Really proud of you.
That was some of the best timing I've ever seen.
I'm Sally Bagshaw and a council member for about another 10 more days for District 7 and Dan has worked with me for the last two years and I want to welcome his family and friends and so many of his colleagues here that he has been working with but also will be working with in the next couple of years.
I want to tell you how proud I am.
So proud of this guy, having run a campaign with such dignity, so hard fought, day by day, door by door.
He really showed what a campaign can be when you're working with vouchers, you're working with neighbors, and you are demonstrating the character.
And that's what I love about him.
He is a man of integrity.
He is someone that I have come to rely upon so closely, because I can always trust that when he says he's going to do something, it will get done.
and it will get done on time, and it will get done well.
And I just really want to say thank you, Dan, for being with me for these last two years.
Thank you for his family.
I know you were here.
I saw you earlier.
And you have raised a wonderful son.
And you can be extremely proud of him and just know that he's going to carry on the tradition that you have given him of strength and kindness.
And if there's anything that I can say about Dan, he is a person that listens, that worked so hard for District 6. I am just delighted to be able to turn the microphone over to my good friend, colleague, and now council member, Dan Strauss.
Thank you, Sally.
Bye, buddy.
Welcome and thank you for joining me this morning.
I see in this crowd my teachers, my mentors, neighbors, lifelong friends, friends that I've just made this year, and so many others.
I really cannot thank everyone enough.
I thank you to my parents for all the support that you've given me and this community throughout this campaign.
I do see friends here in the crowd that maybe didn't support me during this campaign and I do look forward to earning your trust and support in the years to come representing this district.
I will be speaking a bit about Ballard today and I want to start by being clear that I love all parts of our district.
I have loved living in the Fremont neighborhood, the center of the universe.
I've loved living in Green Lake neighborhood with most popular park in the city and I really did love living in Green Lake.
It's just that I couldn't smell the salt water in the morning.
And so we had to return here to Ballard.
Place matters.
We're standing at the old Ballard City Hall this morning.
While I will be opening a district office, I will not be rebuilding the City Hall here.
The Duwamish tribe and the Shilshul families have lived just blocks from here for millennia.
This was one of the first cities.
Ballard was one of the first cities here.
And it's one of the few places that went straight from old growth forests into a street grid.
In 1900, Ballard was the seventh largest city in Washington.
In 1907, it was the second largest city in King County.
This is one of the, again, few places that we went straight from an indigenous land into a street grid.
Most places, as even the case of north of 65th, had transitionary periods where it went from old growth forests to farmland to then to street grid.
This is why Ballard has such a strong foundation.
Excuse me.
Even before Ballard was popular, we still had a very strong economy because each of the fishing vessels that we see in Fisherman's Terminal and in the Ship Canal, each fishing vessel is a small business that directly employs 10 to 15 and indirectly employs thousands.
Our community has changed incredibly.
We are more dense.
For instance, I used to buy my goldfish at the pet store, which has now become a cupcake royale and a Ballard beer market.
Density can be hard, change can be hard.
When I would go to the Bay Theater, it was only one screen.
It was the longest running single screen theater in the nation.
Density has created three screens at the Ballard Bay Theater.
If you go into the Bartels that is here on 22nd, the aisles feel just the same as they always have, and yet there is a place for people to live above.
I stood up to run to provide the leadership that we need to be associated with the growth that we're experiencing.
The success that we see here in Ballard is not by accident.
I want to thank the folks at the Ballard Alliance and the small business owners for really making this a successful neighborhood.
I remember when the Ballard Farmer's Market started, it was not as successful as it is today.
At this point, it's not going to be able to retain within the parameters that we have, and we're going to need to expand the farmer's market.
We're going to need more human scale and pedestrian friendly space as we become more dense.
It's time that we address these issues at the scale of the problem that we face.
And so we are transitioning as a city from being a small town into a global city.
It's about creating the bold solutions and the access to affordable child care that we need.
about creating the world class transit system.
It's about creating this human scale design and ensuring that family wage jobs and the affordable housing is here that we need so that everyone can have a good quality of life, no matter if they just moved here this year or they've been here for 40 years.
We are living, we need to ensure that we acknowledge the historical injustices and move forward together.
so that everyone has the same access to opportunity and success.
We are living in a modern day Rome here in Seattle, where the world's wealth is pouring into our streets.
We are building the future here today.
And with strong leadership, we will be able to keep what makes our city unique while we create the world class city that has a good quality of life for everyone.
We need to build a city that is sustainable, that is affordable, and that is equitable, that really works for everyone, whether you've been here for one year or for 40. And so I look forward to working with each one of you here in this crowd today to building that future together.
Thank you.
And so for those of you who'd like to join us for brunch, We will be having brunch at the Lock Spot Cafe, just about a mile from here.
And please do, if you choose to walk or take transit, shop in some of the small shops that are there along the way.
We've had a lot of construction in the neighborhood, and we know that everyone would, Uphill Design, Lameard, these are businesses that could use our support today.
Thank you so much, and I look forward to working with you.