Comments

1
Yeah, we know that they won't shut up. No need to write an op ed about it.
2
@1 Uh, speaking of misogyny.
3
Those of us who don't want to pay the Seattle Times paywall are not reading that editorial.

General question though, regardless of how offensive, awful, misogynistic, the content is of email, tweets, and social media comments - does it really rise to the level of city business? They are our employees after all and above all politicians. Having a basic backbone is what we pay for and they should disregard this is simply cyber-rot.

The real misogynistic threat is coming from Donald Trump, not trolls.
4
@3 Just use chrome and then use incognito windows to view it.
5
It sucks that there are idiots and assholes out there that say stupid, hateful shit. It's unfortunate, and no one deserves it.

But you know what? Toughen the fuck up. You're an elected official - I can't believe this is the first time these women have gotten these kind of rotten, anonymous comments before. Is it right? Of course not. But hateful internet trolls are nothing new, and no op ed is going to change any of their minds.

Instead of giving these assholes the spotlight they so desperately crave, why don't you start talking about the real issue, which was the vote itself. I'm still waiting on Bagshaw's "Plan" to make Key Arena work.
6
So some women get hate mail, they write a letter saying "we don't deserve this shit" and then the response (including this thread) is "whatever, toughen up?"

Pretty sure the problem is t that women don't have tough enough skin, it's that men continue to be the worst people ever. Men are the problem here. Men are the ones sending hate mail. Men are the ones assuming women are ignorant. And men are blaming women for this scenario rather than calling out the other men who are sending the hate mail in the first place.

Knock it the fuck off, guys. And aim your vitriol toward other men. The only way this kind of thing will stop is when men stop doing this kind of thing.
7
@5 the "real" issue isn't any particular vote. Women aren't getting mail because they said no to a stadium vote. These women are getting hate mail because asshole men are sending hate mail.
8
So, the vote just happened to fall along gender lines? Reverse genders and this would clearly meet the Stranger's bar for sexism.
9
The problem is not that they are women, the problem is they are wrong. They are using the dorks in the world to play a victim role that shields them from actually defending their position. For instance. They claim to be concerned about the port, while transit is a priority for general lanes in SODO. How do you make an argument you are concerned about port traffic when you give transit the priority. None of these councilmembers will ever answer that question now. All they have to do from here on out is play up the victim role.

Meanwhile, transit is still a priority for general lanes while more and more bike lanes and trials are in the works. Hard to be serious about a working port when you target an area for residential development. It won't be long before the Seattle port is just a postage stamp. Look what they did to the Ballard/Magnolia port. Just try and get through all the road diets and traffic calming to get there. It isn't just the women and it isn't just these councilmembers. Seattle is flat out not serious about a working port, so to see any councilmember woman or man claim they are without taking out the transit priority, traffic calming,road diets et al is an insult to the integrity of commercial traffic they purport to be concerned about.. Seattle..concerned about commercial traffic...lolol. Get real after you are through whining to the media on the victim crisis line. Talk to the New York Times about that. By all means don't be silent. Explain how Seattle is serious about a working port while transit is a priority for the general lanes in SODO, while the north port is littered with traffic calming, road diets et al...... while you plan to extend the high rises in SODO ..for residential housing..
10
Sometimes you get a little dirt kicked on your shoes during an argument. Don't whine..make an argument back and kick dirt back over the shoes over the person that kicked dirt over yours...Win the argument. If you can. My guess is they can't.
11
@7 Let's say just one of these women voted yes and the arena vote passed. You honestly think the four women who voted no would be getting the same amount of hate and vitriol? I find that hard to believe.

Does their gender play a role? Undoubtedly. Is that fair? No, not at all.

But all that op-ed and all the coverage is doing is showing these trolls that hey, people care about what I say. People care when I'm mean. I'll keep being mean because you know what? This means I'm relevant.

Unless you make online, anonymous harassment a crime, nothing you say or do is going to make these troglodytes change. So why not focus on the actual issue?

