Former Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn is running again with the desire to return to public service after losing a close re-election contest in 2014 to current Mayor Ed Murray.
Mike is a skilled politician, credible and capable of serving as Mayor. While a very personable and highly intelligent conversationalist, he is still more of a driver than a collaborator. Mike seems eager to work with the tech industry as a partner, but is vague about how he would engage us to help build a better city.
Mike has conducted many town halls and was saddened to see first-hand the “division in our city.” He notes that strong reaction against President Trump has fueled interest in local politics and, like most of the candidates in this election, sees cost of living in the city as a defining issue. Mike identifies lowering the cost of housing and public transportation as his primary campaign focus.
On the issue of housing, Mike focused on zoning policy as the main lever to spur availability of affordable housing. He also believes that investment in public housing is a necessity. He steered away from advocating for policies like rent control or using incentives to spur residential construction.
Mike wants to dispel the notion that he was and would be an “anti-business” mayor. He points out that OED under his last administration created useful resources for startups. He believes the anti-business rhetoric stems from his vocal opposition to the Bertha Tunnel. Mike still believes he was on the correct side of the Tunnel Debate — and he feels that if he had been able to block the Tunnel project, we could have funded light rail, road improvements, more busses, more bike lanes, better traffic flow, and improved commercial transit due to lower highway congestion.
Mike is eager to support the startup community. Interestingly, he sincerely believes that it is not small tech companies that create jobs for the region, but only the small tech companies that become large companies which create meaningful jobs. Given this somewhat misguided point of view, he does indicate a desire to have the Office of Economic Development (OED) serve newly formed companies and those that are growing rapidly. By contrast, Mike expects substantially more effort and financial contribution from large tech companies, but he was not specific on what we should be doing differently.
Mike received the endorsement of The Sierra Club.