Mayor Durkan Blog

Office of the Mayor Mayor Jenny A. Durkan

Mayor Jenny A. Durkan

City of Seattle

City of Seattle Snow & Ice Response, February 8th – 13th

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UPDATE: February 13, 1:00 P.M. The City continues to work to limit the impact of winter weather on residents and ensure access to critical services, please review the list of departments below for information on operations modifications. Residents are encouraged to sign up for AlertSeattle for updates and emergency notifications. Seattle Department of Transportation: Seattle Department […]

In the First Two Weeks of the SR 99 Closure, Fewer People Drove Downtown and More People Changed Their Commute Time. Please Keep It Up!

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We are now into the third week of WSDOT’s SR 99 closure and the first phase of the Seattle Squeeze, the data tells us some good news: Fewer people are driving in and out of our downtown in cars during peak hours! Although congestion and travel times are similar in many ways to before the SR […]

A good day and a step forward for our region: Microsoft invests $500 million to address housing and homelessness in the Puget Sound

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As a region, the crisis of affordability, housing, and homelessness is the central challenge we face. It’s a crisis that threatens the soul of our city. It’s a crisis that is bigger than Seattle, and demands a regional response. It is just not sustainable to have a region where people cannot live where they work. […]

Mayor Jenny Durkan Testifies Before the State Legislature on Legislation That Builds on I-940

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January 15, 2019 – Today in Olympia, former U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Washington and Seattle Mayor Jenny A. Durkan testified before the Washington State Senate’s Law and Justice Committee in support of Senate Bill 5029, which builds on Initiative 940. Mayor Durkan’s testimony as delivered follows: The passage of Initiative 940 was […]

Seeking Out and Listening to Solutions in Other Cities to Address Homelessness

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Homelessness and affordability is the moral challenge of our time. It’s why when I took office, I immediately made significant new investments to increase our emergency shelter and bridge housing capacity by 25 percent. My proposed budget includes continued support for these as well as continued investments in prevention, diversion, and housing. In addition, the […]

Saying Goodbye to Barbara Bailey

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Our friend Barbara Bailey died this weekend, and Seattle grew suddenly dimmer. Few things challenge our sense of mortality and purpose more than the death of someone who seemed immortal. Barbara was such a person. Born and raised here, she loved Seattle and poured herself into making it better. Barbara was relentless in everything she […]

High School Students Begin to Receive Free ORCA Cards Under Mayor Jenny Durkan’s “ORCA Opportunity” Program

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Seattle Now Largest American City That Offers Free Transit Passes to Public High School Students  Garfield High School students became the first students to receive free ORCA passes under Mayor Jenny Durkan’s “ORCA Opportunity” program to provide free, safe, and reliable transportation for all of Seattle’s public high school students. With this major milestone, Seattle is […]

UPDATED: Safety Improvements on Rainier Avenue South

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Thank you to the community for joining Mayor Jenny Durkan to talk about safety measures you want to see on Rainier Avenue South. Traffic engineers from the Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) visited the Rainier Ave S and S Henderson St intersection last week and are already planning several near-term safety enhancements and evaluating a […]

Meeting Growing Demand for Bus Service

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In King County, we have seen an 8 percent increase in bus riders over the past nine years and gained about 700,000 rides between 2016 and 2017 alone. Recent changes to the Seattle Transportation Benefit District – proposed by Mayor Durkan and approved by the Seattle City Council – are not only putting free ORCA cards […]