plan.

So I would like to show my support for this legislation because I think that since we don't have a lot of great leadership in the mayor's office, I think that this will give more teeth to maintain a bicycle network for the city, which is important for climate and for transportation and for Vision Zero.

So thanks.

Thank you.

Hi, my name is Matt Lowe.

I am also a native Seattleite, but just moved back here about three years ago.

And Councilmember O'Brien, I want to first thank you for your service to the city and just all that you've done for pushing these efforts forward.

I want to talk about my mom really quick because she used to be the type of person, she lives up kind of in the 35th area and she used to be the type of person that complained about losing parking spaces and things like that.

But I got her on the jump bikes and she got super excited about that and got an e-bike and is now the person that like has a meeting on the east side or down in Soto and rides her bike there versus driving.

And like, I think the, just like, the level of the fact that like e-bikes are getting cheaper and more affordable and accessible for people is helping people of older ages that may not be able to bike normally be able to tackle the hills of Seattle and things like that and get out of their cars.

And so I don't know it's just like a bummer for me because like she'll go up 35th and like We've seen all the videos of 35th and stuff like that.

And that's just one example around the city.

But to have people you care about who are super excited, she takes selfies and sends them to me of her on the second half of the bike lane.

This is so cool.

But to not have those facilities available in your neighborhoods, especially in South Seattle, I just think that everyone should be able to, if they want to, get out of their cars, feel safe doing that.

So yeah.

And over the past few days, me biking, I almost got hit four times.

So would love to not have drivers feel so aggressive.

Thanks.

Hello, my name is Liepa.

And every Friday, I come to support Fridays for Future right outside the city hall from 1 to 2. And this never happens usually, but today I saw a 13-year-old be arrested by the police in a very aggressive and violent force for some nonviolent action that she did because of her fear for her future.

And I support them every week.

These kids are very scared for the future and that's why they are compelled to come here every week.

So please do something for reducing our transportation emissions.

Thank you.

Hi, thanks for letting me speak.

The other day I was here and I mentioned the heat wave that was reaching the Greenland ice sheet and I hope, you know, all the news media is feeding in to kids about how The climate change is happening, and we're not really changing our consumption patterns.

We're still consuming at like 1.7 times.

They'll have this figure, and it just seems daunting.

And I should think if you're a kid not to get in trouble with the law and to use your talents in a way like writing letters.

And joining a club or making a club with your friends would probably be the safer way, because when you get in trouble with the law, then your school habits change.

And actually writing letters is more effective, and you can document it.

So even though you hear figures like, oh, I heard on Democracy Now, like, there's three soccer fields a minute being cut in the Amazon rainforest.

So then I started thinking, like, did they name an Amazon because that's going to be the new Amazon and the other one's just going to be all chopped down?

It's like all these thoughts come into my head and I think we've got to cut No, I don't like that vision.

Let's get that vision to zero and let's make the vision like we map out the whole Amazon and everybody can track it on their phones and we can watch it in real time and any company that touches it will all know about it and we'll all send them a letter.

Maybe that's in the year 2100, but for now, the best way to cut back is through green transportation.

That's why I'm so lucky to be here.

And I know all the kids wish that they could be here, but they're in school and they should learn about this in school and bring it home to their parents.

Thank you.

For your great public comment today, we will go ahead and close public comment and move into our agenda.

I'll invite presenters forward for our first agenda item.

Item one, move all Seattle's sustainably mass transportation package briefings.

Come on forward.

You may sit wherever you like.

Why don't we start with just a quick round of introductions.

And Vicky, if you want to go first.

Grab that.

There you go.

I'm Vicki Clark.

I'm the policy director with Cascade Bicycle Club.

I'm Clara Cantor with Seattle Neighborhood Greenways.

I'm Brittany Bushbole.

I'm the chair of Sierra Club Seattle Group.

I'm Katie Wilson with the Transit Riders Union.

Ana Zieverts with Disability Rights Washington, program director of Rooted in Rights.

And Andrew Kiddo with 350 Seattle.

Welcome, everyone.

We have a presentation today, and so whoever's going to lead off, why don't we jump right into it?

Okay, is that me?

I think that might be you, Katie.

Okay, I guess I'm supposed to start this off.

So, yeah, so all of us are involved in organizations that are part of the MASS Coalition, and basically MASS, which stands for Move All Seattle Sustainably, MASS came together last fall, partly feeling the urgency around the climate crisis that so many people have spoken to today in public comment.

And also, frankly, with some feelings of consternation that transportation projects in Seattle were not getting done.

And so over the past almost year, we have been building relationships, organizing And we have come up with this set of transportation programs or policies and proposals that we think can really make a big difference this year.

So that's what we're here to talk about.

And am I supposed to keep talking?

Okay, I'm going to leave it to, who's next?

Andrew?

Brittany?

To talk about why this is important.

Yeah, I guess I can go next.

My name is Andrew.

The climate crisis is indeed a dire emergency.

The Greenland ice sheet is melting at unprecedented levels.

European heat wave, never before seen.

Arboreal forests burn, et cetera.

The list goes on and on.

Everyone who's reading the newspaper knows about it.

And here in Seattle, transportation, mostly cars, is responsible for the lion's share of climate pollution.

We have to change, and the mass transportation package is an excellent first step.

It is, in fact, not an option from my perspective.

It is necessary, unless we are actually planning on leaving our children on an unlivable planet.

But the transportation package is not bad news.

It's not bitter medicine.

it's actually quite the opposite.

By adding bike lanes, bus lanes, improving sidewalks and crosswalks, not only will we give people options, but we will slow traffic down.

Slowing traffic is increasingly recognized across the country as essential, not only for the incredibly important goal of reducing fatal collisions, but also because it'll improve our city.

Most of us speed around Seattle at 35 or 40 miles an hour.

Drivers speed through space rather than experiencing a place.

People using transit or biking, they experience a place.

When drivers speed through space, they are disconnected from their environment.

They form almost no attachment.

It's just another half full parking lot at the fast food restaurant.

When the bus rider walks to their stop, they experience a place.

They appreciate the new bench or the trees that have been planted for shade.

They chat with a neighbor and smile at the bus driver.

Places are what help people form attachments to the city.

They make cities memorable and maybe even cherished.

And let's face it, With videos like Seattle is dying, Seattle needs some loving.

We need to be fixed by the magic of slowing down.

And this will not be easy.

Behavioral change is hard.

To get all of the benefits of the mass transportation package, we need our leaders to step up.

And I'd like to address Jenny Durkin.

Jenny, please urge Seattle residents to get out of their cars and instead to walk, ride bikes, and take transit.

Explain that we must do this if we want to leave our children a more livable world and a safer, gentler, and more loved city.

Thanks, Andrew.

I will never be that poetic, but I would like to reiterate what Andrew said.

Number one, as we know, transportation is the largest source of emissions in the Seattle area.

Transportation is responsible for about two-thirds of our emissions, and about 85% of those emissions come from cars.

So we really do need to be acting with a sense of urgency to get people out of their cars and walking, biking, and rolling however we can.

But also, this is a policy that people want.

This is a response to public desires and needs.

A national study from 2014 indicated that 53% of Americans want to bike more, and 60% of them are worried about being hit by a car.

If we have protected bike lanes and safe infrastructure, people will get out of their cars.

They will use bikes if they want to.

People will use buses if they're frequent, if they're reliable.

If they don't have to look at a schedule, they know the bus is going to come.

It's going to pick them up.

It's going to take them where they want to go without being stuck in traffic behind a whole bunch of cars.

And there's really simple things that we already know that we can do to make people's lives and their quality of life easier on a day-to-day basis as well as in a long-term climber perspective.

Thanks, Brittany.

I also just want to add the two other points up here.

Safety, we heard a lot from public comment today.

We had a major death on Rainier Avenue earlier this week, and we know from the statistics that as you mentioned earlier, deaths and serious injuries in Seattle are on the rise rather than on the decline, even though we have these stated Vision Zero goals.

