September 17, 2007
Mayor Greg Nickels
2008 Budget Speech

Making History Today

Honorable members of the City Council, distinguished guests and my fellow Seattleites, good afternoon.

It is an honor to appear before you today to present my sixth budget.

As many of you know, the two-year budget process we use in Seattle means that this is supposed to be the off year. But I’m pleased to say that the investments I am proposing today will enhance all our neighborhoods, improve public safety, make it easier to get around, create a more open and responsive government and leave Seattle and our planet a better place to live for our children and their children. Not bad for an “off year”!

Making History Today
Many of you know that I’m a history buff. So I’d like to begin by taking you back 100 years -- to 1907. We had survived the great fire and a terrible national depression. We were enjoying a boom from the Klondike Gold Rush. Pike Place Market opened as a protest against the soaring cost of onions; St. James Cathedral, Temple de Hirsch and Children’s Hospital were born that year as well. And the small city’s population was booming.

1907 was the year that Seattle literally took shape. The communities of Ballard, West Seattle, Southeast Seattle, Ravenna, South Park and Columbia City all joined Seattle in 1907. We became a city of great neighborhoods.

As we celebrate those centennials this year, it brings something very important into focus. Like the community leaders in 1907, the decisions we make today will also shape Seattle for the next 100 years.

In a very real sense, we are making history today. And it is in that sprit that I present a plan to invest wisely for today and the century ahead.

What better place to start than Lake Union?

A Trail to the Future
In many ways, Seattle grew up around Lake Union. It was home to some of the area’s first sawmills, rail lines and Bill Boeing’s first airplanes. Today, research laboratories crowd around this historic lake with shipyards, houseboats and marinas. Our past and our future meet on its shores.

We have a tremendous opportunity to celebrate our heritage and create a bit of history ourselves. My budget begins building a new urban trail around Lake Union that will let people better experience this special place and learn about the important people and events that shaped our city’s history.

This 7-mile maritime trail will connect the Fremont, Eastlake, South Lake Union, Queen Anne and Wallingford neighborhoods – not to mention two incredible waterfront parks, Gasworks and South Lake Union.

Like Greenlake’s 2.8-mile loop, it will be a place for walkers, bikers, and anyone looking for a beautiful place to get some exercise. Like Boston’s Freedom Trail, it will celebrate important moments in our history. Above all, it will be a uniquely Seattle, a place to watch boats and seaplanes, see the downtown lights and enjoy many of the things we love about our city

And I ask all of you to join me in making this vision a reality. It will be a gift from our generation to the future (in time for us to enjoy as well!).

Return on Investment
Over the past six years – some of them financially difficult – we have worked together to make smart investments for our city. Our faith in the future is being rewarded. Today we are enjoying the returns on our investments.

We are a working city. We have created jobs and economic opportunity across Seattle. Neighborhood business districts and our Center City are thriving. We’ve offered a helping hand to small businesses by creating a special advocate in City Hall to be an ally and problem-solver in their efforts to grow and prosper. The Seattle First program and our Industrial Permits Specialist have been instrumental in supporting family-wage jobs and growing the $31 billion generated each year by manufacturing and industrial businesses in Seattle. I look forward to working with the council on the Industrial Jobs Initiative I proposed last month. Together, we will continue Seattle’s strong support for these critical family-wage jobs.

We are a city on the move. Thanks to our voter approved “Bridging the Gap”, we are repairing our streets – and making it easier and safer to get around our city by bike, foot and bus. The airport light rail line is nearing completion and our first modern streetcar line will open later this year.

We are a safer city. Our crime rate is one of the lowest in the nation for a major city. We are preparing for disasters by investing in training and equipment. Thanks to our voter approved fire facilities levy, we are rebuilding our fire stations and making sure water will be available when it is needed most.

We are a compassionate city. Our efforts to end homelessness are starting to make a real difference on our streets. We have funded more than 1400 new homes with our 2002 Housing levy, and 80 Housing First homes that provide people who are chronically homeless with both a safe place to live and the medical and mental health services they need to start rebuilding their lives. This budget will add 40 more of these successful Housing First homes and another 43 homes for other people who are currently homeless – the 40 Housing First units are above and beyond the homes to be produced through the levy. We are already seeing the difference on our streets. According to the Downtown Seattle Association, calls to 911 by Metropolitan Improvement District ambassadors and those ambassadors’ observations of public drinking both dropped about 50 percent compared to last year. Thanks to your support, we are turning homelessness into hope for more and more people -- and making our city safer. This will be Councilmember Peter Steinbrueck’s last budget – no doubt November will never seem the same, and I want to thank him for his long emphasis on homelessness.

