State of the City Address
Mayor Greg Nickels
February 19, 2008

A City of Innovation

Ladies and Gentleman, members of the City Council, honored guests, friends and neighbors, it is my great honor today to report that the state of our city, Seattle, is stronger than ever.

As I begin, I’d like to welcome our two new Councilmembers, Bruce Harrell and Tim Burgess, and congratulate our new Council President Richard Conlin. I am looking forward to working with you and each member to make this city even better.

It is fitting that we gather here at the Pacific Science Center because it celebrates a trait that runs deep in the foundation of Seattle’s soul – innovation. As a city, we are driven to confront the problems we face, no matter the scale. We prosper because we challenge conventional wisdom. And when we put our minds to it, we overcome the intractable.

Our ability to make tough decisions has been rewarded with success. That’s innovation.

But it’s never easy. Every good idea must run a gauntlet of skepticism. The people of Seattle are a feisty bunch. They are protective of all that makes this city a great place to live, work and raise a family. We don’t change for change’s sake. Innovation must have a purpose -- to make a difference in people’s lives.

Today, as I look across this wonderful city, I’m proud to say that the Seattle spirit of innovation is alive and well. We are finding new ways to tackle old problems. And as we succeed, others are taking note. Seattle is showing the world how.

We are showing how one city can turn the tide on global warming and how saving our planet will create jobs and opportunities. We are showing how to build a transportation system that works for the century ahead. We are showing how to create parks and open space. We are showing how to keep our neighborhoods safe. And we are showing how to reach out to those hardest to reach.

In Seattle, we see innovation everywhere.

We see it in the light rail tracks that now stretch from our convention center to the airport. And we see it in the city’s first modern streetcar line that carries a thousand people a day through our city with zero greenhouse gas emissions.

We see it at the University of Washington, at the Hutch, and at the Gates Foundation, where every day thousands of people go to work curing the intractable problems that confront mankind.

We see it in neighborhoods such as Northgate, Ballard, Southeast Seattle and South Lake Union, where new jobs, new homes and new opportunities are flourishing, in some cases after decades of neglect.

And I saw it recently in the eyes of Ed Myers.

Ed lives at 1811 Eastlake. He was a Vietnam Vet and a trucker from Council Bluffs, Iowa. For many years he lived on the streets of this city, battling alcohol. He spent a lot of time in the sobering center or the emergency room. He was the kind of guy you might cross the street to avoid, if you noticed him at all.

Today, Ed will invite you into his tidy studio apartment, show you the framed picture of his mom and dad, show off his new cowboy boots and tell you about a hard life now on the mend.

Thanks to Ed’s courage and the support of the people at 1811, he has been sober for more than six months.

1811 Eastlake is one of Seattle’s “Housing First” buildings. It is an innovative approach to helping those who are often hardest to help. They are the chronically homeless, many of whom struggle with alcohol, drugs or mental illness. It works by giving people a clean, safe place to live first, and then helping them to stabilize their lives.

But the residents at 1811 are not required to be sober. And that didn’t sit well with some people. They said it would bring crime and grime to the neighborhood. One critic even called Housing First a “comfy ride for bad behavior.”

They were wrong. A study released last month showed that 1811 Eastlake and Plymouth on Stewart, have saved $3.2 million in avoided costs for medical, jail and crisis services. But more importantly than that, it has given human beings something even more valuable – hope.

Last year, I talked about the opportunity I had to visit Judith and Sunshine, two residents at Plymouth on Stewart in downtown Seattle. Judith and Sunshine have had their lives reconnected to their family and community. They have each celebrated their first full year in a real home. For the first time in many years Ed, Judith and Sunshine can see a better future. They have a life again. You can see it in the sparkle in their eyes.

In Seattle , more than 500 Housing First apartments have been built or are on the way. And I’m committed to expanding these life-saving programs as part of our 10-year plan to end homelessness. I want to thank Councilmember McIver for joining with me in this effort. Some people say that we can’t end homelessness. They say it is a problem we can only manage but not overcome. I disagree and in Seattle we are showing the world how.

Climate of change

We know our climate is changing. We see it in the drenching rain storms in December and the wind storm that struck more than a year ago. We see it in our mountains, where snow levels whipsaw between too little and too much. We are committed to turning the tide on global warming and preparing for the change already underway.

