Slog
News & ArtsTuesday, October 5, 2010
City Slog Poll: King Mayor for the Day
Posted by Cienna Madrid on Tue, Oct 5, 2010 at 1:56 PM
Yesterday, the Seattle City Council voted 8-1 to ratify Council President Richard Conlin's signature on an environmental-impact document that moves the council's favored Viaduct replacement option—the deep-bore tunnel—forward and into the arena of public comment. (Mayor Mike McGinn had asked the state for another week to review the document, so the state bypassed the mayor and approached Conlin for his signature instead.)
But I couldn't reach McGinn. He's out of town for the day. And according to the city charter (Article V, Section 9), that makes Conlin acting king-mayor (it's the city council's girlish fantasies come true)!
Which raises the question:
3
Hey, idea! Let's recreate urbanism and environmentalism so that it encompasses the construction of multi-billion dollar roadways. That way, nobody can ever question Seattle's commitment to preserving the ecosystem of the Puget Sound.
Now admittedly this is the old approach, which gave us a superfund (you say superfund, I say SUPERFUN~!) or two, but Seattle wouldn't even exist if it weren't for intrepid voyageurs travelling across the country in their SUVs, one person per car. We wouldn't be the strong city we are today if Yesler's Continental hadn't mowed down those savages.
Of course, we can't do this on our own, we need help. This is why we're sending heaps of money from real estate and construction firms to help keep the City Council in office. After all, the Mayor represents the dimwitted proletariat but the Council protects the noble oligarchy. They need all the help we can summon up.
Now admittedly this is the old approach, which gave us a superfund (you say superfund, I say SUPERFUN~!) or two, but Seattle wouldn't even exist if it weren't for intrepid voyageurs travelling across the country in their SUVs, one person per car. We wouldn't be the strong city we are today if Yesler's Continental hadn't mowed down those savages.
Of course, we can't do this on our own, we need help. This is why we're sending heaps of money from real estate and construction firms to help keep the City Council in office. After all, the Mayor represents the dimwitted proletariat but the Council protects the noble oligarchy. They need all the help we can summon up.
4
Ah, Baconcat, you and your sarcasm!
Long Live King Conl- cough, no way in hell I can say that, even mockingly.
The motherfucker.
Long Live King Conl- cough, no way in hell I can say that, even mockingly.
The motherfucker.
5
I've got an even better idea! Why don't we do like, I'm just throwing a number out, 1 billion studies on this thing. I just don't think we have done enough. THEN, we can put it to a vote (but then revote, because a new idea was created). After about 10 votes of the public, and 50 reviews of the billion studies done by the council.....maybe we can THEN discuss further the "option" of doing more studies about the council doing studies and studies about why the 10 public votes went which way they did....
OMG SEATTLE, JUST F-ING DO SOMETHING ALREADY. I now do not care what you do. Massive tunnel? FINE! No tunnel? FINE!
No more studies. No more talking. There is too much talking in this town, and talking more about it now won't change what will or will not happen. SO CUT THE CHARADE. Just do SOMETHING. ANYTHING. (this goes for the chihuly museum. Just build it. If it fails, let's build something else.)
/end rant.
OMG SEATTLE, JUST F-ING DO SOMETHING ALREADY. I now do not care what you do. Massive tunnel? FINE! No tunnel? FINE!
No more studies. No more talking. There is too much talking in this town, and talking more about it now won't change what will or will not happen. SO CUT THE CHARADE. Just do SOMETHING. ANYTHING. (this goes for the chihuly museum. Just build it. If it fails, let's build something else.)
/end rant.
6
Too bad for Comrade Conlin that there are still three EIS hearings, two EPA hearings and the required public vote for the taxes since under his regime he spent all the councilmanic bonding authority.
Reality's a bitch. And it has an anti-tunnel pro-OpenSpace/KEXP hybrid bent.
Reality's a bitch. And it has an anti-tunnel pro-OpenSpace/KEXP hybrid bent.
8
@5: If the DBT was such a great idea, it would have opened already.
The people spoke, they said "do nothing" -- which is, ostensibly, a vote to remove if it's found inadequate -- and, finding that option a money loser, the state (and now the council) have forged ahead with a magical tailpipe-tunnel capable of ending wars and reversing climate change.
We can talk at length about the Seattle process, but if people had a choice, they'd just as soon drop the whole thing, knock the viaduct down and build a pretty park and some condo towers. The real Seattle process is trying to soak the state and voters to the tune of billions just to maintain the all-important meaningless corporate vote and create jobs that send money out of Seattle (and out of state in many cases), giving us a profit of a big fat fuckin' zero. I mean, how would they be able to campaign otherwise?
The people spoke, they said "do nothing" -- which is, ostensibly, a vote to remove if it's found inadequate -- and, finding that option a money loser, the state (and now the council) have forged ahead with a magical tailpipe-tunnel capable of ending wars and reversing climate change.
We can talk at length about the Seattle process, but if people had a choice, they'd just as soon drop the whole thing, knock the viaduct down and build a pretty park and some condo towers. The real Seattle process is trying to soak the state and voters to the tune of billions just to maintain the all-important meaningless corporate vote and create jobs that send money out of Seattle (and out of state in many cases), giving us a profit of a big fat fuckin' zero. I mean, how would they be able to campaign otherwise?