We are a growing city -- and growing more diverse. This year, Seattle’s population passed Milwaukee and Washington and is just shy of Boston. Today over 100,000 people in our city were born in another country. Earlier this year, we launched an Immigrant and Refugee initiative that will help newcomers find support they need to build new and better lives in our city. Thanks in particular to Councilmember Tom Rasmussen for his emphasis on this important issue.

History will show that we are building a city where people want to live, work and play today and for the future. We can all take satisfaction in these accomplishments. I want to thank the Council and the voters for your trust.

We are also a fiscally wiser city. We remember the tough times after September 11, 2001. We know that today’s good fortune will be followed by more challenging times. Already we see the clouds of economic uncertainty on our nation’s horizon. It is prudent for us to take steps today to prepare for them. My budget includes a 33% ($4.7 million) increase in our rainy day fund and $3 million for our Emergency Fund to preserve essential city services when our fiscal weather turns. This will bring these reserves to their highest level ever. Thank you to Budget Chair Richard McIver for his work to keep our fiscal house in good repair.

Building healthy families and strong communities
We are fortunate that those who built Seattle had a vision for great parks. The legacy that the Olmstead brothers left us in our spectacular parks and boulevards is priceless.

It is our generation’s responsibility to protect and build upon that legacy. Our Pro Parks levy has made key investments in the future of our parks system, including additional maintenance and new programs for seniors and children. I have heard concerns about whether these valuable programs will continue once the levy expires next year. I believe they should. That is why I’m proposing to include all of the levy’s enhanced operating and maintenance programs in the Parks Department’s base budget in 2008. Taking this important step now will help preserve these programs for years to come. And it will do much more. It will make nearly $6 million more in levy funds available to expand and improve neighborhood parks across the city. That is a strong commitment to the future of Seattle’s parks.

I’d like to take a moment to welcome a strong set of shoulders that will carry this great legacy as our Parks Superintendent – Tim Gallagher.

Tim comes to us from Los Angeles County Parks and the city of Stockton via the Pacific Crest trail – where he is at this moment finishing a 2,600-mile hike. Tim is a 27-year parks professional who is lured by the natural beauty of Seattle and the Pacific Northwest. We are glad to have him.

We understand the opportunities and challenges of urban parks. They are a vital part of every neighborhood in Seattle and they must remain open and welcoming places for every member of our community.

That is especially true in our Center City, where we have been making investments to reinvigorate parks such as Freeway and Occidental.

Unfortunately, inappropriate activities and the threat of crime can make even beautiful parks feel dangerous. That is why I’m proposing a program to ensure that our Center City parks remain safe and welcoming.

My budget proposal will hire and train uniformed Park Rangers to help people enjoy our open space while providing an extra set of eyes to prevent illegal activities. We will supplement the new patrols with a pilot program to install security cameras to discourage crime. We will invest in additional lighting, features and landscaping and we will expand music, food, art, and other activities to keep these parks fun and compelling.

Together, we can make history with a parks system that builds on its past and invests in the future.

Schools are one of the anchors of a strong and healthy community. So when the School District decides that some of its properties are no longer needed, it presents us with both a challenge and an opportunity.

My budget includes an additional $4 million to work with the University Heights, Phinney Ridge, Crown Hill and Fauntleroy school neighborhoods to transform surplus school buildings into community centerpieces. It also includes $1 million to buy Webster Park adjacent to the Webster School building.

Finally, so much has been accomplished in the years since our neighborhood plans were sheparded through by Councilmember Richard Conlin that it is time to begin updating them for the future. We are working to engage the entire community in creating safe, healthy and vibrant neighborhoods that will grow with grace. My budget will begin this effort next year.

Seattle has a history of great neighborhoods. Together, we will start writing the next exciting chapter.

Keeping Seattle Safe
One subject that connects all of us is safety. Earlier this year, I announced a three point plan to make policing in Seattle stronger, faster and smarter. It is called Neighborhood Policing, and it represents the biggest change in how we deploy our officers in a generation.

