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3 Issues that I would like to see addressed by a mayoral candidate.

Started 3 years ago by trensuela
Latest reply from Lucile 2

trensuela
Member Profile

My personal top three which I think would improve the quality of life in this wonderful space we live in would be the following:

1. Spend money parks. The parks in this city are in extremely poor shape compared to other cities I have lived in, which include Chicago, Denver, Atlanta, and Boise.

2. Homelessness. There is no nobility in allowing people to sleep/urinate/deficate in doorways. I realize this is a holy grail of an issue, but once again, Seattle seems to do a far poorer job of handling homelessness than any other city.

3. Public transportation. This has been the greatest failure of the Nickels administration.

Go ahead and list your top three.

Posted 3 years ago #
christopherboffoli
Member Profile

1. BROADBAND (Lack of availability of broadband/fiber optic Internet; providers that charge for services they don't deliver with little to no accountability)

2. ORDINANCES (Updating of SMC to reflect Seattle's denser development; better enforcement of noise and building code violations, etc.)

3. PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION (Including more water transportation options)

Posted 3 years ago #
Julie
Member Profile

1. Improving Public Transportation with truly Rapid transit, and improved connectivity and frequency, with the specific goal of making public transit more convenient than Single Occupancy Vehicles, to drastically and immediately reduce carbon dioxide pollution and congestion.

2. Institute city policies that will drastically and immediately reduce the carbon dioxide pollution footprint of both new and existing public and private buildings in the city.

3. Make the case that citizens can buy more collectively, through taxes, than they can individually, and that it is therefore in their best interest for the city government to raise taxes to pay for all the things that make our city more civilized: police, parks, libraries, help for people who are homeless or poor...

Posted 3 years ago #
Anonymous
Member Profile

Took me a while to come up with this but I have to say something because Nickels has really not lived up to my epextations.

1. Sustainable practices for all city goverment. Move away from using paper and use e-paper instead.
2. Renewable energies. Convert the all city vehicle fleet to hybrid or natural gas vehicles (like the busses).
3. More convenient access to recycling in the city. I have had to throw water bottles and other recycles in the trash because there was no where to put it. Also lets get rid of plastic bags once and for all.

Posted 3 years ago #
WSB
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Great topic. I'll be covering the first major candidates' forum of the season next week downtown and will listen in particular for the issues you guys are interested in. Not sure if reporter questions will be part of the forum, but we also are planning to profile candidates for city council and mayor, fwiw.

Posted 3 years ago #
trensuela
Member Profile

I think that after tonight's shooting I would want to append one more item onto my list: gangs.

In the nine years I have lived in Seattle I have never seen this much gang violence.

Posted 3 years ago #
Anonymous
Member Profile

Couldn't agree more. We were at the beach yesterday afternoon before all this stuff happened and it just felt awkward because there were so many gang bang types and definately more than usual. I will add one to my list as well.

4. More police. We need more police presents on the street, which will help reduce crime.

Posted 3 years ago #
TheHouse
Member Profile

My top three topics are:

1) Reduce Taxes
2) Reduce Taxes
3) Reduce Taxes

Seattle actually has more parks then people can use....stop using taxpayer dollars on new ones and close the crappy ones. We also have more libraries in this town then I've ever seen. We have 4 in West Seattle alone....no other major city has as many libraries as this town. We also are taxed at a higher rate than most other cities in the country and don't have a solid mass transit system (buses, are you kidding)? It is evident to me that with the amount of taxes that Seattle residents pay, they aren't getting a strong ROI. We need someone to come in and eliminate wasteful spending and make the difficult decisions the city needs to make.

Posted 3 years ago #
Lucile 2
Member Profile

1. Reduce Property Taxes
2. SPD, you seem kind of ineffective
3. Public Transit, you can do this without raising taxes if you aren't incompetent.

Posted 3 years ago #
Lucile 2
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and please don't raise my taxes, I have two disabled adult brothers to take care of, and I work in the non-profit realm, and yet I still find time to donate time and money. Julie, if they raise my taxes, my brothers will be in their worst position ever, I can't save more for their care so I have to put them back in state homes they have been abused in. Umm, no.

Posted 3 years ago #
Lucile 2
Member Profile

But Julie, I do strongly agree with #1 and #2-AMEN!

Posted 3 years ago #
trensuela
Member Profile

What is really odd is that people *think* that they pay high taxes here. Of the littany of places I have lived (Chicago, Denver, Boise) Seattle has by far the lowest tax burden.

