West Seattle, Washington
03 Thursday
Tonight we continue our city-candidate closeups; we took a look at them all before the primary election, and with the general election nearing, we’re checking back in with the finalists in five city races – mayor and council. We’ve already looked at mayor (Mike McGinn here, Joe Mallahan here), City Council Position 6 (Nick Licata here, Jessie Israel here) and City Council Position 8 (Mike O’Brien here and Robert Rosencrantz here); tonight, it’s Council Position 2, and we’ll conclude tomorrow night with Position 4.
By Jack Mayne
Reporting for West Seattle Blog
Richard Conlin is coming to the end of his third term as a member of the Seattle City Council and is currently council president. He says he has done a lot in the past 12 years, but has the steam to do more in the next four.
Discussing the committees he has led, Conlin says, “I have been chair of neighborhoods, of transportation, and of the environment and utilities committees. With each one of those, I have taken major initiatives and moved those forward. In neighborhoods, it was neighborhood plans and tripling the neighborhood matching funds. In transportation, I got the Bridging the Gap started, got Sound Transit approved through the city process and got bicycle and pedestrian plans underway. In environment, I reshaped our solid waste standards, did forestry work and the local food initiative and just finished the drainage code.”
“Each time I have taken an area of the city, I have done something really creative and innovative,” he says, “and that is what I want to do in my next term. There are lots of things I am looking at as possibilities, and I have the energy to work on it.” He’s challenged on the ballot by West Seattle resident David Ginsberg.
Tonight we continue our city-candidate closeups; we took a look at them all before the primary election, and with the general election nearing, we’re checking back in with the finalists in five city races – mayor and council. We’ve already looked at mayor (Mike McGinn here, Joe Mallahan here), City Council Position 6 (Nick Licata here, Jessie Israel here) and City Council Position 8 (Mike O’Brien here and Robert Rosencrantz here); tonight, it’s Council Position 2, and we’ll conclude tomorrow night with Position 4.
By Jack Mayne
Reporting for West Seattle Blog
City Council Position 2 candidate David Ginsberg — the only West Seattle-residing council candidate on the November ballot — isn’t that happy about the decision to build a deep-bore tunnel, but he says he will support the project unless there are some unforeseen increases in its cost.
“I think the decision that has been made amounts to a large misallocation of public resources on a small piece of highway that will essentially bypass downtown, and the solution won’t work for a portion of our freight and many of our commuters,” Ginsberg says. “But the decision has been made and it’s taken eight long years to get to this point. Barring big changes in projected costs or mobility, I’m not inclined to revisit this decision, although if there are big changes in projected costs to the city I’ll lead the fight for a better solution. The opportunity to reconnect downtown to its waterfront is the single greatest benefit of both this solution and the surface/transit option, and we must not let this opportunity pass us by as we did with the Seattle Commons.”
This morning, we resume our city-candidate closeups; we took a look at them all before the primary election, and with the general election nearing, we’re checking back in with the finalists in five city races – mayor and council. We’ve already looked at mayor (Mike McGinn here, Joe Mallahan here) and City Council Position 6 (Nick Licata here, Jessie Israel here); this morning, it’s City Council Position 8..
By Jack Mayne
Reporting for West Seattle Blog
Mike O’Brien says he wants a Seattle City Council seat for reasons including opposition to the deep-bore tunnel plan for replacing part of The Viaduct and consideration of tolling major thoroughfares in the city to discourage car usage and raise money for projects like creating a transportation-and-people corridor along the city’s waterfront.
O’Brien is a former chair of the Cascade Chapter of the Sierra Club and spent a decade as chief financial officer at the Stokes Lawrence law firm. He shares opposition of the deep-bore tunnel plan with fellow ex-Sierra Club chair Mike McGinn, who’s running for mayor. O’Brien faces Robert Rosencrantz in the Position 8 race.
He has said tolls could be used “everywhere” but moderates that a bit under questioning.
This morning, we resume our city-candidate closeups; we took a look at them all before the primary election, and with the general election nearing, we’re checking back in with the finalists in five city races – mayor and council. We’ve already looked at mayor (Joe Mallahan here, Mike McGinn here) and City Council Position 6 (Jessie Israel here, Nick Licata here); this morning, it’s City Council Position 8..
By Jack Mayne
Reporting for West Seattle Blog
Robert Rosencrantz has run for City Council twice before and lost. He says it is either the third time is the charm of it is three strikes and you’re out.
He is a commercial property manager and is running for Position 8 against Mike O’Brien.
