Seattle City Council Sustainability, City Light, Arts & Culture Committee 2/7/2025

Arts and Culture Committee meeting will come to order.

It is 9.32 a.m.

January 17th, 2025. I'm Alexis Mercedes-Ring, chair of the committee.

Will the committee clerk please call the roll?

Council Member Moore.

Present.

Council Member Saka.

Council Member Strauss.

Present.

Council Member Solomon.

Present.

Chair Rink.

Present.

Chair, there are four members present.

If there is no objection, the agenda will be adopted.

Hearing no objection, the agenda is adopted.

arts and culture committee.

Thanks for being here this morning.

This is my second time chairing this committee and I wanna begin by recognizing council member Solomon.

This is his first time sitting in on this committee so that no longer makes me the most junior council member up on the dais.

Time really moves fast up here.

Welcome.

Thank you.

And as I told our colleagues last week, I'm committed to working with you and the wider committee on issues pertaining to public utilities, climate and sustainability, arts and culture, including our public servants who work in these departments over the next several months.

My staff and I have been working with different departments to plan some interesting, informative, and robust presentations for upcoming meetings, and I really look forward to hearing your thoughts and feedback on these as collaborators.

And moving into business, during our last committee, we had to break at the last moment, so I wanna once again acknowledge the incredible response of the team over at the Office of Emergency Management when we had the bomb cyclone event at the end of 2024. I cannot express enough how appreciative this council is of disaster and the emergency response work OEM does for our community and residents.

And however, in that same regard, I also want to acknowledge that there has been significant, that there was significant damage that will need to be fiscally addressed.

And we know that there has been a request for FEMA response by our federal delegation.

And however, given the last two weeks of what can be described as uncertainty at the federal level, with demeaning attempts to demoralize federal civil servants into resigning and actual comments by the sitting president regarding eradicating FEMA as an agency altogether, as was recently done to USAID.

This is something that this committee and the council will be watching closely over the next couple of weeks and months.

With that, we have one agenda item today with a vote on the appointment of Heather Hargsenseimer, apologies, to the International Special Review District Board at the Department of Neighborhoods Historic Preservation Program.

And with that, we will now open the hybrid public comment period.

Public commenters' comments should relate to items on today's agenda or on within the purview of this committee.

Clerk, how many speakers are signed up for today?

Currently, we have zero in-person speakers signed up and one remote.

Okay, wonderful.

Each speaker will have two minutes.

We will start with, well, we don't have any in-person speakers.

So with that, clerk, can you please read the public comment instructions?

The public comment period will be moderated in the following manner.

The public comment period is up to 60 minutes.

Speakers will be called in the order in which they registered.

Speakers will hear a chime when 10 seconds are left on their time.

Speakers mics will be muted if they do not end their comments within the allotted time to allow us to call on the next speaker.

The public comment period is now open and we will begin with the first speaker on the list.

David Haynes.

This first speaker is David Haynes.

Hi, thank you, David Haynes.

Is it sustainable to force people to live and work in preserved modern third world slums that council wants to historically like iconic, like shine a light on that are dilapidated, inflated, and deregulated of their antiquated building codes?

What are down to the point that you have to suffer when you live in and visit buildings like we see throughout Pioneer Square and the ID?

where you get cheated out of a 21st century first world quality living experience for working class and customer space.

Yet you get charged a rent that's double, triple, quadruple remortgage with no scrutiny of how low quality the buildings are.

But yet we got a mayor and council who think it's more important to cater to banks owning rundown real estate and manipulate public perceptions of safety while cosmetically prettifying for artificial inflated property values where you gussy up the paint and you ignore the fact that the building itself is a slum.

It's like if you're a product of your environment and you live in a bunch of slums, there's nothing really inspiring about that.

Yet if you drink a lot of alcohol, you celebrate dive bars and rundown buildings as if it fits in with the lifestyle of Seattle bottom drilling progressives.

And it's a telltale sign of why there's so many drug addicts and criminals who have taken over Chinatown and pioneer square.

It's the most depressing part of the county.

