by Kirby Lindsay Laney, posted 10 June 2015
Please read the June 9th overview column before reading this candidate profile, and consider also reading profiles of the other two candidates for Seattle District #6 – Councilmember Mike O’Brien and Jon Lisbin. (The fourth registered candidate, Stan Shaufler, could not be reached for an interview.)
The first 2015 Seattle City Council candidates for District #6 that responded to a request for an interview has a history of responding to community concerns. “I’m the person who knows,” Catherine Weatbrook explained about her reputation in northern Ballard, “I’ve become a person to go to when you don’t understand what or where or how…”
Weatbrook will be at the Fremont Chamber of Commerce Picnic-In-The-Park on June 17th, at Noon, at Gas Works Park, to talk to voters about her candidacy. “It’s all about healthy communities,” she explained, “and all the components that contribute to creating them.”
Issues That Matter
A native Seattleite, Weatbrook has lived in Ballard for just over 20 years. She’s served on the Ballard District Council, the Olympic Manor Community Club, the Northwest Little League, the Crown Hill Business Association, the Community Emergency Hub for Ballard, and the Seattle Public Utilities Creeks, Drainage & Wastewater Advisory Group. About the latter, she explained, “we’re paying for decisions made before. It’s an infrastructure piece.”
Weatbrook wants to see more thought put into repairing, and building upon, our city’s infrastructure. She supports our schools, building our transportation plan, and creating affordable housing, plus “real urban planning (not just zoning,” and considering the water and sewer pieces. “The infrastructure,” she said, “it’s that hidden key.”
“We need safe places for people to walk, to bike, to catch the bus,” Weatbrook observed, “We have a human services problem too.” She wants more done for public safety, but it isn’t just about policing and criminal justice, she noted. “I go walking with our community policing officer, and a lot of what he does is mental health work,” she explained.
Weatbrook has seen, in her long-term service to our community, “there is a fundamental lack of communication and/or coordination between the City departments,” she said, “that includes a lack of communication with Seattle Public Schools.”
The Call To Serve
The decision to run came for Weatbrook after 10 years being pushed to do so by former Seattle Department of Neighborhoods representative – and Ballard’s long-time guru of city services – Rob Mattson. With passage of the district system, Weatbrook decided to give it a try. “The thought of raising $250,000 [for a campaign] dissuaded me,” she explained about the former all at-large system.
During a recent push to create an Emergency Communications Hub for Ballard Weatbrook had an epiphany. As she went about recruiting volunteers, and advocating for six locations, she realized how, “it is great to be the Go-To Person, but I cannot do as much, as an individual, as I can by fixing the systems and better informing the community.”
“I came to the realization that a lot of what I was doing was enabling broken city systems which are not sustainable, or right,” Weatbrook said, “it boiled down to a race and social justice issue.” Ballard, and Fremont, have people financially able to take time, on a volunteer basis, to advocate – but not every community does. Also, not everyone who needs advocacy, even in district #6, can take time to fight the broken system.
Weatbrook wants to see that all of our communities have the same access to services and city resources, even if they don’t know ‘The Person Who Knows.’
Parking – Where She Stands
All three of the registered candidates for District #6 that spoke with me (Stan Shaufler could not be reached,) were asked about parking, an issue that Fremocentrist.com readers have expressed strong opinions on.
Weatbrook said, “90% of the parking conversation seems to be about accessibility.” Businesses need deliveries, and customers – and if transit doesn’t run into the evening, “how else are people going to get there?” she asked.
She noted that, “Study after study have shown that a low income person trying to improve their situation have to have access to a car.” Weatbrook has seen this up-close as a friend struggled for promotion from an entry level job, but their transit use limited their work availability. Once they got access to a car, they could arrive at any hour, and stay later, and the promotions came.
It isn’t just having the car, though. “By not having access to parking,” Weatbrook observed, “we are trapping them. We have focused our transit network on 9 – 5 jobs. It is tailored to people working white collar jobs.”
“I’m noodling an idea,” Weatbrook mused, “instead of putting parking into each development, putting it into a public parking structure.” In the future, people may be able to do without cars, and apartment buildings might need fewer parking spaces. Right now, the city could incentivize construction of strategic, public parking structures, in neighborhoods that want them, “that can be removed if the community doesn’t need it,” she suggested.
Weatbrook wants to help create healthier communities across Seattle, and right here in District #6. To find out more about her, visit her campaign website, or the Facebook page.
Also, consider meeting Weatbrook at the Fremont Chamber Picnic-In-The Park on June 17th at Noon, at Gas Works Park, and asking her your own questions about what she can do, as a Seattle City Councilmember and as our District #6 representative. RSVP to the Picnic on-line or at director@fremont.com
Related Articles
- A Pizza Picnic & District #6 Candidate Profiles
- by Kirby Lindsay Laney, June 9, 2015
- Councilmember Mike O’Brien, Experienced Incumbent
- by Kirby Lindsay Laney, June 10, 2015
- Jon Lisbin, Concerned Citizen Candidate
- by Kirby Lindsay Laney, June 10, 2015
- A Picnic-In-The-Park Manifesto To Come
- by Kirby Lindsay, June 23, 2014
©2015 Kirby Lindsay. This column is protected by intellectual property laws, including U.S. copyright laws. Reproduction, adaptation or distribution without permission is prohibited.