General election candidates for Edmonds City Council Position 1 meet in an Oct. 2, 2021 virtual debate sponsored by My Edmonds News. Candidates are incumbent Kristiana Johnson and challenger Alicia Crank. You can view a written summary here.
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My wife Kathie and I watched the debate last night. We were impressed by both candidates knowledge and experience. We thought both would do a good job as council members. In the end we decided to vote for Alicia Crank. We liked Ms. Crank’s willingness to base her decisions on facts and her experience working within a diverse community. She seemed to be quite committed to hearing individual circumstances in making judgements about disputes over property usage, and yet she had a firm grasp of following the city and county ordinances. I liked that she made reference to the unfortunate trend of using every square millimeter of property in building new homes which hinted at perhaps some curbing of the “faux chateau syndrome” which has made towns like Kirkland into “clown shows of bravado induced bad architecture.” We also liked that she showed a sense of “appropriate scale” in her references to dealing with issues like homelessness, and that she was honest about the complications and difficulties in venturing forth.
You should take into consideration that Alicia Crank is a partisan candidate in a non-partisan election. She will be a member of the “gang” and be guided by the wishes, both locally and nationally, of the Democratic party. Kristiana Johnson is independent and will make decisions that are best for Edmonds. Please review her track record.
After listening to the debate between Kristiana Johnson & Alicia Crank I think if Alicia Crank is elected to the council we will be getting what we have seen from this Mayor the last year & half , in your face a progressive agenda with little respect for what the Edmonds residence want or expect from the council !!
Ron: I’m also not a fan of the current mayor or the request wall of four (gang is a derogatory word, in my opinion). However, the only track record I see of Ms. Crank since the new administration has been her openly opposing most of the decisions made by them, even in stories posted here on My Edmonds News. I can’t imagine they’re very happy with her on that front. If you have information to the contrary, please point to it, as I could be missing something. I don’t see her actions being on the road of being destined to be in any voting block. BTW, she paid you a compliment, of sorts, in one of her campaign videos.
Regarding “affordable” housing. When did people decide that Edmonds has to provide varied housing prices? Is this being done in Medina, Mercer Island and Hunts Point communities? Hardly. My family moved where we could afford to live. With 3,300 apartments allotted on 99 we have met the Growth Management Act for density. What could be encouraged is multigenerational accomodations. Homeowners who want to rent out a room or 2 in their homes. My 85 year old aunt lives in Edmonds and bought a home with her son and his partner. These are workable situations without placing multifamily dwellings in our neighborhoods. It will wreck the look of our neighborhoods. This is not rocket science, look at our neighboring communities and see the mess.
Regarding homelessness, if we don’t force treatment in exchange for providing housing, we have signed up to grow our homeless drug addicted problem. They need TREATMENT. This is a 3 pronged problem. Homelessness/joblessness, Drug addicted/homeless/jobless. If you give free housing with no stipulation to find a job/get training or go into treatment, this city will be a shell of it’s former self. Not to mention that with drug addiction, there is often crime. Add that to the list of problems. if the problem keeps growing without treatment or jobs…you are only signing up to increase police personnel. So you can talk about “safety” but you had better start talking about TREATMENT and JOBS. The mayors homelessness task force doesn’t include this. BTW, it’s not okay that a city employee Shannon Burley would not authorize to add public onto the task force! Is there something we shouldn’t know about? This is frustrating.
My candidate has a wealth of experience, knowledge and is well educated. I’m not voting for a candidate based on black or white or any color. I’m strictly voting qualifications, that’s Kristiana.
I encourage anyone reading the comments here or the summary of the debate to take the time to view the video in its entirety before making up your mind on who to vote for. The summary leaves out and conflates some significant comments by each of the candidates. These details may be more significant depending on individual views. The issue of “partisanship” is taken on and addressed in that video. I also want to second the statements made by those who point out that Ms. Crank is her own person and will not be voting in lockstep with any “block” of council members. I also find it interesting that in checking each of the candidate’s campaign websites, the only one who does not reveal who endorses her is Ms. Johnson.
Agreed Lora — the summary was meant to be just that — a summary. Not a transcript. Watching the video is the best way to learn about the candidates but some people may not have the time, which is why we provided the summaries.