With all but the toughest census work done, we’ll soon start the process of redistricting. And I’d like to make a small suggestion when we start to redistrict here in Washington: For goodness sake, name the districts, don’t number them.

Watching the British elections recently, I was struck at how you can get a sense of where the constituencies are just based on names like Wimbledon, Exeter, or Belfast East. Names get right to the point and are clearer than numbers. In fact, when the newspapers do use the number of state or federal districts here, they are so unhelpful that they often times have to add a location anyway. (Occasionally with misleading results. When reading about my old district, I sometimes hear that Ruth Kagi represents Shoreline, Darlene Fairley represents Lake Forest Park, and Maralyn Chase represents Edmonds despite the fact that they represent the same district.)

Naming the districts would be easy enough to do here. Instead of discussing the 32nd District that has no inherent meaning, why not a name like North King County and Edmonds? Jim McDermott would represent Seattle and Vashon, not the number 7.

I understand that the boundaries of the districts will matter more over the next decade than their names, but naming the districts just makes more sense than the current system.

For some time now, Goldy and I have been harping on how The Seattle Times, especially their ed board, is out of step with Seattle. Their endorsements don’t sway people and they don’t feel the same way as most city dwellers on many issues. They represent a conservative, old guard elite that simply doesn’t have the truck that it once did in Seattle. But perhaps we’ve been wrong.

So stay with me a little bit. The Seattle Times certainly disagrees with city residents on taxes, sure. While city residents understand that things cost money, and are generally willing to pay for them (roads and stadiums aside), The Seattle Times seems to think any tax increase for any reason is always bad. And they want more roads. And for Seattle to pay for those roads, even state roads that Seattle is at best ambivalent about.

And even when they say they want something lefty like health care, they change their mind when that lefty thing might actually pass.

And on candidates, oh my. The Seattle Times thinks all candidates for all offices should abide by the above crazy. So they often pick candidates very different from who Seattle picks.

But it isn’t just politically: the ed board is (aside from Ryan Blethen) quite old in a youthful city. How many columns and posts by Bruce Ramsey mention something Carter did that he didn’t like, as if it relates to the experience of most people in Seattle today? They have an attitude of respect for conservative institutions, giving the likes of Bruce Chapman a fair hearing while the typical Seattle resident doesn’t care that you were in the Reagan administration. The adoration of bland institutions is downright strange. They’ve written multiple anti Google rants in a tech friendly city. Finally, they’ve, mostly (all?) people who grew up here despite the large number of people who’ve come here more recently either from other countries or other parts of America.

So the point is, Goldy, The Seattle Times was here long before the current iteration of Seattle politically and culturally. But The Seattle Times isn’t out of step with Seattle: if anything, Seattle is out of step with The Seattle Times.

I know I’m the last person who the Seattle Times would want to consult on how to save their dying paper. But despite myself, I feel a certain affinity for newspapers. I still read the dead tree version of New York Times, and although I make fun of the Seattle Times stupid ed page, I’m glad they’re around.

While I often have real problems with their editorial stance, and I don’t understand why they still have stale columns from national writers, I do think they are an important piece of what gets reported in Western Washington. So let’s start there. The Seattle Times shouldn’t run syndicated columns who we’ve seen the day before in their own paper, and who we can read for free online. I don’t know that it saves them much money, but it makes them more of a local paper.

So what to replace those columns with? Some days, I say dissenting opinions. Especially on candidate endorsements where Ryan Blethen says it’s important to have a conversation, there should be editorials in favor of each candidate (and let us know who wrote what). There would still be an endorsement, but the Times would acknowledge that there’s another side.

But mostly, just use the freed up newspaper space for more, you know, news. I’d say don’t run any opinion some days. Nobody cares what the paper thinks on any given issue except for people who already had an opinion about that issue, and nobody under 60 cares what Bruce Ramsey or Joni Balter think about anything. Make a couple days a week opinion free days, and give the space now for Ed and Op-Ed to in-depth reports on upcoming races, or investigative pieces, or important issues. Imagine picking up the Times in the 5 weeks leading up to an election and reading great pieces on each city council race. Imagine a full 2 pages given to an important issue. Imagine knowing every Saturday that there will be a well researched, well edited, well written long form piece instead of another vapid editorial.

