Welcome to Ideas For Seattle. Here you can contribute your ideas for the future of our city. You can also vote on existing ideas submitted by your fellow citizens.
To get started, simply choose a category from the list on the right. Then search to see if your idea has already been submitted. If it hasn't, you can then submit it for others to discuss or vote on.
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571 votes
Make Seattle a hub for Green and Sustainable Innovation
Our population is young, tech savvy and green-minded. Our natural beauty is world class.
Seattle is a perfect place to incubate green technology and business.
Tax incentives, public/private partnerships, leveraging our local research institutions and non-profits -- there are countless paths to ... more
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294 votes
Create hundreds of jobs: Build more sidewalks and a network of grade-separated bicycle paths
Build a network of sidewalks and grade separated bicycling paths/lanes. Cascade Bike and Feet First along with the City of Seattle (& many other non-profits) should already have master plans for this.
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229 votes
Retrofit public/private buildings for energy efficiency
Energy efficient facilities mean reduced long-term cost to the city. By better insulating buildings against heat loss, buildings use less energy, therefore the city pays less for the power it uses. By generating electricity through renewable means, assuming power generation is friendly to the lan... more
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116 votes
Make child care a priority
Working families need safe, affordable places for their children. It is difficult to find and retain a job when you don't have consistent care for your kids.
Seattle has demonstrated commitment to investing in child care by providing subsidies to working families. Continue that commitment. In... more
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116 votes
Use the city to bring green jobs to youth
this will help with crime and youth violence, as well as clean up our communities
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108 votes
Invest in vocational programs
Seattle Jobs Initiative is one of several outstanding vocational programs in Seattle. POCAAN is another. Invest in vocational training and support services so that our most vulnerable residents can move towards self-sufficiency.
Support services need to include: case management, transportati... more
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94 votes
Commit to climate-neutrality and develop bright green industries and jobs.
By embracing ambitious environmental goals -- especially by committing ourselves to carbon-neutrality -- we will draw new talent and investment, and jump-start the kinds of bright green industries that are rapidly defining the 21st century economy: green building, clean technology, sustainable de... more
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74 votes
Make Seattle a 24 hour city like others have...
Seattle is limited by geographics as to how much industry they can attract or ships they can draw into the port. Other than the obvious ones like attract more businesses to headquarter in Seattle the only other surefire way of making more jobs is to make the city run more than 8 hours a day.
Th... more
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65 votes
Public Restrooms with paid attendants
In Europe and Japan there are public restrooms where you can pay a $1.00 for a clean and safe restroom. Why did sound transit spend millions for beautiful stations, with no restrooms? Why did City of Seattle spend millions on automated restrooms and then tear them out? An attended restroom c... more
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56 votes
Establish a living wage ordinance to cover city contractors
We should ensure that public $ fund good quality family-wage jobs.
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48 votes
Promote industrial development in our industrial areas
There is much undeveloped and under-utilized land within Seattle's industrial zones, despite the logistical advantages of proximity to the Port, mainline railroads, highways and the region's largest labor force. The City should convene a advisory group to identify how the City can incentivize in... more
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47 votes
Attract trades to urban core
Many manufacturing/carpentry/building trades are being forced out of the core neighborhoods (Belltown, Pioneer Square, SLU, Ballard) because their buildings are being converted to lofts or condos.
Mixed use buildings typicially feature service, retail & hospitality trades businesses mixed wi... more
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40 votes
Make Seattle more hospitable for business
With the recent loss of WaMu and Safeco Insurance, Seattle risks losing major decision makers. We need to make this area more hospitable for major companies to locate their headquarters in Seattle. Corporate headquarters bring good jobs, talent, and capital to a city. They make their cities bette... more
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38 votes
Study alternative street light patterns to allow greater traffic and pedestrian flow
SDOT should consider alternative street light patterns to allow for improved traffic flow and greater pedestrian safety. Such improvements that could be studied could include the following:
1. 4-way-stop flashing lights at all major arterial intersections to allow cars to stop and go in no othe... more -
26 votes
stop the inflow of B1 Visas until employment drops below 4%
many companies are laying off Seattle based tax payers so they can bring in lower cost Employees from India to name one major provider of resources.
The outsourcing of jobs is killing our economy and out tax base. B1 visa can come back when unemployment close to 11% now falls under 4%. -
21 votes
Expand Employment by Supporting Micro-entreprenuers
I propose building local employment by providing city support and removing regulations that discourage small enterprises. Local urban food industries, street food, small scale repair, reuse and local clothing industry would be more green that their globalized alternative and create bottom-up emp... more
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19 votes
Corp-like Jobs
The City of Seattle has many social services, and a significant number of unemployed. Implement corp-like jobs, possibly even at minimum wage, for those receiving benefits to "work" for them. this would enable the City to complete improvements, and help out those who need it.
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16 votes
Create incentives for filling up downtown office space, be competitive to Bellevue for these jobs
A healthy and vibrant downtown will spur new investment and replace lost commercial activity. I recently read how office space in Bellevue is selling a a high price due to low vacancies. The sale of the WaMu tower compared to the Expedia tower shows that simply filling up downtown office space ... more
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14 votes
Hemp Agriculture
Seriously, the laws that claim Hemp and Marijuana are the same plant make the implication that all plants of the sativa genus are the same. That is like saying Blackberries and Gooseberries should be illegal because they are from the same plant family!
Seattle is badly in need of more jobs, bett... more
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13 votes
Outlaw ideling cars and trucks
People run their cars and trucks for no reason during all seasons. They are mindlessly poluting the air increasing carbon emissions and making it hard for all of us to breathe.