Last Saturday, February 16 th, we marked an important anniversary in Seattle. Three years ago to the day, the Kyoto Protocol went into effect in 141 countries, but not the United States.

On that day, I pledged that Seattle would meet the goals of the Kyoto Protocol and cut our city’s climate pollution emissions by 680,000 tons a year. But I also knew that if we took this action alone, it would be merely symbolic.

So I called on mayors across this country to join with Seattle in taking local action on global warming. Today, 794 cities have signed the U.S. Mayors Climate Protection Agreement. More than 78 million people, one in four Americans, now live in cities that are making a difference by reducing their emissions.

In November, Seattle hosted the largest-ever gathering of mayors devoted solely to climate protection. One hundred-twenty mayors traveled from across the nation to share ideas for protecting our climate, including Michael Bloomberg of New York and Antonio Villaraigosa of Los Angeles. We were joined by former President Bill Clinton and former Vice President, Oscar winner and Nobel Laureate Al Gore. And one common theme emerged during those two days – an urgent desire to take local action now to save our planet.

What was a symbolic declaration is now tangible change. And the world knows Seattle led the way. Other cities have followed. So have the states. And now, we hear the promise of real action at the federal level in the campaigns of senators Barack Obama, Hilary Clinton and John McCain. We can create a climate of change in this nation, and Seattle is showing how.

I’d like to thank each Council member for your efforts on behalf of our climate and our planet.

Reducing waste; Reusing more

We know that our efforts are making a difference in Seattle. In the days before the mayors’ summit, I was proud to announce that Seattle has reached a major milestone. We reduced our carbon emissions by 8 percent below where they were in 1990; we exceeded our Kyoto goal.

It was a moment to celebrate. But more importantly, it was a moment to recommit ourselves to overcoming the challenges ahead. If we do nothing more, we will lose ground over the next few years as more people move to our city. And to truly save the planet, we must go an order of magnitude beyond the goals of Kyoto and cut our emissions 80 percent by 2050.

Skeptics will say again that it can’t be done. We will show them how it can.

We call it Seattle Climate Action Now. Our goal is to get every Seattle resident to take action, even if it is as simple as changing a light bulb. But just as important, Seattle Climate Action Now is our city’s commitment to provide people with tools to make a difference for our planet.

We know what the problem is – most of our greenhouse gas emissions come from the vehicles and buildings. So we must take steps today to reduce the use of fossil fuels in our cars and our homes and businesses.

That is why I joined with State Sen. Ed Murray in Olympia earlier this month to introduce legislation that would reduce carbon pollution by encouraging the use of more fuel-efficient cars.

We called it a Carbon tax and it would require drivers to pay for the cost of carbon emissions based on their car’s mileage rating. Someone who drives a gas-guzzling Hummer would pay about $180 a year, next to $60 a year for the owner of a fuel-sipping Prius. The money raised from this Carbon tax would be used to pay for alternative forms of transportation, such as transit, bikes and walking.

But cleaner cars will only get us so far. The other major source of climate pollution in our region comes from our buildings. Seattle is the nation’s leader in new green buildings. But most of the places where we live, work and shop are already built.

To meet our climate goals, we must find innovative ways to unlock the doors to energy conservation in the homes and businesses that exist today.

That is why I’m announcing a new effort to make Seattle America’s Green Building Capital. I have three goals for this initiative. The first is to improve energy efficiency in our commercial and residential buildings by 20 percent. The second is to provide real cost-savings for struggling homeowners who will see their heating bills drop as waste is reduced. And the third is to create new green collar jobs for those working to make our homes, offices and industry more energy efficient.

Achieving this triple bottom line will not be an easy task. This spring I will call together a diverse panel of community members to help us develop the right approach for achieving these three goals – greater energy savings, lower home energy bills and more good paying jobs.

Whether it is on the road or in our homes, Seattle will continue to lead the way on reducing greenhouse gases. We will show the world how.

Building the roads ahead

When I took office, our streets were a mess. A generation of under-investment and dwindling support from the state and the federal government helped create a $500 million backlog of basic maintenance on our roads, bridges and sidewalks.