And speaking of well written, give your writers license to write. The staid, boring style of reporting is often not worth reading. Of course as a fowl mouthed blogger that partly means swearing when it’s relevant: sometimes people say “Shit” in congressional hearings. And they say “Fuck” on the Gotti tapes. They don’t say “S***” or “F***” and when I read that sort of nonsense in their pages, or too clever by half word play that makes me have no idea what was said, it makes me not care if the Times goes under: while I know they’ll never swear as much as me, not having blanket censorship makes it a better read.

Because more than anything, I want a good read. I want to smile at a turn of phrase in the news coverage. I want to be wowed by the transition between ideas in the opinion pieces, and I want passion in the sports section.

But really, I’d settle for not complete shit in the sports section. I seriously can’t think off the top of my head of any Seattle Times sports writers. As much as I wonder if Art Thiel is fucking insane when I read him, or assume George Vecsey is writing with a quill pen when I read him, he’s so old fashioned, they are fun to read.

So those are my suggestions that I know will never actually be implemented. They’d make the paper more fun to read, and maybe save it in the end.

As in the last fundraiser, this post isn’t pre-approved by Goldy. I’m proud to write here, and I’m proud to give money every fundraiser (and last year when he said there would be a fundraiser that never materialized). It isn’t the only blog I’ve donated money to, but it’s by far the one I’ve donated the most to. Here’s why:

Even with my poor contribution bringing the quality down, HA is one of the best written blogs around. It’s fearless, fun, wonkish and whimsical. Sometimes all in the same day. Sometimes all in the same post. That’s a lot of work for just about every non open thread post, and there’s work keeping up the quality of the blog over several years. We’ve seen plenty of bloggers on the left and on the right bow out in the years that Goldy has been writing here. I value good writing, and contribute accordingly.

And while it’s true that there is good writing elsewhere on the web, another thing I value about HA is the impact it has here in Washington and in the Seattle/King County area. From Brownie to scaring the AG’s office and the proposed Chihuly museum, Goldy has been moving the narrative nationally — but mostly locally — for years. Sometimes he wins and sometimes he doesn’t. This blog has helped push the dialogue and frame the issues better than most elected officials and pundits in the area.

And having seen only a fraction of the work involved, I know that doesn’t come easily. As a poster here, I’ve been privy to various conversations and email exchanges about how to improve the site. And the back end is a lot of work: Despite being one of the least policed comment threads among blogs, just adhering to the minimum standards takes a good deal of work. There’s a whole host of coding and back end work that you (hopefully) never see, but that keep the blog running well.

Finally, we need an alternative to the mainstream media in general. There are things that the Seattle Times does well, including investigative reporting and, um, being on paper. But their editorials are biased toward the powerful, their print edition is tiny, and their online presence is a joke. The rest of the daily papers and TV news in the state are generally worse. While Goldy and the rest of the crew here do a pretty good job holding the Times’ feet to the fire, the best is when we cover stories where the Times and others drop the ball.

This kind of new media, even done right, may not be as expensive as the old was to create, but it’s by no means free. So please join me in giving to Goldy and keeping HA running.

Goldy has already had a few posts about the immigration rally, and there is other good information elsewhere. But at these sort of things, I always like to see what people are writing on their signs. So here’s the text of some of the signs.

First, a quick note: This isn’t meant to be comprehensive, and sometimes there were more than one sign that said similar things, so I only included one. I tended toward handwritten signs, but some of these were mass produced. Also, some things work fine as signs, but are tough to put onto a blog post. Most signs were in all caps, but to make it easier to read here, I’ve added capitalization and sometimes punctuation to try to stay faithful to the message.

