(applause)
[MAYOR KATIE B. WILSON] Okay.
Good morning.
[audience members] Good morning.
-How are y'all feeling this morning?
(shouts and applause)
Good, good.
I, I'm honored
to stand here today as your mayor.
Last time. (cheering and laughter)
Last time we convened, I was the mayor elect,
and my nametag still says that, but, we’ve moved on.
So first, let's begin by remembering that we are on the traditional
land of the Coast Salish people, people who are still here today.
And we honor their history and their stewardship of this land.
Let's also remember and root
ourselves in the multiracial community organizing and activism
that led to the founding of this institution,
where we are today, El Centro de la Raza, over 50 years ago.
And finally, let's honor the layers of history
that all of us also are carrying into the space of where we come from,
the struggles of our ancestors, and the stories of our own lives
that have brought us to this place together.
I want to begin by saying thank you.
You know, when we started this transition process,
doing things a little differently, than transition processes normally go...
Uhm, I have to admit, I was excited, but also a little nervous:
like where people are going to really want to put in the work?
And I think now it's very clear that you all are putting in the work.
(cheering) Yes, I am so,
so grateful for all of the
conversations that you all are having out there in the community.
Very excited to hear later today, some of the themes that are emerging.
And very excited,
some weeks from now to anticipate, recommendations that my administration
will be taking very seriously and putting into action.
So we're
convening here at the midpoint of the process, and,
at the same time, I've been mayor for a couple of weeks now.
And so, we're also not waiting to act
because, my administration is about action,
about getting results.
And so I'm very excited
this morning to be able to share with all of you,
first, two executive orders;
my first two executive orders that I am going
to be signing as mayor.
First, homelessness.
So yesterday morning, I went to visit
an encampment in Ballard that was scheduled for removal.
And we've delayed that removal to determine whether we can find
a better outcome for the folks who are staying there.
(applause and clapping)
And the conversations
that I had on site with folks who were living at that spot,
and community advocates, and our unified care team here at the City
really underscored for me
the message that I was delivering all of last year during the campaign,
which is that we do not have enough shelter,
enough housing, enough services, and the vast majority of our neighbors
who are sleeping unsheltered on our streets, they want help.
And so today,
I'm sharing
an executive order,
which will begin
accelerating our efforts to rapidly bring people inside
by expediting the expansion of shelter and affordable housing.
(cheering and applause)
We will be immediately launching an interdepartmental team
to identify options for incentives, permitting changes
and other policy changes
that can speed up the process of opening a new shelter and housing in Seattle.
We will be identifying and prioritizing City-owned public land
and working with other agencies and levels of government to identify
other public lands which could be used to temporarily or permanently
site new emergency shelter and housing.
We'll be coordinating with our regional partners to identify
shelter programs that have the capacity to add units to existing programs,
and we'll be working with organizations with expertise and behavioral health
to support substance use disorder
treatment and mental health counseling for housing and shelter programs.
We're going to be moving aggressively.
And this is not this is not the end. This is the beginning. Right?
So this is basically,
directing our departments internally to prepare for this work.
And so I know that, you know, many of you are also out there
having conversations and formulating recommendations in this area.
And so this will pave the way and we're going to be moving fast.
We have the World Cup coming this spring, and we're going to be moving fast
so that we can begin to bring more people inside.
(paper shuffling; cheering and applause)
And we also know
that, you know, homelessness and housing,
this is a continuum and we need everything.
We need more affordable housing.
We need more market rate housing.
We need more shelter.
And so we're going to be over the coming weeks and months,
we're going to be taking a lot more actions to get there,
and we're going to be relying on all of you
for your expertise and your organizing to help us make that happen.
Secondly,
we're going to get out the red paint on Denny Way.
(cheering and applause)
And I just want to acknowledge,
next to Ty and Jason Lee who are here with us this morning, who are,
the amazing, community organizers who have led the Fix the Late (L8)
campaign, for, for a very long time now it feels like,
you know, transit advocates, transit riders have been pushing for so long,
so long to get bus lanes on Denny.
Seattle deserves world class public transit.
Seattle voters have told us again and again
that they want fast, frequent, reliable bus service.
We cannot let one of our highest ridership routes consistently languish in traffic.
That is not a good use of our transit tax dollars,
and it's not a good use of our time.
As a transit rider and as a rider of the route eight,
I know the feeling of waiting at the stop for the bus
to come, and it's 30 minutes late or 40 minutes late.
I know the feeling of sitting on the bus, knowing
that you could be walking up that hill faster
than that bus is going.
So it is time that as a city, we take seriously what it takes
to deliver excellent public transit for our residents, for our workers.
So in this executive order, I'm directing SDOT to implement
at least one bus lane and other transit supportive infrastructure along Denny Way,
with the goal of significantly improving reliability,
speed and performance of the route eight and other transit services.
And we're going to be going back and forth with SDOT
over the details.
And the bottom line for me is I want as much transit priority as possible,
and I want it to work.
And so we also need to figure out with the other bus routes, in that area.
Right?
Make sure that we are improving, the experience for all the riders in our system.
We're directing SDOT
to return to the mayor's office
with a timeline, budget and implementation plan by April 17th,
along with recommendations for additional corridors
where transit priority investments can deliver
high impact benefits for riders and the city as a whole.
So this project, again,
like our homelessness executive order, is only the beginning.
This represents the start of a broader, sustained effort
to make transit in Seattle irresistibly good.
(cheering, applause, and laughter)
Fast, frequent,
reliable, safe and welcoming,
consistent with the city's adopted climate goals, transportation policies,
and the repeated clear priorities expressed by Seattle voters.
I'm excited (giggle)
and I'm going to be looking to all of you, for ideas
about further actions that we can take in these areas and so many more.
So thank you.
I'm going to let you all get to work.
And looking forward to hearing from you all later today.
(appaluse and cheering)