Seattle leaders should stop pretending they care about families

It’s tough being a parent, especially if you live in Seattle. That’s, in essence, a story in The Seattle Times that has a lot of parents nodding their head.

But what strikes me as disingenuous are city leaders who say that they want the city to be family-friendly.

“For the city to have a future, it needs families,'” said Seattle Mayor Ed Murray in a vague and mostly meaningless quote to the Seattle Times.

He cited the $15 minimum wage, new investments in parks, low-income housing and universal preschool as ways the city is trying to make the area conducive to parents or to families.

But he says the city isn’t close enough to where they should be and he points to transit. The Times says “Only 25 percent of city residents live within walking distance to a bus that comes every 10 to 15 minutes, and light rail is years away from solving commuter problems in some of the city’s fastest-growing neighborhoods.”

Ed Murray is so in love with his transit ideas, he doesn’t realize this has nothing to do with families. In fact, his transportation policies make it even harder for parents to live in parts of Seattle.

Understand something I learned from talking to families &#8212 which Ed Murray apparently doesn’t do very often &#8212 you making it harder to drive around the city doesn’t actually help parents; it makes it harder.

Turns out, when you’re a mom or dad trying to get your son to soccer practice in West Seattle and your daughter to her friend’s house in Magnolia, taking the bus isn’t ideal. In fact, it’s nearly impossible.

And the city is actively trying to cut down lanes for drivers, pushing them towards Metro.

You making it so that the mom or dad lives within walking distance to a bus that comes every 10 or 15 minutes does absolutely nothing for the families. Families need their cars to get around quickly and drop their kids off places.

That Ed Murray and SDOT doesn’t understand that, and actually thinks buses will help, is beyond maddening.

It makes no sense.

I know they’ll try to make the argument that more buses mean less drivers so mom and dad can get around easier, but that’s a silly argument because if you took every new person moving to Seattle and they didn’t have a car and they took Metro, absolutely nothing would change on the roads. You’ve still taken away lanes and made it harder for drivers.

That transportation plan by Murray and SDOT only work for people who don’t have kids they have to drive around.

And that’s how they want it. Their transportation plan is catered towards Millennials, who are choosing not to buy homes, not to get married, and not to have kids until later and later in life. The city’s transportation plan is aimed at them and them alone.

And then Murray acts shocked that the city isn’t welcoming to parents.

Oddly enough, he’s not even right. Understand that when Murray says Seattle, he means his own neighborhood. He means downtown Seattle and Capitol Hill.

He doesn’t know other neighborhoods exist. He’s never heard of Northgate. He’s never heard of Greenwood, Crown Hill, Phinney Ridge or Delridge. He focuses most of his efforts on his own neighborhood.

Outside of the downtown core, it’s not that bad for parents.

You keep reading this Seattle Times piece, you also see folks being shocked at some natural, normal demographic data. From the Times:

“Bradley Calvert, an architect who lives downtown and runs the website Family Friendly Cities, says the city’s growth is coming at a cost to families.

Most of the development around town is designed for single people in their 20s who can afford to live alone, he says.”

Yeah, no kidding. That’s how city centers tend to operate. That’s nothing new. This isn’t some new trend. This is how it is in most major coastal cities.

It’s like being shocked that college kids live in the University District.

This shouldn’t be a shock. It’s dense in the downtown core and Capitol Hill, thus you’re trying to make the most out of the space. Remember, these city leaders don’t let you build up, so you have limited space, and they make it incredibly expensive to build by taxing the ever-loving-hell out of the land. Developers want to build smaller units to fit more people.

Outside of this extremely dense area? More space for homes &#8212 meaning it’s more appealing to families who need more room.

But the city will keep pretending to care about wanting to attract families.