And that also that, you know, the impacts of unsafe streets are falling disproportionately on our low-income communities and our communities of color, on our disabled people, and on the elders in our community.

And so, just wanted to put those out there as well.

Thank you, Clara.

OK, this is supposed to be doing something.

Is it not working?

OK, so I'm going to ask you to use your imaginations.

This was a, how do you, what is it, GIF?

I feel like that's like a marker of whether you're old or not.

So this, imagine, and there's not even a bus, shit.

So that lane, so there's two lanes of cars that you see there.

And in that empty lane, there should be buses passing with between 60 and 80 people per bus.

And those little counters go up and they show, it's a really great demonstration of how important the decisions that we make about allocation of road space are to efficiency of our transportation system.

So a dedicated bus lane, when we get to the point where we have frequent fast bus service, a dedicated bus lane just carries astronomically more people in a given time period than a lane of cars kind of creeping along.

And so one of the things that MASS has been calling for is for the city to really step up prioritizing our road space for really the most efficient transportation modes and public transit being one of those.

This is from Los Angeles.

Next slide.

I'll just, Katie, I want to comment on that.

Your description was wonderful, so I can visualize what's going on there, even though it's not moving.

And often we'll hear from folks frustrated because they'll see a bus lane that's empty, and well, they're stuck in traffic.

And yet, the reality is, even though there's not a bus, they're not backed up bumper to bumper, when they're moving through every few minutes, they're carrying so many more people than those congested vehicle lanes.

And so they do meet that goal, despite what sometimes people might their intuition might tell them.

Absolutely.

And I think the other thing to point out here is that what we're trying to do is create a virtuous circle where we make transit really fast and reliable.

More people choose it, more people use it, and then it becomes an even better allocation of road space.

So we just need to get that started.

So there's three things in the mass transportation package that have to do with transit.

One is what we just talked about, creating a robust network of priority bus corridors connecting Seattle's neighborhoods.

We also want the city to do everything that it can to accelerate the rapid ride corridors promised by the move Seattle levy.

And part of that, given the funding challenges is to really expedite some of the improvements that can You know, even before we have the flashy rapid ride buses that can get the existing buses on those routes moving faster.

And then also just expediting the planning processes so that hopefully when more opportunities for, for example, federal funding come up, we are prepared to take advantage of those and get them back on track.

And then finally, some kind of high value for money investments in rider experience, upgrading bus stops, and really making the experience of riding transit comfortable and safe for everyone.

And finally, this is a map that we put together of 20 places in Seattle where we think that dedicated bus lanes and other bus priority investments like signal priority can really make a huge difference for keeping things moving.

And so we are hoping to be able to work with the council and with SDOT and with the mayor's office to make these improvements happen.

So there are four pieces in the package as well around biking.

We know that safe bike routes are a completely critical piece of any urban transportation system, and that protected bike routes make it safer for the people who are already biking.

They also increase the number of people who are biking total, and they make the entire street safer for all users, including people who are walking and taking transit and driving.

Since biking isn't expensive, it's also an incredibly reliable option for people who don't own cars, whether for economic or climate reasons, particularly if you're moving around late at night or in neighborhoods without great transit.

So these four pieces, the first is to fund and build key bicycle routes, particularly in those connecting Seattle's southern neighborhoods, which we heard a lot in the public comment today, and we'll be talking about that piece a little bit more later.

to improve the maintenance of the existing bike routes.

This is public infrastructure that the city has invested dollars in over decades, and many of those routes are hard to use or unwelcoming or sometimes completely obsolete or disappeared.

The maintenance program at SDOT is currently complaint-based, and so it's very reactive, and it also results in an unequal distribution of maintenance across the city, where communities where folks are really comfortable with approaching the city and demanding that things happen.

get better maintenance and for communities who have language barriers or distrust or less information about how to navigate the city systems end up without any maintenance at all.

And those are the bike lanes that end up disappearing or becoming full of glass or foliage.

So this request is basically to ask SDOT to draft some new maintenance standards for bike routes that address those needs in a systematic and proactive way.

We've seen policies across the country that do this effectively.

It's about repainting and replacing bollards that get hit by vehicles, but it's also about general maintenance like cleaning and drainage and clearing of debris and snow and everything like that.

And this is a piece that we've been in conversation with SDOT about for some time now.

And they recognize this need as well and are excited about this.

But it's a lack of communication between planning and operations teams and just needs a little bit of a political push to actually make it happen.

The third item is to require that planned bike routes be built with overlapping repaving projects, which we'll also be talking about a little bit later.

And the fourth is to measure what matters and make decisions based on more than just vehicle delay.

Right now, when SDOT is evaluating a project, the different options of designs for our streets are measured by how much each option will delay car drivers using what's called a vehicular level of service.

And this is getting a little bit technical, but we're We're asking for SDOT to develop a new analysis that better aligns with the city's adopted priorities and goals and with our modal plans and basically incorporates metrics that will give a more holistic view of what's happening at that intersection or along that street corridor, including measuring the safety and efficiency for people who are walking and rolling and biking and taking transit.

And I just want to point out with that one that what happens when the city defaults to prioritizing car traffic is that you're more likely to be prioritizing the needs of people with higher incomes and white folks.

And so we also wanted to require SDOT to conduct a race and social justice initiative analysis for all projects over 2.5 million instead of the current standard, which is 5 million.

This is a map of one of the pieces that I sort of brushed over, the 2019 to 2024 Bicycle Implementation Plan routes that are currently unfunded.

And you'll notice that most of those are in the south end.

And I'll just point out that District 2, which is A lot of that south end area right there has the highest rate of traffic deaths in our city by a really high margin.

And so it's desperately in need of some safe streets projects.

All right, walking and rolling.

So I think you've heard in some of the testimony today about how important walking and rolling are to our transportation system.

Most of us are pedestrians in some moment of our day.

And for some of us, it's how we get around, and it's the primary and the only way we are able to get around the city.

And so I just think in all of this analysis, it's important to remember that there are folks, 12.8% of the population of Washington State has a mobility-limiting disability.

And if you add to that, you know, folks who are too young to drive, too old to drive, undocumented, can't afford cars.

choose not to use cars for environmental reasons.

There's a lot of us out there that are pedestrians, and when you look at the state of our sidewalks, or the lack of sidewalks, or the lack of other safe intersections in our city, it's shocking, but it's also probably representative of the fact that those of us who can't drive are not the folks at the table making decisions.

And so we need to make sure that our voices are part of this process.

So some of the proposals we're going to talk about today in the mass transportation package include sidewalk repair.

As we've seen and heard from Marcy, uneven and crumbling sidewalks are a safety hazard and frankly an embarrassment in a city with so much wealth right now that there are sidewalks along Rainier that are in the state of disrepair that they're in is embarrassing and dangerous and blocks access for those of us who rely on sidewalks.

And so in Seattle, private property owners are responsible for maintaining sidewalks, but that's not enforced.

And so we are asking that Seattle develop an improved sidewalk repair program that actually looks at what other cities are doing, like Bloomington, Indiana, or Denver, and is able to have property owners pay based on their wealth and income.

And so that the city, that can subsidize then folks who don't have the resources to repair individual sidewalks so that we can ensure that our sidewalks are in a place where they're safe and accessible.

We also have in our proposal, Language around asking the city to look at new funding sources for building out sidewalks.

26% of our city blocks, citywide, lack sidewalks entirely.

And it's not just small, you know, greenway type neighborhood streets.

There are major arterials.

1,800 blocks of arterial streets in our city lack sidewalks.

And you can guess, you know, where those blocks tend to be.

They tend to be further out, away from, you know, the wealth and the powers that be that can make that happen.

And so we need to look at funding sources to try to build out our sidewalk network, because it's not equitable, it's not accessible, and it doesn't create the sort of city that we want to have.

Ana, can you repeat that number again?

1,800.

1,800 blocks on arterials.

Not everywhere in the city, just the arterials.

Just the arterials, yeah.

And who wants to walk along an arterial?

