-I'm running because things are better,
but better is not good enough for me.
-We have to be honest with each other.
We can't say one thing to one group and another to the other.
-I'm going to go one, two, three, four, one.
-Dan Strauss is running for a second term
to represent District 6 on the Seattle City Council.
-Running for City Council.
-Pete Hanning runs the Fremont Chamber
and has worked in hospitality and nightlife for decades.
Both candidates say public safety and homelessness
are top priorities for D6,
a district that includes Ballard, Green Lake,
Fremont, and West Magnolia.
Will voters preserve the status quo in D6
or opt for a political newcomer?
-Public safety is the number one issue.
-The candidates debate.
-We are right now looking for those citywide resources.
-Looking for some signs about the future leadership of D6...
-Alrighty. Have a good day.
-...on the Seattle City Council, next on "City Inside Out."
♪♪
-Welcome to this edition of "City Inside Out."
I'm your host, Brian Callanan.
The race for Seattle City Council District 6
has the incumbent, Dan Strauss, up against Pete Hanning,
the executive director of the Fremont Chamber of Commerce.
Strauss won the primary with more than half the vote
and says he wants to keep the momentum
going from his first term in office.
Hanning, a longtime business and neighborhood leader,
is ahead in fundraising
and wants to change a council he says is too divisive.
This week, a look at the two candidates
looking to lead District 6.
-I'm Councilmember Strauss --
-Incumbent Dan Strauss...
-My name is Pete Hanning.
-...and Fremont Chamber of Commerce Executive Director
Pete Hanning want your vote in City Council District 6.
From West Magnolia to Ballard
and Loyal Heights and Fremont to Green Lake.
-I grew up in District 6, and I see the horizon.
It has a brighter future than what we have today,
as long as we don't let up.
-Strauss, who won 52% of the vote in a six way primary,
says he's worked hard to get D6 and the city back on track.
But Hanning criticizes what he sees
as his opponent's lack of experience.
-He's had no jobs outside of government,
so that's really the only lens in which he can look at.
-Hanning, who earned 29% of the vote,
started the Seattle Restaurant Alliance
and the Nightlife and Music Association
and also ran the Red Door Brew Pub
for 20 years.
He says he knows how business works.
-And where your resources go, and also where your taxes go,
and how to best assure that they're being used wisely.
-Strauss, first elected in 2019,
says he's helped reopen Seattle after the COVID pandemic
in a vibrant way that addresses people's needs.
-We took a focused on the basics,
and we have to keep moving.
-Strauss says his top priorities
include addressing public safety and homelessness
and building affordable housing.
-We are doing more now than ever before.
-He points to his work connecting homeless people
to shelter at Woodland Park and Ballard Commons
as an example of his leadership.
-I have tackled controversial topics,
and the way that I've been successful
is by bringing people together to find common ground.
-Hanning's top issue -- public safety.
He says the current council
has lost the trust of the police department.
-The relationship needs to be rebuilt.
-Hanning, outgoing president
of the North Precinct Advisory Council,
supports police and new 911 alternatives
with sworn officers in support.
-We'll want the police department
to be in second position,
but we will want them there to be making sure
that the situation is safe for everyone.
-It's a one term incumbent up against a business
and neighborhood leader in the race for District 6.
-I bring years of experience
of having conversations that are difficult.
-I know where we've come from. I know where we need to go.
And we need to do so more quickly.
-And we are joined by the two candidates for District 6.
We have Councilmember Dan Strauss and Pete Hanning.
Thank you both very much for joining here.
And I just want to dive in right off the top.
Had a coin flip before the show.
Councilmember Strauss, you're going to speak first.
Tell us why you're running again.
Please keep it to a minute. -Thanks.
I'm Councilmember Dan Strauss.
I work half of my time in City Hall downtown,
and half time at my district office at the Ballard Library.
My office focuses on three top priorities,
and that's addressing public safety,
addressing housing, and creating -- sorry --
addressing public safety, addressing homelessness,
and creating the housing that working families can afford
because the family that I grew up in needs
to be able to afford to live in
the Seattle of today and tomorrow.
