Day of the Un-Mayor

McGinn gets flak for not resembling past mayors, but his vision for Seattle is firmly fixed on the future.

By Eric Scigliano

Indeed, some council members appreciate his regime’s relative openness. Council transportation chair Tom Rasmussen said he’d been meeting monthly with the mayor, and “monthly is a lot more time than we got with Nickels. Even though we disagree on the tunnel and 520, I’d say we’re working well on other things.” Finance chair Jean Godden thinks Beth Goldberg, McGinn’s “smart, energetic” new budget director, “probably will work well with the council.”

McGinn’s troubles in his first quarter recall the flak Barack Obama took in his first year as president. But, like Obama, he continues to inspire his followers, especially younger ones. Both are outsiders who’ve confounded the pros and aspired to transformational roles. And their campaigns have the same organizational DNA. In 2005, Marshall Ganz, a farmworkers’ organizer–turned–Harvard lecturer, conducted leadership workshops with the Cascade Sierra Club and three other chapters, emphasizing the importance of social relationships among movement members. Ganz used the techniques developed there to train the ground campaign that put Obama over. Many of those Ganz trained went on to campaign for McGinn—with similar results.

Pundits love comparing McGinn to other local politicians, from 1970s mayors Wes Uhlman and Charley Royer to current council member Nick Licata. McGinn is unimpressed. “Parallels are nice,” he shrugs, “but there’s something else going on, and I don’t think they’ve quite got it yet.”

That something is partly generational, and McGinn—who’s 50, has three young children, and goes to Blue Scholars concerts—talks generational politics like a ’60s campus organizer: “There is, particularly among the younger generation, a very deep concern that we’re not on a sustainable environmental path. I think there’s more acceptance of diversity and tolerance towards others, not just as an abstract thing…. The younger generation has a different vision of what Seattle is going to be that doesn’t fit into prior generations’ expectations.”

As long as he shares that vision, young McGinnites don’t mind a few rookie blunders. They were key to McGinn’s victory last year, and they’re still his base; a March Publicola poll found that 57 percent of voters under 35 approved of him and just 17 percent disapproved. Only 24 percent of those 45 to 59 approved.

Seattle’s demographics favor McGinn: In the 2000 census, 25-to-34-year-olds outnumbered the peak 55-to-64 boomer cohort nearly three to one. Nearly a third of city residents were 20 to 34.

McGinn’s notorious informality is one reason he connects with ordinary folks, especially young folks, in ways his starchier predecessors Nickels and Paul Schell never could. When we met in early April, an aide stepped in to say his next guests were here: a dozen immigrant student journalists from Horn of Africa Services. McGinn was plainly delighted to receive this delegation: “This is the best part of the job!”

“How you doing, man? Good to meet you,” he said, shaking a young hand. Everyone was at ease. “What opportunities does the City of Seattle have for young people?” one student journalist asked. McGinn recounted how his Youth and Families Initiative had held five town hall meetings and nearly 100 caucuses seeking ways to address just that question. Next week it would convene a youth “summit.”

“I’d like to hear from you guys,” he said. “That’s why you should come to the town halls. In fact, I invite you to organize a caucus!” Ever the organizer, he didn’t miss a chance to recruit.