– Immigrant rights are human rights
– I’m related to immigrants and I VOTE
– United we dream
– Skagit Immigrant Rights Council
– Immigration Reform Now
– We are one America
– Mr. President where’s the love? Immigration Reform Now
– We pay taxes. Soc. Sec for years. Where are our benefits?
– You must befriend and be in solidarity with the immigrants. For you were once Immigrants. Deuteronomy 10:19 El Camino De Emaus Lutheran Church
– You shall not mistreat or oppress the immigrants for you were once immigrants. Exodus 22:21 El Camino De Emaus Lutheran Church
– We need immigration reform now
– Let Washington State lead the way on immigration reform
– $1.5 Trillion to the U.S. Economy
– Rep Doc Hastings support our rural communities sponsor immigration reform
– We are not criminals
– College students fighting for equality and opportunity
– Act now
– The time is now
– Microsoft engineers 4 immigration reform
– This is part of our country. We need freedom. No more deportations
– One America, justice for all

Easter, 1916
by William Butler Yeats

I

I have met them at close of day
Coming with vivid faces
From counter or desk among grey
Eighteenth-century houses.
I have passed with a nod of the head
Or polite meaningless words,
Or have lingered awhile and said
Polite meaningless words,
And thought before I had done
Of a mocking tale or a gibe
To please a companion
Around the fire at the club,
Being certain that they and I
But lived where motley is worn:
All changed, changed utterly:
A terrible beauty is born.

II

That woman’s days were spent
In ignorant good-will,
Her nights in argument
Until her voice grew shrill.
What voice more sweet than hers
When, young and beautiful,
She rode to harriers?
This man had kept a school
And rode our winged horse;
This other his helper and friend
Was coming into his force;
He might have won fame in the end,
So sensitive his nature seemed,
So daring and sweet his thought.
This other man I had dreamed
A drunken, vainglorious lout.
He had done most bitter wrong
To some who are near my heart,
Yet I number him in the song;
He, too, has resigned his part
In the casual comedy;
He, too, has been changed in his turn,
Transformed utterly:
A terribly beauty is born.

III

Hearts with one purpose alone
Through summer and winter seem
Enchanted to a stone
To trouble the living stream.
The horse that comes from the road,
The rider, the birds that range
From cloud to tumbling cloud,
Minute by minute they change;
A shadow of cloud on the stream
Changes minute by minute;
A horse-hoof slides on the brim,
And a horse plashed within it;
The long-legged moor-hens dive,
And hens to moor-cocks call;
Minute by minute they live:
The stone’s in the midst of all.

IV

Too long a sacrifice
Can make a stone of the heart.
O when may it suffice?
That is Heaven’s part, our part
To murmur name upon name,
As a mother names her child
When sleep at last has come
On limbs that had run wild.
What is it but nightfall?
No, no, not night but death;
Was it needless death after all?
For England may keep faith
For all that is done and said.
We know their dream; enough
To know they dreamed and are dead;
And what if excess of love
Bewildered them till they died?
I write it out in a verse –
MacDonagh and MacBride
And Connolly and Pearse
Now and in time to be,
Wherever green is worn,
Are changed, changed utterly:
A terrible beauty is born.

Tim Burgess is pushing a measure to outlaw panhandling near ATM’s, or parking meters. One of the reasons he says that people from the rest of the city and elsewhere are afraid to come downtown. “The visitors do not feel comfortable walking from their hotels, to the market, or catching the bus without being approached by many different panhandlers and street people along their route.” That may be, but I doubt that people asking for change near parking meters (aka, everywhere downtown) is really among the top concerns of downtown residents.

In the couple years I’ve lived downtown, I’ve seen countless things worse than yellie beggars who are pretty much anywhere on the street. And while much of it is already illegal, I think the city should probably deal with open drug dealing, and use, prostitution, late night noise, and drunks spilling out of clubs yelling “Wooooooooooooooooo” and getting into fights from before midnight to well past closing time on a Friday or Saturday night. (Just to be clear, I love living downtown, but there are problems.) Talking to other Belltown residents about the proposed law, the reaction has usually been somewhere between “it’s a war on homelessness” to “I guess it’s worth trying.” Personally, I’m against it, but not terribly so, but I haven’t heard anyone say that dealing with beggars is a high priority.

