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City Councilmember Judy Nicastro |
Never mind that her knowledge of local issues was thinner than a crepe, Nicastro was the woman to watch. There was no paper in town that didn't like Judy Nicastro; and only David Brewster, a Seattle Times columnist, sounded the cautionary note--slippery.
Nicastro proved a shrewd campaigner, and cast her opponent, Cheryl Chow, as a pawn of evil landlords and a true enemy of the people. And it worked. Not to be discounted was the enduring enmity Chow incurred in office among neighborhood activists and editorial boards, who made effective use of print to discredit Chow. While Chow boasted often of building five community centers during her city council tenure and had wide support among social service and housing providers, South End park activists Bonnie Heaven and Denby Barnett spurred the Seattle Weekly to remind the rest of us that Chow was the one who seized Bradner Gardens with the intent of selling the neighborhood park to a housing developer. Chow couldn't get a good word in print; Nicastro was the love object of Weekly illustrators--Joan of Arc one week, Emma Peel the next.
Now Judy Nicastro is a member of City Council, and Cheryl Chow is interim principal at Garfield High School.
It was time for the Seattle Press to check in with Nicastro. Nicastro shone as a campaigner; who is she as a legislator?
Nicastro is candid and expresses much impatience with the pace of democracy. One senses that governance by decree rather than process would better suit the energetic councilmember.
"My sense of humor dissipates," confesses Nicastro, "when confronted with the glacial pace of things around here. My god, it's study it, study it, bury it."
Her frustration extends to city departments, which, she remarks, give you all the reasons why it can't be done. It's a ridiculous approach for Nicastro: she wants to hear how it can be done, not why it can't.
But she's frank about the learning curve that both she and her aides face.
"I chose Charlie [McAteer] and Jill [Berkey] specifically because they were not political people, but that has its drawbacks. When you get 80 letters a day and 100 e-mails, what do you do? How do you answer these letters, who do you respond to?
"My aides have to learn how to read between the lines. And we all have to learn who does what, including departmental responsibilities."
Nicastro mentions fellow Councilmember Nick Licata and his aide Lisa Herbold frequently; it's Licata and his savvy aide who are teaching Nicastro's office the ropes, not at all the cozy, familial picture painted last summer by Brewster of the Times, in which he suggested that newly-elected television newsguy Jim Compton and Council President Margaret Pageler would parent rookie councilmembers through their first year.
But Nicastro says she's struggling to find the balance between time spent making policy and constituent work. And she has big projects on her plate: housing projects.
She's determined to figure out how to move the city to a zero-tolerance policy for abandoned buildings. There are about 300 abandoned buildings in the city, and Nicastro wants every one of them converted to housing. Right off the bat, she told the Department of Design, Construction and Land Use to raise the fines from $15 a day to $75, which she believes could be a major disincentive to leaving vacant buildings to rot.
Nicastro's second big project is putting some teeth into the rent retaliation law.
"The city," says Nicastro, "never wins cases of rent retaliation. Let's rewrite the law. Right now it's a criminal law, which means you have to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. Let's make it a civil law."
Nicastro's third big project is neighborhood plans. Recently she was named steward of the Northeast sector.
"I love downtown," says Nicastro, "but philosophically I'm not from downtown. I believe developing our neighborhood infrastructure is more important than another big tax break to a developer. Downtown is doing very well, possibly too well if gentrification is any indicator."
And inevitably the conversation moves to Sound Transit. Nicastro isn't impressed with the Sound Transit light rail funding picture.
"Sound Transit has half the money they need for light rail," says Nicastro. "It's fiscally irresponsible to dig up the streets when you're short $500 million to $1 billion." The shortfall doesn't include Northgate.
Digging is one to two years out, but Nicastro says City Council is being pressed to go forward while Sound Transit scrambles for money.
"I asked Sound Transit: 'What if the money isn't there?'"
Evidently Nicastro didn't get the right answer.
"I don't think its prudent for us to spend dollars when we're not in the federal pipeline. My fear is that Sound Transit will disrupt four or five neighborhoods--for what?"
And then there's Save Our Valley, a Rainier Valley activist group that is still very much a part of the picture. Word has it that Save Our Valley will move on its longstanding threat to see Sound Transit in court.
Nicastro says she's concerned about the loss of 246 homes and business to light rail in the Valley. She does admit that light rail should be underground in Rainier Valley. But, says Nicastro, a tunnel is not going to happen. There is, as just about every rail activist in Seattle knows, little support on Council for a tunnel through the Valley. She'd like to see the Valley happen in phase two, but admits again that she is in the minority.
Nicastro's goal for her rookie year?
"I want to do some good rental housing policy this year. That's my focus."
As to the rest?
"Shut up and learn."