Announcing Our City Council Candidate Endorsements
Allied Arts City Council Candidate Endorsements 2023
Our Endorsements - City Council General Election
Allied Arts’ City Council Candidate Endorsements – Allied Arts has a long history of holding candidate forums and interviews to help inform the public debate about which candidates align with Allied Arts’ mission of fostering a Seattle with great public places and a vibrant arts community for all.
We recently held candidate interviews for the general election to help us determine how each City Council candidate would support Allied Arts’ Mission and our Grow Gracefully Vision, which is centered on the core belief that growth should make Seattle more livable for everyone and make Seattle a city we love even more, not less.
A - Affordability For All, Improve housing affordability, including artists’ housing and workspaces
B - Support of small, local Businesses which help define our communities
C - Preserve “Character Structures & Districts” (Buildings and districts meaningful due to their history, architecture, use or scale)
D - Great Design, Improve Design Quality, Character, & Livability
E - Excellent infrastructure, Provide enough and excellent infrastructure to match growth and enhance the city - (transportation, open space, well designed light rail)
Allied Arts’ 2023 Seattle City Council Candidate Endorsements
We want to thank each of the candidates for participating in our interviews and all candidates for participating in the democratic process by running for public office. We are pleased to share our endorsements for each candidate. Good luck in the general election! REMEMBER TO VOTE NOVEMBER 7th Allied Arts City Council Candidate Endorsements 2023
Candidates Endorsed In All 7 Districts - Listed Below
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Maren Costa discussed Allied Arts’ vision of Seattle Growing Gracefully with a breadth and depth that is rare for a candidate who is not already in office. We were impressed at her research for our interview and her knowledge on various policies to help support local businesses, preserve places that define a neighborhood, and improve our design process so new buildings in Seattle make us love our neighborhoods more, not less. Maren understands that to support local businesses in Seattle, a prerequisite is addressing our public health, public safety, and homelessness crises. Maren offered insights and policy ideas to recruit more police officers - especially younger officers.
Like many candidates, Maren supports progressive taxes to help pay for the many needs in our affluent city. In addition, Maren was the only candidate who suggested a key way to raise city revenues is to grow Seattle’s economy, especially in emerging industries like green tech.
The other candidate in this race, Rob Saka, has an inspiring life story as a child of foster care who rose to city council candidate. Rob also understands that to support local businesses, addressing public safety is fundamental. However, Allied Arts endorses Maren because she offers far greater depth of knowledge about policies needed to meet Seattle’s challenges and Allied Art’s vision of Growing Gracefully.
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Tanya Woo receives our endorsement in the second district. Tanya would bring valuable first-hand experiences to the council as a committed community member, business owner, and creator of affordable housing. Tanya has a proven record of accomplishments. She understands the importance of design and neighborhood building and will bring the expertise to the entire district.
Tanya understands that to address the homelessness crisis, we need far more wrap-around services to fully address root causes. In addition, Tanya has experience helping her neighbors who are experiencing homelessness through her community outreach and support group. She knows the power of connecting with our neighbors experiencing homelessness on a personal, compassionate level as fellow human beings.
Tanya’s family’s renovation of the Louisa Hotel in the C/ID bring the ABCs of our Grow Gracefully vision into reality. While renovating their property, they A) created affordable housing, B) encouraged small, neighborhood businesses as their ground floor tenants, and C) preserved a beloved building which enhances the character of the neighborhood and preserves local history.
When we asked Tanya what motivated her and her family to renovate their property in ways that enhance the neighborhood, she provided a response which embodies the spirit of Growing Gracefully for the benefit of all. When her family started planning their renovation, community elders who had been priced out of Seattle asked Tanya and her family to please build affordable housing so they can live in their community once again. Tanya said that because her family is part of and loves this community, they prioritized building affordable housing – while still making a profit – instead of maximizing profit on their property.
Councilmember Tammy Morales was the only candidate who was not able to interview with Allied Arts’ endorsement committee. Her campaign thanked us for the chance to interview and said, “between Council work and the campaign, Tammy's booked out until election day.”
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Joy Hollingsworth receives our endorsement for D3. The District 3 race for City Council is one that we feel will yield a fantastic representative regardless of who wins. The two candidates are both engaging, intelligent, knowledgeable about their district, compassionate and energetic. This was a very tough decision. In the end, we feel that Joy’s experience as a small business owner and a small landlord – along with her special ability to connect with people - has an opportunity to be a great councilmember, advocate for her district and advocate for Seattle to grow gracefully in the years to come. Especially now, Seattle needs a council with first-hand understanding of the challenges of small, local businesses and mom-and-pop landlords.
