Results tagged “citycouncil”

Talk about government incentives! The Seattle City Council’s Planning, Land Use, and Neighborhoods Committee is holding a special public meeting tomorrow at 5:30 p.m. at Dr. Blanche Lavisso Park (East Yesler Way and 22nd Avenue South). But if you get there at 5 p.m., your chances of getting free ice cream are better. The meeting is to discuss changes to the mid- and high-rise sections of the multifamily code, which Sally Clark has struggled mightily to make public in ways ("Townhouses: Can the Patient be Saved?") that might interest people. Now she's footing the bill for ice cream. Sally, next time we're voting for you twice. Nope, we are. End of discussion.

NIMBYs in Laurelhurst gained ground in their war against sick children, when a city hearing examiner agreed that Seattle Children's Hospital's proposed 350-bed expansion was "aggressive."

NOAA has announced that they're hauling anchor away from Lake Union, and relocating their center-Pacific operations to Newport, Oregon. Seattle City Council's Jean Godden has already fired off a response, noting that Seattle has the UW (Newport doesn't), fresh water (Newport 0), and the Duwamish River (Newport FAIL). Godden says Seattle still looks to her like the best choice for NOAA, but that "Clearly the selection committee felt differently, perhaps influenced by millions of dollars in state subsidies offered by the Oregon legislature." ZING!

Yesterday afternoon the City Council was all ayes when it came to the Bell Street Park Boulevard. Design is to finish up this fall, and by next spring, it's all top hats and tails on Bell from First to Fifth. Who's paying? We already agreed to; the P-I point out that the project "which would add 17,000 square feet of new green space, is part of the 2008 Parks Levy." Now, because you're curious, check out the Belltown blog's rundown of what exactly the Bell Street Park Boulevard is. A lane vanishes, the sidewalk fattens 30 feet, and voila! it's fun to walk between Denny Park and the waterfront. If people actually turn out to want to get to Denny Park, this will be worth every goddamn penny.

Make way for the light rail. That's what the City Council is doing after voting unanimously last night to change up the residential parking zone program (RPZ) throughout Seattle. The vote--ushered in before the light rail launch--is to help prevent parking chaos on residential side streets. The plan: the council will yank away half of the household permits, but it says neighborhoods who've been infiltrated by at least 35 percent of unwelcome parkers can still apply for residential parking restrictions. Now that the council addressed where people can't park, how about they focus on where the commuters and shoppers can park before their prized commuter rail opens without any commuters.

Seattle councilwoman Jan Drago has announced today (and via Facebook) that she will be lacing up her political shoes to run for mayor. The former preschool teacher has served on the city council for 16 years and has been a reliable ally (not anymore) for Mayor Greg Nickels over the years--who is seeking his third go-at-it as mayor. Having been around the "city" block before, Drago's bid makes her a serious contender against Nickels. The other mayoral candidates vying for the top job include: environmentalist Michael McGinn, corporate headhunter Norman Sigler, 82-year-old lefty grandma Dorli Rainey, former Sonic James Donaldson and T-Mobile executive Joe Mallahan.

Yesterday, Seattle City Councilmember Bruce Harrell held a press conference to mark the start of a 30-day countdown to the transition from analog to digital television. Most local stations will cease their analog broadcasts at 9 a.m. on June 12, 2009; others will close out their analog broadcasts earlier.

The city faces a $43 million budget shortfall. An unprecedented number of eyes (many of which belong to Seattle journalists and political watchdogs) are trained on the city's every budgetary move. We're just beginning what already smells like a contentious mayoral race towards elections later this year. What better time for Nickels and the city council to start meeting behind closed doors to work out the "very dull" budget-balancing process? Let media report on whatever they see fit, so the public can decide what's boring and irrelevant. That model works for hyperlocal blogs and it will work just as well for government.

Says the Stranger's Dan Savage: "I've had it with Peter and Tim and and Nick and Richard pansy-assing around about running for mayor. They announce they're thinking about it, they think about it, and then they announce that running for mayor is just too scary or too expensive or that Greg is just too formidable an opponent. Christ, do these guys have one lonely little nut between the four of 'em?" He promises to remain mayor for only 24 hours, then hand over the title to the city council president. We've heard that before. You elect these Chicago boys, they get comfy in the mayoral palace fast.

