Posted Fri, Oct 23, 10:31 p.m.

But Crosscut does have a very different slant to their articles about political stories and issues. Fox News can slant/distort the political debate without making an endorsement too, but that doesn't make them worthy of (c)3 status. Let's take the Mallahan campaign propaganda piece that you published as news the ...

Posted Fri, Oct 23, 6:17 p.m.

As Pythagoras just accurately pointed out, your 501(c)3 should dramatically change the way you provide political endorsements and coverage. It's nice that there is a home for Republican strategists gone to seed, anti-urbanist hacks, and out-of-touch NIMBY-ist curmudgeons, but I'm not sure this format is appropriate to receive a tax ...

Posted Fri, Oct 23, 6:08 p.m.

Wow. A Republican supports a Republican, without regard to her lack of experience, lack of knowledge, lack of ideas, and lack of grounding in reality. Bush may be out of office, but the "Party of G.O.P." still works the same way. Some things never change.

Posted Mon, Oct 19, 2:50 p.m.

Great piece, Mr. Jarrett. Maybe, while we're at this strategic point of inflection, we could start unifying the 17+ transit agencies that serve the region. Metro and Sound Transit can't even share scheduling information correctly, let alone coordinate to provide great mobility service. I know it would take leadership to ...

Posted Wed, Oct 14, 1:23 p.m.

For Joe Mallahan's rambling Municipal League response, click here: http://www.munileague.org/candidate-evaluations/previous-ratings/2009/candidate-questionnaires/MallahanQCEC09.pdf

Posted Wed, Oct 14, 1:21 p.m.

Great. Mallahan is a catholic middle manager who can "drive execution" of things his "corporate strategy team ideates" (his his words not mine). Anthony Robinson seems to be taking a cue from Steven Colbert's mocking of the press corps "I dictate, you transcribe "echoing every one of Mallahan's talking points ...

Posted Mon, Jun 15, 2:40 p.m.

How about they raise taxes to maintain higher prices instead of creating an inefficient industry of government sanctioned middlemen whose job it is to make it harder to buy and sell alcohol. Government should use policy to shape economic landscape to achieve our goals, not force further inefficiencies on the ...

Posted Wed, May 27, 8:53 a.m.

Yay Mossback! way to acknowledge that the problem is more complex than City v. Suburb and then immediately oversimplify it to denser cities=bad and sprawl=hey, it's gonna happen anyway. If we continue to distort the land market by subsidizing gasoline and automobiles, then we'll have low-density, unsustainable, auto-dependent development. If ...

Posted Tue, May 26, 2:34 p.m.

"Seattle's founders dubbed us New York Alki, and our first real tourist attraction was, appropriately, Madame Damnable's, a brothel" So is your point that we should bring back the brothels? Or to save climate-destabilizing land-use patterns (aka "bungalows") so that we can push the sprawl to the mountains and finally ...

Posted Fri, Feb 13, 7:56 a.m.

One of the major appeals of the suburbs is that they can access the cultural amenities (sports teams, museums, universities, etc.) and employment (commuters) or skilled worker base (reverse commuters) of the established city without paying taxes to support the city which built those cultural institutions and attracted the skilled ...

Posted Wed, Dec 31, 12:20 p.m.

I have to question your fundamental grasp of economics and resource use when you say things like, "Weirdly, many greens have hung on to the growth bronco and tried to ride it with ideas about density and urbanization." It would be like saying "Weirdly, many health advocates have jumped on ...

Posted Tue, Oct 28, 1:31 p.m.

Ted (and others who seem to have a singular view of all government expenditures): When we make an investment of public funds, shouldn't we consider what we get for the investment rather than just the amount of the investment? The choice between fixed rail (or dedicated lane) transit and building ...

Posted Wed, Oct 15, 8:38 a.m.

Ted, WRT to your characterization of Prop. 1 as an "expensive destructive ballot measure," I have to strongly disagree. Prop 1. is a mighty investment in our future, that will stimulate our local economy in the short term by creating thousands of design, engineering and construction related jobs, and strengthen ...

Posted Mon, Oct 13, 9:32 a.m.

Hey Knute, just because you put two things in the same paragraph, doesn't mean that one causes the other. How about looking at actual about traffic circles and their effects rather than citing a couple of seemingly unrelated incidents and using them to support your prejudicial conclusion. Journalists have an ...

Posted Fri, Oct 10, 10:37 a.m.

