Comments on: STB Election Endorsement Recap

By: Sunday Open Thread: Freeman vs. Constantine - Seattle Transit Blog

Sunday Open Thread: Freeman vs. Constantine - Seattle Transit Blog — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 16:29:12 +0000

[...] Constantine guy seems to really get it. Someone ought to put him in charge of something [...]

By: STB Endorsement Cheat Sheet - Seattle Transit Blog

STB Endorsement Cheat Sheet - Seattle Transit Blog — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 12:23:04 +0000

[...] King County Executive: Dow Constantine [...]

By: Bellevue City Council Endorsements - Seattle Transit Blog

Bellevue City Council Endorsements - Seattle Transit Blog — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 12:58:42 +0000

[...] H. Duke, Ben Schiendelman, and John Jensen, with valued input from the rest of the staff. Read our Seattle City Council and King County Executive endorsements, our endorsement for Seattle Mayor and our endorsement of a ‘no’ vote on [...]

By: Chris Stefan

Chris Stefan — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 14:22:03 +0000

Could STB come out with a statement on Tim Eyman’s latest idiocy, I-1033?

At the very least I-1033 will lock in recession budgets for city, county, and state government even once tax revenue recovers. At the very least this means no general fund money for transportation or for civic improvements that help density. It will put government in permenent fiscal crisis mode that gets worse every year (since the cost of providing government services generally rises faster than the inflation rate for all goods and services)

I’m also confused as to exactly which revenues will be counted against the limits of I-1033. For example does the tax for Metro or say sewer revenue count against the I-1033 cap of inflation+population growth?

By: Martin H. Duke

Martin H. Duke — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 13:07:07 +0000

I don’t think it’s fair to characterize Licata as “anti-transit.” He’s part of that segment of the left that likes transit but has been convinced that rail is too expensive, or whatever.

By: Under The Clouds

Under The Clouds — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 08:46:27 +0000

I think if Constantine wins County Exec. (a big IF at this point), and the city council shapes up as pro-transit, with the exception of Licata (who will likely win over Israel), then it seems we could almost come out of the post-Nickels fiasco with minimal damage. Constantine is really the only must-win for rail proponents this fall. He’s gotta win this County, right?

By: Ira Sacharoff

Ira Sacharoff — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 06:27:37 +0000

Who’s Hasagawa? Nobody on the Seattle City Council. Former Mariners relief pitcher, but I don’t think he entered politics. Maybe you mean Bruce Harrell?

By: Tim Whittome

Tim Whittome — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 05:20:21 +0000

Am looking forward to how the STB Board parses their endorsement for mayor of Seattle this year!

By: Mickymse

Mickymse — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 19:14:55 +0000

You might want to take a closer look at the list of folks endorsing/donating to Richard Conlin to discover a number of people who are strong Downtown interests and not exactly pro-transit or pro-density unless it meets their particular interests.

Anyone who was involved in supporting the monorail should note a number of recognizable names from the folks who funded and lobbied to kill the Project. Of note, is Henry Aronson, who also sued to kill the MVET tax because he hated the monorail so much. (Perhaps because it would run past his expensive condo on 2nd Ave.)

I applaud Conlin’s bicycle riding and support for other Councilmembers’ legislation, but what exactly has he done that’s so pro-transit, especially in his work as a member of both the Regional Transit Committee and Sound Transit’s Board? He doesn’t even have it as a section on his Issues list.

I think we’re long overdue for some strong City leadership in these areas, and that’s why I’m working to change this seat by electing David Ginsberg, who places transit and development amongst his key issues for running — particularly against Conlin.

By: joshuadf

joshuadf — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 18:04:27 +0000

So… this nearly unrelated but here’s another ridiculous NIMBY quote: “Seattle Displacement Coalition [aka John Fox] opposed Russell Hall because high-density developments such as Russell Hall tend to be more expensive residential options.” Russell Hall is a new mixed use building built for the non-profit Wesley Foundation. It replaced a parking lot, which as far as I can tell provides no housing at all.
http://dailyuw.com/2009/10/2/cafe-allegro-forges-bond-obstructing-russell-hall-/

I will say that David Bloom has consistently been more willing to compromise than John Fox, though.

By: Chris Stefan

Chris Stefan — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 15:55:25 +0000

I haven’t followed close, but I wasn’t aware Rassmusen or Hasagawa were particularly anti-rail. Maybe a bit skeptical of the city streetcar plans, but a lot of even pro-rail people question streetcars particularly the SLUT and the First Hill line. See any comment thread here where streetcars are discussed. For that matter McGinn is very pro-rail but he’d rather build more Link than put money into streetcars.

By: josh

josh — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 15:50:34 +0000

I agree with you about the KC Exec being the most important race of the election. McGinn–Mallahan might be more fun for the weeklies to cover, but either of them with Constantine is much better than one of them with Hutchison.

By: Michael

Michael — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 15:30:45 +0000

So if Bagshaw and O’Brien win the city council open seats, Conlin maintains his seat and Isreal upsets Licata, that would mean that 7 city council members would be pro-rail transit…pro-streetcar in particular (Gooden, Burgess, Clark, Bagshaw, O’Brien, Conlin and Isreal), leaving just two all-bus proponents. Wouldn’t this also be a veto-proof council as well if Mallahan (if he wins), tries to nix the First Hill and Central Streetcar lines?