Morning Fizz
"That's Bullshit!"
1) Despite its unfortunate timing (just days after the bruising defeat of the high-earners' income tax, I-1098), last night's fundraiser for the Economic Opportunity Institute, the group that was most responsible for pushing the initiative, was spirited and even optimistic.
After a warmup from "the world's first and only stand-up economist," Yoram Bauman (he divided the room into left, right, and swing voters, telling the latter, "Your job is to be clueless and apathetic, and every four years you determine the fate of the free world, [which] may sound like a huge responsibility, but don't give it a second thought"), 1098's highest-profile acolyte, Bill Gates, Sr. took the stage with some fighting words. "The notion that society should be disproportionately supported by individuals of substantial or even immense wealth---that's the way society ought to work!" he bellowed. "There is just no excuse for this erroneous proposition that we should reduce the tax burden on the rich because that's the way the economy will prosper. That's bullshit!"
Gates' words must have have a rousing effect: The EOI raised nearly $140,000.
2) Whoa: The close race between incumbent Democratic 25th District state Rep. Dawn Morrell and Republican challenger Hans Zeiger got a whole lot closer yesterday, with Zeiger gaining on Morrell (who led yesterday by 61 votes) slightly, to lead by just 28 votes. This race seems certain to go to a recount, which is triggered in legislative races that get closer than about 150 votes.
3) As Fizz noted yesterday, Seattle Public Schools' latest scorecard ranking district schools' performance didn't include a map showing where low- and high-performing schools were located. Yesterday afternoon, the Center on Reinventing Public Education remedied that shortcoming with a color-coded Google map that shows, not surprisingly, that Seattle's s lower-performing schools are concentrated in the southeast and southwest corners of the city, and the higher-performing schools are in the North End. The map doesn't distinguish visually between elementary, middle, and high schools (you'll have to go to the data for more detailed info) but it does give a clear visual impression of what folks who follow Seattle Public Schools already know: South-end schools are suffering.
4) City Council president Richard Conlin pointed PubliCola to one surprising item in the latest Draft Environmental Impact Statement for the deep-bore tunnel recently: Building the tunnel, the EIS notes, would require the state to eliminate nearly 600 parking spaces downtown. Although that might sound like a lot---downtown businesses, as the recent flap over higher meter rates made clear, love their cheap, plentiful parking---the state didn't think so: Their report says removing 570 parking spaces from downtown will not "substantially affect businesses or community services" in the neighborhood. Because of that finding, the state does not have any plans to pay to mitigate for the parking loss.
After a warmup from "the world's first and only stand-up economist," Yoram Bauman (he divided the room into left, right, and swing voters, telling the latter, "Your job is to be clueless and apathetic, and every four years you determine the fate of the free world, [which] may sound like a huge responsibility, but don't give it a second thought"), 1098's highest-profile acolyte, Bill Gates, Sr. took the stage with some fighting words. "The notion that society should be disproportionately supported by individuals of substantial or even immense wealth---that's the way society ought to work!" he bellowed. "There is just no excuse for this erroneous proposition that we should reduce the tax burden on the rich because that's the way the economy will prosper. That's bullshit!"
Gates' words must have have a rousing effect: The EOI raised nearly $140,000.
2) Whoa: The close race between incumbent Democratic 25th District state Rep. Dawn Morrell and Republican challenger Hans Zeiger got a whole lot closer yesterday, with Zeiger gaining on Morrell (who led yesterday by 61 votes) slightly, to lead by just 28 votes. This race seems certain to go to a recount, which is triggered in legislative races that get closer than about 150 votes.
3) As Fizz noted yesterday, Seattle Public Schools' latest scorecard ranking district schools' performance didn't include a map showing where low- and high-performing schools were located. Yesterday afternoon, the Center on Reinventing Public Education remedied that shortcoming with a color-coded Google map that shows, not surprisingly, that Seattle's s lower-performing schools are concentrated in the southeast and southwest corners of the city, and the higher-performing schools are in the North End. The map doesn't distinguish visually between elementary, middle, and high schools (you'll have to go to the data for more detailed info) but it does give a clear visual impression of what folks who follow Seattle Public Schools already know: South-end schools are suffering.
4) City Council president Richard Conlin pointed PubliCola to one surprising item in the latest Draft Environmental Impact Statement for the deep-bore tunnel recently: Building the tunnel, the EIS notes, would require the state to eliminate nearly 600 parking spaces downtown. Although that might sound like a lot---downtown businesses, as the recent flap over higher meter rates made clear, love their cheap, plentiful parking---the state didn't think so: Their report says removing 570 parking spaces from downtown will not "substantially affect businesses or community services" in the neighborhood. Because of that finding, the state does not have any plans to pay to mitigate for the parking loss.