It seemed impossibly large. So we started small. We focused on potholes and promised that we would fill them within 48 hours when someone called 684-R-O-A-D. Some thought it was overly ambitious. But we saw it as basic service.

I believe this: if you show the people that you can take care of the small stuff, they will give you the tools you need to tackle the big stuff. And that is just what happened.

When we asked voters for their support in Bridging the Gap between our transportation resources and our transportation challenges they said “yes.” These steps have allowed us to more than double our annual transportation investment from when I took office.

Last week, I announced the first year of accomplishments from Bridging the Gap and they are impressive:

• We paved 27 lane miles of arterials. We used to pave between four and eight miles a year.
• We replaced 1,043 street name signs – some nearly as old as I am.
• For the first time in memory, we completed 27 blocks of new and renovated sidewalks.
• And after years of almost no new bike facilities, we added 20 miles of lanes, trails and sharrows in 2007.

And that is just a start. This year, we will do even more to get Seattle moving.

But the work that is underway is much more than paving streets and painting bridges. We are working to create a transportation system that makes it easier, safer and more convenient to get around by foot, bike or transit.

We are taking innovative approaches to pedestrian safety, including the installation of 30 red light cameras that will catch bad drivers who threaten pedestrian safety. I’d like to thank Councilmembers Nick Licata and Tom Rasmussen for their commitment to improving safety for pedestrians in Seattle. The Council and I share a commitment to making Seattle the most walkable city in the country.

On Dec. 12 at 12:12 p.m., we accomplished something incredible. We opened the first line of the Seattle Streetcar network. At the time, I said I didn’t care what people called it, just as long as they rode it. And they have. So far, 125,000 people have taken the streetcar and the demand to expand the network is growing.

Four years ago, when we started working on the streetcar, some people scoffed. But we didn’t back down. We challenged the skeptics, engaged the community and delivered the first new transportation alternative in Seattle in more than 40 years. We showed how it is done.

I’d like to thank Councilmember Jan Drago for her help on both Bridging the Gap and the Seattle Streetcar. Your leadership has been invaluable in Getting Seattle Moving.

We are making it happen. Seattle is showing how.

Creating jobs and opportunities

Six years ago, as I took office, Seattle was experiencing the worst recession in a generation. We were hemorrhaging jobs and we were forced to cut $120 million from the City budget. But Seattle is a resilient and innovative city.

In the midst of that economic darkness, we looked around the city for signs of light.

In Northgate we found a neighborhood poised for growth but languishing in acrimony and indecision. Today there are new jobs, new homes and a new sense of community.

In the University District we revitalized the Ave and redefined our relationship with the most important generator of new ideas, new talent and new jobs in our city – the University of Washington.

In Southeast Seattle, we are making sure that the people who live in this dynamic and diverse neighborhood today are the ones who benefit tomorrow from our investments in light rail and housing.

And in South Lake Union, we have helped create some 7,000 new jobs and nearly 2,000 homes.

As the nation’s economy once again teeters on the brink of recession, we must remember the lessons we learned. We cannot take jobs for granted in our city.

That is why we took action with the Industrial Jobs Initiative to prevent real estate speculators from driving out the 120,000 family-wage jobs that thrive on our industrial lands. That is why we worked to keep one of our biggest employers, Amazon.com, in Seattle. That is why we are helping our neighborhood business districts to prosper.

But something else innovative and amazing is happening in Seattle. By embracing our need to save the planet, we are creating new jobs here at home. They include familiar companies like McKinstry, which started out 50 years ago as a plumbing and heating company, but today is a leader in helping businesses save energy and money. I had the chance to join Senator Barack Obama on a tour of McKinstry recently. He called this Green Seattle company “proof that reducing our emissions isn’t a drag upon our economy, it’s the future of our economy, it’s a job generator.” They also include new companies such as V2Green, which is helping power utilities prepare for the coming age of plug-in electric cars.

We are showing how protecting our climate does not destroy our economy – it creates economic opportunity. Let’s show the White House how it’s done in Seattle.