I operate public safety task forces
in a number of neighborhoods in the district
that create real time solutions by connecting small businesses,
residents, and the departments that can meet their needs.
I support fully funding the police
and critical alternatives.
Today we have community service officers
patrolling our streets, park rangers in our parks,
Health 1 responding to emergency.
And I fully support Mayor Harrell's Care Department
that is coming.
It was my amendment last year
that fully funded the police recruitment plan,
and today we see the highest number of applications
to be an officer in the Seattle Police Department.
I've resolved encampments without sweeps in parks.
And I continue to partner with Mayor Harrell to do that work.
Currently, we're implementing the same Ballard Commons
and Woodland Park approach down on Leary Avenue.
-Okay. Thank you. I know there's a lot more ahead on these.
So we'll dive into those issues.
Pete, if you could an opening statement, and a minute, please.
-Yeah.
Well, the reason why I'm running is the citizens of Seattle
deserve a city council that is centered
in our shared progressive values,
that is holding both compassion
and accountability in equal measure,
and a council that's both responsive and transparent.
When we started this grassroots campaign
back in February of this last year,
since then, I've knocked on thousands of doors
and had countless conversations with residents,
business owners, and community leaders.
And the four things that we keep on hearing over and over,
and this won't be surprising because I'm sure
we'll be talking about this today.
Public safety, homelessness, housing, and climate.
Now, I'm not a career politician like my counterpart Dan here is,
but I do have 35 years of hospitality industry experience.
The last 20 years, I worked and owned the Red door.
And owning a business like that, you don't just own it,
you actually have to work it
side by side with your team members.
And what was important to me
was building a really healthy culture.
And I really feel right now our city
is lacking in healthy culture.
And so I want to get back to a place where,
unfortunately, our current city council
is more performative and divisive,
where I feel like we need a city council
that is collaborative
and also pragmatic in working on those issues I laid out.
-Thank you, and we'll get into those, I promise.
Both of you talked about the importance of public safety.
And, Councilmember Strauss, I want to break this down.
Your campaign sent out a mailer a couple of months ago
saying defund the police was a mistake.
This is something you're talking about
with other council members back in 2020.
Why did you send that message out?
What are you trying to get across to voters
with regard to your stance on police and public safety?
-Yeah, those three words mean something different
to almost every single person that I talk to.
And what's also very apparent is that funding levels
do not create accountability.
We need to fully fund the police
and ensure that our police officers have the appropriate
accountability measures in place.
In 2020, I said that we need to scale up our alternatives
before we scale down the police force.
I said that we need to define cuts, not defund 50%.
And that we need to ensure that every 911 call
has a first responder responding right on time.
And that's why it was important to scale up,
scale up alternatives before we scaled down.
What I've done since, and I've voted countless times
to increase the police department budget.
I opposed hiring freezes in 2020.
And again, it was my amendment last year
that funded the council's budget.
So again, the mayor proposes a budget,
the council chair proposes a budget,
and then council members create amendments.
It was my amendment that funded
Mayor Harold's SPD investments to 99% alignment,
and that included that officer recruitment plan.
-Okay. Thank you.
And, Pete, I want to make sure I have you jump in here
when it comes to police hiring, if you'd like to touch on that.
You've also said you want to improve the council's
relationship with police.
Can you talk about that, please?
-Yeah. Well, so I've spent 20 years in public safety.
I've been on the North Precinct Advisory Council
for over two decades.
I'm also professionally trained in CPTED principles,
which are crime prevention through environmental design.
And I think that where Dan is missing a step,
it's not just financing and the funding of police,
it's rebuilding that relationship.
We have a severely fractured relationship
with our law enforcement officers,
and we have to -- that work happens from both sides.
But as a council member,
I have hundreds of professional relationships,
not only with city police department,
fire department, King County Prosecutor's Office,
City Attorney's office,
Department of Corrections, Liquor and Cannabis Board.
We have to leverage both those professional relationships
to make sure that we're working all together
because we have some really big issues we have to deal with.
Public safety is the number one issue
that I believe we have to address in our community.
-Brian, can I respond to some of that?
