Goodbye to the Old Year, Hello to a Bumpy 2026

The final days of 2025 give us opportunity to look back at where we’ve been and to speculate on the days ahead. It hasn’t been the worst of times; it certainly wasn’t the best, but Seattle, through it all, has remained a city of possibilities.

Departing Mayor Bruce Harrell is just completing a four-year term that has much to recommend it. When he took office in 2021, the city was still reeling from effects of a devastating pandemic, and Harrell faced getting the city back on the right track. In retrospect, he can take credit for a range of accomplishments.

Among them is that, for the first time in a half decade, Seattle is finally able to hire more police officers than it loses. Violent crime is down, and the city has launched CARE, a public safety department that responds to behavioral health challenges. We’ve upped our number of detox beds, strengthened our responses, and seen fatal dosages fall. There are fewer deaths on our streets.

On the homelessness front, there has been a decrease in RVs lining streets and tents occupying parks. Harrell is credited with creating more than 5,000 units of affordable housing while averting a loss in supportive housing. The city placed 2,500 kids in 98 preschool classrooms and once again renewed its Education, Preschool, and Promise levy.

As mayor, Harrell put his efforts into downtown revitalization, advancing storefront repairs and gaining approval for a business tax revision that benefits small businesses. In his final year, he presided over opening of the Overlook Walk, helped break ground at Memorial Stadium, and readied the city for the FIFA games.

Hoping for a rare second mayoral term, Harrell engaged in 20 debates with his primary election opponent. But, despite his better-funded campaign, Harrell narrowly lost to Katie Wilson, the 43-year-old renter who identifies as a democratic socialist.

Seattle will now go into 2026 led by Mayor Katie Wilson. During her campaign, Wilson laid out a 10-point program. It’s mainly aspirational, but it does provide a blueprint for a possible future.

Besides creating 4,000 units of emergency housing, Wilson wants to build social housing and make streets safer for walking, riding, and rolling. She favors more progressive revenue, protection for workers’ rights, and affordable day care in addition to revitalization of downtown and neighborhood business districts. And there’s more. It’s a most ambitious list, especially in times of federal cutbacks. Advancing her aims will depend on whether she can get buy-in from the Seattle City Council, which is split between left-leaning members and those with more moderate views. Politics is the art of the possible and, as always, it takes five votes to do anything.

Last week, the mayor-elect sent a reassuring message when she opted to retain the city’s public safety team: Chief of Police Shon Barnes, Fire Department Chief Harold Scoggin, CARE Department’s Amy Braden, and Curry Mayer, director of Emergency Management.

Nonetheless, Wilson figures be a change agent with outsider aims, perhaps resembling former Mayor Mike McGinn more than recent Seattle incumbents. Despite his activist agenda, McGinn left behind a legacy of failed battles fought with the council. However, Wilson likely will score more successes since she will have three supportive councilmembers.

One savvy former official theorized that — in order to pay for her ambitious agenda — Wilson will need to push quick revenue schemes such as congestion pricing in the heart of the city. That same oracle predicted that Wilson will back a denser comprehensive plan with six-story dwellings permitted throughout the city. Known for championing transit, she will be no friend of cars, making auto travel as inconvenient as possible.

To undertake costly social housing, Wilson will need considerable revenue. That likely will require floating a hefty bond issue, maybe a billion dollars that will require repayment in the future.

Meanwhile, Girmay Zahilay, King County’s newly installed executive, also means to produce much affordable housing. He, too, is a change agent. He wasted no time reorganizing county government. He is working for fewer operational silos and combined goals.

The new year figures to be a watershed — a generational shift — for the state’s largest county and its largest city. As Bette Davis once said about changing times, we should fasten our safety belts. There may be a bumpy ride ahead.