A Livable Seattle: Lois Martin's Open Letter to City Leadership

What does a successful future look like for Seattle? As The City of Seattle plans how and where growth will take shape, GNC coalition member and community activist Lois Martin wrote an open letter to city leadership offering her answer.

Her vision of a livable Seattle measures growth by more than the number of housing units built. She asks whether longtime residents can stay, whether children can breathe clean air, whether mature trees and habitat are protected, and whether our streets, schools, and utilities can keep up. Above all, she calls on the city to weigh the cumulative impacts of its decisions together, and to use environmental review as a meaningful planning tool.

We’re sharing her letter in full below.

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Lois Martin's Letter to City Leadership

My vision of a livable Seattle is a city where growth does not come at the expense of the people, communities, history, and natural environment that make our neighborhoods worth living in. Livability means people can afford to remain in their communities as they age, raise families, and build generational stability. It means housing and economic development are considered alongside transportation, public health, clean air and water, tree canopy and habitat, climate resilience, infrastructure, public services, neighborhood character, cultural and historic resources, and the cumulative impacts of growth. In many ways, these are the very things an Environmental Impact Statement is intended to examine, and they should also be the things we use to define whether growth is successful.

A livable city cannot be measured only by how many housing units we produce. We also have to ask: Can longtime residents remain? Can children breathe clean air and safely play outside? Can elders continue to live in the communities they helped build? Are our streets, schools, utilities, transit, parks, and other public systems able to support additional growth? Are we protecting mature trees, habitat, and the natural systems that help cool our neighborhoods and protect public health? Are we preserving the history and cultural identity of communities, particularly those that have already experienced displacement and disinvestment?

Most importantly, are we looking at the cumulative impacts of these decisions together, rather than evaluating each development, tree removal, transportation change, or policy decision in isolation? I believe we create a more livable Seattle by planning comprehensively, listening to the people who live in our neighborhoods, using environmental review as a meaningful planning tool, and making decisions with a clear understanding of who receives the benefits and who carries the burdens.

Housing, environmental justice, transportation, public health, climate resilience, economic stability, and belonging are not competing priorities. They are interconnected parts of a healthy city, and our challenge is not to choose among them, but to develop policies that allow them to work together. That is the Seattle I hope we continue working toward, and I look forward to continuing the conversation.

Best,

Lois Martin, MA, CEEL