– Public Internet is the fight of the future.

– Maybe it has something to do with the Memorial Day weekend or a rainy day after a long spell of nice weather, but there have been an outrageous number of serious traffic collisions in Seattle and around Washington State in the past day. Here’s just a sample:

– Shorter Commissioner Tom Mielke: We have to keep arresting people for marijuana related crimes because we don’t want additional policing. (h/t on the article)

– Mars Hill is such a problem (h/t)

– Solar Tax Quacks

– Here’s Some Real Talk: ‘If Gay Guys Said the Shit Straight People Say’

In the last week I was on the same bus as an old co-blogger from an earlier blog, I saw a writer of a blog I used to read back in the day and who was a Drinking Liberally regular at the Columbia City Farmer’s Market, and randomly bumped into another friend — who isn’t associated with politics or blogging — while out walking. That’s more than most weeks, sure, but it’s hardly uncommon. And I wonder what it is about Seattle (and me) that makes that sort of thing happen.

Part of it is simply that I’ve lived in the area for a long time so the number of people to accidentally run into is higher. But part of it is Seattle. I ran into those people on transit or on foot, and the city and county have invested a lot of money in those things. Of course, the primary reason for those investments is to get people around, but it’s a nice side effect to run into people you know.

I don’t really think of it as a suburban thing.* When I lived in suburbia (both growing up without a car and as an adult with one) there were a few places where you would see people. So at a coffee shop, a restaurant, a bar, or even the Post Office, you would run into a bunch of other people also there for the coffee shop, restaurant, bar or post office. But not as much out and about or commuting.

[Read more…]

– I’ve been asked a couple times to sign the $15 minimum wage initiative. So far I’ve declined, waiting for the process to play itself out. But if the process plays out badly (second piece) I’ll be glad to sign it.

– The Republican base had a choice to become more inclusive as the demographic tide advanced on them, or to double down on maximizing the racist white vote.

– These are possibly the NIMBYest NIMBY’s in all of NIMBYdom.

– Rainier Valley is Fueling Link Ridership Growth

– The Case for Reparations

– I’m pretty sure this XKCD What If got written for the hover text for the penultimate picture more than anything else, although the answer itself is fun enough.

Obviously, I’ve known intuitively after the Oregon ruling that the entire West Coast has marriage equality. But still, it’s really great seeing the map.

The linked post says there’s a lot to do, and of course that’s right. Also, marriage equality isn’t the end all be all of gay rights or of modern civil rights struggles. But as of this week, you can drive from Canada to Mexico in marriage equality states. While the Northeast, Midwest, and Arizona feel like islands of equality, the entire West Coast feels more substantive, even if it’s fewer states than the Northeast.

– Everyone seems to like Mayor Murray’s choice for police chief.

– Maybe guns in bars might not be such a good idea

– Hey bicyclists, be careful.

– Please jot this down and re-read it the next time you knee-jerkingly and douchily deny you are privileged. Thanks.

– Here are some names of parties that people used this year (Spokesman-Review link).

– Congrats Oregon and Pennsylvania on human dignity.

– I haven’t been watching Cosmos (I’ll probably catch it when it comes out on DVD because I am 1000 years old) but it’s always fun to watch creationists lose their shit.

– On Friday I had a breezy piece on the filing deadline. Joel Connelly has more info.

– Spitting, Stalking, Rape Threats: How Gun Extremists Target Women

– I’m excited about a possibility of a coal free state of Washington (Columbian link).

– You know the GOP are extreme on immigration when their leadership won’t even let the ENLIST Act come up for a vote.

– Rep. Matt Manweller’s plan to put a surcharge on one concert venue only to pay for medical bills seems maybe not as thought out as he would like.

– In Which I Cross All Limits To Acceptable Human Law

– Anyone enjoying museum week?

It snuck up on me this year, but it looks like if you had to file for office, in Washington, your chance is up. Here’s the list for Congressional, legislative, and court races.

Not much jumped out at me, but I will say as a history/civics nerd, kudos to Mike The Mover for running on the National Union Party line. Not enough to make me vote for him if I lived in the district, but well done nonetheless.

