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President Jan introduced our featured speaker, former Governor (as well as our state’s first woman Attorney General), Christine Gregoire who has been the CEO of Challenge Seattle for the last ten years. Gov. Gregoire gave a passionate presentation on what our region needs to do to be competitive in a global economy and the importance of everyone in the room to be involved, “we can’t move backwards; our region needs you to get engaged. We need to be bold and united.” She focused on three specific areas that need “bold thinking that will determine the future of our state”: · Housing and streamlining the burdensome permitting process – people cannot afford to live here – we need to look at red tape to radically reduce time and costs – our current situation is actually disincentivizing new housing · Improving our state’s unpredictable business climate – we are now ranked 48th out of the 50 states · Transportation – congestion is getting worse/back to pre-pandemic levels She used the example of the Seattle Waterfront that is officially opening this weekend of what can be accomplished for our region if we work together, overcome challenges and “bring that same determination.” She challenged our leaders and all of us: · Money is not always the answer · Be honest about outcomes, are we getting what we hoped for? · Work in Public Private Partnerships, across sectors · We can’t leave it to others, we need to engage Gov. Gregoire concluded with, “In 20 years we want to look back, that was the time that we created a legacy we can all be proud of.” |
