Mayoral Election Coverage 2017: An Interview with Cassie Franklin
Everett, Washington—population 100,000— is a city that sometimes feels like a small town. Try walking downtown without running into someone you know.
In my opinion this political climate works to the benefit of citizens. Candidates are more accessible.
As far as I can tell the mayoral candidates are eager to hear from the public. They are holding lunch symposiums, courting constituents in the streets, and knocking on doors.
What would you say if you had a candidate’s ear?
Cassie Franklin is the CEO of Cocoon House, a nonprofit that serves homeless and at risk youth in Snohomish County. She has been in charge of the organization since 2011, and has nearly doubled the size of the program during her tenure. The nationally recognized nonprofit keeps kids off the streets with best practices in outreach, housing, and prevention.
Franklin was elected to the Everett city council in 2015, where she now serves as council vice president. She is the president of the Rotary Club of South Everett-Mukilteo, and chairs several boards and committees.
She has been endorsed by outgoing mayor Ray Stephanson who said that Cassie is, “uniquely qualified to address the city’s most pressing issues.”
She went to grad school in Germany and says they have good bike lanes there.
Information on her website is available in Spanish.
I met Cassie Franklin at Silver Cup Coffee on a sunny evening.
The baristas were out of her favorite rose syrup. She ordered cardamom instead for her 16oz iced latte.
She is a very friendly person. She wore a canary yellow cardigan over a black and white print summer dress. She has glasses and dangling earrings.
I start our interview by asking her about Mayor Stephanson’s endorsement of her candidacy. Would the Cassie Franklin administration take the city in a new direction?
“I’m humbled and honored to have [his] support,” she said. “He led during a challenging time and was still able to grow aerospace and education.”
She said she has a different management style. “I lead in a team.” She says the city is planning and growing. She wants to bring creative collaboration.
“We have an opportunity right now because of the energy in our community to fully engage our citizens in a way that they haven’t been engaged, historically. I wouldn’t want to miss out on that opportunity.”
This becomes one of the themes of our conversation: Franklin finds value in surrounding herself with informed citizens. She calls herself an “external processor” who likes to think issues out loud in a group setting. This allows her to collect feedback and good ideas.
She emphasized that addressing homelessness in our community is the top priority. “It’s what inspired me to run for city council in the first place, when I joined the Community Streets Initiative.”
She has also served on the boards of the Homeless Policy Task Force, the Puget Sound Runaway and Homeless Youth Collaboration, and other similar organizations.
“I believe we have a rich safety net of social services in this city,” she says. The key is to have these services working together and talking. She mentions that the city, the county, nonprofits, and faith-based services often work with the same clients on different issues, but not always collaboratively.
“What can we do to strengthen the safety net we have?”
Franklin is in favor of building more low-barrier housing.
She believes community education is important, too. She mentioned several recent public forums held in Everett on the issue of homelessness.
She asked to borrow my pen and notepad. then draws a Venn diagram. The far left circle represents people who are homeless for whatever reason. The far right circle represents a criminal element present on the streets who may or may not be homeless. The circle in the middle represents people who are on the spectrum in between these two poles.
What Franklin was illustrating is important. Some people experiencing homelessness need diversion, some need supportive services, and some may require law enforcement. They must all be individually assessed and treated.
This is why Everett police officers are now sometimes accompanied by embedded social workers.
I noticed that Franklin is the only candidate to list environmental concerns as part of her platform. I asked her about this.
She wants to develop an urban tree plan. When I asked her about it, she said it’s a relatively easy thing.
“There are very few things we can control. Urban tree farms we can control.”
She stated that her goal is to make Everett a net zero emitter of carbon. She says the city is already doing a good job of greening its public transit fleet.
“Say a bus needs to be replaced. Let’s make it an electric bus.”
Simple.
Franklin says citizen-led groups are already doing a lot of work on local environmental issues. Concerned constituents should be able to talk to the city about what needs to be done. They would have a place at the table in her administration.
Franklin has also expressed interest in making Broadway, Evergreen, and Everett Mall areas more walkable. I asked her what she has in mind.
She said that the city is working toward “complete streets” —that is, roads that promote accessibility for pedestrians, bicycles, transit users, personal vehicle and freight trucks.
“The Everett Mall area is ripe for redevelopment,” Franklin noted. The anchor stores at the mall are closing because “Amazon beats all.” Time to adapt. She’s seen other malls that are repurposing empty storefronts as clinics or dental offices while still catering to retail customers.
She mentioned empty warehouses in Pittsburgh that are being converted into communal retail spaces for underserved communities.
She described a potential future Everett Mall with walkways connecting retail spots in a way that’s similar to the U Village.
Franklin acknowledged that the Everett Mall will probably never be able to compete with Alderwood or the Seattle Outlet Malls in Tulalip—at least not on their terms. But what else could the space be? There is plenty of potential.
And Broadway? ”There’s a new demographic there. Students [at the community college] have disposable income.” That’s going to be good for the area’s businesses.
This started the conversation about economic development.
Franklin would like to see every empty space filled in the downtown core.
“I want to support the businesses we have. This incentivizes other business to join them.”
She mentioned that nightlife is hard to find in downtown after about 8 PM. That could change.
She also mentioned that young families and children are demographics that don’t feel supported by Everett these days. She’s met with four moms groups recently, and says local moms have their finger on the pulse of public safety—they’re the ones pushing strollers on the sidewalks and visiting parks.
The interview is winding down. I end with the big question: Where’s her favorite place to eat in Everett?
It’s a toss-up between J Ramen and Sushi and Kate’s. She values the hospitality at both places.
Stay tuned to the Live in Everett blog for further election coverage.
The candidates are listening.
You can attend an upcoming forum. You can draft a letter and send it to a mayoral contender.
What would you like to say? What’s your idea of the ideal Everett?
Richard Porter is a social worker and musician. He lives in North Everett and enjoys running on Marine View Drive, bicycling down tree-lined streets, and trying to coax vegetables out of his yard.
