Tim Burgess' City View

Seattle City Light Strategic Plan

Seattle City Light, our city's electric utility created in 1902, is in the final stages of drafting its five-year strategic plan. This plan will affect the priorities of the utility and your electricity rates. There are many ways you can weigh in online or at public forums next week. More information is available at www.seattle.gov/light/strategic-plan.

Health, Crime and Growth in Southeast Seattle

Two events Saturday afternoon in southeast Seattle—one in the far south, the other up north at Franklin High School—highlighted the challenges and opportunities this culturally rich, growing and important area of our city faces.

We kicked off the afternoon with the grand opening of Neighborcare's sparkling, high quality medical and dental clinic in Rainier Beach.  Neighborcare is the city's largest provider of health services to our low-income and uninsured residents.  They also operate several of our school-based health clinics.

The new Rainier Beach clinic is the first of Neighborcare's facilities to combine dental and medical care at the same location. 

We moved to Franklin High School for a Great Cities event focused on the relationship between health, transportation, growth, and public safety. (Much more after the jump.)

Benefit for All: Market-Driven Parking Costs

Two proposals in this year's budget recommendations from Mayor Mike McGinn have generated the most controversy—reducing hours at neighborhood community centers and higher fees for on-street parking. With the city's annual budget approaching $4 billion these two items represent a tiny fraction of total spending, but they prove Tip O'Neill's famous quip, "All politics is local." 

Municipal government is closest to the people.  It's the form of government people see every day and use the most.  So when local government proposes a change, reaction can be quick and sometimes fierce.

The outcry over increased parking rates has indeed been quick and fierce.  My office has heard it loud and clear—you're just grabbing for more money, you'll hurt local businesses, you'll drive shoppers to Bellevue or the malls, don't you realize we're hurting out here.

But, what if the higher on-street parking rates are actually a benefit, a change that will help retail businesses, improve the flow of traffic, lower carbon emissions and help pay for pedestrian improvements, better lighting and more frequent cleaning?

A Pro Business Parking Strategy

Mayor McGinn's proposed 2011 budget calls for raising on-street parking prices to as much as $4 per hour in the downtown core and smaller increases in other city neighborhoods. (The Mayor's budget legislation actually sets a $5 top limit per hour on meter rates.) The Mayor is on the right track, but we should go even further and introduce demand-sensitive variable pricing as quickly as possible.

Demand-sensitive or performance-based on-street parking rates are pro business.  Here's why as explained by Donald Shoup, professor of urban planning at UCLA and the author of The High Cost of Free Parking.

"Prices that produce an occupancy rate of about 85% can be called 'performance-based' for three reasons.  First, curb parking will perform efficiently.  The spaces will be well used but readily available.  Second, the transportation system will perform efficiently.  Cruising for underpriced curb parking will not congest traffic, waste fuel, and pollute the air.  Third, the economy will perform efficiently.  The price of parking will be higher when demand is higher, and this higher price will encourage rapid parking turnover.  Drivers will park, buy something, and leave quickly so that other drivers can use the spaces.  Cities can achieve all these goals by setting curb parking prices to yield about an 85% occupancy rate." ("The Price of Parking on a Great Street," Parking Today magazine, February 2009.)

Shoup also recommends that parking meter revenue above the current base rate be dedicated to neighborhood-specific street improvement projects, including more frequent street and sidewalk cleaning, enhanced lighting, more police, litter and grafitti cleanup, and pedestrian improvements.  Shoup calls this revenue dedication "parking increment financing." 

San Francisco will soon launch a very sophisticated experiment in on-street parking management.  This three-minute video provides the essence of their program. Many of the core elements of the San Francisco program could be introduced here fairly quickly.  For example, we could adjust meter parking rates electronically by neighborhood on a quarterly or monthly basis to achieve the desired 85% occupancy rate.

And here's a New York Times opinion piece by Shoup that explains the most effective pricing model for on-street parking. 

The Council should adopt specific outcomes related to on-street parking, such as the 85% occupancy standard and then allow variable demand-sensitive meter rates.  When demand is low, for example on weekends and late at night, meter rates would be low or free.  When demand is high, primarily during the day or early evening hours, meter rates would also be high.  This approach to public policy is objective, is outcome-driven, and removes the political squabbles and conflicts of the traditional approach to setting meter rates.

