Today’s Featured Program: our member, Rachel Smith, President/CEO, Greater Seattle Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce who was introduced by Jon Bridge. Rachel previously worked as Deputy County Executive as well as for Seattle Mayor Greg Nickes and Sound Transit. Her presentation focused on: Championing the Resurgence of Seattle – The Stakes are High (we made them high which is a good thing).

Rachel told us that we now have alignment among voters, elected officials and businesses on the most pressing issues and how to address them, which she has not seen in the past.

Voters are aligned on the key issues of public safety, homelessness and affordability and they want “an all the above approach” when it comes to solutions.

She laid out the many challenges facing the city and the state including a proposal to increase the city’s payroll tax for housing that she called, an “ill-advised measure” given the group that is proposing to put it before voters this fall; and the most concerning challenge: the great decline of downtown office workers. “Downtown is the center of economic recovery: good jobs mean that people will pay taxes and then give back to the community.’’