Tonight, the future of downtown Seattle may become the focus of attention together with Bruce Harrell and Lorena Gonzalez. The two mayoral candidates will face off in the first debate before the general election on November 2, focusing on economy and business.
Over the past few years, the city’s core city and its sustainability as a technology center have been affected by many factors. The most important factor is the COVID-19 -19 pandemic, which transforms thousands of office technicians into remote workers. How many of these workers will return and how many days per week? What does the mixed labor force of office and family mean to the urban economy and small enterprises relying on these labor forces?
It is expected that on Thursday night, the city’s homelessness crisis, public safety concerns and the impact of these two issues on enterprises such as South Lake Union and Pioneer Square will also become the focus.
Sponsored by the Seattle City Club and the Washington State Debate Alliance, the debate is free and virtual and starts at 7 p.m.
This week, as Amazon once again changed its plans related to more than 50000 corporate and technical employees in Seattle, concerns about future work and its impact on the city are particularly timely. The technology giant has recently planned to bring its employees back on January 3, 2022, working in the office three days a week and telecommuting two days a week. But on Monday, Amazon announced that it would leave the decision to the team leaders instead of counting on the number of days these employees worked in the office.
Geekwire visited Nanhu alliance and Denny triangle communities near Amazon headquarters this week and discussed the impact of these missing skilled workers on enterprises with some small business owners.
Before the debate and election, sea. Citi produced a series of short films of four votes. The organization is committed to connecting employees in the science and technology sector with citizen life, focusing on housing affordability, climate change, transportation infrastructure and digital equity. One of the “meet candidates” videos focuses on the future of work and downtown Seattle:
The current president of Seattle City Council Gonzalez said in the video that she believes that the flu epidemic has changed office work forever.
“This means finding vacant buildings for child care centers and opportunities for microenterprises to make these spaces commercially affordable,” she said. “It also means making sure that we are considering how to plan a city that includes not only the city center, but also the employment center in the community.”
Related: a survey of skilled workers shows that teleworking has permanently changed Seattle
Former Parliament President Harrell said, “we will jointly redefine the appearance of the city center and recognize that many of these entities will not come back.” he added that the city center must be “an activated, safe and accessible place for all”, and stressed the need for clean, strong and effective public security and just public security.
Almost both candidates sat down with geekwire to discuss technology, telecommuting, the challenges facing Seattle and so on.
Citigroup’s (sea. Citi) video also includes Dow Constantine, chief executive of King County, and Joe Nguyen, his challenger; Nikkita Oliver and Sara Nelson, 9 candidates for City Council positions; City Attorney candidates Nicole Thomas Kennedy and Ann Davidson.