Good afternoon, everybody.
Thank you for being here.
What a lovely crowd.
I'm very excited,
very excited to share a few thoughts with you.
But most importantly, we have some very, very good
looking people standing behind me
there in the back row smiling.
No, I'm just kidding.
But we're all here to talk about basically the rebirth
and the re-imagining, the new energy that we're trying to bring in Seattle,
and particularly downtown, sort of the center of what we're trying to do here.
So I'm going to try to stay on script because I have some better speakers in me
that I'm going to introduce,
but I want to sort of recapture what we've been working on.
And when I say we, we're I'm talking about you
that are listening to me, these great civic and political leaders.
I notice that we have both some current and former career figure that was coming.
I'll speak over that.
No sweeps,
no sweeps.
No sweeps.
I'm with the rhythm here.
We don't sweep in our administration.
And I'll just keep talking over that for that.
Seattle, still at its finest.
So I don't have to tell you
now about what we're dealing with downtown.
Many of you see what we're trying to do,
and we're not trying to recapture our glory days.
No, this is a little distracted.
Oh, just one sec.
Oh. 030030,
That's great.
A melting pot in.
All right,
No worries.
We got your back, man. We're good.
Well, we.
We have them out.
Number release. Yes.
Oh, and I also see some political some people
that are hoping to be in politics and what I said repeatedly,
we have to be louder, more organized,
and we lead with compassion and we demonstrate in ability to listen.
That's what we're going to do in creating this downtown
right now, showing an ability to be empathetic.
And I welcome a conversation with anyone on our policies.
Now, I'm going to go back to the script
now in my earlier
state of the city, I ask you to help me reimagine what our downtown could look
like, basically, and our downtown activation plan that's about activation.
It's about rejuvenation.
And there are seven pillars by which our framework will be framed around.
First of all, we want to make downtown safe and welcoming for everybody.
Safe and welcoming, number one.
Number two, we want to transform our downtown
into a lively neighborhood where more people can afford to live.
We know about the housing affordability issue.
Third, we want to create a unique
downtown retail experience.
There are some things you can't get on a computer.
There's some things you can't get through E-commerce.
What is that?
That retail experience
we have a lot of small business owners here, a lot of entrepreneurs.
What is that experience?
We want to capture that just that this becomes a destination
for everyone to come to experience that retail experience.
Number four, we want to make
downtown a safe place where people want to work.
I got to emphasize that point.
I want to work.
They want to be here
that will reflect the future of our economy.
That is critically important to our success as a city.
Next,
we want to celebrate our arts, culture, sports and entertainment.
I have some athletes in back of me.
We have some artists here.
We have people that understand the world of entertainment.
See, I know a lot of you're distracted by that
on the sounds to me it's music to my ears
because that's activation and
arts culture.
Sports, entertainment
is critical to our success.
We also want to make downtown a top
destination for Seattleites and visitors all around.
Right now, Seattle is one of the fastest growing cities.
We want people to come here.
We want people to live here. We want our people to recreate here.
And last, we want to create a
healthy, resilient and green downtown.
And that's
why you see some of our legislation, some of our efforts being recognized
with internationally because of our commitment to this planet,
a commitment to our air commitment to our buildings, who are trying
to occupy people, but also understand the seriousness of climate change.
So today
we have a few actions going to announce.
We're going to have a few near-term initiatives.
We're going to announce and we're going to talk about what I call space
thinking, thinking outside the box.
So the first thing I got some
DSA people downtown Seattle Association, we are proud.
We expanded the Metropolitan Improvement District Service of Boundaries.
Let's talk about DSA for a minute.
Let's give them a shout out right now. DSA
DSA is in the house,
DSA is in the house.
We increase the boundaries, we increase the services, and we see the benefits
of what they're doing because of their commitment to the city.
We reopen city parkland. That was critical.
That was more of a symbolic because we will not let anyone take over this city
in a negative way.
This is our city
and city Park represents sort of the window
by which people come to our city.
And we want it safe
if we want a clean we want people shelted, we want to see people helped.
That is our city hall park.
We reopened that ahead of time.
We took 20 vacant storefronts through our Seattle restored program,
and we're helping small businesses come down to pursue their dreams.
Activate That's our great restored
Seattle restored program.
We announced a Liberty project, which is a commitment to black
owned businesses, women owned businesses, underrepresented communities.
Come here and show us what you have.
Show us what you have.
There you go.
Stop the sweeps
I got a louder microphone.
Yeah.