And there are people who do that now, I'm sure, because that's the only option.

That's often where the bus routes are.

Yes.

So Claire is going to talk about some of the other proposals, right?

So the third item up here is to adopt a signal policy that prioritizes people.

Currently, most of the signal decisions that SDOT makes are done on a case-by-case basis, depending on the intersection.

The national baseline standards that they reference are very heavily slanted towards favorite cars over any other users on the street.

And what happens is that people end up waiting forever just to cross the street.

People end up getting confused when the light turns green for cars, but not for pedestrians.

Sometimes the light comes on, but it only gives you a few seconds to cross.

And that is especially challenging for people who are in wheelchairs or using other mobility aids, folks who are blind or low vision, elders, and people with small children trying to drag toddlers across the street or carrying large bags.

It's challenging.

So we're asking SDOT to develop a signals policy that reflects our values and goals as a city to make it easier to walk and roll and to bike and take transit around our city.

And this is another piece that we've been in conversation with SDOT about.

But there's a lack of urgency and the process has been incredibly opaque and difficult.

And so we just want to ensure that this happens in a timely manner and that, you know, The process is happening in collaboration with the modal advisory boards that have felt a little bit distant from the decisions, even though they care a lot, with the disability rights advocates, pedestrian advocates, and with council staff and public input.

The fourth part is to build parking for bikes and scooters out of pedestrian spaces and in the streets.

And that's another piece that we'll be talking about later.

And the fifth part up there is to ensure that our kids have access to safe routes to school.

This is a recommendation of the School Traffic Safety Committee, which we heard from earlier as well, and during public comment.

And it's a recommendation for the district to hire an active transportation coordinator.

And this person would be overseeing programmatic and infrastructure improvements to make it easier and safer for kids to walk and bike to school.

Right now, there's nobody within the district who's focusing on those things.

And any kid who lives within one to two miles, depending on their age, of their school is not served by the school bus routes.

And so when the school district focuses entirely on school bus, school busing as their transportation department, they're leaving behind thousands of kids.

And it tends to be a lot of the low-income kids who are not able to have their parents drop them off in vehicles at school.

And some of those kids are, you know, crossing arterial streets with no safe crosswalks or signals, there's roadways with no sidewalks like Ana was speaking about, and there's just other unsafe conditions out there.

So the ask here is to provide funding for an active transportation coordinator at the school who would be overseeing The crossing guard program, administrative assistance for walking and biking school bus program, those programs currently only exist in some of the more affluent schools that have a lot of parent volunteer energy to keep those things going year after year.

They would also be handling the transportation related complaints and action plans that are filed by the schools that are currently often ignored.

And just making sure that this support is happening across the city and not only at certain schools that have the energy to keep those things up.

OK, so that's it.

It looks like it's blank.

I would add something.

Go for it.

I think that several of us talked a few minutes ago about the why of this package, the several whys.

But I think there's an important sort of why now piece.

And I think coming out of the Move Seattle levy reset, we saw the dramatic, we've seen the dramatic scaling back of projects and funding that would make it much easier to walk, bike, and bus.

And so, you know, this package obviously includes priority funding asks, but it also, I think, caused the people around this table and, you know, the many other people who've contributed to this, a lot of work, to say, what are the policy changes that we can make now that we know are problematic and have been for in some cases years that will make it easier for people to get around walking, biking, rolling, busing.

And so that's kind of the blend here of policy reform and funding asks.

But those policy reforms that do not require budget at this moment.

I think that pretty much sums it up.

So I guess all I'll say is just that, you know, we're incredibly grateful to Council Member O'Brien and Council Member Pacheco, who it looks like stepped out for a moment, for taking the lead on these first pieces of legislation that are part of the package.

And we are thrilled with a lot of support we've seen over the last couple of months as we've been developing this package from the community to be advancing all these things this fall.

Thank you.

Thank you all for your ongoing work and for being here to present today and for your ongoing advocacy.

It's I'd say that this everything you're asking for is consistent with what the city has been saying we want to do for a number of years.

So there shouldn't be any surprises here.

And yet we know that it's been challenging to move not so much in the direction although sometimes it feels like that but at the pace at which we need to go.

to address people's concerns that you raised here.

And so I'm optimistic that we have some piece of legislation coming up later today and later this year that'll be a piece in that direction, but we will continue to have a lot of work to do.

So thanks for your advocacy.

Thanks for being here today.

So we'll move on.

I think a few of you are sticking around for agenda item number two.

So we'll invite presenters forward.

I guess everyone's here for two.

Great, excellent.

And Kelly, will you read that agenda item into the record?

Yes, I will.

We're discussing Council Bill 119601, an ordinance relating to the construction of protected bicycle lanes requiring major paving projects to include protected bicycle lanes as identified in the City of Seattle Bike Master Plan and adding a new chapter, 1580, to the Seattle Municipal Code.

Why don't we do, I know you've all introduced yourself, but just for the record and for the Seattle Channel, if you could introduce yourself once again.

Yes, I'm Vicky Clark, Policy Director with Cascade Bicycle Club.

And I'm Clara Cantor with Seattle Neighborhood Greenways.

Thank you all for being here.

So this is a piece of legislation that worked on in collaboration with you all and other community members.

It is, frankly, in response to a decision earlier this year, fairly late in the process for a repaving project on 35th Avenue Northeast.

The original design included a protected bike lane up there.

That was consistent with the bike master plan, it was my understanding.

Until the very last moment that that was the plan that was going on there was a process as there is with Almost all these projects my view is that process is designed to figure out the specific design elements about how to make it work now whether we're gonna make it work or not and was disappointed when the Department of the mayor chose to reverse course on that one and complete the paving project without installing the previously agreed upon protected bike lane.

This piece of legislation is modeled in part after what came out of Cambridge, Massachusetts earlier this year.

As we heard in public comment today, it's intended to, in my mind, essentially close a loophole that didn't know that really existed.

We do a lot of work at the city.

Advocates do a huge amount of work as they work on these modal plans.

to figure out what are the investments we need to make, whether it's for bikes, pedestrians, transit, or freight as we move forward.

And the most cost-effective way, the most efficient way when it comes to bike infrastructure and pet infrastructure, and transit infrastructure for that matter, to do that work is when we're already tearing up a road because we're doing a repaving job.

In fact, that's, if we're going to tear up a road and do a repaving job, When we put it back together, we have the choice of how we want to put together and the cost difference between the varieties, ways of how we may put it back together are very minimal compared to the overall cost of it.

So at that very moment, we have the opportunity to get something right by today's standards as opposed to continue to double down on what we've done wrong.

And so that is the moment that we want to really frankly insist that if there is a design element that has already been agreed on as part of a plan when that project is being implemented, we need to ensure that that happens.

Now there's a place, there's obviously a place for a lot of community input to figure out what that specific design looks like, you know, how do the crosswalks work, you know, where does it taper in and out.

But the reality should be that it gets constructed.

If there's something has changed since the bike master plan was adopted, if there's a new piece of information or there's new technology, whatever, we do leave room for the department to come back and make their case as to why they think we need to switch course or reverse directions or whatever that is.

But it's not simply a discretionary decision that someone can make based on something that sometimes is hard to tell.

Kelly, you've worked a ton on this, so I don't know if you want to spend a second to fill in some of the details that I probably glossed over.

Yeah, I think at the heart, this is really about creating transparency and accountability.

We have amazing aspirational goals for Vision Zero, for our climate change goals, and we have an amazing bike master plan that's been lauded around the country.

We're known for building safe infrastructure that's great for all ages and abilities, and now is the time to really deliver on those plans.

And there still is a way to be transparent and accountable if there's a reason why it doesn't work to put a protective bike lane on that road, but we really need to be moving forward.

Now, as we heard in public comment, now is the time.

Vicki and Clare, I'll turn it over to you all to make some points about this or add any comments or feedback to this specific piece of legislation or more broadly what we should be doing as a city.

Yeah you know I think I'm happy to be here speaking to this legislation.

