With Mike McGinn leading by nearly 5,000 votes, Joe Mallahan conceded this evening, making McGinn our city’s next mayor.
This was McGinn in Ballard a few weeks ago at a rally supporting plans to bridge the Missing Link. “We went out and we spoke to people.” he said today. “We went out and we listened to people.” (Photo from Holy Outlaw).
Mallahan concedes mayor’s race to McGinn
Oh, crap.
I expect the Missing Link will happen a lot sooner now.
Sweet!
And I thought we could never get a bigger douche bag then Nickels.
Well I voted Mallahan, but face it, if you a middle or upper middle class professional and property owner in Seattle, all this transit-green-urban-village stuff actually makes our homes and communities more valuable. Bike paths, farmers markets, trams, light rail….this is the stuff of college educated, well-off whites. Sure, they'll toss a few bones over the side (aka the housing levy) but pretty soon we'll be in Berkeley North and no poor people will be able to live here.
Seriously, these kinds of Green Democrats are much better at protecting the wealth of upper middle class yuppies than Republicans with their cars, exurbs, strip malls and Walmarts.
Well off whites sure do love their taxes
OK, I voted for the guy. Now let's see what he can get done. I officially change my status from supporter to hawkeyed watchdog. I'll back him if he's doing the right thing and I will call foul where appropriate as well.
I wish you luck Mr Mayor-elect and offer my help when you need it, but don't expect a free pass either.
Fire up that transition team and let's hear the plan for the first 100 days.
So is the fat boy corporate green lawyer gonna ride his bike or take the bus to city hall everyday?
Oh that's right, campaign's over, buses and bikes are for the little people.
In Seattle they do. Have you ever noticed in Seattle how the greener and more liberal the neighborhood the more expensive the homes?
I wonder if that's because, despite what the conservatives would have you believe, green liberals are actually pretty good at making money, and therefore can afford more expensive homes.
So is the fat boy Theracidivist ever going to get on a bike or just post nasty comments because the corporate biz speak guy didn't win?
Oh that's right, you'd rather have a mayor who doesn't actually know anything about what's going on in the neighborhoods or care enough to show up.
…and that's a bad thing, how?
Don't be jealous, just lift yourself up by your boot straps and chase that American Dream™ That's how your boy W did it, right?
Not bad at all!
And no, I'm not jealous at all, I'd much prefer to have liberal (not leftist) neighbors, they are much better for my property values. It's why I vote Democrat, they are much better for my portfolio.
Plus with white, college educated liberals, we get nice, all-white schools (a few minorities bused in or adopted for diversity's sake), bum-free trams rather than buses, farmers markets with $4 tomatoes that are fab. Hell, it almost feels European! I love it.
Face it, liberals have more class, are better traveled, eat better and are better educated than Republicans (well, not the old school Rockefeller Republicans I grew up around…. mind you, they all voted Obama).
I cant believe this city elected a douchebag from newyork. Nickels never looked so good. This city is an embarasment to common sense thinking. I am also sure that Malahan would probably have been no better. They were both schmucks.
Ignoring the more offensive parts of your comment, I'm curious what would you like to see in our mayor? What would you like him/her to do?
Um, yeah, right. Cuz the only thing stopping it was lack of an an ex-lawyer turned politician.
I believe he cares, I don't believe he can change a thing.
Mayor Bloomberg! Sadly he'd never move to podunk…..
Crap… well… sorta. I am glad that the Tunnel is unstoppable at this point but I am sure McGinn will waste a ton of money trying to stop it. He's going to blow a ton of money on Lawyers… which Seattle already does. I think it's 10 teacher salaries per 1 Seattle City Staff Lawyer?
I am pro-missing link… but the money has to come from some place. I don't think most people in Ballard will like the Missing Link when it fully realized. If the city does it right then the Missing Link should be a bike trail on the East side of the street where all the dirt parking is, there will be 2 sidewalks on either size of the street and only local traffic and industrial traffic will be allowed. Basically they should close the intersection at Market and 24thto stop the cars who use it as an express way to Fremont.