Rosencrantz believes local issues should be controlled by the neighborhoods. Rewriting the now 10-year old neighborhood plans should not be done in City Hall, but in West Seattle and other urban centers. He said that while he served as president of the Montlake Community Council, he felt estranged from City Hall.
Today, we continue our city-candidate closeups; we took a look at them all before the primary election, and this week, with the general election nearing, we’re checking back in with the finalists in five city races – mayor and council – one race (two candidates) per day. Since tonight, the Seattle Times (WSB partner) co-sponsors the next live TV debate in the mayor’s race – 7 pm, KING5 – we’re publishing our mayoral candidate interviews today. (Editor’s note – This was originally published early this morning along with the Mike McGinn interview, but our database ate it before most saw it.).
By Jack Mayne
Reporting for West Seattle Blog
Mayoral candidate Joe Mallahan wants a tunnel to replace the Central Waterfront section of the Alaskan Way Viaduct, thinks the city budget can be trimmed to avoid new taxes and add 100 more police officers, and vows to be accountable to the voters for his stewardship of the city for the next four years.
What he did not say in an interview but was revealed in a financial filing last week was his campaign is in the hole by $95,000 and has outspent opponent Mike McGinn by over five-to-one.
Mallahan is a vice president for T-Mobile. “As a young man, I always planned on entering public service,” he says.
This morning, we continue our city-candidate closeups; we took a look at them all before the primary election, and this week, with the general election nearing, we’re checking back in with the finalists in five city races – mayor and council – one race (two candidates) per day. Since tonight (Wednesday), the Seattle Times (WSB partner) co-sponsors the next live TV debate in the mayor’s race – 7 pm, KING5 – we’re publishing our mayoral candidate interviews this morning. (Editor’s note, 9:31 am – The Mallahan interview that also was published early this morning has disappeared from our database but will be republished by afternoon.).
By Jack Mayne
Reporting for West Seattle Blog
One big issue has just taken a new turn in the race for Seattle Mayor: Mike McGinn had made a big deal out of his deep objection to a deep-bored tunnel to replace the Central Waterfront section of the Alaskan Way Viaduct – until Monday – when the City Council unanimously voted to authorize Mayor Greg Nickels to sign an agreement with the state committing Seattle to the tunnel plan.
“I disagree with the decision. I disagree with the timing,” McGinn wrote. “But the reality is, Mayor Nickels and the Council have entered into an agreement, and the city is now committed to the tunnel plan.”
He says that if he is elected, it will be his job to “uphold and execute this agreement” and not his job to “withhold the cooperation of city government in executing this agreement.” He makes it clear he will not quietly go along on the project. He says he will ask the “tough questions” because the city still does not know how much the project will cost.
If you follow @westseattleblog on Twitter, you know the side conversations are numerous. One of them involved a musing (see it here) three days ago about a campaign commercial online 
(see it here, “cued up” to the reference) in which King County Council Chair/County Executive candidate Dow Constantine is accused of spending money on “ferries going nowhere,” while an image of the King County Water Taxi is shown. We wondered aloud if that was meant to suggest West Seattle is nowhere. The ad apparently subsequently hit the airwaves, which led Joseph Brick to wonder the same thing and send the question to us and The Stranger, which quickly pursued responses and just sent us links to their resulting Slog posts. Short summary, with the links: The person who produced the “ferries going nowhere” ad (whose funding is noted here) notes it’s an “independent” production and that “the (Susan) Hutchison campaign hasn’t seen it” and explains they were referring more to plans to expand the foot ferries; the Constantine campaign contends it’s evidence of an “anti-Seattle campaign” by Hutchison “and her allies.” No published comment from the Hutchison campaign so far, but we are seeking one. (12:47 AM WEDNESDAY: Haven’t received a reply.)
We took a look at them all before the primary election; now, with two weeks till the general election, we’re checking back in with the finalists in five city races – mayor and council. First – Council Position 6.
By Jack Mayne
Reporting for West Seattle Blog
Seattle City Council candidate Jessie Israel is critical of the current way transit works here and critical of how her opponent, Nick Licata, operates after 12 years as a council member.
Transit can work, she contends, but is so dysfunctional because several separate agencies with no common bond operate its various parts.
“The trick to transit is to have many options that all work together,” says the newcomer to electoral politics. “You have buses, you have bus rapid transit, you have streetcars and all of those things are coordinated and some of them serve as spokes coming out from a wheel and some act as circulators getting you around neighborhoods and some as a spine like light rail so you can move the
mountain to Muhammad.”
