Comments on Party Crasher Extra: Friends of Seattle Launch

'twist' sucks...overpriced, yuppie bar

I was also there and pd my $10 to join the org and drink the kool-aid, so to speak. I agree with the Stranger staffer 100%. I also ask: how will this organization be different than others with a similar platform and how will it address the tension between supporting density, advocating for small businesses, historic preservation, etc.? There is a need for informed activism in this city. As with many activist-based organizations, it is what we as members make it. I just hope it doesn't be come a one-issue (viaduct) discussion.

Yeah, right Paul, FoS should be just like every other do-nothing group in Seattle and try so hard to be all things to all people that they broaden themselves into irrelevance.

Aw, c'mon, cut these folks some slack. As girl on the Hill said, this organization "is what we as members make it." If their position on a particular issue isn't nuanced to your liking, then join in and help improve it.
With the current lack of effective leadership in Seattle (Viaduct mess), there's a huge vacuum to be filled. I'm for pitching in and helping; it's much more useful than sitting back and whining.

I firmly believe the FoS is sick of the Seattle process (like you are @3). The group is very focused on smart density and improved transit to deal with the flood of new Seattleites we will have to accomidate in the next 20 years or so. The viaduct is just one issue of many - but the focus is there, and FoS will not be becoming another Allied Arts, etc.

FoS keep attacking your "one" issue. As you know, but Paul doesn't see, it's an issue that cuts across all of your goals. Part of the trick is getting folks to see that.

And like "Tired of the Process" said, we don't need another non-profit that is everything to everyone. We have lots of "sustainability" non-profits in Seattle, but they are on the sidelines because they don't pick an issue, trample it and go on to the next fight with the increased political capital and public credibility.

As Cathy Allen told me once, when you're new you can pick one issue to run on. When you're experienced and one a battle, we might let you have three.

...wish I could have been there...

man, those are some corny ass drink specials.

FoS - um, so, we're behind 20 years on transit ... you got solutions or you just gonna bury us in 40 years of more process?

So Steinbrueck reminded you of Howard Dean, who was...a gross failure. Hmm.

Yeah, I could only hope to fail as well as Howard Dean and become the Chairman of the Democratic National Committee. That would totally suck.

Say what you will about Dean, but his campaign changed the tone of national discourse on Iraq--in polite society, it became okay to say that we were wrong. That's what I was referring to here, not the getting crushed by Kerry bit--all of a sudden, it seemed okay to say that neither of the options were acceptable.

Ok here's some issues to bite off that the pols won't touch:

1) Examine how rezoning single family land within urban village boundaries might affect entry-level housing prices given the equivalent of L2-L3 zoning and then take on the NIMBYS in every neighborhood in Seattle - that's enough work for 20 years

2) Industrial lands policies - what should we do with areas like Interbay (and T-46). This are could be cheap land for housing or could support more industrial business, but unfortunately might be OFFICE PARKS that a) puts jobs where there is little transit and b) squanders opportunities for open space

3) Station are planning along Link. Investing $2.1 billion in a corridor with currently little capacity to develop dense housing. Dealing with gentrification and affordable housing issues once that can of worms is opened up

3)Inclusionary zoning - good concept for affordable housing but has many unintended consequences, including making market rate housing more expensive.

4) investing in a streetcar network per SDOT plan; good idea or expensive redundancy

.....

Thanks for coming, Paul, and for bringing your friends. Forgive us for not all knowing about how to deal with chain stores and the crowding-out of local businesses. (See, e.g., planned developments in Pike-Pine and at Goodwill site on Rainier and Dearborn). The article you pointed to suggests one way of doing it. Another important issue is the size of retail spaces in new mixed-use developments. Locally-owned businesses can rarely afford the rents for larger spaces in these new buildings (that's why all the great neighborhood business districts you see tend to have storefronts with much smaller spaces). That's a zoning issue, and we can address it. Anyway, please tell your Plus One that this statement was on our website and was emailed to all of our supporters. We aren't actively addressing schools yet, but hope to once we are better-established. After all, few things are more important to a city's livability than the quality of its public schools. More importantly, it's an issue of justice.

Friends of Seattle reminds voters that their school levy ballots must be post-marked by Tuesday, February 6. If you are not a vote-by-mail voter, please go to the polls. While FoS is currently focused on transportation and housing issues, we remind voters that great schools are far more important to building a livable and sustainable city than are even transit and good zoning.

Wow, already pandering and backpedeling. That didn't take long! Sure to be yet another honest-to-goodness do-nothing Seattle organization in no time at all...

Oh well, the idea was nice while it lasted...

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