Morning Fizz
Duping Voters and Protecting Corporations
1. The Sierra Club issued a statement yesterday blasting Seattle Port Commissioner Gael Tarleton for blocking a vote Tuesday
on a resolution directing the port's director to come up with alternative plans to clean up the port's dirty diesel trucks, which travel through the Georgetown and South Park residential neighborhoods.
The statement reads, in part, "We are very disappointed that Commissioner Tarleton has blocked the Port’s support for common sense air pollution programs. Air pollution from the trucks at the Port hurt communities in South Seattle, provide unjust working conditions, and contribute to climate disruption. ... Seems Commissioner Tarleton is duping the voters who supported her as a progressive. Now, she is using her position to protect the corporations that make money at the port, like Wal Mart and the American Trucking Association."
2. Perhaps confirming the theory that the Democrats in Olympia are becoming more liberal, The Road Kill Caucus (the ad hoc conservative caucus for dissident Democrats in the state legislature) didn't win a single leadership position in the state house as the Democrats finalized their team this week. And it wasn't for lack of trying. They went for three of the six spots.
Conservative Democratic Rep. Kathy Haigh (D-35, Shelton) lost her bid for caucus chair; liberal Seattle Democrat Rep. Eric Pettigrew (D-37, S. Seattle) got it . Conservative Democratic Rep. Larry Springer (D- 45, Kirkland) lost his bid for speaker pro-tem to liberal Rep. Jim Moeller (D-49, Vancouver)—Moeller replaces conservative Democratic Rep. Jeff Morris (D-40, San Juan) by the way, who lost his bid last month to become majority leader to moderate Rep. Pat Sullivan (D-47, Kent).
And increasingly conservative Seattle-area Rep. Sharon Tomiko Santos (D-37, S. Seattle) lost her bid to liberal Kevin Van De Wege (D-24, Sequim) last month.
The conservatives didn't even field a candidate for floor leader, which went to the leader of the progressive caucus (the Blue Green Alliance), Rep. Tami Green (D-28, Tacoma, Lakewood)—who ran unopposed.
3. In an appearance on C.R. Douglas' Seattle Channel show "Ask the Mayor" Wednesday night, Mayor Mike McGinn expressed his support for the surface/transit alternative for replacing the Alaskan Way Viaduct--- an alternative that has fallen somewhat off the radar in recent months. McGinn argued that "we have two surface plans now---one surface plan comes with improvements to I-5 to increase traffic flow and dramatically larger investments in transit so people don't have to drive, and the other surface plan comes with a $2 billion tunnel that carries fewer people than the Ballard Bridge—a reference to the fact that the Washington Department of Transportation's own study shows tolling would push an estimated 45,000 cars of the 80,000 that would use a free tunnel onto city streets.
McGinn also said he has "of course ... talked to legislators about" getting rid of the infamous cost overruns provision and that "we are working on getting a sponsor and getting it introduced."
4. This item has been corrected to note that Fred Podesta, director of the city's Department of Executive Administration, not Mayor Mike McGinn, said that while there were contaminants on a proposed homeless encampment site in SoDo, those contaminants were harmless and did not require any cleanup. In non-tunnel talk, McGinn told Douglas that the contamination found by a city consultant on the site where he wants to put a permanent homeless encampment is not serious enough to warrant looking at other locations. (Initially, the director of the city's Department of Executive Administration, Fred Podesta, claimed that the site did not need any hazardous cleanup). "A lot of properties in these areas have some … contamination. What we know now now is the level of contamination at the site is sufficiently low."
Late last month , the county's public health department said it had not yet determined whether the site was safe for human habitation.
5. The U.W. Master of Communication and Digital Media Department has pulled together a cool event (scheduled at the last minute). Tonight, from 5 to 7 PM at the downtown library, they're hosting a discussion titled "Open Secrets: An Open Conversation about Wikileaks and Information Transparency in America," featuring department director Hanson Husein and Seattle Times editor at large Mike Fancher.
6. Opponents of a Dale Chihuly glass-art museum at Seattle Center have expressed concern over the fact that a Chihuly museum would be privately operated and cost $12 to enter. However, little attention has been paid so far to the fact that a new Ferris (ahem, "observation") wheel proposed as part of the Center's yearlong celebration of its 50-year anniversary will be privately operated and will mostly benefit a single private corporation.
According to Seattle Center spokeswoman Deborah Daoust, "a small percentage" of the revenues from the operation of the wheel will help pay for the 50th-anniversary festivities; the vast majority will go to Great City Attractions, the UK-based company that will build and operate the wheel. Additionally, rides will cost between $10 and $15 for adults---comparable to the admission charge for the controversial proposed Chihuly Museum.
