Government and politics

Seattle is a charter city, with a Mayor-Council form of government, unlike many of its neighbors that use the Council-Manager form. Seattle's mayor and nine city council members are elected at large, rather than by geographic subdivisions. The only other elected offices are the city attorney and Municipal Court judges. All offices are non-partisan.

The city government provides more utilities than many cities – either by running the whole operation, such as the water, sewer, and electricity services, or by handling the billing and administration, but contracting out the rest of the operations such as trash and recycling collection. In most neighboring cities, for example, electricity is provided by either a private company such as Puget Sound Energy, a county public utility district, or by the City of Seattle. See the Utilities section for more details.

As with most U.S. cities, the county judicial system handles felony crimes — the Seattle Municipal Court deals with parking tickets, traffic infractions, and misdemeanors. Seattle does not have its own jail, contracting out inmates it convicts to either the King County Jail (which is located downtown), the Yakima County Jail, or (for short-term holdings) the Renton City Jail. In 2004, there were only twenty-four murders in Seattle, the fewest since 1965. Violent crime has declined by nearly 42 percent since 1994, to a rate of approximately seven per 1,000 people. Auto theft has increased about 44 percent in the same period; the Seattle Police Department has responded by nearly doubling the number of auto theft detail detectives, and is starting a "bait car" program. A Money magazine table, using 2001 statistics, ranked Seattle 18th highest in crime rate in the U.S., with 80.5 crimes per 1,000 citizens.

Seattle's politics have leaned to the left in the last few decades compared to the United States as a whole, although there is a small libertarian movement within the metro area. Only two precincts in Seattle—one located in the famously exclusive Broadmoor community, and one encompassing condos within neighboring Madison Park—voted for Republican George W. Bush in the 2004 presidential election. Bush won the Broadmoor precinct by a moderate margin, although much smaller than in the 2000 presidential election. Madison Park was very close, also much closer than in 2000. The remaining precincts carried by Bush in 2000 all went for Kerry in 2004. In partisan elections, such as for the Washington State Legislature and United States Congress, most elections are won by Democrats, with Greens getting more votes than in many other cities. Seattle dominates Washington's 7th congressional district, in which Representative Jim McDermott, one of Congress' most liberal members, routinely wins by a large margin.

Official nickname, flower, slogan, and song

In 1981, Seattle held a contest to come up with a new official nickname to replace "the Queen City." "Queen City" had been devised by real estate promoters and used since 1869, but was also the nickname of: Cincinnati; Denver; Regina, Saskatchewan; Buffalo; Bangor, Maine; Helena, Montana; Burlington, Vermont and Charlotte, North Carolina. The winner of this contest, selected in 1982, was "the Emerald City". Submitted by Californian Sarah Sterling-Franklin, it referred to the lush surroundings of Seattle that were the result of frequent rain. Seattle has also been known in the past as "the Jet City"—though this nickname, related to Boeing, was entirely unofficial. (This nickname is the origin of the title of the song "Jet City Woman" by Seattle progressive metal band Queensrÿche). Rat City, a nickname originally earned by the White Center area, is also occasionally used by locals. Another popular nickname that was given to the city by many of it's punk rock inhabitants is "Rain City" - this name pretty much speaks for itself.

Seattle's official flower has been the dahlia since 1913. Its official song has been "Seattle the Peerless City" since 1909. In 1942, its official slogan was "The City of Flowers"; 48 years later, in 1990, it was "The City of Goodwill", for the Goodwill Games held that year in Seattle. On October 20, 2006, the Space Needle was adorned with the new slogan "Metronatural." The slogan is a result of a 16-month, $200,000 effort by the Seattle Convention and Visitor's Bureau. [11] The official bird of Seattle is the Great Blue Heron, named by the City Council in 2003.

Seattle mayors of note

• Bertha Knight Landes, mayor from 1926 to 1928. She was the first woman mayor of a major American city.

• Bailey Gatzert was mayor from 1875 to 1876. He was the first Jewish mayor of Seattle, and narrowly missed being the first Jewish mayor of a major American city (Moses Bloom became mayor of Iowa City, Iowa in 1873). He has been the only Jewish mayor of Seattle to date.

• Arthur B. Langlie, 1938-1941, three term Governor of Washington (1941-45, 1949-57).

• Robert Moran mayor from 1888 to 1909, was instrumental in the rebuilding after the great fire of 1889. A successful shipbuilder, most famous for the Battleship Nebraska built in Seattle between 1902 and 1907, Moran eventually donated what became Moran State Park, over 5000 acres, including Mt. Constitution on Orcas Island.

Sister cities

Seattle is internationally partnered with a number of sister cities to promote global cooperation, cultural exchange and economic collaboration. See List of Seattle sister cities for a complete list.