Message from Seattle doorsteps to Council candidates: City Hall isn't listening

Hitting Seattle doorsteps after a lengthy absence from politics, ex-Seattle City Council member Heidi Wills is hearing a message.

"There have been a lot of missing conversations: It (City Hall) tends to be insular and people listen only to those who come to City Hall," Wills told a marathon candidates' forum held Sunday by King County Young Democrats.

Dan Strauss, a fellow District 6 candidate, took the mic and said: "The city has lost compassion for its neighbors because we have not dealt with growth in a responsible way."

"I've lived here long enough to know where the obstacles are, but not long enough to cause them," added Strauss, best known for his work with the Alliance for Gun Responsibility and retiring Council member Sally Bagshaw.

Wills and Strauss are among 14 candidates running for the Northwest Seattle seat of retiring City Councilmember Mike O'Brien.

The field of contenders is so full that Young Democrats' chairman Derek Richards did culling to keep the forum to three hours and 40 minutes. Yet people turned out on a sunny afternoon and stayed, as they have at forums sponsored by Speak Out Seattle.

Interest in this election is high, in part because public mood toward City Hall is low. Mayor Jenny Durkan speaks incessantly about building a glorious "city of tomorrow." But the "Seattle Squeeze" is squeezing the city's citizens in taxes, traffic, housing and high visibility homelessness.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/message-from-seattle-doorsteps-to-council-candidates-city-hall-isnt-listening/ar-AAAHPVq