Election 2009: Mallahan, McGinn in West Seattle to talk housing

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.

Meghan October 9, 2009 (7:46 am)

Did McGinn explain that his plan to pull the plug on the tunnel, tear down the viaduct and replace it with only surface streets (causing 6 or 7 years of total gridlock) will destroy the property values in West Seattle?

wseye October 9, 2009 (8:34 am)

Meghan, 6 or 7 years of total gridlock? I think that McGinn wants permanent gridlock, not just a few years of it. His war on cars is ideological, so it doesn’t matter what damage he causes in order to save the planet…. sigh.

jiggers October 9, 2009 (12:29 pm)

How are we stuck with these two candidates? Not the best selection. I’m worried for Seattle and whats going to happen to it for the next eight years. Nickels wasn’t that great, but any of these two names here might be worse for Seattle in the long run. How did it become to this point? Refresh my memory again.

WSB October 9, 2009 (12:55 pm)

Nickels, Mallahan, McGinn, Drago, Donaldson, Sigler, Campbell, Garrett. Those were the primary candidates. Separate from the issues, regarding their campaigning and how you wound up with McGinn vs. Mallahan – From our standpoint, Mike McGinn ran the most aggressive in-person campaign – we saw him at every festival, every event, not just political ones. If there were more than 3 or 4 people gathered, he was there. While some will argue with you that campaigning via media is a smarter strategy, not necessarily so if you are campaigning in the summer. OTOH, that doesn’t explain Mallahan, who was NOT nearly as visible.
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Drago started late (but may have split some votes off from Nickels), Donaldson never quite seemed to find his message (and wound up campaigning in White Center one day – outside the city limits), Nickels didn’t campaign very intensely, and the other three were not considered major contenders.
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Some say that some would-be Nickels voters didn’t vote for him in the primary, not expecting there would be any way he wouldn’t make it to the general, voting instead for who they thought he could beat. I don’t know that I buy that, and if it’s true, certainly, it wasn’t wise – never take anything for granted! There, that’s my .0199999 of political analysis – TR

Sage October 9, 2009 (1:10 pm)

Whether or not you think the surface+transit+I-5 plan to replace viaduct trips will work in the long run, it seems clear that there will be *less* gridlock under this plan than there would be during the multi-year construction phase of a tunnel or rebuild plan. And it does seem that if we can mitigate our way through those many years of construction impacts, why bother with the construction in the first place? Why not instead just do a super-mitigation?
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And it’s also worth remembering that a tunnel with no downtown exits — which is The Plan — won’t be all that helpful to West Seattle commuters either.

laurie October 9, 2009 (1:37 pm)

I hope citizens research the housing levy closer – your tax dollars fund some poorly managed and maintained propeties run by broken non-profits. Most are not living up to the terms of the city funding docs and most have to come back repeatedly to the city and get more funds. I think it is time to not renew this thing.

kstineback October 9, 2009 (2:31 pm)

Really Laurie? West Seattle has some pretty great examples of Levy dollars spent well – Youngstown/Historic Cooper School for one, as well as One Community Commons, where the Food Bank is and Vivian McClean Place where the Seattle Library Branch is on Delridge. I would say that “most not living up to the terms of City funding” is really not accurate. it is absolutely true that there are some projects that have to come back for funds in their mid-life due to unforseen problems (often around water penetration and unknown structural, etc.), but more accurate description is that Seattle has a very vibrant non-profit development community (one of the best in the country) that sets the standard for affordable development. For example, Broadway Crossing, in Cap Hill, was recently named best overall development in the Country, and it used Levy dollars.

http://capitolhillhousing.org/bldg_broadwaypine.asp

The Housing Levy will cost the typical homeowner about $5.50 a month, $65 a year, .18 cents a day. It is a great investment; every Levy dollar is matched by $3 in outside investment. Vote Yes for Homes. Yes on Prop 1 this fall.

Mickymse October 9, 2009 (5:11 pm)

As Mike has said — you may elect Joe and not get a tunnel; and you may elect him and still get a tunnel.
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The difference I see is that you can vote for Mike — who actually votes, has been active in campaigns, has started a successful non-profit, has been a leader in a local community organization, and has a successful background as a lawyer — or you can vote for the person who still has little understanding of policy and local issues, speaks repeatedly in corporate buzzwords when not directing his comments through a “spokesperson,” and is seemingly being propped up by all the folks who originally backed Nickels.

mar3c October 10, 2009 (12:01 pm)

sage:
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the state and city are working the spokane street viaduct and the new SR99 off-ramps south of downtown for west seattle access to downtown.
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those of us who work north of downtown, however, are going to suffer for a while.
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if mcginn gets elected, i hope to see him pursue his in-city light rail proposals aggressively and revive the spirit of the green line, connecting ballard and west seattle with something other than roads.
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wseye:
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yeah, anyone who proposes taxpayers funding civic transportation projects must have a hostility toward drivers and a desire to take candy from your mouth, right?
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give me a break. seattle is an isthmus, and its street system has evolved badly. we can keep pouring money into the black hole and adding cars to the roads, or we can build grade-separated train routes that get cars off of the roads, alleviate congestion, and improve commute times for everyone – including but not limited to drivers.
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we’re running out of room for car lanes very quickly, and it’s long past time to think outside of the box.
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and yes, it will take an MVET and erasure of tim eyman’s stupid war on civic funding. or we can put up toll booths at the city limits and let all those suburbanites help pay for what they have wrought.

Coworker October 19, 2009 (6:02 pm)

Anybody but Mallahan PLEASE! Joe is a horrible person to work with and would have run T-mobile into the ground if he didn’t have so many people bailing him out. He doesn’t listen and leaves a path of destruction behind him with bad decisions. He takes credit for things he has little to nothing to do with. Don’t let this guy try to run our city PLEASE! I’m in a catch 22, I can deal with him in my work life but I can’t have him messing up my personal life!

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