Names in the News
Here's an enticing tidbit for all the white progressives out there who think City Council Member Richard McIver is doing a lousy job, but are too timid to run against an African American for fear they'll step on the black community's toes. Tidbit: Important voices in the black community don't even know who Richard McIver is.
Listen to a front-page story from the May 9 edition of The Skanner (one of Seattle's black newspapers): "The meeting at the Central Area Motivation Program was attended by... Seattle City Councilman Mike McGyver."
Neither Council Member Richard McIver nor Council Member Mike McGyver--both rumored to be imaginary--could be reached for comment. NANCY DREW
Slow News
Last week, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer royally scooped The Seattle Times on one of the biggest stories of the year. Here's the P-I's May 10 blockbuster headline: "Boeing picks Chicago." The story, by P-I reporter James Wallace, adds, "Boeing will announce today that its new corporate home will be in Chicago.... Chairman Phil Condit and other company officials are expected to leave Seattle's Boeing Field for Chicago this morning...."
Now listen to the languid slackers at the Times. Their corresponding May 10 headline and story read, "Boeing deftly builds suspense over move. As the news media remained on high alert yesterday for impending word on the winner of its three-city corporate-headquarters derby, Boeing resolutely stuck to its... strategy to foil unofficial news leaks."
We can only guess that the Times, after a year, still hasn't gotten the hang of being a morning paper. NANCY DREW
Good News
City Attorney Mark Sidran's decision to run for mayor has a silver lining (or two). First, by campaigning for mayor, Sidran--the man who thinks it's illegal to be homeless--is giving up his city attorney seat. Second, Tom Carr, a real Democrat, has decided to run for the open seat. Carr, 44, is a former assistant U.S. attorney, a monorail board member, and a critic of Sidran's civility laws. "Government shouldn't be about making life more harsh for people," says Carr, an attorney with Seattle's Barrett Gilman & Ziker. JOSH FEIT
Bad-Ass News
Here's more evidence that Council Member Judy Nicastro is as cool as we say. On Tuesday, May 8, Nicastro showed up for a tenants' meeting organized by angry renters at the low-income Ticino Apartments.
Ticino's landlords, Pinnacle Realty Management Company, had told tenants at the Sixth and Yesler apartments that holding a meeting in the building's lobby was verboten. ["Screwed Tenants," Matthew Preusch, May 10.]
Working with the Tenants Union, nine Ticino residents and Nicastro symbolically occupied the lobby at 7:00 p.m. Immediately afterward, 25 residents met outside to discuss a recent rent hike (65 percent in some instances). Nicastro also sent a terse letter to Pinnacle Realty, seconding tenants' demands. "Put yourself in the place of the tenants at the Ticino," Nicastro wrote in a May 14 letter, "and imagine if the bank unexpectedly increased your mortgage by 65 percent.... I am asking you to immediately rescind the current rent increase and refrain from increasing rents more than 10 percent a year." JOSH FEIT
Money News
The April campaign fundraising reports are in and incumbent Mayor Paul Schell has pulled ahead of challenger Greg Nickels. After raising an impressive $97,000 in April, Schell is up to $200,000 total. Nickels, who raised $65,000 in April, is at $188,000. Mark Sidran raised just $30,000 last month, bringing his total to $36,000.
Despite Schell's big month, he still has some catching up to do. Nickels remains far ahead in the number of contributors. Over 1,700 people have given to Nickels, while just 751 have written checks to Schell. NEWS STAFF
