The City Debates Public Power
Seattle officials initiate a formal investigation into the city owning its own electric light plant.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
Be it resolved by the board of aldermen and the house of delegates of the city of Seattle, in city council assembled, that a joint committee of the city council, consisting of three members of each house, be appointed to investigate the question of the best means of lighting the streets of the city. For that purpose, they shall take into consideration the advisability of the city's owning and controlling its own electric light plant, and report their conclusions to the city council as soon as practical, with recommendations and an estimate of the cost of a sufficient electric light plant to provide the streets with light by means of a public system.
“Investigate the question of the best means of lighting the streets of the city, and for that purpose to take into consideration the advisability of the city's owning and controlling its own electric light plant.”
This 1892 resolution marks the early municipal ambition that eventually birthed Seattle City Light. Today, Seattle remains one of the few major U.S. cities with a municipally-owned electric utility, a legacy of this era's belief in public infrastructure.
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