Then the city need to fix Market and Leary to make them safe. Which mean pedestrian over passes.
I don't see how they can meet all the needs. The missing link is dangerous on the weekend due to it being over flow parking for the Ballard Market. On the weekdays it's either an express way/ parking nightmare/ industrial / bike trails / hell zone.
What a disaster. This city has totally hit bottom. We have now elected perhaps (Marion Berry excluded) the most unqualified person immaginable.
He got elected because he rode his bike? I could literally vomit. No management experience. No business experience. No government experience. Frankly if you voted for him you are a total idiot. Flame throwing? No the truth.
Another lawyer shill who decided to get into politics. Activist my ass.
How about some actual managerial experience? Before you have 20K employees for your first management job? Is that asking too much?
How about not predicating your support because you ride a bike – an ELECTRIC BIKE. Oh, right, that wasn't mentioned too much.
How about someone who isn't out to kill business which is also known as JOBS? Can you honestly imagine anyone interested in expanding their business in Seattle (quick econ lesson – tax revenues can ultimately only be expanded through increased wages) meeting with Mike McGinn to explain what they want to do and why? Can you imagine the blank, glassy eyed look of confusion on his face? Has he ever even managed a simple pay roll?
This is potentially a turning point for Seattle and not a good one. You can only try to kill businesses for so long before they get the message and move on. I hope you enjoy your life as a barista because that may end up being the top of the wage scale here if it keeps going the way it is.
I'm an idiot.
Great, and proud of it, and no sense of shame. Go protest something you 60's wanna be loser.
That is one of the silliest rants I've heard since I stumbled across an over excited teabagger screaming something about Obama being a fascist nazi socialist communist something or other.
Translation: SPG doesn't have the slightly clue what would qualify someone to be mayor. Of course, it must be “conservative” to insist on the “high hurdle qualification” on at least managing something, anything before you decide that maybe you know how to run one of the largest cities in the US.
Let the ignorant live in their bliss! Party on SPG, you are rolling in it.
Translation: If the wingnuts are in this much of a frenzy then we know we elected the right guy.
what is a slightly clue…? i want one
and your second sentance… wow, i mean just wow.
Translation: if someone doesn't agree with everything you believe they must be a “wingnut” “W” supporter, etc. WRONG. I believe that would be called prejudice but then again I'm sure you are a total diversity supporter (except when someone disagrees with you).
Anyway, back to the poing, you havne't actually said why it is good that McGinn has been elected. Why is that again? What are the qualifications? Right, there are none. Oops; forgot, he's a citizen.
What have you got against electric bikes? The whole concept of bike riding is not necessarily predicated with an assumption that the bike rider is in excellent physical condition. Electric bikes make it possible for people to go a further distance and navigate hilly streets. Just because someone is riding an electric bike, that does not negate the fact that one less car is on the road.
And a poing would be kind of a cool thing to have, too.
If he was really that “big” of an environmentalist he'd be actually peddaling the bike, not charging it up. I get really tired of people like McGinn telling everyone else how to live. It is oppressive and hypocritical.
I believe he's riding what should be considered an electric moped which makes him even more of a pussy than if he just rode a moped, and that's saying something.
Electric bikes DO require pedaling. Okay, you're obviously a know-nothing blowhard with nothing useful to say. I'm done.
So again, why does it have to be electric at all? Because the new mayor is too fat to just pedal? Because he's too lazy? Because he's a hypocrite? What is the point of loading up a bicycle with lead, plastic, and negative energy consumption, especially if you are an environmentalist?
You are done. You are also clueless. Enjoy the next 4 years, they are going to suck.
Really Seattle has just reelected Nichols. An overgrown soft boy is quintessential Seattle so that’s what they choose to represent them. It makes perfect sense and also makes little difference.