We took a look at them all before the primary election; now, with two weeks till the general election, we’re checking back in with the finalists in five city races – mayor and council. First – Council Position 6.
By Jack Mayne
Reporting for West Seattle Blog
Often on the short end of Seattle City Council votes, and often questioning matters others support, Councilmember Nick Licata gets hung with the “Councilmember No” description.
Licata rejects out of hand his opponent’s comments that he often votes against something without positive suggestions.
“My response is, show me,” he says. “My record is one of the most productive on the City Council. I was elected by my fellow members as president of the Council. While I was president of the Council we had two major initiatives. One was adding more police officers and the other was pedestrian safety when we started and finished the pedestrian master plan. I have a track record of passing legislation and affecting legislation. Everything from getting new park space in different parts of the city, support for the arts and basic transportation service including Bus Rapid Transit [RapidRide] up to West Seattle.”
CANDIDATES ON TRANSIT: Want to know more about where the candidates stand regarding where and how you stand — or sit, and ride (aka on the bus, light rail, etc.)? The relatively new group Transit Riders Union of Metropolitan Puget Sound has published the questionnaires it received back from candidates in key races. Chas Redmond shares the link; note that one candidate in each of the two top races failed to respond.
WSB PROFILE PLAN: Over the next five late night/early mornings, we plan to publish West Seattle-focused stories on the key city races – two stories a night, one about each candidate in a given race, reported and written by veteran West Seattle journalist Jack Mayne. If you happen to see this item shortly after we publish it, we’re starting, in the next two WSB stories, with Jessie Israel and Nick Licata.
In case you want to watch as it happens, we’re noting this here before the vote: 
At the Seattle City Council meeting that’s under way now, councilmembers will vote on the Memorandum of Understanding that solidifies the city’s support for the deep-bore tunnel planned to replace the Central Waterfront section of the Alaskan Way Viaduct. You can watch live here. Public comment at the start of the meeting included one person suggesting that the item should be tabled until after the election, since, in that person’s view, the Joe Mallahan-Mike McGinn mayoral race equals a referendum vote on yes/tunnel vs. no/tunnel. 3:19 PM UPDATE: Councilmembers have just voted unanimously in favor of the memorandum of agreement supporting The Tunnel, though there were a few sharp exchanges when Councilmember Bruce Harrell said he wasn’t sure why they were voting on this now, wondering whether they’re trying to “beat people over the head with our support for the tunnel” when, he noted, they’d expressed their support before. He also expressed hope that greater discussions is ahead for details of how the city will pay its share of the tunnel costs. ADDED 3:51 PM: Here’s the official City Council news release about this afternoon’s vote: (added 6:03 pm, other statements including that of mayoral candidate and tunnel opponent Mike McGinn)Read More
(added 11:30 pm, video of entire debate)
Live on channel 4 – the King County Executive candidates debate each other. It just started at 9 pm; each is making an opening statement, Dow Constantine first, Susan Hutchison second. 10 PM UPDATE: Debate’s over; tomorrow (Sunday) night, it’s the first live TV debate in the Seattle Mayor race – Joe Mallahan vs. Mike McGinn on channel 7, 6 pm.
By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor
As Seattle’s most populous peninsula, West Seattle has transportation challenges that are widely known.
Right?
Not necessarily widely known by all the candidates who showed up at the West Seattle Candidates’ Forum at Youngstown Arts Center last night, co-sponsored by the Delridge Neighborhoods and Southwest District Councils (whose members represent most of the major community groups/organizations around the peninsula).
As noted in our first “toplines” report last night, neither candidate for mayor showed up (explained as “due to a series of events”), so the forum was focused on the four council races, from which six of the eight candidates appeared.
Long-form story’s in progress, but here are a couple toplines from tonight’s West Seattle Candidates’ Forum at Youngstown Arts Center: 
Six of the potential 10 total candidates (mayor plus four City Council races) showed up – the no-shows were both would-be mayors (Joe Mallahan and Mike McGinn), incumbent Council President Richard Conlin (who’d been invited to spend the evening with the governor in Olympia) and council hopeful Sally Bagshaw (whose campaign manager said she had committed to a “public-safety walk” in North Seattle long before getting this invitation). The most West Seattle-specific question posed by moderators Chas Redmond (photo right) and Pete Spalding (photo left) — of the co-sponsoring Southwest and Delridge Neighborhoods District Councils, respectively — involved how to tackle West Seattle’s transportation challenges – and it was clear few had closely studied the peninsula’s unique problems. No moments of major disagreement – the two opponents with the sharpest contrasts were council candidates Mike O’Brien and Robert Rosencrantz. We have short clips of all six participants plus highlights of their answers to the night’s questions, coming up in the long report. P.S. This seattlepi.com report says Joe Mallahan skipped a forum earlier today too, on short notice.