Getting prepared

Later this month we mark the seventh anniversary of the Nisqually earthquake. It was a wake up call and a warning that we must heed. When I took office, I pledged to make Seattle the most prepared city in the nation. We are making that happen, thanks to the Fire Levy approved by voters. We are rebuilding or renovating all our fire stations to withstand a major earthquake. We are offering emergency preparedness training to every neighborhood in our city through our SNAP program -- more than 8,500 people have taken this class so far.

Later this month, we will dedicate our new Emergency Operations Center. The EOC is the city’s nerve center in a catastrophe. It allows us to coordinate our response and inform the public in an emergency. And it will be ready when we need it most.

We can make Seattle the most prepared city in the nation. We are showing how.

Keeping Seattle safe

Seattle is a remarkably safe city. Last month, I stood with Police Chief Gil Kerlikowske and Councilmember Tim Burgess to announce that Seattle’s crime rate fell 14 percent last year to the lowest it has been since 1968.

When you compare our murder rate to similar-sized cities, the differences are astounding. Last year, Washington, D.C. experienced 181 murders; Milwaukee had 105; and Boston suffered 66. In 1968 Seattle had 45 homicides but last year in Seattle it was 24.

Seattle is a safe city. But if you are the victim, the statistics don’t matter. And that is why the murders and attacks we have experienced in recent weeks are so shocking. They aren’t supposed to happen here. And when they do, it creates a sense of fear and uncertainty made more alarming by the sensational headlines and television news teasers.

I’d like to take a moment to commend the work of the Seattle Police Department in arresting suspects in the murder of Shannon Harps and of Degene Berecha. It was a clear reminder of the professionalism and dedication the men and women of SPD show every day.

I’m committed to giving them the tools they need to do their jobs. We are taking the strongest steps to reforming the way we protect our city in 30 years as we implement Neighborhood Policing. We will better utilize our officers and make policing stronger, faster and smarter. We are adding 154 additional patrol officers through 2012, a 25 percent increase in our patrol strength.

We are also taking steps to reform our police accountability system, so that both the public and officers have confidence that we are upholding the standards of professionalism that have served this city so well.

But for all the progress we have made we still have our tragedies. Just a few days into the new year, two young men, 17-year-old Allen Joplin and 14-year-old De'Che Morrison, were shot to death. Something is deeply wrong when it is easier for our young people to get their hands on a gun than it is to get a driver’s license.

I have pledged to work with the community to reduce the toll of youth and gang violence in our city. We must find ways to arm our children with hope instead of bullets.

And we must start reducing the number of illegal guns on our streets. I have called on the state legislature to pass common sense laws to close the gun show loophole, require safe storage of guns and ban assault rifles. But they have not listened. That is why we are working with communities across this state to forge a non-partisan coalition that will create new and innovative ways to reduce gun violence and build support for change.

When it comes to saving lives, we will not take no for an answer. Together, we will show how to get it done.

A legacy for people and parks

A century ago, the Olmsted brothers overcame skepticism to create a magnificent park system for a young city. We are fortunate to have inherited such a rich legacy of parks and open space.

As this city continues to grow, our open space must grow with it.

That starts with making sure that everyone feels welcome and safe in our parks. This year we will see our new Park Rangers, added activities and attractions, more investments and new security measures in our Center City Parks. I’d like to thank the Council for supporting my program to reclaim these parks as active, exciting and vibrant places.

We are finding new ways to add open space. Last year, we finalized a deal to buy the U.S. Navy’s Capehart holding in Discovery Park, which will add 24 acres of breathing space.

And we saw an innovative opportunity to do much more in an unlikely place – over our reservoirs.

We could have simply put floating covers on our reservoirs and called it good. But in Seattle, good isn’t good enough. So we are using this opportunity to create new open space across the city.

By 2010, new parks will sit atop the Beacon and Myrtle reservoirs. When all the remaining reservoirs are covered by 2013, we will have added 100 new acres to our city’s park system. That’s 2 ½ times as much new parks acreage as the Pro Parks levy provided.

It is a tremendous accomplishment and a gift to generations to come. That is the power of innovative thinking.

As we think about what we leave to the future, we cannot forget two Seattle legacies in need of investment today – the Pike Place Market and the grounds of the 1962 World’s Fair -- our Seattle Center.

Later this morning, you will hear about plans for the future of Seattle Center. I want to thank the Century 21 committee for its thoughtful recommendations on how we can prepare this incredible combination of art, culture, entertainment and open space to serve the people of Seattle for the next 50 years.