 

Walk, Bike, Ride: I Scoot

UPDATE: Sunday, July 25, 2010
I haven't driven a car to work for nearly two weeks; I'm still alive, the sky hasn't fallen, and Joleen is very happy. 

Last week, I participated in the Mayor's Walk-Bike-Ride Challenge along with six of my colleagues on the Council.  We pledge to either walk, bike or ride to and from work.  I met the challenge every day!  Do I get a prize?

Previous Post: Yup, that's me on my scooter leaving my backyard and heading off to the office.  I scoot most days as long as it's not raining, not dark, and not too cold.  Otherwise, I take the bus.  Occasionally, I'll persuade Joleen to let me take the car, especially if I have lots of meetings and events away from City Hall. (We downsized to just one car and my scooter last year.)

This week is Mayor McGinn's Walk-Bike-Ride Challenge.  Seven council members, plus other city leaders, are participating.  We have all pledged to either walk, bike, ride (a category that includes scooting, transit and carpooling) to work. I've used my scooter every day this week.

My scooter journey is precisely 3.1 miles one-way.  It takes me 10-15 minutes in the morning and 20-25 minutes in the afternoon.  The primary rule is watch out! A scooter rider needs to be defensively careful in traffic.  Drivers don't see me! 

Time to Revisit Plastic Bags

There has been a flurry of media coverage on California's effort to ban statewide the use of single-use plastic bags.  Of course, here in Seattle we tried to impose a use fee on both plastic and paper bags but voters overturned the Council's decision after a massive, million dollar hoodwink campaign by the oil industry.  I've blogged about all this before. 

I believe it's time to take another look at this issue.  It's time for Seattle to ban the use of single-use plastic shopping bags.  An outright ban!  (We should exempt those plastic bags we all use at the grocery story to hold fresh vegetables, meat, fish and ice cream.) Plastic bags contribute to litter, they accumulate in our oceans and harm marine life, and they cause a negative drag on our forests.  We need bold, decisive action, we need to demonstrate leadership on this issue and that's what I intend to do. 

Here are some good background resources for our discussion about banning single-use plastic bags in Seattle. 

Plastic Bags Are Killing Us from Salon.com on August 10, 2007.

Are Plastic Grocery Bags Sacking the Environment? from National Geographic on September 2, 2003.

Elliott Bay Seawall: Questions to Ponder

Mayor McGinn has proposed a quick election in May 2010 so Seattle voters can determine whether to tax themselves to rebuild the Elliott Bay Seawall along our central waterfront. (Mayor's press announcement here.) The Mayor gets credit for recognizing the danger a deteriorating seawall poses and he's right to jump-start a brisk discussion about how we should proceed to repair the seawall.  But before I can support a special taxation election, I need to get answers to the following questions (after the jump).

Global Climate Talks Underway: About Time!

Paul Krugman has solid, practical perspective on the global climate talks that started today in Denmark.  Well worth the read. 

Compare Your Neighborhood; Get FREE Trees

Here's a great visual image of the city's tree canopy: Download 2007 Tree Canopy Map

Download the PDF image and see how your neighborhood stacks up against the rest of the city.  The City's goal is to rebuild our tree canopy to at least 30%. 

You can also get FREE trees for your neighborhood, plus a FREE fruit tree for your own yard through a new City program.  Check it out here, but beware of the pending deadline of August 21.  

Council Town Hall Meeting Thursday Night

The Council will hold a Town Hall meeting Thursday (June 25) to discuss youth violence, public education, and the city's tree canopy in West Seattle.  Dr. Gary Slutkin is our special guest.  Slutkin is head the the Chicago Ceasefire project which has had a remarkable track record in reducing gun violence, and youth violence in particular.  Join us if you can.

Date/Time:  Thursday, June 25, 2009 at 6:30 p.m. (Doors open at 6 p.m.)
Location:  The Hall at Fauntleroy, 9131 California Avenue SW (Map)