May 2007

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Friends of Seattle Lures City Hall Candidates (HorsesAss.org)

Friends of Seattle is in the news.

Will, "Friends of Seattle Lures City Hall Candidates," HorsesAss.org (10 May 2007)

At Wednesday’s Friends of Seattle get-together, I got the impression that our city council candidates aren’t big drinkers.

This may be a problem.

You see, Seattle city politics can be awfully dull. Everyone is for parks. Everyone supports the schools. If we had the money, we’d hire 5000 new cops. When it comes to transit, the question isn’t “why?”, it’s “where and how much.” There are lots of lopsided votes on the council. Lots of 9-0, or 8-1. Consensus matters, maybe too much. On most issues, the difference of opinions between the members can be a matter of degrees.

Read the whole thing.

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In the Hall: The Road Through (The Stranger)

Friends of Seattle is in the news.

Erica C. Barnett, "In the Hall: The Road Through," The Stranger (9 May 2007)

Earlier this year, a new group called Friends of Seattle (chaired by Manca) held its kickoff right at the nadir of the debate over the Alaskan Way Viaduct. The new group, which supported the once-fringe surface/transit option, felt like something exciting, different, and new—an alternative to the stale viaduct-versus-tunnel discussion that then dominated the political debate. Now that some version of surface/transit is starting to look like a real possibility, the emergence of another pro-surface/transit group, McGinn's Seattle Great City Initiative, seems inevitable.

But is there room for both?

Read the whole thing.