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Monday, January 7, 2013

City Seattle's Hippie Mayor, Supporter of the 1 Percent?

Posted by Dominic Holden on Mon, Jan 7, 2013 at 8:55 AM

This sticker is on the back of a parking sign:

We've heard this chatter around town—Mayor McSchwinn is making us pay for a stadium so rich people can get richer!!—-and I suspect we'll hear more of it during the mayor's race. But the city isn't really giving away money. In an attempt to bring back the Sonics, the city is essentially just offering its bonding capacity (because it will recoup its contribution), and the primary investor, Chris Hansen, has given Seattle a personal financial guarantee. So you won't pay for the stadium unless you spend money at it. But, you know, some people still want to get angry at our hippie mayor—like he's the architect of America's wealth disparity. Ignore Paul Allen, Jeff Bezos, Frank Blethen, Steve Ballmer and the other wealthy assholes who backed a regressive tax system that gut education and health care. McGinn is the enemy? That's absurd.

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Comments (18) RSS

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Of course we'll end up paying for it. Every stadium ever built here (and I lived through it, unlike the Stranger staff) went over budget and we ended up paying something. We're still paying off the Kingdome (or were anyway; we were still paying it off after it had been destroyed). And we were told the Coliseum had to be changed to Key Arena so we could keep teams here. Then the Kingdome's destroyed and now, oh we'd need to change Key Arena to get teams back here. Oh our wonderful baseball team needs a stadium of its own, after which fan attendance began a steady slide to the pont we've had the biggest drop in in attendance of any in the nation. Now we're told we need 3 stadiums, one for each of our precious teams. Sorry, not being conned again by that one. PS, the Sonics aren't coming back.

Posted by too lazy to sign in on January 7, 2013 at 9:02 AM

Seattle has a great history with this. How many tens of millions are still left on the Kingdome loan?

Also, I like how the $100 million tax break isn't the same as giving them free money. Would anyone arguing this like to cut me a check for all my federal tax withholdings in 2012? Thanks in advance.

Posted by Swearengen on January 7, 2013 at 9:34 AM

Can't we hate Bezos, Ballmer AND McGinn? Does it have to be a binary system? Or, maybe you need to get McGinn's cock slapped out of your mouth before you'll acknowledge that he's generally out for his own interests, and the interests of the Democratic Party.

Posted by TheMisanthrope on January 7, 2013 at 9:35 AM

Yes you can hate them all. But you have to find something else to hate McGinn on, like how he is sucking the cock of Chief Diaz.

Posted by Hawke

on January 7, 2013 at 9:43 AM

I'm with the sticker.

Fuck this rah-rah crap, with $billions in taxpayer liability. And profit for the billionaires, and the illiterate multi-millionaire "college grads" who get tattooed for them.

Crony capitalism on the local level - it's everywhere.
http://www.fieldofschemes.com/

Posted by Karlheinz Arschbomber

on January 7, 2013 at 9:57 AM

I can't decide which aspect of that sign is the most horribly botched.

Posted by Knat on January 7, 2013 at 9:58 AM

@4 There are a lot of things to be pissed about at McGinn, not least of which is the police chief relationship. But, if we had the ability for bonding all this shit, why didnt we just go with a publicly owned pro team? We had an opportunity for it and just gave it to somebody else to profit.

Posted by TheMisanthrope on January 7, 2013 at 10:05 AM

@6 Agreed. Terrible sticker.

Posted by TheMisanthrope on January 7, 2013 at 10:06 AM

What's all the fuss about being in the pocket of the elite when the same charge could be leveled at any and every Democrat? What other candidate in this race is going to refrain from giving hand outs to developers and other billionaires and millionaires? Refresh my memory, is there a Green or a Socialist running in the race?

Posted by Nothankyou on January 7, 2013 at 10:19 AM

That sticker has crappy design. I've seen these around, and walking past you cannot read the 'punchline' because it is arrayed vertically (and in a different font, which is also particularly harder to read in a vertical orientation). The 1% is particularly small too, I hadn't even noticed that before.

If you want your fringe message to get across, you have to design the media so people will be able to actually read it on the fly.

Posted by treacle on January 7, 2013 at 10:21 AM

@7 - in the case of the NFL, publicly-owned teams are BANNED.
(the GB Packers are the grandfathered exception)

Publicly-funded stadiums are apparently MANDATORY.

Fuck direct subsidies to billionaires.

Posted by Karlheinz Arschbomber

on January 7, 2013 at 10:38 AM

Hey, if we don't build the private tunnel for the fake green limo-enabled toll-avoiding Millionaires and Billionaires to get to their taxpayer-financed stadium and private airport, what are Seattle Citizens good for?

Baaah.

Posted by Will in Seattle

on January 7, 2013 at 11:18 AM

If I never heard another word about the Sonics I'd be so very happy. Good riddance to them.

Posted by originalcinner on January 7, 2013 at 11:22 AM

@11 If the NFL banned publicly owned teams, we should ban sports monopolies. Just saying, that should be a law that should be fought in courts.

Note: I know that we already have an NFL team, but seriously? NFL can suck it.

Posted by TheMisanthrope on January 7, 2013 at 11:51 AM

Just lending them our bonding capacity? What typical "progressive" horseshit. The funniest part about this isn't so much that you show every sign of actually believing that fairy tale, but that you also think you're any smarter than your Clampett cousin, Sarah Palin.

Posted by Mister G on January 7, 2013 at 12:07 PM

I see the Stranger is still jumping through tortured rhetorical hoops to justify their idiotic endorsement of subsidizing billionaires. Guilty conscience or just insecure?

Posted by tkc on January 7, 2013 at 12:21 PM

@16,

Why not both?

Posted by keshmeshi on January 7, 2013 at 2:26 PM

The author asked whether McGinn's the enemy, then points to Paul Allen and other "wealthy assholes." But those "wealthy assholes" have to find people who can be bought. That's where McGinn, the city and county councils, and the Stranger come in.

Posted by Mister G on January 7, 2013 at 2:39 PM