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Tuesday, December 4, 2012

Politics Seattle Can Officially Ignore Albert Shen if He Decides to Run for Mayor

Posted by Dominic Holden on Tue, Dec 4, 2012 at 11:04 AM

Albert Shen, who's on the Seattle Community Colleges board of trustees and is considered a potential candidate for mayor, goes for the anti-transit, anti-tax, lesser Seattle vote:

Seattle these days seems like a never-ending episode of “Extreme Makeover”: the Alaskan Way tunnel project; the streets of Pioneer Square; the proposed Sodo arena squeezed into the life-center of our freight corridor; streetcar construction sprawls throughout the city; and the mayor continues to put bike lanes in major roadway corridors without consideration for freight or maritime mobility and the safety of drivers, bicyclists and pedestrians.

These programs will not only compete against each other; they will limit our ability to take care of what we already have, like Seattle Center.

It feels like the working family — trying to drive to work, pay utility bills and property taxes — can’t catch a break.

Christ, what a tool.

The streetcar line under construction runs through a few miles the most dense portions of the city, so it's not sprawling. Do you know what sprawl is, Albert? Any clue at all? And, yes, the city's relatively few miles of bike lanes are mostly on major roadways—where else should they go, through thinly populated areas where cyclists aren't commuting? Of course they go on major roadways. And none of the transit or sparse bike sharrows are preventing da poor working famblies from driving anywhere. Nobody who spouts this laughable bullshit is qualified to work in City Hall, let alone run the place. This is such a divisive, lazy piece of opinion writing that I suppose it's perfect for the trash heap where it ended up: the Seattle Times editorial page.

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Why do you need bike lanes when people can just ride on the sidewalk?

Sheesh.

Posted by Theodore Gorath on December 4, 2012 at 11:16 AM

Later on in the op-ed he also trashes paid sick leave and funding for libraries and education:

Think about the impact of utility rates on small employers. Think about mandated leave policies and new hiring requirements. Think about homeowners who are underwater on their mortgages whose property taxes continue to rise. Has a levy ever failed in this city?

Continuous levies to support operational budgets cannot be sustained and do not set a foundation so working families can build economic upward mobility.

This guy is really out of touch.

Posted by junipero on December 4, 2012 at 11:27 AM

Tunnels are downward sprawl.

Posted by MacCrocodile

on December 4, 2012 at 11:36 AM

also: WAR ON CHRISTMAS!!!!

Posted by Adrian Ryan on December 4, 2012 at 11:36 AM

Thanks for commenting on this....I read this piece earlier and was amazed at the abject stupidity of the author. What a fucking jerkoff.

Posted by Rotten666 on December 4, 2012 at 11:39 AM

@2 out of touch? You mean he's actually a closeted Paul Ryan Republican.

Posted by Joe Szilagyi

on December 4, 2012 at 11:43 AM

I'd rather ride my bike on the quiet street parallel to the arterial than on the arterial.

Posted by Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn

on December 4, 2012 at 11:54 AM

@1 FTW.

Posted by Martin H. Duke

on December 4, 2012 at 12:15 PM

could be putting together a nice little coalition of mckenna/seattle times type fiscal conservatives, longshoreman/port people, key arena/seattle center/queene anne types, and of course asians to get through primary with like 25% of vote, then pivot to left for general?

Posted by gracchi on December 4, 2012 at 12:16 PM

I don't agree with everything he said, but outside of the Capitol Hill/New Urbanist Stranger bubble there are LOTS of good Democrats who agree with many of the points he makes.

By all means, though, enjoy your little echo chamber....

Posted by Mr. X on December 4, 2012 at 1:07 PM

@7: Seattle Greenways, in case you don't already know about them:

http://seattlegreenways.org/

Posted by LMcGuff

on December 4, 2012 at 1:26 PM

Mr. X @10 nailed it. It's time these elitists get out of their bubble (which doubles as an echo chamber) and realize that Seattle voters have rejected multibillion-dollar tunnels, basketball arenas, and candidates who promote transit and bike lanes. For example, just this year, voters in the 46th legislative district, a part of Seattle where real Seattleites live, refused to elect a radical transit activist who was running for the state legislature.

Hat tip to Andy Borowitz.

Posted by cressona on December 4, 2012 at 1:26 PM

@10) If these "good Democrats" deride paid sick leave and can't grasp the necessity of certain levies to fund basic services, they are also the sort of uninformed dolts on the margins who should be ignored. And god allowing, if these "good Democrats" are stupid enough to believe a smattering of bike lanes and a three-mile streetcar line are threats to families, their candidate needs to be nixed by the primary.

