Regional Proposition 1 (Sound Transit 3): Approve

Regional Proposition 1 (also known as Sound Transit 3) would be a massive investment in the Puget Sound transit system. It would deliver grade-separated light rail to West Seattle Junction by 2030 and to Ballard, Lower Queen Anne, Denny Triangle, and Interbay by 2035, and open up various parts of the city and region to transit-oriented development, spurring plans to remake land in an urban image, to make more city to go around. Approve this measure to make our transportation system more resilient and our land use pattern more sustainable.

First let’s talk about the price tag. $54 billion is quoted often by opponents to scare folks out of voting for it. They don’t often mention that only half comes from local taxes and that the other half is leveraged through other sources including federal funds. Federal dollars are not fungible money. We either invest and return more of our federal tax dollars to our state thereby generating jobs, or get a bout of fiscal conservatism and let our federal money be spent by the likes of South Carolina, North Dakota, and Florida–who each receive more than four times what they contribute. Meanwhile, Washington state is on the other end of the spectrum, ranking 16th lowest in federal investment per state tax dollar. We are more of a giver than a taker when it comes to federal taxes. ST3 would ensure more federal investment.

The plan may not be exactly how some armchair transit planners would draw it, but such is life when North King County will account for only one third of revenue and one third of investment, give or take. And to its credit, ST3 manages to connect places in the suburbs that seem destined to urbanize. For all its eccentricities, Snohomish County’s Paine Field alignment does manage to hit most of the county’s densest neighborhoods.

Pierce and South King County do not boast great walkshed density along the light rail line but do offer some real opportunities to change that, such as near Federal Way Transit Center. Getting Tacoma light rail access to the airport will improve the city’s draw and help it shoulder more growth, too.

Bus rapid transit (BRT) boosters have suggested BRT could deliver sooner and spread its tentacles deeper into the suburbs. The thing they seem to forget is that ST3 delivers 49 miles of BRT by 2024 on two key corridors: I-405 and SR-522. That was the right decision in those corridors. But in corridors that need the greater capacity, ST3 makes the wise 100-year investment in light rail. Remember: one light rail line can move the equivalent of a 16-lane freeway filled with single-occupant vehicles. That’s why you should vote to approve Regional Proposition 1.

Visit the campaign website here.

Initiative 1433: Approve

For the better part of the 20th century, the goal of urbanism was to prove that cars and suburbs had not made cities obsolete. Today, we face the opposite problem: how can we ensure that cities have enough room for everyone who wants to live or work in them?

Seattle’s adoption of a $15/hour minimum wage and universal paid sick/safe time was an important victory, but inequality does not stop at Seattle’s borders. Workers in Bellevue, Shoreline, and Renton (and Everett, Tacoma, and Spokane, for that matter) face similar challenges as Seattleites in finding jobs that pay enough to cover the high cost of housing.

I-1433 will raise Washington State’s minimum wage to $13.50/hour over the next four years, and provide workers with up to seven days of paid sick leave per year. While $13.50 falls short of a living wage by some standards, it’s a substantial increase from the current $9.47. The increase will make it that much easier for Washington’s poorest workers to make ends meet.

If you’re still not convinced, consider that infectious diseases travel more quickly when people are closer together. Do you really want your lunch prepared by a coughing, sneezing employee who couldn’t afford to take a day of unpaid leave? Vote to approve I-1433.

Visit the campaign website here.

Initiative 124: Approve

I-124 is targeted at improving conditions for all hotel employees that work in the city, but especially women housekeepers. This measure takes several steps towards helping workers in a field that is predominately women from communities of color. Read our previous coverage on the issue here.

The initiative covers four primary issues:

• Worker protections from assault and sexual harassment;
• Reducing workplace injury;
• Access to affordable medical care; and
• Job security.

Highlights of the protections required through this initiative include panic buttons, requirements for employers to track sexual assaults, protecting senior staff when hotel ownership management changes, limiting workloads for staff, and providing access to healthcare insurance with costs no more than 6% of annual income.

I-124 is endorsed by multiple local political chapters, a broad coalition of social justice, racial justice and gender justice organizations, and multiple local unions.