The statement reads, in part, "We are very disappointed that Commissioner Tarleton has blocked the Port’s support for common sense air pollution programs. Air pollution from the trucks at the Port hurt communities in South Seattle, provide unjust working conditions, and contribute to climate disruption. ... Seems Commissioner Tarleton is duping the voters who supported her as a progressive. Now, she is using her position to protect the corporations that make money at the port, like Wal Mart and the American Trucking Association."
2. Perhaps confirming the theory that the Democrats in Olympia are becoming more liberal, The Road Kill Caucus (the ad hoc conservative caucus for dissident Democrats in the state legislature) didn't win a single leadership position in the state house as the Democrats finalized their team this week. And it wasn't for lack of trying. They went for three of the six spots.
Conservative Democratic Rep. Kathy Haigh (D-35, Shelton) lost her bid for caucus chair; liberal Seattle Democrat Rep. Eric Pettigrew (D-37, S. Seattle) got it . Conservative Democratic Rep. Larry Springer (D- 45, Kirkland) lost his bid for speaker pro-tem to liberal Rep. Jim Moeller (D-49, Vancouver)—Moeller replaces conservative Democratic Rep. Jeff Morris (D-40, San Juan) by the way, who lost his bid last month to become majority leader to moderate Rep. Pat Sullivan (D-47, Kent).
And increasingly conservative Seattle-area Rep. Sharon Tomiko Santos (D-37, S. Seattle) lost her bid to liberal Kevin Van De Wege (D-24, Sequim) last month.
The conservatives didn't even field a candidate for floor leader, which went to the leader of the progressive caucus (the Blue Green Alliance), Rep. Tami Green (D-28, Tacoma, Lakewood)—who ran unopposed.
3. In an appearance on C.R. Douglas' Seattle Channel show "Ask the Mayor" Wednesday night, Mayor Mike McGinn expressed his support for the surface/transit alternative for replacing the Alaskan Way Viaduct--- an alternative that has fallen somewhat off the radar in recent months. McGinn argued that "we have two surface plans now---one surface plan comes with improvements to I-5 to increase traffic flow and dramatically larger investments in transit so people don't have to drive, and the other surface plan comes with a $2 billion tunnel that carries fewer people than the Ballard Bridge—a reference to the fact that the Washington Department of Transportation's own study shows tolling would push an estimated 45,000 cars of the 80,000 that would use a free tunnel onto city streets.
McGinn also said he has "of course ... talked to legislators about" getting rid of the infamous cost overruns provision and that "we are working on getting a sponsor and getting it introduced."
4. This item has been corrected to note that Fred Podesta, director of the city's Department of Executive Administration, not Mayor Mike McGinn, said that while there were contaminants on a proposed homeless encampment site in SoDo, those contaminants were harmless and did not require any cleanup. In non-tunnel talk, McGinn told Douglas that the contamination found by a city consultant on the site where he wants to put a permanent homeless encampment is not serious enough to warrant looking at other locations. (Initially, the director of the city's Department of Executive Administration, Fred Podesta, claimed that the site did not need any hazardous cleanup). "A lot of properties in these areas have some … contamination. What we know now now is the level of contamination at the site is sufficiently low."
Late last month , the county's public health department said it had not yet determined whether the site was safe for human habitation.
5. The U.W. Master of Communication and Digital Media Department has pulled together a cool event (scheduled at the last minute). Tonight, from 5 to 7 PM at the downtown library, they're hosting a discussion titled "Open Secrets: An Open Conversation about Wikileaks and Information Transparency in America," featuring department director Hanson Husein and Seattle Times editor at large Mike Fancher.
6. Opponents of a Dale Chihuly glass-art museum at Seattle Center have expressed concern over the fact that a Chihuly museum would be privately operated and cost $12 to enter. However, little attention has been paid so far to the fact that a new Ferris (ahem, "observation") wheel proposed as part of the Center's yearlong celebration of its 50-year anniversary will be privately operated and will mostly benefit a single private corporation.
According to Seattle Center spokeswoman Deborah Daoust, "a small percentage" of the revenues from the operation of the wheel will help pay for the 50th-anniversary festivities; the vast majority will go to Great City Attractions, the UK-based company that will build and operate the wheel. Additionally, rides will cost between $10 and $15 for adults---comparable to the admission charge for the controversial proposed Chihuly Museum.
