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)

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.

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.

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.

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?

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.

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

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

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.

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!