VIDEO: City Council Candidate Chat, with Stephen Brown

By Tracy File
West Seattle Weblog editor

Stephen Brown is the latest candidate for the District 1 Metropolis Council seat. He’s additionally new to the district, having simply moved to West Seattle six months in the past.

Brown is the fifth candidate to sit down down with us for our preliminary collection of Candidate Chats, video-recorded conversations meant to offer you an early take a look at the candidates who’ve formally introduced campaigns for the council seat Lisa Herbold is leaving after two phrases. He’s founding father of Eltana Bagels, with an eclectic resumé earlier than that, together with a employees place with the short-lived Seattle Monorail Mission. We talked with Brown at West Seattle Coworking in The Junction final Wednesday; right here’s our unedited half-hour dialog:

Should you can’t, or don’t wish to, take the time to look at/hear, right here’s our abstract of key factors:

As ordinary in these conversations, we first ask, “Why would you like this job?” Brown says he began to consider it when the Capitol Hill Occupied Protest (CHOP) began unfolding in 2020 outdoors his bagel store, which is throughout from SPD’s East Precinct. “We stayed open, didn’t lay folks off” not like another companies, he recalled – “we had been capable of exist” (amid all of it). He permits that some facets of his enterprise made that extra doable for him than for others – “the protests normally began by closing time … bagels had been morning, the exercise occurred in night.” He says he “took (his) cue from (the store’s) employees” who didn’t appear bothered. “Our enterprise didn’t get vandalized – (other than) graffiti on the entrance steps… it was simply an annoyance.” His normal feeling was that if that was the price of “important social change,” then so be it.

He doesn’t work every day on the store any extra – a associate runs it – however when he does go there, he takes transit from West Seattle, bus to gentle rail, which will get him to Capitol Hill. “I’m very a lot an urbanist.” He has no political expertise, however the choice to run follows a while fascinated by “politics basically” and located himself “staying calm and centered.” That stated, his choice additionally was born out of “a little bit little bit of frustration in how issues are going since we emerged from the pandemic.” Specifically, he notes the dysfunction on the road within the coronary heart of the town – “some days it’s super-unnerving as I stroll.” He feels the town has let the issues “go on too lengthy,” although he sees promise in Mayor Bruce Harrell‘s current efforts. It’s “not humane to permit folks to reside on the road for prolonged intervals of time.”

Meantime, he’s “inquisitive about supporting small enterprise basically,” and is disturbed to see “so many companies boarded up.”

We talked about his position on the Seattle Monorail Mission, the place he stated he was one of many “final staff,” charged with discovering income sources. He stated he wasn’t shocked by its eventual demise – “whereas we had grass-roots help, we actually by no means had political help” – and recalled a kind of “bunker mentality” because the company wound down. He’s wanting ahead to gentle rail extending to West Seattle, describing himself as a “large fan” of the service, since he has taken it from downtown to Capitol Hill many occasions.

He had additionally talked about museum work in his background, so we requested for extra on what seemed like a different work historical past. Brown stated his driving curiosity is “social connection in public locations,” one thing he’s explored in ventures previous and current, together with an oyster bar he co-founded in Palo Alto, California, and an organization known as Entros, “targeted on collaborative social play.” That even prolonged to his bagel outlets, which provide a crossword puzzle for patrons each two weeks.

How may his curiosity translate to Metropolis Council work? He says councilmembers are “not essentially super-skilled listeners” and that’s one factor he wish to change, in order that constituents would “really feel heard.” He additionally would deliver “positivity” to the position, one thing he says the mayor has been exuding – “you must lead with ‘optimistic’.” And searching forward creatively to unravel issues, too – “nostalgia is just not our good friend.” He believes his enterprise expertise – from concepts to plans to actuality – would go well with the duty.

What about public security/ Brown says he’s “for a powerful, well-trained police drive that’s used extra to deal with the issues they particularly are educated to deal with,” however he’s not “up on specifics but” concerning what it’ll take to rebuild the town’s presently short-handed drive.

And eventually, in his brief time residing in District 1, what has he realized about its points? Just a few on the prime of his thoughts included the South Park flooding, “transit basically,” and whether or not the “retail combine” of its enterprise districts is perfect.

PREVIOUS CANDIDATE CHATS: That is the fifth candidate dialog we’ve had and concludes the primary spherical till and except another person declares their candidacy. We plan to speak with all of them once more later this spring. Listed here are hyperlinks to our beforehand printed chats:
*Preston Anderson (printed March 12)
*Phil Tavel (printed March 5)
*Maren Costa (printed February 26)
*Rob Saka (printed February 19)

The sector of candidates who’ll be on the August 1 major poll received’t be remaining till after the King County Elections “submitting week” in mid-Could. We’re additionally planning to current a candidate discussion board after that, co-sponsored by neighborhood teams, inviting everybody who’ll be on the poll. Within the meantime, we’ll speak once more with these candidates, and anybody else who formally proclaims they’re working.