We announced the Liberty Project again, where we're talking about
using University of Washington, Table 100, Seattle University.
We're talking about creating access to capital, strategic plans,
making sure black owned businesses,
minority owned businesses can have the place to demonstrate what they can do.
And this is an exciting project.
We are going to look at our lighting situation, our street and sidewalk
lighting that we've done in areas of downtown.
We're trying to illuminate because we really realize that that is a
public safety strategy to sort of change the vibe and change the mood of the city.
Now, you are literally having my back, don't you?
Okay. We're going to keep going here.
We have three chiefs here, Chief Adrian Diaz,
Chiefs Chief Reba Gonzalez, Chief Harold Scoggins.
And what we're seeing is a compassionate approach
to public safety and the fact that this matters.
I won't stutter on this.
And we are arresting and seizing
fentanyl pills that are killing our community.
The numbers speak for themselves.
We don't apologize for that because the people are bringing poison
into our community, killing our children, killing our people.
We need to stop that and arrest that.
I make. No, I don't stutter on that.
We got fine, compassionate leaders doing that work.
We just announced a partnership
with Uplift Northwest to expand graffiti abatement on private property.
And we're trying to break that cycle,
break that cycle of paint and abate painting abate.
We're trying to find canvases for artists.
We're trying to figure out why
people have it in their heart to destroy property,
because that is not that is not art.
That's graffiti that they're treating Graffiti and art is one word.
If it's not wanted it's
Graffiti.
Okay, so I'm not going to mince words that we're doubling down.
I see some of our workers on this and you see this partnership.
We have uplift just completely outstanding with City University.
You also know our maritime industrial land use policies.
This is serious work we're doing.
We're rolling up our sleeves to talk about what this city should become.
And we we show strong, strong love for our maritime and our port industries,
our maritime jobs, our trades,
our labor policies.
Two other things, and then I'll
I don't know what I'll do.
I'm just you're just having fun here.
You got to have this job.
You've got to have fun. Sir,
we saw some superstars
in our city design competition looking for our downtown office space.
What should these buildings also be?
That becomes the question.
Should there be residential?
Where could it be?
And so we had some competition.
We're going to act on many of the designs.
The creative juices were flowing and we saw an opportunity
to to have more people living in our downtown area, which is part of our
downtown office space conversion plan that we've been working on.
And I'm very proud of the results we've had in last.
I want to talk about the building emissions per performance standards,
the legislation that where we presented
realizing that, again, this climate change fight, we're all in it together.
You know, I always I always try to find opportunities to unify our community.
I don't care what your demographic is, how you identify.
This is a unifying element that we're doing
well.
But the legislation, it goes to the heart of what we're trying to do
is, quite frankly, taller buildings where it makes sense.
Downtown for residential buildings, creating hundreds of units
of housing and incentives for child care and educational facilities.
That will be our new downtown,
new experiences.
I'm announcing
that we have additional legislation to diversify street level space users,
eliminate street use fees for food trucks and activations, expand
hotel lodging, and at one time enhance investment in the MID for additional
cleaning, safety and hospitality services this summer and fall.
Quite frankly, cutting through the red tape to activate our city.
What can the city do?
We do not want to be an impediment to businesses.
We want to be your friend, we want to be your ally.
We want to create foot traffic for you.
How can we use the regulatory legislative scheme to accomplish that?
You notice that we close a portion of Pike Street
between first and second avenues for pedestrians only.
We think that's a smart move.
People want to
walk, people want to shop, people want to eat
the We Deliver care model.
We know that we have the communities here, right here for Faith communities,
community service, community service organizations
trying to help the very same people that they're shouting about.
We're investing to help people get on with their lives and reestablish themselves.
These are active investments.
We deliver care through a physical location we present here.
When we see some of the needs help, we want to see people getting that help
physically see it. That's what we're about.
We're not about shouting slogans.
We're about helping people.
This Wednesday, on
July 26 at 6 p.m., you can join the DSA to Seattle's
World Cup team and Amazon to watch two worlds.
The Women's World Cup, USA versus the Netherlands.
Some will say We may kick little butt
right here at Westlake Park
in the heart of downtown, so it must be a place where again,
we can come together and share experiences together.
Our downtown activation plan, quite
candidly, is real stuff, real energy.
Now, if you want to go a little deeper, just so you know, we've met with the press
before to go over a little deeper,
a little granular, but our plan is on downtown is you.com.
Downtown is you.com?
Yeah. Check it out.
And quite frankly, these ideas that were generating
these ideas that you will see, they had come from you as well.
