Pinehurst Seattle

Note: In the interest of helping Pinehurst neighbors to learn about the candidates who are running for local office in 2009, I invited all candidates to submit information about them and their campaigns to post on the Pinehurst Blog. This is the first post in the series.

David Bloom: The Reform Candidate for Seattle City Council

Dear Friends,

It’s time for a reform candidate for Seattle City Council. Last year, we saw at the national level what can happen when people are ready for change. We need that same spirit here in Seattle.

Government in a democratic society exists to serve the people. But Seattle city government has become disconnected from its people. As I move about the city, again and again I hear people saying that we are headed in the wrong direction, that we are losing the qualities that have made Seattle such an exceptional place to live. Work doesn’t pay a living wage. We are stuck in traffic. Our streets are falling apart. We develop neighborhood plans and then the City ignores them. We are closing our schools and talking about building a new jail. Families are being forced to move out of Seattle because housing is too expensive. Homelessness continues to grow. Our youth are dying on our streets.

We can do better. We must do better.

It is time for a new direction in City Hall. It is time to take seriously the notion of the “common good,” that we are all in this together. As Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. reminded us, “We are caught in an inescapable web of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly.”

There are powerful forces that want to continue to pour our tax dollars into downtown projects while ignoring the larger needs of our city—the common good. But we have the power of regular people in neighborhoods all over Seattle who care about the entire city, who care about that “inescapable web of mutuality” that binds us all together.

To turn our city around, we’ve got to be bold and we’ve got to get organized. Here’s what I will do when I am elected to the Seattle City Council:

• Build 5,000 additional affordable housing units above and beyond the goals of the housing levy and the homelessness plan, and require that when developers tear down affordable housing in our neighborhoods, they must replace it. Period.

• Create a City initiative to increase living wage jobs.

• Develop (in conjunction with King County and other jurisdictions) a regional transportation plan that

• connects our neighborhoods with more bus routes,
• is less focused on downtown Seattle,
• and moves the most people at the least cost.

• Replace the expensive redo of Mercer Street with a less expensive alternative that actually improves the traffic flow and redirect the dollars saved to rebuilding our neighborhood infrastructure.

• Protect neighborhood trees, watersheds, and open space.

If we are going to change the way our city governs, we need to get everyone involved. My volunteers have dubbed themselves the “Bloom Brigade.” I look forward to working with them every day toward the common good. Please join us. Together we can bring back our Seattle: an affordable and livable city for all of us.

Read David’s Priorities here, his seat announcement here, and read David’s Principals of Neighborhood here. Learn more at www.bloomforcouncil.org.