The Urbanist is committed to welcoming, equitable cities. For our cities to grow successfully, we must do more to make sure workers feel safe and comfortable. We urge Seattle voters to support workplace safety, security, and health on their November ballot by approving Initiative 124.

Visit the campaign website here.

Initiative 1491: Approve

For cities to be successful, they must be livable. To be livable, they must be safe. To be safe, our communities need tools to protect the most vulnerable among us.

From family violence, to suicide, to mass shootings, gun violence tears our communities apart. Initiative 1491 creates extreme risk protection orders, giving law enforcement and families the power to ask a judge to temporarily suspend a person’s access to firearms if there is documented evidence that the person poses a serious threat to themselves or others.

With support from law enforcement, public health, mental health, domestic violence prevention, survivors, and faith leaders, this initiative is a crucial step towards creating safer communities. We proudly join this coalition and encourage our readers to approve Initiative 1491.

Visit the campaign website here.

43rd Legislative District: Nicole Macri

Nicole Macri was the clear standout of all of the excellent candidates running in the 43rd Legislative District, and The Urbanist happily carries our endorsement of her forward into the general election.

Nicole’s impressive coalition of supporters, from seven current members of the Seattle City Council, Mayor Ed Murray and former Mayor Mike McGinn, to a huge slate of progressive organizations like the Sierra Club, Emily’s List, and the Washington State Labor Council speaks volumes about the confidence that community leaders have in what she will be able to accomplish in Olympia.

But above all, The Urbanist is excited to send a smart housing policy wonk down to the state house to shake things up. Her fellow representative in the 43rd, Speaker Frank Chopp, also makes housing one of his leading issues, but some of his policy ideas could use a fresh perspective. Nicole’s experience with Housing First policies makes her an ideal candidate to elect during our state of emergency around the issue of homelessness.

That being said, we do not believe that Nicole will be a one-issue representative, and fully expect her to bring an urbanist’s sensibility to the table on a host of other statewide issues, from mitigating the effects of climate change, to approaching state transportation issues, to increased worker’s and union rights. We believe that Nicole is the best choice to represent the 43rd Legislative District for years to come. Vote Macri.

Read Nicole’s endorsement survey answers. Visit Nicole’s campaign website here.

7th Congressional District: Brady Walkinshaw

With the retirement of Jim McDermott, the 7th Congressional District will see a new representative for the first time since 1989. The next officeholder will likely hold the position for decades, making this a vitally important position for Seattle residents. The Urbanist is excited to endorse Brady Walkinshaw for Congress.

Walkinshaw has been a state representative for the 43rd Legislative District since 2013. He has a track record of bi-partisan cooperation and has sponsored legislation on renter protections, addressing drug addition, and criminal justice reform.

Through our questionnaire and interview process, Walkinshaw demonstrated his ability to take an urban agenda to the United States Congress. He opposes highway expansion in urban areas and is open to dedicating right-of-way to modes other than cars, including rail. He also showed a willingness to use the power of the federal government to rethink how zoning works and to push for more equitable and sustainable land use and housing frameworks. During the interview, he also mentioned the failure of the federal government to focus on urban priorities and indicated that the district should represent that need.

Walkinshaw says, “The American Dream is no longer a white picket fence on a few acres of land–it’s a condo in the midst of a bustling urban environment.” We encourage our readers to vote for Brady Walkinshaw because he will be an advocate for more equitable and sustainable cities. Vote Walkinshaw.

Read Brady’s endorsement survey answers. Visit Brady’s campaign website here. Pramila Jayapal was not eligible for endorsement because she did not respond to requests to complete the questionnaire. 

Voting members of the Elections Board consisted of Laura Bernstein, Scott Bonjukian, Ben Crowther, Aleksandra Culver, Ryan Packer, Owen Pickford, and Doug Trumm.

The post 2016 General Election Endorsements first appeared on The Urbanist.

For that reason, we are proud to release our endorsements for the 2016 primary election on four key local campaigns, including two ballot measures and two races. These votes will impact the vision of our waterfront, the affordability of our housing, the investments in our infrastructure, and our continued national leadership. We looked for the best policies and advocates to represent true urbanist values. You can read more about how we did that here.

We’d like to thank all of the candidates who participated in our endorsement process and hope our readers will find the information and thoughts below to be useful when casting their votes.