They come from civic leaders, philanthropic leaders, residents,
advocates,
dare I say activists.
We listen to everybody.
So next, I want to hear I want to I want you to hear from Markham McIntyre,
our director of Awesome Economic development,
because Markham's team, they're very, very smart, number one.
But number two, they're very committed and they listen.
And so I sort of gave you some highlights of what we're trying to do,
but I want to introduce Markham McIntyre and I got two for one remark and.
He's not
Markham
Is not used to talking over this kind of stuff, so let's let's bring him out.
His legs look pretty strong.
He's athletic.
I worked out this guy can't keep up with the Markham
MacIntyre
Thank you, Mayor,
and thanks, Mayor, for being so bullish on downtown and making this a priority.
I'm Mark MacIntyre.
I'm the director of the Office of Economic Development here in the city Seattle.
And really there is no better economic development play right now
than getting back downtown, humming and making sure that as we do
that, we make it more accessible for new entrepreneurs, for bipoc entrepreneurs,
for women entrepreneurs to help shape the future of Seattle's economy.
So thanks again.
I really appreciate it.
And as the mayor said, thanks to all of you.
I am so excited that you showed that you showed up today
to celebrate the full rollout of our DAP plan.
This is exciting.
What a day to do it. This is a downtown kind of day.
The sun's about to come out.
We're gonna have some food trucks.
It's gonna be a fun celebration.
And that's really the heart of this plan.
This plan is all about how to get more people downtown.
How do we bring more energy and life downtown?
So to make this plan and follow through the Mayor's one Seattle vision.
We started by listening to you all.
What do Seattleites want from downtown?
Who is downtown for?
And we heard you loud and clear.
You want a downtown that is safe, a downtown
that is welcoming, that is more accessible.
You want downtown to have thriving and unique small businesses,
affordable and fun activities for families and kids.
You want more festivals, more murals, more amenities.
You want a downtown that is green and beautiful in that you can be proud of.
Downtown is so core to identity of who we are as Seattleites.
And so that's why the mayor's outline is bold blueprints.
That's going to both meet the urgent needs right now,
but also cast this vision for the future of Seattle.
For any of that to work, though, again, what we need is you downtown is you.
So I look around and I see all these people who contributed their time,
their energy, their blood, sweat and tears to making this plan happen.
So right now, we need to keep that energy up.
We need to turn that fabulous energy into planning to doing
right now.
You see a lot of stuff happening. The mayor mentioned some of it.
We're filling vacant storefronts,
activating public spaces and making downtown more beautiful.
Right here on this block we got if you go pass dog in the park,
you can find study on joy, which is another
one of our Seattle restored projects where they turn an open storefront
into an art display and window shopping feature around the corner on Pike.
Yeah, give some shout out to the entrepreneurs
around the corner on Pike, you're going to find self-made couture
and luxury custom clothing pop up shop open through the end of the week.
You're going to hear from that business owner later.
Very exciting stuff.
And on the other side of the block, on fifth,
you're going to find
the Seattle Restored Market, which is a collection
of six entrepreneurial artisans and business owners making
amazing, locally produced art products and artwork.
So we've got so much happening.
We have so many entrepreneurial opportunities in the city
is really here to connect the dots and help those entrepreneurs shine.
We also have a lot of fun activations happening.
We've got the MLB All-Star Week coming up after July 4th holiday.
The mayor just mentioned the watch party for the Women's World Cup
right here in Westlake Park, the heart of the city.
Yes, we're going to have pickleball.
We're going to have a pickleball tournament
and a basketball tournament later on.
I know that people love their pickleball.
We've got movies in the park food truck fest, so much music,
arts, sports, entertainment happening all across downtown.
Most of these are free and family friendly.
So if you're wondering what to do with your time this summer,
come on downtown, because it's the place to be.
Alongside that, we're also making downtown more beautiful.
We some of these are just nuts and bolts.
We're making sure we're taking care of the basics, like fixing street lighting.
And the mayor mentioned removing graffiti.
But I'm also really stoked about all of the life in color.
We're going to be with new murals popping up all over downtown,
bringing that vibrancy and supporting those local artists.
So this plan is chock a block full of so many ideas.
Again, many of them coming from you
that again, downtown is going to be the place
to be for this summer for the rest of this year and on into the future.
So I encourage you to go read the full plan.
Downtown is you.com
There's a QR code floating around
on some postcards at the swag table, or you might have been handed out.
