In a few short months, it’ll once again be decision-making time for the good people of Seattle. The people of the city’s District 3 in particular have a particularly tough choice ahead of them as they will be going into that election with no incumbent to even consider.

However, on some level, this might even be a good thing that can be exploited to work in their favor. That is, provided that they make the right decision going forward.

For some voters in this constituency though, the question of who would be the right councilmember to guide the district to the next stage in its existence persists. I’ll grant you that, on paper, this might indeed seem like a tough choice to make. However, in reality, this decision couldn’t be simpler.

At the moment, there truly is no better candidate for the job of council member for the district than #Alex Hudson. It only takes giving this individual a closer look to see what makes this individual so perfect for the job.

#Hudson is the current director of the Transportation Choices Coalition. She has been a part of the district since forever. She was one of the greatest champions of the #First Hill Improvement Association. This, among other things, compelled her to lead the charge in the quest for a better major transportation policy. She was also a huge part of the statewide funding bill that was granted in 2022.

If you’re wondering why she’s so invested in ensuring that her community has a smooth and efficient transportation network, it’s because she, like several other members of D3 relies heavily on it. What’s more, she knows that much more needs to be done here and she’s simply raring to go!

According to her, “I’ve built my life so that I could (…live in a really good transit neighborhood,) and what I’ve seen is how hard and inconvenient and frankly, undignified we make it for people who are transit riders. That looks like the basic stuff about what the bus stops look like, the access to get to those bus stops, whether or not the city has prioritized the right of way to make those buses move in a fast, reliable way.” She adds that “How the city doesn’t run the transit agency, but they invest in the transit agency. They help derive the investments of the transit agency. Being a public transit rider is both deeply liberating and also frustratingly limiting.”

Hudson goes on to say, “There should not be as many fatalities, near misses, or injuries on our roadways as there are right now in the city, and that should be the primary focus of the Seattle Transportation Plan that they’re putting together now.”

All of this is evidence that she not only has an accurate assessment of what the problem is but she also has a viable lead on proactive solutions to the issue.

Beyond this, Hudson also has strong thoughts on how to address the severity of the homelessness problem in the district at this time. More specifically, she sees something that many also recognize but are unwilling to accept – the city could be doing a lot more to address this problem.

As she puts it, “There’s no point in just pushing people around, if what that is going to do is just further traumatize someone, disinvest them from what little belongings and stability and community that they have, and create a further cycle of distrust in the system.”

Of course, in saying the above, this isn’t to imply that she is in any way championing the willy-nilly constitution of homeless encampments. On the contrary, she affirms that parks deserve to be treated better than that.

This is one of the reasons why she staunchly supported the removal of the large encampment that had grown in Miller Park. She concedes that homelessness is not only a very serious problem but it’s also one that needs to be tackled with immediate alacrity.

She says that “…having some resources that are specifically targeted to downtown to support people, is a good and important thing,” and believes that, with her vast knowledge on the issue to inform the council, we can take the first real steps towards putting this problem behind us permanently.

All in all, for me, Hudson represents a breath of fresh air, a nice (and highly needed) deviation from what we have come to expect from the regular stock of D3 candidates. What distinguishes her in this area is the fact that there is no doubt that all of her actions are motivated by a deep-seated desire to see her community grow and come into its own.

With her representing Seattle City’s District 3, maybe this time, we’ll see the changes we’ve been craving for so long.