Alex Hudson is the other great candidate in D3. A self-described student of cities, Alex embraces the concepts of Grow Gracefully. As Leader of the First Hill Improvement Assoc. and board member of Bellweather Housing, she helped bring public open space and hundreds of units of affordable and homeless housing to D3 while proving that choosing between beauty and enough housing is a false choice. A true policy wonk, she believes that as a super wealthy community, Seattle has the resources to grow in ways that benefit everyone.
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Ron Davis is extremely smart yet very approachable. In our discussion about Grow Gracefully, Ron was a font of knowledge on successful policies on homelessness, affordability, supporting local businesses, good urban design and more. He has an impressive knowledge of specific cities across the world which have successfully addressed specific components of Grow Gracefully. Ron is pragmatic, realistic, and progressive, while also being inspiring. He has a can-do excitement when talking about policy solutions. One of Ron’s many ideas is to institute new revenue sources from those in our community who have the most financial blessings so we can better fund solutions to the many challenges in our City. If Ron serves on City Council, we expect new ways of thinking about old problems.
The other candidate in this race, Maritza Rivera, has a strong focus on improving public safety. Ron and Maritza generally agree on what makes a city grow gracefully and the need to address affordability, safety, and many other issues. However, Ron’s depth and breath of knowledge is hard for any candidate to beat. We endorse Ron.
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District 5 has two excellent candidates, and each of them would bring a different set of strengths to the council. For this race, Allied Arts chooses to dual endorse Cathy Moore and ChrisTiana ObeySumner.
Cathy Moore’s experience as a King County Superior Court Judge would bring incredible depth of knowledge to Seattle City Council in the public safety arena and criminal justice system. As a judge, she gained first-hand experience on what works to sensitively reduce crime and turn around the lives of people currently breaking laws. Her thoughtful and collaborative approach is what Seattle City Council needs to tackle the complex issues facing the City of Seattle. Cathy also knows District 5 well and will bring a clear voice to her community.
When Allied Arts members talk about Grow Gracefully, some people completely click with it immediately. That’s the case with ChrisTiana ObeySumner. They bring a wide variety of experiences that speak to Growing Gracefully. They are an artist, a small business owner, a systems thinker with nuanced insights into affordability, and a policy wonk with firsthand understanding of the need for beauty and humanity in social housing. ChrisTiana offered many exciting ideas about providing affordable space for residents, including artists, and progressive funding to address Seattle’s challenges. In addition, as a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion consultant, ChrisTiana would bring valuable insight to City Council. When we strive toward a Seattle that grows in ways that benefit everyone, they will be a leader in ensuring that our goals and outcomes do not leave anyone out.
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Pete Hanning would bring much needed small neighborhood business knowledge to the Seattle City Council and provide critical insights on how to enhance our neighborhoods and small businesses. Pete has valuable experience as the owner of an iconic Fremont business for 20 years, as executive director of the Fremont Chamber of Commerce, and from his service on many boards which support local business and public safety. In addition, we appreciate his on-the-ground efforts to engage with his unhoused neighbors and public safety.
The other candidate in this race, Councilmember Dan Straus, is very conversant in our Grow Gracefully vision and has implemented multiple projects in his district which align with our vision. In addition, Dan’s knowledge gained as the chair of the City Council Land Use Committee has given him knowledge of policies which do and don’t work in supporting small local businesses and other Allied Arts’ goals.
We see two good candidates in this race who can help Seattle Grow Gracefully. Seattle is at a crossroads in public safety and we believe the City needs a change from the status quo. We choose to endorse Pete because we see that he will instigate such change immediately and has a deeper understanding of the needs of small, local businesses.
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Bob Kettle can be part of a reset of city council. He brings the promise of a council where all members put aside differences and work together to solve problems. In his career serving as a naval intelligence officer, Bob worked with leaders from both side the aisle in Congress to accomplish goals. Bob spent 90 minutes with us engaged in our discussion of Grow Gracefully. This was a good example of how Bob values listening to others and engages in community members’ ideas to make Seattle better. We are confident that Bob will work extremely well with city, county, federal, and government agency leaders to solve problems. Bob has demonstrated his sincere desire to improve Seattle through his volunteer service on the Queen Anne Community Council (QACC), as Chair of the QACC Public Safety Committee, and on the West Precinct Advisory Council. We also value his work on the Queen Anne Block Watch Network to improve public safety on the working on neighborhood level.
The other candidate in this race, Councilmember Andrew Lewis, was able to describe efforts in his four years in office that align with our Grow Gracefully vision, but we choose to endorse Bob because we believe he will do a better job working with anyone and everyone at all levels of government to address our major challenges and help Seattle Grow Gracefully.