-Yeah, of course.
-I have a very good relationship with Chief Diaz.
I have a very good relationship
with many patrol officers in District 6.
I have a very good relationship
with the North Precinct captain, Captain Agard.
And I've also gone the next step
to say how can community be part of this rebuilding relationship?
So I funded a position at the Ballard Alliance
that's hired the public safety coordinator.
Beyond that, just like my opponent just mentioned,
I have very good relationships with the city Attorney's office,
with the King County Prosecutor's Office,
so that we are able to create the warm hand off
and do the case conferencing that is needed around issues,
because if there's a county and a city issue,
we need both parties at the table.
Same with policing and and to also have community there.
So I've got really great relationships across the board.
-I can give you 30 seconds to wrap this up if you'd like.
-Let's move on. -All right.
I know we could talk about public safety
this entire half hour. -We got a lot of issues.
-We do, we do.
Pete, let's move on to homelessness if we could,
because you've labeled this as another top priority,
as you mentioned.
Your opponent has touted the work
he's done at Ballard Commons, Woodland Park --
you heard that earlier -- to connect people
who are homeless to shelter and housing.
What was your opinion of some of those efforts?
And do you have a different way of approaching homelessness
compared to your opponent?
-Well, first, we have to really ground ourselves
in the compassion that I opened up with.
Those folks who are experiencing homelessness,
many of them really are struggling
and deserve every ounce of energy
we can give and services we can bring to bear.
I do a lot of outreach on the Leary corridor,
where Dan's talking about, that, they're doing work
And it's really hard to see these people in such crisis.
But we also have to have an honest conversation
when we're doing outreach.
So when I do outreach, I let them know
first and foremost I see them and I care who they are.
I care about them. I don't see them as other.
And we need to make sure that we're grounded
still in that compassion.
At the same time, they have a responsibility
to start to accept some of these services
that we are trying to do outreach.
We cannot just continually squeeze the balloon.
And I'm really skeptical that this this outreach
that you're doing on Leary
isn't just going to squeeze the balloon
and we're going to see it pop up somewhere else in our district.
I really want to see actionable items.
And currently that Leary corridor is so troubling.
We have a food bank right there that is beautiful
and administering such needed services to our community.
We also have a tiny home village.
The fact that we're allowing for this encampment
right across the street,
where there has been numerous shootings in the last month,
we really have to put more energy there,
and we can't just think about that
it's going to be a long term solution.
We have to be dedicated to it right now.
-Meaning what? We need to sweep people out of there?
-Yes. Yes, we do. -Okay.
-And I let them know that not only do I care about them,
but I'm actively working on telling them,
"You cannot be here.
You are causing harm to the greater community."
The businesses are suffering.
The residents are also suffering in this situation.
-Okay, Councilmember Strauss, I want to make sure
you can respond to that, please.
-Absolutely, so what we are doing down on Leary
is we are using a proven method,
and we are applying it with special parameters to Leary Way.
And so again, the four steps that are needed to draw down
instead of sweep around
are doing a census and stabilization,
doing a needs assessment to understand what people need.
-Person by person. -Those are the first two.
The second two are moving people into shelter,
and then doing a surge at the end.
Right now, we are right between stage two and three.
So the needs assessment is being finalized,
and we've already started moving people inside.
And we are right now looking for those citywide resources
to make sure that people come inside
and aren't just pushed down the street.
And so I'm working with local businesses every week.
I work on this almost daily, actually.
So local businesses, professional outreach.
One of the problems that we've seen at Lear--
or at Woodland at least, is when non-professional
outreach workers come in, and they can create confusion,
and it does create some lags
and makes the process more difficult.
But what's going on down at Leary right now
is so large that we're going to have to address it
step by step, not all at once,
because we can't wait for the full number of shelter beds
to come online all at once.
And we've also got professional outreach workers
having connections with the police department
to follow up on some of these these issues,
because the folks who are living outside
are being predated against by people
who are taking advantage of their vulnerabilities.
-That is an issue with public safety.
