With three days left to vote by mail for Tuesday’s primary, tonight and Sunday morning we are wrapping up our close-up looks at candidates in races including the three Seattle City Council contests you’ll find on the primary ballot. Previous stories are in the WSB Politics archive.

By Kathy Mulady
Reporting for West Seattle Blog

Brian Carver sees the future of Seattle in its young people. As one of five candidates for Seattle City Council Position 4, he says he would tap that creativity and energy to find long-term solutions to some of the city’s most persistent problems, including more affordable housing and jobs.

“I have always thought that working with youth is so rewarding and so necessary,” he said. “I am most interested in programs that empower youth so the direction of their life is in their hands and they are equipped to drive it forward.”

Carver, a 30-year-old North Seattle resident, has master’s degrees in business and engineering. He is the Worldwide Lean Manager at Amazon.com, in charge of making sure the company is operating as efficiently and cost-effectively as possible. It’s a skill he wants to bring to City Hall.

“For it to work, you have to measure the right things,” said Carver. “It’s a big challenge, coming up with the right measurement.”

But the payoff, he says, would be better efficiencies in key city operations including housing and transportation, and city-related operations such as buses and schools.

Carver is particularly concerned about the widening gap between Seattle’s advantaged and disadvantaged youth.

“The number of Seattle students going to private schools is very high,” he said. Many of those who do attend public schools are people of color or disadvantaged. It’s partially because of the demographics of the city, and also because many voters in Seattle don’t have children that are school age.

Carver has also heard the cry of small-business owners and said the city needs to simplify the tangle of fees and taxes that burden small companies.

He would like to give developers more incentives to develop affordable housing, and also rebuild the permit process to help projects move faster.

“One of the biggest expenses for developers is navigating red tape,” said Carver. “There are, of course, lots of steps they need to go through, like getting good neighborhood input. But there are also areas of waste that are not value-added.

“I want to understand the root causes for the huge wait times and start streamlining,” he said.

Q: How do you perceive West Seattle’s transportation challenges, and what can be done to solve them?

CARVER: The main transportation challenge is the connection between West Seattle and I-5, State Route 99, and downtown. While further investments need to be made in improved public transportation, immediate focus can be placed on educating commuters and encouraging them to use existing resources.

Additional incentives can be provided by employers asking commuters to leave their car at home – like free transit passes, bicycle storage and showers, or readily available information and ride shares.

Q: A massive amount of development is planned in West Seattle. How do we keep our hometown feel, but on the other hand, bring some jobs here so everyone doesn’t have to commute?

Growth management is important – and the West Seattle community can play a key role in this plan. The neighborhoods need to work with the Planning, Land Use, and Neighborhoods Committee to determine zoning changes, density plans, business development, and transportation plans.

Bringing both new businesses and office locations from large companies into West Seattle are ways to keep people living and working in West Seattle to minimize the commute challenges that come from increased residential growth.

Q: The jail issue touches many neighborhoods. What should we do?

CARVER: First off, we need to focus on addressing the root cause to reduce the number of inmates in the existing King County jail. For this, prisoner rehabilitation is key as many are repeat offenders. I am working with other volunteers from the International Association for Human Values to start a prisoner rehabilitation program in the local King County Correctional Facility that combines yoga and meditation with powerful processes that lift the trauma and stress from prisoners so that they can start taking responsibility for their life in a positive way again. Also, we need to de-criminalize drug addiction and focus on treating addiction.

Carver’s website is at carverforcouncil.com. He was not one of the two candidates in the Position 4 race endorsed by West Seattle’s biggest political group, the 34th District Democrats – they favored Sally Bagshaw (WSB story here) and Dorsol Plants (WSB story here). Our candidate reports continue through tomorrow morning; be sure to get your ballot into the mail or a drop box by 8 pm Tuesday. Find our archived coverage of all political races and issues here, newest to oldest.