Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell Calls for Nominations of Tech Leaders, Says City Still Has Mojo – GeekWire

Seattle is in dire straits. It is struggling to address homelessness, the lack of affordable housing, educational inequity, and basic safety concerns. As the pandemic recedes, 40 percent of downtown businesses remain open.

But fear not. Mayor Bruce Harrell said at a GeekWire meeting Thursday morning that Seattle still has the mojo.

Harrell told the crowd in Seattle that he is working to build bridges with leaders and community members to strengthen and improve the city.

“By the way, I’m not here to please you,” he said. “I’m here to make connections.”

In recent years, Seattle has come under fire from city leaders and local companies — especially tech companies like Amazon — that create in-demand, high-paying jobs, but also cause income inequality.

Harrell, who took office in January, says he is taking a different approach than past officials, meeting privately and regularly with company officials, including Amazon CEO Andy Jassy.

Amazon has had a strong relationship with its hometown in recent years, and Harrell is clearly working to mend that relationship. His relationship with Jacey? “Very good,” said Harrell.

The mayor emphasized the need for the business and technology industry to be more involved in civic life to make improvements in the city.

“There are only so many opportunities for all of you to participate, and I’m only called to facilitate that participation,” he said.

One important benefit of rebuilding technology connections: It helps the city’s tax base fund the work.

Harrell’s 2023-’24 budget proposal, released last week, says the technology sector “continues to be the driving force behind the region’s economic growth,” specifically citing the region’s headquarters of Amazon and Microsoft, as well as engineering offices of Apple, Google (letter) and Facebook (meta).

The mayor must move quickly to change the minds of tech leaders about the Emerald City.

“Whether or not the city of Seattle will continue to be a focus of regional growth for the tech sector is a matter of uncertainty that we look forward to,” he said. “Many of the region’s largest employers are making capital investments in offices in the region, which signals a shift in focus for growth in the coming years.”

Amazon is one example of this trend. After a series of high-profile political battles over the city’s attempts to raise corporate taxes to support human services, the tech giant moved its growth in the Seattle region to nearby Bellevue, Wash., at the same time the company built a second headquarters. Known as HQ2 in Arlington, Va.

At last year’s GeekWire conference, Jassy said, “[W]You don’t think HQ1 is Seattle anymore. We really think of it as Puget Sound.

But the impact of the pandemic has complicated matters. In July, Amazon announced plans to shut down operations at several towers there, citing continued uncertainty about the impact of remote and hybrid work on office designs.

Harrell’s budget also reflects those realities, saying the home-from-home model “seems to permanently alter employment patterns, at least for some industries.”

“A smaller commuter workforce translates into day-time demand for restaurants, retailers and other downtown businesses,” the budget added. “At the same time, fewer productive workers working in the city will reduce or slow the growth of taxable economic activity that supports revenue sources such as the business and employment tax and the jumpstart payroll tax.”

The mayor is eager to revive downtown, and admits that first he needs to make it safer “everywhere you go.” That means hiring and training more police officers and getting more city ambassadors on the streets to help people in need.

“I can’t command people to come downtown unless there’s something driving them there,” Harrell said, “and he’s actively asking people ‘what draws you’ to downtown.”

Despite the challenges, Harrell played football for the University of Washington Huskies in his hometown and earned his law degree. It just takes getting more people on board, Harrell said.

“I could tell by the energy in this room that the mojo was here,” he said. “We must believe together.”