Editor’s note: The following interview was recorded on May 20, 2025. It has been edited for length and clarity. We want to thank Mattice Hoyt for setting up all these interviews and the candidates for taking the time to answer all her questions. This was the first time we really jumped into local elections in a big way and it ended up being more of a project than we had anticipated. Apologies for sharing these so late in the game. Click here to read the other interviews in this series.
Mattice Hoyt
District 5 and 4, I could never tell what line actually splits the two.
Zev Rose Cook
I think it’s always funny, because there’s that big welcome to the east side mural on McKinley, and that’s in District Five, even though the East Side is generally considered District Four.
Mattice
(Laughing) Maybe they did that on purpose. They wanted it to be like a blurred line, and that’s all right.
Zev
I think that, you know, City Council District lines aren’t always drawn with people’s broader conceptions of where neighborhoods are.
Mattice
Exactly.
What are five words you would use to describe your district?
Zev
Primarily, working class. The other things that define District Five is the lack of public transit.
Mattice
Oh for sure.
Zev
We do have also, you know, some really beautiful parks. Wapato Park is wonderful. The Blueberry Park is just a very, very special part of our city in general. Another thing is the tight community in District Five. We are one of the most diverse districts, in terms of having a very strong Black community and immigrant communities. There is lots of just life going on in District Five.
Mattice
Yes! I was telling someone how culturally diverse District Five is. I don’t think people think about that. I know quite a few people that have three generations in their household, with some people being first generation Americans. Which is really important to have in a community. It’s like, kind of having one foot in and one foot out.
Zev
And one of the benefits of it is that, you know, we’ve got the best food in Tacoma.
Mattice
Oh! Shots fired! (Both laughing)
Zev
I’m sorry, but you know, those fancy restaurants on Ruston Way, and the North End, and Sixth Ave? Kind of mid.
Mattice
Okay!
Zev
And a bit overpriced. If you want some really, really good food that’s actually affordable, District Five is where you’re gonna find it. Also, shout out to District Four.
Mattice
Oh we may have some alliances between districts happening! I love it. That’s gonna be the next series, where are the alliances (laughing). We already know that 1 and 2 are hand in hand, and District 3 is kind of just there.
Zev
I think District Three is where we see a lot of developmental dynamics that are going to be coming to Districts 4 and 5 in coming years, like rising rents and all. We were just talking about the cafes opening and how there’s now an economic base that can support two cafes directly next to each other.
Mattice
No, the shots are definitely being fired today.
So, what are the core values that will guide your decision-making if elected?
Zev
The importance of democracy, that’s where I put a huge, huge emphasis. So right now, anyone who pays any attention to local politics will see there is like, the absolute lack of transparency. We don’t really have council members coming out and taking open positions on important issues facing our community. Our rents are too high and we don’t have anyone coming out and saying, “here is what my position is, and here is how we come together as a community to push back on the issue.” I want to change that, not just in terms of the policies that I want to advance, but if we’re gonna have democracy, democracy means transparency.
Mattice
Hmmmm.
Zev
Like if you thought tenant protections are a bad idea, I disagree with you, but come out and actually make an argument for that.
Mattice
Right!? Like, I want to hear you, I want to hear your stance.
Mattice
Well, what is your stance on houselessness?
Zev
So, I spent a lot of time working in that field. And what I’d like to emphasize is that homelessness is a policy choice. It’s a result of economic policy, of housing policy. I think a lot of people want to relate it to a personal failing or drugs. But there are rich people out there who use lots of drugs, and you don’t see them out on the streets. Obviously this is a multifaceted issue, but people need different kinds of support, which we should absolutely take seriously. I think that needs to show up in how we address the issue and I’d start by talking about how our approach has failed so far. We passed the camping ban a couple years ago.
Mattice
Oh God, the camping ban.
Zev
Which was one of Joe Bushnell’s main policy wins over his last term. I think this approach has been a massive failure. And now we have spent hundreds and hundreds of dollars in just the past couple of years on boulders and renting fences. We don’t even own those fences, the city uses taxpayer dollars to rent them.
Mattice
Wow.
Zev
Then, every sweep we do, and we’ve done hundreds of them, it comes at a cost of like ten thousand to thirty thousand dollars. So it adds up immensely.
Mattice
Especially when you are doing it weekly.
Zev
Yeah. And the promise was that this will help get people out of camps and into shelter options and housing. But for people who worked in the field, like myself, we know the waitlist for housing was around two years long in 2022, and that hasn’t improved since then. So I don’t think we can have an approach that is serious about solving the issue when we are spending millions of dollars just to do enforcement work. And I believe there is a general split between those that want to actually work to solve this issue and those that just want this issue to happen somewhere else. We care about solving homelessness but, at the same time, we’re using resources to do sweeps, buying rocks, renting fences. It is not a serious approach.
Mattice
What is your stance on the police presence here in Tacoma?
Zev
I think Public Safety is a huge issue for our district, especially right now. I think that what’s on the top of a lot of people’s minds, in the South End and East Side, is the fact that we’ve lost three kids recently, very recently. I was just at a prayer walk at a local Middle School on the East Side and Antonio, who’s the director of the Eastside Community Center and a really important voice in our community, made a statement that was along the lines of kids have always had access to guns, but what they don’t consistently have access to is caring adults.