And if I remember right, Licotta got absolutely eviscerated when he voted to let the Sonics leave.
12
@7: Right, hate mail. I wonder how much anti-gay hate mail the mayor gets.
13
Each one of them individually made a decision, then refused to take the heat in the public forum. Defend your decision. Cite your reasoning. be responsible public servants. Yeah...the word is SERVANT. Elected to represent a constituency, a councilperson is resposible to that constituency. Explain the vote.

This isn't fucking junior high school.
14
@9, 13:

The entire point here is that these women aren't being challenged on the policy or even being asked to defend themselves from that perspective; they're being harassed by a bunch of misogynistic troglodytes simply because they have vaginas and didn't express sufficient deference to the Patriarchal Imperative. Do you honestly think that If it had been five MEN who had voted against the easement they would be experiencing this same level of rabid vitriol?
15
Saying the coucil members need to "toughen up" when they are told to end themselvws, when they receive threats against their lives, when they are threatened to be raped BY MEN is just the same as telling a woman she wouldn't have been raped if she didn't wear that skirt, or that she was asking for it by going on a date.

If five men voted the street vacation down people would have been angry, but likely, their lives, their physical safety would not have been threatened.

If all these people so livid about a street vacation had shown up to the Sonics games when they were here, or took part in city council meetings, wrote to their representatives, gave them reason enough to vote otherwise, maybe we wouldn't be participating in this discussion now.
16
@9, 13: Thanks for your mansplaining on this topic. I'm sure your words will get into their pretty little heads and they'll change their votes immediately, now that you men have finally stepped up to sort out their hysterical confusion.
17
Gonzalez was a "yes" going into the meeting, but wound up voting "no". She hasn't explained what changed her mind. That's what I want to know.
18
It's always amusing when men comment that women should "toughen up" when faced with male violence. We get it, men are violent and abusive toward each other and they figure if women are "equal" they should also be subjected to the same violent and abusive rage they hurl at each other.* The reasoning of a typical, emotionally retarded male.

If these men are unable to be civilized, perhaps they should be removed from civil society. They could join the army or go to prison - the traditional career path for angry men unable to control themselves.

*"Equal" means "equal before the law." Anyone with a high school diploma should be able to think that one through.
19
I love this! A group of adult men throw a tantrum because the majority council choose to protect existing, family-wage jobs over the pipe dream of an imaginary basketball team. When council members object to the use of bigotry and pejoratives they are admonished to "toughen up". Toughen up ladies, but don't forget to smile!
20
They were surprised at the level of hatred and infantile rage men ooze out of their ugly brains? I'm not. Men are a fucking blight on society. That kind of hysterical vitriol is what people mean when they say they're bathing in male tears. Silly sobbing men telling women to toughen up is funny. Men couldn't last a week living as women. Meanwhile men lose their fucking shit over important matters like someone saying no, this city doesn't need a fourth arena for a team that doesn't exist. They have to be big bad asses and threaten to rape. With what dick? Whiny hateful dolts. Until you grow a sack and toughen up your damn selves, you have zero place telling anybody else to toughen up.
22
@11 - Licota also got eviscerated because of his "basketball isn't culturally relevant" comment, and rightfully so. It felt pretty racist.
23
They're lucky they weren't accused of being racist. The city can provide sport palaces in Sodo for white sports like baseball and football but when it comes to black sports like basketball all of the sudden it's a problem.
24
It doesn't have to be fair, it's Politics.
25
Pro tip. The fucking morons on the city council who voted "No" aren't getting "hate mail" because they're women. Their being women has nothing to do with their absolute incompetence on this issue.
26
They're.
27
"There are women across our nation who are abused, insulted, belittled and exploited at work. Their stories seldom make the news."

There are men across our nation who are abused, insulted, belittled and exploited at work. Their stories never make the news.
28
@16...

I didn't 'mansplain' anything. I am a constituent of Ms. Gonzales and I voted for her in this election. I disagree with her vote and I have the right to know why her vote changed at the last minute.

Every member of every elected body has a duty to explain the way they vote.

These five councilpersons happen to be women. I really could care less about gender. But they do seem to be hiding behind some juvenile sense of outrage at the negative comments EVERY lawmaker is subject to.

