The Seattle City Council has selected Mark Solomon to fill the District 2 vacancy created on the council by the resignation of Tammy Morales earlier this month. Solomon is a crime prevention coordinator at the Seattle Police Department who ran against Morales in 2019 and lost by a 21-point margin.

This year, Solomon was able to best the five other men vying for the seat as finalists — no women made Council’s cut for the final six.

District 2 includes all of Southeast Seattle, the International District, and parts of First Hill. Solomon will represent D2 until the results of this November’s election are ratified. In contrast with most of Council’s six other finalists for the opening, Solomon has said he will not file to run in that election (though former 37th Legislative District candidate Chukundi Salisbury also made the same pledge).

Seattle’s new District 2 councilmember is Mark Solomon, a crime prevention coordinator at the Seattle Police Department who lost to Tammy Morales by a 60-40 margin in 2019.

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Some of the other finalists may soon announce campaigns for the seat. Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) communications lead Adonis Ducksworth was the runner-up for the appointment and had pledged to run for the seat this fall. Among those who are rumored to be mulling a run for the permanent seat is Dionne Foster, a long-time progressive organizer and activist who is executive director of Progress Alliance of Washington.

D2 has a reputation for electing progressive councilmembers — though only two officeholders have represented the district since it was created in 2015: Bruce Harrell and Tammy Morales. Morales ended up composing Council’s leftmost flank following Kshama Sawant’s departure, while Harrell executed a centrist campaign to perfection in his 2021 mayoral bid. Harrell narrowly defeated Morales in 2015, but walked away rather than face a rematch in 2019.

New land use chair

Morales was chair of Council’s Land Use Committee, which is a position that Solomon will inherit. Under the broader auspices of the Select Committee on the Comprehensive Plan chaired by Joy Hollingsworth (District 3), the city council will be tackling a once-a-decade update to the Seattle Comprehensive Plan, which will guide housing growth and infrastructure investments for the next 20 years. Solomon cited “bringing the Comprehensive Plan over the finish line” as his first priority in his application for the position, followed by reining in after-hours clubs and reducing crime and disorder in Little Saigon.

Solomon’s vote could be instrumental in finalizing and approving the package, with Councilmember Cathy Moore (District 5) and Maritza Rivera (District 4) expressing skepticism about the direction of the mayor’s plan and a desire take a more cautious and incremental approach. Beyond including the state mandate to replace single family zoning with residential zones that allow fourplexes at a minimum, Mayor Bruce Harrell’s “One Seattle Plan” designates 30 neighborhood centers that add some allowances for mid-rise apartments around existing business nodes. Moore objected to one such neighborhood center in Maple Leaf, where she resides.

Talking to media Monday, Solomon stood by the answer he gave during a candidate forum that he would not be seeking to pull neighborhood centers out of the plan, as Moore has pledged to do.

“I do [stand by that answer]. Because, again, when we have neighborhoods that are walkable, where people can get groceries, school, whatever amenities, libraries,” Solomon said. “That makes sense, right? So, as opposed to having to jump in the car, jump on the bus to get some place. If it’s right in your neighborhood, making neighborhoods walkable helping activate those neighborhoods. To me, that makes sense.”

Mark Solomon will serve as District 2 Councilmember for most of 2025, following Tammy Morales’ resignation. (Ryan Packer)

Solomon suggested that the wealthier parts of Seattle shirking their responsibility to add housing increases pressure on District 2, which is the city’s most diverse area, facing considerable displacement pressure.

“There may be some folks who object to [neighborhood centers],” Solomon said. “There are some neighborhoods who don’t want change. They don’t want eight-story apartment buildings in their community. That’s understandable, but if we’re one Seattle, one Seattle needs to come together so that again, it’s not all concentrated on North Rainier here in D2. It’s spread out.”

Permit reform, further tree protections, and fighting displacement

Solomon shared a desire to advance permitting reform during his time as land use chair. He also hinted at a desire to write permitting changes into the Comprehensive Plan, which isn’t necessary. Unlike zoning changes, permitting reform can happen without first updating the Comprehensive Plan.

“I want to fix the permitting process, because it is so onerous right now that it’s actually inhibiting our ability to build in the city,” Solomon told reporters. “So as looking at the comprehensive plan, how can we leverage permitting changes into the comprehensive plan? I also want to look at, how can we ensure that we have those anti-displacement measures in place. How can we ensure that we keep people in their homes and have the opportunity to build generational wealth? I benefit from that, you know? I benefit from the fact that I live in the house my grandparents built. I want to see other phone other families have that opportunity to build generational wealth as well. So, the anti-displacement and making sure that the density that is coming is shared throughout the city.”

The Harrell Administration has been slowly advancing a Seattle process around permitting reform since 2021 — with housing advocates raising issues with Seattle’s notoriously slow housing approval process for longer than that.

Like several of his new colleagues, Solomon expressed interest in revisiting Seattle’s tree ordinance passed in 2023, which some tree advocacy groups have argued didn’t go far enough — despite the expanded tree protections in the legislation.

“I believe you can do housing and trees. No, I don’t think it’s either or. I think it’s both,” Solomon said. “How do we make that happen? How do we restrict it, or improve the tree ordinance so we actually have more tree canopy? How do we have more green space? So definitely, going to be looking at all those things and engage the community to make it happen.”

Solomon will have to hit the ground running. Seattle faces a July deadline to pass zoning reforms to phase out single family zoning or fall under the state model code that will supersede local zoning in jurisdiction that fail to meet the new statewide middle housing standard greenlit in 2023. Given the threat of appeal and predatory delay, Council made need to use an interim ordinance to get it done in time.

In her resignation remarks, Morales had warned that her fellow councilmembers efforts to ostracize her and undermine her work ultimately disenfranchised D2 residents. She cited her colleagues’ decision to appoint her 2023 opponent Tanya Woo to Council to replace outgoing Teresa Mosqueda (who now serves on King County Council) as undermining pledges of civility and mutual respect. Appointing her 2019 opponent may not be much better in Morales’ eyes, but Solomon now has a chance to see if he can better elevate the needs of D2 residents — which can tend to be overlooked in the machinations of city hall.