Miller is a Maple Leaf resident, and is--oh, it's all coming back to us now--declaring for city council member Richard McIver's old spot, since McIver is retiring. "Based upon input from hundreds of Seattle residents, David Miller’s campaign is focused on four priorities: Grow Responsibly, Strengthen Neighborhoods, Prioritize People, and Return to Basics." Strengthen neighborhoods? Jesus, can you imagine? If the neighborhoods were any neighborhoodier, we'd have armed raids between the duchies of Wallingford and Fremont, just like in pre-Risorgimento Italy. No, we're afraid on that basis alone we'll be voting for the candidate who runs on Irresponsible Growth, Deprioritizing People, and Striking Out Toward the Hideously Complex.

We've now "observed" two future of news media via Twitter (the City Club and ONA events) and watched the Seattle City Council and "No News Is Bad News" events go down via their live stream (while eyeing the #nnbn Twitter channel). One caveat before we recap: what we've learned is mostly useless in practical terms.

We can't get enough stimulus, and still we're exhausted. We feel like Richard McIver, who just announced his retirement from Seattle City Council, saying "I want to go home and sit down." Should we ever be up for a walk, West Seattle Blog has info on the plans for Alki Point's sidewalks and Mayor Nickels asks you to volunteer in his State of the City, which is a good thing since few of us still have paying jobs. Maybe we'll find work at Costco or Target, two stores that will stock the soon-to-be wildly popular Starbucks instant coffee-flavored product.

Greg Nickels is feeling pretty good this morning. He probably served himself an extra couple of pancakes, and probably broke open that bottle of boysenberry syrup he’s been saving for a special occasion, to reward himself for getting the tunnel he has always wanted.

Just got the email in which sitting City Council President Richard Conlin leaves his hat in the city council ring and avoids that whole mayoralty thing. "I pledge to work hard to bring Seattle back to economic health, put people first, support local business and our regional economy, and protect Seattle's environment over the next four years," says Conlin, who's been on the council doing stuff since 1997. The council appoints its presidents for two-year terms. We have a soft spot for Conlin since we often see him at arts events around town and because he bears an uncanny resemblance to the Weekly's Uptight Seattleite. So we feel represented.

Mayor Greg Nickels thinks so! But a City Council committee--and thank God for this--shut him down immediately, saying, "WTF R U thinking Nickels?" Nickels' intentions were to make the city's executive salaries competitive, but Councilman Licata smacked that one down. "It's bad timing," he told the Times. Damn right, it's bad timing; it's worse timing this year than it was both years previous, when Nickels made the same request for raises. During a year when the President-elect tells Barbara Walters on national television that in his opinion CEOs should forgo their Christmas bonuses, what kind of reasonable man thinks it's a great time to ask for executive raises?

In a 6-3 split vote yesterday, the City Council approved the idea of expanding the city's streetcar system. All new lines would run north of Jackson Street: one leading up into Fremont, another into the U District, a third along the Waterfront, and the final along Broadway in Capitol Hill. (Here's the map.) Of course, as Councilman McIver pointed out, "we ain't got no money" yet, and the plans don't mean a whole lot until the funding comes into place.

Jan Drago, chair of the Seattle city council's transportation committee, oversaw a 4-2 committtee vote yesterday that came down in favor of more streetcars, a whopping $600 million network of them. Licata and McIver voted nay. Now we wait to see if the full council will contract streetcar fever. The proposed First Hill line would run from Capitol Hill to the ID, while the Central line would fill in for the old waterfront streetcar, running from Seattle Center to King Street Station. The Fremont-Ballard and U-District lines would meet up with the SLUT. This is all well and good, but where's our cable cars running up James, Denny, and Queen Anne Hill? Cable cars or gondolas, we're open to discussion.

