Seattle mayor. It's a tough job, dogged by police reforms, a stretched budget and no end of public safety crises. And while there's mayoral criticism everywhere you look, it's not likely you'll come across much that's constructive. We'd like to change that. Crosscut is linking up with leaders across Seattle to ask them what they would do if they were elected mayor.
Next up, Hub Seattle's Brian Howe. Howe runs a coworking and events space in Pioneer Square for folks working on socially-responsible business. What would he do with the key to City Hall?
1. Prettier Data! As last month's IPO of local company Tableau Software has them soaring, it's an appropriate time to talk data. Have you seen data.seattle.gov? The amount of knowledge the city has gathered there for the sharing is pretty incredible, but most of it is not yet citizen-friendly and can be difficult to search, sort and understand.
By partnering with a company like Tableau to find the best ways to visualize this wealth of civic data, we could encourage a more informed civic discussion. What if every town hall question was followed up by: "Great opinion, but what does the data say?"
The Fremont Bridge bike counter site is an example of where the city is already doing this really well.