Posted by Dominic Holden on December 4, 2012 at 1:31 PM

@7 - I'm with you, as much for safety reasons as for aesthetic ones. That's not an option downtown, though.

Posted by Free Lunch on December 4, 2012 at 1:49 PM

Thank you! Couldn't quite figure him out on my own. Such a subtle fellow.

Posted by gloomy gus on December 4, 2012 at 2:05 PM

But but but...he's concerned about my safety as a bicyclist! He's worried that I will ride on the street that is supposed to be for cars! He cares so much about my well-being.

Maybe he'll buy me a car, so I can be one of the citizens who counts.

Posted by TVDinner

on December 4, 2012 at 4:24 PM

How did this dumbass even manage to get on the board of trustees of a community college?

Posted by Reverse Polarity on December 4, 2012 at 4:57 PM

A tool, says the writer for The Stranger, which is in the bag for McGinn, who is in the bag for Paul Allen and Chris Hansen and any other passing billionaire. A tool, you say.

Posted by Mister G on December 4, 2012 at 7:05 PM

@18 look out for your non-native plants! They're next after a president never gets elected with an unemployment rate over 8 percent and soon weed will be 11 cents a gram!

Posted by CbytheSea on December 4, 2012 at 10:32 PM

@17 - Right, that is indeed the scary bit.

Posted by anon1256 on December 4, 2012 at 10:59 PM

#19, quite the stalker bitch, huh?

Posted by Mister G on December 5, 2012 at 3:59 AM

p.s. I never claimed that "a president never gets elected with an unemployment rate over 8 percent," or that "soon weed will be 11 cents a gram." Hey, are you the Mittster? Is that why you lie so effortlessly? Or is it because you're a Seattle "progressive?"

Posted by Mister G on December 5, 2012 at 4:02 AM

Why the jail? Because the cost of growing your own, if pot was actually legal in the same way that beer and wine are legal, is about 11 cents a gram. But the state wants to charge 250 times that. Which means that they have to use the police to squash any competition.

In 1960, 1968, 1976, and 2000, the unemployment rate was flat in the second quarter. Each of those elections was razor close in the popular vote. Two of them (1960 and 2000) were decided by election fraud. This year, the second quarter unemployment rate began at 8.2% and ended at 8.2%.

You don't like it, and neither do I, but it's factual. The only way Obama could win would be if he ran a much better campaign than Romney. Which his handlers gave him all the way through the Convention. And then he blew it, big time.

durrr

Posted by Christampa on December 5, 2012 at 9:32 PM

They didn't teach ya to read so good in Tampa, did they, stalker bitch?

Posted by Mister G on December 6, 2012 at 1:32 AM

I seem to have gotten by well enough on the meager skills I picked up along the way.

Posted by Christampa on December 6, 2012 at 3:56 AM

Dominic Holden.... Go Ref 150 !!!!

Wow, it's amazing how a little legal weed can warp minds.... The message of Mr. Shen's OP-ED reads to me like there is a lack of focus on the part of those in governance. Where do you get anti tax, anti-transit??? Try anti-incompetence...nothing more, nothing less.

I read the words...." city leaders, in an all-too-familiar theme, punt on making key, macro-level decisions that protect and propel our city forward.

They focus on finding solutions that beg for a problem to solve, and pander to the least common denominator seemingly without a care to securing Seattle’s position as the innovative, technological, futuristic city that was envisioned 50 years ago"

Sure sounds like the reality of Seattle

Posted by Practical Guy on December 6, 2012 at 3:23 PM

Dominic....

Wow, its amazing how a little legal weed can warp a mind.... Read the words without trying to interpret a position will ya?

It is not anti-tax, anti transit, it is anti-incompetence in government.....

" city leaders, in an all-too-familiar theme, punt on making key, macro-level decisions that protect and propel our city forward.

They focus on finding solutions that beg for a problem to solve, and pander to the least common denominator seemingly without a care to securing Seattle’s position as the innovative, technological, futuristic city that was envisioned 50 years ago"

If you had a clear mind you could see that the words above are exactly what Seattle government does to keep buzz bombs like you happy!!

Posted by Practical Guy on December 6, 2012 at 3:30 PM

#26/27, the problem is that Albert Shen has failed to kiss the appropriate "progressive" rings.

Posted by Mister G on December 6, 2012 at 6:34 PM