The rumor weed is running rampant across the lawn of Seattle's local politics regarding a possible Greg Smith run for Mayor next year. It looks like he might even have a fighting chance, though the well-funded Nickels is certain to run for a third term. There are other names persistently sprouting up here and there as possible opponents: former and current City Councilmen Peter Steinbrueck and Nick Licata (respectively), and--hell, why not consider familiar Nickels foe Mark Sidran again? What do you think? Which of these men should be our next Mayor? Our poll will close tomorrow at noon, and opinions are welcome in the comments.

• The Slog brings the sad news that The Cascade People's Center is set to close after the City Council cut funding. The People's Center has been a bastion for the neighborhood that we once called Cascade before Paul Allen took over the place and decided to call it South Lake Union. The CPC will close its doors on December 31st if it cannot come up with $75,000 in funding.
• Capitol Hill Seattle is excited that CNN decided to show a little love to Seattle and their neighborhood, recommending hill hangouts like the Cha Cha and Elysian Brewery. Even more exciting to all of us neighborhood bloggers, it was one of our very own, Scott of Central District News, who helped CNN with the list.
• Speaking of Central District News, they are recommending you secure your Obama yard signs and such, as the now 'commemorative memorabilia' is being stolen from yards all over to be sold on eBay.

A plastics manufacturers' trade group has now spent over $180,625 in its attempts to prevent the City Council's $0.20 plastic bag fee from going into effect this January, the P-I reports. Thanks for caring about how much that $0.20 bag tax will impact our debit card balance, American Chemistry Council! We feel like you're really on our side, even though you're over there in Virginia, because you're throwing all this money at the cause. It's especially great to have more sneakily-worded petitions waved in our faces as we leave the grocery store.

The horsemen of change are upon us! Yesterday the City Council approved a $567 million master plan to transform Seattle Center into more of an open, public park. That means the Fun Forest is out when their lease ends January 2010.

Something related to the City Council's recent bag fee and Styrofoam container ban legislation strikes Seattlest as deeply weird and uneven, and actually it's been bugging us since way before the council took action this week. It very odd, to us, that there has been zero movement on the part of diners to deal with Styrofoam containers personally, whereas a lot of shoppers already bring their own bags to the grocery store with or without legislation.

The Seattle City Council has overwhelmingly passed a measure to charge a 20-cent fee for every disposable bag--paper or plastic--starting January 1st, 2009. Yesterday, the council voted 6-1 in favor of the bag fee and to ban plastic foam food and drink containers.

After a committee vote yesterday, the full City Council is set to decide on Monday if Seattle will adopt a 20-cent fee for plastic bags at grocery, drug, and convenience stores, as well as a ban on polystyrene food and drink containers. If passed, the fee and ban will go into effect on January 1, 2009. Stores that use the plastic foam containers to package meat will have a year to figure out an alternative method. (May we suggest butcher paper? We imagine that is how it got its name.) While it might be annoying to get charged a few bucks for plastic bags after a big shopping trip, it will hopefully remind us to always bring a reusable bag, which is a benefit to everyone.

on the City Council's discussions for SLUT expansion leaves us just a little ticked. After characterizing service expansion as "daydreams," Curl gives plenty of space to skeptics like Tom Rasmussen, who says: "Streetcars are nice; I like riding them. But we don't have a streetcar system, we have a bus system."

In one of those mysterious black-is-white, up-is-down occurrences, Mayor Greg Nickels and the City Council's Richard Conlin have in unison agreed to push for a $0.20 per paper-or-plastic bag fee at grocery and convenience stores and drugstores. While we're still trying to figure out what the vision is, we're aware that paying for bags bugs the hell out of a lot of people.

Capitol Hill's hardest working man in show business, CHAC's Matthew Kwatinetz, has been devoting long hours to the survival of Odd Fellows Hall as an arts space, ever since he found out about the planned sale.

We spend a lot of time at the Seattlest newsroom talking about the problems bicycle riders in this city have and how the city should make it easier for us since we reduce congestion and emissions at the same time. Now we realize we’ve been ignoring the good our our two-wheeled motorized brethren (and sistern) on scooters.

http://seattlest.com/2008/02/28/foo_fighters_da.php">announced his presidential bid.