So while I applaud Burgess for at least trying, I still don’t feel represented on the council. I know, I know everybody represents me, and if I want something done, let someone on the relevant committee know. But I’m relatively well informed, and I have no idea who sits on what committee, or who among all of my supposed representatives on the city council would be receptive to downtown issues. I’d really prefer to have my council member, rather than having to guess who might be the most helpful when none of them seem to be.

There’s something about old media trying to do new media. Sometimes it works wonderfully, but usually it comes off as an editor heard about one of those “blogs” or “twitters” and asked the tech guy to set one up. The Seattle Times’ Ed Page blog falls into the later category. Infrequently updated, clearly not edited, and as biased toward the status quo as anything in print, the Ed cetera blog manages to combine the worst parts of blogs and newspapers in one convenient package.

They have a weekly feature, Civil Disagreements, where Lynne Varner representing as far left as the Times allows and Bruce Ramsey representing curmudgeonly libertarian basically agree on an issue and argue about the details. This week’s issue is the debt. Varner comes out strong saying yay for a toothless commission, I hope it recommends working the elderly to death:

The panel is expected to come up with a deficit reduction plan by Dec. 1. But the part of this commission’s charge I like best is their promise to recalibrate American expectations around money and social benefits. For example, one suggestion is to raise the age people can collect Social Security and slow the growth of those benefits. Another is raising taxes on a larger portion of the populace, those making under $200,000. It will be interesting to see what this group comes up with.

Work harder grandma! And tax increases targeted to lower income people. (I think that’s what she’s getting at, but “those making under $200,000” is a strange construction, I assume she means everyone making under $200,000.) You know liberalism. I’d prefer a 50% top marginal rate, but start it at incomes above $30 Million. These are made up numbers, of course, but something out of the range of normal Americans, or even their crazy expectations.

Shockingly Bruce Ramsey is less wrong. After pointing out that the toothless commission would probably be toothless, he says that it’s important to cut the deficit the right way. Although, it’s not a great solution either.

As for the ideas menationed [sic]: sure, some of them make sense. I’m a small-government guy, so I like spending cuts lots more than tax increases. If we keep the present Social Security system, it has to be balanced. And the best ways to do that are to allow the tax cap to rise faster and make the benefits formula less generous over time. I am not so high on raising the retirement age. It might work for desk jockeys like you and me, but blue collar workers are done by 67, and many of them well before that. You can’t expect an ironworker, a sheet metal worker, a pipefitter, etc, to work to age 70 in order to get full benefits. Anyway, if we’re going to cut payments from the government, let’s cut them to people who don’t work, not to people who worked a lifetime.

I’m not sure what exactly “it has to be balanced” means; Social Security is the largest part of the budget that isn’t swimming in red ink, it seems strange to focus on it. There is also no mention from either of them, why the deficit is more important than, say, job creation, or even desirable in a recession. Of course neither of them say if we want to balance the budget, we’re going to need to tax the people with the most money, shrink the military significantly (yes including Boeing’s contracts) and take concrete steps to grow the economy that probably include government spending in the short term.

If Evan Bayh had died, I guess I could understand this piece in the Seattle Times (and similar pieces throughout the print media and cable). But this seems pretty overwrought for someone who is going to retire to a nice corporate gig, and then maybe run for president in 6 years.

Democrat Bayh has politics in his bones. He was 6 when his father, Birch Bayh, was first elected to the Senate from Indiana. The younger Bayh served two terms and was twice on a shortlist of potential vice-presidential nominees. He is the ultimate moderate who aimed to work with Republicans and Democrats.

Yet the harsh partisanship of the Senate wore him down — a strong signal our country is at the low ebb of its politics.

It’s a strange definition of moderate that includes war monger, corporate lackey who literally was in bed with lobbyists but was willing to throw regular people to the wolves. Of course, that’s the kind of thing we’ve been hearing from a media that has long confused moderation with capitulation.

The most extreme version of this in recent times was when Bush was in charge and making war for no reason, “moderates” like Bayh helped him and “extremists” were for peace. But even under Obama, it’s extreme to want single payer health care, but moderate to be fine with a status quo that results in over 44,000 adult deaths and all sorts of other nasty complications.