With the last few days so nice, a lot of people have decided to take their bike to work (yay!). And some of those people are riding on the otherwise bus only 3rd Avenue Downtown (boo?). Most of the time, as someone who bikes and takes buses in bike and bus lanes, I love that they exist, and can mostly coexist. Going from Downtown to Ballard in either mode is enhanced by lanes that bikes and buses can both use. And normally when someone complains about those damn bikes in the car lanes, the proper response is to complain about how poorly they must be driving if they can’t get around and to remind them that the roads are for everybody.

But 3rd Ave, at least during rush hour, isn’t for everybody. It’s to get buses as quickly through downtown as possible given how shitty the rest of Downtown is for traffic. If you slow down a car that was already inching along, or that could go around, it’s not as big of a deal as slowing down a bus in a corridor where that isn’t the case.

And look, I realize that 2nd and 4th are one way, and on a hill, so it can be problematic to ride a bike from one to the other to get going the right direction. And I’m certainly not advocating ticketing bicyclists like they ticket cars. It’s one of the few situations where I’m not sure it’s better to have bikes.

– I’m assuming we won’t see any opinion pieces from Senator Pearson complaining that people breaking the law to get their way on steelhead release are bullies. [h/t to Roger in the comments]

– Congrats to Idaho couples and activists.

– The Clackamas County Clerk is sure a decent person doing her job well, so stop saying that she isn’t.

– Recess Shrinks At Seattle Schools; Poor Schools Fare Worst

– Ramesh Ponnuru is one of the conservatives that the liberal intelligentsia loves to like. He isn’t a James Dobson bible-beater, nor is he a Louie Gohmert reactionary. He’s the kind of conservative who wears a suit, speaks in measured tones, and is still a liar.

– Here are some South Sound sports.

State Senator Kirk Pearson takes a strong stance against bullying. Is he opposed to people beating up kids because they’re gay? Maybe, but not in this article. Is he trying to figure out a way to make sure that schools and workplaces are free from harassment? No! He’s against bullying to the extent that it’s a metaphor for advocating a position he doesn’t like (Everett Herald link).

Most of us have to deal with bullying at some point in our lives. The key is to recognize the type of bullying you face and make sure that you don’t respond the way the bully wants. Most of all, you should never give in to intimidation or threats, lest you plan to hand your milk money over on a regular basis.

That’s how it is in movies and TV, but I’m not so sure it’s how it works best in real life. Maybe go to an authority figure? I don’t know, it probably depends on your specific situation. Anyway, OK, so that’s a setup. Now maybe we can smoothly transition away from that and talk about the thing he wants to talk about.

It’s a lesson the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife apparently has yet to learn. The agency claims its mission includes providing sustainable fish and wildlife recreational and commercial opportunities, yet it recently slashed fishing opportunities by cutting a deal with Wild Fish Conservancy — a bully threatening the state with lawsuits.

OK. So a group saying that they’ll sue if they don’t think the state is living up to its responsibility hardly sounds like a bully. More like fairly routine. Lawsuits and the threat of a lawsuit are part of the way these environmental protection laws are designed. You can disagree with it if you want (and for what it’s worth, I don’t have any opinion one way or the other), but it’s not really accurate to say that just because you disagree with it, that it’s bullying. Anyway, then for a while he talks about policy, and then more leaning on his shitty metaphor.

By giving in to bullying, DFW has created an unequitable and unacceptable situation for sport fishermen, tribes and our state’s economy as a whole.

Does Senator Pearson understand that actual people are actually the victim of actual bullying? Because I feel like he might choose a different metaphor if he did.

True, the federal court agreement will keep the bully at bay for the next 2 ½ years at most, preventing the Wild Fish Conservancy from suing DFW over its Puget Sound hatchery programs during that time. But like any bully, it is likely that the group will simply resume the pursuit of its agenda by threat and lawsuit once that window has closed. And what is to prevent others from seeing the success of this tactic and launching similar bullying strategies of their own?

Like any bully, if you hammer out an agreement with them in Federal court, they’ll be back. Look, I realize that not every metaphor works. Lord knows that.

– Yes, bikes can be bad drivers too.

– Looking forward to specially colored bus lanes.

– This is kind of old, but (a) thank goodness Musab Mohammad Masmari plead guilty, even if it wasn’t to a hate crime and (b) the history of the attacks on Neighbours was interesting and scary.

– The story is a welcome corrective to the bromide that “government should be run like a business”–as though business is some unassailable fortress of morality.