And I wonder if I could add a piece to this
when it comes to homelessness, and, Councilmember Strauss,
I'll start with you. I noticed on your website
one part of your plan for homelessness,
if you're reelected, is to add urgency
to the King County Regional Homelessness Authority.
I think about the RHA.
It's in reset mode, I think we'd have to say
CEO Marc Dones resigned rather abruptly back in May.
Audits have confirmed a number of financial missteps
during Dones' two year tenure.
When you say "add urgency", tell me what that means.
And how much faith do you have in the RHA
after the number of missteps and problems that they've had?
-You know, I think that it is absolutely,
like you said, it's time for the reset.
And that's where we need to --
if financial decisions are being made,
you have to have somebody with a financial background.
We also need to reset the culture.
The most requested type of shelter by people
living on the streets are tiny homes.
And so bad mouthing it in public isn't helping anything...
-Marc Dones did some of that.
-...when what we know is that we have to get
people off the streets, because people on the streets
are dying right now.
And so when we are able to create more financial
accountability and reset the culture,
we also need our suburban cities to participate.
And I think that there's some skepticism there
because they don't see what the outcome
is that they will get for their participation.
Now, we don't need just money, right?
Because they don't have as much money
as the city of Seattle or King County,
and they do have the land that is needed either for tiny homes
or for permanent supportive housing,
because the land in Seattle is so much more expensive.
And so the urgency that I see needed is to make these changes,
to start implementing a new version of partnership
for zero downtown.
And again, the Leary work that we're doing right now
is based on their principles.
So we are right now creating the model
that can then be transferred downtown.
-Thank you. And, Pete, any thoughts
on the Regional Homelessness Authority?
There's a lot of questions around this.
-Yeah, you know, I mean, it's upsetting that the city
of Seattle funds 70% of it, and the 34 other jurisdictions,
for the most part, surrounding Seattle and King County,
have got alligator arms,
and they're not reaching down to their wallet.
And this -- you're right. They have both space
that we can put some of those services,
but God damn it, they got to put some money in.
And it's really upsetting.
The city of Seattle, the citizens of Seattle
should be outraged that the other region
is not participating in this.
And on the council,
I guarantee you'll hear that disappointment
and that outrage in my voice.
-Okay. Fair enough.
I want to move on to affordable housing if I could.
The state, as we all know,
is legalized more density in cities like Seattle,
including fourplexes and sixplexes,
if they're close to transit, through House Bill 1110.
Councilmember Strauss, if you're reelected,
this issue is going to be front and center
with the renewal of the comprehensive plan
on the docket next year.
I'm trying to figure out where do these new units go?
Every neighborhood? Some neighborhoods?
Should some be exempted? How do you look at this?
-So across our city, we are going to see changes in zoning
because of House Bill 1110.
And what we know is that right now in District 6,
we have over 800 non-conforming uses.
Non-conforming uses are buildings
that were built before we downgraded our zoning.
So these are duplexes, triplexes,
quads, sixplexes small apartment buildings
that are now in single family zones
where they cannot be built today, and yet,
they fit with our community.
When folks are driving up on Third Avenue by Ross Park,
there's some red apartment buildings
just uphill, on the uphill side.
Those are illegal to build there.
When you're driving up Eighth between Market and Goodwill,
all of those duplexes, illegal today.
And so what we are going to be seeing
is the need for gentle density
in a lot of our -- across our district and our city,
and then more intense density.
When you build a concrete platform
of the first two stories, the difference between five,
eight, 10 stories above that is only --
the cost is already put in with the concrete, right?
And so it's important that we give them the height
that they need to add more housing around
those transit lines, and that we have these duplexes,
triplexes, and quads throughout our city
and that they fit with the community,
the character of the community, because we can have both.
-Pete, let's talk about this and housing, where it should go.
Some thoughts on this, please.
-Well, I'm in agreement with Dan on this.
We need to all share in the responsibility
of putting housing in all our communities.
We also need to not only put housing in our communities,
but we also have to afford for small businesses
like coffee shops, like Lighthouse Coffee,
my local coffee shop, that currently isn't zoned
as it currently exists, right?
It wouldn't be accepted.
And so that's what's going to make
these vibrant communities still.