If that’s moderate, call me extreme any day.

A couple weeks ago Lee put up a post attempting to extrapolate data on how Washington State might feel about reforming our marijuana laws from a national survey. As it turns out, I was at a meet and greet with the 36th legislative district legislators, and during Q&A someone asked Mary Lou Dickerson about her proposed law to legalize Marijuana, and after she said her piece, she asked a representative of the ACLU of Washington to say a few words, and she mentioned that they had conducted a poll a while ago.

The poll was taken in 2006 among 1200 registered voters in WA with a sampling error of +/- 2.8%. The question was asked at the beginning and end of the poll.

Some people think we should make marijuana legal for adults while others say we should not. In your view, should we a) continue to send adults to jail for marijuana possession, b) make marijuana possession a finable non-criminal offense, or c) make marijuana possession LEGAL for adults?

In the beginning the results were:

Continue to send adults to jail for marijuana possession………………………………….. 29%
Make marijuana possession a finable non-criminal offense ……………………………… 30%
Make marijuana possession LEGAL for adults ………………………………………………. 37%
Don’t know……………….4%

And at the end:

Continue to send adults to jail for marijuana possession………………………………….. 22%
Make marijuana possession a finable non-criminal offense ……………………………… 34%
Make marijuana possession LEGAL for adults ………………………………………………. 40%
Don’t know………………………….4%

More recently they asked just people in Puget Sound counties 2008. 500 registered voters +/- 4.5% and they only asked the question once.

Continue to send adults to jail for marijuana possession………………………………….. 26%
Make marijuana possession a finable non-criminal offense ……………………………… 33%
Make marijuana possession LEGAL for adults ………………………………………………. 32%
Don’t know……………………. 10%

So, a couple caveats: obviously the poll is for an organization that’s pushing specific policies. While I don’t think the Washington ACLU is in the business of deluding themselves, I wouldn’t have heard of it, and I don’t know if they’d have let me see it if there had been a lot of support for locking people up. Also, obviously, one statewide poll and one poll of a region in the state are hardly conclusive of how an initiative campaign or legislative session might play out.

…Argh. Insert not very funny posting while high joke here (although in reality worse, just sloppy writing, and poor editing and trying to rush it out). The polls got reversed in the original post, and this has been updated significantly for clarity and my being an idiot.

6:41 I’m in a mostly empty auditorium as people filter into McGinn’s last (?) town hall of the transition. There are a few kids hula hooping on stage, and people gossiping a 5 rows in front of me. I guess the event starts in 20 minutes or so, and I’ll update with interesting questions and answers as they happen.

6:53 Still waiting for any action, and I want to discuss McGinn staying in the community since his election. There is a lot about the transition that has been a bit off kilter, but by far and away McGinn still doing townhalls, still soliciting questions from the community, still being involved is marvelous, and I hope he keeps doing these sort of things as mayor.

Also, I should note fairly early on if other events are any indication, my notes are going to be incomplete because I don’t type as fast as people talk, and inaccurate because I’m sure I’ll miss things. I apologize in advance.

7:00 We’re about a quarter full now, and no sign of starting. But I’d like to give kudos to the event organizers for finding a place where my ClearWire works. Much better than on that score than Hillary or Governor Gergoire’s campaigns.

7:09 The Mayor Elect is wearing a tie (as am I, I’m coming from work). The last time I saw him at an event he had an open collar. And at least at this event, no obvious bike hair, or at least not obvious from the second to last row. Any way, it should start soon, and then less goofball nonsense from me, and more substance.

7:14 Same kids hula hooping, they’re doing a great job rallying the crowd. By being adorable. Seriously, we’re totally starting soon, I think. And I can’t believe I forgot my camera again.

7:28 McGinn is opening the meeting: Where we are and our objectives. Election’s over, and on January 1st he officially becomes mayor (applause) so now we’re in transition where we get from the heat and action of the campaign so we have to build a good team and chose priorities and get off on the right foot to accomplish change.

