After a walking tour of the Westwood neighborhood, Mayor Mike McGinn spent over an hour at the Southwest Branch of the Seattle Public Library on 35th talking with neighbors who wanted to bring their questions and concerns directly to the man in charge.

The Mayor brought with him on the tour and to the meeting people from his own office, and others from SDOT, King County, Department of Neighborhoods and other city departments to engage people and as he put it escape the "echo chamber" of City Hall.

"Our goal is to do about 50 of these kind of neighborhood meetings over the course of the year," McGinn said.

In his opening remarks he pointed to the current economic status and said, "Climbing out of the recession is going to be slow and that presents some challenges for the city and city government (...) unemployment remains high, we're over 9% in the city." The Mayor said the city is trying to leverage some federal stimulus money for small business financing especially for disadvantaged areas. He mentioned a granting program for small business districts, he brought up the city's efforts on workforce training. He touched on a program called Community Powerworks that is a neighborhood-based building retrofit program that aims to achieve energy savings and create green jobs.

He said the city has been working with local industry to help retain jobs in the area, citing GM Nameplate as one company who has been persuaded to stay.

On education he said our system is "troubled" and that there is an "academic achievement gap that we still have not managed to wrestle to the ground. It's a bedrock moral issue (...) but it's a bedrock economic issue as well (...) our workforce is going to grow increasingly diverse and (students) need to be well educated for college or career upon graduating from high school.

The Mayor said that after a series of meetings as part of the Families and Education levy seeking public input on the issue they have formed "Action Teams" on "the six areas they cared about." Working with the school district, education reformers and philanthropists McGinn said the city has established a road map that contains, "the key things you have to do from birth to post-secondary education (...) being able to read by third grade is critical." He also pointed to an effort to help any failing ninth graders complete classes. "The data shows it works," he said.

Mcginn said in the renewal of the levy the city will "go deeper into neighborhoods (...) We're addressing Title One schools which also happen to have the widest achievement gaps (...) This is money that comes to the city and we contract with people" which will address early learning, health clinics in the schools, family support workers, tutoring and assistance for "at risk" students and some funding for middle school sports. "We're not spending the money on specific programs (...) we put the money aside for specific outcomes," he said.

Transportation produces almost "half of our correspondence at City Hall," McGinn said. "We have a Transit Master Plan we're working on, to look at the most significant corridors in the city and which areas are underserved, and what's the best transit for them." He mentioned the city's efforts to improve the walkability and bikability "built around the concept of creating 'Good Places.'"

Questions and statements on transportation decried the use of media soundbites regarding the deep bore tunnel and the mayor revealed that in the Environmental Impact Statement just released, the deep bore tunnel with tolls "puts more cars on city streets than any other option, including the surface street options."

He said, "I think they picked the most expensive and most risky option for the tunnel and the one that puts our budget the most at risk." He doesn't support rebuilding the viaduct, "but I do believe we can more efficiently put money into transit to connect West Seattle to downtown. We can improve our surface streets and make them nicer and we can actually make improvements to I-5 as well (...) if you removed some of the downtown exits," in the chokepoint under the convention center, "you could actually get another lane each way."

He took several questions relative to the John. T. Williams officer involved shooting and subsequent hearing and demonstrations in downtown.

He explained in response to these questions that he did not feel the Seattle Police Department or it's officers were racist but noted that "We do have policies that have built up over time that have served to disadvantage some folks over others. When you look at academic achievement, jobs, income, arrest rates, and incarceration rates the data is just overwhelming that some of that injustice continues. It's incumbent on us in city government to take a look at if we're doing things in good faith..."

Another questioner said he was concerned about the message the city sent by naming a day after John T. Williams, asserting that some officers are sending out resumes to seek employment elsewhere. "Your concern about the morale of the officers...I share that concern as well," McGinn said. He said he meets with his department heads every two weeks now but that "The Police Department is a little tougher because of their shift structure," but that he does try to meet with them and listen to their issues as often as possible.

McGinn had questions on city contracts and accountability, specifically as to whether or not Seattle would adopt a 3-1-1 program for broken infrastructure reports and and system of reports on contractors doing work for the city.
The Mayor said likely not, but cited that they are working toward more openeness by noting a change in the city telephone system whereby calls from city departments will now show up on Caller ID as specfic numbers and not a general city number. He cited the new City of Seattle website but said 3-1-1 is "on the list."

White Center annexation came up and he said, "I'm really torn. It's a wonderful neighborhood (...) In order to provide services to White Center it would mean we'd have to cut somewhere else (...) I don't know how we can afford it."

Fire service to Arbor Heights was mentioned by a firefighter from Engine 37 who said,"We have a really long response time into Arbor Heights (...) currently White Center's fire station has a straight shot. We need more fire protection for that neighborhood."

At one point the Mayor told those gathered that "I dropped about 40 pounds" after he was told that he "Looks much younger in person."

A downloadable MP3 Audio file of the meeting is attached to this story.