And next year, tampon subsidies will probably be included.

When I experience the words, "bike share justice," I know I'm either on Slog or watching "Portlandia."

The issues surrounding bike sharing constitute one of the most grave injustices of our time. If MLK were alive today, he would be giving fiery sermons championing the cause of bike sharing in defiance of the raw, hideous bigotry of the Lyft supremacists

@3

Hey, it looks like you stole Charles Mudede's next article

Out of a 4Billion dollar annual budget, 1 million and some change ( 1.7 average houses ) went to "left causes?"

So the remaining 3.99 billion went to right causes or moderate causes?

This is a big, stupid stretch. This list is sad commentary, and you're really bad at math.

@1
But only for organic, sea sponge tampons...yes, THEY EXIST:
http://jadeandpearl.com/sea-pearls-reusa…
The shit liberals/hipsters come up with is sickening.

"Nearly $1 million in funding for homeless services.....Tim Harris called the funding 'astonishing'...."

In reality, Tim Harris pulled the rug out from under Sally Bagshaw when she proposed a $5 million increase for homeless services, saying in public that it wasn't feasible and that $500,000 was more realistic. Now he's celebrating an "astonishing" $1 million increase. If he'd been more supportive of Bagshaw we'd probably all be celebrating $2-3 million or more in homeless services. His dose of realism allowed the council once again to pass nickels to homeless services while pretending they are manhole covers.

And the big question no one is asking is: WHERE THE FUCK IS THIS MONEY COMING FROM!!?? I tell you where: all of us. Bike shares? Why not just pay the $50-80 bucks for a pawn shop bike? $15/hour for some tool who can't get earn an honest raise? Why should I pay for that?
And a Seattle millionaire's tax? Yep, that makes sense...because we all know people with money NEVER move to where taxes are lower. (That's what the relocation tax they're working on comes in, because how dare people leave the socialist utopia of Seattle)
And next comes such left-authoritarian policies as banning guns in the city (because criminals will listen and not carry a gun in a city if a law tells them not to) banning free speech (it's hate speech to make fun of gay,liberals, womyn, ISIS, socialists and anyone but Southerners) and, of course, banning large sodas.
Jesus, this city makes zero fucking sense. Fortunately other cities are growing where Seattle is soon to fail: "Ironically, Houston’s growth has been more egalitarian than that of the notionally super-progressive San Francisco region. A recent Brookings report found that income inequality has increased most rapidly in what is probably the most left-leaning big city in America, where the wages of the poorest 20 percent of all households have actually declined amid the dot com billions."
Source: http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/20…

You're in love with Houston, and you think Seattle makes no sense? Collectivism, honey, have you ever been to Houston? It's the absolute king of boom/bust towns, and zoning is only a quaint notion.

I think it's grand that you want to move there, however. How can we help speed you along?

I sit replaying in my head all the predictions that Sawant would be divisive, forever on the fringe, forever on the ass end of 8-1 votes, never wielding any influence. How many very responsible people said that, wrote that? How wrong they were.

I wonder if any of these sensible pundits are willing to take back their words. Anybody?

You know who else wrote that? The Stranger wrote that in the context of replacing Frank Chopp with a socialist. In spite of the evidence to the contrary on the Seattle city council. It wasn't the lefty radical who was isolated, it was Tim Burgess (R) and Sally Clark.

So now you have to work extra hard to explain away how adding somebody from the left shifts the center of a body to the left. Except in Olympia. Olympia is different. Totally, totally different. Because, um, because...

Really? You're going to focus on 8 million of pet projects out of a 4+ billion dollar budget? I shouldn't be too surprised. You're version of journalism is akin to Fox News for the right, Ansel. I know you're new to town, but maybe you could try to do a little research into the actual budget and report on how much we spend on transit, or how the new MPD is going to help out parks. If you're going to be our inside scoop to City Hall, we really need better than this prolitical posturing for Sawant.

@12: Yeah. Really. The 8 million in "pet projects" - you know, quickly raising the minimum wage for hundreds of city employees in defiance of the mayor, for example - are great, they're new, and I'm going to highlight them. We've written about the mayor's budget before: http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archive…

@11, Olympia is VERY different, and if you knew anything about Washington state politics, you'd know why. But just for starters, Seattle has 9 councilmembers and relatively good manners, and Olympia has 150 legislators divided into two very separate houses, with very separate leadership groups, and consists of some progressive legislators and a whole bunch of hardened Eastern Washington bozos who'd love to chew up and spit out someone like Sawant or the latest Socialist incarnation. Throwing an inexperienced newbie into that atmosphere and tossing out a seasoned progressive shark like Chopp would be just stupid.

But Sawant is excellent in Seattle. Long may she have a Council seat.

And Ansel, for the second time, the Council did not vote in the budget. They are still discussing some issues, as they said clearly last Friday. They will vote next Monday.

@10: Houston is great. Great expansive ranch and Spanish architecture, lots tall ceilings, very suitable for those concerned with ceiling fans and their hair -- just and FYI for you. Come on down. You'd be right at home. Lots of Tex-Mex and plenty of suntan lotion touch-up opportunities to get your cowboy busting bronco in the mood.

@15 is correct. Do your research Ansel. You'll be better off and so will your readers.

@8: Does your lease end in December or next summer? Because you have said both.