Also on that website, you're going to find a public facing dashboard
because we want to measure our progress.
We want to make sure that these strategies, initiatives
actually make a difference.
So take a look at what we're trying to do and then how we're
going to measure our progress.
But at the end of the day, this plan really is just the start.
This is more like a kickoff celebration than an ending celebration.
We've listen to you.
We've built this plan based on your feedback, but we still need
your input as we move from planning to doing the best plans
more along the way as we learn and adapt to changing needs and wants.
So please go check out the plan.
Get involved by telling us what you think
and give us your bold ideas for the future of downtown.
With that, thanks again for bringing so much life and activity to downtown.
This is what activation looks like with that.
Back to you. Mayor
Markham.
Next, we're going to hear from Katrina Caron,
who is a senior early learning director for Northwest Center Kids.
She's worked in downtown Seattle for more than eight years at an inclusive
early learning center, serving children of all abilities.
Katrina believes passionately in creating diverse and inclusive
learning environments
with children can learn and grow with the help of talented and dedicated staff.
Now I want to make something clear, something clear
before Katrina comes up here and blesses us with a few words.
If you look around you, you look on your left or right in
front of you, in back of you, you will see diversity at its finest.
You've heard me mention
the work we're doing for black owned businesses, for Brown
owned businesses, for people who speak English as a second language.
I believe
I believe in the kindness of these people.
I believe in their commitment to these people.
But most importantly,
I believe that we have to be intentional for fighting for diversity.
No matter how you define diversity.
And I also want to say, before I go much further, if you are
if you've ever held elected office or you are in elected office
or you're running for elected office, raise your hand.
Right now.
You want to see who we have here
Oh, you never ran for anything.
And now thank you.
Because once you serve in office, you never stop serving.
Thank you, David Dollar, for being here.
Peter Steinbreuk, thank you for being here.
Having said that, we understand the importance of diversity,
diversity of thought, diversity of race, diversity of religion, diversity.
And no matter how you describe it, and that's very intentional,
that's from our administration as your mayor.
That is my commitment.
That is a commitment I made to my mom and daddy.
That is your commitment.
And having said that,
Katrina, Caron come up and bless us with a few words.
Thank you.
I was nervous about this, but I didn't realize I would have to speak so loudly.
So I'm going to try my hardest again.
My name is Katrina Caron.
I am the senior Early learning director for Northwest Center Kids.
We opened our downtown location
2010, our location we lease from King County
right there on fifth, the terrace, so really close to city hall.
A lot of King County buildings
kind of right in the heart of the financial district there.
Our school has a miss, a mission of disability inclusion.
So what that means is about 40% of the kiddos
in each of our classrooms have some sort of disability or delay.
Children of all abilities are
able to participate fully in all classroom activities at our center,
which means meal time, free play, gross motor play, circle time.
We're all everyone's included.
We believe in an inclusive environment,
gives all children the opportunity to reach their highest potential.
So why am I here today?
Downtown Seattle is part of who we are and what we do every day.
Our downtown center is filled with diverse staff and families,
reflecting the diversity of downtown
downtown's highest potential.
Children learn bast through experiential and immersive
learning environments with a connection to the real world they live in.
Which means if you go to school downtown, you need to get outside and go downtown
and explore your environment.
So we take our kids on the bus, take them around,
we take them to the Seattle Art Museum, the aquarium.
We take
them for walks to the city, to Seattle Public Library,
to Columbia Tower, and again to the parks around our neighborhoods.
We visit small businesses around us, tied to the curriculum,
tied to what we're teaching our children.
It's so important that young children learn
about the world around them through tangible, real life experiences,
which means downtown needs to be safe and accessible for all of our children.
Yeah,
it's a privilege for me to teach the next generation of Seattle Lights
a generation that we hope will be stewards of inclusivity
and accessibility in our communities.
Downtown, as part of Northwest Center Kids
and downtown needs more early learning centers as well.
High quality child care is important
for all
children, and families should be able to access this great city
downtown is still where many people in Seattle work.
Honestly, I took my own child to our center
for five years and I commuted into Seattle with my husband.
We were able to walk from our vehicle into the center and then I knew
he would get to explore the city and it would be part of his curriculum
and daily activity.
Child care downtown, where families
work, allow parents to come and visit their children during breaks
to nurse their babies during breaks when they're still infants.
Now we need to again focus on getting more people,
more child care downtown and more families access to that.
So again, I'm really excited
about all the wonderful things planned in this downtown activation plan.
