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The first online-only news site in state history to get media credentials to cover the state capitol and Seattle city hall, PubliCola has been called a “must-read” by the Seattle Post Intelligencer and a hot “New Media Mover and Shaker” by Seattle Magazine—which also cited our own Erica C. Barnett as the city's No. 1 news nerd.

The Pile Grows

City Hall, News, Politics   July 12, 2010 at 2:16 pm Erica C. Barnett

The pile of phone books in City Council member Mike O’Brien’s office continues to grow.

(Context: O’Brien is asking Seattle residents to drop off unwanted phone books at his office. Dex, Seattle’s primary phone book company, will eventually come to the office and pick them up. O’Brien is pushing to change the current “opt-out” system, which requires residents to ask Dex not to deliver books (and, in O’Brien’s own experience, doesn’t work) to an opt-in system, in which customers would have to ask for phone books instead of receiving them automatically. Lobbyists for the phone-book and paper industries are visiting the council from out of state tomorrow).

Dex hasn’t showed up yet, and the last time I was in O’Brien’s office, an aide was heading out to pick up another shipment. Here are the current piles:




  • ATL

    it's not like the city council has real work to do or anything . . .

  • GregoryH

    I tried to opt out last year, but got a bag of books again last week. They went from the front porch to the recycling can. BAN THE BOOK http://www.banthephonebook.org/

  • Ken

    Ya know, I am a senior and I would sure rather have council members concentrate on issues that really make a difference for this city rather than try to find ways to make my personal life more complicated. I may use Google to find a service I need or want, but to do that, you need some prior information. With the Yellow Pages, which I use several times a month, I can go to the listing and run my finger down the page until I find what I am looking for. Maybe there would be less harsh treatment of government if government concentrated on critical issues and not on issues that do little but complicate day-to-day activities.

    Ken Bertrand
    Seattle resident
    kcougber@comcast.net

  • Natehc1984

    This is real work. If you want to make change in the city, you have to get really technical and small. This is a small easy idea that will make a small good change.

  • Natehc1984

    He's trying to save city money. I would rather pay slightly lower taxes than not have to ask for my phone book.

  • seandr

    On behalf of toddlers and other vertically challenged people fighting for “a seat at the table”, I take exception to Mr. O'Brien's callous phone book politics.

  • Worldshifting

    People compaining that the issue of phone books is minor fail to comprehend that this is about zero waste, which is integral to having a sustainable future. These pieces aren't hard to put together. Compaining about phone books being unimportant is like complaining that people make too much of a big deal about voting. “If I don't vote, it doesn't matter because it's just one vote”. This kind of thinking fails to see the bigger picture and the cumulative effect of what on the surface are small actions.

    The city has zero waste goals that can only be achieved a step at a time. We cut waste anywhere we can, because the waste stream is made of up many components, tons and tons of which are phone books.

  • Gomez

    So THAT's why we elected Mike O'Brien! To collect phone books as a passive aggressive bitch statement! Now it all makes sense!

    I just wish we weren't paying him so much.

  • Gomez

    Right, because phone books are the reason our city has a multi-million dollar shortfall. Phone books.

  • Burrington

    How many jobs will be lost with this measure? The marketers, folks in advertising, and even the people who make minimum wage delivering the books? Just asking…

  • http://twitter.com/VeloBusDriver VeloBusDriver

    I tried to opt-out this year – Dex kindly delivered a new set of phone books to my house as well as to my mailbox. Er, uh… Opt-OUT, not Opt-in-in, Dex!

  • jazzerciser

    Hi all,

    Kudos to O'Brien. This boils down to a simple principle: the right to refuse bring given things. If I saw any of these anti-O'Brien people walking down the street and went up to them and tried to give them a five-pound object, they'd probably refuse and they'd have a perfect right to. If I continued trying to force them to take said object they'd probably heave a punch my direction, and even they might come to realize the underlying principle.

    Golly is Mike O'Brien a breath of fresh air.

    Thanks all, jazzerciser

  • Guest333

    Let’s just pay them to do other meaningless jobs, like walking in circles in a gymnasium. At least there they won’t be dumping garbage on my front porch!