Former Seattle Mayor Charles Royer pens an interesting think-piece in Sunday's Seattle Times, urging us to pay more attention to the squeeze on middle class housing in high-cost Seattle. The essay is very diplomatic, as befits a former mayor, but it scores some valuable direct hits on local politics.
Gingerly, Royer calls for a "conversation" about this topic, using a word that normally suggests that the proposer of some strong medicine doesn't really want to be candid. What he's saying is that the city has done a fair job in building low-income housing, going from 8,000 subsidized units to 21,000 today. But what about the middle class?
The annual tango over the Seattle City Budget has followed the usual dance-steps manual, with the City Council making a few minor tweaks in Mayor Greg Nickels' budget, and declaring a sweeping victory...
Why is it that when a Tim Eyman initiative is thrown out by the courts, as happened this week with I-747, our spineless leaders immediately say they'll abide by Eyman's bad law anyway?
Whatever you...
Former state Transportation Secretary Doug MacDonald fills Joel Connelly's P-I column this morning, and you can read it as the opening salvo of Transpo War II, or Who Lost Transit?
MacDonald makes it clear why he wore out his welcome in Gov. Chris Gregoire's cabinet, for he is incisively critical of the Proposition 1 measure that the governor tepidly endorsed, and lays the main blame for the transportation meltdown on the head of elected leaders.
The battle over Proposition 1 now moves to the governor's race, where Gov. Gregoire has a new problem on her hands, the issue of her effectiveness in solving big issues. Strike one, the Viaduct...
Here's a bracing corrective from reader Patrick Higgins, arguing that "the people" didn't really speak, as we pundits like to say, since the large majority of voters stayed silent. Mr. Higgins, you...
One immediate reaction to the defeat of Proposition 1, the roads and transit package the voters thumped yesterday, is to fall back to The Portland Way. Build lots of small fixes, as opportunities...
Updated through the day: In an evolving thread, Crosscut's writers analyze Washington's general election. They see an electorate distrustful of the people in charge.
With the big tri-county roads-and-transit measure failing and Tim Eyman's spending straightjacket, passing, you could sense that the government-wary voters are not passing around any blank checks. But...
