$270 million is too much for a parks levy at this time. There are higher priorities. Nickels is being heavy handed as usual but Pike Place Market and transportation are much more important right now.

@1 I can see you arguing that transportation as a crucial issue, but I don't really see an argument that funding Pike Place Market's renovations is more pressing than funding for ALL of the city's parks and public spaces.

i dunno...

i think more money for parks would be a good way to offset the jail... plus we'd get more jobs. woot woot.

Hate to point this out, especially since Fremont has doubled our park space since 2000 ... but we're paying not just for Seattle Parks but King County Parks ...

Tell you what, let's cut the "criminal justice" (aka Locking Up Kids Who Like To Do Recreational Drugs) budget and use it for more parks to keep kids away from drugs ...

Or kill the Cameras In The Parks "Big Brother Spying Is Double Plus Good" program to pay for it.

I have a friend who works for the parks department. She gets more shit from the public than any of our mutual friends who work for other city departments. It'll be interesting to see Nickels try to pull this off.

@2 I think that equity argument is a strong one...what if we paired the parks and pike place levy together to essentially affect a continuation of the funds in the existing pro-parks. then its more the model of libraries for all, etc.

I'm tired of Nickels. I voted for him, he's been great in many ways. But I get the feeling he's increasingly out of touch with the People. (I would vote for both measures, incidentally, but the abuse of the mayoral Web site annoys me profoundly.)

I'm tired of Nickels's weasely approach to governance, evidenced by this and by other things. While I do like his strong-mayor leadership (sorely needed with such an ineffectual city council), I want someone a bit more straight-talking and candid. I never believe a word that comes out of his mouth until I see some action. And action doesn't always materialize.

Hooray!

I agree with the intent of this post! Save the parks, they're one of Seattle's best assets. I fully appreciate every park in Seattle, and will be there to support them.

Now if only you could make the post without sounding so screeching and accusatory.

We can't deal with climate change without significant investment in open space. Frankly, we need trees and water more than we need roads and tourist dollars - that's a "biological reality." Please help change the "political reality" by showing up to these meetings and asking Nickels to put his money where is mouth is regarding climate protection.

As has been sort of mentioned above, we currently have a parks levy, which is set to expire. So, we're not talking about an increase in taxes at all; the Council is considering renewing the existing tax that we already pay.

@6, I'm with you in thinking we may see a combined Market-Parks levy at the same rate as currently assessed -- although that would effectively lower the funding for Parks.

Much of the resistance to the Pike Place renovation is due to very real fears that renovation is a euphemism for up-scaling. I do like luxury but I think there are plenty of other places for tony shops than the Market. I don't want to see it gentrifeid into some kind of outdoors Whole Foods/Bloomingdale's that caters more to tourists than to us.