A key element of that plan is getting 154 additional patrol officers hired, trained and on the street over the next five years. I’m proud to say that we have already added 49 of those new officers in recent years.

My budget will add another 20 patrol officers in 2008 consistent with Council action last year. Those officers will put more feet on the street in neighborhoods across our city, allowing police to respond faster in an emergency and providing officers more time to work on preventing crime in our communities.

When a hotspot of crime and public disturbances makes an area feel unsafe, you don’t wait. That is why we launched an emphasis patrol last month to insure that our streets remain safe for those who live, work or visit our downtown. This budget will continue that emphasis by providing nearly $600,000 for stepped up police presence in our Center City and in portions of the Rainier Valley. Thank you to Councilmember Sally Clark for her many months of work to make our city’s nightlife vibrant, not violent.

As our fire fighters know, when it comes to saving a life, seconds count. That is why I’m proposing two new investments that promise to get help to the scene of an emergency faster and more efficiently.

Last week, I announced a new pilot program that we are calling Medic One Motorcycles (MOM). It will pair highly trained paramedics with specialized motorcycles that can respond faster through congested downtown traffic. This budget will also add 15 new fire-fighter positions so that all of our fire engines have the crews needed to respond to an emergency without waiting for backup.

In Seattle, we know a little bit about how fire can make history. We working hard to make sure history doesn’t repeat itself.

A critical part of being a safe city is being a prepared city. Last winter we experienced a wind and rainstorm unlike any we have seen in our lifetimes. When it was over, more than half our city was without power. Under difficult conditions, our utility crews worked tirelessly to bring the lights back on. We thank them for a job well done.

The storm showed what we can do as city in an emergency – and what we need to do better. That is why my budget will invest in making City Light even stronger and more prepared. We will add 63 new line worker positions to ensure we have the highly-skilled people in place to better maintain our power system and respond to emergencies. And we will also invest in state-of-the-art tools to more efficiently manage how we deploy our resources during outages so that we get our system up and running as quickly as possible for everyone. Thank you to Councilmember Jean Godden for all her work to insure that City Light will weather the storm better in the future.

The December windstorm also showed what can happen when wind causes trees to tangle with power lines. I believe prevention is better than a cure. Next year as part of our complete streets policy, we will take advantage of significant street repairs to underground power lines along major arterials and in our urban villages and centers. This will make our power grid more resilient and greatly improve the feel of our neighborhoods. My budget sets aside $5 million to begin this important work. It is hard to imagine that we will still be dangling power lines from creosote-soaked poles 100 years from now. Let’s get started on a better solution.

Moving Forward
Last year, voters in Seattle made history by approving the Bridging the Gap Transportation Levy. Thank you to Councilmember Jan Drago for her strong efforts to finally step up to this need. Since then, we’ve made great strides in paving streets, fixing sidewalks, installing new street signs, adding bike lanes and for the first time in a generation reducing our maintenance backlog. Next year, the levy will be at full steam, allowing us to do even more to keep Seattle moving, including beginning seismic repairs to bridges and making progress on Spokane Street, Lander, and the Mercer Boulevard.

One of my goals as mayor has been to make Seattle not only the best city for walking – but for walking safely. Three years ago, I launched a ten-point pedestrian safety plan to guide our efforts to add sidewalks and improve crosswalks, pedestrian signals and driver behavior. This year the Council has declared pedestrian safety to be your highest priority.

Next year, working together we will do even more. My budget adds $2 million to our neighborhood street fund for large and small projects. Totaling $10 million over the next three years, this investment will help neighborhoods across the city build sidewalks and other improvements to make our streets safer.

I strongly encourage the City Council to pass my “Keeping Pace” proposal, which will require developers to build missing sidewalks.

We know that careless drivers are one of the biggest threats to pedestrian safety. The red light cameras we installed last year at four intersections are making those streets safer. My budget includes money to expand this successful program to a total of 30 cameras at intersections around the city. I’d like to thank Council President Nick Licata and Councilmembers David Della and Tom Rasmussen and for supporting these efforts to protect pedestrians and drivers.

Sometimes making history means going back to the future.

Just over a century ago, it took 100 men five days to build the first streetcar line connecting downtown Seattle to South Lake Union. It may have taken us a little bit longer this time, but when our first modern streetcar line opens later this year it will be no less historic.

