Endorsement: Katie Wilson for Seattle Mayor

Katie Wilson not only attended the Race the L8 event to advocate for bus route improvements, she rode the 8 to get there. Bruce Harrell did not attend. From Katie Wilson for Seattle via Bluesky.

Katie Wilson is a bus-riding mama who gets shit done. She seeks out and fosters genuine community relationships, works with folks to identify problems within city government that are holding people back, and then she creates unstoppable public momentum to get solutions passed into law. I have watched her do it over and over for the 15 years I have been writing Seattle Bike Blog. Often, people don't even know that some of these hugely successful initiatives were due in large part to her organizing because she has rarely been the face of those efforts. Instead, she has been out there gluing together the coalition that gets the wins. Wilson's fearless and collaborative leadership philosophy is in sharp contrast to both the vile narcissism we see every day on the national news and the Nerf dart resistance to it from many Democratic Party leaders.

I remember very clearly when the ORCA Lift program began because I was an early user. Making rent every month as an independent journalist was so tight that I would avoid taking transit to save on fares. But ORCA Lift made each ride a flat $1.50, giving me and thousands of others peace of mind to use our public transit system as needed. Katie Wilson was on the committee at King County that pushed for the creation of that low-income transit fares program. She was also a key player years later in the creation of Seattle's free youth transit program, which was so successful that legislators ended up adopting a similar program for kids across the whole state.

Renters today must be given advance notice of rent increases, and shady money grabs like high move-in fees and predatory late fees have been restricted thanks in large part to her organizing. She also worked on successful minimum wage increases throughout King County. Again, these are policies that have made many people's lives significantly better in our ever-more-expensive corner of the world.

Perhaps her biggest lift, however, was helping to lead the creation of the JumpStart payroll expense tax in Seattle, which not only provides a reliable revenue source for affordable housing but also saved Seattle's ass when other important revenue streams dried up during the early years of the COVID pandemic. Had JumpStart not been in place, the city would have been forced to slash services, defer important maintenance, fire workers, and who knows what else. Our city is in a materially stronger position today because of Katie's work.

During all this time, Bruce Harrell has been ... there. No other person in elected Seattle office has had more opportunities to solve our city's problems than Bruce Harrell. He was on the City Council from 2008 through 2019 and has been mayor since 2022. Yet Katie Wilson, who has never held public office, has more significant and impressive wins to her name than Bruce Harrell.

Seattle launched Vision Zero in 2015 with the goal to eliminate traffic deaths and serious injuries on city streets by 2030," the Wilson campaign wrote in the transportation policy page of her campaign website. But in the last 10 years, eight of which Bruce Harrell served in city leadership, more than 1,850 people have been seriously injured and 253 people have been killed in vehicle collisions. We need city leadership that will prioritize keeping our kids, elders and neighbors safe on our streets."

It is true that safe streets and bicycling did surprisingly well during the first three years of the Harrell administration, especially compared to our previous do-nothing mayor Jenny Durkan. Harrell is a much more effective politician and executive than Durkan was, and safe streets folks and Harrell both shared a very important interest in passing the 2024 Seattle Transportation Levy. Advocates were able to get pretty good (though still scaled back) increases to bike network and walking safety funds into the measure, and Harrell was able to then rely on the powerful support from safe streets advocates to help ensure passage of a levy that was a must-pass for his mayoral legacy.

Shortly after passage, however, Greg Spotts left as SDOT Director, and the city's accelerated delivery of safe streets projects has clearly slowed down. We must take Harrell's latest middle finger to street safety on Lake Washington Boulevard-cancelling nearly all the traffic calming elements in the already-watered-down compromise plan for the street-as a warning of what's to come in a second Harrell term. My worry is that Harrell no longer needs safe streets folks now that the levy vote is over. Folks have been organizing for a safer Lake Washington Boulevard for half a decade, and they found themselves in a situation this year where they had no leverage over the mayor, and so they lost. The city will not take further action to reduce injuries and deaths on this southend park boulevard. Seattle has the funding in place to make big strides toward Vision Zero and a fully-connected bike network over the next four years, but we'll need a mayor who is a champion of these efforts. Harrell has never been such a champion.

Both Washington Bikes (sister org to Cascade Bicycle Club) and Transportation for Washington (sister org to Transportation Choices Coalition) endorsed Bruce Harrell early in this race. These endorsements both reek of cynicism. Harrell crushed Lorena Gonzalez 59-41 in the 2021 general election, so perhaps they felt his win this year was inevitable and want to be on his good side. Or perhaps they made some kind of deal I am not privy to. I don't know. Washington Bikes wrote in April, Washington Bikes endorses Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell for re-election due to his support for record investments in Seattle's bike network." OK, but what about the next four years? Wouldn't it be better to have a true bike safety champion in office?

The mood among the electorate in 2025 is dramatically different than in 2021. With fascism on the march nationally and rights and democratic foundations quickly eroding, people are looking for a local leader who they know will fight for them. When facing cuts to vital social safety nets and attacks on fundamental rights, staying the course isn't enough. People are looking for a leader who is willing to counteract those cuts to protect the people even if the necessary actions make some wealthy people and businesses upset. Perhaps the most clear-cut illustration of this happened in February when Seattle voters backed the Wilson-led social housing initiative 1A over the the watered-down Harrell-led version by a resounding 63-37 margin. Wilson is capturing something special within the Seattle electorate, and I believe she can keep building excitement all the way to a win in November.

Katie Wilson co-founded the Transit Riders Union and has a long history of biking around town for transportation. She has high-level policy chops for a wide range of issues facing Seattle residents as well as a personal awareness of the challenges facing bicycling and transit-riding Seattleites. I can personally vouch for her character and say that's she's the real deal. She cares deeply about our city and is a true believer that we can create a safer and more affordable Seattle for everyone.

Vote for Katie Wilson.