9
Don't bother proving any of this or anything.
We can talk at length about the Seattle process, but if people had a choice, they'd just as soon drop the whole thing, knock the viaduct down and build a pretty park and some condo towers.
Don't bother proving any of this or anything.
10
Baconcat: I respectfully disagree. Voters are a tricky people. Most don't want to add taxes, yet want to magically recieve better service and have a safe/healthy/awesome place to live. They don't equate paying for a society in terms of taxes, and will absolutely kill off anything that even LOOKS like it will raise taxes.
Then, on the other hand, you have all these faux populist "let's do what's best for everyone" people (your "park" example) but the problem with that is, there are like 60 billion different versions of what is "best" for everyone. So these people start in-fighting (see: chihuly museum)
So I don't trust the voters to know DICK about this project. And they shouldn't have to. We elect people to figure out what the best long term plan is, and Harry dbag Voter doesn't know/understand/care enough to make that descision, and frankly, I don't want him to. Puttin this up for ANOTHER VOTE is fucking dumb. DUMB DUMB DUMB.
The Seattle process for making any decision is to pass the buck. Rather than just stick to a solution and take the heat for it, people in charge will defer to voters or just lock up in battle over what is right (while disguising it with "let's do more studies!") This goes on, ad nasuem, for around a decade before shit *might* get done.
I am just saying, the writing is on the wall for this tunnel. The state wants it, the council wants it, and voters (for the most part) aren't to be trusted to decide. I feel that we should have some sort of timeline to make a decision, like they have 2 years to figure this out. If they don't have it worked out, then dbt.
But my point is that I don't care anymore. I am sick of politicians wasting time on this (how long have we been discussing it?). Just figure it out, and move on. Someone is going to be pissed no matter what they choose. And a dbt would at least provide some construction jobs to a depressed sector of our economy. The fact that we will add another 10+ years of beaurocracy to this mess is fucking dumb.
More...
Then, on the other hand, you have all these faux populist "let's do what's best for everyone" people (your "park" example) but the problem with that is, there are like 60 billion different versions of what is "best" for everyone. So these people start in-fighting (see: chihuly museum)
So I don't trust the voters to know DICK about this project. And they shouldn't have to. We elect people to figure out what the best long term plan is, and Harry dbag Voter doesn't know/understand/care enough to make that descision, and frankly, I don't want him to. Puttin this up for ANOTHER VOTE is fucking dumb. DUMB DUMB DUMB.
The Seattle process for making any decision is to pass the buck. Rather than just stick to a solution and take the heat for it, people in charge will defer to voters or just lock up in battle over what is right (while disguising it with "let's do more studies!") This goes on, ad nasuem, for around a decade before shit *might* get done.
I am just saying, the writing is on the wall for this tunnel. The state wants it, the council wants it, and voters (for the most part) aren't to be trusted to decide. I feel that we should have some sort of timeline to make a decision, like they have 2 years to figure this out. If they don't have it worked out, then dbt.
But my point is that I don't care anymore. I am sick of politicians wasting time on this (how long have we been discussing it?). Just figure it out, and move on. Someone is going to be pissed no matter what they choose. And a dbt would at least provide some construction jobs to a depressed sector of our economy. The fact that we will add another 10+ years of beaurocracy to this mess is fucking dumb.
11
@8 - "If the DBT was such a great idea, it would have opened already. The people spoke, they said "do nothing"."
Funny, I don't remember a vote on the deep bore tunnel. I also don't remember a vote on "do nothing." To infer that there was only one "third option" on a ballot with two options indicates you think highly of yourself, and that your third option was the only other third option out there.
Funny, I don't remember a vote on the deep bore tunnel. I also don't remember a vote on "do nothing." To infer that there was only one "third option" on a ballot with two options indicates you think highly of yourself, and that your third option was the only other third option out there.
12
See Baconcat! Look at 9 and 11. Proves my point further.
No decision (especially in government) will have 100% approval. But this endless back and forth, trying to make everyone happy (a democrat trait) is ridiculous, and someone should call them out on it. Which I am doing.
No decision (especially in government) will have 100% approval. But this endless back and forth, trying to make everyone happy (a democrat trait) is ridiculous, and someone should call them out on it. Which I am doing.
13
It all goes back to what I said.
We still have three EIS hearings, two EPA hearings and at least one Public Vote of the Citizens.
Without all three components it's not going to happen.
Don't worry, there's still the WTO hearing if need be to drive the final stake deep deep in the dark crystal heart of the dynastic deep bore tunnel, even if it isn't killed in the other six parts.
One drill to rule them all. One drill to blind them. One drill to enrich the subsidized developers ...
We still have three EIS hearings, two EPA hearings and at least one Public Vote of the Citizens.
Without all three components it's not going to happen.
Don't worry, there's still the WTO hearing if need be to drive the final stake deep deep in the dark crystal heart of the dynastic deep bore tunnel, even if it isn't killed in the other six parts.
One drill to rule them all. One drill to blind them. One drill to enrich the subsidized developers ...
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