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Nov 19, 2009 at 4:00 am
How Mike McGinn Broke the Seattle Machine—and Why the City Will Never Be the Same
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800 Maynard Ave S, Suite 200, Seattle, WA 98134
800 Maynard Ave S, Suite 200, Seattle, WA 98134
I especially like the nod to food carts. We need more. I want to be able to pick up a tofu kebab on the go, or have a nice pad thai while standing on a corner in Belltown.
Some technical asides, other than the correct point about Conlin ...
1. McGinn actually led the primary, contrary to early vote totals.
2. The Billionaires Tunnel is dead, partly due to the rural voters (who don't want to pay for it) and partly due to Seattle voters (who don't want to pay ofr it) and totally due to the State - who can't afford to pay for it. Elections have consequences. Especially when you can't put a project up for a popular vote that nobody wants and nobody is willing to pay for.
3. Timing is everything. Sadly.
Glad you enjoyed the race, and please keep an eye peeled. If I were you, I'd use the Gyllenhaal connection to hang out with Pete Dexter if you don't already.
On top of all of its other issues, the viaduct is ugly and the area underneath it blighted, but I can't help but think that redone properly, we could have both a limited access highway and a roof over a waterfront park and arcade.
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Liar.
FUCK the Seattle power brokers, along with the State and Federal power brokers.
over carcass of our maritime industry.....
and hoping for the finest network of bike paths "more extensive than any in the world"???? Oh, ha ha ha ha ha Any city in Europe is decades ahead of us.
A piece strong on style, weak on substance: rose-colored puffery. After seeing his "work" on the parks levy, I'm just gonna keep my fingers crossed for a few years, hoping he doesn't do too much damage.
Why can't you people wrap your heads around that? Is it because Bennet & Stern are basketball people, and people in the sport are somehow above blame or retribution? It's like blaming your spouse after the both of you sign a toxic mortgage. What about the asswipe who sold it to you? Why not blame him? The real criminals are dancing in front of your face and all you can do is gripe about Nichols, et al. Get real.
It's not quite as simple is you would like people to believe.
The most structurally sound Seawall and Alaskan Way Plaza and surface streets is only achieved with the Cut/cover which handles traffic that the Deep-bore displaces onto the new Alaskan Way and Mercer Street. Imagine 40,000 additional vehicles on the new Alaskan Way, and maybe 5,000 more on Mercer. Take your fingers out of your ears!
The monorail was shoe-horned onto 2nd Ave, disgracefully bulldozed through Seattle Center, and through Interbay its station area development would be little more than parking garages. It was poor engineering that stripped the energy from alternative routes that were more productive, less invasive, less expensive and still viable.
The monorail dream is not dead. But like the monorail, the Deep-bore tunnel is a nightmarish reality the result of incompetence and corruption in high places. I hope Seattle's powers that be are pissing their pants afraid of Mike McGinn.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nSlTMUd8c…
Enjoy...
Mike McGinn has turned nothing upside down. He is a front man and subsidiary for Vulcan's agenda. They like him and funded his Great City because they know he'll tell the activists what they want to hear while maintaining the developer-friendly status quo.
He won by several thousand votes because he ran against a loser with no substance. He rounded up a bunch of unemployed subsidized college kids and gave them unpaid jobs to run his campaign that they could slap on their resume. He kept the best ones as underlings, because they'll work harder for less than incumbent City Hall staffers and they obviously take orders well.
Go back to L.A., Grant. You were a political cancer to this city and we're glad we're in remission.
"GrassRoots, a dramatic feature film based on Phil Campbell's book about that campaign, will be directed by Stephen Gyllenhaal and shot in Seattle this spring."
You are also a tool.
I'm glad you got out, out, out before you went bananas. There's a reason politicians tend to be old: they're the only ones stunned enough to face the insanity every day.
Seattle will get what it deserves. If that means more people like you need to leave to work the magic elsewhere - too damn bad for Seattle. It's just a hunk of property. Pretty as it is, it ain't worth that much.
Does Christoper even bother to edit any more?
There are plenty of places to point out gaping lapses in logic or basic understanding of civics in this piece but his rambling lead tips off what a wank job this story is.
He claims he "nearly made it" onto the City Council?
He lost that race by 22%.
Only a megalomaniac would translate losing by 22% a close race. We've all moved on, Grant. You should to.
I don't understand the negative comments that address nothing that was said with any valid counter point. They are only empty insults from the brain dead, e.g. @34. Let's raise the bar a little folks even if it's just the comments section.
I know from machine. A machine is a tight, closed operation. A machine is generally gleefully corrupt to a level unknown in Seattle.
