Saying he had a “delightful conversation” with “mayor-elect Katie Wilson,” Harrell spent the bulk of his 45-minute address thanking staff and defending his record leading the city out of the pandemic since taking office in 2021.
“I feel very good about the future for his country and this city, too. That is the attitude we have to have,” Harrell said Thursday. “I hope everyone who can hear the sound of my voice feels the same.”
CHS reported here on Wednesday’s ballot count that put Wilson clear of a recount as the socialist — and Capitol Hill renter — claimed the city’s highest office with a surge in support among later-voters.
The Central District-born Harrell was elected mayor in 2021. First elected to the Seattle City Council in 2007, Harrell would go on to win two more terms and serve as council president before deciding not to run again in 2019. The 67-year-old was raised in the Central District and briefly served as the city’s first Asian-American mayor in 2017 after Ed Murray resigned.
Harrell’s style was a surprising throwback in a city with Seattle’s liberal leanings with old-school pet peeves like graffiti and his propensity for sports metaphors and tough guy posturing. On a neighborhood tour in 2022, the newly elected Mayor Harrell created a photo opp in a Capitol Hill gym by squeezing in a quick weight lifting session.
During his time in office, Harrell guided a One Seattle campaign of public safety and development he said he had hoped to continue into a second term. Harrell’s time in office also guided the city through recovery coming out of the pandemic. There were missteps including his loyalty to troubled Seattle Police Chief Adrian Diaz and his reluctance to develop new taxes until his late teaming with Councilmember Alexis Mercedes Rinck to back an overhaul of the city’s B&O tax approved this month by voters.
Harrell also reshaped the leadership of SPD with the hiring of Chief Shon Barnes to helm the department as it operates without federal oversight for the first time in more than a decade.
Other unfinished Harrell business includes initiatives like the city’s new ban on “negative use restrictions” hoped to preserve grocery stores in vulnerable areas of the city. A bid to address homelessness and drug use in Seattle parks including Capitol Hill’s Seven Hills Park is also still playing out.
Attention now turns to mayor-elect Wilson to see which Harrell initiatives will continue and which will be unwound.
In Thursday’s address, Harrell spent time defending his and his wife Joanne Harrell’s legacy in a wealthy city with continued challenges around homelessness and affordability including the legislation he said he backed over the years “designed to uplift people from the roots of poverty and from being underrepresented.”
“If there’s one thing that I take pride in — I don’t care what they say, what they write about me,” Harrell said, “I’m not a cruel person, I’m not a flawed person… I try to lead with love.”
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