Editor’s Note: The article has been updated to reflect the date that Councilmember Eddie Lin was sworn into office, which was December 2, 2025.
As District 2’s newly elected City Councilmember, Eddie Lin brings a combination of legal expertise and firsthand understanding of searching for belonging to City Hall. The son of a Taiwanese immigrant doctor and a white social worker from Massachusetts, Lin grew up in Durham, North Carolina, navigating what it meant to be mixed-race in places without strong Asian communities.
“I grew up a little embarrassed of my Asian background,” Lin admitted. “There weren’t a lot of people to look up to—not a strong Chinese community. I was constantly trying to figure out where to fit in.”
That sense of disconnection drove him to major in East Asian Studies at Macalester College in Minnesota, where he studied Chinese and Japanese history and spent time abroad in China.
Lin’s legal career began unconventionally: as a receptionist, then legal secretary at a progressive public interest law firm in Oakland. This work sparked his interest in law, leading him to Seattle University’s School of Law at age 30.
For eight years, he practiced real estate and energy law at Perkins Coie, often representing property owners in condemnation cases against entities like Sound Transit. That experience helped him land a position at the Seattle City Attorney’s Office in 2017, where he worked on major infrastructure projects before transitioning to housing work.
“The most meaningful work I did was housing-related,” he said. He eventually worked on the Interlocal Agreement with King County that established the Regional Homelessness Authority.
When it came time to choose where to raise his family, Lin moved to Beacon Hill.
“We wanted to raise our kids in a diverse community where they could have peers going through similar things,” he said.
For councilmember Lin, the Chinatown-International District (CID) represents both promise and peril. Designated as one of the most at-risk historic neighborhoods in the country, the CID faces mounting pressures: vacant storefronts, unreinforced masonry buildings, visible homelessness, and relentless development.
“The CID can’t be locked in amber—the city and the neighborhood will change, but we need to work very hard to protect its cultural identity,” Lin acknowledged.
He’s cautious about “cleaning up” approaches that ultimately push out long-time residents and businesses.
“It’s not just the AANHPI community—the CID is very diverse, with lots of young people, lots of renters,” he said. “It’s one of the lowest-income areas in the city.”
Lin emphasized the need for resources available in multiple languages and warned that District 2 faces “some of the most significant gentrification and displacement concerns” in Seattle.
How does one councilmember represent a district where opinions on public safety, homelessness, and development vary wildly? Lin’s answer is deliberate engagement and nuanced conversations.
“There will be certain voices that have easier access to council,” he said. “I want to be intentional in reaching out to people who don’t typically have that same access.”
While residents may agree on concerns, they often disagree on solutions. When constituents push for increased surveillance, Lin plans to be honest about his discomfort while explaining his focus on root causes.
“I have to prioritize the most marginalized voices,” he stated plainly. “We know a lot of people in our community don’t vote, but their voices matter too.”
The 2026 FIFA World Cup, coming to Seattle next summer, has CID residents worried after the “disastrous” MLB All-Star week that treated the neighborhood like a parking lot. Lin wants safety ambassadors rather than increased police sweeps, and coordination with community organizations like SCIDpda to ensure local businesses benefit.
The Sound Transit light rail extension presents longer-term challenges. Drawing on his years representing property owners in condemnation cases, Lin knows how easily communities without political connections get “shortchanged” in major transit projects.
While he hasn’t taken a definitive position on the contested 4th Avenue station location, he expresses skepticism about Sound Transit’s quick dismissal of that option.
“There’s a level of distrust when I hear them say they can’t do something,” he said.
Regardless of station placement, Lin said he will push for substantial community mitigation funds similar to the $50 million secured for the Rainier Valley Community Development Association.
Lin will join the council alongside fellow progressives Dionne Foster and Alexis Mercedes Rinck, with Katie Wilson in the Mayor’s Office. The new progressive bloc may revisit controversial policies from the previous council, including expanded surveillance programs and the Stay Out of Drug Areas (SODA) and Stay out of Areas of Prostitution (SOAP) zones that Lin opposed.
On homelessness, Lin strongly opposes the sweep-first approach that characterized the Harrell administration. He praises Purpose Dignity Action’s (PDA) personalized outreach model, which recently housed 37 people from Little Saigon through intensive relationship-building and coordinated services.
“We spread the peanut butter so thin in terms of services,” he explained. “If we can actually get people the support they need, that’s where we see real change happen.”
To fund this approach, Lin supports increasing the JumpStart payroll tax on large businesses and adopting a new capital gains tax—positions that found “overwhelming support” during his campaign.
Lin hopes to chair either the Housing or Land Use committees—areas where his legal expertise directly aligns with his policy priorities. He sees the 2024 election results, both locally and nationally, as a mandate for Democrats to address affordability head-on.
“The big takeaway from the local and national elections is an emphasis on affordability and growing inequality,” he reflected. “What’s emerging is a new focus on housing, childcare, and healthcare affordability. People see the absurd concentration of wealth and power, and they’ve finally reached the point where they’re sick and tired of it.”
For District 2, this means protecting communities while accommodating necessary growth. It means ensuring that development doesn’t equal displacement, that cultural identity can coexist with density, and that the city’s most diverse district gets the representation it deserves at City Hall.
As Lin prepares to take office, he’s determined to ensure that the families, businesses, and communities of District 2 have a strong voice at City Hall and never have to question whether they belong in Seattle.
- Eddie Lin took office on December 2, 2025, replacing outgoing appointed councilmember Mark Solomon, who did not seek re-election for his term.
Evelyn is a writer and community organizer based on Coast Salish lands. Evelyn has 8 years of experience in government and currently works for King County. In their free time, Evelyn can be found singing karaoke and watching anime.