Last August 17th, the venerable Pike Place Market celebrated its 100th anniversary. What started as a protest against the high cost of onions has become one of the city’s most beloved gathering places. More than ever, the Market brings Seattleites together – and brings the world to Seattle.

That is why we cannot allow the Market’s age to become its enemy. Although the salmon still fly and the shops and stalls are as vibrant as ever, the bones of this wonderful place are getting brittle. The need to protect the Market from earthquakes and to replace its worn out wires, plumbing and heating systems is becoming urgent.

A generation ago, the people of Seattle saved the Market from the wrecking ball. Now it is our turn to save this historic place -- for the next generation.

Affordable Seattle

We are fortunate to live in such an incredible city. But for too many working families today, the cost of housing is rising out of reach. We must find new ways to help grocery clerks, nurses, truck drivers, teachers and other working people who are struggling to find decent, affordable housing in our city.

That is why I launched my “Affordable Seattle” strategy. It is built around three important elements: renewing the Housing Levy; expanding our Homes Within Reach program; and adopting incentive zoning so that development in our fastest-growing neighborhoods creates housing for all.

This year, we will begin work on renewal of Seattle’s Housing Levy in 2009. The levy has funded1,649 apartments for low-income people in Seattle since 2003 and it will continue to be an important tool in the years ahead.

But today’s market is pricing out more and more working families. That is why last year, I proposed Seattle Homes Within Reach. It would expand and update an incentive program so that it helps more people in more places. If we had it, we could create some 1,600 more homes for middle-income workers in developments already underway.

Finally, I have proposed Incentive Zoning. The idea is to require developers in our fastest-growing neighborhoods to set aside homes for working families or pay to support more affordable housing. It is modeled on the center city plan the Council endorsed just a year ago. Our goal is simple: If you work in Seattle, you should be able to live in Seattle.

Let’s show what we can do to keep this city affordable for everyone.

Serving our Customers

Despite all of Seattle’s innovations, there is one place were the city government has not kept pace – customer service.

Some people say government isn’t a business; we don’t have customers. I think the 600,000 people who live here, pay taxes, and contribute to the life of our city would disagree.

Each year, we get more than 10 million phone calls and thousands more e-mails, letters and other requests from people looking for help. Many are handled well. But too often, the caller is confronted by a bureaucratic and unresponsive system that does not value their time or their intelligence.

You can see for yourself, right in the blue pages of the phone book. There you’ll find more than 1,000 numbers listed under the City of Seattle. It is cumbersome, confusing and impossible to navigate.

Worse yet, if someone does get through to the right person, we often have no way of knowing whether their problem was solved and the loop closed.

This is a city that gave the world the Nordstrom standard of innovative customer service.

We must move from a culture of “sorry, not my problem,” to one of rolling up our sleeves and fixing the problem.

That is why in the next few months, I will be asking for the public’s help in creating a Customer Bill of Rights for our city. The principles will help to create an open, responsive and accessible government that serves all of our residents, regardless of their language, their income or their neighborhood. I look forward to working with each member of the City Council on this.

Together, we can bring customer service and public service together again. We will show how.

Conclusion

It isn’t surprising that an innovative city attracts innovation. Sometimes it takes a little time to see how one good idea can change the world.

Few people outside this city took much notice when Bill Boeing started working on an airplane in a red barn on the edge of Lake Union. Or when a little coffee shop called Starbucks opened in Pike Place Market. Or when a couple of kids at Lakeside started tinkering with computers.

That spirit of innovation is the very foundation on which this community has grown and prospered. It has put Seattle’s stamp on the world – and, more importantly, put our stamp on the future.

We are showing how one city can make a difference for the future of our planet. How we can create jobs and opportunities by protecting our environment instead of abusing it. How we can begin transforming a transportation system built in the last century into one that works for the next. How we can build a community where people are safe, neighborhoods flourish and everyone can enjoy a better life.

When people say we can’t, we just try a little harder. That’s why we love Seattle. If we put our minds to it, we can make a difference in people’s lives. And that matters. Just ask Ed Myers and Judith and Sunshine.

Thank you and God Bless our home, Seattle.