Phillip Tavel a West Seattle attorney and entrepreneur announced his candidacy for the new City Council District 1 position in a press release today.

He joins Chas Redmond, Amanda Kay Helmick and George Capestany in vying for the position.

In the release Tavel said:
He believes we need to manage existing projects more responsibly noting that "An immediate opportunity is correcting the course of the Alaska Way Viaduct replacement tunnel, which the state now says will make downtown commuter traffic worse when it is completed."

"Even beyond the current problems, the risks associated with continuing this tunnel and leaving the aging viaduct up are too great. The tunnel contractor has a well-documented history of not paying for cost-overruns and the potential costs to taxpayers are too high. Stopping the existing tunnel project is the most responsible decision we can make. The remaining project money should be used to increase transit and implement a lower-cost alternative that actually delivers on the promise to reduce traffic.”

His background includes time in technology, education, law and as an entrepreneur.

His release stated:
"Tavel resides in West Seattle with his wife and son. After college, he spent a year teaching high school physics and then went on work as a Science Education Analyst for the Division of Undergraduate Education at the National Science Foundation. After law school, Tavel moved to West Seattle and a year later co-founded Interactive Imagination, an entertainment company where he co-created Magi-Nation™, a successful collectible card game, which became an award-winning GameBoy™ game, and eventually an animated TV series.

Australian game development company Blue Tongue Entertainment then hired Tavel away for two years to be their Creative Director. In 2004, Tavel returned home to West Seattle where he went to work for DeVry University as a National Curriculum Manager, developing a new Bachelor’s degree program in Game and Simulation Programming. In 2006, Tavel began his career as a trial lawyer working for the Associated Counsel for the Accused, and is in private practice today, primarily doing trial work. He is also a King County Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) for children.

Tavel has been a volunteer for several West Seattle organizations and has been running the largest weekly trivia night in West Seattle for the past 8 years on Wednesday nights at Talarico’s Pizzeria."