I voted for him. I figured he would be just about as ineffective as Nichols and do little harm. I loathe the Sierra Club connection but it is better than the business connection of the other guy and really environmentalists are pretty ineffective too when they are Seattle style environmentalists. They think ‘green ‘ means Whole Foods. : 0
The tunnel will happen and create lots of jobs and be better than the Viaduct. Maybe after all the lawsuits are over the bike trail will get extended but really it will just look good and make no real difference to anyone. The Lance Armstrong wannabes will still get killed in traffic and folks will wail and lay flowers on the street and keep on living their lives. More heavy industry will move to Tacoma and take its tax money along with it. Property taxes will increase in Seattle. Boeing will move to Charlestown and then to Asia. Microsoft will move to Texas then to Mexico or India. Technology will continue to improve and eventually replace nearly every job as we know it now. All this will happen no matter who is elected and we will adapt. Ho hum.
Why do you care what he tells you? Just live as you have always lived.
He is an overgrown soft boy. That type can’t do a thing without others to support them. Look at how crappy their townhouses look after a few years. Next time you see one in an auto repair shop watch and laugh. Ever watched one try to launch a boat? Heck the one next-door o me is a riot just trying to mow his lawn. His wife has to fix it when he is gone.
Eventually their jobs will move out of state and we can wait it out. The Pacific Northwest will still be here when they are long gone.
Amazing there are still a few Ballardites who think their houses will make them rich : )
I voted for McGinn but it was very much a lesser of two evils situation. I know too many people who have worked at T-Mobile in Director and higher positions and have heard too many stories about Mallahan's combative management “style”. Add to that the fact that T-Mobile is now in a world of hurt and as a VP Mallahan has to be at least partly to blame for that (though most of it falls squarely on the shoulders of Robert Dotson!) Bottom line is I don't think Mallahan could pull people together and get things done as well as McGinn though I don't expect much from McGinn either.
For me the two biggest issues are schools and transit and the reality is the mayor has very little say over either in this town. Transit is largely a county issues and the mayor has little power over the school board.
I really don't think this election is going to have much of an impact. I don't see things changing in a major way for the better or worse. Seattle will continue to do some things well and other things with astounding incompetence. Yawn.
Malahan changed his position from “the missing what?” to “uh, sounds good” to “we need to study it” to “I can't comment on pending litigation”. Guess where in that evolution he talked to the Ballard chamber and got some campaign donations.
With McGinn in office we'll have one less roadblock to getting it done.
What's an “off white”?
Not to get too off topic, but unless you bought at the absolute top of the market, you're still doing ok in Ballard. This isn't Las Vegas or Detroit where everything collapsed to below pre-boom prices.
Thank Jehovah!
But they are not really liberal honey. They just wear fleece. Laurelhurst is redder than Kansas.
Not rich, but at least it's paid for!
…and your car is the same one from the Flintstones where you kick your feet underneath to get around?
You are so incredibly clueless about life. Why do you care whether he has a regular bike or an electric assist (if he even does since it looked like he was riding a regular bike when I met him) what difference does it make to your life?
It's ridiculous to pin a minor cost on a major savings and declare that it's invalid because of the minor cost. For example, if a person switched from driving an SUV to work to riding a bike for three days a week do you look at the 60% fuel/traffic savings or do you look at the remaining 40% of fuel/traffic use?
This is the same reason that nobody is telling you to sit in the dark, but switch to a compact flourescent bulb to use 90% less electricity.
I realize that subtlety and shades are lost on your absolutist worldview, but try to understand that the reality based world exists with more than the extremes of o or 100% of anything.
Aren't you a bundle of joy. You should remove your reference to Kevin Black as it is incredibly insensitive and offensive, especially since his friends and family read this site.
You‘re exactly right. The race with anything at stake was the country race and thankfully we avoided the lunatic reporter. (amazing I think she really thought she was gonna win) Constantine is a decent bean counter and we need that with the terrible shortfall we face. The cuts we face this year will be nothing compared to what we see in the future. The cuts proposed to human services will create a nightmare in neighborhoods. Think you have a homeless issue now? Just wait. Things are gonna get MIGHT tight around old Seattle for awhile.
