Just cancel it. All their opinions are the same anyways.

This has all the desperation of McGinn's "the west seattle whole foods is non-union, so they aren't paying a living wage and we should block their street vacation" stance.

Curiously, when his buddy Chris Hansen wanted to build an arena, he didn't set a "living wage" floor during those negotiations, and they're in the process of trying to get a street vacation so they don't have a city street in the middle of any potential basketball court. Maybe we should block that street vacation until there's a living wage agreement attached ?

Dammit, the little pissant is doing something I agree with.

Burgess, show'em you deserved their endorsement and don't give the little NIMBY tool any high ground.

@1 Actually the arena MOU was done in coalition with many labor unions to ensure that workers would have access to a fair organizing and bargaining process and thus better wages/benefits/protections etc.

Agree with him or not, that deal and the West Seattle Whole Foods stance represented a pretty consistent alley vacation policy on McGinn's part.

http://www.unitehere8.org/2012/09/broad-…

@3, except he'd never really interjected his opinion towards the DPD about that for other projects, and it's a building with Whole Foods as an anchor tenant, not theirs. If he wanted a policy of living wages at businesses that need alley vacations, he needs to define the living wage threshold independent of unions being involved.
http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archive…

As for the arena, there's a labor peace agreement and talk about prevailing wages (and the stagehands unions have been wanting more work than Key provides), but nothing about a defined living wage that any worker employed at the arena should be earning.

You can have a living wage at a non-union job, afterall. See how happy The Stranger is without being unionized.

@4:

Um, you-all kicked McGinn out of office last time I checked, so I don't think there would be much point for him to define anything nowadays.

@5, Still plenty of time to require a defined living wage for all workers at the arena if they want an alley vacation. In fact, September 3, 2015 at 9 AM is the scheduled Design Commission meeting they'll be discussing the public benefit package and probably put it up for the street vacation vote. They have a 56 pg packet describing art, exterior seating, lighting, signage, even a network of bike lanes along holgate, airport way, 4th avenue S, S royal brougham way as "public benefits" we should vacate the street for, but nothing in the packet about worker wages.

http://www.seattle.gov/dpd/cityplanning/…

if they want a *street* vacation.

It's a real city street right now, not just moving the alley like the Whittaker/Whole Foods that McGinn opposed based on living wage issues.

Hell, even with McGinn gone and the blowback about using street vacation decisions based on unionized labor anchor tenants, all the incumbents who would participate in this debate had their hands in negotiating this MOU and didn't include any terms about requiring living wages for workers at the facility.

They're moving the debate to the Sharaton? Why? Was the Sheraton full that day?

(P.S. The Sharaton/Sheraton isn't union either. The only big union hotel in Downtown Seattle is the Westin, which is sort of dumpy, but not because of the union)

@9 you make me laugh. However the Westin does feel more "dumpy" to me due to the less than hospitable employees....

@1 " Maybe we should block that street vacation until there's a living wage agreement attached ?"

Occasionally and probably inadvertently, you make suggestions full of good sense but you are late here since we already passed a minimum wage that is supposed to be a living wage. Are you suggesting that a higher minimum wage is needed?

@11, The minimum wage in Seattle went up from $9 something to $11/hr now, $10/hr if you've got less than 500 employees. Glad to hear that you consider that a living wage for all the part-time workers an arena usually has.

Or you could require employees at the arena be paid for at least 30 hrs of work a week at a real living wage.

@12 Interestingly, I wrote "supposed to be a living wage", yet somehow you read that I considered it a living wage. Anyway, if a higher min wage is what you meant, why do you want it to apply only to arena employees?

@13, because you have far more leverage with the people asking for hundreds of millions of dollars of city/county tax revenues to be handed over. I also think it's better for minimum wages to be set at a broad level (at least county) to minimize any reasons for subsurb-flight.

Moresanity dear, the problem with The Westin isn't the employees or the union. It's the management. Back when I worked there, when Westin was a Seattle-based company, with corporate HQ right across the sky bridge in the Westin building, the place had class. Two restaurants (one fancy, one a coffee shop) and three bars, including a discotheque, a wine bar and an amazing Trader Vic's. Only the Four Seaons Olympic (itself a former Westin) was classier. And they were rolling in cash. Today it's a gussied up Holiday Inn with a bar/restaurant. I don't blame the employees if they are a bit surly.

@5, yes, there is still time to include the "groundbreaking" agreement that already happened three years ago into the MOU.
File that under amendments for document cleanup, along with any punctuation and spelling.

@16, The MOU has set most of the terms for the deal. It doesn't look like anyone plans to do significant modifications (hockey first, for example).

But McGinn has opened my eyes to the street vacation process and how important it is that we not give up the public rights of way without examining how workers are treated. Setting a living wage (and a predictable minimum number of hours, like what many of those grocery workers unions were striking for a year ago) and certainly worth exploring for a project asking for our street and our tax revenues to do it.

*are* certainly worth exploring

argh *is* certainly worth exploring
McGinn's stance only became clear in mid 2013 when he penned his letter to SDoT director Peter Hahn. Maybe that was Hansen's intention all along to make sure the part time arena workers were treated well, but when dealing with mega projects it's good to get it in writing.

"Streets and alleys are public property, owned by the people of Seattle. There is no right under the zoning code or elsewhere to vacate or to develop public right-of-way. The City may not vacate apublic right-of-way unless City Council determines that to do so is in the public interest. Street and alley vacation decisions are not limited by land use policies and codes, and vacations may beconditioned or denied as necessary to protect the public interest.

As our city grows, we must be careful stewards of our public rights of way. I believe that it is time toview street and alley vacations in the same way we view any investment of public funds or property, and consider whether they support the City’s vision for sustainable economic development with shared prosperity, as embodied in the Comprehensive Plan, and numerous other city policies and goals.
...
More specifically, the project facilitated by this alley vacation does not move us toward achieving the following goals foundin the Economic Development Elements of the Comprehensive Plan, and the West Seattle UrbanDesign Framework and the Pedestrian Master Plan:

Economic Development Elements ([b]Livable Wages[/b] and Benefits)
We have a strong commitment to social and economic justice at the City of Seattle. One of our coreeconomic development goals is to provide fair and livable wages and benefits for our residents. The Economic Development elements of Seattle’s Comprehensive Plan contain clear language to this effect: [b]“seeking a greater proportion of living wage jobs that will have greater benefits” and "support key sectors of Seattle’s economy to create jobs that pay wages that can support a family, provide necessary benefits, and contribute to the vitality of the City including, but not limited to, the industrial,manufacturing, service, hospitality and retail sectors."[/b]

The SODO arena is dead. Get over it. No NBA. No NHL. Council does not want to revise. Hansen is a proven crook and no one wants to deal with him. Arena will go in Tukwila. Embrace the real option and maybe we get a team back.

If it's dead, why does DPD need to keep evaluating the street vacation and will our city council take up/vote to grant the street vacation with no living wage provisions attached ?

September 2015
9/3 Design Commission Meeting - Seattle Arena