by Carl Ballard — ,
– The most surprising thing about this poll is that 32% of Seattle voters think McGinn did a good job handling the police department. Who?
– Erica C. Barnett has a not good for McGinn take on the poll.
– Vermont is the 4th state with a Death with Dignity law.
– It feels like we’re overpaying our college sportsball coaches.
– Virginia is for haters.
by Carl Ballard — ,
If you want to help out Oklahoma, here are some things:
– People on Twitter are saying if you text “REDCROSS” to 90999 it’s a $10 donation.
– If you’re looking for someone in the region, you can see who has registered as safe and well.
– Much of this came from the White House page.
If you have any other resources, feel free to leave them in the comments.
by Carl Ballard — ,
– Christians aren’t being persecuted, as you can see from this map.
– The fare system for Rapid Ride E doesn’t seem very rapid.
– Who do you really serve? The country, or the liars in your BlackBerries?
– Goldy decides not to challenge Richard Conlin.
– Hannah Hart came to Seattle
by Carl Ballard — ,
N in Seattle already mentioned it, but, this is a surprise.
From his botched announcement last November to this abrupt end, Burgess’s campaign never caught the tailwind many expected. He was considered a leading challenger last year—a sort of mayor in waiting, after Mayor McGinn’s two years of floundering—but McGinn seems to have found sea legs at City Hall, and a pack of heavyweight contenders crowded into the race in January and February. In particular, state senator Ed Murray and to a lesser extent Council Member Bruce Harrell have emerged in the race as safe bets for institutional backers that represent downtown business, and, unlike Burgess, can’t be portrayed as conservative outliers (Burgess infamously sponsored a controversial aggressive panhandling bill that failed in 2010).
Burgess has also been unraveling this week.
After the news that the 36th District—Burgess’s home district—would split its endorsement between him and Murray, yesterday came the news from PubliCola that Burgess fired his spokesman. And then the 46th District Democrats, who represent the relatively wealthy, white district of northeast Seattle that seems like Burgess’s base, didn’t endorse him at all. Also the city council’s biggest advocate to bring back the Sonics, Burgess took a blow when the NBA nixed the deal Wednesday.
At the beginning, I’d thought he’d make it through the primary, so that’s obviously yet another Carl Ballard prediction wrong. It also means I won’t have a chance to do a metacommentary on this old Seattle Times op-ed he wrote before he was elected to City Council. And his dropping out this late means we won’t have to deal with some Republicans.
by Carl Ballard — ,
I love these activists almost as much as I hate Tacoma’s response.
One morning, they were just there: Crosswalks and a short bike lane in a Tacoma business district to help people get across a dangerous street.
Business owners loved it.
But the city recently spent $1,000 to grind away the illegal crosswalk paint, leaving one business owner to ask King 5, “How much is paint versus having this grinding machine…?”
I mean if the community liked it, you should consider leaving it. I assume there are legal concerns about treating something that isn’t a crosswalk according to the law like it’s a crosswalk. Still, it seems like they could just change the fake crosswalk into a real crosswalk with some legislation.
by Carl Ballard — ,
In an interview with Publicola, even with Josh Feit softballing it, Rodney Tom decides to act like an asshole. When asked why he’s endorsing someone who would undo the progress made on civil rights for gay people, he decides to attack Seattle.
I think that there is a lot of talk of that. The politics over there get a little weird. If we’re measuring any of their politicians from a Seattle basis, they think Seattle’s crazy, and Seattle’s probably going to think they’re crazy. But overall, she’s an intelligent legislator that I think can serve her community well. I think she’s an intelligent lady that can work her way through some very complicated issues that we need more of in Olympia.
I’ll defend Seattle any day of the week and twice on Sunday, but that’s pretty fucked up. Oh those awful Seattle folks with thinking gay people deserve not to be discriminated against and that workers deserve basic rights. Crazy.
Also, it doesn’t really paint a picture that Rodney Tom respects Eastern Washington either. “Vote for Sharon Brown, you crazies” is maybe not as great a slogan as he thinks it is.
Anyway, later Josh asks him why he didn’t support the DREAM Act on the floor of the Senate if he supports it in theory (the aside is Josh’s):
Sen. Tom: I don’t know. If 25 and 50 are the magic thing to get anything past out of both the house and the senate, that’s a very different element in the way this place has been run. There’s a ton of votes over in the house that I can get 50 votes for that never see the light of day. If that’s going to be the measuring stick, let’s use it for both the house and the senate. [PubliCola, has, in fact, pointed out this Democratic double standard before.]
PubliCola: Can you give an example?
Sen. Tom: A lot of the workers’ comp type issues. A lot of labor issues. Pension issues. There’s a lot of business-centric Democrats like myself over in the house that would be voting for these things that don’t stick in labor states—you know, they don’t love it—but our business communities and small businesses in particular need some of these reforms.
If you wanted to have a say in how the House does business, you probably shouldn’t have left that body. Also, the difference is that the Speaker HASN’T SAID HE SUPPORTS GUTTING WORKERS COMP. The House Speaker killing a bill he doesn’t like is not analogous to the Senate Majority Leader killing a bill he says he is for.
See, that’s why the analogy doesn’t work. If Chopp was trying to convince people he really wanted to gut worker’s comp, then that would make sense to make that comparison. But the leader isn’t going to have a vote on gutting workers comp because he doesn’t want it to pass. In fact, the only way the analogy works is if Rodney Toms critics are right and he doesn’t want the DREAM act to pass. So, we’re all on the same page then.
by Carl Ballard — ,
– The mechanics of getting death penalty drugs to states that use them is both fascinating and disgusting (h/t).
