Rainier Chamber President’s Lunch Report #1: Mayor’s Keynote Speech

Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels delivered the keynote address recently at the Rainier Chamber’s Annual President’s Lunch in NewHolly, in which he provided an update about the City in general and Southeast Seattle in particular, including the following points:

• We’re here today to celebrate achievements of the Rainier Valley community.

• Every where I go, people want to say their neighborhood is best, but here in the Rainier Valley, you have a good case to make even against my community in West Seattle.

• We’ve been through hard times, but things are looking up. People seem more optimistic than they were two months ago, four months ago, six months ago.

• When it comes to the recession, Seattle is better prepared for recovery than any other city, and a Pew Research study says Seattle is suffering less than other cities.

• We’re having to make some difficult decisions, and there are more to come, but we will not cut basic services for people in need.

• The light rail opening on July 18 is going to be a very, very good day for the Rainier Valley and the city of Seattle.

• I know the construction process was difficult, and I’m thankful to the community for your patience and tolerance with the mistakes and miscommunications. I think you’re going to find that it’s been worth it and that you’ll be better connected than anyone in the Puget Sound area.

• The Rainier Valley Community Development Fund (RVCDF), to which the City contributed $43 million (and the County $7 million), has helped 74% of businesses along the light rail corridor survive the extended construction process, which is probably similar to what it would have been without light rail construction.

• The RVCDF now moves into a new phase of investments rather than just trying to save area businesses.

• Thanks to light rail, home values remain high in the Rainier Valley and Beacon Hill.

• Light rail also brings challenges like parking issues. We heard you when you said you shouldn’t have to pay to park in your own neighborhood, and we agree and took care of that.

• Thanks to Bridging the Gap, the south-end community can look forward to 25 blocks of new sidewalks, new directional signs in Rainier Beach, additional lighting in Columbia City, updating school zone signing at schools like Franklin, Rainier Beach & Cleveland High Schools, we are also changing out every street sign in the City so they are readable.

• Public safety has always been the bread & butter of what the City does and I’m really proud that our crime rate is low. The men & women of SPD work really hard for this community & we’re at a 40-year low in terms of numbers, but we know that perception is important and that there are neighborhoods in the City where people don’t feel safe.

• We had 29 homicides last year, which is 1/2 of Boston, 1/3 of Milwaukee and less than 1/4 of Washington, DC, which are all of a similar size as Seattle, but of those 29, five were teen boys killed by gun violence.

• We have an obligation to say we’re going to stand up and say “no more”. If we can reduce car thefts in half just by putting a focus on the problem, we ought to be ale to do same with our kids’ safety.

• We’ve identified about 800 kids in our community that are likely to be either victims or perpetrators of crime, and we’re asking for your help. Get involved!

• Construction will begin on the new Rainier Beach Community Center in 2012.

• Looking forward to more good news coming from the Rainier Valley…

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