43rd Legislative District: Nicole Macri

The field of candidates in the 43rd Legislative District is very robust, and includes several candidates who present a strong case for themselves as urbanists. Nicole Macri, however, stands out in this field as having the strongest background to hit the ground running in the state legislature. As Deputy Director of the Downtown Emergency Service Center and President of the Board of Directors of the Low Income Housing Alliance, she has been on the front lines of Seattle’s housing crisis. Elevating one of Seattle’s key players in the fight against homelessness to the state level is a smart move. Seattle is in the middle of a state of emergency on homelessness, but this issue will only be solved regionally and systematically with the full involvement of all levels of government.

It is clear that Nicole has demonstrated the skillset necessary to succeed in Olympia, and her positions on a wide variety of urban issues, from her support for finding less volatile funding sources for public transit, to her endorsement of a carbon tax to help mitigate the effects of climate change, have earned her our endorsement. We see Nicole fighting for the 43rd Legislative District in the state legislature for years to come. Vote Macri.

Read Nicole’s endorsement survey answers. Visit Nicole’s campaign website here.

7th Congressional District: Brady Walkinshaw

With the retirement of Jim McDermott, the 7th Congressional District will see a new representative for the first time since 1989. The Urbanist endorses the candidacy of Brady Walkinshaw. Walkinshaw grew up in rural Washington and worked professionally on sustainable food systems. He was appointed to (then) Representative Jamie Pedersen’s seat in the state house in 2013 and then won election to the same seat in 2014.

Through his questionnaire and interview process, Walkinshaw showed his willingness to take an urban agenda to the United States Congress. In regards to highways, he voiced opposition to expansions in urban areas as well as a willingness to dedicate right-of-way to modes other than cars, including rail. He also is willing to rethink how zoning is done in cities. He showed a willingness to use the power of the federal government to push for more equitable and sustainable zoning and housing. During the interview, he also mentioned the failure of the federal government to focus on urban priorities and indicated that the district should represent that need.

We believe Walkinshaw would be an advocate for more equitable and sustainable cities and we encourage our readers to vote for him in the fall.

Read Brady’s endorsement survey answers. Visit Brady’s campaign website here. Pramila Jayapal was not eligible for endorsement because she did not respond to requests to complete the questionnaire. 

City of Seattle Proposition 1 (Housing Levy): Vote Yes

Proposition 1 will double the current housing levy and is a slam dunk. Seattle is in the midst of a severe housing crisis with many people becoming priced out of the city and record numbers of people experiencing homelessness. Renewing and doubling the housing levy is a tangible step to really help those who need it most. The 2009 Housing Levy invested $145 million over seven years. The 2016 levy would build upon the success of the last and invest $290 million over the next seven years. It includes:

• $243 million in the preservation and production of affordable rental units, with 60% of these funds focused on families and individuals living at 30% area median income or below;
• $11.5 million in homelessness prevention; and
• $9.5 million in assistance to low-income homeowners and homebuyers.

Opponents have raised concerns about how efficiently the City is spending levy dollars, but the reality is that rising construction costs and the skyrocketing price of land is affecting non-profit housing providers too, and we could very well end up paying a higher price per unit price than in previous levies. This isn’t grounds to oppose the bill measure; it’s a reflection of our current real estate market, the very reason we need the levy in the first place.

Seattle is a wealthy city. Doubling the housing levy is a statement that we won’t turn our back on making sure that all Seattleites can afford to live in the city, close to where they work and where services are. Vote YES on Seattle Proposition 1 (Housing Levy).

City of Seattle Initiative 123 (Viaduct Park): Vote No

We strongly oppose Initiative 123’s effort to derail a decade of progress on transforming Seattle’s waterfront. The plan would rebuild a 50-feet tall, one-mile long pedestrian bridge along the waterfront where the crumbling Alaskan Way Viaduct stands today. The main justification for the campaign? The views afforded by a piece of highway infrastructure that has divided Seattle from its bustling waterfront for more than 60 years.

Kate Martin, the campaign leader, ran for Seattle mayor in 2013 on a platform that included a vision of preserving the Alaskan Way Viaduct as a park akin to the High Line in New York—a project with a much different scale and context. Losing with less than two percent of the absolute vote total, the idea clearly didn’t resonate with the public. And an engineering study found that preserving the viaduct was impossible, prompting the campaign’s main backer, developer Martin Selig, to pull his support.

