Jenny Durkan lays out her first 30 days as mayor of Seattle

SEATTLE -- As mayor, Jenny Durkan will inherit the good and the bad that Seattle has to offer.

“It’s a huge responsibility to be able to carry that honor forward,”  Mayor-elect Durkan said in an interview Wednesday.

Durkan laid out what she would do in the first 30 days in office.

“We will focus immediately on homelessness, affordability and transportation,” Durkan said.



Durkan knows she faces an uphill battle when it comes to homelessness.

“We have to do a range of things differently. First we have to focus on prevention better than what we have been doing every time rent goes up $100; the data is clear, more people fall into homelessness,” Durkan said.

She wants more short-term shelters and long-term affordable housing, including tiny homes.

As for rising rents, Durkan hopes to provide incentives to landlords to keep rents down.

“I would like to be able to go to landlords providing good rents and say we will keep the property taxes down if you keep the rents down,” Durkan said.

It’s a challenge she will take on as the first woman mayor in almost a century and the first lesbian mayor in the history of Seattle.

“I think being a woman mayor and an openly gay person is always a super positive thing so people can see they can be a role model for people,” Durkan said.

Durkan will be taking over the city earlier than usual because of Ed Murray’s resignation.

She will be sworn in November 28, the day the election vote is certified. That gives her 20 days to figure out her transition team and many of the new people she will hire to help run the city.