There’s lots of stuff happening around Edmonds. Here’s three things I want you to know about:

1. An urbanist happy hour tomorrow in Mountlake Terrace

2. A candidate speed-dating event next week

3. Some updates on keeping Edmonds vibrant

This Saturday (tomorrow!): North Sound Urbanist Social

📍 Hemlock State Brewing (right next to MLT light rail)
🗓️ Saturday, May 31st, 7-9pm

On Saturday, May 31st, you’re invited to a North Sound Urbanist Social happy hour, organized by friends at The Urbanist and Urbanist Shoreline, and co-hosted by yours truly. From Urbanist Shoreline:

We're teaming up with The Urbanist and a bunch of other local groups for another North Sound Urbanist Social! We're going to pack this awesome local brewery full of civically active folks who are working to make our communities more liveable, more sustainable, and more fun!

I’ll see you there! We’re gonna have so much fun – the last one was POPPING. Don’t miss out!

(And thanks to everyone who came out for the happy hour earlier this month with Jeremy Mitchell of the Planning Board. That was a blast!)

Next Monday: meet candidates for public office at the Edmonds Civic Roundtable’s “speed-dating” event

📍 Edmonds Waterfront Center
🗓️ Monday, June 2nd, 6pm

Come meet and speak with candidates for local public office positions (Edmonds City Council, School Board, and the Port) and at a Speed Dating event at 6 p.m. Monday, June 2 at the Edmonds Waterfront Center.

Pretty much all candidates from all races will be there. Notably, all candidates for Edmonds City Council position 3 – which has three candidates (Alex Newman, Joseph Ademofe, and Erika Barnett), and therefore a primary election on August 5th – will be there.

This will be a one-stop shop for candidate info, and it’s super fun. Don’t miss out! (There’s a Zoom option, and recordings of candidate pitches will be made available afterwards: more at link below.)

A plan to keep Edmonds vibrant

This week, some friends and I had the honor of presenting the results of our month-long civic engagement initiative, What Should Edmonds Be?, to the Edmonds City Council. (View our slides here.)

We collected more than 43,000 votes and over 600 unique ideas about Edmonds’ future, focused on two topics: how to grow city revenues, and general hopes and dreams for the city.

Here’s a few ideas that we heard loud and clear from the community:

• 92% want to maintain beloved public amenities like the Frances Anderson Center, Yost Pool, and our parks and theatres.

• 80% support generating new revenue through expanded retail and business opportunities in strategic areas.

• 79% envision a walkable, bikeable Edmonds with clean air and housing options for all.

• 61% are open to modest sales tax increases to support public services (neighboring cities already have higher rates).

Our takeaway? We need a two-part plan to resolve our budget crisis:

1. $9 million in new, non-property tax revenue policies adopted by the end of 2025—through school zone safety cameras, updated business license fees, smarter parking policies, and pursuing more grant funding.

2. A $12 million levy to close the budget gap and ensure Edmonds can thrive—not just survive.

We also believe that Edmonds needs to pursue mid- and long-term non-property tax revenue-generating policies (outlined in our slides) in the next 1-3 years to decrease reliance on levies in the future.

You can read more coverage in My Edmonds News, the Everett Herald, and the Edmonds Beacon.

Stay tuned for our executive summary, and a detailed report of results coming soon!

As an aside, this was my first time coordinating a digital, deliberative exercise (with the help of Polis.) This experience has reinforced my deep optimism that this vein of experimentation has a role to play in making Edmonds’ public decision-making more interpretable, collaborative, and responsive to public will. Drop me an email if you wanna talk more about that kind of thing.

That’s it for now! I’ll be in touch again soon. I’ve been thinking a lot about better digital interfaces for City meeting records, hosting a civic data hackathon in the summer, and getting some bike rides / happy hours on the calendar. (Do you have ideas for stuff you’d like to see happen around town? Just send me an email.)

Until next time,

Mackey