News Sep 27, 2022 at 5:52 pm

It Refunds SPD, Underinvests in Ending Pedestrian Deaths, But It’s Like 80% There on the Green New Deal

Mayor Bruce Harrell dropped his first-ever budget proposal this afternoon. Lester Black

Comments

2

I've been trying my best to keep up on this but I still I still have no idea who TF the "Solidarity Budget" is, and also why they think they can defeat council members by being mad about it.

3

@2: Why, they’re “… a coalition of groups that includes organizers from Defend the Defund, Seattle 350, and House Our Neighbors!”

As this article goes on to admit, there was never much of a “defund” to defend, and what little defunding was done is getting un-done by Mayor Harrell’s budget. House Our Neighbors! was a failed campaign by Real Change to get I-135 on the Fall ballot. Seattle 350 appears dedicated to running Seattle around most of a circle. ;-)

These groups all seem dedicated to not admitting their agendas lost big in last year’s elections, and to not understanding why.

4

@3 considering we lost upwards of 40% of patrol officers I'd say defund was fairly successful. The only reason they council didn't actually cut the budget is because they would have been sued by the union and most likely some of the citizenry for violating the city charter. Instead they just made it so toxic to work at SPD that officers either retired or quit. So potayto, potahto but on defund but at the end of the day the actions of the council have led to an overall decline in public safety.

What's buried in the SB and what Hannah mentioned in her previous article on it is the "demand" to increase the participatory budgeting slush fund from $30M to $60M. So if you really want to know why these groups are issuing demands and threats than, as usual, just follow the money.

6

"Very little for progressives"? More like very little for the "fanatical rhetoric spewing left of left so far left that they're on the edge of the flat earth". Fixed it.

7

More police... good!

Less waste of money on social programs and schemes that don't work... Good!

More personal responsibility for one's actions... Good... actually very good.

Removal of squatters and vagrants... and I see money being spent to treat addicts... good.

Moaning about more money not being spent on silly projects... Bad.

8

I see quite a bit for progressives here. For one thing doing more than our share for the regional homelessness problem. For another the funding for the green new deal. you seem to have your pantries in a bunch because the budget doesn’t get rid of the police.

9

Panties. I express no opinion on your pantries.

10

@ #3 - I-135 DID qualify for the ballot. We will vote on it next February. Get your facts straight!

11

@10: Read harder: “House Our Neighbors! was a failed campaign by Real Change to get I-135 on the Fall ballot.” February is not in Fall.

(And good luck with that: the Stranger raged hatefully at the very existence of the most recent off-schedule election in Seattle.)

12

So the city moved the parking enforcement division out from under the police department. This was a largely symbolic act. It meant that the city could say it was "defunding police", when in fact, it was doing nothing significant.

Now the new mayor wants to move the parking enforcement back under the police department, in the name of "public safety". Thus you have one bullshit move, followed a few months later by another bullshit move. This is nothing but political theater.

We need real reform of the police department, along with a shift in staffing. We should have fewer people we now consider "cops" (people who carry around guns, and are prepared to use them). We should have a lot more people who know how to deal with shit the police deal with without using guns (social workers, traffic guards, etc.). It makes little difference if all of these people report to the same department head or not. What matters is how many people are doing what, and whether they are doing a good job.

14

Point of fact:

We have never ever defunded the police.

Ever.

In fact, even when we talked about it, we actually INCREASED their budget.

Here endeth the lesson.

The Park Rangers can jump off a cliff.

14

“His proposed budget actually went above and beyond the coalition’s demand for housing.”

So, the “progressive” Solidarity Budget writers actually cared less about housing than did the Mayor. Just another small hint to indicate what these un-elected and self-appointed budget writers really want.

“… why they think they can defeat council members by being mad about it.”

Naked political bullying usually receives deep and lasting approval from the Stranger, so by making these inane threats, the Solidarity Budget crowd at least assured themselves the Stranger would continue to pretend anybody cares about anything the Solidarity Budget crowd says.

(The irony, of course, is that there’s nothing the rest of Seattle would like more than bitter, brutal, primary-election cage-matches between the Stranger’s favorite Council Members and the Solidarity Budget crowd.)

@12: Seattle already has a police-reform process, but getting humans to change their cultures takes enormous amounts of time and effort. Hence the short-attention-span crowd’s refusal to admit “defund” was a risibly catastrophic failure. They want a simple, cheap, and easy answer to one of self-government’s oldest problems, and so they’ll just keep on whining for it long after even they have noticed the rest of us have stopped listening to them.

16

We have participatory budgeting by electing representatives to the council. That was the whole idea behind going to districts.


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