Ballot and Balance

Mean…

That’s the feeling I have when looking at the ballot and preparing to vote.

The choice has boiled down to just how mean I want this city to be.

Since 2020, the narrative has been: “if we don’t take steps now, we’ll be overrun with ‘undesirables’” (i.e. any person who makes us feel uncomfortable as we watch TV or have Seattle’s increasingly right wing talk radio hosts tell us that we should be uncomfortable around).

“Compassion” has become an expletive—and we’re willing to look the other way on solving “issues” as long as it will allow the people operating the city’s daily paper to walk downtown on their annual trip to Pike Place because “there’s really no reason to go downtown, but I want it to look nice for the tourists.”

So, we’ll vote for the bully for mayor—and I say this while acknowledging that the incumbent has been part of my life in one or aspect or another for close to 40 years—because he’s made the Downtown Seattle Association happy through forcing people (city employees) back into downtown to buy lunch a couple of days a week. We’ll ignore the toxic environment that permeates his office and the collection of intimidators he’s surrounded himself with.

And we’ll vote for a city attorney who only started being “compassionate” when she realized that after the primary she was 20 points behind. An incumbent that understands that people living in Wedgewood, Laurelhurst, north Capitol Hill and along Lake Washington Blvd have never been subject to police asking why they’re in a neighborhood so recreating the incredibly racist SOAP and SODA laws doesn’t impact them.

And we’ll vote for a City Council President that is perhaps the coldest politician that I’ve ever had to deal with. A politician that just like the orange gangster currently residing at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave, spent most of her year as Council President seeking vengeance against those who “wronged” her. Another politician that became “compassionate” only after finding out how greatly disliked she was on a city-wide basis.

The Mayor and the Council President have one thing in common—the creation of an atmosphere so toxic, so mean that it ensures that unless you work for them directly, you’re reluctant to work in city government. 

I truly don’t know who I’m going to vote for in the mayor’s race—I have very real reservations of making a person with no elective experience the mayor of the most important city in the Pacific Northwest. I believe much of what has happened to Seattle over the last decade plus occurred because the city voted for a person who had no experience running an operation the size and scope of city government.

Voting for stability to avoid the potential of having a “Mayor Saka,” Mayor Kettle,” or ***SHUDDER*** a “Mayor Nelson” in 2030 may be the painful choice I have to make.

The other two choices are much easier. Both challengers have the range of knowledge and experience needed for their positions. More importantly, they strike me as having the proper balance you need to be a councilmember or city attorney. Neither appear to take being called “compassionate” as an insult. The two incumbents flee that word like a vampire flees a cross.

This city has always worked to find a balance between assisting those that need help and locking up those who prey on the people needing help.

Far too many people see that as being “soft,” the soft that helped create the “Seattle is dying” narrative. A narrative that has made it easy for people to look the other way when those who need a treatment bed more than a jail cell are swept off the streets.

Here’s hoping next week is the first step in trying to restore that balance.

Until Next Time….