Both transit and school will suffer over the next few years. Taxes will go up. Call it a recession a down turn or a correction whatever. It’s real and it’s here now. We will see a major shift in jobs sources and business. It’s all good though. Change is life and without it we die away. Change is here no matter who is elected. It’s how we adapt to change that matters.
Read Return From Nowhere by Kuntsler and The End of Work by Rivkin. I see a great future. Poor foolish Seattle will suffer for awhile. The teabaggers are funny certainly but they hold more power over you than you think. When we become a fascist state blame the so called elite educated class that Seattle likes to think is it base. I voted for Obama but he will be a one term president unless he makes some major changes at the midterm elections. Remember this quote. “Fascism should more properly be called corporatism because it is the merger of state and corporate power.” – Benito Mussolini
“No management experience. No business experience.” Neither is important. Government is not business and cannot be managed. “No government experience.” Now that IS important. Understanding how bureaucracy works is important in a representative. I lot of time. Energy and money can be wasted trying to fight it. Instead use it. That’s what is hurting Obama right now and what was so valuable to Johnson. Obama needs to study Johnson’s administration closely.
There's that ugly prejudice again. I know you don't think you have a bone of prejudice in your body but you do.
For the record my house costs over $1M, paid for in cash and I'm an ex CAT 2/3 bike racer so chances are quite high that I've ridden more miles, including commuting miles, then both of you combined. That's just a guess though – but at least I will say as much.
I want to see a cage match between ytoo and Kwame K!
Sooooo you paid a mil for a house and ride a bike to work. That makes you what? A mil poorer and today…. it makes you very wet.
What does any of that have to do with being prejudice? Stereotypes do exist. They are very real. Accepting reality is prejudice? Hmmmm…..
I'll add another one to your list of suggested reading, Ytoo: The Long Descent by John Michael Greer. His blog is amazing, too: http://thearchdruidreport.blogspot.com/
That is precious. How gullible do you think we are? Easy to badmouth McGinn but can you say anything substantive about mallahan? I would rather have someone with no experience than someone that is lousy at it. I won't bother with details as it seems you are a perfect example of where the the Backfire Effect kicks in.
Oh yes Faux. A favorite quote form a recent blog.
“One of the problems with the continual use of fascism as a bogeyman by political extremists is that it becomes far too easy to forget how promising fascism looked in the 1920s and 1930s to many good people disgusted with the failings of their democratic governments. It’s not the “cornpone Hitler” James Howard Kunstler has predicted that we have to fear, much less the imaginary conspiracies that occupy so much space in today’s alternative discourse, but a suave, articulate, and charismatic figure who harnesses the widespread assumption that anything must be better than what we have today, and replaces a dysfunctional democracy with an all too functional tyranny.
Such a figure, it bears remembering, could as easily emerge from the left as from the right. “
Will do, oh, while we are suggesting things… have you ever entertained the idea of moving? It's always an option.
Peace, love, dope.
Silly. I am an observer never a fighter. I figured out a long time ago to do as I please and what I think is right and what works for me and watch the rest waste their energy.
uh, we just had one of those for eight years.
“…suave, articulate, and charismatic figure who harnesses the widespread assumption that anything must be better than what we have today…”
What about GW fits into this description?
Depends on your POV. If you believe that all guvmint is evil, than anyone who can speak to you on your level can be fairly charismatic. Bush's speechwriters were also very good at slipping in the dog whistle quotes like “wonder working power” where educated secular people shrug and the evangelicals get a boner.
Based on the resume, W should never have been elected to any office, yet millions of people thought he was great.
I totally agree with your estimation of his complete lack of credentials, but I guess it's completely outside of my abilities to ever consider him suave, definitely not articulate, and about as charismatic as a chimpanzee. Like you say, it's all a POV thing.