You know as we look at the bike master plan we have been working on building a connected network for Seattle for a long time now and we know that when we build a connected network that is all for all ages and abilities we're gonna provide for many more people who don't even see themselves as riding a bike right now.

You know, I think, again, public comment, several people spoke to this, the need to build out a bike master plan.

And, you know, I think this feels like a very sensible, common sense piece of legislation, especially, again, I just referenced the move Seattle levy reset, you know, we're very constrained in our transportation funding right now.

And leveraging paving projects to build the infrastructure that we plan to build makes, obviously, complete common sense.

I think, you know, we so often, when we go in and do paving projects, we're not just, you know, it's not just a matter of like, oh, we must implement these plans, right?

I think it's easy for us to often start talking like that.

when we're repaving a street, we're redesigning that street so it works for today.

And when we add bike lanes, yeah, we're adding bike lanes because they're on the plan, but it's so much more than that.

It's not just about, I mean, it's incredibly important to give people a safe place to bike, but again, much more than that.

You know, when we look at bike lanes, the research shows us that adding bike lanes to a road is, Data shows it's the most effective way to calm traffic speeds, which reduces the number and, what's the word I'm looking for, seriousness of collisions.

You know, they create a buffer between pedestrians on sidewalks and faster moving vehicles.

It's really a win, win, win.

And these are the times that we need to be making the infrastructure changes.

And then, you know, I think the other piece that obviously this is about accountability.

We have these great plans.

And again, these plans are not just for the sake of having these plans.

What they come down to is how are we going to rebuild our streets.

And so making the connection between the plans and the projects on the ground, I think that this ordinance will provide the accountability and transparency that people, so that people understand how those decisions are being made.

That's everything I might have said, but I do also want to just reiterate the fact that this is an ordinance that's emphasizing fiscal responsibility of combining construction of these already planned bike lanes with repaving projects is saving the city the money of tearing that street up again and doing it as two separate projects.

And it's saving the neighbors the ordeal of having those construction projects in front of their house twice.

And it just makes sense as city policy to be combining these things.

Council Member Pacheco.

Yeah, so I, you know, when I thought about my experience of transitioning from car ownership to giving up my car, early on in the experience, I used to live in Wallingford right off of 45th and decided to ride a bike on 45th.

And it took me one time before I was like, never again am I putting my life in my own hands.

And then I moved over to Ravenna.

And when I moved to Riverbend, I happened to be two blocks north of the Gilman.

I used to work at the University of Washington, and being able to ride to get, take a safe route through the Gilman was probably, you know, the wind breezing through my hair was probably one of the best experiences with a helmet, with a helmet.

It's probably one of the best experiences.

And so I say this because I think it's important when we think about the reflection of our progressive values as a city, about it being good governance for us to do this when it's, as you all kind of stated, when we're, you know, doing work on a street.

Because we have all these plans, and all these plans, I think how we can best coordinate them is, and what best at the time that we're doing the work.

And as we think about just the future micro-mobility options like scooters, you know, we want to create those safe spaces for those micro-mobility options.

We've had opportunities to hear about micro-mobility, the future of transportation and what these micro-mobility options may be.

So I, you know, I'm fully supportive and I want to express my support in terms of us being able to do this and move forward.

Because and I will say this because I'm sorry I missed the last few minutes of the last presentation Because there is no bike lane in Southeast Seattle You know, I one of my own personal priorities for the budget and thinking about what we can do to move forward is what we can advance in terms of a bike lane in Southeast Seattle during this budget because I You know, I'm cognizant of the fact that I happen to be in one of the most transit-rich areas in northeast Seattle, in Seattle, one of the most privileged neighborhoods, and most people who look like me don't have that same safe route, and I want to ensure their safety as well, so.

And you make a really good point also.

I mean, the data shows that 60% of people in Seattle want to bike more than they currently do.

And we know that the number one reason why they don't is because they're concerned for their safety.

And so having access to a safe All Ages and Abilities bike route immediately close to where you live and where you're going makes a huge difference in people deciding to use their bikes more.

Thank you, Council Member.

Thanks, Clara.

So I really appreciate all the work that's gone into this ordinance.

I think that it covers all the bases that we're trying to cover on this.

Again, this doesn't outright mandate it.

There still leaves a little bit of room for folks to do some analysis, but it requires a process if they want to change paths, and it really sets a clear expectation that When we're going into a community doing a repaving project, this is what's going to be expected.

And there are projects, you know, we've been doing this for a few decades, and we know that there's often resistance.

What we find is usually after the project's done, things work out not just fine, they work out better.

I've seen recent data from Vancouver, BC, that continues to show how much better businesses are doing, despite those very businesses being originally upset about losing parking in a bike lane going in front of their business, Their sales are up and they're advocating for more of the safe bike infrastructure because they see the results of it.

And, you know, we have similar instances at Neighbors in Seattle where those transitions happen and we just need to make it clear going forward that this is what we're going to do and let's weigh in about how we do it, but this is what we need to do.

I don't plan to vote on this today.

I would like to hold it until next Friday and vote on it at that point.

That'll give, you know, to the extent that others want to review the legislation and give any feedback, we can do that.

Our last full council meeting is before the August recess is on Monday, and we wouldn't have time to get it to that meeting anyway.

So we'll take another week in case folks have other comments or feedback to give.

I'd hope to pass it out to committee next Friday, and then it would be at the full council at our first council meeting in September, which I believe is September 3rd.

All right.

Thank you all so much for that.

And we will move on to agenda item number three.

We have some of the same presenters here, but would you read that into the record?

I will.

Resolution 31894, a resolution relating to the funding of priority projects in the 2019 to 2024 Bicycle Master Plan Implementation Plan, requesting that the mayor commit to building out the bike master plan and identify funding for priority bicycle master plan projects in the Mayor's 2020 proposed budget.

Kelly, would you mind, we didn't talk about this before, but giving a brief overview of what this does and we'll have a similar discussion.

Yeah.

So this resolution is really focused in response to the 2019 to 2024 Bicycle Master Plan Implementation Plan, which lays out the kind of map of where Seattle Department of Transportation is planning on designing, building protective bike lanes, as well as neighborhood greenways.

As a part of this process for the 2019-2024 plan, they did a little bit of a reset, which was in part very smart, really looking at what we could actually fund with the Move Seattle Levy funding that we have.

And one of the things that was kind of a key criticism of the implementation plan is that several key routes, particularly in South Seattle, are left unfunded.

They're kind of in this place of pre-planning, and we aren't really sure when they're going to be designed and built.

And we would like to see those plans committed to getting their funding and being built throughout the course of the Move Seattle levy.

So that way, after the levy is complete, we will see complete Safe All Ages and Abilities routes through South Seattle.

We also have added in specifically highlighting two pieces in the center city that feel really important to fund as well.

There's a section of Alaskan Way that will connect the Elliott Bay Trail to the waterfront project and we feel like that's a really important piece to ensure it's funded and completed so you have a nice seamless route.

We know a large employer is coming in in the interbay area and it would be great if more people could bike to that large employer.

The other piece that we've highlighted is a two-way protected bike lane on 4th Avenue.

This was identified in the One Center City Plan, and what has been proposed in the implementation plan is a one-way protected bike lane on 4th, which really leaves southbound riders kind of out of luck if you're trying to find an all-ages and abilities route to head to places like City Hall and the Civic Center and the library.

So there's a lot of key destinations that are not accessible by a safe route.

Claire or Vicky, would you like to make any comments about this?

Yeah.

I also just wanted to expand a little bit on something that Kelly mentioned briefly, that this is really in response to a lot of the community input that SDOT and the city received last spring when this plan came out.

funding for these unfunded routes in the South end and in the center city was the highest stated priority of the Seattle Bicycle Advisory Board.

And at the community outreach meetings about this plan and not just in the South end, but citywide, this was the highest stated priority and a huge advocacy push at the time.

And so having those routes remain unfunded is a serious, disappointment for a lot of people.