The proposal is now to rebuild the viaduct as a towering “garden bridge” that will require 1,000-feet long ramps and outdoor elevators to access. This would blockade the effort to reactivate our city’s waterfront with parks, pedestrian and bicycle promenades, and redevelopment of private properties.

Seattle’s waterfront designer, James Corner, designed the very same High Line that I-123 aspires to become. And even he calls the proposal a “dumb idea”. And in placing I-123 on the ballot, the Seattle City Council noted the measure is “…inconsistent with the Strategic Plan, Central Waterfront Concept Design and Framework Plan, and the Funding Plan for the Waterfront…and undermines the vision for Waterfront Seattle”.

That’s enough for us to endorse a NO vote on Initiative 123.

Read our previous articles (one, two) on the Park My Viaduct and I-123 campaign.

Voting members of the 2016 Primary Elections Board consisted of Owen Pickford, Ben Crowther, Scott Bonjukian, Doug Trumm, and Ryan Packer.

The post 2016 Primary Election Endorsements first appeared on The Urbanist.

Our endorsements last year covered all nine crowded City Council races. We interviewed 25 candidates and asked each the same five questions, publishing summaries of their answers for readers to review. But we heard loud and clear that readers wanted more direct quotes so they could judge candidates by their own words.

So this year we changed our process. Candidates were sent a survey covering a range of key issues, from climate change to homelessness and rent control. Each of these surveys was published verbatim. In total, six candidates from the 43^rd Legislative race were invited to participate and all six responded, including Dan Shih, Nicole Macri, Sameer Ranade, Thomas Pitchford, Scott Forbes, and Marcus Courtney. In the 7^th Congressional race, three major candidates were invited and two responded, including Brady Walkinshaw and Joe McDermott. Pramila Jayapal’s campaign did not respond to multiple attempted contacts and is therefore ineligible for endorsement.

While we recognize that surveys are better suited for publishing, they lack the same accountability as an in-person interview. Indeed, many campaigns direct paid staffers to complete surveys on their behalf as they’re inundated during endorsement season.

For that reason, we offered optional 30-minute in-person interviews to dig deeper. Six candidates accepted, including Sameer Ranade, Marcus Courtney, Brady Walkinshaw, Nicole Macri, Dan Shih, and Scott Forbes. Those who accepted were asked to repeat answers to original survey questions and asked new questions about issues like the looming I-5 replacement and new progressive revenue sources like a capital gains tax. The interviews also gave candidates a chance to speak candidly. Paired with the optional nature, records of these interviews will not be publicly available.

This week, the Elections Board met to decide our endorsement in both the 43^rd Legislative and 7^th Congressional races, along with Initiative 123 (Park My Viaduct) and Proposition 1 (Housing Levy). We will publish our official endorsements in each of these races next week. Come the general election in November, we may re-evaluate our positions in these races and take on new issues—top of the list being Sound Transit 3.

We are proud to be one of the few organizations to release candidate answers as part of our endorsement process because we believe it furthers our values of transparency, education, and accountability. We understand that there are many flavors of urbanism, just as there are flavors of the Democratic and Republican parties. Some prioritize certain values like environmentalism or social justice, while others are laser-focused on issues like public transit, biking, or zoning. For that reason, we expect some readers to arrive at different conclusions regarding their own votes. We hope only that our work can help guide them to their own conclusions.

The post Our 2016 Endorsement Process Explained first appeared on The Urbanist.

Earlier this week, we kicked off with candidate surveys for the 43rd Legislative District (Representative Position 1), but today we’re releasing our candidate surveys for the 7th Congressional District. We reached out to three candidates in our survey, but only received two responses for the high profile race. Next week, our Elections Board will release Primary endorsements of The Urbanist covering both candidates and local issues.

The following is our full survey from Joe McDermott, candidate for the 7th Congressional District (no relation to the retiring fourteen-term Congressperson Jim McDermott).

Do you consider yourself an urbanist? Why/Why not?

I believe in smart growth policies that improve the livability of communities, actively promote economic opportunity, and are good for our environment. As the Budget Chair and now Chair of the King County Council and a Sound Transit Boardmember, I do identify as an “urbanist” and value the important work of making our communities a better, more equitable place to live, work, and play.