WEST SEATTLE CANDIDATES’ FORUM: It’s been in the works for weeks, and tonight’s the night – come hear the candidates for Mayor and City Council take on West Seattle-specific questions. The forum co-sponsored by the Southwest and Delridge Neighborhoods District Councils starts at 7 pm at Youngstown Arts Center (4408 Delridge); reminder that you can come early and meet the artists chosen for the Delridge Playfield art project.
SCHOOL BOUNDARIES Q/A MEETING: The Monday night session with School Board rep Steve Sundquist at Schmitz Park Elementary was informal – now, it’s the big official meeting for those with questions and/or opinions on the newly announced attendance-boundary proposals as the district transitions to a system more based on neighborhood schools. 6:30 pm, West Seattle High School. (If you absolutely can’t make it, there’s one Friday night at Denny; here’s the full list.)
ALKI COMMUNITY COUNCIL: 7 pm, Alki Community Center, with agenda including an airline program that could change flight paths, and an update on the Alki Homestead (big topic at last month’s meeting).
GIRL SCOUTS INFORMATIONAL MEETING: Tonight there’s one at Roxhill Elementary, 6 pm. Organizers note that girls will not be assigned to troops at this meeting, but they explain the organization and even how to form your own troop, as well as how to become a volunteer!
UPRIDGE TOWNHOMES’ GRAND OPENING: As noted here when we welcomed upRidge as a sponsor yesterday, the new development alongside Longfellow Creek (5957 Delridge) has its grand opening today, 4-7:30 pm, and you’re invited to come take tours and enjoy free pizza from Delridge’s own Olympia.
TONIGHT: Our area’s largest political group, the 34th District Democrats, meets for the last time before the November election (more like an Oct.-Nov. election since voting begins later this week – ballots are to be mailed by the county today). 7 pm at The Hall at Fauntleroy, with speakers scheduled to include King County Council chair/County Executive candidate Dow Constantine and Seattle Port Commission candidate Max Vekich. Agenda details here.
TOMORROW: The West Seattle Candidates’ Forum — citywide candidates for mayor and council, answering West Seattle-geared questions — is Thursday night, 7 pm, Youngstown Arts Center. Here’s our previous report on the plan for the night. And there’s another event at the same time on the other side of the peninsula – Approve Referendum 71 supporters are rallying for an evening of dessert, drinks and fun at The Hall at Fauntleroy, 7 pm Thursday.
What else is going on, you ask? Check the frequently updated West Seattle-wide WSB Events calendar page!
Most of the SHARE-organized group that is supposed to be targeting Councilmember Tom Rasmussen‘s Beach Drive-area neighborhood tonight is actually camping out along Beach Drive, in the parking strip in front of condos in the 3700 block of Beach Drive, across from Cormorant Cove and several blocks downhill from Rasmussen’s neighborhood (where three of them were planning to set up camp). As noted here earlier, since the group spent the night in Mayor Nickels’ North Admiral neighborhood on September 28th, it has moved on to several other councilmembers’ neighborhoods, including three nights near Councilmember Tim Burgess’s Queen Anne home; it’s lobbying for $50,000 in bus-voucher funding with no strings attached.
(From left, Chas Redmond, city attorney candidate Pete Holmes, former City Council candidate Dorsol Plants)
Voting starts later this week; vote counting starts on the official Election Day, three weeks from tomorrow. So campaigning, and campaign coverage, revs into high gear, and if we get word a candidate’s campaigning/speaking in West Seattle, we’ll be there. This morning, city attorney hopeful Pete Holmes visited The Junction to talk with supporters (like the two well-known West Seattleites in our photo above), reporters and businesspeople. He is challenging two-term city attorney Tom Carr, a West Seattleite; Holmes lives in the Seward Park area. While many candidates in other races are somewhat mellow about drawing distinctions between themselves and their opponents, not this one. At his Junction visit today – the first of at least five campaign stops on this day alone, he told us – Holmes again sought to contrast himself, for example, on the issue of how to fight graffiti vandalism:
For his part, Carr describes graffiti vandals/taggers as his “personal pet peeve.” (We talked with Holmes about several other issues and will add more to this report.) Both candidates were in West Seattle last month for a debate before the West Seattle Democratic Women; here’s our coverage; here’s the city Voters’ Guide with more information on both candidates.