My friends and family in suburban Chicago pay almost exactly double what we pay for property taxes here. This is in addition to a 3% income tax and an 8.5% sales tax for Cook County.

In Denver the property taxes were around 1.5% with a 6% sales tax and state AND local income tax.

Boise's property tax rate also is around 1.5% and this is with a 6.5% sales tax and a progressive income tax which tops out at 9% at a whopping $45k a year.

While I understand people's frustration with paying taxes and government waste entirely too well I think that many people are unaware of how good we have it here as far as taxation is concerned.

Seattle was ranked 4th lowest taxed major city in America by I think Forbes.

Personally I wouldn't mind paying a snails hair more in taxes to have more police, less and better maintained parks (parks seem to serve as cruising grounds, drug stores, and housing here) and public transportation which is useful.

Posted 3 years ago #
lazybeard
Member Profile

1) Transportation - I have a bus stop in front of my house for _1_ route

2) Seattle Police Department.

3) Food Banks - I think it was January's Highland Park Action Committee meeting where they had the gentleman who operates the White Center food bank and said that he needs more and more canned foods because he's serving more and more people than before.

Natural Mom - Here's a good read on what the city is finding and found on using plug-in vehicles, and also Google..

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/dannywestneat/2008771363_danny22.html

I'm curious on how much of the city's fleet is diesel, and just convert it to Bio diesel. With most vehicles it's incredibly inexpensive (we're talking just replacing a couple of hoses).

Posted 3 years ago #
KBear
Member Profile

Anti-tax people tend to oversimplify things. For example, in our state, where there is no income tax, the poor and middle-class pay a disproportionate share of taxes, while the wealthy get away with a lot less. What if we lowered the sales tax and instituted a state income tax on the wealthiest citizens? That would lower the tax burden on most people, but would you still say it's "raising taxes"? The anti-tax folks also never say how they'd replace lost tax revenue. You can't just keep lowering taxes and reducing spending. How would you pay for police and fire protection, schools, public transportation, roads, parks, libraries, and all the other public services we count on? Would you prefer to pay a hefty toll every time you drive on a public road? Oh, wait! That's a tax too! So how exactly would you pay for such things?

Posted 3 years ago #
Anonymous
Member Profile

Lazybeard. tahks for the information. I read the article you sent but other than the less milage I don't really get the point. 51 miles to a gallon is still a major improvemnt above the American built cars which are real gas gobblers.

Posted 3 years ago #
Lucile 2
Member Profile

I would totally go for tolls here. I could get off my ass and walk more, that would for sure be motivation, it worked for me in San Francisco when I lived there. I don't think we need to recover revenue by taxing the wealthy, we need to cut non-vital programs from the budgets, and also non-vital government jobs/wages. I will most likely never be wealthy, but I don't want to punish people who are to have them pay for care for my brothers. It's not their fault my brothers have disabilities. It's not my fault either, but I don't believe in transferring the burden. I am, however, a big fan of excise taxes. Sure that might be taxing the wealthy some may say, but nobody is forcing them to buy a boat.

Posted 3 years ago #
lighthouse
Member Profile

My simple request: Fix the potholes. I can't believe how bad some of the roads are.
.
After the snow storm, the roads seemed to disintegrate. So the city should add something to their "snow plan" to make sure new roads can stand up to a heavy snow storm.

Posted 3 years ago #
Jiggers
Member Profile

Try and live in Connecticut if you think we have high taxes here.

Posted 3 years ago #
AdamOnAlki
Member Profile

1.) The Admiral Theater: WHAT THE HECK! It used to $2 for any movie at any time. Now its, what, $7? WHAT THE HECK!

2.) Alki: If you want to hang out in the summer, you should need to also stomach it in the winter. I would like to implement a punch-card system. If you get 10 stamps in the non-seasonal months, you may chill out on the beach once the sun begins to crack.

3.) Condoms in the yard in the admiral district. So, someone is so incredibly reckless and spurt of the moment passionate to have sex in a public place, but also has the peace of mind to put a condom on first? My goodness. (credit: Russ Meneve)

Posted 3 years ago #
Anonymous
Member Profile

I have reported post number 19. That was really inappropriate. This is a serious consversation about the future our city.

Posted 3 years ago #
AdamOnAlki
Member Profile

NattyMa,

Wow. Feel free to relax once in awhile. For the sake of everyone. Goodness gracious.

How does someone voicing their own opinion on matters invalidate your own? How do you KNOW I don't believe in the above issues I feel should be addressed. You are trying to censor my right to be heard.

