Alexis Mercedes Rinck is Seattle’s newest at-large City Council member, one of two who represent the whole city. She was sworn into office on November 26 after winning a special election against Tanya Woo. Woo served in the seat starting in January this year, after she was appointed to fill the vacancy from Teresa Mosqueda’s departure for the King County Council.
Mercedes Rinck ran on a progressive agenda, advocating for worker and renter protections, more affordable housing, and taxes on big businesses. Woo, a night watch leader in the Chinatown International District and co-owner of the Louisa Hotel building, was appointed by and aligned with a more centrist, business-friendly council majority that has also favored boosting police funding, reinstating controversial drug and prostitution ordinances, and other more traditional “law and order” approaches to public safety.
Mercedes Rinck was elected for one year, the remainder of Mosqueda’s term; if she wishes to keep her seat, she will need to run again in November 2025.
Mercedes Rinck recently worked as assistant policy director at the University of Washington, and previously for the King County Regional Homelessness Authority.
At 29, Mercedes Rinck is the youngest person elected to the Seattle City Council.
Mercedes Rinck spoke with the International Examiner about issues in the Chinatown International District and city-wide. A vegan, her favorite things in the neighborhood include the banh mi at ChuMinh Tofu, Uwajimaya’s aisles of ingredients – “for my love of food, and specifically my love of exploring and honoring different cuisines” – and the selection at Vital Leaf Tea.
This interview has been edited for length.
IE: In the aftermath of the stabbings in Little Saigon on November 8, what’s on your mind in terms of how to address this kind of violence and hopefully prevent it?
AMR: Really quite shocking and unsettling. And when we’re coping with the aftermath of violent incidents, I think that honoring the feelings that exist, and just validating the feelings of un-safety, is one important step, and then, of course, taking action is another really important step.
I’m mindful of the fact that the city and community partners have done the work to identify solutions previously. And I’m thinking specifically of an auditor’s report that was done a couple years ago for Little Saigon. This report identified 68 recommendations to improve safety in the neighborhood, and only three of those have been implemented, and many of these recommendations were related to built environment changes that create more of an air of safety and increase public space guardianship, have more eyes on the street. Many of these recommendations required investment into community around prevention measures, supporting community well-being. And I think it’s notable that we spend money on these reports to understand an issue, and then we haven’t taken the steps to actually put our money where our mouth is and really invest.
I think revisiting that as a starting place, bringing folks together again in the aftermath of this to problem-solve. We need the city to invest in meaningful measures and center community in that process.
IE: In response to the stabbings, Mayor Harrell announced expanded efforts to address public safety and public health challenges in the downtown area, including improving coordination and targeted enforcement. What do you think about these responses from the Mayor’s office? Do they go far enough?
AMR: I’ve said from the beginning when I entered the race that we need a public safety system that has quick responses to public safety situations, but also the right response. We should be improving first responder staffing across the board, especially when it comes to alternative behavioral health response as well as emergency fire and medical, but also really working on those prevention measures, like gun violence prevention. But I think it’s also really important to name that our communities are safest when we’re healthy and housed.
We know that substance use disorder has been a prevailing issue in our community. And it’s important to acknowledge that decriminalization arose as a necessary response to the failures of criminalization and addressing our drug crisis. And now we’ve had the introduction of fentanyl and meth, two of the most addictive substances on the planet, into our market for often as little as $1, and it’s just transformed our understanding of drug policy. And I think what’s clear now that we’re looking years back, years later, changing our laws around criminalization and decriminalization is not effectively addressing drug use.
What we have learned, though, is that genuine recovery requires effective treatment options. I continue to hear from countless residents across our city who are ready to end their addiction, but find themselves unable to access the treatment that they desperately need. And so I’m particularly focused on how we’re scaling our treatment options, and then again, having a clear, strong strategy to address the housing crisis.
It is important that residents know that someone will answer their call when they’re in the midst of violent crime, and I want to make sure that we have a quick response system for that. We also need a response system that addresses behavioral health crises, but we need those services as well to address people’s well being, whether it be recovery services, but also the necessary housing that we all know that we need.
IE: Do you have a short list of legislative priorities that you’re looking forward to working on in 2025?