What is your strategy for making housing more affordable both for very low-income and middle-class workers?

I am proud of the work I am doing on the Board of Sound Transit to promote affordable housing development around new and existing light rail stations to ensure that our transit infrastructure is truly benefiting communities that need it the most. This approach must become commonplace for federal, state and local transportation and transit projects. For decades now, Congress has been disinvesting in affordable housing in our country. We need to increase funding and availability of Section 8 Vouchers, and increase funding for the National Housing Trust Fund as well to restore the federal partnership that is desperately lacking for local communities working to address these issues as well.

What are your preferred policies for adapting to and mitigating climate change?

Our planet is perilously close to a point of no return, thus we must take immediate action locally, nationally, and internationally to reduce carbon and gas emissions that are accelerating global warming and climate change. I took on these issues when in the Legislature and most recently championed efforts at King County to adopt our Strategic Climate Action Plan, about which Earth Day founder Dennis Hayes said, “Your plan is the best that I’ve seen. It has bold interim and bold final targets, and it proposes policies that would move the county powerfully in the right direction.”

We must foster a strong Blue-Green Alliance between labor and the environmental community to modernize our energy infrastructure towards clean and efficient energy and ensure a just transition for workers and communities in carbon-intense industries and regions. From retraining programs for workers with new clean-energy technology to investing in our transportation systems that reduce congestion and pollution, I will push our country to invest in saving our environment and good jobs.

I am particularly proud of the work I engaged in as a Sound Transit boardmember to bring light rail and other transit options to the region and proposing a new Sound Transit 3 ballot measure for the November 2016 ballot.

What are your preferred policies for ending homelessness?

We’ve learned here in King County that rapid rehousing programs are incredibly effective to getting individuals and families back on their feet and away from homelessness. We need to first understand the reasons for the challenges that brought people to losing their home, whether they are a veteran, struggling with mental illness, survivor of domestic violence, overwhelmed with unpaid bills, or in the case of the overwhelming number of homeless LGBTQ youth, not welcomed at home due to who they are. This allows local governments and organizations to find the best path forward out of homelessness, and the federal government must step up and be a partner to support that important local work, increasing funding for programs like the McKinney Vento Homeless Assistance Grant Program.

What federal policies would you support to create more livable urban communities?

The Federal government must focus on supporting transit oriented development through programs like TIFIA loans. As we look to build out Sound Transit 3 in the coming years, I will fight to bolster national funding for New Starts and ensure our region is competitive in receiving significant support in the coming years to deliver on this important project. Additionally, we should always be sure to support communities throughout the Seventh District and the Puget Sound that are designing roadways that incorporate bikes and pedestrians where appropriate and are utilizing best practices from resources like the NATCO street design guide.

What federal policies would you support to create more equitable urban communities?

One of the challenges with transit development is disproportionate access for communities of color and low income families. The Federal government can do more to ensure that projects track performance measures around how transit expands access to jobs for those traditionally disadvantaged. Department of Transportation Secretary Foxx’s “Ladders of Opportunities” initiative is a great example of how the federal government can play a role promoting and highlighting equitable development of transportation infrastructure that creates jobs, increases access to employment opportunities and delivers safe, multimodal options for families to have a sound quality of life no matter where they live. I will be a steadfast and diligent supporter of efforts to ensure the much needed investment in our transportation infrastructure serves the needs of all Americans.

How can the federal transportation budget better support diverse transportation choices?

Very simply, the federal transportation can create set asides for different types of projects–from bicycling to pedestrian access, transit, light rail, rail–rather than broad funding for highways. This will ensure specific and accountable investments in multimodal transportation around the country.

What revenue mechanisms would you support to create a financially stable transportation budget?

We must secure a sustainable, longer term revenue source that makes sound and smart investments in our urban areas. Whether this comes in the forms of user fees, vehicle miles travelled, or other proposals, we must end the roller coaster of investment that our country sorely needs. Further, we must also make sure that federal partnership with projects can go to local communities who need them the most, which will help expedite the immediate economic activity and associated jobs and will promote the long term economic growth of traditionally disadvantaged regions of our country. I am also interested in proposals for a Transportation Infrastructure Bank which I believe could provide needed financing and capital for the immense amount of work that must be done to upgrade our aging and often failing transportation infrastructure. It will be very important, however, to ensure that any solution like this should include strong Davis-Bacon provisions and PLAs associated with any financed projects to ensure these investments benefit the communities in and around the projects.