It has been a really hard year, three years for us
and we're really excited to get our kids out again in the community
and really look forward to the continued changes.
Thank you.
Katrina.
Next, you're going to hear from Armando
Garzon is the founder of Kolors Studio, which is a creative
collective and media production company based right in Pioneer Square.
And Armando works with smaller local businesses to help them
tell their story and reach new audiences, communities and customers.
And if anyone's ever on the small business,
you know, you're always marketing.
So Armando
is going to talk about his story and he's always looking for new customers.
I present to you Armando Garzon.
Good morning, Seattle.
Good to be here today.
When I think the mayor for this opportunity
for let me participate in this event.
My name's Armondo and I'm the owner of Kolors studios
we're located in Seattle's historic neighborhood, Pioneer Square.
And it's a big day for me, honestly,
when I was a teenager, I dream was to have a studio in Seattle
that like it is.
We're creative. This is a great city.
It's actually I grew up in Everett
And I would drive down here
to be a part of it, be being the coffee shops, to be in the ambiance.
I just wanted to be part of it.
Colors the creative agency, the collective, that helps businesses
grow with strategic content campaigns,
and we're very proud to be part of the creative
economy in Seattle.
As a business that opened during the pandemic, we have seen
the differences it makes to have the right leader in office.
Truly,
there one year ago.
Thank you, Mayor, for your leadership.
I have been a witness to the positive changes in the streets.
We really did open the pandemic and we've seen it
today.
I'm and I'm I truly mean that. Today.
I'm proud to announce that we are doubling down on our commitment to the city.
Right on.
Yeah.
We just signed a long term lease
to expand to the second floor,
and we're going to turn that into a co-working space for creatives,
for artists, for content creators.
IAt Kolors we're looking forward to continuing
to support our city and its efforts to activate the downtown.
And I invite everybody here to come to the first Thursdays,
the Pioneer Square tour I want when we showcase our local talent.
There's a lot of talent in Seattle.
We want to showcase
see us during the All-Star game week.
Our doors will be open.
More importantly, come support small businesses, black and brown businesses.
Hard for many of us.
Like use your support.
Thank you so much, everybody.
You guys, ithank you Armondo,
our last speaker
before we do a little Q&A will be Laron Daniels.
He's an entrepreneur and a business owner.
He's one heck of a basketball player in college
and professionally as well, but he's now, more importantly, the coach.
Founder of Self-made Couture, which is a custom clothier brand that
specializes in custom suits, tuxedos, coats, blazers for both men and women.
They remember they're always looking for customers.
You can see the way he's seen, the way he's dress.
He knows his stuff. Hi.
I present to you, Laron
Daniels.
How's everybody doing today?
Good.
I want you guys to give another round of applause
because I'm living proof of the mayor's activation program.
I want another round of applause for that.
First and foremost,
I just want to thank
everybody here for coming in, listening and being a part of this
this movement that we have going on right now.
I'm honored and I'm humbled.
And I also want to thank you again.
My name is Lauren.
I'm the owner itself.
Make the tour self-made.
It's a custom clothing brand that designs
perfectly fitting garments for your lifestyle.
We specialize in suits, tuxedos, overcoats, shirts,
not just for men, but for our lovely ladies as well.
I tell people two things when they come in to our showroom.
That's right. Right around the corner.
One, you're going to leave with something that's tailor made and perfect for you.
And two, you might walk in looking like a dollar.
But I promise you, you're going to leave looking like $1,000,000.
We're literally located a minute walk from here.
Like, I'm going to leave here and go unlock my door and start working.
And so
you guys are probably wondering, how do we land in the heart of downtown?
Well, it's to the beautiful program called Seattle Restored.
I want to give them their flowers,
and I want you guys to clap for them right now. Right.
Also, I want to shout out the Office of Economic Development.
They've they've done an amazing job as well.
And ultimately, you have to give the mayor's office
their flowers as well,
because they've done a good job of implementing these programs
to help these small minority owned businesses
not only be put in a successful position,
but also they've watered us and allowed us to thrive.
They give us a platform to really succeed in not
words can express what that means to us.
But back to Seattle restored.
Seattle restored.
What they're doing is life altering.
It's life changing. It's a game changer.
They're putting businesses like me, entrepreneurs
and just other people that that are actively trying to do something
and be something
and build their businesses in locations and giving them a platform to thrive.
And when I say life altering and game changing,
what I mean by that is one one word.
What I mean by that is generational wealth.
They are literally building generational wealth with us.
They're allowing us to do that.