– What I love most about this story is the assumption that aliens would want to be baptized Catholic. I mean maybe, but it seems like they’ve got their own thing going on. Did they come to Earth just to get baptized? Do they not have their own belief systems?

– Get better soon, Kathleen Hanna

For legislative bodies, I’m of the opinion that individual legislators really ought to subsume their constituents’ needs to the need of the whole. So yeah, state legislators should advocate for the areas they represent, but they should do what’s best for the state when the two are in conflict. After all, they’re state legislators. And yes, I realize in practice it doesn’t work that way for most politicians. So I’m glad that Ed Murray has for the bulk of his career in government had a regional/statewide view of problem solving.

Still, now that he’s no longer a legislator, he should probably knock it off. I mean, finding regional solutions are great if they benefit Seattle. But if they don’t benefit Seattle, there’s really no point in him doing them.

So now that there’s a plan to save transit in Seattle, I hope that he can find more times when Seattle needs to, or it’s just Seattle’s best option to, go it alone. Sure it would have been in Seattle’s best interest to be better connected to the suburbs. And it would be better for the planet if the rest of King County used buses more. But the rest of the county’s rejection of buses means it’s in Seattle’s best interest not to tether ourselves to the rest of the county on transit.

Seattle is big enough and different enough politically from the rest of the state and the county that sometimes the best thing is to go it alone. I realize that might offend the mayor’s sensibilities. But he wanted to be Mayor and not Senate Minority Leader, so his job isn’t to form the best coalitions, it’s to lead one city.

– The funny looking building that I write too many posts about is turning 10 this week.

– Congrats Daddy Constantine.

– For all the chatter about the law’s unpopularity, the fact remains that Obamacare is not only more popular than the Republican repeal fantasy, it’s also more popular than Republicans.

– Glad to see crisis pregnancy centers having trouble with their deceptive advertising.

– When did appeals to realism become a trump card in pop culture criticism? And when did we agree that a certain kind of Internet commenter is the final arbiter of what is real and what is not? (has a blurred out, but maybe still NSFW picture)

– Revisiting public financing for local elections

– I join Seattlish in being proud of Mount Si High

– It is all too common for sports media to find themselves reporting on sexual assault cases, most often when an athlete is alleged to be the perpetrator of the crime. While sexual assault is a problem throughout U.S. society — nearly 20 percent of women will be assaulted in their lifetimes — it often seems to garner the most attention when a sports star is involved.

– I like the idea of tech companies being able to disclose NSA surveillance. Go Suzan DelBene.

– Congrats to Ron Sims on the new job chairing the Washington Health Benefit Exchange (Spokesman Review link).

– Portables are gross.

Now that SeaTac has and Seattle will likely have $15 minimum wages, we ought to look at what that means for the Port. Since the lawsuit is still underway in SeaTac, maybe there won’t be a gaping hole. But for now, it looks likely that jobs at SeaTac Airport and Port of Seattle facilities in Seattle won’t be covered by the minimum wage laws.

Presuming that the previous ruling gets upheld, I see a couple ways to protect the quality of those jobs. First the state could change the law to make it so that state sponsored port authorities have to apply all local minimum wage laws. I’m not a lawyer, and I haven’t read the lower court verdict, but I assume this could be done legislatively. That would be a bit of a stretch if the state Senate is still controlled by Republicans, but if it requires a constitutional amendment that’ll pretty much be off the table. So that means the Port, I guess. Elections are on odd numbered years, but pressure can be put on the members now (click on the individual pictures to email them).

Of course, the market will take care of some of this. Alaska Airlines have already raised their wages (not to $15) in response to the initiative in SeaTac.

Well, as prospective employees flocked to apply for $15-an-hour jobs, Alaska Airlines raised wages for its contract employees inside the airport to $12 an hour. Clearly, in order to attract and retain the best workers in the area, Alaska Airlines had to sweeten the pot, even saying the new wages “more accurately reflect the local market.” Some of the raises were as high as 28%, showing how a rising wage tide can lift all boats, rather than the right-wing idea that jobs can only be created when wages are depressed.

Still and all, if the two most important cities for the Port Of Seattle raise their minimum wage. The port ought to follow suit, at least in those cities, and preferably throughout their jurisdiction.