Really, Ed? It’s not even worth talking about?
Murray said Thursday he let the group know that the city council is not prepared to rework a Memorandum of Understanding between the city, county and Hansen to build a Sodo arena for a hockey team ahead of an NBA franchise.
“They wanted to explore the possibility of opening the MOU so a hockey team would go first,” Murray said. “My read right now is that opening up the MOU is not something the council is interested in at this time.”
Why? Why on earth would we be unwilling to even consider reopening the MOU in the interest of bringing an NHL team to Seattle? I presume, because Murray just wants to kill the whole McGinn-branded SODO arena deal. You know, because.
Sorry, sports fans. If he can’t stamp his name on it, he’s not interested.
Since when did Murray speak for the City Council?
The Small Council exists but at the pleasure of the King.
Damn. I was really looking forward to building something ugly and then knocking it down before it was paid for.
I don’t see anything wrong with disliking Mike “the Bike” McGinn
One needs to get used to the slowly encroaching new reality at city-hall; with a mostly districted council the mayor becomes much more powerful. It wouldn’t take much of a controversial issue to make the mayor’s position the deciding one. That, and, of course, rich folks who expect to own their own pet council-person (for example, Faye Garneau (who funded the districting campaign) and, of course, Suzie Burke) It’s a new dynamic; and it will have some problems.
Is there money mixed up in this? Is Mayor Ed for or against spending taxpayer money on another White Elephant Sports Palace? Didn’t we hold a referendum on this arena, and didn’t 90% of Seattle voters say “no” to another hyper-expensive taxpayer-funded stadium? How many of these damn things do we have to build? As many as the Rich White Guys want? If the city can’t put a factory there, why not a parking lot? Downtown needs more parking spaces. It doesn’t need a snipe hunt for an NBA team. Last I heard, the NBA team everyone thought would go on the auction block now looks likely to be tied up in litigation until everyone involved (i.e., team owner, team owner’s etranged wife, team owner’s mistress and her other boyfriends including former and/or present black NBA players, NBA commissioner, other NBA team owners, hedge fund guy who wants to buy team, other Rich White Guys who want to buy team, mayor, city council, other cities coveting an NBA team, taxpayers, et al.) are all dead.
So the way this will work is (1) promoters will promise taxpayers won’t pay a dime, (2) the city, promoters, and team will get together and drop half a billion on a new sports palace, (3) in 10 years, after 10 straight losing seasons, the new team owner will sell the team for three times what he paid for it to someone who will move team to another city, (4) taxpayers will get stuck with the mortgage on a useless arena because of fine print in the contract that city officials signed with the promoter and team owner that the mayor and city council assured voters wasn’t in the contract, and (5) taxpayers will end up with (a) 10 straight losing seasons and (b) watching the arena get dynamited from lawn chairs on Capitol Hill. We all know how this script ends, because we’ve been there before. Once a fool, shame on thee; twice a fool, shame on us.
In which I agree @ 6 @ 7 with Roger Rabbit.
Swear to God a pig just flew right by my window.
@3. Please be the hideous down town public library and replace it with something that doesn’t repel book readers.
@ 9
Good one.
So which taxing authority are they going to exploit for this? Sales tax? Fast food tax? City-wide property tax? Or “sports facility improvement district” special levy?
Factoring in the usual cost overruns, for stuck drilling machines and such, Seattle’s next sports palace likely will cost at least 10 times as much as preschools or saving the bus service, and impose sufficiently onerous new taxation on the populace as to ensure the city will never again be able to get money from taxpayers for any other civic improvement, such as all the city’s still-unrepaired potholes.
The moneyed interests who run everything in this city have understandable, but fucked up, priorities namely lining their own pockets at taxpayers’ expense. And the way to do that, of course, is to neglect the things that taxes SHOULD pay for by diverting tax money to private interests.
@5, under the future mostly-districted city council, the mayor will have exactly the same power he has today. He’s the strong-mayor head of the executive branch of city government, and he signs and vetoes legislation passed by city council.
City council doesn’t gain or lose power under districts. It still takes five votes to pass anything, and six votes to overcome a mayoral veto.
@12 of course we knew there was nothing officially changed about the relative power structure. it’s all in the tricky under-the-table deals now, isn’t it? these were the reasons that they were made at large in the first place when the mayor played each district rep off the other. if you’re sitting in a rich district (for example) as opposed to the central district (for example) do you think you’ll be getting that extra-policing you want? it’ll be far more likely soon. it’s not over the number of votes it “still takes”, it’s the influence over those votes. it’s subtler matters like the north districts forming alliances against the south for projects.
if you like powerful mayors and allowing the rich more say in city government, then districting is just the thing for you. that’s why the rich folks bankrolled districting.
“If he can’t stamp his name on it, he’s not interested.”
Bingo!
Murray is a narcissistic prick (a trait he shares with the narcissistic prick who plays Travis Bickle in these threads).
Man a lot of people here hate to think about representatives being responsive to the needs of their constituents.
@16 The problem is they aren’t responsive to the needs of their constituents. They answer to the sugar daddies who bankroll their campaigns and nobody else.
Wow. Had Murray come out strongly against reworking the MOU during his campaign, even I would have voted for him. On any issue that actually mattered, he was basically identical to McGinn, except I didn’t think he’d make a good leader, so I held my nose for McGinn.
Good for Murray. Letting a multimillionaire rework the MOU so a less-profitable team can take residence in the arena, even as it’s increasingly looking like we won’t, not ever, get an NBA franchise is some fucked up bullshit. Maybe Hansen will have to suffer making a profit off his newly purchased land in some way other than selling it to taxpayers for two to three times its actual value.
@1, he doesn’t and people like Goldy are letting Tim Burgess off the hook.
Way to go, Goldy.
BTW, Goldy, making up reasons to be a dick to the wrong person isn’t very productive.
What does Tim Burgess have to say about the council?
Tim Burgess probably wasn’t invited to the meeting. Certainly wasn’t when McGinn, Dow, and Hansen hatched the plans.
http://www.king5.com/sports/NH.....26371.html
NHL Spokesman Frank Brown confirmed the meeting Tuesday, and said “Commissioner Bettman met with the Mayor while on the West Coast for playoff games. The purpose of the meeting was solely to obtain a status report on the new arena.”
Seattle City Council President Tim Burgess said he was not present for either of the gatherings. A spokesperson for Murray would only confirm that the meeting took place.