And, you know, there was a cover letter of that plan at the time that the mayor and SDOT stated that they had every intention of finding funding for these routes and to push for their completion.

And so we're really excited that this is all coming together, having the council agree with that.

And we can all work together with the mayor and with SDOT and with council to find funding and be able to complete those routes.

It's absolutely unacceptable in my mind that we could find ourselves six years from now at the end of the move Seattle levy with no all ages and abilities infrastructure connecting from the South end to downtown.

And so this is kind of a non-negotiable in my mind that we have to be able to find this funding at some point and be able to construct those routes.

Yeah, I would add, you know, similar to Clara, I think I see this resolution as, you know, articulating that the Mayor and Council are absolutely in lockstep about needing to find funding to complete these projects that are long-standing priorities of the community.

You know, I was really happy to stand with the mayor on Wednesday as she announced the sale of the Mercer Mega Block and with it $16 million in multimodal transportation funding.

And, you know, I look to both the mayor and council during the budget process to stop funding some of these projects.

And I think that, you know, both sides of the, however that is, the aisle, not the aisle, you know, both mayor and council have clearly articulated a desire to do that and yeah, look forward to supporting in any way that we can but really feel like things are moving and this resolution is a piece of that.

Just for the public reminder that earlier we talked about the decision not to build a protected bike lane on 35th Avenue Northeast.

And that decision was made roughly concurrently with the update to the bike implementation plan back in, I think it was March.

And the timing of both those was really unfortunate and it piled on the sense that the city doesn't care about implementing the bike master plan.

And I think the implementation plan is proposed at that point, I believe it was a draft, really came across the communities with a big thud.

To SDOT's credit, they worked with Department of Neighborhoods and rapidly did a bunch of outreach, probably half a dozen community meetings or close to it over the course of the following six weeks.

This was under, at the time, an almost brand new director for SDOT.

And they came back to the committee, I believe in June, basically reporting back on what they heard and kind of revising kind of their approach there.

And well, I believe, from my sense at least, the tone of the approach felt a lot better.

The substance of it was still short, which in part I think reflects just some funding realities that they're run into.

As we heard in public comment, it seems like whenever there's a funding shortfall, there's certain type of projects that get cut in certain neighborhoods and other things keep going forward.

And that felt disappointing.

But, Vicki, I appreciate you mentioning the pending sale of the Mercer Mega Block, which the mayor announced earlier this week.

And that's really exciting because, you know, the mayor has indicated that she would like the council to put over $15 million of revenue from that towards projects that are these types of projects.

And so that is something that I want to, one, I would love with this resolution and be able to make it clear that the city's policy is that we are committed to these projects.

And even if the funding reality today is that we don't see a path to do it, we will find the funding to make these happen.

And then during the budget in the coming couple months, We have an opportunity almost immediately to live up to that commitment because there are some funding opportunities.

And Claire, as you said, the idea that we would complete this nine year transportation package and still be kind of where we started when it comes to safe routes for folks living in Southeast Seattle would be a failure.

And we have an opportunity to prevent that from happening.

We're gonna need to move swiftly, but thankfully there's, I think things are aligning and that'd be great.

Senator Chico, do you have any comments or thoughts on this resolution?

No.

I mean, just, I guess I would just echo what everything's been said on the table.

Again, you know, I think that with regards to the Fourth Avenue bike lane project, you know, I remember in June, I thought that that was, to me, it's, if we're going to do it, let's do it right.

And so, I think it's, the Fourth Avenue bike lane project is a good opportunity for us to do it right, and again, right in the heart of our city, and so I want to make sure that we do it.

Great.

So similar to the last piece of legislation, I'm going to hold this in committee for one more week.

We'll have the chance to hear any more comments from folks, or if people have brilliant ideas of how to make it better, we can take a look at that.

And then my hope would be next Friday morning when we have a special committee again, to vote the resolution at a committee, and it would be before the full council, ideally on September 3rd.

Thank you all for your work on this.

And I think with that, we'll excuse you all and move on to agenda item number four.

This is a red light camera briefing.

And Calvin is coming forward.

Welcome.

Would you like to introduce yourself?

Calvin Chalik.

You get the chair working out right.

Okay, so I'll say a few opening remarks and Calvin you can fill in the blanks or correct misstatements that I make.

Last year, well, so the city for a number of years has had a red light camera program in the city of Seattle and a number of years ago We, as a policy, said that 20% of the revenues from those red light cameras would be dedicated to school safety projects.

Last year, in addition to the red light cameras, there are speed cameras in school zones, which are authorized by state law and required by state law that all revenue from the school safety cameras goes to school safety projects.

Last year in the budget, the I can't remember exactly whose initiative it was, but we ended up supporting a budget that temporarily suspended the 20% of red light camera money going to school safety projects for this fiscal year, 2019, and proposed for 2020. And part of that, I believe, was because there was more revenue than we had expected on the traffic safety cameras, the speeding cameras in school zones.

But a lot of folks were disappointed, myself included.

The council, the budget that I voted for, walked back on a commitment that we'd previously made.

You're grabbing for your microphone, Sophie.

That's absolutely right.

During last year's budget, the school's own camera revenues came in, the projections in October came in about 2.1, 2.2 million more than was anticipated for each year.

And so with those additional resources, one of the decisions was to suspend the contributions from the red light cameras, which was about $900,000 a year.

So on average, there was still more money in the school's own camera fund, but the resources from the red light cameras were diverted back to the general fund.

And as we heard today, at least from one commenter and public comment on the school safety board, school traffic safety board, if I have that right, there are a lot of safety programs near schools that could use some funding.

So it's not like we're out of projects to do there.

What I'm interested in doing, and this is the first conversation, and then I'll ask Calvin to walk through kind of what this ordinance would do, is to restore the commitment to dedicate revenue from the red light cameras starting in 2020. So we will still have lived through one year of suspension of that rule, but not two years.

My proposal at the moment would be that we would restore the 20% of revenue that would be rededicated to school safety projects, and then add an additional 30% of the revenue and dedicate that towards Vision Zero projects.

My timing for this, Council Member Pacheco, would be to have a discussion today, be back in committee I believe in September, and if there's support for it to vote it out of committee, but I don't know technically how we do this, but essentially refer it to the Budget Committee to take up as part of the overall budget because this will certainly change the endorsed budget for 2020 and and likely change what the mayor sends down, but the mayor can adjust this.

And so we'll have to figure out if we do want to dedicate this funding, a piece back to schools, safety, and a piece, an additional piece to Vision Zero, how we do that in the sense of a balanced budget.

But I think we'll have some opportunities before us to figure that out, and we'll see where that goes.

But from a policy perspective, my hope would be to work through the policy in this committee and deal with the budget component in the actual budget a few months later.

Calvin, do you want to describe anything technical about this budget?

Is there much more to say?

I'm not sure there's too much more to say.

It does change the financial policies that are established in the Seattle Municipal Code.

So that would be codified the same way that the contributions, the current contributions are.

It is important, I think, that this does go through the Budget Committee because this would have impacts on the 2020 budget.

And just given where we are in the cycle, that is essentially a budget action.

So you'd want to make sure you had the appropriations to backfill if we were to remove that 2020, restore that 2020 commitment.

The other thing I just want to add, last year during the legislative session, one of the top priorities for the city, certainly for me, on the transportation front down in Olympia, was getting permission or authority to do automated enforcement of block the box violations.

So when vehicles are in an intersection and stay in the intersection after the light changes, and also violators of our transit-only lanes.

People tend to follow the rules on those things when there's a police officer present, but we simply do not have the resources to have police officers present at all those intersections, and what we find in our city is on almost daily, if not hourly or minute basis, intersections continue to be blocked, causing a massive disruption for the transit system and drivers, also causing huge safety problems for pedestrians and cyclists who will often still try to navigate their way through.

The most serious, or often for our most vulnerable users, people in wheelchairs who obviously can't squeeze through the little windows left between cars and are often forced way out into traffic in really unsafe situations.

