Fate has not been kind to Seattle’s five previous mayors. Three (Schell, Nickels, and McGinn) were defeated in re-election bids, one (Murray) resigned, and the last mayor (Durkan), saw her re-election poll numbers plummet due to the city’s poor response to the illegal actions of progressive rioters.

This time next year it is expected that Mayor Bruce Harrell will be kicking off his re-election campaign. Much of the mayor’s fate will be determined by his actions in the next few months as Seattle residents continue to wait for a plan on how his administration will close the city’s half-billion dollar budget gap, return customers and retailers back to downtown Seattle, and how the city will combat its destructive crime, drug, and homelessness problems.

During Mayor Harrell’s first two years in office, he understood that the city council was still controlled by the same extremists who were responsible for the failed progressive policies that caused the record number of homicides, drug overdose deaths, and homelessness, which resulted in numerous major retailers departing the city’s downtown neighborhood.

Because he did not have the votes on the council, Mayor Harrell appeared to pick and choose when to introduce common sense measures to an out of touch city council.

Yet it has been nearly four months since Seattle voters clearly rejected progressives in last November’s elections. Seven of the current nine councilmembers did not vote for the previous extreme policies. It is clearly time for Mayor Harrell to become more pro-active and take leadership position in reversing the failed extreme agenda of the previous council. If Mayor Harrell is as moderate as he claimed to be during his 2021 campaign, then this is a city council he should be able to work with. 

New Council President Sara Nelson, who actively campaigned for most of the new councilmembers, appears ready to reverse course away from the previous council’s actions. She stated in an early January Seattle Times Op-ed that the council’s focus will be on issues which are “responsive to our constituents who are demanding faster progress on homelessness and public safety.”

The public has seen small bits of positive news coming out of the mayor’s office. Such as asserting during his recent annual State of the City speech that the city’s $229 million 2025 budget gap would NOT be funded with yet another tax increase coming from city hall.

Also, the city announced it was taking back some of the responsibilities and approximately 10% of the funding it had previously given to the dysfunctional and bureaucratic King County Regional Homelessness Authority. 

While these small changes are encouraging, it is a small fraction of what voters expect the mayor and city council to accomplish. Seattle is still unsafe and too many people are dying from drugs and murder.

According to the results of Change Washington’s recent survey of readers on the homelessness issue, frustration over lack of serious progress remains high among voters. The survey found:

• 85% believe the state is on the wrong track in how it is handling the homeless crisis (only 7.5% say state is on the right track).
• 57.3% believe the “Housing First” to be a “very unsuccessful” philosophy on homeless issues. 12.6% said “somewhat unsuccessful.” Only 9% responded “somewhat successful and 11.6% said “very successful.”)
• 55.3% believe the King County Regional Homelessness Authority should be scraped and an additional 16.6% support reducing funding of the authority.
• 78% of respondents say they have daily encounters with an encampment.

Like drugs and crime, homelessness is not an issue that will go away on its own. We need a plan backed by urgent action.

If Mayor Harrell doesn’t want to end up on the political slag heap alongside his five predecessors, he should demonstrate that he understands voters’ frustrations on the big issues Seattle faces. He needs to put forward a workable, commonsense, and agreed-upon plan to combat the city’s serious homelessness, crime, and drug issues.

Voters are waiting.