SEATTLE — Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan is days away from leaving office. She believes COVID-19 pandemic altered and will ultimately judge her term in office.
"My time as mayor has been defined by COVID-19," she said during a wide-ranging discussion in her office this week. "It is the hardest time our city has ever gone through."
She noted there was no guidebook - or guidance - at first from the federal government on how to handle the crisis which started in Seattle's backyard.
Durkan believes that time will show that Seattle, and her administration, handled it better than most, with lower rates of infection and hospitalization than most of America.
But it is hard to ignore that her term will also be defined by what the pandemic did to the homelessness crisis and how her office handled the social reckoning in the streets.
Durkan acknowledged that there is work to be done redefining public safety, and the perceptions of it.
"Without a sense of public trust, there is no legitimacy in a police department here or anywhere else," she said, admitting that with crowd management there is significant work to do.
But she also said, "public safety is at risk in the city."
Durkan said the city needs 1,400-1,600 officers on patrol. There are only about 1,000 deployable officers right now.
On the lighter side, Durkan will likely be credited in hindsight on closing the more than decade-long debate on a new sports and entertainment complex at Seattle Center. Within days of her administration, a deal was closed to build a new arena and she was considered the closer of a deal to bring an NHL team here.
"Having hockey here is great for the city, great for youth," she said. "And we're going to get the Sonics back."
"I'm very optimistic and I will disappointed if Bruce Harrell can't do it in his first term," she said with a smile. When pressed, Durkan said she believes it will happen within five years, but hopefully three.
She's planning on taking a few weeks off at the start of the year, before determining her next move.
She has no regrets.
"It's been an incredible honor. It's been hard. It's been challenging for me and my family," she said, adding, "When history is written, they will say Seattle has led the way and I'm honored I had that role."