Do you plan to support Sound Transit 3?

Yes

Do you support the Seattle Housing Levy?

Yes

The post 2016 Endorsement Interviews: Joe McDermott first appeared on The Urbanist.

Earlier this week, we kicked off with candidate surveys for the 43rd Legislative District (Representative Position 1), but today we’re releasing our candidate surveys for the 7th Congressional District. We reached out to three candidates in our survey, but only received two responses for the high profile race. Next week, our Elections Board will release Primary endorsements of The Urbanist covering both candidates and local issues.

The following is our full survey from Brady Walkinshaw, candidate for the 7th Congressional District.

Do you consider yourself an urbanist? Why/Why not?

Yes, because it’s our future. We’ve seen explosive growth of urban spaces. The American Dream is no longer a white picket fence on a few acres of land–it’s a condo in the midst of a bustling urban environment. This is especially the case in the deeply progressive urban centers in our country. Urbanism is about a social justice, climate change, equity, regional food systems, educational opportunity, racial and economic diversity, transportation, and housing. This is a core reason I ran for Congress: federal policy has done a dismal job in keeping pace with the changing demands of urban environments.

We’ll likely add one million people in the central Puget Sound by 2014. One metric is how long it takes people of all backgrounds, economic and racial, to get to their jobs. In a healthy urban center, the time should ideally be short and relatively similar. Our opportunity in Seattle is to demonstrate that we can grow, retain equity, reduce our carbon footprint, enhance our quality of life in an urban environment, and increase economic and racial diversity. There are critical federal policies that impact this. We have the opportunity in Seattle to lead federally on an urban agenda.

What is your strategy for making housing more affordable both for very low-income and middle-class workers?

First off, we make a policy mistake when we separate the affordability of low-income and workforce housing from our broader housing supply and market. I think about this in three ways: (a) increase density with the appropriate zoning, (b) increase the supply of public housing toward very low income groups (<60% of AMI), and (c) expand and improve housing tax credits so we strike a balance of mixed income development.

This is an issue I’ve led on and was the State’s legislator of the year for the Housing Alliance in 2015. In negotiating the Sound Transit III package, Rep. Farrell and I led efforts to ensure that 65% of land and air rights around and above transit stations, owned by Sound Transit, would be dedicated to affordable housing and mixed-income development.

Federal housing funding is essential to low-income populations, and in the course of my lifetime, we’ve seen 80% cuts to the federal block grants through HUD. The next reauthorization of Section XIII housing should address the realities that housing vouchers frequently go unused. A related issue is access to housing and tenant rights. I’ve led on this agenda and passed the Fair Tenant Screening Act in this year’s legislative session.

What are your preferred policies for adapting to and mitigating climate change?

I’m running for Congress on an environmental platform. I focus on three key pillars: (a) put a price on carbon, ideally a federal carbon tax, (b) keep fossil fuels in the ground, and (c) address emissions from our forests and our farms. A short article I co-authored with husband, Micah, a marine biologist leading state research efforts on ocean acidification, goes into more detail on these three areas.

We can lead on climate from the Pacific Northwest. I support a federal ban on fracking. I support a full moratorium on fossil fuel extraction on public lands. I support an end to arctic drilling.

I see long-term climate sustainability through an urbanist lens. Development and affluence typically correlate pretty well with the size of our per capita carbon footprint. The wealthier you are, the bigger your footprint. The problem we need to solve is how we can be an affluent, equitable society and reduce our per capita carbon footprint. A big part of achieving this is developing built environments in urban centers with concentrated populations that reduce our footprints but retain our quality of life. The movement for carbon neutral cities and urban spaces is powerful and essential to addressing climate.

What are your preferred policies for ending homelessness?

Homelessness is manmade. Other Western Democracies do not have chronic, family, and youth homelessness at our levels. We can solve homelessness.

First off, veteran homelessness is 10-20% of our homeless populations. We’ve been at war for over half my lifetime. It’s important to remember that one cost of war is a high prevalence of veteran homelessness.

