On Christmas Eve the latest edition of Seattle Met magazine hit news stands. In it, in a feature called, “The 15 People Who Should Really Run This Town,” our efforts over the last year were called out. The story is ostensibly about me, but really it is about all of you who have supported our work over the last year. As I said in January, we were going to do what we could to make this year the one when increasing housing supply would take center stage. Have we done that? Here’s the text of the article:

Sixty-five percent of Seattle is zoned for single-family homes. But in advocating for mircohousing and small-lot development, Roger Valdez has challenged this sacrosanct notion. With Smart Growth Seattle, his lobbying group for developers–Seattle’s traditional bogeymen–he’s emerged as a leader in the conversation about city growth. And he isn’t afraid to call the discussion what it is–a battle. To Valdez, the obvious opponent is the Seattle City Council, whom he believes is “about to make a 100-year mistake.” The council’s emphasis on taxing and limiting new development, he says, will create a crisis as more and more people move here. He successfully lobbied to postpone legislation that would have reduced housing capacity in Capitol Hill and Ballard. And while he lost his fight for microhousing, including aPodments, his noisy testimony nearly convinced the mayor to veto the council’s restrictive bill. Just as important, but far more personal, Valdez aspires to change the antideveloper narrative. In five years he hopes “we can look back and say we finally got to a place where developers are not the target of abuse, ridicule and derision, but are seen as the builders of the future that they are.

Again, this isn’t about me, but the broader effort we’re all engaged in to make room for more people in our city. The new year will bring more work but more opportunities to make our case; and with effort, even some more wins.