The CAP Report
a menu of strategic policies and programs created for the City of Seattle
The CAP Report was originally published 2017. It has been taught as part of the Planning curriculum at several universities. It has been copied by other municipalities and inspired changes in the International Building Code. Of its 30 ideas, nearly half have been implemented by the City of Seattle, and others have given rise to work in cities from Portland, Oregon to Tampa, Florida.
The report presents 30 strategic policies and programs to support the retention of cultural vitality in a quickly growing city. From wonky in-the-weeds code changes to public-facing recognitions of the importance of cultural spaces, these ideas quickly moved forward through both political and administrative action.
Delivering Strategies
The ideas in the CAP report were generated through many months of deep community stakeholder engagement. Once the report was published, moving the policies forward was relatively simple, since so many folks could see themselves reflected in the recommendations. Community members, City Council members, City planning staff, artists, organizers, property owners and property developers all saw their ideas and their priorities in the report.
While working at the City of Seattle I engaged and collaborated with Framework as the consultant team that developed the CAP Report. I led the development of the 30 strategies and the editing of the report, and on the strategic implementation of many of the policy proposals.