They should just do the job. Explain the vote.

29
@23 Right, we'd forgotten how white the best Seahawks players are.
30
Rujax, mayhaps you've made the mistake of thinking everyone is rational and able to maintain an elevated level of discourse just because you can yourself.
31
Government NEVER should have become involved, with the Professional Sports Business, in the first place.
32
@14,

Horsehockey Klinger. I am challenging their decision because it is wrong not because they are women. The fact that nobody in response to my challenge to their decision here or by the council proves my point. They are using the gender whine list to avoid responding to any particular criticism of their position and justifying their decision. Clearly the women on the council are taking advantage of the situation because they can't explain why they all of a sudden care about commercial traffic after shittin on them the last 20 years. Sawant will be gone and in the legislature when they build the residential high rises in SODO. Herbold might still be keeping Hakuna Licata's seat warm. No matter who is left the port is doomed and the high rises will be built and transit will remain a priority for SODO. None of the Seattle social engineering goobly gook will be reversed because these poor women care about commercial traffic. They lied to block an arena project plain and simple. Nothing left to do now but spin the dorks comments and avoid any real criticism such as the legitimate arguments I have made before and after the vote.
33
@19
family-wage jobs ..you mean family wage jobs driving a bus down general lanes or building 35 story residential high rises, or building traffic calming turnabouts and taking away roads to build bike lanes aka road diet..

Again..Seattle..serious about commercial traffic.lololololololololololololololololololololol.

Aint that what yah said..aint that what ya said. dun a dun
du.....liah liah....liah liah. Paints on fire.. They just happen to be 5 women pants.
34
@29:

Don't forget all those White Guys in the Mariners lineup: Cano', Lee, Hernandez, Iwakuma, Cruz, Aoki, Walker, Marti'n, Gutie'rrez, Sardinas, Peralta, Benoit, Nuno, Morgan, Guaipe, Sucre - why, all that Whiteness in the clubhouse must be positively blinding!

And don't even get me started on that Bastion of Whiteness, The Seattle Sounders...
35
@32:

WHY is it wrong? Because YOU don't like the outcome? There are quite a lot of citizens of this Fair City who could care less about subsidizing another billionaire's for-profit enterprise at taxpayer expense. WE don't think they made the wrong choice; in fact, WE approve of their choice.

Also, if the council's decision is so detrimental to the Port and the transit of cargo, why then did the Port itself also oppose the basketball arena?

And what the fuck are you going on about "the Ballard/Magnolia Port"? You Mean Terminal 91? Fisherman's Terminal? The ones used mainly for commercial fishing vessels and cruise ships? The paltry 152 acre site in Magnolia that truly IS (and always HAS been) postage-stamp sized in comparison to Harbor Island/Duwamish's 1,543 acres? And why would Terminal 5 be undergoing a huge, multi-billion-dollar renovation to to prepare for new 18,000 20-foot Equivalent Unit container ships if the Port thought they wouldn't be able to move those containers into and out of the slips?

Seriously, your "argument" sounds like someone who's butt-hurt they don't get to pay $50 for the privilege of sitting in plastic seats while drinking $15 beers to watch a bunch of guys in shorts run up-and-down a wooden floor, and you're grasping for a non-existent bullshit side argument to justify your rectal pain.
36
@35,

I am sure you think there is a gem in there somewhere.

The Port?/ remember the guy that had to resign..http://www.bizjournals.com/seattle/news/… ..he was more concerned about transit than he was port traffic. http://crosscut.com/2013/02/port-seattle… When they aren't pluggin transit they are meeting is secret with the Port of Tacoma

Magnolia? Ships dock there. Won't be long before the Interbay development swallows that activity whole.

Answer me this wise guy. Have you driven a commercial truck or car in Seattle???? Yeah I thought so. Just a registered contrarian with a stage name. Exit stage left.