And when I say generational wealth, you're
probably wondering how well it starts with the fact that
we recently just got in our showroom
in like as of this week, we just signed a long term
lease.
And so, like, it just doesn't get no better than that.
So when I say that we are living proof of the mayor's activation program.
We literally are doing it and we're a part of it.
And you guys can look at it, look at us as an example of
what's to come in the future.
Now, I know it's a lot of people here appreciate you for coming,
but I have a call to action for everybody here,
everybody in the community and all the bigger businesses.
I want to ask you guys
to invest into the community.
You can't spell or you can't say community without unity.
I want you guys to invest in minority black owned businesses like Self
Made Couture
I want you to invest in brown owned businesses like Armando's.
I want you to invest in this lovely ladies business.
I want you guys to invest in us.
In return, will water you guys back?
We'll invest back in.
You guys will inspire other entrepreneurs and upcoming business owners
and bring them up with us as well.
And furthermore, we'll reinvest back into the next generation of people
that are coming up.
If we invest into the next generation,
then that's going to allow Seattle to reach its fullest potential.
And this activation program is going to come full circle.
So in closing, I just want to say thank you to everybody for coming.
I want to once again take the mayor thanked his office.
I want to thank all the city officials.
And I want you guys to know that you have friends in Self-Made Couture.
You have partners in Self-Made Couture, and we are fully doubling down
and supporting everything the mayor has going on where
100% body hits the extension of the lease.
And I want you to know that we're 110% committed
in what you're doing and we're going to continue to push with you.
Thank you, everybody.
Thank you, Laron,
as I close out with just a few thoughts
I want to give another shout out.
I mentioned it earlier, but I didn't do it justice.
I didn't do it justice.
I'm looking over these these beautiful men over here from the We Deliver Care team.
I want to give you guys a shout out.
We deliver care.
Dom Dave is part of your call.
John is not here.
Strong leader
because our solutions are found in the folks that understand our community.
They understand people that need help,
they lead with compassion and they show strength.
You're beautiful, and we will continue investing in this kind of strategy.
So we take the streets back.
The right values
The house.
I want to close by.
You heard me mention the term earlier Space Needle thinking.
What we
mean by that is you're looking at buildings right now.
We close our eyes and imagine what can be now.
There's a few folks on the city council and maybe on the city council.
I don't even know who's going to be on city council next year.
It requires a conversation.
It requires a conversation with people who have the money.
We don't own some of this property.
It requires a conversation from you who live and work down here.
But some ideas have surfaced that we're very excited about.
One idea is a linear arts and entertainment district
connected by a streetcar, a cultural connector.
We're excited about that year round indoor and outdoor
play in a recreational facility right down here in downtown.
We have an idea about illumination.
An illuminating West Lake Center is a center for civic engagement.
You see, right now, unfortunately, just
that's not civic engagement.
That's just yelling.
I want to have a civic engagement.
We have a dialog and we sit down.
Let me understand your viewpoint and I want you understand
what we're trying to do.
One reason why I always have Bishop Witherspoon
around me, because he's known me since I was nine years old.
He's always been my spiritual base.
We pray together, we laugh together we cry together.
I won't tell you what he told me, how I usually react to something like that.
But he said, I'm praying for you, Mayor.
So we want to have
that kind of discussion and civic engagement right here.
And we talk about lighting, we talk about illumination.
And so those are things we're looking at.
We're going to have this dialog with you lidding I-5 and creating an urban forest,
more tree canopy,
fighting climate
and creating beauty at the same time.
Now, again, these easels here, not just for esthetics,
there are going to be they're going to be staffed around here.
You can share ideas.
This is an ongoing dialog.
I mentioned early about a regulatory plan on having more residential units here.
We're looking at the regulatory package and Mark and talks about that.
We have ready to submit to the City council.
That's Space Needle thinking.
We realize unfortunately downtown will
we'll never go back to the good old days downtown when I used to
have a root beer float to Woolworth.
Those days are gone.
What's not gone is the spirit was built.
This downtown was not gone is the spirit that built the Space Needle.
The spirit is, in fact, is stronger right now.
I'm hearing the ideas and we will act on these ideas.
So the
food trucks are either here or will be here.
The mayor, they're here.
Thank the Lord.
The Mariners are playing today.
Enjoy that. Visit your favorite shop.
You heard from these outstanding entrepreneurs.
You just got a little sample for their passion.
But you heard what Ron said.
You invest in them and it comes back tenfold.
When I talk about one Seattle, when I talk about one Seattle,
I talk about his voices as the strong as the most.
