Our neighborhoods have been neglected for years (some for decades). With more than 140,000 people coming to Seattle over the next several decades we’ll need to make sure we’re investing in our neighborhoods as well as downtown, especially in our crumbling infrastructure. We’ll need to build enough housing to meet demand in order to keep from pricing our own kids out of the market. And to do that without destroying the character of our neighborhoods we’ll need to focus on density in our urban centers and urban villages.
Empower Neighborhoods: Leverage the neighborhood plan updates to involve our neighborhoods in the planning process from the start, so that each neighborhood has a voice in how it develops.
- Sidewalks: Allow areas without sidewalks to create local improvement districts to help fund sidewalks or other walkability features, with matching funds from the city.
- Youth Violence: Tackle our rising youth violence problem by partnering with community groups, non-profits and business to provide better options for our at-risk youth; and more rapidly implement community policing.
- Schools: Enhance neighborhood schools and guarantee every child access to early childhood education and challenging and rewarding after school programs. Work with the School District to implement a fresh & local food program so that every kid has access to high quality fresh and nutritious foods.
Walkable & affordable: Create compact, walkable neighborhoods in our urban centers and urban villages, with vibrant neighborhood business districts and housing to meet people’s needs at all stages of their lives.
SmartCode: Replace overly complex and bureaucratic planning and land-use code with smartcode that encourages walkability, includes design guidelines and frees architects to design solutions that fit their context rather than one-size-fits-all cookie-cutter construction.
Streamline & Simplify: Streamline the permitting process and make it easier for builders and architects to help us realize our dreams of a more affordable and sustainable city.