Have you ever come in on the car ferry and just take a quick overview of the skyline of Seattle?

The one dark, sunk, misery-looking place is Pioneer Square.

And if you take a look at the historical past of Pioneer Square and Chinatown, it's like a reminder of the mean-spirited racism of some ignorant past that you all want to preserve.

We need legislation that prioritizes financing new 21st century world-quality redevelopments that go higher in the levels with robust floor plans forcing us to accept this low quality ignorant path.

Thank you, David.

There are no additional registered speakers and we'll now proceed to our items of business.

Okay.

So we will now move on to our first and only item of business.

Thank you all for attending today.

With only one item of business, will the clerk please read item one into the record?

Appointment 03071 reappointment of Heather Harsheimer as member international special review district board for a term to December 31st, 2026.

Wonderful.

For the committee's context, the International Special Review District is one of Seattle's eight historic districts established through ordinance in 1973 to preserve the Asian American heritage, history, and character of the neighborhood and encourage the rehabilitation of areas for pedestrian-oriented business and housing.

Rebecca Frestet, the International Special Review District in Columbia City Landmark District Coordinator with the Historic Preservation Program at the Department of Neighborhoods is here to speak on the behalf of Heather.

Welcome Rebecca.

You should be good now.

Oh, okay.

Is it all right now?

Yeah, I'm not wearing my normal glasses.

It's just very faint.

Okay, sorry about that.

Good morning, everyone.

I'm, as noted, Rebecca Freestead, and I work with the Historic Preservation Program.

I oversee two of the city's eight historic districts, the International Special Review District, which I'm here to speak on today, and the Columbia City Landmark District.

The International Special Review District Board, would it be helpful just to give a brief overview of the board and what it oversees, is one of the city's boards and commissions.

There are eight historic review districts, and each has its own board or commission that helps advise on changes that are proposed within that district.

And so within this International Special Review District, the board is charged with reviewing changes to the underlying principal use of a space, as well as any changes to the exterior of a building or changes to the rights of way or open spaces in the district.

The board doesn't have jurisdiction over changes on the interiors.

The board is advisory to the director of the Department of Neighborhoods, and it's a seven-member board.

Five of the members are elected through an annual community election with staggered two-year terms.

And two of the members are appointed by the mayor's office and confirmed by council.

And so this is one of those positions.

It's position six.

And Heather Hargesheimer is serving the, she's served one term on the board and we're proposing reappointment.

She is an architect with over 30 years of experience.

She's worked for a variety of firms on residential and institutional buildings, public and private projects.

She's got a great breadth of experience.

And she has been serving as the vice chair on the board this past year.

She's done a wonderful job.

I'm happy to answer any questions you may have.

Colleagues, any questions?

Chair, may I?

Recognizing Councilmember Strauss.

Yeah, just sharing.

I had the opportunity to work with Heather maybe six or seven years ago when I was staffing Sally Bagshaw on the All-All House, which was a project down in Pioneer Square.

I can't speak more highly of Heather, her capabilities, abilities, and just if Heather's watching, thank you for your volunteer service to our city.

Thanks.

Thank you, Councilmember Strauss.

Colleagues, any other comments or questions?

Wonderful.

Well, thank you for that overview, Rebecca, and for coming before us today.

I move that the committee recommend confirmation of appointment 3071. Is there a second?

Second.

Seconded to recommend confirmation of the appointment.

Any final comments?

Wonderful.

Will the clerk please call the roll on the committee recommendation to confirm the appointment?

Council member Moore.

Aye.

Council member Saka.

Councilmember Strauss.

Yes.

Councilmember Solomon.

Aye.

Chair Rink.

Yes.

There are four in favor, zero opposed, and zero abstentions.

The motion carries and the committee recommendation that the appointments be confirmed will be sent to the February 11th city council meeting.

Well, we have reached the end.

Oh, thank you.

Thank you.

We have reached the end of today's robust meeting agenda.

Is there any further business to come before the committee before we adjourn?

Hearing no further business to come before the committee, we are adjourned.

It is 943.