By Steven Smalley
It?s not often a political candidate with an ?R? after their name visits Seattle to conduct the business of looking for votes. You?ve been asleep if you didn?t notice the dearth of Republicans investing any time in the Emerald City. One can assume campaign stops here for the Grand Old Party are not worth the effort. Last week was an exception.
Candidate for governor and former Port of Seattle Commissioner, Bill Bryant, requested to meet with area residents to hear concerns about ?RV crime, homeless, and the heroin epidemic affecting Seattle and Western Washington,? according to his Facebook page. He listened and Magnolia gave him an earful.
Gathered around a fireplace inside a local restaurant, nearly all the talking was by those familiar faces who attended the two recent meetings of residents who have had it with area crime. They let the spigot flow with stories and ideas to rid Magnolia of the blight. Bryant listened.
?I want to get a better handle on what?s happening here,? he tells Magnolia Voice. ?How much of this is related to real homelessness, and how much is related to a criminal element masquerading as homeless. I don?t know, but I want to hear from residents.?
With the recent removal of RVs from Magnolia streets and the clean-up of the illegal camping from under the Magnolia Bridge, the issue of ?homelessness? and continued efforts by the city to raise taxes to pay for more programs, came up for discussion.
?How much are we spending in Washington state on programs to help the homeless? I can?t get a straight answer.
It?s spread out in so many different programs that aren?t coordinated,? he notes. ?How do we know what success looks like? What?s the objective of these programs? How do we quantify it? How do we know which programs are working and which aren?t? If you cut a program that isn?t working, everyone will scream that you?re hurting the people who need it the most. But you?re not hurting them if the program isn?t working. We need to have some mechanism which shows which programs are helping people and which aren?t. And those that aren?t, we either fix or eliminate. Let?s put the money into the programs that are working.?
Crime, traffic, and the ?homeless? aren?t foreign issues to Bryant. He lives in Seattle and says he sees them every day.
?Homelessness is a real personal issue of mine,? he says. ?For a few years I was a volunteer manager at a winter night shelter for men. Homelessness among men is a much more difficult situation to solve. You have some guys who need to get back on their feet, who want to get a job. And I think those are the people that long-term shelters can help. And then there are guys who are just between jobs who?s figured out how to game the system and who go from shelter to shelter. Then you have a whole group who does not want to ever get mainstreamed again. They?ve made a conscious decision to live in shelters or tents. A lot of them don?t go into shelters because they don?t want to follow the rules ? which are related to drugs and alcohol.?
When asked why he was visiting a part of the state that hasn?t historically been in the Republicans? corner, Bryant talks of his election victories running for Port Commissioner.
?The last time I ran I got almost fifty percent in Seattle,? he says. ?I would like to think that at least thirty percent of people in Seattle would want to have a governor who wants to make sure the money we are spending is being spent in a way that?s actually going to help the people we want to help. That?s what I want to do. I?m not going down there with any great partisan ideology. I just want to make sure our taxpayers? money is being spent well and actually helping people.?
The issues close to his heart, for this life-long Washingtonian born in Morton, include transportation.
?It?s something I?ve spent eight years at the Port working on. I-405 is a mess. I-5 is a mess. We have a policy in this state right now which does not prioritize the elimination of traffic jams. One of the things I?ve worked on at the Port is making sure freight moves efficiently, which means you have to eliminate traffic jams. That shouldn?t be a Republican or Democrat issue. That?s just about making government better. That?s what I?m about,? Bryant says.
And with that, a final pitch to Magnolia voters.
?There?s a lot of people looking for an alternative. If there is a reasonable alternative, they?re looking for a reasonable alternative? he says. ?Unlike a lot of the previous gubernatorial candidates, I?ve actually run twice in the city of Seattle and worked with the people of Seattle, and they know me. They know I?m somebody who wants to spend wisely, not just go in and slash & burn.?
Those who attended the get-together were complementary.
?He?s a realist, and that is refreshing,? says Gretchen Taylor, part of the Neighborhood Safety Alliance. ?I felt there was really somebody there,? she says. ?He was genuine. I want to do everything I can to help him move forward. I really like people who talk straight.?
The NSA?s Cindy Pierce was in agreement.
?He made a big deal about how the money is spent,? she says. ?I liked what he had to say. There?s a lot more we have to hear from him. As far as everyone being accountable for the money spent, I was all ears with that.?