Seattle doesn't give a rats ass about commercial traffic. Who the fuck are you kidding. Seattle wants grand boulevards from Everett to Tacoma and as much gentrification the stoopid people and stage names will fall for. Drag a utopian socialized mass transit system through it where the square footage rates soar and the Seattle hall of social engineering league is glowing a bright green.. Street cars up the ying yang.. with a SLUT SLUT here and a Loot rail there. with a fucking convention center on top..same ole two lanes on I-5 since my granda was alive drivin the old Willis... Fuck up traffic..all traffic commercial,port services..so nobody can fucking get anywhere..so they give up and move to a Seattle condo or take a bus for everything no bigger than a bread box or what can fit in an REI backpack.

Some dork with a stage name tries to say that's not what is really going on in Seattle.. Give it up. Exit stage left...buy a vowel for your stage name.. what are you a public access channel... or a transportation choices coalition puppet.
37
@33 Huh?
38
Seriously, your "argument" sounds like someone who's butt-hurt they don't get to pay $50 for the privilege of sitting in plastic seats while drinking $15 beers to watch a bunch of guys in shorts run up-and-down a wooden floor, and you're grasping for a non-existent bullshit side argument to justify your rectal pain.

Toto pulls the curtain back and lo and behold..a sports hater is standing there trying to tend goal for Seattle/s dum city council members. Oh but I bet he likes art and trade shows that bankrupted the Seattle center.. Dude will sell parking lots for Arts freebies all summer but we finally get a benefactor for basketball and all of a sudden Seattle is out of room and the port traffic Seattle could care less about is of major concern... Bullshit.

If that is the case..get the master transportation plan out and change the zone for SODO..make commercial traffic the number one priority for SODO not transit.. Until then...Exit stage left sports hater tending the contrarian goal.
39
@37,
Madge your soaking in it.
40
@39 and others, amazing how you obviously angry, misogynistic , and childish posters can't understand that "your" and "you're" are two different usages, as are "their" and "they're", etc.
41
So are folks allowed to question the vote while decrying the misogyny or is it an either/or situation?
42
I closing,

Where will all the stage name's be when Seattle turns SODO into a residential neighborhood?
Where will all the "women" on the Seattle City council be when those 35 story residential high rises get build and all that traffic has to use 1st ave? Sawant will be in Olympia trying to get more living wage state jobs by getting rid of the entry level jobs to create that 15 dollar burger and 30 dollar dinner plate menu market.

I am sure there are tons of people out there that can afford a 15 dollar burger and 30 dollar dinner plate menu. I can't wait..Here is a 50 keep the change. Soon the far left government of comrades will have to hire the James gang to loot the brinks truck before it gets to the bank...Or in other words killing the golden goose before it can lay the golden egg.

Small businesses will be lost and on a milk carton..have you seen me? Without a legitimate transportation system food costs will skyrocket. No big deal for the techies and Lovie and Thurston. They will be more than happy to open a small business for the tax write off. Yeah right.

Where will they all be when the Seattle waterfront has a residential development with schools nearby? Where will they all be when the techie nation.. the only people capable of keeping up with Lovie and Thurston...to lay down the Benjamin's.. are all that is left in Seattle. Manufacturing jobs my ass. Port jobs my ass. Tacoma is where the port jobs will be.. until the little Odessa plan spreads to T-town. Then the poor will be painted with stars loaded up on trains and sent to the next destination yet to be gentrified. The techie's and Lovie and Thurston will be fine.. it will be their town...the only thing missing will be tall black and European men running up and down a court...no "50 dollar plastic seats." no 20 dollar beers..There will be arts and crafts shows everywhere..hell they will have a convention center on the freeway instead of over it. The poor people will be waiting for soylent green trucks to arrive on Tuesdays and Thursdays. The benefactor developer to house the poor will not be found. The poor will be housed in human zoo's located on utopian socialized mass transit corridors...let out at 7am to shine shoes and beg for soylent green wafers...lights out at 10 pm.