That initiative didn't make it through Olympia despite some amazing efforts.

It got really close.

It'll be back this year in talking to some of the legislators in Olympia.

They expressed concerns about what we did with the red light cameras last year.

They obviously could legislate like they did with school safety cameras to mandate that the funding goes.

But I think it would be a good show of good faith if we can find a path in this budget in advance of the next legislative session in Olympia to undo what we did last year and then further rededicate this to safety.

I think there's a sense that from some that we are implementing these types of programs as a revenue source to fend the government.

And it's hard to defend that when We take all the revenue from the red light cameras and use it for the general fund.

And for me, these programs are driven largely for about safety.

And my ultimate goal would be that we don't collect a penny of these because no one's blocking the box, no one's running red lights, no one's speeding in school zones, no one's illegally using bus lanes.

We really want compliance is what we want.

And to the extent that there is some revenue because people are out of compliance, dedicating a portion or all of that to fixing the problems is my goal.

Great.

Well, Calvin, thank you so much for your work on this.

We'll have a back-end committee sometime in September.

I can't remember the date, but we'll see you all then, unless you have anything else come to mind.

Great.

Thanks.

The next agenda item, we'll invite presenters forward.

We'll have Kelly read that in.

We're having a briefing on multimodal parking resolution.

Great.

And I'll ask people to be introduced.

Council Member Chayko, this is something that you've been working on, so I will just hand the microphone over to you after we do introductions, if that's okay with you.

Great.

So as people get seated, we got some familiar faces back here today.

Thank you all for being here multiple times.

Why don't we start with introductions?

Do you want me to just go?

My name's Carlene Ritkenen, Legislative Aid for Council Member Pacheco.

Ana Z. Bartz, Program Director of Rooted in Rights, Disability Rights, Washington.

And again, I'm Clara Kanter from Seattle Neighborhood Greenways.

Excellent.

Who would like to start?

Or Council Member Pacheco, do you want to say some opening remarks?

And then I'll, you just moderate this whole thing.

I'll step back.

Thank you.

Sorry, my sister was calling me.

So this resolution, and I appreciate my staff, Carlene, for helping lead this discussion.

This resolution asks for SDOT to produce a budget proposal to double their in-street multimodal parking infrastructure.

Currently, SDOT is on track to build 1,500 spaces in 2019. The resolution will ask SDOT for a funding proposal to install 3,000 spaces in 2020. And really, as I've kind of been in the committee thinking about just, and advocating and trying to advance future micro-mobility options, I want SDOT to be able to think forward, be forward thinking about how we can create those spaces for us to be able to park bike share or scooter or other micro-mobility options throughout our city.

And so with that, if, to some of the advocates as well as Carlene would like to speak a little further, I defer to you.

I think I would like for Anna to maybe show this video that has gone viral, something that will kind of inform folks what we're talking about.

Yeah, so we are technically a video advocacy team, even though we've sort of branched out of just video.

But video is the heart of what we do.

This is a video we produced with SDOT.

Actually, after our Don't Block the Box video did pretty well in the legislature last year in raising that issue and talking about it as an accessibility issue, SDOT approached us to help educate users and educate folks in Seattle about proper bike parking and the impacts to disabled folks in particular when bikes and bike share aren't parked correctly.

So let's roll.

I'm a wheelchair user and I'm here to talk about the dreaded bike blockers.

A bike share blocks Dorian's way.

It falls over as he squeezes past.

Next, another bike blocking the sidewalk entangles Jacob's white cane.

Bike share might be good for some people, but it's not good for me because I use a white cane.

A bike in front of a curb ramp blocks Dorian's way as he rolls through a crosswalk.

Next, a bike partially blocking the sidewalk is still in Jacob's way.

Bike blocking is good for no one.

Don't dump your bikes against the wall of a building because my arms get caught in the handlebars and it makes it difficult for blind and low vision people to find the entrance to the building.

You can park your bike at a bike rack or in the space between the sidewalk and the street.

Bad parking.

Good parking.

And use common sense.

Don't block access to transit stops, curb ramps, benches, driveways, or doors.

There should be at least six feet of clear space for pedestrian access.

If you see a bike parked wrong, please move it to the correct safe place.

Bike blocking is not cool.

It's rude.

It's dangerous.

Let's make bike share work for everyone.

Park correctly.

Produced by Rooted in Rights and Seattle Department of Transportation.

For more on Bike Share, go to seattle.gov slash transportation slash bike dash share.

We are happy to educate folks with this video.

We need to go further because it's clearly not just education that's going to solve this one.

So we're excited to support this resolution.

And then I would love for Clara to maybe speak about the increased use of not just bike share, but just, you know, bike and micromobility options in general with Greenways.

Yeah, so we've seen, I mean, Seattle is in the middle of a huge boom for biking, and part of that is people riding their own private bikes.

Part of that is also using the bike-share bikes, the free-floating bike-share bikes, and soon we're seeing the potential for a scooter pilot coming out.

And all of those bikes and scooters and other kinds of micro-ability right now are being parked in the sidewalk, in sidewalk space.

sometimes at bike staples, sometimes sort of haphazardly, but most of them are all entirely in the sidewalk and pedestrian space.

And our sidewalks are already crowded, like we saw in the video, and so improperly parked scooters and bikes can be a real hazard for people and a real challenge, especially when they're blocking curb ramps and transit access and blocking the pedestrian right-of-way.

So we're seeing a lot of bike parking downtown and near transit hubs, but often not enough.

Sometimes it's entirely non-existent in some parts of our city.

And so this resolution is basically rolling out a larger swath of in-street bike and scooter parking.

And these stalls, multimodal corrals, we're calling them, would have space for bike staples where you could park larger bikes and personal bikes, space for cargo bikes, and then also have space for bike share bikes that are not docked.

And it's kind of a win-win situation, because if you look at an intersection, cars are already not allowed to park within 15 feet of an intersection, but it's often a rule, particularly in residential areas, that's not particularly well followed.

And that can have real consequences for pedestrians trying to cross the street there, for cars trying to come out.

You know, everyone here, I think, who has tried to cross an intersection there, whether on foot or in a car or on a bike, you have to kind of nose your way out a little bit and feel almost unsafe before you're able to actually cross.

So being able to daylight those intersections a little bit is an added bonus.

And it would also reinforce the existing rule for cars not to be able to park there.

Yeah.

If I could just add one thing, two quick things.

You know, I think as we move and we think about the future, the conversation about those micro ability options, it's important for the city and the city's infrastructure to also move with it.

You know, and with regards to one, thank you for the video.

And, you know, I always tell my team, Carleen's going to be upset at me.

But I don't have a lot of rules in life, and one of them is just don't be an asshole.

So I really try to think about just what we can do to further alleviate the concerns of our most vulnerable and those that are disabled.

in terms of ensuring that they have the space to move throughout our city is important.

And so I think this is a great opportunity for us to have that discussion and ask SDOT to come back with a plan about how to best do this.

So Council Member O'Brien, I ask that we give feedback.

I know your office and Council Member Mosqueda's office is giving some feedback.

And to your point earlier, hopefully we can bring this back for a vote next week.

Thank you so much for your work on this.

Thank you all for your work on this.

One thing, Council Member, that I'd love to talk to you about, I don't know if this is the right vehicle or not, but I think with some of the data that came out this fall and earlier summer of mis-parked bicycles, and I think there was a bit of a discrepancy between what maybe the companies were reporting and what seems to be happening in practice.

But either way, even in the most rosy scenario, there's still way too many bikes that are being mis-parked.

And I feel like it's the city's role to really step up our enforcement and expect folks to increase their game.

And so my understanding is SDOT was gonna penalize some of the companies by reducing the number of bikes that are allowed to be put on the street.

It's not clear to me that that is the most effective penalty, especially as I see them shifting their modes to different things anyways.

And I would really like to get Astot to actually fine the bike companies when bike service part.

I think it would be great if we can figure this out so that require the bike companies to pass that on to the users, at least in some points, if there's people that are repeatedly doing these things.

