Seattle Mayor

In this podcast episode, The Urbanist's newsroom dive into recent headlines including Katie Wilson's State of the City speech, which bills are moving and which are dying at the Washington State Legislation, and the Seattle Social Housing Developer's latest moves.

On Tuesday, Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson pledged to attack affordability on four different fronts: housing, childcare, food, and small business opportunities. It was her first State of the City speech since taking office seven weeks ago.

The full list of 430 levy-funded projects across Seattle was mostly assembled before Mayor Katie Wilson took office. But it contains significant opportunities for the new administration to shape transportation investments over the years ahead.

Mayor Katie Wilson is promoting inspections director Sam Steele to interim director of the Seattle Department of Construction and Inspections, she announced Tuesday. Steele has pledged to streamline processes to make it easier to build housing and emergency shelter.

As the First Hill Streetcar celebrates a decade carrying riders, questions mount about the future of the Seattle Streetcar network as a whole. With a plan to finally connect the two existing lines being declared dead, the status quo is likely not sustainable.

Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson and Rico Quirindongo, the city's planning director, seem to be on the same page about revamping the city's growth plans to allow for additional housing density. The City appears set to largely stay the course on scheduled rezone work in 2026, but queue up additional growth centers and broader transit corridor upzones to enact in 2027.

Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson rolled out two executive orders on Thursday morning, seeking to get major initiatives rolling: expanding emergency housing for homeless residents and bus lanes to speed up the Route 8 bus. Wilson has set a deadline of April 17 for a Denny Way bus lane implementation plan.

The Urbanist recently sat down with Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson to get the latest on initiatives she has cooking now that her team is in office. We touched on emergency housing, bus lanes, World Cup preparations, Sound Transit, culture change at the police department, and more.