Jean Godden
Seattle City Council
Position 1
Jean Godden
2007 CITY OF SEATTLE CANDIDATE QUESTIONNAIRE
1. Building public awareness: What priority do you assign to Seattle's efforts to educate community residents about the importance of historic preservation?
X High Priority □ Medium □ Low □ No opinion
Statement: _Educating communities about the importance of preservation is essential. Seattle is a young city, which, more than ever, makes it important to salvage those structures that speak to us of the recent past.
2. Revitalizing neighborhoods: What priority do you give to assuring that Seattle has the financial resources required to play a significant role in revitalizing historic neighborhoods?
X High Priority □ Medium □ Low □ No opinion
Statement: City financial resources are scarce and strained in these years of Eymanism and state and federal neglect of the city needs. However, even in these difficult times, Seattle City Councilmembers have managed to earmark some resources – certainly not as much as one would desire -- for historic preservation.
3. Preserving designated City landmarks: What priority do you give to sustaining Seattle's designated landmarks and saving other landmark-eligible historic places as properties that enable residents to see history and learn from it?
X High Priority □ Medium □ Low □ No opinion
Statement: I place high value on saving historic places, having worked throughout my journalistic career for saving historic places, starting with the Pike Place Public Market during my early years as an editorial writer. To mention just a few of the many struggles that showed up in the news columns: Preservation of the Home of the Good Shepherd, two battles for saving the Market, the fight (unsuccessful) to secure historic designation for the Blue Moon Tavern, rescuing the International Fountain and other Seattle Center structures from the “Disney Imagineering” plan, preservation of Town Hall and the First Methodist Church, restoration of the Seattle Center monorail and historic designation for the Fort Lawton/Discovery Park Chapel.
4. Protecting Seattle's heritage in court: What priority do you assign to the work of the Hearing Examiner and City Attorney regarding the preservation of designated City landmarks and landmark-eligible properties?
X High Priority □ Medium □ Low □ No opinion
Statement: The City Attorney is elected separately from the Seattle City Council; however, the council approves budgets for the City Attorney’s office and oversees the work of the Hearing Examiner. What matters here is provision of sufficient resources toward preserving designated City Landmarks. I assign a high priority to that work.
5. Advocacy for historic homeowners: How do you rate Seattle's efforts to influence public policy and public perceptions around the benefits of preserving significant historic residences?
X High Priority □ Medium □ Low □ No opinion
Statement: This is one area where we have few laurels to rest upon. I am proud of some individual efforts, but we have not done a good job of preserving historic residences. I think sadly of the two carpenters houses on Eastlake that disappeared one night. Then I think of Vancouver, B. C., where there has been excellent work turning historic residences into low-income and senior housing.
6. Influencing public policy: What priority do you place on Seattle's work to foster preservation-friendly policies and funding?
X High Priority □ Medium □ Low □ No opinion
Statement: One of the recent examples of influencing public policy was the City Council’s hiring of historian Paul Dorpat to document the history of the Seattle Waterfront. His research has resulted in public presentations and a bound volume with a forward written by Councilmember Peter Steinbrueck and me. It is just such a document that helps foster preservation-friendly policies.
7. Supporting historic preservation: What priority do you assign to sustaining and funding Seattle's Historic Preservation Program in the Department of Neighborhoods?
X High Priority □ Medium □ Low □ No opinion
Statement: The Department of Neighborhoods can and should play an important role in sustaining historic preservation. A successful outcome can be seen in the Columbia City neighborhood.
8. Funding for preservation projects: What priority do you assign to the provision of grants and revolving loans for Seattle's private historic preservation projects?
X High Priority □ Medium □ Low □ No opinion
Statement: In days of strained budgets, it is important to leverage funds, when possible, through grants and revolving loans. Private historic preservation projects can and should be encouraged through city assistance. Among those efforts that have had a boost from the city through provision of identified public benefits are such projects as the Wing Luke Museum and the Northwest African American Museum.