Seattle Nice Interviews New City Council Appointee Mark Solomon

We discuss blast balls, the new police chief, the comprehensive plan, and more.

Councilmember Mark Solomon being sworn in on January 27

By Erica C. Barnett

Our special on the Seattle Nice podcast this week was new Seattle City Council appointee Mark Solomon, who has vowed to serve as a "caretaker" for the District 2 position previously held by Tammy Morales. Morales resigned last year because of what she described bullying and gaslighting by her newly elected council colleagues.

Solomon lost to Morales in 2019 and sought the citywide council seat that ultimately went to the person Morales defeated in 2023, Tanya Woo, making him the second person appointed to the council after District 2 voters rejected them in favor of Morales.

We asked Solomon about his lack of a voter mandate, and about issues ranging from the use of blast balls to disperse crowds (he says they could have saved Kristopher Kime's life during Mardi Gras 2001) to the use of neighborhood and park activations to move "negative activity," such as drug markets, away from longtime hot spots like 12th and Jackson.

We also discussed the council's upcoming deliberations and vote on the city's comprehensive growth strategy (AKA the comp plan). Mayor Bruce Harrell's first public comp plan proposal eliminated about 24 "neighborhood centers"—nodes of density within 800 feet of major transit stops—that were in the original draft of the plan. While a later version restored six of the original 48 centers (in north Magnolia, High Point, Beacon Hill, Fremont, and Hillman City), owners of single-family houses have rallied to eliminate many of the neighborhood centers that remain in the plan, including those in Maple Leaf and Madrona.

During the appointment process, Solomon answered "no" to the question, "Do you support decreasing the number of proposed neighborhood centers?" During our interview, however, he sounded more ambivalent, saying, "I can't say absolutely no, because I want to hear from community." Many "communities," Solomon said, "did not feel like they were engaged in discussions of the plan."

"So if, for example, the people on Magnolia or around Haller Lake are saying, 'No, we don't want this,' that voice should be heard," Solomon continued. "So let's convene more community meetings. Let's get more community input and hear that."

The city's Office of Planning and Development began taking public comments and doing outreach to communities across the city, including presentations, public meetings, contracts with community groups, and an online hubs, at the beginning of 2022. The feedback ultimately included tens of thousands of written comments. Since the city released the draft plan last March, OPCD held five engagement sessions about the Draft Environmental Impact Statement for the plan, had open houses in all seven council districts, met with and did presentations for dozens of neighborhood groups, hosted 15 online meetings, and created a map-based online engagement hub that garnered nearly 6,000 public comments.

During our conversation with Solomon, I suggested that more engagement would be unlikely to change the minds of people who oppose allowing density—that is, renters—near their houses.

The city has until June to comply with a state law requiring cities to allow up to four units of housing, or six if two of the units are affordable to low-income people, on residential lots in traditional single-family areas, like the ones that make up about three-quarters of Seattle's residential land. That requirement is baked into the comprehensive plan.

Listen to hear that discussion, and to hear Solomon's thoughts on new police chief Shon Barnes, as well as proposals to roll back renter protections like $10 late fees and the winter eviction moratorium.