RE: I-985 meaningless to most of the state: Don't worry, I-985 will screw you too. Eyman is an equal opportunity parasite. 985 will cut road funding for rural areas, which means most of Washington outside the Puget Sound corridor. It's one of his dumbest so far.

Posted Thu, Oct 2, 10:34 a.m.

RE: Winner take all == two party system: Thanks Sean, It's always nice to see someone well informed on the Crosscut comment pages. Because of our winner take all system, there is a natural tendency toward two parties that act as coalitions of smaller groups. In other countries with parliamentary ...

Posted Thu, Oct 2, 10:10 a.m.

RE: Add Up the Tax Burden, Current and Proposed!: Two points: 1. It's not the amount of taxes you pay, it's what you get for it. Mass transit investments increase property values (something we all generally like) and make it possible to reduce the amount we spend on gas (also ...

Posted Thu, Oct 2, 9:59 a.m.

So breaking the law = 1 point deduction?: So let me get this straight: Rossi spends 4 years building a campaign slush fund to circumvent campaign finance laws. In addition, he actually violated some of these laws by directly coordinating with this group. A candidate for Governor should be held ...

Posted Tue, Sep 23, 1:53 p.m.

RE: Gregoire Won Debate Not Rossi: FYI, there is no such thing as a "free market." Like the easter bunny and Santa Claus, the Free Market is a figment of your imagination. There are poorly regulated markets, and there are well regulated markets, but all are subject to distortions and ...

Posted Wed, Aug 6, 4:24 p.m.

Actually, the argument falls flat: Just because you say your argument still stands doesn't make it so. Among other things, taxes shape the economic environment in order to accomplish goals that we, as a society deem valuable. The "free" plastic bags have a real financial cost to the grocer, and ...

Posted Tue, Jun 10, 1:31 p.m.

Comparing apples-to-apples: One of the major pieces missing from all the "sustainable" or "green building" discussions is a comprehensive apples-to-apples comparison of what sustainability means. How many tons of CO2 equivalent emissions balances a 100 ppm of dioxin emissions? How does a 5% increase in food production compare with a ...

Posted Tue, Apr 22, 2:48 p.m.

RE: Ted Van Dyk response: I would have to question Mr. Van Dyke's premise. He states, "The basic question: What systems would move the most goods and people in the region to their desired destinations for the least amount of public money?" To me, that seems to be a narrow ...

Posted Tue, Feb 26, 8:02 a.m.

RE: Ballard: Arrrrggghhhhh! nothing frustrates me so much as people with good intentions who pave the road to hell, or at least pave the rest of the Puget Sound farmland and destroy the planet. MaryW, I understand that you may have liked the "cute little houses" with nice yards, but ...

Posted Mon, Feb 11, 8:58 a.m.

Just because we lack leadership now, doesn't mean we always will: You point to the fact that Metro doesn't offer good transportation service now as a reason why it won't offer it in the future. We now have a strong and compelling need to fix the regional transportation problems and ...

Posted Thu, Jan 3, 10:07 a.m.

RE: Believe slogans or study the implications?: If you are to believe science (which apparently is a religion just like any other, and you can take or leave its findings just like some religious text from millenia past), then you might look at the relative ecological and economic impacts of ...

Posted Mon, Oct 22, 12:52 p.m.

Shorter Chris Vance: The campaign finance rules aren't perfect so to hell with democracy: OK, I understand the first part: our system of campaign finance and rules governing elections are flawed, but what I don't understand is why anyone would see that as a reason to throw out democracy as ...

Posted Thu, Aug 23, 8:33 a.m.

RE: crosscut or crossfire?: It would be hard to classify Knute as a "liberal voice". It's nice to have a partially fossilized old-timer to present his curmudgeonly POV, but Chris Vance is, at the core, a Republican political operative, and parrots the GOP talking points in a much more reasonable ...

Posted Thu, Aug 23, 8:16 a.m.

Chris Vance, former Chair of the Washington Republican Party: Sean, it's not his fault; he is physically unable to talk about media without referring using the phrase "liberal" and "bias." It's one of the tests for being a Republican commentator.

Posted Fri, Aug 17, 1:44 p.m.

RE: What studies?: umm . . . try clicking on the links in the article, you'll get to: this or this

Posted Fri, Aug 17, 1:41 p.m.

It's a VALUE not a FRAME: Who cares what political strategy Karl Rove uses or what some alleged liberals have "Claim to have learned from" him? Brewster has clearly missed the the point; the ability to walk from my home to the places I need to go adds a lot ...