Alicia Crank kicked off her campaign for Edmonds City Council, Position 5, telling supporters her priorities are government connectability, housing affordability, and economic development.

“It feels good to see so many supporters come out and what I look forward to the most is meeting new faces,” she said at Scott’s Bar & Grill in Edmonds Monday, March 11.

Crank began her speech by acknowledging 2020 Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris, who was encouraged to run for district attorney and later attorney general when Crank lived in the San Francisco area.

Turning to her priorities, Crank said she would like to see City Council meetings out in the community every week.

“The City Council just made audio recordings allowed for (committee) meetings,” she said, “so it would be great to go out into community spaces and make the meetings more accessible.”

Council meetings are held in the Public Safety Annex and are televised and streamed online live.

Crank dived right in to one of Edmonds’ most discussed issues.

“It’s housing affordability, not affordable housing, in that order,” she said. “Edmonds is missing the middle housing stock. We have apartments and large houses, but not much in the middle in terms of condos, mother-in-law apartments, etcetera.

“I want to add to our housing stock by changing the code for detached accessory dwelling units (ADU), otherwise known as mother-in-law apartments for longtime residents in Edmonds to live independently and age in one place.”

On economic development, Crank said she wants to increase foot traffic for business owners.

“Over 100,000 people come through Edmonds every day, and we need to figure out what we can do for increasing foot traffic for business, not just in the Bowl, whether that be people walking, biking or coming from the bus.

“We need to partner with the business community, as this is an attainable issue and people identify with it. Find me one business owner who says that they have too much foot traffic. You can’t.”

Among those at Crank’s kickoff were Denise Miller, Kelsey Foster, Council President Adrienne Fraley-Monillas, former Sen. Maralyn Chase, Councilmember Mike Nelson and council candidate Laura Johnson, who is running for Position 7.

Crank is vying for the seat held by Dave Teitzel, who is not seeking re-election. She lost to Teitzel in 2015 for the same seat.

Crank will be running against Vivian Olson. The official filing period for the August primary is May 13-17, with the general election Nov. 6.