1. Mayor Greg Nickels reportedly called city council members urging them not to sign a letter supporting King County’s request for federal transportation stimulus dollars to replace the crumbling South Park Bridge, because he feels the county project will compete with Seattle for federal TIGER Grant (transportation stimulus) dollars, which the city wants to go toward the $290 million two-way Mercer project.
The irony: Seattle has argued for years that the bridge—which is in the city of Seattle but is owned by the county—should be a county project. Now that the two are in competition, the mayor has changed his tune.
2. Speaking of transportation stimulus dollars: While Seattle has, so far, remained focused on megaprojects like the Mercer Mess fix in seeking stimulus dollars, Portland, Oregon has gone a different direction, seeking federal money for a slew of nonmotorized (i.e., bikes, not roads) projects from the feds. Among them: a 55-mile “complete bikeway network”; retrofitting of Portland suburbs for bike access to transit stations; and a new trail connecting downtown Portland to Mount Hood.
The next mayor, obviously, will play a huge role in determining whether Seattle keeps pursuing money for auto-oriented megaprojects or takes a different route.
3. The 37th District Democrats (Southeast Seattle and a small part of Renton) made their endorsements for the general election last night. No big surprises: Because the district happened to pick folks who made it through the primary during the previous round of endorsements, the latest round was predictable: Joe Mallahan and Mike McGinn for mayor, Pete Holmes for City Attorney, Richard Conlin and David Ginsberg for City Council Position 2, David Bloom for Position 4, Nick Licata for Position 6, and Mike O’Brien for Position 8.
The 37th District’s bylaws don’t allow members to revisit previous endorsements; although some members were unhappy with the dual for Mallahan and McGinn, district vice chairman S. Michael Wolfe says the group opted not to open the bylaws up to contention for a single race (probably a good call, given the chaos that ensued when the 34th District did just that).
4. The widely derided decision by Mount Vernon Mayor Bud Norris to award a “key to the city” to race-baiting FOX commentator Glenn Beck is now being opposed by six of seven Mount Vernon City Council members. (It’s also the target of an online petition, which you can sign here.)
Council members are seeking to pass an ordinance that would require the mayor to get the council’s approval before naming a day after an individual or awarding him or her a key to the city—a proposal that would have the effect of quashing the mayor’s controversial proposal.
5. Sable Verity (AKA SoulNerd) argues on her blog that Joe Mallahan’s controversial statement about gang violence in last week’s mayoral debate (he said (@ 1:09), “Adult role models who can be effective and credible in attacking the culture of self hatred that leads to the illogical behavior that you see with a young person joining a gang”) shows that his approach to public safety goes “beyond the simple reasoning of ‘more cops will fix everything.’”
Read the whole thing here.
Today’s Morning Fizz is brought to you by Washington Conservation Voters.