They will be saying "we didn't know" some of you stage names won't have to say anything at all.
43
Why did the media even say all the no votes were women. The race or the sex of the council votes was immaterial - they voted no we know their names and we all can choose to agree or disagree. I was appalled by the letters they received and by the original media coverage of the vote that delineated the vote by their sex. But does the media share blame for the hate mail because they made it a male v female issue? Was it sexists reporting? Was it done knowing they would fire up intolerant inbreds in our midst to make more news?
44
@42:

What's the deal with you anyway? Do you get released from lockup every couple of years and the first thing you do when you land outside is race to a computer so you can type long streams of incoherent blather on SLOG for a few days before you get picked up again? Seriously, I don't know what else could possibly explain both your infrequent, intermittent posting history OR the complete incomprehensibility of your "arguments", such as they are.

I guess my advice would be: if the doctors at Western State are prescribing meds, you should probably keep taking them...
45
Classic male privilege. No one criticizes the men for being so full of testosterone-laden sports bravado that they'd vote for offering bribes to ridiculously rich team owners to maybe-- MAYBE-- move to Seattle. Instead, they criticize women for having vaginas or something. Because men doing stupid male shit is normal and reasonable, and women not standing for stupid male shit is hormonal and emotional.

And I say this as a dude. One who isn't such a fucking fratbro that I can see sports team bribes for the bad investments that they are.
46
@44,

The deal is I am an ex commercial driver that shifted his left leg to death trying to conduct commerce through Seattle and their social engineering mess. I will not for one minute let anyone, man or woman from Seattle to make bogus claims that they stand for commercial traffic.

One look at the history of Seattle transportation policy will show I am right on this issue.

It doesn't mean the women on the council should he hated. O'Brien and the Sierra club is just as much to blame for the things I have complained about.

The facts are:
1. Seattle is not serious about Port traffic.
2, If they were they would have called a meeting to start the ball rolling on making commercial traffic a priority for general lanes..in SODO..or at least somewhere in Seattle so they don't look so ridiculous.
3. My comments were made to that effect prior to their vote..and they still didn't change the Seattle master plan. They just hoped nobody would bring it up..if someone did they could claim victim and change the subject..which is what they did.
4. You can't give priority to transit for general lanes in SODO and claim you are concerned about port commercial traffic.
5. The councilmembers are disingenuous about their concerns for port commercial traffic while they give transit the priority for general lanes in SODO.
6. I think they lied to the people about their concerns for Port traffic. That is evident by their lack of explanation and action. If they had mentioned the Seattle master transportation plan and voiced concerns over the plan's priority given to transit over commercial traffic that would show true concern. Since they had so much time they should have ordered a committee to review the Seattle master plan.. That is what someone truly concerned about port traffic would have done. Since they did neither they are not poor women to me. They are just frauds using port traffic they could give a rats ass about.. to lie to the public for not allowing one more sports facility ...while they hide behind a convenient chauvinist diversion...boy they really buried this article deep.
47
@46:

Ah, so you're the lone voice in the wilderness who clearly knows better than every other single person who's studied and weighed in on the issue, but nobody listens to you. Yeah, I can totally see why that might be the case.

Sorry, but I think I'll put my money on the people who actually run the Port of Seattle - I'm guessing they've studied the issue quite a bit themselves and wouldn't have opposed the easement if they hadn't determined it wasn't in their own best interests, and I seriously doubt they would do something to effectively put themselves out of business.. Because, if there's one thing I've learned over the years it's that vested interests do what's best for themselves.
48
Silenced? Good - we want you to defend this ludicrous position in a public forum instead of just being outraged by the outrage.

Sawant - looks like you'll be the easiest to vote out by the election numbers. You may have gotten the vote out with your populist platform, but good luck next time.
49
@41 Very nice - I see a few others trying to get to this point.
50
Have you looked at that Seattle Transportation master plan yet or is it too hard to find with your goalie mask on? You bore me with sophomoric harangues. When you have something to say about the specifics of my position rather than snide non counter points I will be all ears.

Until then enjoy the last word Morton Downey jr..
51
@47

COMTE..the witless and pointless sophomoric harangue public access channel.
52
@51:

Says the troll who's posted roughly 10 times the amount of "witless and pointless sophomoric harangu(ing)" on this comment thread...

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