Remarks by Mason Thompson
160 remarks on the record, newest first · Page 5 of 7
- Play at 3:01:10
“I don't want to make the same mistakes we made last time trying to get something that's too good and ending up with something that doesn't work again for another five or six years. And I would over 10% AMI like I don't want to chance it because I've had this conversation before and I made the same decision basically that you're proposing this go around probably on a little bit different scale and it didn't work out. So maybe I'm once bitten, twice shy. I just... I would, if we have a bunch of homes that are built or if we have, I mean, how many are we gonna get over the next five years? If we…”
City Council · Jul 21, 2026
- Play at 3:02:04
“Or like a crystal ball. Because if we knew the future, we wouldn't know what to do.”
City Council · Jul 21, 2026
- Play at 3:02:54
“If we are going from 80 to 70, because you mentioned that like we could do, it's legal for us to do 10 at 60 or, you know, 20% at 80. Can we do 15% at 70?”
City Council · Jul 21, 2026
- Play at 3:03:09
“I mean, I would like to, if we are going to require a deeper level of affordability than we're required, I would like to require fewer units. Just because, again, I want to make sure that they get built. Because if those micro units that ran out in market rate at 80% AMI, and we get 50 of those for people to move into at 80% AMI, that's a huge win that isn't measured in terms of like percentage AMI or affordability. So like I would, if we're gonna ask for more on the percentage AMI, I would like to ask for less on the number of units.”
City Council · Jul 21, 2026
- Play at 3:04:34
“I would love to have a conversation in the future about like the units that are getting built and the projects that are going in and like what we've learned from those projects that are going in rather than another year of, well, nothing got built. Maybe we should do it again when we know what works elsewhere. And like, so I want, next conversation to come with learnings to come with like here's here's what we've experienced here's what people say that have like actually built housing through the program here are the results we're seeing here are the rental rates for the units in them like i…”
City Council · Jul 21, 2026
- Play at 3:05:30
“But a lot of stuff's gotten built since then. And stuff's gotten built since then elsewhere. And I understand that Shoreline got a bunch of light rail stations. So no matter what happened, they were going to get a lot more apartment buildings built than we are right next to there. But things are getting built elsewhere. And things would have been getting built here if we would have made different decisions six years ago. And I wish I could go back six years ago and make different decisions. And I just, I don't, I want to control what we can control. And we can't control a global pandemic and…”
City Council · Jul 21, 2026
- Play at 3:06:36
“I mean, and you could be right. All the projects could get built at 70%. I just don't know.”
City Council · Jul 21, 2026
- Play at 3:07:03
“And since things are a lot more expensive to build now, I'm really hesitant to add more costs than we need.”
City Council · Jul 21, 2026
- Play at 3:07:22
“Yeah, I mean, I see that. And I mean, my take is that getting the most out of it is going to happen if we tune it toward getting the most projects built. Because if we get more projects built, then the number of affordable units that we get go up. And like, if we want to do 7%, 70% at 15%, like, and we can utilize that to get more projects actually built, we're going to see a whole lot more affordable units and market rate units. Rented so I would just like to see us if we're gonna ask for more in one phase We should ask for less correspondingly in another phase And I foresee council member…”
City Council · Jul 21, 2026
- Play at 3:08:42
“The lesson I'm learning from this is Mason and Amanda should have had a phone call before this meeting.”
City Council · Jul 21, 2026
- Play at 3:09:41
“Would it be difficult, and you guys probably go, oh, no, when I say that, because we haven't really had a consensus around kind of what direction we want you guys to go with this tonight. Would it be okay, because I'm sure that we're all going to leave this conversation and we're going to think about it and we're going to see what kind of feedback we get if people go out to the study session and we're going to talk about it. Would it be okay for you to bring back a couple different options? Here are some things we could do. So when we have this discussion the next time around, the discussion…”
City Council · Jul 21, 2026
- Play at 3:10:40
“Well, if you do that, we're going to take option C. That's how that conversation works.”
City Council · Jul 21, 2026
- Play at 3:11:20
“And we're in a cycle right now where more people are getting laid off than getting hired, and all the macroeconomic factors are pointing toward rents getting cheaper right now. And we have been in phases like that in the past, and we will have phases like we've had in the past and the future, where people are hiring and rents are going up, and the context will be different then. So it's a snapshot in time. if we could have some of a like, here are the things that we heard in the conversation from council in the study session, and like here are a couple different options, like that would be, I…”
City Council · Jul 21, 2026
- Play at 3:12:07
“I think we call Magic A-Ball now Claude, right? Isn't that the thing? Ask the Magic A-Ball.”
City Council · Jul 21, 2026
- Play at 3:12:14
“Yeah. All right. Are we good? All right. We're adjourned.”
City Council · Jul 21, 2026
- Play at 0:05
“Welcome, everyone. I now call the July 14th, 2026 regular city council meeting to order. We'll start to take a moment to take a roll call of the council members by position number. Please stay here when the city clerk calls your name.”
City Council · Jul 14, 2026
- Play at 0:32
“Thank you. First up on our agenda tonight is meeting agenda approval. And we're going to start with a city manager review of the agenda.”
City Council · Jul 14, 2026
- Play at 1:48
“Thank you, City Manager. Next up is council approval of agenda. Are there any changes to tonight's agenda? Seeing none, we'll move on to public engagement opportunities. Council in the community. You can join some of your city council members tomorrow for our next Council in the Community event. Stop by to chat with us, ask questions, share feedback, and learn more about city services and priorities. That's Wednesday, July 15th, tomorrow, 3.30 to 5.30 p.m. at Centennial Park in the North End. Outstanding Artist Award nominations. Know an individual or organization that has made a meaningful…”
City Council · Jul 14, 2026
- Play at 5:47
“I was going to say Quan, it's your opportunity. All right, we have the city manager report and presentations up next. City manager.”
City Council · Jul 14, 2026
- Play at 12:48
“All right, I think we're good on questions.”
City Council · Jul 14, 2026
- Play at 26:05
“I just wanted to say in public, Emily, thank you and your team because I was super excited that reusable plates and glasses were at the 4th of July parade and that it made me really happy when I saw it and I wasn't expecting it. So thank you. I appreciate it.”
City Council · Jul 14, 2026
- Play at 26:21
“And I appreciate the work you're doing with water restriction. I echo the comments of my colleagues and I think we're good.”
City Council · Jul 14, 2026
- Play at 26:43
“There is one more item on the city manager report in the packet.”
City Council · Jul 14, 2026
- Play at 26:54
“All right. Next up is council reports and conversations. Council members. Council member Anguillery.”
City Council · Jul 14, 2026
- Play at 29:38
“Actually, it's council conversations. Right.”
City Council · Jul 14, 2026