Mayor Greg Nickels spoke to the West Seattle Herald about the neighborhood, and city, he loves, and about his past accomplishments and future plans, this on the day he submitted his four billion dollar budget, Dec. 1. He serves until Jan. 4, when Mike McGinn is sworn in.

“We are kicking more than a few bucks to the hood over there,” said Nickels off the cuff, referring to his budget and West Seattle.

Rumors are in the air that Mayor Nickels seeks a position with the Obama administration as a sort of “green czar.” Turns out they are true. Nickels said that President Obama has reached out to him on this possible appointment.

“If such a job existed I would like to be President Obama’s climate ambassador,” Nickels acknowledged. “I’ve got something of a national, and international, climate issue reputation. I’ve organized 1,000 mayors on following through on the Kyoto Treaty issue that our government didn’t ratify. This got covered all over the world.”

Nickels serves as President of the United States Conference of Mayors until he leaves office. He led the US Mayors Climate Protection Agreement for cities to commit to reducing greenhouse emissions. In 2005 he announced an “Environmental Action Agenda” to reduce Seattle’s greenhouse gas emissions and will lead a delegation of mayors to the United Nations Climate Change Conference this month in Copenhagen.

While Nickels’ current job has taken him far afield, and his future job may land him in D.C., he said he feels most at home, well, at home in West Seattle.

He was born in Chicago 54 years ago, but his family soon moved to Erie, Pennsylvania. When he was six they moved to Fauntleroy, near the north end of Lincoln Park. He has since lived in West Seattle, except for a short stint on Capitol Hill with his parents. He attended first grade at Guadalupe School, then Holy Rosary.

“Once a place becomes home it sticks with you,” said Nickels, referring to West Seattle. “My wife Sharon is from Ellensburg and (West Seattle) felt like home to her with a small town feel. Once you cross that bridge you’re just a little bit separate. It feels like its own community. All around Seattle people feel that way about their neighborhoods. It’s not true about all other cities. It’s a very special thing.

“Alki is clearly the finest beach in the region, and we’ve got great parks, the Admiral Theater. Some of my memories growing up- the Grenada Theater that ran silent movies and the Wurlitzer.”

Silent movies were run by the Granada Organ Loft Club beginning in 1963 in the theater, at 5011 California Avenue SW, just north of Rite Aid Pharmacies.

The mayor’s legacy?

“In the larger scheme of things, the light rail. I worked on that for over 20 years. When the current plan is done 14 years from today it will connect 70- percent of residences, and 85- percent of the jobs in metro Seattle.

“Taking the viaduct down in six years and replacing it with the deep bore tunnel will reconnect the city to the water, to Elliott Bay, in a transformational way. It will change the way the city looks. This was politically very painful. I shed pints of political blood on that issue.

“You have a dichotomy because people say they hate sprawl and some hate density. I’ve helped plan to make it easier to walk and bike. As people rely more on light rail, street cares, rapid buses, they may not have to use a second car.

“One of the shocking things I first learned as mayor is that if we had a major earthquake, two-thirds of our fire stations would not survive. We didn’t spend any money or attention in nearly 35 years prior to my taking office. The biggest cause of death from earthquake is the fires that follow. In our sister city of Kobe (Japan) 190 fires broke out in 1995 and most of their stations were not able to respond. We’re fixing all 33 stations, installing power generators, and hardened hydrants in our rebuilt reservoirs (including Westcrest Park.) Those hydrants can be tapped into for fires and drinking water in an emergency.

And what about the roving, so-called “Nickelsville” tent city that had put in stakes, and then later pulled them as law enforcement swept it three times in West Seattle?

“We don’t want a tent city imposed on any one neighborhood. It has to be on land a church offers no longer than about 100 days so it doesn’t have health and safety problems. Multiple tent cities are not appropriate, not the answer to homelessness. The tent city has been used as a ruse to further (residents’) political agenda. That agenda is to turn public land over to them.

“These residents don’t want to go to shelters, don’t want permanent housing, or follow societies rules. They want to be left alone, ‘but please give us land to do it on.’ We do have an obligation to offer real housing to them, with our housing levies, senior housing bond issue. But I don’t think that’s a license for folks who just want to drop out of society and be given land to do it on.”

Nickels said Seattle has about 3,000 homeless and about 2,000 shelter beds, and the city has built 10,000 permanent low-income housing units.

“I do think that contributing to the West Seattle Helpline and food banks is more effective than handing money out to people with a sign, or buying them a sandwich. You can reconnect (homeless) with family, community, for a life that is more productive than living in a park.

“When you get into politics you have to accept that it’s the people who ultimately decide who they want to lead, and I was honored that twice they wanted me. I will cherish that experience the rest of my life. Life is too short. When I started, I figured I’d have four, maybe eight, or 12 years to make decisions, so I’ve made them count. I did the best I could to move the city forward.”