In State of the City Nickels Calls for Seattle to Become "Green Building Capital"

Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels gave his annual State of the City address this morning at the Pacific Science Center. According to the Seattle Times, Nickels highlighted the need for Seattle to lead the way in issues of sustainability, becoming America's "Green building capital".

In the 45-minute address, the mayor highlighted the city's history of innovation and said several times, "We will show the world how" to solve the challenges of climate change, transportation and affordable housing.

The P-I's report echoed that sentiment, and added Nickels' charge to improve constituent relations in the city.

"Despite all of Seattle's innovations, there is one place where the city government has not kept pace -- customer service," Nickels said in his speech. "... We must move from a culture of 'sorry, not my problem,' to one of rolling up our sleeves and fixing the problems."

The likening of voters to customers is very similar to Republican gubernatorial candidate Dino Rossi's goal to enact a "customer service-based government."

In the speech, the Seattle mayor also touched on efforts to reduce homelessness, improve transportation and reduce global warming in addition to the zoning laws panel he would establish to create the green building culture, and a 3-1-1 hotline for Seattle citizens to call with tips and complaints about city services.

Text of the speech can be found here.