Seattlest Pix 09Nov24
Tuesdays are Muppet Days
Seattle to Remain Famous for Coffee and Rain
Thanksgiving Pairing Suggestion: Dessert Isn't Just a Meal
Commenter Simonian brings up an excellent point: who, exactly, is this Greg Smith who may or may not be running for mayor against Greg Nickels? Here's what we dug up:
He's the head honcho at Urban Visions, a real estate and development firm with lots of reassuring greenspeak on its website: the phrases "sustainable practices," "community," "energy-efficient," "increased density" and "future generations" all make an appearance on their Beliefs page. The company has spearheaded projects like bringing that Hard Rock Cafe downtown; here's a map of Urban Vision's current properties.
Before Smith founded Urban Visions, he worked for a division of his father's company, Martin Smith Development Corporation. He's also on the board of directors of the Seattle's Convention and Visitor's Bureau [pdf], a member of Nickels' Green Ribbon Commission [pdf], and has been working fairly closely with Mayor Nickels up until recently.
Why the seeming split? Crosscut's David Brewster says it's because of the viaduct and some disagreements over zoning in SoDo, the neighborhood where Urban Vision has announced mixed-use development plans to the tune of over $1 billion. Smith clearly has a gift for rhetoric, telling the P-I's Kathy Mulleady that he would rather be a leader than a politician and that it's "time to have a healthy debate about Seattle."
All of this sounds... well, it sounds like the world doesn't know enough yet about Greg Smith to tell if he'd be a good mayor for our city. The sustainability keywords make us happy, and it would be a nice change to have someone who has a proven track record of publicly caring about urban density and the environment. But we're also wondering if we can trust Smith when he says he's not in this to make money, and we're interested in that SoDo deal. (Anyone have more info on that?) Call us cynical, but isn't everyone in it to make money? Especially wealthy developers?
Greg Smith photo courtesy of the City of Seattle.
add to stumble upon
add to reddit
tweet this
post to facebook
lost me at 'hard rock cafe'
That was kind of a hard one for me to swallow, too.
it's funny to even type the words
Yeah, I gotta agree, but it's a touristy restaurant and in a touristy area, so you can't blame the man.
And politics is no place to make money... not on the city scale anyways.
Let's not forget that his family has been here since the 1860's (this surely aids his ability to be a wealthy developer) and his great-(great?)-grandfather was mayor in the 1880's.
I'm positive Smith will address the conflict of interest angle soon. I considered putting his family history in there, and you're right, it will probably be a factor if he does decide to run. But for me personally, I don't give a rat's ass about who his great great grandfather was or how long his family has lived in Seattle; I care about him and his policies, the decisions that he's making, you know? I'm not terribly swayed by the lineage argument.
Agreed. But the lineage does add weight to anything he may say about respecting the "spirit" of Seattle and the need to move forward... quickly.
Also, I hope he'd buy a "Magic Carpet" t-shirt.
I also wasn't able to pull up anything political donation wise other than a donation in march to the DNC for $1,000.