Elections 2023 May 24, 2023 at 4:47 pm

Honestly, Policy-wise, She’s Kind of a Wild Card!

Don’t mess with the Piroshky Queen HK

Comments

1

"There are certainly ways to look at the budget without winning an election, but Sagan did not follow the extensive budgeting process at the end of last year, nor has she referenced online resources that break down public spending."

I review Council Budget Amendments all the time, and I still wonder why we don't seem to have anything to show for all this spending. That's particularly true with city funding for King County Regional Homelessness Authority.

2

Likable! Common sense approach to governing by a woman with “lived experience” running organizations and navigating systems is a breath of fresh air. Hope to see her on the dais.

3

I'm sending a voucher to Olga, probably some of my own real money, too. Good luck, Olga, and thanks for putting your action where your voice is. I'm very impressed.

5

Haven't we learned our lesson with idiot politicians who think government is basically the same thing as business?

6

@5 she said nothing of “running government like a business,” she just wants to see policy have the intended outcomes. She’s even ok with right-sized taxes that return value.

7

"Sagan is admittedly pretty new to local politics–she has not voted in a municipal election in 10 years, and she was surprised to learn she had voted in a local election at all when I told her about her voting record. "

Next!

Honestly, I don't understand why you do these profiles of obviously unqualified fringe candidates. There are good people running. People with endorsements from elected officials, and community leaders. People who are community leaders. This woman's only endorsement seems to be from her daughter. She doesn't even bother to vote. Might as well profile GoodSpaceGuy.

8

I did security for Century Square where Olga Sagan's Pikoshky Piroshky bakery is located. Smart woman, obviously runs a successful business. Her employees were a happy bunch. Winter 2021 into Spring 2022 was maybe about the scariest it ever was in Downtown Seattle with fentanyl addicts turning 3rd ave into an open air drug market and a breeding ground for all sorts of crime. She, like many of the folks who lived and worked downtown during that time, is a survivor.

We as a city have a right to conduct business and our personal lives without the worry of our streets and neighborhoods becoming cesspools. I'm not nearly smart enough to know where to fix the homeless and drug crises affecting so many people in this city. I do know it is not going to be a one-size-fits-all solution, it will be expensive, and the only real time a politician will get involved is to take credit for someone else's hard work. I appreciate that Olga Sagan has the opposite perspective. I am also definitely sending her my democracy vouchers and though I don't live in her District I will encourage the voters who do live there to support her.

10

@2: Careful there! “Lived experience” is a term reserved for performative virtue-signalers, who’ve thoughtlessly enjoyed sheltered — even pampered! — lives, to justify using their underdeveloped intuitions to make serious judgments which affect the rest of us. It is not to be used to describe informed decisions made by persons who’ve actually accomplished something. ;-)

12

@4: What could electing a business owner possibly do for Seattle?

“Yesterday, the Seattle City Council voted unanimously to approve Council Member Sara Nelson's bill to establish a Seattle Film Commission.”

[…]

“The commission is something the Seattle film industry has been advocating for the City to create for years.”

(https://www.thestranger.com/film/2022/09/21/78508166/smell-that-its-the-sweet-smell-of-seattles-new-film-commission)

13

“I sucked! I was the asshole everyone talks about because I only learned [the importance of voting] when things got bad for me. When things were good for me, I was like ‘Doot-do-doo! I’m a small business owner, I’m so cool.’”

What more do you need to know? Doot do doo!

15

What about bike lanes?

16

Not my district, but she touches on some important points so I'll throw in 2c.

First, if you're truly committed to libertarian principles then you need to be just as vigilant about the authoritarianism of business as you are about the authoritarianism of government; and respect the role that each play in curbing the other's worst tendencies. There is some evidence that she is, with her support of the vacancy tax and protecting renters - assuming this support is genuine (politicians are famously honest on the campaign trail, so no worries there).

The support for social workers & street outreach is also heartening, and goes towards her credibility as a libertarian with integrity, instead of a libertarian who wants businesses to be the preferred mode of coercion. It's generally useful to businesses if they have readily available excuses to use the state's violence to enforce their will, so while this does seem to do more to keep the state in check, it also keeps businesses in check. However, "arguing [that] weed was once a scary illegal drug like fentanyl, and now it's seen as medicinal and safe for recreational use" is dangerous and anti-scientific. No, we should not be imprisoning people due to drug problems, but not all drugs are equivalent. People die from fentanyl overdoses. I'm sure that people have died doing stupid shit while high (there are a few people I'm surprised are still alive with how they act), but that is not the same as the effects of fentanyl. And while weed does have withdrawal symptoms which should not be trivialized, they are nothing compared to what an opioid addict goes through. No, our scheduling system has nothing to do with science or outcomes of use, but pretending that all drugs are equivalent also has nothing to do with science or outcomes of use.

17

@4 To be fair, in comparison to some of the other objectively unqualified candidates in this election cycle, Ms. Sagan comes off as somewhat viable.

For instance, this candidate seriously believes the best approach to solving our homelessness crisis is repurposing a U.S. Navy battleship: https://www.thestranger.com/elections-2023/2023/03/13/78895136/drama-kid-ry-armstrong-wants-your-vote-in-district-3

18

@3 Thank you for the best argument against her. If a rwnj like you likes her, she must be worse than the article implies.

19

@18: What's the matter, you can't evaluate candidates on your own and think for yourself?

21

corporate Dems
are "republican" lite

small wonder they
can barely beat
a trumfpster

22

Anybody but Andrew has to be the goal for district 7. He doesn't actually like the job for which he was elected. Governing and ensuring the city performs its most basic functions (you know....the job of a city council person) is an irritant to him. And he utterly failed at that job. He wants to be a union boss or run a non-profit. Let him. He doesn't actually want to participate in effectively running a city. And he's dishonest and smug on top of all that.

23

@21: TBF, Trump had plenty of help from Seattle’s Very Own Trump Of The Left, CM Sawant. Her relentless anti-Clinton campaigning in 2016 may well have cost poor, rural American women their right to choose.


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