The goal is to hear from everybody not just the team. So doing community outreach: inviting people, and collecting information from activists. Put up a website, and put on town halls. We invite you to invite other people to submit information to see what that tells us to do next.

What do we do first: We want to hear ideas, and we want to know where to start because it’s important to do the right things first. We want to know what’s important and what to work on. We’ve appointed transition facilitators, 2 deputy mayors and a chief of staff. Those are the top layer of leadership, feel free to communicate with us during the transition. That’s the big picture, I’ve probably spoken too long, tonight I want to hear people’s views, and I’ll probably say a few things during the meeting, but tonight is for us to listen to you.

7:31 Darryl Smith is saying you can go to: ideasforseattle.org and new.seattle.gov for ideas, if you’re interested in feedback.

7:37 First Question: I see the differences between schools in the North End and the South End I’m concerned about jobs. There aren’t employment opportunity in Southeast Seattle I want a community college in Southeast Seattle to have educational values and have jobs in the community.

These are more listening, so I may not post every question/comment. [updating later to note that these are questions, and I love most of them, some live from the audience some on cards]

7:48 Building team I hear a lot about racial equity and economic opportunity. I don’t see that explicitly said. So here’s my question: Children and families are struggling. Low income children and family. What can we do and what is the obligation of the city?

7:50 One of the most pressing issues in the city is gentrification, specifically the displacement in the city. The other question is Seattle has the most well educated baristas in the United States. We’ve got low paying jobs, and what can be done to create jobs?

7:53 Will it be possible to have more public housing? People can’t afford a mortgage in the immigrant and refugee community.

7:58 I work at a homeless shelter downtown for single women, and I have to turn away single women. All the emergency family centers are full, we need to have more shelters because we’re turning too many people away.

8:00 I am very concerned about and would like to recommend a department that deals with civil rights and social issues. I think it would be a department that would expedite information to you, and one that would be beneficial to you and to various communities that comprise the city.

8:05 Youth violence: We see a lot of money being spent in the name of the youth, but not a lot of people are seeing the benefits. In a tight budget situation, we need to support grassroots organizations directions like the Rainier Beach Youth Initiative and youth sports, and Seattle vocational initiative. We need transitional housing for youth. Mother’s Reach Outreach, Black on Black Crime Coalition are getting the short end of the stick when the budget is getting cut.

8:06 How do you build a better relation between SPD and the community?

8:12 Transportation is important to me. The one thing I want to do is walk my children to school on sidewalks. 2 out of 3 most direct routes in the school are scary. Sometimes these things seem like small things, but it’s really big for children and all aspects of our population.

8:23 McGinn: If I jumped up to respond to every comment, we wouldn’t have heard as much.

It’s valuable to hear from people directly. Sidewalks are important to me. Knowing your children can be safe outside is a big thing.

This is the first time I’ve ever been a candidate. I learned about being a candidate. When you go in public, and people hear about what they care about, something happens. We’ll do our best to keep this open.

What we’re trying to do right now is see what the priorities are. Issues of inequity. We see statistics around employment, arrest rates and housing are shocking, we must improve on the work in the prior administration.

The economy means that we’re getting less money in the door and we have more needs. Transit and safe neighborhood for everyone are critical.

We’re going to have to ask the community to do more. But the community wants to do more. Around youth. Around facilities. Education, sports, arts etc. We have to partner with the community better than we have in the past. I’m going to ask you to hold us accountable.

Issues around transportation will remain large. Job creation generally and youth jobs are the types of initiatives we’ll come up with. That’s about where we are right now. We know we’re up to the challenges we face. They’re difficult but people show up and we’re going to work with you.

UPDATE [Lee]: Bumping up to the top.

4 Pierce County police officers shot dead outside Parkland:

The officers were sitting in the coffee shop with their computers out when the shooter came in. The officers were targeted, and it was not a robbery, investigators believe.

[…]

“It looks like a flat-out ambush,” Troyer said. “Some one came in and opened fire.

The baristas who were inside the shop are “stunned and shocked, traumatized,” Troyer said.

