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News & ArtsMonday, April 19, 2010
City Before the Vote
Posted by Dominic Holden on Mon, Apr 19, 2010 at 2:12 PM
Good-sized crowd in the City Council Chambers, where the city council will vote on the aggressive-solicitation bill in a bit:
And here are Council Members Tim Burgess and Mike O'Brien on the dais:
1
Someone should restrain Dominic for his own good. Given his rage on this issue, he may do something he regrets.
3
Ignore @1, Dominic. Your reporting, while seemingly opinionated, has been fair, and I'd like to hear more about what goes down.
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@4: will vote no. the vote hasn't happened yet. burgess is speaking right now. hear him embarrass himself here: http://www.seattlechannel.org/viewer_liv…
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and no one clapped for burgess, but the room erupted in applause for licata. now harrell is smacking down the law as well
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Looks like a bunch of elitist millionaires and their employees to me.
Did anyone check their Seattle citizenship papers at the door and look for the barcode on the back of their heads?
Did anyone check their Seattle citizenship papers at the door and look for the barcode on the back of their heads?
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@the stranger: why aren't the council deliberations being covered? after all the coverage over the past few weeks, i thought that this would be pretty much live slogged.
12
Oh my god if O'Brien votes no and McGinn vetoes, the most important bill ever in the world will fail! It's the end of the world! Without this law Seattle tomorrow will be exactly like it is today. Unbearable.
Seriously though. I hope now somebody proposes actually doing something. Like if you want outreach and services and cops on patrol, stop talking and fund outreach and services and hiring cops. Talking about how you'd like more of that stuff without funding it amounts to doing nothing.
Seriously though. I hope now somebody proposes actually doing something. Like if you want outreach and services and cops on patrol, stop talking and fund outreach and services and hiring cops. Talking about how you'd like more of that stuff without funding it amounts to doing nothing.
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@12: shut up. when the bill looked like it would pass, you were all smarmy at everyone here. now that it will be vetoed and only have 5 votes in favor, you change your tune. i usually find being rude on anonymous internet boards the lowest of the low (i'm talking about myself, here), but your behavior warrants it.
also, o'brien just committed to vote no, and the crowd, once again, erupted in applause. no one has clapped for any of the "yes" votes.
also, o'brien just committed to vote no, and the crowd, once again, erupted in applause. no one has clapped for any of the "yes" votes.
16
@12 That's on the council if they have the stones to reallocate funds for police. Take them off of marijuana enforcement and take six cops each per shift (in random rotations) from six neighborhoods/areas and reallocate them to two each extra on Pioneer Square, two each from 1st to 4th on Pike and Pine, and two each to Belltown for starters if they're worried about funding them right off the bat. Dedicate them exclusively to foot patrol and specifically on the things they're worried about, with panhandling and scary people.
17
wow, conlin just said "some of the people sending emails to me may not have understood what they were sending." what a jerk. douche move, dude.
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also, don't eat at anchovies and olives, union, how to cook a wolf, or tavolata. the owner of the restaurants is pro-arresting the homeless because they get rid of business
19
If McGinn vetoes, does that put him on the hook for doing something about the aggressive panhandlers downtown?
I'll pretend for a second I think this bill was as heavy-handed as Dominic says it is. Does this mean the concerns of the downtown businesses and tourists and people who feel uncomfortable downtown should be dismissed?
I know Will thinks everyone who disagrees with him is an elitist millionaire or a crony thereof. Aren't they also a part of the city?
Before the veto, the opposition to this bill didn't have a face. Now its face is Mayor McGinn. He has gone on the record saying the crime and safety concerns are real but this bill doesn't address them. What will he do in its stead?
My money is on not a damned thing.
I'll pretend for a second I think this bill was as heavy-handed as Dominic says it is. Does this mean the concerns of the downtown businesses and tourists and people who feel uncomfortable downtown should be dismissed?
I know Will thinks everyone who disagrees with him is an elitist millionaire or a crony thereof. Aren't they also a part of the city?
Before the veto, the opposition to this bill didn't have a face. Now its face is Mayor McGinn. He has gone on the record saying the crime and safety concerns are real but this bill doesn't address them. What will he do in its stead?
My money is on not a damned thing.
20
@19: McGinn told the council what he prefers. It's up to them to act on that.
McGinn's got hundreds of activists on his side and the support of many organizations if the council doesn't uphold their legislative duty. If the council does truly care about the vitality of the downtown core, they'll gut the citation and enforcement aspect and send it forward with the improvements to downtown patrols and social services funding.
McGinn's got hundreds of activists on his side and the support of many organizations if the council doesn't uphold their legislative duty. If the council does truly care about the vitality of the downtown core, they'll gut the citation and enforcement aspect and send it forward with the improvements to downtown patrols and social services funding.
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@20--
Doesn't the council need to budget for increased foot patrol downtown? Haven't they already passed a budget this year? Isn't the city facing a huge deficit? Hasn't McGinn promised to lay off 300 people? Isn't he talking about closing fire stations?
And in light of all this, you say all he has to do is ask the city council for increased foot patrols and they magically happen?
Doesn't the council need to budget for increased foot patrol downtown? Haven't they already passed a budget this year? Isn't the city facing a huge deficit? Hasn't McGinn promised to lay off 300 people? Isn't he talking about closing fire stations?
And in light of all this, you say all he has to do is ask the city council for increased foot patrols and they magically happen?
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@20, and those hundreds of activists are going to fund any of this HOW? The Mayor can't even do it. So his "preferences" are just that. He can't back any of it up, he can't fund it, he can't do diddly squat about it. In fact, according to everything he's said, it's going to get WORSE due to his budget cuts. And nice... "McGinn told the council what he prefers. It's up to them to act on that." While he, what, holds thousands of town halls to make his day-planner look full? And since when does the City Council take marching orders from the mayor? Never, since I've lived here. And that's a long time. This will be hilarious in three years, when people are so fed up with his do-nothing obstructionism that they elect a Mark Sidran x 100 to clean up the city.
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