Mayoral challenger Mike McGinn took a shot at Mayor Greg Nickels’s record on the environment this afternoon, accusing him of fiddling while Seattle burns. In his press release, McGinn slammed Nickels for opposing last year’s parks and open space levy (true: He opposed it because he thought it would hurt his pet Pike Place Market levy), supporting 2007’s roads and transit measure, which McGinn opposed (true, but Nickels is widely credited with getting Sound Transit expansion back on the ballot in 2008); supporting a tunnel to replace the viaduct but being “silent” on the impact a new 520 bridge would have on the Arboretum (sorta true, although Nickels has vocally opposed the biggest and most impactful 520 options—and which one does McGinn support?); and doing publicity stunts on climate change while failing to reduce Seattle’s emissions (something I wrote about way back in 2006).
In response, Nickels spokesman Sandeep Kaushik fired off an email blasting McGinn for “going so negative so early,” and accused McGinn of ignoring issues like crime, jobs, education, and road repairs. Kaushik then trotted out Nickels’s record on bike lanes (the city has added more during his tenure than in any previous term), transit (see above) and the Mayors Climate Protection Agreement—a nonbinding agreement that hundreds of mayors have signed. However, bike advocates have criticized the mayor for backing down on bike lanes when pressured by property owners; and almost no cities that have signed Climate Protection Agreement, including Seattle, have actually met the greenhouse-gas reduction goals outlined in the agreement.
Greg Nickels is a hypocrite!
he he … fiddling while seattle burns … a reference to sandeep’s quote in the pi the other day about the mayor paying second fiddle? clever.
I’m a big Michael McGinn fan, though I’ve got to say I was underwhelmed by his campaign announcement. Not by his willingness to tackle the schools situation–I like his guts on that–but by making buses the centerpiece of his transportation agenda.
For a transit supporter to focus on bus service is a bit like if you’re heavyweight champ Vitali Klitschko and you have to take on an MMA star and you get to choose how to fight him, but instead of boxing you choose mixed martial arts. For a transit activist to focus on buses is to voluntarily cede the ground on which you fight the battle. “No please, I’d be happy to fight this battle on your terms.”
Buses are the transit system of choice in an auto-dominated world where transit is second class. You can pour all the money in the world into improving conventional bus service and it still won’t be competitive with driving and it still won’t change development patterns. And the moment you stop pouring that money in, things will revert to the way they were before. Buses are an expenditure in transit, but they’re not an investment.
Anyway, I’m glad to see McGinn and Nickels start having this debate about transit and the environment. And I just wonder if Sandeep Kaushik doesn’t feel just the least bit phony, the least bit ashamed, when he trots out the Mayors Climate Protection Agreement as evidence of what a great environmentalist Greg Nickels is.
sandeep is a tool – always was always will be. burner, sims, and roads and transit, quite a list – can’t wait to add pickle to the list.
cressona – your train to suburbia will not accomplish any of your desires except “investing” in expensive rail.
Latest TOP 10 most popular names for hizzoner so far:
1. MAYOR McCHEESE–by a landslide
2. MAYOR McCONDO
3. MAYOR NOPLOW
4. MAYOR SNOWJOB
5. MAYOR GRIDLOCK -climbing the charts
6. MAYOR FIVEPENNIES
7. MAYOR McSLEAZE
8. BOSS NICKELS
9. MAYOR GREENWASH-new, with a bullet
10. MAYOR QUIMBY
All the names that are just too mean to such a nice fellow, like MAYOR McFATTY, MAYOR PORK, MAJOR PORK, MAYOR BIGMAC, etc. will not be included in the Top 10 names for HIS HONOR. This is Seattle, a nice city, after all.
We are monitoring the TIMES, P-I, Weakly, Strangler, Crosscut, Publicola, and a few blogs for the most mentions in comments from the citizenry.
Newest contenders:
MAYOR FAILure, MAYOR DISASTER, MAJOR DISASTER, MAYOR NOSALT, MAYOR NICKELBAGS, MAYOR KNUCKLEHEAD, MAYOR FUDD, MAYOR CHUMPCHANGE, MAYOR KNUCKLES, MAJOR NOPLOW, MAYOR 5-CENTS
And………………THE KING IS A FINK!
McG @5: cressona – your train to suburbia will not accomplish any of your desires except “investing” in expensive rail.
Right, McG, just like all those other city-to-suburb rail systems in Vancouver and Portland and San Francisco didn’t accomplish anything either.
All you folks who love to demonize bringing rail to the heathens in the suburbs (and who must be confident you yourselves will never have to commute to a job in the suburbs)–I just wonder how much you ever spoke up for in-city transit.
Mayor Greenwash with Major Greenwash.
Keep calling him the “Greenest Mayor”! Too bad he is recognized for the piece of bullshit everywhere but Seattle.
Everybody here in Seattle knows better. That shit won’t walk, talk, or fly for the ” Mayor for Paul Allen, Developers, and the RICH”
BYE, BYE, MAYOR KNUCKLEHEAD !!
Good post!
We need more like these, Erica.
Quality.
Factual.
Control.
