Yup, you can tell an awful lot about a newspaper by the issues it chooses to cover. For example, we here at The Stranger are mostly concerned with gay sex, pot smoking, and transit. If we could have gay sex while smoking a joint on a West Seattle to Ballard monorail, we'd be in hog heaven!

The Seattle Times, on the other hand, of the mere six "major issues" facing the city that they chose to highlight in their otherwise nifty "Meet the mayoral candidates" web app, one of the six is "parking meter rates." That's right, parking meter rates. That, the Seattle Times thinks, is one of the six "major issues facing the city," whereas the ongoing struggle by poverty wage workers to secure livable wages and benefits, that doesn't even make the conversation.

Parking meter rates, major issue. Living wage, not. That's the Seattle Times' Seattle.

Personally, I disagree. Seattle parking meters are way cheaper than private lots. I'm thrilled when I find an open space. But assuming the Seattle Times is correct, and parking meter rates is one of our six biggest issues, then fuck do we live in a problem-free city! So thank you, Mayor McGinn, for a job well done.