Rehabilitating Seattle’s downtown and improving public safety will continue to be top priorities for Mayor Bruce Harrell, as he enters his second year in office, according to plans he spelled out in his State of the City speech on Tuesday.

Harrell’s annual address relied on notions that Seattle as a whole will improve if downtown becomes more lively and if public safety resources, including bolstering the Seattle Police Department and finding public safety alternatives, become more robust — both topics the mayor has emphasized in the past.

“Look, I’m bullish on the future of downtown. Let me say it again: I am bullish on downtown,” Harrell said Tuesday afternoon at Seattle Center, citing downtown’s 100,000 residents and 320,000 jobs. In his second such address since he took office, Harrell called the city’s core “the undisputed economic engine and cultural hub of our region.”

Watch Mayor Bruce Harrell deliver his 2023 State of the City address

Downtown revitalization

Harrell said he would use “unabashed boldness” to revamp the center city, which, like downtowns of most major cities, has been slow to rebound from coronavirus-related closures and an uptick in crime.

The mayor said he will introduce a Downtown Activation Plan in the coming months to spell out immediate and long-term changes to lure people back downtown, noting that a rebuilt downtown will be different from what has been seen before.

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“It’s the time for bold action. That’s why our long-term plans center downtown as a laboratory for the future,” Harrell said, suggesting zoning changes to allow housing in vacant office buildings and potentially establishing a “24/7 street” for late-night businesses — where “you can find a restaurant, bar, grocery, or your favorite clothing boutique at any hours of the day” — as ways to propel downtown forward.

Harrell offered few details of the actual plan, noting it will take time.

“Some cynics may demand the exact blueprint for our entire new downtown immediately,” Harrell said. “We need to do this right. It has to be sustainable. And we’re working seven days a week to deliver.”

Harrell’s comments on downtown were promptly lauded by the business community, including the Downtown Seattle Association, which commended the mayor’s priorities in a statement, adding that “if downtown isn’t welcoming and safe for all, then everything else falls flat.”

“We share [the mayor’s] belief that we have the opportunity to create a new playbook for what a center city can become,” the statement from the downtown group read. “It will take collaboration and imagination, ingredients we’ve seen embraced with great success in our city’s history.”

Harrell also praised employers who are requiring workers to return to the office, including a specific shoutout to Amazon, which announced last week that it would require its workers to return to in-person work at least three days a week beginning in May.

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Public safety

The other major factor in improving downtown, Harrell said, is public safety.

Noting that overall crime was up in 2022, with a decline in December, Harrell claimed his early approach to public safety — which has focused on hot spot policing and aggressively recruiting more officers — seems to be working. He rehashed many of his talking points from his campaign and first year in office, promising more police officers, a crackdown on fentanyl distribution and a “holistic” approach to public safety.

Harrell said he would sign an executive order to address the distribution of fentanyl in the next month and will introduce a suite of legislation to the City Council this year to “[ensure] we are aligned on the number of officers we need, a comprehensive strategy and a vision for the future of public safety.”

The mayor also expanded on a previous promise to establish a new public safety department geared toward a nonpolice response to emergencies, describing for the first time his plan to convert the Community Safety and Communications Center — which currently directs 911 calls — to a new Civilian Assisted Response and Engagement Department.

The new department, which Harrell says will be spelled out in a white paper in the “coming weeks,” will house behavioral health experts, emergency dispatchers and “other necessary specialists beyond traditional first responders.”

“While advancing the work of the CARE department will require bargaining and partnership with our city’s public safety labor unions, we will also demonstrate our commitment to diversified response through the launch of a dual response pilot program later this year,” Harrell said.

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The mayor and council signed an agreement to create short- and long-term response alternatives, including the pilot program, in September.

Other issues

Harrell offered a few indicators on progress made in his first year — mentioning an increase of policing in select parts of the city, 1,800 housing or shelter referrals made by the Unified Care Team, and a $250 million investment in affordable housing passed in his first budget — but noted his administration had been focused on the basics, such as filling 23,000 potholes in 2022, the most of any of the last five years.

“It’s no coincidence that as we envision a better future for our city, we are doing so from this building at the center of the 1962 Seattle World’s Fair site,” Harrell said. “The World’s Fair looked not at the city of that time, but boldly envisioned the city of tomorrow. Not at what is, but at what is possible.”

The mayor also pointed to prioritizing other issues such as expanding affordable housing and light rail, addressing climate change and improving safety for pedestrians and cyclists through a recommitment to the city’s Vision Zero strategy.