Seattle mayor focuses on racial inequality in State of the City address

In addition to dedicating $35 million to support affordable housing in Seattle and unveiling new websites to increase government transparency, the mayor focused on racial inequality in his State of the City address Tuesday.

“It will take courage to address the deeply troubling issues of policing and race in this country,” said Mayor Ed Murray at City Hall. “It will take courage to acknowledge that the police are often at the end of the receiving end of the failure of other systems to address race – failure in our education, criminal justice, foster care, mental health, and political systems.”

Murray said he pointed out the result of those failures on the night of the Ferguson grand jury decision.

“Everything I have spoken about today, everything that we have accomplished this year – pre-K, the minimum wage, transit, priority hire, parks and community centers, police reform, summer youth employment – they are the response of the people of this city to address the issue of race and equality, but much work remains and it will not be easy.”

Murray said it’s time for Seattle to talk about healing the wounds of race. He then quoted Maya Angelou’s “On the Pulse of Morning” poem: “Lift up your eyes upon, The day breaking for you. Give birth again, To the dream.”

More topics of interest in the speech, per Murray’s news release:

Housing
Murray called housing “our next great challenge to affordability.” The mayor is reserving $15 million from the Seattle Housing Levy and $20 million in incentive zoning funds to implement the recommendations of the Housing Affordability and Livability Advisory Committee, which are due in May.

Government transparency
Murray unveiled Performance Seattle, a government performance website where the public can review city department goals and track outcomes. The site is launching with nine departments, and others will be added throughout the year. The public will also have better access to information about city finances through OpenBudget.

Commitment to youth employment
After increasing the city’s commitment to summer youth employment by 50 percent last year, Murray pledged to double it in 2015 to 2,000 jobs.

Affordable housing
The City is revising its Comprehensive Plan this year to guide the development of housing for 120,000 additional city residents over the next 20 years. The mayor committed to digital outreach, telephone town halls, a second Neighborhood Summit and other ways engage the public in the process. In the coming days, Murray will send a resolution to Council that recognizes race and social justice as one of the core values for the Plan.

Transportation
After expanding transportation options in 2014 with Uber and Lyft, Pronto bike share, car-share services and additional bus transit, Seattle will renew its expiring transportation levy later this year. The mayor announced a new unified transportation strategy, called Move Seattle, which will map out future infrastructure improvements to be funded in the next levy. Seattle will continue to seek authority in Olympia needed for further expansion of Sound Transit’s light rail system to Ballard and West Seattle, even as the Capitol Hill and University of Washington stations come on line within a year.

Safety and crime
Calling public safety “the paramount duty of local government,” the mayor noted Chief Kathleen O’Toole’s implementation of data-driven policing and how it is beginning to yield results. After a spike in robberies and property crimes, the department refocused precinct and department-wide resources to the hardest-hit areas. As a result, robberies dropped 25 percent on Capitol Hill and 40 percent in the Rainier Valley. Similarly, property crimes like car thefts, car prowls and burglaries have declined.

Police reform
Murray is sending more reforms to the council in coming weeks. The mayor committed to additional changes at the department to rebuild the public trust, including: recruitment of a more diverse police force; continued training in de-escalation tactics and bias-free policing; improved data-collection to identify potential misconduct of officers; a streamlined complaint reporting process; increased civilian oversight of police discipline and accountability; and increased transparency in incidents of officer misconduct.

Education
In 2015, the mayor will convene an Education Summit to discuss solutions to inequities in academic opportunity and the resulting gaps in student math and reading scores and graduation rates.