Vote Jessyn Farrell, Mayoral Megazord

Elisa Catrina
Jul 24, 2017 · 6 min read

Who knows why The Stranger declined to run my op ed? Maybe I don’t have Tim Eyman’s towering intellect. Maybe they’re just not that into me. Nevertheless, I spent so much time researching that I figured the public should benefit.

The mayor your mayor could smell like. Thanks, Parris Studio, for this image I’m not sure I can legally use.

There are three hundred thousand people running for mayor of Seattle. Every time I mention a human name, my roommates say with hollow-eyed panic, “They’re running for mayor, right?”

In my head, this race has basically become Power Rangers: all these people running around trying to save the city, only they keep adding new colors like “Green” and “Harley Lever” and you suspect there’s some racism going on and you can’t focus long enough to figure out who in this equation is supposed to be the Pink Ranger.

I think we can all agree this is too many.

Well, skip the gotta-choose blues, hometown heroes, because you can vote for the Megazord.

If you like McGinn’s fine-grained policies, Hasegawa and Oliver’s progressive cred, Durkan’s git-’er-done-itude, and Moon’s thoughtful urbanism, congratulations! You have high standards, and Jessyn Farrell is the candidate to meet them.

I think of Jessyn as the mayoral Megazord because she combines every ideal mayoral quality (plus saxophone skills) into one energetic package.

An artist’s rendering.

● Do you like candidates with experience? Jessyn Farrell is the candidate in this race with the ultimate combo move of administrative experience and a strong legislative record. She was the executive director of the Transportation Choices Coalition, and served at Pierce Transit at the senior adviser level. In this role, she helped lead roughly 1,000 people — not the city of Seattle’s 11,000, but impressive.

● Do you like progressive causes? How about progressive causes with tangible results? Farrell’s sponsored successful measures to build affordable housing near public transit (yes, access to transit is a social justice issue) and dedicate $500 million to education in Seattle and surrounding areas. So basically, if another candidate becomes mayor and likes having money for those things, they should at least shoot Jessyn a thank-you card.

● Racial justice? Farrell doesn’t just vote along with the right things: she cosponsored bills this year that would have allowed marijuana misdemeanor charges to be vacated and required creation of a statewide ethnic studies curriculum.

● How about candidates who go toe-to-toe with the opposition? May I present exhibit “Tim Eyman crashes Farrell’s ST3 press conference and she lets him speak so as to demolish him.”

● You want a “pothole” candidate? She’s got plenty to offer you too! Check out the law she sponsored to prevent distracted driving (after you park).

Vote for her face.

And can I be honest with you? As a Latina, I do set higher standards for white politicians. So I asked Farrell my go-to gotcha question: “Everybody says they want to involve minority communities in planning processes. But people have tried, and there are legitimate access issues that get in the way. How will you overcome them?”

Farrell replied like it was obvious, “One of the big things is to find people in the communities that you want to reach, hire them, and pay them for their time and expertise.”

This may sound simple, but valuing the time of minorities in cash dollars is a big deal. Some well-meaning politicians talk a good talk about outreach, but fall down on the specifics of how they’ll support marginalized groups. As a result, their good intentions don’t become anything real, and those groups feel betrayed and unheard. In that context, Jessyn Farrell’s tangible plan to involve marginalized groups in processes that have historically excluded us was a breath of long-delayed air.

When it comes to city-level policy, Farrell is a win-win-seeking missile. For example, here’s a problem: In this city, we have parents who can’t afford childcare, but also underpaid childcare workers. Jessyn Farrell’s solution is to pay the childcare workers a fair wage, and subsidize so no family has to put more than 10% of their income into childcare. More examples: she can name the organizations she wants to partner with to provide support and healthier outcomes for LGBTQ youth. She knows exactly how far away from schools she wants to build homeless youth shelters — and, by tying shelter to education outcomes, qualify them for that $500 million I mentioned.

Farrell’s ability to marry minute details with the big picture has also yielded some of the most impressive policy platforms of this race. Take police reform: most candidates focus heavily or exclusively on police oversight, AKA, what to do when something horrific has already happened. Jessyn Farrell’s platform highlights the importance of civilian oversight, but also provides specific recommendations for fixing police culture, like putting pressure on Olympia to change state law so we can preferentially hire SPD officers who actually live in Seattle.

My last two favoritest Jessyn Farrell qualities take her from being a few lonely Power Rangers to the full Megazord: listening and honesty.

The Megazord is big on “I” statements.

I approached Farrell asking if she would support the SPD budget office’s bid to put unarmed employees on the street responding to calls. This was not a policy she’d heard of this year (the original program was axed by budget cuts in 2004), but she immediately saw the value in it and enthusiastically got on board. She didn’t know me, but was totally open to hearing my ideas.

And this mayoral race was not the first time I’d heard from Farrell. She initially impressed me during the MVET kerfuffle, when Democratic legislators voted to defund transit to lower people’s car tabs. Farrell wrote candidly about why she made the unpopular decision:

I’m not going to sugar coat the fact that this is a $780m hit over ten years to ST’s finances. But at the same time, there’s no way I’m asking my constituents to pay an MVET that’s undergirded by an out of whack valuation schedule. When something is wrong, you fix it. Even if means taking some heat.

“When something is wrong, you fix it”? Are politicians even allowed to say that?! In a time of hyperpartisan politics, it should reassure any citizen to see a candidate for public office who is so clearly willing to admit when they’re wrong. It speaks to a high level of integrity that anyone can claim, but few can prove.

“Okay,” you may ask, as you skim this article which science tells me most of you will do, “but where’s the sizzle? Where’s the inspiring rhetoric? Where’s the vision for the city???”

Here’s what inspires me: electing a mayor who’s proved she can take care of our most vulnerable. In Farrell’s history of fighting for families, fighting for access to transit, and fighting for affordability and fairness, I see palpable and irreplaceable proof that she’s looking out for us. These social goods weigh heavier for me than the most soaring rhetoric or most fascinating thought experiment. You can hold them in your hands.

I have a vision for the place I live too, by the way; it’s just more flexible than some people’s. It looks like “better.”

That said, I love a good in-the-age-of-Trump, now-more-than-ever call to arms, so try this for inspiring symbols: our President is a man who throws tantrums on social media when he perceives he’s been slighted. He calls journalists liars for pointing out things he’s said and done. He trucks with white nationalists and Nazis. And he loves looking like the president without actually presidenting.

Plus whatever this is.

So wouldn’t it be exciting to elect a woman with pin-sharp attention to detail, an agile mind, fearless listening skills, willingness to slog through unsexy minutiae towards just outcomes, and actual negotiating abilities?

Sounds pretty powerful to me.

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