One of Mayor Jenny Durkan’s campaign promises was to be more responsive to Seattle’s neighborhoods. Saturday, the mayor will come to 19th Ave E for a community meeting that promises “to bring City Hall to Capitol Hill.”

Saturday afternoon’s Durkan town hall will feature the mayor sharing “her vision of how our communities can work together to create a more affordable, vibrant, and inclusive Seattle.”

“Capitol Hill is a vibrant and unique home for so many residents and businesses but also faces our shared challenges of affordability, homelessness, and transportation that require urgent action,” Durkan said in the announcement of the town hall. “I’m taking City Hall to Capitol Hill to share my vision on how we can work together to take on tough challenges, create more opportunity, and improve our City now and for future generations.”

The town hall comes as Durkan is trying to manage a balancing act across progressive pushes for a possible new business tax, a new education levy, and upzoning in the city’s densest neighborhoods against a backdrop of more conservative concern around the rising cost of doing business for the city’s entrepreneurs and major employers, and worries about ongoing growth’s threat to Seattle’s residential “fabric.”

The event follows similar recent town halls in other neighborhoods including West Seattle. We’re told we shouldn’t read too much into the relatively short notice for the event given the mayor’s office busy schedule. Protesters disrupted one of the mayor’s first official events on Capitol Hill last fall. We’re told that Saturday’s itinerary is also planned to include a nearby walking tour of 15th Ave E. Earlier in the day, a community meeting is planned to discuss coming development on the street.

Representatives of city departments including Seattle Office of Economic Development, Seattle Parks and Recreation, Seattle Public Utilities, Seattle Human Services Department, Seattle Department of Neighborhoods, Finance and Administrative Services, Seattle Department of Transportation, Seattle Fire Department, and the Seattle Office for Civil Rights, are scheduled to attend “to provide resources and answer residents’ questions.”

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