The de-gumming of Pike Place is evidence of the power of Charles Mudede. Prior to his article, this was seen as tourist kitsch. Now, it's just a pile of.... ick.

Municipal broadband is a more worthy expenditure than preschool as it would beckon young minds and all the other unknown geniuses out there -- whose families can't afford internet services now. In addition, the city could generate advertising revenue from ads on home pages. The only thing that bothers me is the slippery slope of privacy since the government is the ISP.

The landlord has a right to give no fucks, and the citizens have a right to tell her to fuck off and not rent her units. Exactly how it should be. The wheel in the sky keeps on turning.

@1 Not that I would typically take babies too seriously, but they were already going to clean the wall, which is what spurred Mudede's musings on the topic.

@2: I doubt the actual gov't would be the ISP, they would give that contract to a private contractor, who would be loose and haphazard with the data, like all other private ISPs currently are.

Weird, Julie Medina's LinkedIn profile is down.

@3,

Sure, she's got that right. And seattleblues has the right to not renew a lease to tenants he doesn't approve of for undisclosed reasons. Of course they might be assholes for exercising those rights. And we as a society should place a higher degree of importance on tenant protections so that folks aren't forced to uproot and disrupt their entire fucking lives every time some landlord wants to exercise their God given capitalistic rights.

@2 Are you feeling alright, drop? Don't you know municipal broadband would be SOCIALISM? Isn't that SCARY?!?

and @3 nailed it. I'd trust a public agency of the City of Seattle to protect my private data much more than an unaccountable private company that has a financial incentive to share that data with the highest bidder, not to mention an extreme willingness to roll over for the federal government at any opportunity (see AT&T, et al).

(guess I should probably clarify that seattleblues doesn't have that right. However, as long as he doesn't disclose his bigotry, there's nothing we can do about it. We need better tenant protections.)

They should sort, clean, sanitize, and reflavor the gum and sell it back to the public.

What does it take to get Seattle's representatives and senators in Olympia to raise the topic of Rent Control?

@7

Now that seattleblues appears to have died, at least @3 hasn't gone on a "Kid Herz" rant yet.

@9, to be impacted directly. For some reason, I'm guessing those you wish would raise the topic aren't renters and do not live in Capital Hill. More likely, they are your landlords.

@7: If you want economic freedom, you have to respect the economic freedoms of others as well. The prices of beef recently has been rising, but that does not mean the grocery store has to sell it at a reduced rate so diners who can no longer afford it do not have to uproot their entire meal plans.

The main perk of renting is that you have flexibility year to year if you need to move, and do not have to pay if the furnace breaks down. The downside is that you may have to move if the landlord shuts down the property or raises rents, this is the way it has always been. Also, moving apartments is not "uprooting your whole life." Give me a break, people do it every year.

No argument from me that we need better tenant protections, but "tenant has a right to pay whatever rent they feel like for as long as they want" is never going to be one of them.

@10: I continue to be flattered by your unsolicited attention to all of my comments, but I have to admit I have no idea what you are talking about here.

@11,

They're up for re-election next year. Time for a change.

@12 Wait, what? Seriously, who moves EVERY YEAR? That sounds like a fucking nightmare.

Medina, GFY.

@2 and @6, the government agency that has fought for your right to information privacy as well as have Masters working with information are librarians. They already do this on a small scale.
Revise SPL's charter to scale up their responsibility to act as a bare bones ISP for all library patrons.

@9, When the Tenant's Union outlobby and outbribe Developers, Boeing, Microsoft, and Amazon.

Just go with CenturyLink like everyone else.

Cripes they sponsor your Seahawks and their stadium.

What kind of a knife in the back is this, City Fathers ?

(Or is Falcone at work here ......)

Does used gum go into the food/yard waste receptacle, or the garbage can? Be careful -- the Seattle Solid Waste Police are watching ...

@20

Well, perhaps you will die soon because some underfunded service that could have saved your life wasn't able to help you because of Eyman's actions, and you won't have to worry about anyone killing you for supporting Eyman.

@10: "Kid Herz" was always more Seattleblues's thing, and he fucked off a month and a half ago.