In the runup to the August 4 primary election, Fizz’s regular Friday LIKES & DISLIKES column is featuring this year’s city council candidates.

For today’s third installment of City Council Candidate LIKES & DISLIKES, we asked the District Seven (Downtown, Belltown, Queen Anne, Magnolia) candidates—incumbent council member Sally Bagshaw and challenger Gus Hartmann—to do our Friday take on the week's news. 

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First elected in 2009 (and again handily in 2013), Bagshaw, the former civil division head at the King County prosecutor's office, originally beat church populist lefty David Bloom. Bagshaw, who lives in a fancy downtown condo, has emerged as the most enthusiastic urbanist on the Seattle city council. She voted against the council's easy political gimme, the supposed "linkage" fee on developers (hey, let's also create a special tax on Whole Foods to pay for food banks); she was the only council member besides Mike O'Brien to vote against every one of council member Tom Rasmussen's uptight amendments to rein in low-rise multi-family developments, and she's the Seattle Greenways' movement's main ally on the council.

This may surprise some environmentalists who remember that Bagshaw locked down with Tim Burgess, and then council member Richard Conlin, to support the tunnel, thwarting former mayor Mike McGinn's attempts to undo the project.

Bagshaw is also committed to homeless services. She added $200,000 to the budget last year to fund "urban rest stops,"—one stop shop service centers for homeless people to change, shower, and do laundry.

Quick note: When Bagshaw turned in this morning's assignment she boasted about being a bit of a Hermione Granger, the kid who was always a goody-goody about homework. But I'd like to redirect Bagshaw's attention to a line from the email I sent her: "Pick two LOCAL news items from this week." (The caps were included in the original.)

I will say, though, Bagshaw's awesome second item gets a PubliCola LIKE: It's basically her endorsement of Mike O'Brien—"demonstrably more qualified than his opponents"—in the context of this week's churlish Seattle Times non-endorsement in O'Brien's Position Six race against a neighborhood slow growther.

Take it away Sally Bagshaw:

1. I LIKE that Colorado conducted one of the largest real-life experiments with long-acting birth control showing the positive result for teenagers and women with low-incomes. A privately funded study asked whether women -- including teenagers -- were offered free long lasting intrauterine devices or implants would those women choose them? You bet they did: the results showed over forty percent reductions in teen pregnancies and abortions over the four-year study. Talk about a life-changer. Data from a King County study last decade showed that approximately 65 teenagers enrolled in the Seattle School District bear children every year. Who’s prepared for this unplanned responsibility?

Think of the burden that must be carried by a woman who gets pregnant before she is ready to raise a child, economically and otherwise. Imagine what a low-income teenage mom faces without insurance, without completing her education, and without adequate health care for herself and her child. Although Seattle-King County Public Health Department and Planned Parenthood have programs locally that provide birth control for some women, the programs have restrictions. We can do more. I want to make sure Seattle is doing all it can to provide all birth control options for both young women and young men, and offer accurate information and access to options in and through our local high schools. “If we want to reduce poverty, one of the simplest, fastest and cheapest things we could do would be to make sure that as few people as possible become parents before they actually want to,” said Isabel Sawhill, an economist at the Brookings Institution.

2. I LIKE that the Seattle Times endorsed me in District Seven, but I DISLIKE their decision about District Six. The Times made a poor choice by making no choice in that district. If the Times is to help voters choose—ostensibly what the editorial board does, after all—it should choose as well. Mike O’Brien or one of his opponents. Unless voters write in another name (a wasted vote in my book) they have to choose from the candidates who filed. The Times disliked Mike’s “kayactivism.” Personally, I wouldn’t dish Mike for acting on his environmental passions, I would judge him on his record on the council. Although Mike and I agree on many things, we sometimes have different approaches to problem solving. When we don’t agree—reasonable minds can differ, of course—I have found him to be a thoughtful colleague who has strong beliefs upon which he acts. I respect that. Mike is demonstrably more qualified than his opponents. Suggesting to voters that they just roll the dice is irresponsible. The Times shouldn’t sit this one out.

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Google engineer and Belltown resident Gus Hartmann doesn't stand a chance against Bagshaw; he's raised about $5,000 to Bagshaw's $75,000 according to the latest reports (though, new cumulatives are due today.) But his emphasis on getting Seattle's tech class engaged in council politics is much welcome. Take it away Gus Hartmann

1. I LIKE the leaked HALA report item misnomered by the reactionary “Lesser Seattle” press as “Abolish Single-Family Zoning.” The proposal, albeit in draft form, shows a realistic view of increasing housing while maintaining low-density neighborhoods. Despite the expected NIMBY reaction, small cottages and so-called “mother-in-law” apartments are not a threat to the character and culture of lower density neighborhoods. Small and affordable housing only adds to the diversity of neighborhoods by making them accessible to people such as younger renters, or those who can’t afford to buy in Seattle’s scalding real estate market.

The (admittedly leaked draft proposal) makes several good suggestions about lessening parking requirements, as Seattle passed “peak driving” in 2010. Requiring housing to be built with expensive underground parking only drives up costs, which leads to higher rents. Upzoning for another two stories adds up to a great deal of new housing which is desperately needed.

It is time for the voters of Seattle to accept the fact that the population will grow by over 100,000 in the next couple decades by the city’s official estimates. The Mossbacks may dislike it all they please, but it will happen anyway, and it’s hypocritical of them to look down on the latest wave of people seeking Seattle as a boomtown. Seattle has always been a boomtown; we cut down the trees, we mined the Yukon miners, we gouged the Navy, we built aerospace, and now we’re in tech. “Go west, young man” has been advise since Horatio Alger.

The floating homes, while now luxury properties, began as the refuge of the poor. While Seattle is fond of making the same mistake again and again, maybe we could try not to this time?

2. I DISLIKE the reaction from Ballard Chamber of Commerce about locating a homeless encampment near Northwest Market Street. Particularly upsetting is the “think of the children” response from those worried about the proximity to Whitman Middle School. There is no evidence that a homeless encampment in any way increases the risk to children. The claim that the Ballard Chamber of Commerce” “believes the Ballard community has a strong sense of civic duty and understands well that all Seattle residents should support their neighbors most in need” is bluntly false. It is undermined by their own statement denying the humanitarian need for those currently still hampered by the affordable housing shortage, those who lost their houses in the apparently forgotten financial crisis, by those who need a minute to get back on their feet. A community that cared would help not reject the poorest.

Previously, we've heard from candidates running in Positions Nine and Eight.