With the asinine policies in place to handle snow (sand instead of salt? Seriously???), it didn't matter who was in charge. That storm would have been a disaster no matter what.

His fumbling of the Sonics situation is what did him in for me. Inexcusable, as a city leader, to let an institution just leave like that.

What is Seattle's obsession with cognitive dissonance? He wasn't good and bad - he was terrible as mayor. He couldn't manage a snow cleaning, and it was because the guy in charge was allowed to leave on vacation at the precise time his job ramped up.

@1, salt on our roads is a TERRIBLE idea. All that salt runs into the Sound and kills fish and other aquatic life. Puget Sound is under enough stress as it is. Not using salt is the correct decision every time.

Nickels could have spent the necessary money to respond instantaneously to a heavy snowfall -- and he would have been making an awful mistake to do so. He would have had to spend millions upon millions of dollars on equipment that would rust away in storage except for the once-every-two-decades occasions when it was needed -- if the equipment was even compatible with other city equipment after all that time.

Seattle simply does not need a Boston or New York-caliber snow removal system, and it would be inappropriate to buy one.

Remember Charlie Chong? He went out and bought an assload of crappy old snow gear without asking anyone first, and when the stuff got here it was worthless -- it didn't fit on our trucks. He threw that money down the toilet. That's not the kind of management you want from a mayor.

The fact is, the city took a freak storm, and stuff was shut down for a while as a result. Get over it. It's not the damn mayor's fault. Dominic is correct: snow complainers are babies.

And it's because of said snow that Dan Savage was going on for weeks about jumping into the race too, right?

Basically, no matter what the suburbanites and their billionaire and millionaire friends want, Mayor McGinn has met and exceeded the Snow Storm and Sports tests as mayor.

Unless they can somehow convince us that someone more pro-tunnel and pro-developer is a good thing, I doubt much will change.

Greg was a great mayor on regional, state, national, and international issues, but he forgot what matters as Mayor.

I'm okay with a few fish dying from salt run-off in order to not get t-boned by some nitwit who can't drive in the snow.

@6, even if those fish are your 2Na relatives?

The Sonics were gone no matter what. David Stern, that motherfucker, was going to make an example of Seattle no matter what. It's the fact that they have our championship trophy, conference championship banners, retired jerseys and other Sonics memorabilia that is unforgivable.

Even now, years later, I'm getting all pissed off, all over again.

But they would have been around a couple more years, and many people agree because of the economic crash a few months later, that by the time they actually could move, they wouldn't have been able to afford it.

Agree with @8, the fix was in. I can't think of anything Nickels did right, but I'm not sure the debacle with the DOJ puts McGinn in the unbeatable category. It's pretty shameful that the SPD can't avoid controversy even while arguing that a monitor is not needed.

Looks like former mayor 5 cents has been eating well.

@3
"Dominic is correct: snow complainers are babies"

If I recall, this snowfall occured just prior to the Christmas holiday. Holiday sales and their resultant sales tax windfall for the city's coffers cratered. The city's response was slow and erratic in spite of the usual lack of snowfall removal equipment issues and complaints. I think this is the real reason Nickels was booted from office. He just didn't appreciate how important it was to support day-to-day commerce during an important time of the year...even if his options were limited.

Has everybody seemed to have forgotten his relationships with the developers and all the bullshit that entailed? Or has everybody forgotten his incredible 'leadership' with regards to the monorail debacle and public transportation?

Nickels was a shitty mayor. It was a pity that it took the snowstorm to give him the boot, considering how many other reasons there were.

Blaming Nickels' loss on the snowstorm is like saying 19 assholes flew planes into skyscrapers because "they hate our freedom". It's lazy and untrue. Just a silly little excuse.

Greg Nickels was a terrible mayor for 90% of Seattle. The only reason we don't equate him with the likes of Mitt Romney is that he doesn't hate gay people.

He was a toady of Seattle's 1%. He pulled the rug out from under the feet too many average folks in this town. Is it any surprise that his son is a crook too?

@13

I believe Nickels was heavy handed and gradually forgot who elected him to office. It did seem to get to the level that every piece of literature produced by the city had his mug plastered on it. At that point one has to wonder who became more important in the eyes of the mayor. The people he was elected to serve or himself?

The inability to appear the city was effectively dealing with the effects of the snow storm was certainly a proximate cause to his demise as mayor. Perhaps the icing on the cake?

Fnarf is exactly right and I'm glad to hear someone finally saying it instead of whining that something more should have been done.

I never got the sense Greg Nickels gave two pennies for what I or the ordinary inhabitant of Seattle thought. I know he did a very poor job of reaching out to voters to say that they and their concerns were important to him.

However, like FNARF, I thought the snow thing was kind of a bullshit criticism.

Maybe McGinn should reuse the "mistakes" mea culpa strategy...

holy shit, is that chris christie?

The snow debacle showed that he could give two shits, and letting the manager leave on vacation was a joke.

Last I checked, the water in the Sound is already salty. A little more NaCl isn't likely to hurt the fish.