Raindrip dear, I've been to Houston, thank you. And San Antonio, Dallas, Austin and Galveston. The Houston-Galveston area is particularly horrific. The Gulf of Mexico smells like acetone. I leave you and our dear Collectivism my share of all of those places.

Bike justice, really? Way to water down actual civil rights issues like with the SPD. Bikes are important, but you shouldn't be equating them to the struggle with not getting beaten up or worse by the girls and boys in blue.

@19

I'm sure there's a simple explanation for any inconsistencies. Maybe he's got a lease that expires in December for the mountaintop chalet and a lease that expires for the lake house in the summer. I wish I could afford all that, but apparently I don't work as hard as collectivism_sucks to bring home the shawarma.

@8 - Funny how again and again liberal cesspools like San Fran, Seattle, Portland, Austin, Boulder, etc., etc. are the places people MOST want to live driving property values way way up. You know, free market and all that. Meanwhile I live in Utah and can buy a home for the lint in my pocket. I think your precious free market has spoken loud and clear on this one, bud.

@16: I was drunk when I wrote that. Note to self: stay offline after cocktails.

@14

Except all the wise old heads said the Seattle City Council sharks would eat Sawant alive. Now they're teddy bears?

Sawant isn't doing all this stuff. Licata and Harrell and others are doing it. Sawant is just giving them cover, and backup. Her presence allows others -- more experienced, better connected, more subtle -- to let their liberal freak flags fly.

People like you said the same thing when a bunch of crazy teabaggers came into congress. Supposedly they'd accomplish nothing because they were too inexperienced and there were too few of them. In fact, they moved the center of the body to the right, and that gave the conservative establishment cover to get more done. Or block more of what they wanted to block.

The fact is, nobody has to vote for a centrist they don't support. It's one of the biggest lies of politics telling people on the far left that they have to support moderates "or else". It's bullshit. Elect the candidate who represents you and you will see legislation that's more like what you want. Try to triangulate by some kind of jedi mind trick strategic voting, and your agenda gets sidelined while the moderate agenda you voted for gets advanced.

This stuff is not as complicated as you guys try to make it.

@23 The only comment worth any merit on this page..

@6 Your ignorance in this comment shows your knee-jerk reaction to concepts you have no actual knowledge of and the ax you want to grind against people who think differently than you.



Those tampons you attempt to decry are safer and just as effective as the bleached poison that is sold at grocery stores. Toxic Shock Syndrome is a serious issue that kills women every year. Not to mention the studies that have been done that show super absorbent tampons actually can cause tears in vaginal canal, causing women to bleed more heavily, leading to the potential for iron deficiencies and greater risk to STIs.

If you don't have a vagina that bleeds 3-7+ days a month or haven't done actual research on the subject of menstruation, you have nothing to say on this matter. I've been using Jade and Pearls sponges for years and thanks for the link, I'm gonna share it again: http://jadeandpearl.com/sea-pearls-reusa…

@23 FTW

"bike share justice"?

What the fuck does "bike sharing" (subsidized, for-profit bike rentals for a few neighborhoods) have to do with justice?

@19
I, in a VERY BIG lack of judgement, signed a one year lease when I should have asked for a six month extension (and thought I did until I got a rude awakening from my landlord)
Note to self: never be stone when your landlord comes over with paperwork.
Difference between me and a liberal is that I am willing to admit when I screw up.

@28
Keep your shirt on, home skillet. I was just making a joke about hippies. By all means, use sea spunge tampons and refuse to shave anything. No one is stopping you. I am just making a joke.
Do you fly off the handle when someone makes a joke about southern Christians too? I doubt it (note, I am neither a southerner nor a Christian, just saying fair is fair)

@24
Actually, it is red states that are growing and blue states that are dying:
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/20…
And the second, most of the fastest growing cities in the US are pretty conservative, and many are actually in Utah. Source: http://www.forbes.com/pictures/edgl45ffl…

@32: If that last line were true, you wouldn't have insisted for so long that you were correct in saying that President Obama appointed a former Monsanto CEO to run the USDA. And you wouldn't have erroneously insisted that 'sir' is a pronoun.
You're a liar and a hypocrite, not to mention unintelligent.

@33: And yet whenever someone makes a joke at the expense of libertarians, you lose your spaghetti and start yelling about how we're all racist and that Rand Paul isn't a Real Libertarian.

Everyone here knows that there is no "right wing" coalition in the city council, correct?



The left has been in charge of the city budget forever.

@32: That does not explain why you used to claim your lease ended in December, and now that it is close to December you changed it to next summer. Unless your landlord came to your door and demanded you sign an extension AFTER you already knew you wanted to leave immediately.



Which makes no sense, of course. Just stop lying.

I moved here from the east coast a couple months ago. I read about the $15 starting wage and thought it didn't make a lot of financial sense, but now that I live here, I see it as horrible and mean. The politicians, in the interest of votes, didn't raise the bottom rung(s) of the economic ladder . They removed those rungs entirely. There are lots of people with little experience, who are maybe trying to get back on their feet, with less than perfect resumes. They can't possibly start at $15 an hour, not when they are competing with more experienced workers who will gladly accept that pay. The less experienced workers who are trying to lift themselves out of poverty now have no way back in to the workplace. They do not stand a chance. My heart breaks for them. Seattle, you are cruel.