On the other hand:
A machine controls votes by giving voters something.
A machine DOES THINGS.
If Nickels had had an actual machine and actually did useful things for the voters, (starting with plowing the streets--you would think a Chicagoan would know that one) he would still be mayor.
I would love it if McGinn actually did good things for the city. I would also be pretty amazed--he looks like someone else who will get bogged down in the precious Pwocess.
Prove me wrong, Mikey--for god's sake, prove me wrong and do something to move this city off its whiny smug butt.
"Grant unfortunately McGinn is going down like the monorail and will be voted out of office so loud and clear that any good of it, will be washed away. "
We'll just have to wait and see about that. I think it takes a certain kind of arrogance to whole-heartedly assert that a politician is "going down" immediately after that politician just finished winning an election.
...I should say: a "special" kind of arrogance.
Like all the true-believers on the left and on the right, the whiny Mr. Cogswell really does think he is morally superior to those who manage to see shades of gray rather than black and white. In that way, he's sort of a male Sarah Palin...who also quit politics but still likes to sound off!
My favorite part of his silly, breathless, I'm-a-victim pile of run-on sentences and convoluted, self-absorbed asides was when Grant said he'd rather be "an artist" than a politician, AND that he was only back in Seattle for a short time and would be leaving soon! Three Cheers! Take your tender heart out of here and let the rest of us try to manage life in the city...sorry if it's just too much for you to handle.
N 45th gets 24,100 cars a day and the viaduct gets 109,300 per day. (2006 map, the most recent on the City website.) That is, the viaduct gets more than four times the amount of cars as N 45th. And N 45th is backed up for blocks, including busses, as it crosses under 99 at rush hour.
YOUR PERSONAL THOUGHT ARE WRECKING OUR DIVERSITY SO SHADDUPT OUTLANDER!!!!
Interesting point except that I-95 loops around Boston. The road in question is I-93 which connects Boston to Canada and is mainly vital to Bostonians who want to go to Vermont. Fact checking is your friend.
He said, "You've been through all this" or "You kind of laid the template for this" or "You helped us get here"—I would like to remember what exactly, but I could barely concentrate on what he was saying.
Hahaha... seriously? Wow. I look forward to the Grant Coswell: I Am The Cosmos autobiography in my local bookstore's science fiction section.
oh and you're working on a film? how many times could you shoehorn that into an article about the seattle's mayoral election? i guess apparently at least three times ...
http://www.seattle.gov/transportation/tf…
@46: Boston is on the I-95 corridor, just as Seattle is on the I-5 corridor. To talk about 405 here for instance, from the other side of the country without indicating it is part of the I-5 corridor would be misleading. So would designating the Big Dig as something unrelated to I-95. Trees, meet forest.
Here is what we need ASAP: Rural communities need infrastructure, NOT cities. Now. Our future is dependent on the independent minded populations who live in rural areas, not in cities.
It is time for heavy money to go into infrastructure, which was originally promised. SEWERS will help clean up natural aquifers, lakes and streams. Small communities need infusions of capital, not big cities.
Big cities have taken, taken, taken for decades, leaving small communities to decline. Our future will come from our small communities, where small businesses can and will thrive - but we need SEWERS, WATER SYSTEMS, ROADS, AND TRANSPORTATION MOBILITY (bridges, ferries, airports) to succeed.
Otherwise, props. I can´t wait to hop on a train and get to Ballard faster than I can ride my bike. 45th is hell.
Also, I´m starting an empenadaderia. Not vegan, but the opposite: Chilean.
We Seattlites are way to concerned with our self image, and it costs us our warmth.
Grant, your testimony is an invaluable gift. It's also a laser beam to help the young people daylight the hidden workings of this city and the coop-tors of our dreams.
The establishment held their noses to vote for Nickels. Nickels could get things done and if you crossed him made sure things didn't get done. He lost due a rare and usually strong snowstorm. His battles with the council led to Drago sealing his fate. She robbed him of enough votes to win the primary in a campaign seemingly more about spite.
That left two unknowns, neither who received more than 30% of the votes. Mike McGinn running on the anti tunnel platform and Joe Mallahan running on the pseudo Republican pro business platform.
The Democratic establishment again held their noses and supported Mallahan. Mallahan's lack of politics was bad, but his pathetic voting record was toxic. Even still McGinn saw the writing on the wall and disgarded his tunnel opposition to broaden his voter pool.
McGinn ran a good race, but he was also very lucky. I wish him the best, but his lack of experience makes me very queasy.
McGinn has experience working with people, thinking outside the box etc. Those are essential to helping the city get on track.
No one has mayoral experience but those who get elected mayor.