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It’s show time (show time!)
Show time (show time!)
Guess who's back again?
After taking three months of parental leave, I’m back again and so excited to return to Council this week! It’s been wonderful as a new parent to have time to bond with our daughter Camila, and I hope that the State Paid Family and Medical Leave Act will enable more families to take this time as well (remember you have a year to use your leave from the date of the qualifying event). Thank you to my dedicated staff for keeping up the momentum on our priorities over the last three months and making sure we continued to advance investments in this year’s budget and policies that center workers’ rights and support for working families, strengthen healthy communities, and build affordability for all.
As the new Chair of the Housing and Finance Committee, I’m hitting the ground running, with a special Housing and Finance Committee kick-off meeting this Thursday at 2pm. Here’s a look-ahead to some of the policies and priorities I’ll be working on this year.
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The Future (of Work) is Here
This year, I’ll be launching a dive into what workforce and technology changes have meant for workers in our city, for businesses and for our community at large. Up first….TNC drivers.
Over the past decade, Transportation Network Drivers (you probably know them as Uber, Lyft, and other ride-share drivers) have shared their concerns with the new model of work – ranging from low wages after the companies take their share to deactivations without process. Last year, to address these concerns, and driven by our Mayor, we passed protections for TNC drivers, allowing for process when they are deactivated, immediately losing investments in their vehicles and their livelihood. We also passed a resolution creating a wage study for drivers. In my committee, we’ll be bringing the study authors, the survey and focus groups specialists, and workers to the table as we contemplate the right wage for workers.
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Ending Exclusionary Zoning
Over the last two years, I’ve been working with advocates to lay the groundwork to end Seattle’s outdated and inequitable system of exclusionary zoning and create a more equitable system of growth in our city. Of all residential land in Seattle, 25% allows for multifamily residential and mixed-use development, while 75% is zoned exclusively for single-family detached houses. The city has seen unprecedented growth over the last decade, adding more than 105,000 residents since 2010. However, that growth has not been absorbed equitably: Since 2006, over 80% of Seattle’s growth has occurred in urban centers and villages. Meanwhile, due to restrictive zoning, only 5% of new housing units in Seattle from 2010 to 2017 were built in single-family areas, in spite of many of these areas receiving public investments in transportation infrastructure, parks, and schools. We know the exclusionary effects of Seattle’s growth pattern coupled with a legacy of discriminatory public policy—such as redlining, racial restrictive covenants, and increasingly restrictive residential zoning—and uneven investment in Seattle: perpetuated segregation, increased displacement pressures in communities of color, and harmful climate impacts.
This year, I will continue to work towards a more inclusive zoning system by making sure there’s equitable community engagement for the upcoming Comprehensive Plan update, and meaningful policy options on the table to increase housing diversity and address displacement in communities most harmed by the historic wrongs of racist redlining and increasingly exclusionary zoning.
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Antibiotics Transparency
For all the good antibiotics do for public health, unrestricted use in the food we consume and that workers handle can also pose a public health risk to workers, our children, and the general public if the genes mutate and create antibiotic-resistant strains. Currently, there is very little regulation and monitoring of the antibiotics are used in our food systems. We don’t have a means of adequately tracking which antibiotics are being administered to our food system, how much, or measuring the impacts on workers, children or our ecosystems. Like San Francisco, we need to create a monitoring and reporting system so that we can be responsive to public health concerns, educate the public on risks, protect workers handling the food, and protect the health of our community. I’ll be working with the Natural Resources Defense Council to develop more transparent practices and data collection methods. For more information on the risk of antibiotic resistant strains and how it affects workers and our food supply check out this information from the NRDC and info on their website.
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Budget!
As the new Chair of the Finance and Housing Committee, I’ll be helping to lead the budget process this year with my colleagues. The City’s budget process currently means that the Council and public get approximately two months to receive, review, understand, change and pass the budget. That’s not a lot of time, even with a staff and familiarity with the process. It’s time we brought the budgeting process to you in the community. This year you will see a robust community engagement process throughout the next few months that will help ensure every corner of Seattle gets a chance to share ideas, better understand the process, and engage early in setting priorities. And that starts now.
In the coming month a calendar and process will be published to engage with our office in community so we can set budget priorities together. Thank you in advance for all the priorities you shared with us last year (pickleball players – we heard you loud and clear 🙂), and we look forward to expanding on that initial list for our upcoming budget deliberations.
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Celebrating Transit Equity with ORCA for All
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Happy Transit Equity Day! In honor of Rosa Parks’ birthday, February 4th marks a day of action in cities across the country to make public transit accessible and affordable to all. This Transit Equity Day, I’m excited share that, in the coming months, I’ll be working with workers, advocates, and local businesses to create policy that puts transit passes into the hands of more workers in Seattle. At this Thursday’s kick-off Finance & Housing Committee meeting, I’ll be joined with folks from the Orca for All campaign, organizations and workers who’ve been advocating for policy to expand transit benefits to residents and workers across Seattle. We’ll hear from workers about their experiences cobbling together their commutes to and from work and the role of transit passes in creating a more equitable transportation system, and we’ll discuss the campaign’s work to engage communities in Seattle in creating policy that works for all.
This is a policy for workers’ rights, economic justice, and climate justice—and I’m looking forward to a 🚌 ro-BUS-t 🚌 discussion to kick off our work in committee!
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Did you know that Rosa Parks’ famous 1955 act of resistance on a segregated bus in Montgomery, Alabama—setting in motion the pivotal Montgomery Bus Boycott—wasn’t a spur-of-the-moment move on a tired ride home from work (as it’s often depicted), but rather was a well-organized action by a seasoned civil rights leader? Read more here about Parks’ bravery and leadership in the fight for racial justice.
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Team Teresa sits in the same seat occupied by Rosa Parks during her 1955 act of resistance against racial segregation on Montgomery Buses at the Ford Museum in Detroit last year.
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Last week, SEIU 1199NW healthcare members went on a 3-day strike demanding fair pay, real breaks, adequate staffing ratios, and respect at the workplace. I had the opportunity to stand with them and speak at a rally letting them know that Seattle stands in solidarity with them. Less than 48 hours later, workers went back to work and many were denied their normal shifts. I’m pleased that all striking workers are back on the job. Even after the public strike, workers needs remain unmet. I will continue standing with workers to ensure we have living wage jobs, healthy medical facilities for our community and strong and safe communities.
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I had the opportunity to stand with UFCW 21 Macy’s workers who are bargaining a benefits and severance package as the downtown Seattle Macy’s closes its doors. The union members are frustrated that, inexplicably, the downtown Seattle workers did not receive the same severance packages many other Macy’s employees across the region have received. That’s not fair. Macy’s is one of a few retails stores that unionized and bargained for strong wages and benefits. They have been a good place to shop because the community knows their workers are unionized. Now is the chance for them to again be a leader and show what corporate responsibility looks like as the store closes its doors. These workers, some who have worked for Macy’s for almost 40 years, continue to demand severance packages at the bargaining tables as the store’s closure date nears–and as they do so, we stand with them.
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Teresa Mosqueda
Seattle City Council Councilmember, Position 8
teresa.mosqueda@seattle.gov
206-684-8806
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