And Bill 1110, one of the things
I'm really thankful that the state did
is the city of Seattle has taken too much of the growth
and pressure over the last 13 years.
You know, we're the fastest growing city
12 of the last 13 years.
A lot of the surrounding region
really wasn't taking in some of that growth.
And so what this bill does, actually, is it requires
the other municipalities throughout the state
to actually share in some of this growth.
And because of that, I think we're actually going to see
a little more of that gentle growth in our community.
It also, because of the economics as they are, you know,
financing building is going to be a little more difficult.
So we're going to see a little tampering on that growth.
But we also recognize
that we are going to be continuing to grow.
We also already have a lack of housing in our communities.
So one of the things that we need to do is we need
to also be sure that we're protecting those small landlords
who really provide some of that affordable
housing in our communities.
We've lost a lot of that stock.
And then when I've been knocking on doors,
one of the things I remind folks is we are in a climate emergency
and we're going to have climate refugees moving to our community
because they can read the paper, too.
And when they're sitting in 110 degrees for 60,
70 days on end, and they see where it's
70 and 80 in the summertime,
you know, we can't keep that a secret anymore.
We kept that secret for a long time.
But, you know, we're going to actually have to recognize
that that growth is going to come.
And a lot of the people who are going to bring that growth
are going to have resources.
They're going to put pressure on some of our
housing stock, as well. -Thank you.
I wonder if I could talk with you, Pete,
about your work in business.
35 years in small business, as you mentioned.
I wanted to get your take on the Seattle economy here
because downtown isn't the only neighborhood in recovery mode.
Clearly, in District 6,
Target recently announced it would close the store
on Leary due to theft, organized crime, et cetera.
I just want to get your take on
the business climate in D6, if you could.
What changes would you consider to boost business
maybe if you were elected?
-Well, Thank you. I did not bring up in my intro
that also currently I'm the executive director
of the Fremont Chamber of Commerce.
-Right. -So that's my day job,
is support of business and the business community.
And I'm passionate about it.
Our business communities are what make our neighborhoods
so vibrant, right?
It is what we care about.
It is where we meet our neighbors,
it is where we celebrate all of our birthday parties.
It is what makes our city so wonderful to be in.
And they're struggling.
They're struggling primarily around public safety.
You know, businesses are not feeling like
they can hire adequately, partly because people don't want
to come to those businesses if they don't feel safe.
So we have to put a lot more emphasis
on making sure that those businesses are protected,
along the Leary corridor in the downtown Ballard area,
along Phinney Ridge,
where we've had some really troubling crime,
obviously, in the Fremont community, as well.
I am laser focused on supporting our small business.
I love celebrating small business.
You know, in Fremont, we have such a cool,
diverse mix of businesses
from some of the largest tech companies in the world
to tattoo parlors and punk rock bars,
you know, and that's what makes Fremont
really vibrant and cool.
So I want to make sure that we continue that.
-Got it. Thank you.
I wanted to make sure I brought you in here,
Councilmember Strauss, and talk about some of the work
that you've done during your term
to work with local businesses,
and if you wouldn't mind expounding on that.
-Yeah, and I absolutely was sad
to see the Target on Market Street closed.
And it was really unfortunate that all of the stores
that they closed were their small format stores, right?
-And the Bartell's across the street, also.
-Which was also acquired recently in a merger.
And we have a Bartell's a couple of blocks away
and a Walgreens across the street from there,
and a Safeway across the street from both of them.
Both Walgreens and Safeway have larger parking lots.
I don't need to go into it,
and I focus on public safety every day.
-Yeah, yeah. -And I mentioned this earlier,
that in my public safety task forces
that I have operating in a number of neighborhoods,
Ballard is one of those places.
And I funded a position at the Ballard Alliance,
this public safety coordinator,
to mirror what is going on in the University District.
What is different between Ballard
and the University District today is that there's a team of
people working on the street to help small businesses
that the Ballard Alliance doesn't have.
So this budget cycle,
I'm looking at, how do we expand that work?
And what we see in Ballard today
is that there's higher foot traffic today
than there was in 2019, and that's a really good sign.