AMR: Just to highlight a few of those, we have the Comprehensive Plan, of course, and I’m particularly focused on how we improve density, particularly in areas of the city that have historically not seen density, and creating more housing opportunity across the entire city, which should help improve affordability. Paired with that, a meaningful anti-displacement strategy within the Comprehensive Plan, that is a really exciting opportunity – setting a vision for housing over the next 20 years.
A plan is only as good as we implement it, though. So paired with that, I’m really focused on making sure that we are, in tandem, putting our money where our mouth is and investing in affordable housing projects across the city, while also supporting housing development broadly, and finding ways that we as the city are not standing in our own way. Streamlining our permitting process and being more supportive and helpful in that process, because navigating our city promises can be onerous and challenging for affordable housing developers.
Looking at next year, we have the Families, Education, Preschool, and Promise Levy renewal. This is a really important pool of funds. I know a number of organizations within the CID receive funding through this Levy. So, really excited to work over the next year alongside community, to really have a conversation about how have these investments been supporting, and where should we be expanding, and the ways that we can make sure that youth and young people are driving and kind of guiding some of those proposed changes.
As I’ve been standing up this office and thinking about the year ahead, a lot of the work feels eclipsed when considering the outcome of the presidential race. We have a lot of work to do, not just in the areas I campaigned on about affordability and community safety, but now trying to mitigate whatever attacks may come for our freedoms and the loss of federal funding that can be anticipated.
Especially with a lot of the rhetoric related to mass deportations, I’ve already begun work in this area, convening key community partners, particularly those that worked during the last Trump presidency. We’ll have an developing a slate of recommendations to be advanced immediately, essentially trying to discern and figure out what needs to be done in the next couple of months before the official change of the administration.
But I’m most concerned in this moment about the rhetoric, not just the rhetoric about mass deportations, but the actions that this administration will take, and the harm that will be caused along the way for immigrant and refugee neighbors within this community and I started the work trying to to convene and do work in this area before I officially even swore in because it’s such a high priority for me.
IE: Political analysts and the media have observed that you would be one of two progressive council members on the current Council, alongside Councilmember Morales. How do you anticipate working with a council majority that might be at odds with you or opposed to some of your work?
AMR: I want us to turn the page and focus on the work ahead of us for the next year. Again, the change in presidential administrations, and the corresponding threats to our funding coming to our region, as well as the attacks we can project on our fundamental freedoms, are tremendously concerning, and we’re going to need strong local partnerships to weather this time – and that means working with my colleagues. So I’m bringing the spirit of true collaboration and collaborating with good intent.
I’ve worked in a number of roles that have required me to work across the political spectrum, and that’s exactly the spirit I bring to this work. And I’m putting forward that good posture, and we’ll continue to beat the drum to say, you know, we need strong local partnerships to protect all of our residents and navigate this time.
I know that I’m here on a progressive mandate, receiving more votes than anybody in Seattle’s local history. So I know I feel a strong mandate to champion the policies that I ran on, and I know that our job as a Council is to take action and advance the work on behalf of the people, and so that is why I am so committed to having a collaborative relationship with my colleagues.
IE: You were elected as the youngest city council member in recent memory in Seattle. How do you feel about this?
AMR: It’s true. I am the youngest person ever elected to Seattle City Council by like six months. I will be 29 serving on the dais. I think this is significant, because in many ways, I represent a generation of Seattle residents that are wondering, what does the city have in store for us? Is this a place where we can settle down and make roots, be able to live affordably, have money at the end of the month to put away for our next big thing, whatever it may be? Is this a city where you could settle down and raise kiddos? Is this a city that we can grow old in?
I think in many ways, I represent the generation that is asking ourselves this question, as well as starting to really have some lingering and really important questions also about the state of our environment, what kind of world are we going to be living in in the decades to come.
I’m a firm believer that the personal is political. We all have a perspective, and that perspective comes with blind spots, which is why collaboration and cooperation and humbly listening to those who carry different life experiences is so important. But I bring representation to the council – the perspective of somebody who is of this generation, as well as someone who is Latine, having done service industry work, who doesn’t own a car. All of these things are political and shape my perspective. And so I’ll be bringing that perspective when thinking about policies and legislation that come before Council.
