Judging by the packed house at City Hall yesterday, I'm not the only one excited about the chance to make 2014 a banner year for progressive politics in Seattle. Seriously, I walked to the front and back and around before I could find a spot to stand and reach back to pull my camera out of my bag. Much to the irritation of a Twittering Seattle Channel producer, I nestled myself into a square foot of space behind her near the podium.

So without further ado, the highlight reel!

Councilmember Nick Licata was his usual wizened and diminutive self, but in a moment of what seemed like genuine exhilaration, he promised the crowd that City Council is "where the action is." Doddering meetings and endless committee hearings aside, there's some neat stuff on the agendas outlined yesterday. A sampling: Mike O'Brien talked about making more city jobs available to the people of Seattle. Licata called for principal reduction measures to prevent unjust foreclosures, and Sally Bagshaw said she's determined to bolster public transit with or without help from the state.

Then Kshama Sawant ripped capitalism a new one (it was delightful and glorious—watch the whole thing at the 29 minute mark here). And Mayor Ed Murray explicitly pledged to address racism and sexism in a teleprompter-assisted, JFK-quoting closer. This opening line, though: "We inherit from Seattle's Native Americans and the first European American settlers, a belief that progress is achieved when Seattle acts as a community." What the fuck?

With all the oath-taking and speeches out of the way, now we'll see who can live up to the hype. Fun times.