Are you worth $1,000,000,000 yet?
You will be okay.
He's always this close.
He's not going out the door that the that the janitors voice as is as important
as the CEOs that in Seattle we listen to everyone
we pull out
the best in everybody and we fight for it and we are organized
and we're going to take our city back because we know that our North Star
is our people and we love our people.
We love Seattle. It's okay to say that.
It's okay to say we love Seattle.
In fact, it's sort of cool to do try it time.
So I close out by saying Thank you for being here,
because if you were here right now, that means
you do love this city and you do believe in the direction we're heading.
You believe in our administration,
you believe in these leaders, you believe in our diversity.
You believe in small businesses.
You believe in good food. Not right. Alley
Henry knows that God,
you believe in
bringing out the best in everyone that's One Seattle at its best.
And with that, we'll take a good
couple of questions with Jamie Housing, we ask you to help me on this one
because I see a bunch of hand goes up and then I never know who to call on that
okay do you questions We'll go Lauren and then Jeremy.
Lauren and then Jeremy.
Yes. Lauren.
Next.
Yeah,
yeah.
I'll repeat the question.
I'll just paraphrase it.
Lauren asks the question,
When will people see action?
And not so much planning, not so much plans,
When will they actually be able to experience what we're talking about?
For some examples.
So I'm going to ask I'm going to always turn to my staff for a few things,
but I have to be.
It's a great question, by the way.
You see it right now.
You see it everywhere we go.
You see that
small businesses are opening up.
You see that the DSA are doing their job.
You see that we deliver care. So you're already seeing the action.
When I talked about 20 stores that are open up, that weren't opened up before,
that's what you're seeing right now.
Now, we'll also talk about the next couple of weeks.
You're going to see some regulatory schemes come out to the council.
So right now, quite candidly, the biggest piece of legislation
we're working on right
now, as many of you know, is how we deal with open air drug use.
So that's literally being discussed.
We're having meetings as we speak
and hopefully we'll have in the council in a matter of weeks
led with our values to
treat, but always leading with our and we've got to keep everyone safe.
So you're seeing it now.
And I don't know, Martin being a specific example that he wants to hear about.
Go ahead.
There will be other pieces of legislation going to council, including the up zoning
that the mayor the mayor mentioned.
There's going to continue to be a lot of activations.
And then there's also going to be a number of activities around the parks
and kind of the beautification pieces that I mentioned
about fixing streetlights, cleaning up graffiti.
There was an announcement yesterday about a partnership with Apple Northwest.
We have a fact sheet that we can give you
that does give a progress report since we kind of announced this in April.
But what we've done and then a preview of what's to come.
So there's we've been building the plan and building the bicycle
and riding at the same time with that. That makes sense. I
think it might come down
and I'll I was just going to say,
I know I said a lot, but I tried to give a I think,
14 examples of what we've actually done in terms of the opening of City Hall Park.
It's all part of a part of our our plan, if you will.
But I don't also want to underestimate the need to plan
everything we do in our administration has to be sustainable.
I'm not going for just quick victory laps.
We got to build it around sustainability, not just environmental
sustainability, but cultural and community sustainability as well.
Yes. Next question.
It can be successful
if there is not a radical disruption in the city.
And you said
that you're talking with the council about what options are on the table,
considering some council members will share the stage
with you and voted against it just minutes ago?
Go to repeat the question.
Yeah, the question was
you're such a strong and good mayor, how can you get any better?
Okay, so maybe I don't know.
The question was
how can you achieve what you're trying to achieve
given the level of drug use and drug trafficking
and given the fact that there are people with me now
that voted against the Post Blake decision,
you didn't say that that was fixed by the state. Ha.
Don't we have to fix that in order to achieve these plans now, do you?
Good question.
First of all, we will have
that legislation fixed in about a matter of weeks.
Okay. Because they have to vote on it.
But let me also say what I've said publicly
and privately,
that if those who voted against it
listen to people that are in pain
and become somewhat empathetic,
that could be part of the process because
we were figuring out right now,
and I'm confident
in a matter of weeks we will present legislation to address the issue.
Do we have to disrupt what we see? Yes.
Yes. Every time I walk or drive
or stroll down and I see someone in pain
because of drug use, my heart goes down.
This is why I stand with my bishop.
We say I have to help that person.
That's why I gave the we deliver care some promise
because it's not going to be a strong arrest strategy.
I see people are sick, but I also said we're not afraid
to make arrests when we have to because we need to protect you.