A $10,000 reward has been offered for information in the killings. The amount is expected rise, Troyer said.

“The first one to call with information gets it,” he said.

Sorry to use so much of the Trib’s post without adding much but I thought there ought to be a thread.

… The tip line if anyone reading has any information: (253) 591-5959

So, how’d that endorsing Joe Mallahan go? Oh right, he was ahead until you, the Seattle Times, and the rest of the Seattle bashing institutional players decided to get involved. How’d that work out for you?

Sorry, there won’t be any more gloating in this letter: it’s for advise. If you stop screwing Seattle, then maybe we’ll be more receptive to hearing you out in the future. Perhaps if you’d dedicated less of your time last session trying to stick us with a bill for tunnel we didn’t really want, we’d be more receptive to your endorsements. But when the theme of the last session was any State DOT overruns should be paid for by Seattle taxpayers, how do you expect that not to come up in a campaign the following year?

Simply put, you aren’t that popular with Seattle right now.

Don’t get me wrong, if you run for a third term and survive a primary challenge, Seattle will put aside our differences and support you pretty overwhelmingly. But you might want to consider how difficult it may be to get support in the city if there is a primary. Or support as a city is earned, and shouldn’t be assumed.

Kiss kiss,
Carl Ballard

I think the Post Globe has been the best thing to rise out of the former P-I. And I generally like this piece on McGinn’s final town halls (incidentally, I’ve been making calls for McGinn, and the last time I did, we were pushing undecided voters to one of the town halls). Still, this piece of conventional wisdom repeating was a little disappointing.

Surprisingly, McGinn wasn’t asked about what Mallahan in particular has been describing as his flip flop over the viaduct.

Why are you surprised? First off, these are undecided voters. The people who are passionate about the tunnel one way or the other, who would ask that as their only question at a town hall (even in West Seattle) have made up their mind about the mayor’s race. They’ve got better things to do on a Saturday.

More important though, nobody outside of the political class thinks that the tunnel is the issue of the campaign. Sure it’s important, and it’s where one of the biggest distinctions can be drawn. But people are more concerned with, for example, crime and education than they are about a few miles of a state highway.

But of course, reporters who drive into Belltown from all across the region and leave before the crackheads come out probably put a higher emphasis on traffic on 99 than on crime in the city. And if they’re sending their children to Bellevue or Edmonds public schools, they probably don’t care as much about education as a parent worried about the quality of their neighborhood school. In fact, they’re more likely to laugh off McGinn’s education plans as unrealistic or someone else’s job.

Still, reporters, in these last few days of the campaign, please don’t be surprised that people care about more than just the tunnel. Don’t be surprised that Seattle voters care about rising crime, or that we care about the cultural institutions of the city, and dealing with the dropout problem. Please consider that whoever we support, we might care about parks and neighborhoods. Please also understand that we think transportation is more than just the Viaduct: that we want improved bike lanes, better mass transit, and a road system that works throughout the city.

In their endorsement of Susan Hutchison, the Seattle Times told us that it was important for the county to, “act more like private-sector businesses.” Now, ignore that the county and businesses have fundamentally different jobs, so they should be run differently. Also, ignore the fact that the Times’ advice – hire someone with no experience, don’t look at new ways of finding revenue, and don’t even consider running a deficit – would be terrible advice for a business during a recession.

No, what I’m more concerned about is: who the fuck is the Seattle Times to tell anyone how to run a business? The Seattle Times that’s mired in debt? The Seattle Times that in recent years has lost most of its value. The Seattle Times who rumors are always circulating about their bankruptcy? They’re the ones who want to tell the county how to be more like a business?

I mean shit, if King County was run like The Seattle Times’ business, they’d buy worthless county property in Maine. Maybe hire Kurt Triplett’s kid to head up a major department even if he wasn’t really competent.

Now, you may think this is unfair. After all, there’s a line between the content and business sides of the paper. Normally, I’d think that was a reasonable point, if not necessarily a convincing one. But when the publisher is dictating content, it’s fair to ask how that content lines up with what that publisher does.