Posted 3 years ago #
Anonymous
Member Profile

adamonalki. Your clearly making jokes and this is serious business. The leased of our worries are ticket prices at the admiral theater, going to alki in the winter, and condoms in the admiral. I will relax when you grow up and stop playing where there is no jungle jim. I'm not censoring anything just trying to keep this conversation on topic and factule.

Posted 3 years ago #
AdamOnAlki
Member Profile

Well, truthfully I couldn't make out half of the things that you are saying in the above statement, but I can gather that you and I seem to have a difference in opinion.

"the least of our worries" is an incredibly blanket statement. You seem to feel that whatever you believe in is correct and frankly, that is just not the case. I agree with you on many issues, but overall, it is unfair, immature and semi-psychotic behavior for you to believe that your voice is representative of all West Seattlites (which it isn't).

So feel free to continue to post your thoughts on what YOU would like (peacefully, like I did above) and try to resist denigrating the opinions of others. An environmentalist like yourself should know better than that.

Posted 3 years ago #
Cait
Member Profile

NaturalMom, #1... though this is not a rule I have proposed (what I see as) forum "etiquette" that has worked out nicely in the past. I would add to the "PM before you start a huge fight in the middle of the proverbial street" etiquette guideline that reporting of comments be left out of the public forum. Report it and move on. You've done what you can and none of us need to know. If we care - we reported it too. Leave it up to TR.

#2 - you have a problem with him "making light of a situation" but not specifically with the graphic condom nastiness? I think you reported it for the wrong reason entirely if you were going to report it AT ALL. If you don't want people commenting on your decisions about reporting posts, don't make it common knowledge.

Also - aside from the violence issues we have been dealing with lately, if you think that West Seattle's situation is dire enough that you can't make some jokes here or there, you need a reality check. It is really nice here and we leave in a great city with yes, a sometimes Quimby-esque mayor, but it's wonderful. Could it be better - always. Could Nickels do a better job? Sure. Can we joke about it? If you're not, you must spend a lot of time angry and not just at Nickels. The matters that we deal with here in Seattle and specifically West Seattle that are NOT available for laughter fodder are generally NOT dealt with at the mayoral level.

That being said... Adam... I like number 2 particularly. Punch cards for all!

Posted 3 years ago #
MrJT
Member Profile

Well said Cait.

Posted 3 years ago #
Anonymous
Member Profile

Do you even live here?

Posted 3 years ago #
Cait
Member Profile

Oh my... that got a laugh from me. Thanks. I think it's pretty obvious from my wording that I do. I have, non-stop, since the day I was born. But - what would that matter anyway?

Posted 3 years ago #
MrJT
Member Profile

4th Generation here...

Posted 3 years ago #
Trisket
Member Profile

NaturalMom- Two whoom our you directting you're questionnaire?

Posted 3 years ago #
Cait
Member Profile

3rd - woot woot! :)

Posted 3 years ago #
AdamOnAlki
Member Profile

Born and Raised! Happen to be out of the city as I type this, but will be coming through this June! Go West Seattle! I like it just the way it is (except for the 3 above changes that I would like to immediately begin seeing implemented)!!

Posted 3 years ago #
TheHouse
Member Profile

NaturalMom, just so that you know in the future:

"Your" should be "You're"
"Leased" should be "Least"
"Jungle Jim" should be "Jungle Gym"
"Factule" should be "Factual"

I was going to report you, but I believe in simply providing constructive criticism.

Posted 3 years ago #
Anonymous
Member Profile

I have arthritis in both hands and limited sight in my right eye due to a work accident so not only is it hard to type it is a real pain trying to proofread. I won't bother responding to any more of these political threads sense they are ovioiusly very sensitive. Thanks for personally beating me to a pulp.

Posted 3 years ago #
Cait
Member Profile

Buzzwords that practically guarantee a nasty response within 25 forum posts on WSB (despite the context): "Nickels", "off-leash dogs", "democrat", "republican", "parking (where you can or cannot do it)", "children and restaurant behavior", or the mention of any restaurant NOT allowing children.

Just fair warning. Not agreeing with it... just sayin'...

Posted 3 years ago #
Lucile 2
Member Profile

Cait: so true about the above postings. People can get pissed about "hand sanitizer" too. I would like Adam to know that I think condoms go in the trash too, and I wouldn't mind if the police ticketed someone they saw littering condoms...

Posted 3 years ago #

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