Election 2014: Despite (or because of?) park proliferation, Seattle Proposition 1 on losing side here

| West Seattle news | West Seattle parks | West Seattle police

At week’s end, King County Elections published the legislative-district-by-legislative-district breakdown of the first night’s results in the August 5th election. Though the citywide total has been in favor of Seattle Proposition 1 – creating a Park District with taxing authority for extra parks funding that has previously come via levy – parkland-rich West Seattle is in the “no” column. West Seattle has the bulk of in-city voters in the 34th Legislative District (map), and the district’s opening-night vote was 42 percent “approve,” 58 percent “reject.” That was the lowest “approve” percentage of any legislative district with some Seattle voters; next lowest was the 32nd District (map) in northwesternmost Seattle, at 43 percent “approve.” The strongest support, meantime, was 63 percent “approve” in the 43rd District (map), which includes downtown, Capitol Hill, and Green Lake.

If you’re interested in other King County races’ election-night district-by-district breakout, it’s all in this PDF. No precinct-by-precinct breakout yet; the final vote won’t be certified until next week. (And again, what’s reported above is from a breakdown of the first count, made public election night, and does not include ballots counted and reported since then. The “approve/reject” gap has widened a little citywide since that first round; as of Friday afternoon, “approve” was ahead with 53.2 percent, while on Election Night, it was at 52.4 percent.

Doug August 11, 2014 (3:10 pm)

I’ve always voted for every Parks levy. But the fear of turning over complete control to this particular City Council forced me to vote no on Prop 1. Enough said.

skeeter August 11, 2014 (3:33 pm)

West Seattle: the red part of a blue city.

Jackie August 11, 2014 (3:56 pm)

Over the years I have used the election night abstract to contrast the 34th District against the rest of King County. When the whole county was considered, the 34th was more progressive than the rest of the county, but when it was a Seattle vote, like this one, we were a bit more conservative. It looks like it’s Vashon that keeps the 34th more liberal than the rest of King County.

skeeter August 11, 2014 (4:41 pm)

Good observation Jackie. Thanks for pointing that out.

McBride August 11, 2014 (4:49 pm)

Remember when there used to be moderates? Man, I miss those days. Reviewing some of the various items up for vote over the years, my wild summary is that it’s more indicative of an informed voting populace than a right-wing progressive hating enclave. Maybe I’m wrong, but that’s the impression I get.

JoB August 11, 2014 (5:31 pm)

I am thinking that here in West Seattle it didn’t fall to conservatism
i think it fell to Seattle perfection
if it’s not perfect.. we won’t vote for it
.
unless of course we think it will somehow benefit us

Diane August 11, 2014 (5:34 pm)

exactly McBride; many of us did our homework, and with that information, made the more progressive/smart choice to vote no on MPD; like Doug, I’m pro parks, vote yes on every parks levy; the way Prop-1 was set up with city council as the board, very bad idea

j August 11, 2014 (5:43 pm)

Pro parks, anti City Council.
City council can’t even do their job as it is.
Messing up everything.
Plus more taxes….
Slam dunk no vote for me.

West Seattle Hipster August 11, 2014 (5:46 pm)

Well stated Doug.

I personally support the idea of funding the park system, but not the way this scheme was constructed.

sophista-tiki August 11, 2014 (6:19 pm)

GOOD! because this would have been a train wreck.

sam-c August 11, 2014 (8:03 pm)

+1 to what Diane said – for not voting on it.

(of course, my vote hasn’t been counted yet according to the ballot tracker.- i better go check the mailbox for a signature verification form which i seem to get for every election the last 3 years……)

and I’ve approved every other levy in the past

ScubaFrog August 11, 2014 (8:44 pm)

McBride’s spot-on. Sadly, if you don’t vote in lock-step with the rest of the liberal populace, you’re labeled a “tea partier”, a “republican”, or a “right wing whackjob”. I’m an independent moderate, and of course if you don’t vote lock-step with the conservatives, they’ll call you a “libtard”, a “democrat”, or a “socialist”.
–
It can be tough being a non-partisan moderate. The extremists on both side lambaste you and shun you.

cj August 11, 2014 (9:31 pm)

Read the prop more carefully. I would like to be able to have future say on parks props and not just dump the whole shebang on city counsel. This result has little to do with party lines and more to do with reading IMHO.

Eric1 August 11, 2014 (9:55 pm)

I like to consider myself a moderate and yet I find feeling like a tea party guy here. I vote for schools, parks, veterans, etc… But this was a bad measure. There was no harm in rejecting it. Seattle always submits the most “politician friendly” ballot first. When it gets rejected, they come back with something else that might be more likely to pass. It keeps getting more and more “friendly” to the people who might vote yes until it passes. Stadium votes, tunnel votes, Metro votes, the list goes on.
.
I don’t get how the city hates the Council so much that they broke them up yet trusts them to set park tax rates.
.

dsa August 11, 2014 (9:57 pm)

I’m proud of our vote, too bad we lost though.

au August 11, 2014 (10:35 pm)

‘if it’s not perfect.. we won’t vote for it’
Perfection had nothing to do with why I was against Prop 1 and voted NO.
It was the major transference of power to the city council. Now we can watch our tax dollars being used for a billion dollar waterfront park, maybe even a pool barge.
It doesn’t matter now though.
Game Over The People Lose.

Lonnie August 11, 2014 (10:47 pm)

The Seattle Times & League of Women’s voters said it correctly. I’ll bet a large # of those yes voters did NOT read the full text of the bill and did not fully understand what they were voting on but will be loudly screaming when they receive their tax bills.

a August 11, 2014 (11:33 pm)

To those worried that they might be in agreement with the Tea Party . . .