Secondly, since the early 1980s federal funding for mental health services and federal block grants for homelessness through HUD have declined by as much as 80%. We need a federal government that is reinvested in community development. In the 1970s we had 600,000 in-patient beds for mental health and today we have 40,000, but our country’s population has almost doubled. When I passed Joel’s Law last year, we reinvested in community-based care. We need to increase federal funding for homelessness.

Two specific policies:
• Scale-up Housing First nationally. For $14,000 we can house someone for a year in supportive housing; $14,000 is the cost of one-week of in-patient care
• Ensure federal Section VIII housing vouchers don’t discriminate against low-income tenants trying to secure housing. That’s why 45% of Section VIII vouchers go unused in King County

What federal policies would you support to create more livable urban communities?

Specific policy recommendations:
• Federal incentives for local jurisdictions to optimize zoning and density (there are many past examples of this where the federal government can incentivize better land use)
• Federal incentives for the widespread adoption and scale-up of solar and clean energy
• Transportation policies that prioritize transit and bike / pedestrian infrastructure
• Broaden the allowable uses of federal gas tax dollars by DOT for housing and transit purposes
• Housing policies that (a) increase supply, (b) expand public housing for very low income, and (c) incentivize more mixed income development
• Strengthen the federal role in supporting Growth Management and other related policies like farmland preservation to prevent sprawl
• Support more integration of housing and transportation policies at the federal level

More broadly, we need to build a stronger coalition of self-described urbanist members of Congress from urban centers like Seattle, who will build coalitions within Congress to strengthen policies around the equitable growth of urban centers. We already have some strong urbanist leaders in Congress, and I’d hope to join in thoughtfully driving an urban agenda from places like ours.

As someone who grew up on 25 acres of land in rural Whatcom County, I can speak to both sides!

What federal policies would you support to create more equitable urban communities?

We need to increase housing supply. Federal incentives for zoning policies that allow us to increase the supply of housing in urban centers are essential.

In a healthy urban environment, the length of time that it takes an individual to get from their home to their place of employment matters for our social justice, competitiveness, equity, and economic diversity. In a healthy urban center, this length of time is unrelated to your income or race.

When we live closer to one another, it means we’re more invested in the same schools, parks, policing, and other public services. Economic diversity in cities matters because it closes the opportunity gap and increases the likelihood of social mobility.

We need to make the cost of nutritious food lower and more accessible to low-income communities.

We need to raise the federal minimum wage to $15/hour. However, $15 goes further if ensure that working families who earn $15 also live close to their sources of employment, and their children are educated in schools where middle-income and high-income families are also educating their children. This is how we close the opportunity gap, when we’re all invested together, and this is the promise of urbanism.

How can the federal transportation budget better support diverse transportation choices?

• Priority investment in transit and rail
• Federal policies that integrate housing and transportation
• Using federal gas tax dollars for housing purposes around transit facilities
• Upgrading freeway infrastructure in a way that uses data to project future use of transportation infrastructure
• New Starts and Small Starts programs–which leverage federal transit investments to spur new private sector activity (i.e., commercial revitalization, housing and community development)
• Investments in sidewalks and bicycle facilities, particularly in low-income communities and communities of color
• Expand access to transportation jobs for lower-income people, women, people with disabilities, and communities of color through investments in areas like education, job training, and infrastructure improvement
• Allowing states to implement local hiring provisions on transportation projects, similar to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, would bring greater benefits to communities where transportation projects are planned or underway
• Establishing a construction careers workforce development program at USDOT would help disadvantaged workers have better access to construction employment in the transportation sector, and increase the workforce available to efficiently complete transportation projects

What revenue mechanisms would you support to create a financially stable transportation budget?

• Broader revenue reform for tax exemptions for corporations
• Innovative ideas like road usage fees
• Weaning ourselves off of the gas tax, as it is unsustainable
• Well instituted tolling
• Eliminating tax loopholes for corporations
• Cutting the mortgage deduction for second homes

Do you plan to support Sound Transit 3?

Yes

Do you support the Seattle Housing Levy?

Yes

The post 2016 Endorsement Interviews: Brady Walkinshaw first appeared on The Urbanist.