History Paper

With titanic headlines like "P-I Tactics Exposed!" running alongside full-page ads urging readers to cancel their P-I subscriptions, The Guild Daily, 1936's five-cent P-I strike paper, was a bit more radical than this year's union rag (www.unionrecord. com). Indeed, while this year's publication features cutesy picket-line reflections by Jean Godden about using strike time to go hiking and daydream, The Guild Daily of yore talked about "Hearst and his lickspittle cohorts... the fleshy-fat gods of greed...."

Comparing 1936's victorious three-and-a-half-month P-I strike to the 2000 strike also prompts comparisons between wussy mayor Paul Schell and 1936's firebrand mayor John F. Dore.

Case in point: On the second day of this year's strike, Schell canceled his order that city employees boycott Times and P-I reporters during the strike. In contrast, check out Mayor Dore less than a week into the '36 strike. Here he is quoted in The Guild Daily (Wednesday, August 19, 1936): "I don't care now whether the P-I ever publishes again. Maybe it would be a good thing for the town if it didn't. If they bring in gunmen as strikebreakers I'll run them out of town or put them in jail as I would any thug...." STRANGER STAFF AND NEWS SERVICES


No Free Parking

Never mind putting $1.5 million in rental assistance programs in the city's budget. The coolest thing urban populist Judy Nicastro did in this year's city-hall budget battle ["City Hall of Heroes," Josh Feit, Nov 23] came in the form of a line-item cut: Mark Sidran's free parking space!

Nicastro's office saved the city a whopping $3,000 by pulling public funding for city attorney Sidran's downtown parking spot. "This was nothing personal," Nicastro says. "It was sheer policy. I look forward to seeing Mark on the bus with me." STRANGER STAFF AND NEWS SERVICES


Save the Children

"Why would anybody want to come down to the children's carousel and disrupt things?" This emotive plea was made during a press conference by Seattle Police Chief Gil Kerlikowske, who was concerned that protesters--honoring the one-year anniversary of the WTO protests and tear gassings-- might take over Westlake Center, children's carousel and all.

Maybe it's better that the activists don't go down to Westlake Center. After all, when it comes to being tear-gassed, children make terrible shields. STRANGER STAFF AND NEWS SERVICES