Mattice
Yes.
Zev
That is something that resonated with me. When we’re talking about these issues, like, are we gonna stop middle schoolers from dying from this kind of violence by giving the cops another 40 million dollars? Is that going to improve the safety for our kids in the community? No, I don’t think so. One of the things that we can do to really address this issue, which really would not cost a lot of money at all, is fund paraeducator and caseworker positions. Get people who are actually from this community, who the kids respect, and have been doing this work already without professional training and economic support. We open up positions where we provide the people who have been doing this work with more training and make sure that we can actually support our kids. That’s the kind of policy approach that would actually make our communities safer.
Mattice
Yep, absolutely.
Zev
Beyond that, what the city council often does is, like, oh, we have this new magic bullet solution that’s gonna put an end to crime in the community. We’re gonna spend millions of dollars on this new ShotSpotter technology. The research on ShotSpotter says the exact opposite. It’s terrible, it will make our communities less safe, especially when it comes to increasing violent interactions between TPD and the community. On top of this, we’ve also spent around three million dollars in the past four years to get four officers off the force.
Mattice
(sighs) Yeah.
Zev
Is that a good way to spend our money? What if we had stronger accountability measures in place that address these issues? How much safer could our community be if we spent all that money from ShotSpotter and the boulders on making sure kids had the support they need or giving people a sense of economic stability?
Mattice
How will you balance the needs of different people when making policy decisions?
Zev
I think it comes down to the fact that I’m very honest about putting forward a campaign for the working people of Tacoma. The approach at the city level is usually that we need to bring all the stakeholders to the table, right? And let’s just talk about housing, as an example. The rent is way too high, the cost of living is way too high. We need to have a discussion about this. Then you look at those stakeholder meetings, and it’s all landlords.
Mattice
(Laughs)
Zev
Our City Council doesn’t have a single renter on it. I may be the first one. And working people don’t have the time to take out of their day to come to these stakeholder meetings, where they know their voices aren’t gonna be listened to. What we really have right now is an approach that says we primarily listen to people [who are] the wealthiest members of our community, and I plan to be a voice for the working people of Tacoma. I’m gonna be out in the community. I’m not gonna stop knocking on doors until the election is done.
Mattice
But how will you work with people who have different viewpoints than you?
Zev
I am always here to have a conversation. One thing people say about me is, “Wow Zev, you’re everywhere.” (Laughing)
Mattice
I will attest to that, you are everywhere. (Laughing)
Zev
I’m not hard to find.
Mattice
Zev is not hiding from you if you have questions.
Zev
For sure, for sure. One thing that I will be doing is taking positions, clear positions, on important issues, and I will always be happy to have conversations about them. I’m not going to be a politician who just tells everyone what they want to hear and then you never know where they really stand on stuff. We have a diverse community that feels differently on a lot of issues.
Mattice
Oh for sure
Zev
(Laughing) I’m gonna disagree with constituents. But I’m gonna be open and honest about that.
Mattice
So at least the people know why the disagreement is there. And as a constituent, that is all I want. If I ask you a question I want you to stand on business, and if you don’t believe in this I want to know why. Your stance probably won’t change my mind, but at least I’ll see that you understood what the issue was. Sometimes I feel that if I don’t get a transparent answer they either didn’t read the issue or they didn’t understand it. Or maybe they didn’t understand it enough to actually make a choice on it.
Zev
Yeah, I mean, I think that’s one of the main issues with our current election system. A lot of people think that they shouldn’t take strong positions on things. They are afraid they will alienate some of the voters. But my take is that we should have people who have real opinions about things, and then we should have an election where people get to make real decisions about the kind of representation they want and the kind of program that those people are going to bring forward for our city.
Mattice
So I guess my last question is, what else would you want your constituents to know about you? Why would you be the better choice than the current council member for District Five?
Zev
You know, I am here to put forward a program, a working class program, to make sure that Tacoma is a city where people can afford to live where they work. I’m gonna be really, really open and honest about how we can get there, and the kind of changes that we need to make to get there. I think that we can build a city that has that future. We can make sure that we aren’t putting mega warehouses into historically Black and redlined communities that will increase rates of asthma and have terrible health impacts in our community.
We need policy that puts working people’s interest ahead of corporate interests. If you believe our local government should be to make life easier and more affordable for working people, that’s something that we align on. If you think our current government at the local level, and really every level, has done a terrible job of doing that, then that is something we align on. I am really looking forward to continuing to have these conversations with the community on how we can build together.
Mattice
Okay, and it sounds like you already told us that we’re going to be seeing you in the community even after you’re elected, not just before you get the votes. We’re still going to be seeing you knock on our doors.
Zev
Yeah. You know how people show up before they’ve announced an election campaign says a lot about how they’re going to show up after they get elected. Showing up in community only after you need something doesn’t count as showing up in community.
Mattice
Well, Zev, thank you so much! Good luck and congrats on all of the endorsements you already have. Thank you!
