Jake: Business leaders wrote the plan — now read it, Madam Mayor
Sep 10, 2026, 1:29 PM | Updated: 4:02 pm
Katie Wilson looks out of a window while riding public transit. (Photo courtesy of Katie Wilson's mayoral campaign)
(Photo courtesy of Katie Wilson's mayoral campaign)
Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson just announced a task force to figure out how to attract and retain businesses in the city. Credit where it’s due, someone in her office apparently realizes they should at least look like they care about the companies keeping the lights on at City Hall.
But let’s be honest about what a task force usually means in government speak: kick the can down the road and do nothing. You know the old line: “a camel is a horse designed by a committee.” That’s this, in a nutshell. And the mayor has generously given her committee a full year to produce recommendations, even while admitting the city is in a “fragile moment.”
A year? They couldn’t manage six months? Three? Give me a week, and I’ll hand you concrete ideas. I don’t need 365 days to state the obvious.
Here’s the irony, though. At the very moment Wilson is asking for a year of study, virtually every major business leader in Seattle already signed onto a letter, delivered to the mayor and City Council Thursday, spelling out exactly what they need.
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The mayor doesn’t need a task force; she needs to read the letter
Madam Mayor, you don’t need a task force. You need to read the letter. It’s all right there: safer streets, more police, encampments cleared away from schools and businesses, and 911 calls that actually get answered.
That last one surprised me, which is hard to do when talking about Seattle. Only 29% of 911 calls placed from Nordstrom’s downtown flagship store got a police response. Twenty-nine percent. The same calls from Nordstrom’s Southcenter and Bellevue stores? A 100% response rate. That’s a 71-point gap inside the same company, the same emergency line. That’s insane.
That gap is the whole story. It’s the difference between how private business operates and how government operates. Business leaders are asking for an actionable safety plan within 100 days, with clear metrics to measure success. City Hall is asking for a year just to think about it.
So let’s cut out the middleman, Madam Mayor. Shelve the task force. Accept the terms the business community already put on paper. Make Seattle Safe Again!
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