(Image: Cooley for Council)
CHS asked the eight candidates running in the District 3 primary election eleven questions about how they would serve the neighborhoods around Capitol Hill, the Central District, and First Hill on the Seattle City Council. As you consider your August 1st primary ballot, we have 88 answers for you. We asked the candidates about everything from policing to single family zoning to homelessness and lidding I-5. With help from readers, we asked what specific ideas make each candidate stand out and what positions were they willing to take heat for supporting. We also asked how they would address issues around the community's relationship with the East Precinct. Meanwhile, after years of complaints about challenges in connecting with the D3 representative's office, we also asked each candidate about their plans to connect with the communities they represent. A lot of them have heard the complaints and are promising greater access and office hours in the district. Now it will be up to you to hold them to it -- and show up. You can view every candidate's answers at one time on the All Candidates D3 Primary Survey Results Page here. You can find our full coverage of the 2023 primary here.
Below are the answers from candidate Alex Cooley, A pot entrepreneur and substitute teacher who has emerged as a community leader in the Judkins Park neighborhood to make a run for the council.
Q: What is a specific example of a change you were part of that has made District 3 a better place? What was your role?
Cooley: Being a co-founder of the pioneering medical and then recreational cannabis company Solstice, I helped craft nearly all legislation regarding cannabis in Seattle, King County, Washington, and Congress, which has significantly improved lives of many District Three residents.
Q: If elected, what regular presence would your office keep in District 3? Meetings? Office time? How often? Where?
Cooley: Equally spread throughout the district we will hold weekly office hours, monthly townhalls and quarterly cookouts.
Q: What council committees are you best suited for? How will that help D3?
Cooley: First and foremost, the majority of the committees have to be rebuilt since their current structure does not create the most efficient and productive outcomes. When elected, we are going to reassemble the committees to serve the Seattle residents in the best way possible. The answer to this is question largely dependent on the skillset of the new council members, so it would be beneficial to allocate the committees upon the election.
Q: Which recent Seattle council member would you most like to emulate? Why?
Cooley: Nick Licata, since he always worked to find common ground and find solutions to improve all Seattleites’ lives.
Q: What is a position you hold that is controversial or unpopular among D3 voters? (Reader question)
Cooley: When elected I’m going to legalize all drugs. Decriminalization hasn’t worked since it did not address either the illicit market, or the production, distribution, and usage of substances. No effort was made to create resources to manage drug use, and as a consequence, we saw rates of drug deaths from drugs skyrocket. This is why I am proposing drug legalization, as all other options have been exhausted and have not produced any positive outcome. This is the only way we can keep Seattle residents safe from the black market and unnecessary drug deaths. By controlling the production from beginning to end, we will ensure that users receive substances of the highest quality and that risks are minimized. Since we cannot anticipate every possible consequence, the necessary resources, including treatment plans will be available.
Q: What is a City Hall department or major initiative you would cut back on and how would you reprioritize that spending?
Cooley: I would cut back SPD budget and revert it creating a third leg of public safety that is unarmed and responds to non-violent 911 calls.
Is there a way to help SPD East Precinct feel like a less hostile and more responsive, supportive presence in the neighborhood? How? (Reader question)
Cooley: By demilitarizing the building, making it a community building by making it more accessible to the public, and hosting a variety of community events.
Q: What is your position on single family housing/residential small lot zoning, and what is your position on upzones across Seattle? (Reader question)
Cooley: I’m against single-family zoning. I’m very grateful that the state took the lead on it, now it is our time to take care of zoning in an inclusive and strategic way.
Q: What does Seattle need to do that it isn’t already trying to address the homelessness crisis? What would that look like in D3?
Cooley: We have to provide adequate space for those who are unhoused to develop home. In regards to District Three, we have to create more tiny house villages and a small number of RV safelots and campgrounds.
Q: What is one idea for District 3 that you have that no other candidate is talking about?
Cooley: Making public transit free city-wide in order to attack climate change and address inequities in our community.
Q: How would you support lidding I-5?
Cooley: Raising funds on federal, state, county, and city levels, as well as utilizing grants. A good way to qualify for these resources would be through a seismic retrofit of the freeway. Selling a portion of the land in order to bridge the gap.
Q: Far in the future, if the city were to honor you with a statue, where would it be placed and what would it look like?
Cooley: The statue would depict me sitting on a bench ready for a conversation with a neighbor and would be located in the center of the Capitol hill super block.
$5 A MONTH TO HELP KEEP CHS PAYWALL-FREE
🌈🐣🌼🌷🌱🌳🌾🍀🍃🦔🐇🐝🐑🌞🌻
Subscribe to CHS to help us hire writers and photographers to cover the neighborhood. CHS is a pay what you can community news site with no required sign-in or paywall. To stay that way, we need you.
Become a subscriber to help us cover the neighborhood for $5 a month -- or choose your level of support 👍
Automatic no.
Campaign violated our privacy/property security by entering my apartment building and flyering our individual doors — signaling to any potential apartment thieves who’s currently out of town.
He did something similar at my building. He sells pot and wants to legalize *all* drugs and defund the SPD, that’s a lot of his own product he must have been consuming.