So the legislation will address that.
It will require our third department, our fired
our first responders, our police chief, in an integrated effort.
So that will be done in a matter of weeks.
And, yes, we must disrupt what we're saying.
And by the way, these folks, the folks you see down here,
they're not strangers to me.
I grew up on these streets.
How dare anyone say, well, I'm going to sweep anybody.
I don't see anyone over there I grew up with.
The last press conference, I had a bunch of my homies I grew up with
because we lived through
that.
He kept saying, say behind the back I in church, you don't have to stay behind.
Like I get in church sometimes up here.
But I get your point.
And so, yes, we want to be disruptors in that sense.
Disruptors based on our values of compassion, love, commitment and faith.
Yes, we have to be disruptors.
He's calling them folks, sir.
Okay. I'm going to stay behind you.
We only got a couple of questions here. That's Erica
and you know,
I think so.
Erica, can I see your last name? Erica Barnett.
I'm with.
We pump up small businesses.
Erica. Erica Barnett,
who follows Steph granularly and city hall, asked a good question.
She said, in light of the graffiti law
this recently made, that really ties our hands, so to speak.
Erica, In terms of what we can do in terms of graffiti arrests,
how can we say that last part?
But how can we how are you going to respond to her?
How can we respond to graffiti in public spaces given that law
if we lose because it's on like an appeal right now
thing? Erica, you had to ask me that.
That's a tough question.
So, number one, we we're looking at the ruling.
We are appealing it.
And quite honestly, we have to figure it out.
I don't have a brilliant answer for you.
I do believe that
that laws can change.
That's why we have we have some state leaders here.
We have some a city council examine it.
So we have to have the ability to arrest people for
unwanted graffiti.
So if there's a there's precise language in the law that is unconstitutional,
that is vague, that's ambiguous, we have to fix it.
And we looked at other cities in other states
and how they're addressing it as well.
So if we lose the lawsuit, we go back to the drawing board and figure out
what the deficiencies are in the law and we fix it and remedy it.
But I also want to say this on graffiti
that in every opportunity
I have, I want to talk to that graffiti person.
I just want to know why they're doing it, why are they waking up with that kind
of energy? Because I want to heck, I want to hire them.
I want to hire them.
And can you use that energy?
Help me clean the city, paint a beautiful Native
American art on somewhere that's vacant.
So we're trying all kind of creative strategies.
And you do know, Erica, more than anyone that this graffiti stuff
does drive me nuts. And we got a great team in place.
Where's Paul Jackson? He's here.
I saw him Big Paul somewhere, and
Paul's in the back.
Paul is a good man and he's committed a So if the law is efficient,
we'll figure out a way to make it adequate.
Sarah Grace
the question loudly to have I paraphrasing where I
you said to some some people would say
that our
downtown activation plan is not leading with compassion.
And I talked about leading with compassion and how do I correlate compassion
with the downtown activation plan that made a ballpark,
particularly when it comes to people who are unhoused.
Okay.
Well, then I just flat out disagree.
Sorry, Jamie, I flat out disagree
because I was one of the architects on the council
about a housing first approach.
We don't sweep.
We offer shelter.
And I was one of the few people, I think, on the council
that would sit down with what was then called the navigation team.
And I asked people, Why do you do this kind of work?
Did you draw the streets short straw?
And these people would say to me, because I want to shelter people.
And when I meet with the unified care team, I look in their eyes
and I ask, How are you removing people?
Are you doing with anger?
Or do you understand the need to shelter them?
I meet with them and their leadership under Deputy Mayor Tiffany Washington,
all the way down to Tonya.
Kim and I can go all the way down to the list of superstars.
These are good people.
They're good people,
and they lead with compassion.
So people say we are not leading with compassion.
I just disagree.
But I'm willing to have that discussion with them.
And we also ask a police officers that are having to protect people
in and around, why are you doing this kind of work?
What motivates you? I always ask people what motivates them.
So I'm convinced we are doing it with compassion.
And if they are critical or they are, they have those concerns.
I just would have to disagree.
And I say give me specific examples.
Give me a specific example where we're not showing compassion.
And if we're not, we will fix it.
We will fix it.
Give me a specific example and stop dealing with this hyperbole.
Okay.
We got to go.
Okay.
Thank you for being here.
Is some food community leaders, business owner.
I love you. Thank you for the synergy.
Oh, thank you. Good.
You after the meeting.
Thank you, Mark.
One Seattle.
Let's make it happen. Thank you.