You know, what I do in my office is not only do
I have a district office at the Ballard Library
that I share with the police department.
They have their own substation.
I have a D6 district director,
and it's her job to focus on both resident issues
and small business issues, so I have a quarter of my staff
dedicated to being responsive to our community.
And this is helping from anything from permits
to walking through the window replacement fund
to who do I call because bureaucracy
seems to be grinding.
Something that's very important to me
is that D6 residents don't have to go at it alone.
-Okay. Thank you. -I'm here to have their back.
-I appreciate that, and I wanted to make sure
I open it up.
I can only give you about 30 seconds,
but I always find this to be important.
There are always issues that are important to your campaigns
that are kind of behind the headlines.
Pete, I know you mentioned climate.
If you want to talk more about that, you can.
Is there something that we haven't covered today
you want to let voters know about?
-You know, I really -- I've been really honored
in this process of running for elected office.
There are so many people who are really committed
and care about our community,
and I think that what we need to do
and what the city's responsibility
is to help them knit together, right?
It's that community building piece
and providing that format
so that they really know that they are not alone.
Like Mayor Harrell says, "It is one Seattle."
And I'm really passionate about that.
And I really feel that those skills that I have brought,
you know, can really help our city.
-Yeah, yeah. Thank you.
And we'll talk more about that in a second.
30 seconds, if you could, an issue we haven't
brought up yet, Councilmember Strauss.
-Well, you know, talking about homelessness again,
I've partnered with Mayor Harrell to scale up our
neighborhood based homelessness response teams.
Previously, there was just one team for the whole city,
and now we are breaking out to have regional models
so that the same city workers
are in the same places every day,
so they know when things are getting better,
they know when things are getting worse.
They don't have to rely on find it, fix it.
And what I know today is that things are better today,
but better is not good enough for me.
And that's why I'm running for reelection,
because I want to raise my kids in a neighborhood
that is safer than the one that I grew up in.
-Let's wrap it up, and I think we'll hear
some more of these messages.
Councilmember Strauss, your campaign has raised
about $136,000 as of mid-October.
If you would, talk to me about your top
three endorsements, and let's wrap this up.
I can give you 45 seconds, please.
-Sure. -I'm endorsed by Mayor Harrell.
I'm endorsed by AG Bob Ferguson.
I'm endorsed by the building trades and by MLK Labor.
I have numerous union endorsements,
including the Seattle Firefighters Union.
Over 25 currently and formerly elected officials,
and many different community organizations
and many just average day District 6 residents.
It's an honor to be the only incumbent
with Mayor Harrell's endorsement.
-Okay. Thank you very much for that.
Pete, you get the last word. You've raised $182,000
for your campaign as of mid-October.
If you could top three endorsements
and wrap it up with why voters should support you.
-Well, I'm currently at the max.
I can't fund raise anymore,
and I think that's an indication of my support.
My top three is the community, the community,
and the community.
It really has been a grassroots campaign.
I have been doing this by knocking on doors,
talking with folks, and asking for their support,
and it's really been shown
that they really want to be supportive.
So I'm very thankful of that.
I do have the endorsement of the Seattle Times,
Hospitality for Progress.
Obviously, I am passionate about the business community,
and so I have a lot of support in the business community.
But it's really the residents of D6
that I am thankful for their support.
-Okay. Thank you both very much for this.
-Thanks, Brian. -We will be right back.
-What are people saying online about the two candidates
for Seattle City Council District 6?
One person writes, "Strauss deserves credit
for his extensive work on clearing out camps
in a way that doesn't result
in just another camp down the street."
Another person comments,
"This candidate is focused on the true issues.
Hanning said he will focus on the basics:
public safety, homelessness,
and responsible financial management.
We'd like to know what you think.
Send us an e-mail at contact@seattlechannel.org
or find us on social media.
Thanks for watching this edition of "City Inside Out."
Remember to cast your vote by November 7th.
It's free to mail in your ballot,
which must be postmarked by that day.
Or you can drop it off at a King County Elections
drop box at your local library and around the city.
See you next time.
♪♪