The Stranger, Seattle's Only Newspaper: Slog: Politics

Must-Read Seattle Times

Goldy — Tue, 18 Jun 2013 16:15:08 -0700

It is a curious irony that the most thoughtful and readable opinion writer in the relentlessly pro-business/anti-labor Seattle Times is their business columnist, Jon Talton. For example, today's column in which he warns lawmakers against "Sleepwalking into Washington's future":

In Seattle, the City Council refused to fund a study of a light-rail crossing of the Ship Canal. This may seem a clever poke in the eye of Mayor Mike McGinn in an election year, but it fails to show any vision. As Seattle reaches for San Francisco-like densities, it has a Phoenix-style transportation system, albeit with more buses and narrower streets. Density is good. But just fixing the streets isn’t good enough to ensure success. Buses alone won’t move people efficiently or pleasantly in a dense city.

... Much of today’s prosperity was prepared by the likes of Scoop Jackson. Without public leadership that prepares the state for quality growth, addresses the needs of moving freight and people, adequately funds education and cares for the commons, Seattle and Washington will be at a growing disadvantage against world-class competition. We will feel it first as nicks and bumps. Bigger things will eventually get our attention and maybe break us out of our sleepwalk.

I believe Talton and I are completely on the same page, although I'll say it more bluntly: Washington State is in the process of committing slow-motion economic suicide. It is smart public investment in human and physical infrastructure that builds wealth, not low taxes. And unless we can find the will to fix our revenue structure so as to pay for the investments we need, we will inevitably become a second-rate state.

The Stranger, Seattle's Only Newspaper: Slog: Politics

Must-Read Seattle Times

Gun Nuts and Chickpeas

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