They started with a sleepout in Mayor Nickels’ North Admiral neighborhood – they then moved on to the non-West Seattle abodes of several city councilmembers – and tonight, SHARE says, they will be back in West Seattle, sleeping outside Councilmember Tom Rasmussen‘s Beach Drive-area home, and by the shore nearby. From their news release:
Mr. Rasmussen lives on a small street. Our protesters will (divide) into two groups. Some will sleep outside of his house while the majority will sleep on the strip by the beach one block away.
SHARE says its main point of contention is a request for $50,000 from the city for bus vouchers; the city has said it would provide the money if SHARE promised not to close its shelters, a promise SHARE has said it cannot make because of funding challenges.
Thanks to Sandi and Dave for sending that photo from the West Seattle Farmers’ Market, noting the counterprotesters with handwritten signs reading “Meet the Bigot.” Referendum 71 is one of two statewide measures on next month’s ballot (the other is I-1033). Your ballot may arrive in the mail as soon as the end of the week, as mailing is scheduled to start Wednesday. R-71 is a referendum on the domestic-partnership-rights bill approved by the State Legislature and signed by the governor to make sure that registered same-sex domestic partners (and opposite-sex partners 62 and up) will not be denied rights such as hospital visitation, death benefits and taking leave to care for an ailing partner. Voting to approve Referendum 71 — the positiion WSB endorses (a departure from our general current no-endorsement policy) — affirms the Legislature’s vote and guarantees those rights. Here is the “ballot title” language you will see on your ballot:
The legislature passed Engrossed Second Substitute Senate Bill 5688 concerning rights and responsibilities of state-registered domestic partners and voters have filed a sufficient referendum petition on this bill.
This bill would expand the rights, responsibilities, and obligations accorded state-registered same-sex and senior domestic partners to be equivalent to those of married spouses, except that a domestic partnership is not a marriage.
The state’s Online Voters’ Guide with information on R-71 (as well as arguments for and against) can be seen here.
Another City Council-led hearing on the 2010 city budget is coming up this week. It’s not happening in West Seattle, but the fate of many city-operated services hangs in the budget balance – particularly the Seattle Public Library. According to Friends of SPL, there will be dramatic effects at West Seattle libraries, particularly the Delridge, High Point, and WS (Admiral) branches — which would close on Fridays and Sundays, and cut back other hours — as well as nearby South Park. Sarel Rowe from Friends of SPL says they didn’t get the support turnout they were hoping for at the first budget hearing this past week (as they report here), so they are pleading with library supporters to come make brief remarks in support of prioritizing library funding at these two hearings – one just days away:
5:30 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 14
Northwest African-American Museum
2300 S Massachusetts St. (map)5:30 p.m. Monday, Oct. 26 at
City Council Chambers
600 4th Avenue (map)
Rowe says, “We need people who will stand up and speak for two minutes in support of the library. One night at a hearing is a small investment if one considers that the risk is closures and reduced hours of our neighborhood branches. E-mails help alot but we must also have support at the hearings if we have any hope of blunting or avoiding these service cuts.” And if you haven’t taken the Friends of SPL survey about library use yet, go here. Meantime, you can dig into details of the 2010 budget proposal by going here.
Seattle Post-Globe has coverage of the mayoral candidates’ participation in the midday candidates’ forum at Youngstown Arts Center that focused on housing issues. Among other things, the article notes both support approval of the housing levy that’s on next month’s ballot. Mayoral and council candidates are expected back in West Seattle for the only major forum targeting issues of specific importance to WS, one week from tonight, 7 pm 10/15, also at Youngstown.
Just got word of this: The Housing Consortium is hosting a brown-bag-lunch candidates’ forum at Youngstown Arts Center at noon tomorrow, and the public’s invited. Karen Williams describes it as:
…a fun, unique format, we are calling it “speed dating” with the candidates. It will be an interactive forum where candidates rotate alongside their opponent to small groups providing opportunities for candidates to address affordable housing issues in greater detail and in a dialogue setting. Candidates will be asked initial questions and those in attendance will have the opportunity to follow up with additional questions or comments. All candidates for Seattle City Council, Mayor and King County Exec will be there.
Here’s the official invite/flyer. Meantime, one week from tomorrow night, you’re also invited to the big West Seattle Candidates’ Forum, co-presented by the Southwest and Delridge Neighborhoods District Councils, also at Youngstown, 7 pm October 15.
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