Eerica, in the paper version of The Stranger this week you discuss the various candidates for Mayor and don’t mention Dan Savage. Is this because Dan is getting cold feet? Or did he never intend to run and just wanted to talk some Dan trash for awhile? Or did your wine problem affect your memory?
Nickels campaign complaining that someone went negative? After 8 years of hardball “you’re either with me or you’re against me” politics, that is truly pathetic.
Did you know that the Billionaires Tunnel that Greg wants built will have TWICE the global warming emissions as either the Viaduct Rebuild OR the Surface Plus Transit option?
Both DURING CONSTRUCTION and IN OPERATION?
That’s not green …
Trevor – nice to see the Sierra Club groupthink is in full force.
Cressona: welcome to your new set of idiot friends. Hope you enjoy their company for the next 7 months.
The “Mayor McCondo” clown (fighting density in THE CITY) is the kind of anti-social dinosaur EVERYBODY would want to spend the summer with.
And for the full conversion – Cressona – you can also start calling in to the Dori Monson show. With all the other Nickels haters. Who live in Arlington.
Will in Seattle: thanks for sharing your usual air-head opinions and lies.
You wrote the book on fake progressives, with your stupid self-serving elevated viaduct obsession.
This is the classic Nader scenario: people who vehemently disagree with the challenger support the challenger because he is the challenger. Mike McGinn should be extremely satisfied with his base of support: it’s an inch deep, and a mile wide. Aside from the cultish Sierra Clubber constituency, of course.
It’s also nice to see Erica Barnett has attracted a stunted stalker, who has apparently become fascinated with wine. I’m sure she has had stalkers in the past – but they probably weren’t as bloody stoopid and infantile as this one.
Will, meet manchild ECB stalker. ECB stalker, meet Will in Seattle. You kids should get along fabulously!!
Cressona: maybe I was being a bit harsh. To answer your question about the Sierra Clubbers’ misguided obsession with diesel buses- take your pick of Google search words:
Breakthrough Technologies Institute
Fuelcells.org
GoBRT.org
Bill Vincent
Michael Repogle
Institute for Transportation Development Policy (think I got that one right)
And here’s the glue making the whole “green” bus schtick work together:
Blue Moon Fund. That’s the big sugardaddy for all things BRT. And it’s no coincidence the Blue Moon fund was created by the heirs to the CITGO gas empire.
Get it? Fossil fuels and internal combustion engines saving the planet from global warming! (fuel cells thrown in just in case folks figure the Sierrhead Club charade out)
Does Mike McGinn even have a consultant? He is two for two on wrong tone, wrong message.
um, Gabe?
you mean like when you told us if we killed Prop 1 … the Much Roads Some Lightrail … it would never come back?
Um, guess what … it came back as … Just Lightrail.
Hmmm.
I think we’ll take my advice.
Want some stock picks?
oh, and if you want to compare global warming impacts – which is better, a $2000 Tata car that gets 60+ mpg or a $32000 hybrid SUV that gets 18 mpg ….
I’ll give you a hint. It’s the cheaper one.
Going negative so early? Surprised? Nickels started going negative on Paul Schell 18 months before the 2001 election!
Jesus, Will. Just when I think you couldn’t out-stupid yourself.
What in the world does a $2000 car made in India have to do with your moronic monster elevated freeway?
Yeah – rail came back to the 2008 ballot for ONE REASON: Greg Nickels. Who you’re whining about.
Seriously, Will – do you have any concept about how ridiculous many of your posts come across? You have this unique knack for re-defining the clueless liberal airhead urbanite.
Your commentary is about as useful as moldy bread. Imported from Canada.
Light Rail on Cap Hill? Great, Erica will be able to rob all over town.
I suggest we use Gabe as our sacrificial “volunteer” so that the Sky Gods will bless the Capitol Hill light rail station ….
Moldy bread – it’s why we have penicillin so Gabe doesn’t get horribly disfigured …
#10: Okay, this is THE STRANGER. You know, the publication with page after page of escort ads, a column written by a dominatrix who charges $250 to urinate on customers among other BDSM services, a kinky-sex advice column and a Drunk of the Week feature. So, Erica stole a $9 bottle of wine. Not a good choice on her part as I’m sure she now knows, but why be sanctimonious about this and not the other Stranger features? Maybe Erica was just kindly getting the wine for Mistress Matisse to fill her bladder for her next client.
Gabe @13: And for the full conversion – Cressona – you can also start calling in to the Dori Monson show. With all the other Nickels haters. Who live in Arlington.
Little defensive are we, Gabe? Really, I wasn’t even trying to strike a nerve.
Nickels hater? Anything but. On the whole, I think Nickels has been a success when it comes to transit and density. His efforts championing light rail–and his victory there–is enough of a game-changing legacy to overshadow a whole host of warts.
Likewise, I’m afraid McGinn’s opening campaign message hasn’t exactly inspired confidence that he’s anything more than just another well-meaning Sierra Clubber.
However, we have a long ways to go in this campaign, and I welcome the debate. Maybe you think Greg Nickels is a Christ-like figure beyond any reproach whatsoever, but I think the rest of us are mature enough to view all these candidates as neither all good nor all bad and judge from there.