Morning Fizz
The Highlight for Many Male Lobbyists
1. City council member Jean Godden
, who's running for reelection this year, issued a stinging broadside on her Facebook page yesterday against Mayor Mike McGinn
, who has argued that state law leaves Seattle vulnerable to paying for cost overruns on the deep-bore tunnel.
Godden: "Like it or not, I’d be willing to bet we can expect to hear more 'sky is falling' predictions from Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn [during his State of the City address tomorrow], as we mark the tenth anniversary of the 2001 Nisqually Quake."
Leaving a response on her page, environmental advocate and former Sightline researcher Roger Valdez snarked, "Jean are you running against the Mayor or for re-election. Or both? Something tells me that basing your campaign on neglecting your obligation to the Seattle's tax payers isn't the best basis for a campaign. Maybe you should run on what you've actually done over the last eight years."
Within hours, Valdez's comment had mysteriously disappeared. However, it left a trace: A response from Seattle Gay News editor George Bakan---addressed to "Rodger"---saying it was time for tunnel opponents to "move on."
2. Fizz wasn't able to attend the annual Washington State Democratic Party crab feed in Olympia yesterday evening (guest speaker: Dennis Kucinich), but we did get this report from one attendee (a state legislator): "It seemed like the highlight for many of the male lobbyists there was Elizabeth Kucinich. I didn’t realize the appeal she has with middle-aged men."
3. Check out Transportation Choices Coalition's Twitter feed for the details of what sounds like a superheated congressional hearing in Vancouver about the Columbia River Crossing bridge between Washington and Oregon, featuring Tea Party rhetoric (don't build the bridge! It's a waste of Taxpayer Money!); calls to eliminate prevailing-wage requirements on state transportation projects (thanks, conservative policy wonk Michael Ennis ); and light rail (a sizeable contingent was against it).
The Columbian also liveblogged yesterday's wild hearing.
4. Yesterday was cutoff day in the state senate for policy bills to make it out of committee, and a whole bunch of bills are now considered dead, including: a batch of bills that targeted illegal immigrants as the budget problem, including Sen. Val Stevens' (R-39, Arlington) bill to require students to prove they're in the US legally to be eligible for college financial aid; Sen. Tim Sheldon's (D-35, Potlatch) bill to privatize liquor stores; as we reported yesterday, a bill to put off science requirements for high school graduation ...
And, oh my—a Republican bill that "Eliminates the ability of state employees ... to collectively bargain with the executive branch over compensation ."
5. When we were reading the city's Transit Master Plan briefing book (more on that later today), we noticed an odd discrepancy in the way city transportation planners referred to people who use transit and people who drive. While the latter have "access to a car," the former are "transit-dependent"---a term that suggests that only poor people who can't access the preferred option (driving) use transit, and only because they have no other choice .
We asked Seattle Department of Transportation planners about the agency's seeming pro-car bias . SDOT Transit Master Plan project manager Tony Mazzella said the agency "thought very deeply about" the language they chose to use in the plan, but ultimately decided "transit dependent" encompassed not just people who have no other choice but people who choose not to own a car, people who are mobility-impaired, and people who have access to a car some, but not all, of the time.
However, deputy project manager Jennifer Wieland acknowledged that "transit dependent" could some carry negative connotations. "That's a fair point, and it's something we considered," she said.
Godden: "Like it or not, I’d be willing to bet we can expect to hear more 'sky is falling' predictions from Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn [during his State of the City address tomorrow], as we mark the tenth anniversary of the 2001 Nisqually Quake."
Leaving a response on her page, environmental advocate and former Sightline researcher Roger Valdez snarked, "Jean are you running against the Mayor or for re-election. Or both? Something tells me that basing your campaign on neglecting your obligation to the Seattle's tax payers isn't the best basis for a campaign. Maybe you should run on what you've actually done over the last eight years."
Within hours, Valdez's comment had mysteriously disappeared. However, it left a trace: A response from Seattle Gay News editor George Bakan---addressed to "Rodger"---saying it was time for tunnel opponents to "move on."
2. Fizz wasn't able to attend the annual Washington State Democratic Party crab feed in Olympia yesterday evening (guest speaker: Dennis Kucinich), but we did get this report from one attendee (a state legislator): "It seemed like the highlight for many of the male lobbyists there was Elizabeth Kucinich. I didn’t realize the appeal she has with middle-aged men."
3. Check out Transportation Choices Coalition's Twitter feed for the details of what sounds like a superheated congressional hearing in Vancouver about the Columbia River Crossing bridge between Washington and Oregon, featuring Tea Party rhetoric (don't build the bridge! It's a waste of Taxpayer Money!); calls to eliminate prevailing-wage requirements on state transportation projects (thanks, conservative policy wonk Michael Ennis ); and light rail (a sizeable contingent was against it).
The Columbian also liveblogged yesterday's wild hearing.
4. Yesterday was cutoff day in the state senate for policy bills to make it out of committee, and a whole bunch of bills are now considered dead, including: a batch of bills that targeted illegal immigrants as the budget problem, including Sen. Val Stevens' (R-39, Arlington) bill to require students to prove they're in the US legally to be eligible for college financial aid; Sen. Tim Sheldon's (D-35, Potlatch) bill to privatize liquor stores; as we reported yesterday, a bill to put off science requirements for high school graduation ...
And, oh my—a Republican bill that "Eliminates the ability of state employees ... to collectively bargain with the executive branch over compensation ."
5. When we were reading the city's Transit Master Plan briefing book (more on that later today), we noticed an odd discrepancy in the way city transportation planners referred to people who use transit and people who drive. While the latter have "access to a car," the former are "transit-dependent"---a term that suggests that only poor people who can't access the preferred option (driving) use transit, and only because they have no other choice .
We asked Seattle Department of Transportation planners about the agency's seeming pro-car bias . SDOT Transit Master Plan project manager Tony Mazzella said the agency "thought very deeply about" the language they chose to use in the plan, but ultimately decided "transit dependent" encompassed not just people who have no other choice but people who choose not to own a car, people who are mobility-impaired, and people who have access to a car some, but not all, of the time.
However, deputy project manager Jennifer Wieland acknowledged that "transit dependent" could some carry negative connotations. "That's a fair point, and it's something we considered," she said.