– I would hope Pam Roach’s plan to make it easier to recall elected officials would include abusing staff.
by Carl Ballard — ,
I’m writing to urge you to adopt rules federally banning states, cities, and other municipalities from paying for sports arenas for professional teams. Or better, prohibit teams in leagues with over some amount of assets to play in municipally built stadiums. Model it after Seattle’s initiative, so municipalities have to be able to make money off the deal or no deal.
With the NBA telling the Kings they can’t relocate, part of the underlying reasoning they’re staying in a smaller media market with a worse offer is that town is willing to shill out an obscene amount of money to build an arena. The amount that cities are willing to bilk their taxpayers is a large part of the reason the Kings aren’t coming to Seattle. So, while it would probably be too late to get the Sonics back this time, this would better lay the groundwork for future.
It would also be fundamentally more decent. After all, these sort of deals are out of control, and most cities with sports teams are on the bad end of these types of deals, having to take much of the risk with any financial gain going to the teams. The teams rely on taxpayers to make themselves a profit.
It’s the sort of problem that, really, can only be solved at the national level. After all, as long as different cities in different states are competing for these things, the threat of leaving is going to be too great. These leagues that span the country are the sort of interstate commerce that Congress should be regulating. I don’t know if it could get through the dysfunctional Congress, but it’s worth a try.
And would this be punishment for the NBA for leaving in the way that it did, and then voting not to let us get another team? And to a lesser extent to MLB and the NFL for foisting bad stadium deals on is in the first place? Sure. But it’s still a better idea than having municipalities fight over teams with taxpayer stadiums.
Hugs and kisses
Carl Ballard
horsesass.org
by Carl Ballard — ,
There was a hearing last night at King County. I wasn’t there, but any time you can get hundreds of people into a government meeting on a lovely day, you know it’s an important issue.
It was standing room only Tuesday at a public hearing on the future of Metro. The transit service is facing budget cuts that will seriously affect riders.
Ultimately, King County is going to need the authority to tax itself on a more permanent basis. And that’s where we need to make sure to contact our legislators. You can find your legislators here. As always be polite but firm that you want them to let Metro keep funding itself.
by Carl Ballard — ,
– It’s filing week, everybody.
– Is anyone following the British Columbia elections? Joel is disappointed that they aren’t talking about marijuana.
– If you want to tell Metro to save Metro, here’s where to do that.
– Macklemore is not happy with the Thunder using Can’t Hold Us (h/t to Will on Facebook). I’m confused as to if NBC didn’t understand that Detlef Schrempf’s tweet contained a pun, or why else they put the [sic].
– Y’all are reading about Tom Hardy and a puppy, I hope.
– In yesterday’s Open Thread, I said Thomas Friedman was beyond satire. I stand corrected.
by Carl Ballard — ,
– I love Seattle’s dedication to fair play. But maybe we give less time to Sacramento media on Hansen.
– The free market isn’t always the best way to make health care decisions.
– At least it’s a bit more transparent now.
– Bicyclists are helpful to bicyclists.
– This piece on swear words was interesting.
– Congrats to Thomas Friedman on being beyond satire.
by Carl Ballard — ,
Dominic Holden has a pretty amazing piece about the fact that The Seattle Times is charging its employees to use the Seattle Times online archive.
As a reporter, I frequently have to search our website’s online archives for linking, providing context, or developing backfill on articles. It didn’t seem possible that a newspaper would actually charge its reporters for an essential function of their jobs. That would be like installing payphones on everyone’s desk and pocketing the money.
At first, when I read that last sentence, I thought don’t give them any ideas. Giving Frank Blethen ways to screw his employees over is like giving Frank Blethen a gun and a puppy: nothing good can come out of it, yet Frank Blethen will be full of smiles. But then I thought fuck it, and came up with a list of other ways he can screw his employees:
by Carl Ballard — ,
I didn’t know about it until a little while ago, but this seems like a great thing if it might be helpful for you.
Many women have never considered career options such as welding, electricity or carpentry, but these opportunities are available, and even more so as baby boomer workers are nearing retirement. Who WILL keep our lights on, our bridges safe, our water running and our roads paved? These are jobs that cannot be outsourced.
As the oldest women’s trade organization in the Puget Sound, it is WWIT’s job to educate and inspire our youth, as well as steer work-ready women toward these high paying, mentally challenging, and self-empowering careers in the trades.
by Carl Ballard — ,
The other day I was riding the Link Light Rail, and at Columbia City. The doors started to close and then re-opened with the train not going anywhere. Then it happened again. And again. And again. I didn’t see anything wrong, and assumed it was someone holding the door, or something else happening in another car.
But then the person in the seat next next to mine got up, and grabbed a plastic bottle, and said that it had been blocking the way. And with that the doors closed, and the train got on its way. All told, probably less than a minute, but given the way Seattle can be, who knows how long it would have been if he hadn’t done something.
So this post is mostly just thanks to whoever it was who picked it up.
by Carl Ballard — ,
– I’m still opposed to spending money beyond bonding capacity on a stadium, but now I hope some hiccup means Sacramento doesn’t get to keep their team just out of spite.
– Councilwoman Godden writes a fairly mild piece saying we should work on fixing the fact that Seattle is the worst big city for pay inequality, the comments are unhelpful.
– We’re still pretending Benghazi is some uniquely awful thing.
– I hope the Colbert Busch loss doesn’t mean Democrats write off the deep South.
– The Lake Forest Park farmers market opens on Mother’s Day.
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