District 5 Endorsement: Debora Juarez

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Look, the fun City Council endorsements are over. Districts 5, 6 and 7 are each fairly disappointing by comparison to 2, 3, and 4. But Seattle Bike Blog is still going to endorse anyway.

Debora Juarez has not been a bold champion for biking. Even though 35th Ave NE is partially within her district, she did nothing to support a good, safe solution out of that big-budget repaving project. And the resulting project is awful. We needed leaders to stand up for the city's Bike Master Plan and climate change goals. Juarez did not.

I hope Juarez learned something from the 35th debacle. Our city's safe streets plans, including the Bicycle Master Plan, are bold and need her support. And when Seattle enacts them, they work. We would want to see some clear dedication to taking action on safe streets if we are going to support her next election.

In the end, her final votes have mostly been good, even if she tried at times to water down safe streets efforts. For example, she expressed that she would have supported Councilmember Herbold's amendment to water down the bike safety ordinance had Herbold not pulled it from consideration. But she still voted yes on the final ordinance.

But all this is only nitpicking because her opponent would be truly terrible. Ann Davison Sattler wants to round up people experiencing homelessness and store them in warehouses. No, really. It's disgusting and inhumane, and she and her ideas deserve to be defeated by an embarrassing margin this election.

Washington Bikes did not endorse anyone in District 5 this year. Seattle Subway (PDF), the Urbanist and the Transit Riders Union endorsed Juarez.

So reelect Juarez.