Seattle District 3 candidate ratings

District 3 has six candidates running for the Seattle City Council, including incumbent Kshama Sawant. For some background on how our ratings work, read this.

ExcellentLogan Bowers

Among the candidates, one stands out as being unabashedly with us, full-tilt, on pretty much every issue. Logan Bowers is a small-business entrepreneur whose platform is entirely about urbanism.

He is not a perfect candidate. Although we believe City Council is an entry-level position, we would have preferred a candidate with some experience working in a local political context and/or with some formal policy credentials.

However, when the pitchforks come out to oppose bus lanes, bike lanes, bus-lane camera enforcement, congestion pricing, transit-oriented development, and upzones in general, we expect Mr. Bowers to stick to the urbanist principles on which he is campaigning.

GoodZachary DeWolf

Zachary DeWolf has the endorsements and the background to show that he will be very effective at working with his colleagues to advance his agenda. And there are good things about that agenda, including his call to upzone around every public school in the City. He would be a net force for good, though not as committed to our issues as Bowers appears to be.

Endorsements from some of the best current councilmembers (Mosqueda, Gonzalez, Juarez) are a good sign that he will join the coalition that seeks a broad approach to housing scarcity.

Fair

We are one of the few organizations in Seattle with a neutral position on Kshama Sawant. Most of our issues are fundamentally environmental ones; Ms. Sawant forces them through a rich-vs.-poor lens with unpredictable results. She is for funding transit and building housing, while often scuttling specific instances of transit funding opportunities (congestion pricing) and housing construction (the Showbox).

We can't say that her service - including her position on the Transportation Committee - has made the transit and housing scarcity situation in Seattle measurably better or worse.

Egan Orion and Ami Nguyen left very little impression on us one way or the other.

Poor

Pat Murakami has made a longtime hobby of fighting transit-oriented development, opposing "fixed rail," advocating parking as an environmental measure, and fearmongering about transit.

The Seattle Transit Blog Editorial Board currently consists of Martin Duke, Frank Chiachiere, and Brent White.