I don't just want some venture capitalist to absorb this cost.

I want them to actually change behavior.

And so, again, I'd love to chat with you a little more and get some feedback from Aston on that too.

But I just, you know, as you mentioned, the city's evolving when it comes to transportation.

Frankly, it's evolving faster than I think a lot of us are often comfortable with.

But that just means if we're gonna embrace these changes, which I think we need to do from a climate and congestion perspective and mobility perspective, we have to also really change how fast people's behavior change too.

The fact that we've had these systems in place for two years now and it still seems that the problem is very persistent.

I think in public comment someone was talking about, I can't remember what the city was where they felt that there was much better compliance than it was here.

But I know it can be done and I think people in Seattle are capable of learning that too.

Yeah, DC, and I do think that's a really excellent point that there's, you know, these companies are operating in a whole bunch of different cities.

Every city has their own sort of regulation framework.

And some cities are, you know, requiring things that were not and vice versa.

And we can learn from what other cities have tried and what's working in other cities.

And we should really be in conversation with places like, you know, Portland and Chicago and DC about what they're doing.

Because it's the same companies, you know.

Yeah.

That's great.

And to your point, Council Member O'Brien, I completely agree with you 100%.

As someone who's a frequent user of these services, I think it's important to model good behavior, but also to ensure that we're stewarding that good behavior of others.

And so I'm happy to have follow-up conversations with that style in terms of what more we can do, what we need to do, quite frankly, and come back next week.

Sounds great.

Yep.

Thank you, Council Member.

Thank you all for being here.

Ana, thanks for your video activism team and to the actors slash activists who were part of that.

Your ongoing work really making a big difference in the city and hopefully in the state.

Thanks, yeah.

If you guys go to Mariner's Games, Jacob works for the Mariner and is helping folks find their seats.

So say hi to Jacob if you go to Mariner's Games.

That is awesome.

I didn't realize he was at the Mariner's.

Great to hear.

for your leadership on this, really appreciate it.

Are we to our final agenda item?

Are, we're not even going till 5.30 today.

Wow, setting a new record the other direction.

Happy hour starts at four.

Okay.

No, we've got time.

I'm kidding.

All right, Council Bill 119604, an ordinance relating to the Green New Deal for Seattle, establishing the Green New Deal Oversight Board, providing compensation for those who incur financial hardship by their participation on the board.

requesting that the Office of Sustainability and Environment create an interdepartmental team to advance the Green New Deal for Seattle, amending the section 3.14970 of the Seattle Municipal Code, and adding a new section 3.14979 to the Seattle Municipal Code.

Thank you.

Why don't we start with introductions?

Lavanya, you can start.

Sure.

Lavanya Manhusudan, Legislative Aid to Councilmember O'Brien.

Jill, you're, the gray button, there you go.

Yeah.

Oh, I'm on.

I'm Jill Mangaliman.

I'm the executive director of Got Green.

Matt Remley, co-founder of Mrs. Scott Talks.

Thank you all so much for being here.

This is a piece of legislation that we discussed briefly on Tuesday in committee.

It feels like it was a few weeks ago, but it's just a couple of days.

Lavanya, maybe you want to, could you just give a quick overview of what this legislation is intended to do and we'll have a little discussion about it.

As I mentioned in my opening comments, I had originally intended to hope to vote on this today, but I'm, I've changed course and I just want to have a discussion today and do a little more work on this before we have a vote in committee.

Sure, so this ordinance is a complement to the Green New Deal Resolution, which was also discussed in committee on Tuesday.

And basically, the main goal of it is to establish a Green New Deal Oversight Board, which is really an accountability board comprised primarily of community stakeholders.

And the goal is to oversee the city's activities related to the Green New Deal resolution and ensure that the city is moving forward to realize that vision.

And some key components in the ordinance are that the Green New Deal Oversight Board would comprise of 16 members.

eight members from frontline communities, including tribal members and youth, as well as members from environmental justice organizations and labor representatives as well, and individuals with a depth of experience in greenhouse gas reduction and climate resiliency strategies relevant to cities.

Additionally, the ordinance outlines that the Office of Sustainability and Environment is to staff this oversight board and also convene an interdepartmental team of key city departments and work with them to outline specific targets, metrics, and measurement towards greenhouse gas reductions for every city department.

So at this point, maybe I'll turn it over to Matt and Jill and see if either of you want to add some more comments about the importance or purpose of this board and some of the questions we should be considering as we move forward.

Thank you.

Yeah, my name's Matt Brimley.

My Lakota name is Wakiwanatan.

I am from Standing Rock, but a resident of Beacon Hill.

And I first want to thank Councilmember O'Brien and his staff for taking the leadership throughout your tenure, really, on the issue of climate justice.

and in particular with this resolution that thank you for your votes to put out of committee into full council for Monday and for this ordinance to provide some bold leadership and kind of backbone and kind of my perspective to the goals of the resolution.

So thank you both for in your office for the work that you're doing on this.

I always find it important to ground us in the realities of what we're facing.

I think sometimes when we discuss climate issues, it's easy to kind of see that as a far down the road issue or something that's not directly impacting us.

type issue and then we get inundated with reports and but often don't see the faces behind the tragedies that are already taking place because of climate change.

And so I just want to share a couple of those.

One being in In 2003, the Government Office of Accountability Report stated that 180 Native communities in Alaska are already currently facing land loss and increased flooding due to climate change.

And that one had particular resonance as I was scrolling and reading, to social media today where a report just came out that Alaska's shoreline is completely melted away.

And this was the earliest time that this has happened since two years ago.

And our Alaska Native villages in particular are being hit pretty hard with land loss.

That same report also stated that 86% of all Native communities across the country are being negatively impacted by the impacts of climate change.

And just here in this state, we know that our Quinault Nation relatives out on the coast are currently having to relocate their entire main village of Tohola up away from the coastline because of the rising waters.

With this oversight committee, one of the things I see vitally important for the need of it is that it provides accountability for the goals that are laid out in the resolution.

We know that Seattle has taken many positions on the issue of climate change.

dating at least back to 2001, if my memory serves right, when climate goals or reduction goals were stated by then Mayor Paul Schell.

And every mayor afterwards has, and probably city council, has made reduction of greenhouse gas goals, you know, a goal for Seattle.

While that sounds good, the reality is is we've had an increase in greenhouse gas emissions here in the city over the past couple years.

So it's one thing to take or to make bold words and statements, but it's something quite different to sort of kind of put teeth to that.

and hold ourselves accountable to seeing these goals that are laid out in the resolution come to be.

And in my opinion, one thing I appreciate about the resolution that's been drafted is it is very bold in declaring Seattle to be climate pollutant free by 2030, and not just carbon neutral, but climate pollutant free by 2030. That's very bold and I appreciate that because that is the type of action that is needed.

So this oversight committee, one of its responsibilities would be to helping to ensure that the city and other stakeholders are being held accountable towards its commitment and that in the application, of the resolution goals that are applied equitably.

One thing I also really like about this ordinance in which you laid out is it calls for community to be sitting at the table alongside labor, alongside impacted communities, alongside tribal communities in ensuring the accountability and that the goals are met.

And I think that's a unique thing that I often haven't seen in a lot of oversight committees.

What I really want to share today, though, is the importance of being bold and sticking with the goals laid out in the resolution.

And again, there are very good goals that are laid out in there.

And I just want to highlight a couple other communities that have been bold, because sometimes I've noticed that here in Seattle, we make bold statements, but oftentimes don't follow through with bold action.

In 2016, where I'm from in Standing Rock, our youth, it was actually young people who first rose the concern about a Dakota Access Pipeline and began having, reviving a tradition where you run between communities to spread awareness.

and our tribal council and our elders and our community listened to them.

And I thought this was kind of interesting when I heard about a 13-year-old girl having a quite different response just hours ago right out here because of her concern over climate change where she was met with law enforcement.

But anyways, Our nation and in the community, excuse me, the county where this Dakota Access Pipeline fight took place, we're the third poorest county in all of the United States.