It seems there is a sense of worry about being ‘labeled’ a teapartier, right-wing, whatever. Forget about the labels, they’re all manufactured by one source or another.

Instead, listen to your heart and common sense. Most of you on this blog are more conservative than you realize. Family values, good morals, taking care of yourself, not feeling entitled to govt handouts or services. It is natural and good to be wary of handing over complete control of so many to any small group. If you are worried about it on such a local level, the same applies to state or national levels.

Don’t let fear of being labeled override your common sense!!!

Rick August 12, 2014 (3:06 am)

@a, what letter does that word begin with?

abovealki August 12, 2014 (8:14 am)

The measure was supported by the entire Seattle City Council, Ed Murray, his five predecessor mayors, and the more than 70 civic organizations. Opposing it was the League of Women Voters and the Seattle (Medina) Times. The Times said we should fund the parks with levies instead (all of which in the past they have opposed).
The opponents’ claims of a transfer of power are bogus: the mayor will still propose the parks budget, the city council will still amend and approve it, and the city Parks Department will still administer the funds. Big deal.

gotb August 12, 2014 (9:12 am)

There have been a lot of comments on this and related stories along the lines of “yes voters didn’t read the measure,” and “yes voters are just voting the way the Stranger told them to,” and “yes voters are just sheep doing what the politicians say,” and “it’s a power grab by the city council,” and several other variations of the same tired nonsense. If you can’t make your point without either insulting other voters or spouting anti-government conspiracy theories, then you don’t have a point.

Teacher Greg August 12, 2014 (9:58 am)

When 75% of the registered people don’t vote its a bit of a stretch to make generalizations about the political leanings of West Seattle as a whole. That said, my guess is that the higher the turnout the more progressive West Seattle becomes. My guess is that the vote on prop 1 is only close because all the grumpy anti-tax old people voted and the younger pro prop 1 people were all out smoking legal weed in one of our lovely parks rather than voting (or even registering to vote).

skeeter August 12, 2014 (10:07 am)

Teacher Greg is right!!

a August 12, 2014 (11:15 am)

You don’t have to be grumpy or old to not want to approve every single crazy Seattle tax scheme that comes along. Good to know that the ‘younger pro prop 1 people’ are too stoned and uninformed to even bother to register to vote, thanks for the info. Cool, dude.

wakeflood August 12, 2014 (1:03 pm)

As always, any generalization has fault and numerous anecdotes that bring doubt to the theory, BUT…LOTS of younger folks of voting age, DON’T.

Many of them with malice of forethought, btw.

I’m judging by two data points – both of which are sketchy but real.

One: I know that of the dozen or so of the twenty-somethings I personally spend a little time with, only one or two of them are registered and one of those says he hasn’t voted.

Two: And the other data point is that Russell Brand and others are vociferously telling them to check out of the system. It’s broken, doesn’t represent them and it needs to be overturned. (Waiting for the World to Change?)

That stuff impacts them.

So, yeah, “cool dude” or not, Greg’s got a point. And dismissing it (and them) out of hand is part of the reason it exists and is growing…

Eric1 August 12, 2014 (1:40 pm)

Ack!! Now I am old since I don’t smoke weed… LOL…
.
I was always grumpy.. Cynical too if you must know. But at least I don’t make sweeping generalizations:)

wakeflood August 12, 2014 (1:58 pm)

So you got that going for you, as Carl Spackler would no doubt say. :-)

And Carl smoked A LOT of weed. A cross between Kentucky Bluegrass and California Sensimillian, if he remembers correctly. And he may not.

rob August 12, 2014 (3:07 pm)

Like the no vote for metro by the county, and seattle voted yes an wants to vote seperate to help metro can we in westseattle since we voted no on this can we opt out and vote the way we want

au August 12, 2014 (3:28 pm)

It doesn’t matter now anyway. As soon as the vote is ratified the council is good to go.
It will be good to check in a year from now and see how its going with the MPD.
btw- The MPD is neither bogus nor is asking people to read it anti government.

Norma August 12, 2014 (5:49 pm)

I’m another one who has always voted for parks but not this measure. I doubt that we’ll ever have too many parks and we’ll always need money for safety and maintenance. I based my decision on the lack of controls in this measure. I was very disappointed in our previous city administration and so far have seen little that gives me great confidence in our new administration. So why should I vote to give them unfettered power? By the way, I’m a democrat who voted for Murray.

Thomas M. August 12, 2014 (7:02 pm)

The People’s Republic of Seattle is a land of renters. Easy to vote away somebody else’s money. Take a good look at your new tax valuations (sit down first) and then add this junk tax to it. So much for Junior’s braces.

a August 12, 2014 (8:55 pm)

Amen, Thomas M.

A few more tax increases, it will be ‘so much for Junior’s breakfast.’

Teacher Greg August 13, 2014 (7:31 am)

Our taxes here are really quite reasonable. My friends in other states and my family back East pay double what we do for the same valuation. If the taxes are that bad why not just sell your house for a 40% profit and move to Covington?

Mickymse August 13, 2014 (9:03 am)

And I don’t know which neighborhood all of these commenters are living in, but my property taxes here went DOWN for five years in a row until the latest valuation arrived in the mail. So don’t be so quick to complain about taxes just going up all the time. That’s not quite how it works.

Civik August 13, 2014 (9:51 am)

I was mostly disappointed in a lack of accountability for whomever is in charge of the new parks district. The vote was also done in a primary to catch more party line people. Politik at its worst.

Now the general ballot can be stuffed with a couple more tax measures in the hopes they all pass. I like to say that anywhere else in the state, I’d be a Dem, but here I get called a ‘tea partier’ because I’d like some accountability to come with our city’s inability to get something done correctly the first time.

Sorry, comment time is over.