We are working to expand our South Lake Union Streetcar into a true network that will connect neighborhoods and provide a convenient and reliable way to get around our city.

My budget will lay the ground work for developing a modern streetcar system, including building a new streetcar line up to Capitol Hill if voters approve the roads and transit package in November.

I invite all of you to join me tomorrow afternoon as we welcome the first of our three new streetcars and get a peek at the future of public transit in Seattle.

Serving Our Customers
More than 100 years ago, John Nordstrom started a shoe store during the height of the gold rush. The rest, as they say, is history. But his successful retail empire was built on one simple idea: great customer service.

We may not sell shoes, but we should take a page out of John Nordstrom’s book when it comes to the customers we serve every day – the public.

During last winter’s windstorm, I stood before the press and gave a list of eight different numbers for people to call for help. That is confusing and unacceptable. We can do better.

That is why I’m proposing to create a one-stop-shop for all the non-emergency services we provide whether it is helping a person who is homeless, fixing a street sign, cleaning up graffiti or filling a pothole. It is called 311, and it is much more than a new number for people to contact the city. It is a fundamental change of attitude that will make government more open, accountable, inclusive and responsive.

This new approach will make it faster and easier for our customers to ask questions or get help with a problem. And it will give us the tools to track our responses so we can be sure we are serving people as quickly and effectively as possible.

Calling the city and finding fast, friendly help may be considered historic by some people. But that is exactly the standard we must set for ourselves. John Nordstrom would expect nothing less – and neither should we.

Protecting our Climate
Today we face an issue for which history will offer no leniency when it judges our efforts – Climate Change.

We have made great strides in Seattle to reduce our contribution to global warming. City Light is the only major electric utility in the nation to emit zero net greenhouse gas pollution. We are doubling the number of bike lanes in Seattle over the next few years; we are making it safer to walk, and investing in faster, more reliable and more convenient transit. These are just a few of the steps we have already taken.

Next year, we will do even more. My budget proposes $5 million to improve energy efficiency in existing public buildings. The beauty of this program is the money we save on our utility bills will repay the costs of the improvement, allowing us to continue investing those funds for climate protection.

But that is just a start. In the weeks and months ahead, we will take Seattle’s leadership on this issue to a new level by helping people across the city -- and elected-officials across the country -- take meaningful steps to protect our climate – and Seattle’s vulnerable snow pack.

I proud to say that today, 672 cities have joined Seattle’s effort to reduce harmful greenhouse gas emissions at home and to push our federal leaders to take strong action at the national level. That’s 24% of all Americans (over 73 million) engaged in finding solutions city by city across our nation.

In November, Seattle will host more than 100 of those mayors at a major summit on climate change. This meeting will give city leaders the chance to share real-world solutions to the challenges facing our communities and to hear from international leaders who are making a difference for the future of our planet. I’m pleased that former President Bill Clinton and New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg will provide keynote addresses for this historic gathering.

But mayors and councils can only do so much. To succeed in Seattle we need the help of everyone who calls this city home. That is why this week we will be launching a first-of-its-kind effort to help people across this city take action in their own homes and neighborhoods to protect our climate.

We call it Seattle Climate Action Now. The idea of this yearlong campaign is to give people the tools they need to reduce their carbon pollution and connect with neighbors across the street, across the city and across the globe who are working toward the same goal. We will brief the press on Friday and launch the campaign on Saturday with neighborhood events around Seattle. It will become a model for cities to emulate as we move our nation forward. I ask every Seattle citizen to join in this effort.

Conclusion
In my State of the City address, I talked about the important role cities play in protecting our climate. An estimated 1.6 million more people are expected to call this area home in the coming decades. We can either absorb much of that growth here in Seattle and other cities, or we can send it sprawling into distant counties where longer commutes and clogged roads will worsen our climate situation.

That is why it is critical to protecting our climate that we make Seattle a compelling place for people to live and work. Our investments must create stronger, more affordable neighborhoods, safer streets, better transportation alternatives, outstanding public schools and a more efficient and responsive government. I believe this budget moves us strongly in that direction.

When our children’s children look back and ask what we did when we realized the grave threat of climate change to our city and our world, they will be able to say that Seattle did not wait to take action.

They will say, “Seattle made history”.

Thank you and God bless our home, Seattle.