The third poorest behind two other Lakota jurisdictions.

Our unemployment rate is over 60%.

So despite all this, we took on a multinational oil company and their Wall Street backers.

We didn't have the money.

Our tribal council doesn't have the money and don't have the resources like, say, a city of Seattle does.

And while that pipeline was eventually put in, we're still fighting it in courts.

But one piece to that story that doesn't get as much attention is that the community of Cannonball, where that fight took place, just a couple days ago, launched a solar panel farm that's gonna give electricity to that whole village of Cannonball right there.

So they took bold action.

despite not having access to the resources that we do here and are bringing forth solutions, I would also say that our tribe, our Standing Rock, doesn't have quite the impact on the missions that our city does.

We also saw our relatives just north of here in Lummi who faced similar economic hardships take bold action and taken on the coal industry and stop the construction of what would have been the world's largest coal export terminal that not only protected Lummi Nation and their fishing, but that has positive impacts for us down here as well.

You know, Billy Frank, who was one of the leaders in, he's an Esqually, one of the leaders in the fishing rights struggle.

He was arrested over 50 times asserting his right to treaty fish, starting at the teenage years.

He often remarked, especially when in company of state, local, or federal governments, and reminded them that tribal governments are far outspending the non-tribal governments in terms of investments in habitat restoration and addressing the impacts of climate change, despite having little to no impacts towards that climate change.

So Seattle, it's time for us to be bold, to stick with the goals of that resolution, to create an oversight board, and see that by 2030, these goals are met.

Thank you.

Thank you, Matt.

I'm on.

Hi.

I first want to just appreciate you, Matt.

Thank you for kicking off.

I was a little nervous, so I wanted you to go first.

But I also want to honor that we are on Duwamish land, on land of the Coast Salish Seas, and want to honor that the first people of this land has been taking care of this land for years before us, and there's much to learn from Native communities and want to also emphasize the need to recognize their rights, their sovereignty.

From God Green's point of view, definitely environmental justice has to be woven throughout this process.

Racial justice has to be woven throughout this process.

We know that if we intend to transition to a sustainable green economy, we can't guarantee it's just unless, you know, there is, the process is also equitable and just, that the process takes into account the people who are most closest to the problems.

And those are the frontline communities.

And so this legislation really highlights the need to be specific in creating an equitable process of accountability of oversight.

And I appreciate the time taken to define what our frontline communities, And frontline communities are literally people living next to, or living next to the toxic sites, or living most impacted by the climate pollution, or living in poverty or unemployment.

They're people of color, they're indigenous people, African American workers, low-income people, immigrants.

And I think it's important to name who are the people most impacted because otherwise they will be continually left behind.

And we will continue to have the same old outcomes that are not just.

And so I think that it's really key that we set the foundation so that we can actually achieve these goals.

Because I truly believe that everyone in this building does want to do good, does want to solve this problem.

But we can't do it without the people in the room who are most impacted.

If I were to spill this water bottle on this table, everyone on this table would jump because they are closest to the water.

And that's what I mean by front lines, right?

We are closest to the toxic chemicals.

We are closest to the hazy smoke and the health disparities that are happening in our communities.

Center for Disease Control, King County, all these different reports keep telling us the same thing, that our communities have health disparities, have unemployment, are struggling.

And we know that we don't need a report to tell us that.

We did a community survey with people in South Seattle and talked to them.

We didn't start with, like, hey, what do you think about climate change?

We talked about what's going on in your neighborhood.

And one after another, there was enough information to share that, yeah, we have a lot of pollution.

We have a lot of displacement.

A lot of people are out of work.

People are facing really hard conditions.

And there needs to be a platform for people to really address these issues.

I always ask myself, why do I do this work?

It's really hard.

And a lot of people are in this movement.

And it feels like it's a long-term commitment.

And the reality is we are losing people in our communities every day to health-related or economic-related conditions where people are also being pushed away.

Either we're losing them, and it feels like a losing battle.

But if we don't take action today, we're going to lose more people.

And I don't want to see that.

And I don't think anyone in this room wants that to happen.

And so this task, this oversight board will make sure that we aren't operating from the status quo, that we'll actually be able to bring in the expertise from our communities.

to be able to ensure that we are making the right direction, like putting down exactly how do we implement this vision of a Green New Deal for Seattle.

It also will make sure that we're not gonna allow false solutions into the room that won't actually bring us to where we wanna be, that won't continue to increase our emissions and our pollution, that will actually get us to our goals.

And, you know, the elements that got us here in the first place aren't going to get us to where we want to be.

I think that we need to really start to internalize that we need some drastic shifts, that this is a city full of wealth and it should be able to protect and provide for its people and to really take to heart what it means to protect the environment.

We have all these values.

How do we put them into action?

I'm not saying this to shame or discourage anyone, but I am saying this for us to encourage us to stay strong and to give us courage because this is heavy work.

And we are trying to make a major systemic change.

And I think about back in 2014 when we partnered with the Office of Sustainability with O'Brien's office to do a cross learning about climate change impacts.

I think it was a big wake up call for us and our community in Galk Green.

This is what's happening.

The sea level rise, the heat waves, the wildfire smoke.

It really, we really internalized that we needed to take an active role in mitigation, adaptation, and really addressing, you know, what got us here in the first place.

How did we even get to an unsustainable economy?

And so I think this is a really important legislation and really sets the tone of how we're going to operate and create a green noodle that is just and equitable.

Thanks.

Matt and Jill, so much for all the work you've done in our communities and for the work you've done to really shape where we are at the moment.

I know there's a lot of other folks that have been at those tables doing the work too, but I really appreciate your leadership there.

The Green New Deal resolution that we passed at a committee on Tuesday will be before the full council on Monday.

There's a set of amendments that generally reflect the comments that were made at the table.

Council Member Pacheco, Council Member Sawant, Council Member Bakeshot wasn't at the table, but provided a comment too.

So we will bring an amendment to incorporate those, but the goal would be that, fingers crossed, that the full council will adopt that resolution on Monday.

You've highlighted the importance for having an oversight board.

And I think the ordinance is a really strong ordinance.

I, in conversations with community members and the Office of Sustainability and Environment and the Mayor's Office, I think there's some interest in taking a little bit of time to think through that a little bit.

I know that specifically the Office of Sustainability and Environment.

when they look at what's in the resolution, now that that is done, they're like, this is a big body of work that this oversight board is going to see, and the ordinance calls on the Office of Sustainability and Environment to work with the board and support them in that work, and I think they want to, in part, understand and calculate what kind of resources they're gonna need to do that work.

What I've heard from folks is they want to be clear that this isn't just another, you know, few pages of paper that talk about how great we are as a city and we care about climate.

If we're going to do this, they want to make sure that we're going to take these actions.

And so they're trying to be very thoughtful on that.

And I really appreciate that from both the mayor's office and the Office of Sustainability.

And so my plan on this ordinance will be just to continue to work that process, bring it back to this committee on September 6th.

I believe that's a Friday.

Hopefully, in the next week or two, we'll have, you know, some more thoughts that come into, I suspect, some slight revisions to it.

And we'll be sharing that with community members too.

And then we can discuss that again in what I think is three weeks from today, four weeks from today, four weeks from today, I guess.

but hopefully get something passed in early September too.

Council Member Chico.

No, just thank you for sharing and being here and being part of this process.

I appreciate it, so thank you.

Both of your comments today were really powerful.

Matt, the vision of, I don't pretend to know the traditions of what happened at Standing Rock, but the vision of these young leaders taking up the charge on their own and convincing elders in the community that this is something to do.

I witnessed Standing Rock from afar and it is still a huge inspiration for me what the people back there did.

And I know there's lots of examples here in our community and elsewhere and so that's really powerful too.

If there's nothing else, this is our last agenda item and we will be back here at the full council on Monday on the Green New Deal resolution and more work to come next Friday in this committee.

Thanks again for all your work and we will be adjourned.