Tell the Seattle City Council you want parking reform: The Planning, Land Use, and Zoning Committee will be meeting on Wednesday to discuss some really important changes to parking regulation. We covered the full details of the proposed legislation. This discussion came from previous draft legislation put out by SDCI which we covered last year. Futurewise also put together some handy talking points for folks that plan to comment. You could push the city council even further, asking for parking maximums or increasing the surface parking lot tax. If you can’t make the council meeting, you can find emails for the committee members online.
Pressure the Seattle City Council to support Housing For All: The Housing For All Coalition is tracking the process to create a progressive revenue source for housing. We’ve covered their work several times before. The Seattle City Council is poised to submit a final plan by March 14th. This leaves very little time to pressure the city council to submit the best possible plan. The coalition will be packing city hall tonight (February 20th) at 6pm. They are also asking their members to call councilmembers tomorrow (Wednesday, February 21st) and have a great script you can use. Doing one of these actions is great but if you can do both, you’re awesome.
Attend Sound Transit’s open house on Ballard/West Seattle light rail: A lot of people worked really hard to get light rail programmed from Ballard to West Seattle in Sound Transit 3. That work paid off and we’ve successfully secured funding (assuming the Democrats in the state legislature don’t cut it). However, that work was just the beginning. Now we have to work out all the details, such as station placement or if we’ll tunnel under Salmon Bay, with a public engagement progcess. Sound Transit is hosting a kick off meeting today (Tuesday, February 20th) at 5.30pm at Union Station.
Attend a panel discussion on affordable housing: The Capitol Hill Renters’ Initiative is a group of renters that do advocacy around housing issues. They’ll be hosting a panel discussion Thursday (February 22nd) evening to look at the future of affordable housing in Seattle.
Attend a Your Voice, Your Choice project development meeting: Your Voice, Your Choice is Seattle’s participatory budgeting process. The program is still relatively new to the city but participation will likely determine its growth. It’s a great way to see an immediate impact on in your neighborhood and get involved with urbanism. Next Monday there will be meetings in West Seattle, Georgetown, South Beacon Hill, and the University District.
Owen Pickford
Owen is a solutions engineer for a software company. He has an amateur interest in urban policy, focusing on housing. His primary mode is a bicycle but isn't ashamed of riding down the hill and taking the bus back up. Feel free to tweet at him: @pickovven.