Liberal Talk Radio

Mayor Mike McGinn, whom we supported for mayor when it Greg Nickels was eliminated, is turning out to be pretty ineffective in his first month or so on the job. He’s now having to walk back his proposed staff cuts in the face of opposition from the entrenched bureaucracy: During his campaign, McGinn promised repeatedly [...]

Central District News has an update on the Drug Market Initiative that we discussed on a recent podcast: Overall, eleven participants are still in the program and have avoided further issues with law enforcement. Here’s how they break out: Two are currently in drug treatment to work on addiction issues that they previously supported through [...]

Cory Booker update — 2008 homicides on track to hit 10-year low. Cue zombies*: Like Barack Obama, Booker embodies a promise kept, a deferred dream finally come true, living proof that the stain of slavery, our original national sin, might yet be lifted from our collective soul. Booker knows this, too — he has shown [...]

Following the Contrarian’s recommendations — nay, exhortations! — I watched Street Fight tonight. It’s a great film, highly recommended. One thing that struck me, watching the film, is the kind of person it takes to succeed in politics… and governance. We’re about to elect a sitting U.S. Senator to the White House for the first [...]

Yesterday, I rediscovered this story about my adopted hometown. Listen.

10 years ago, we were Bowling Alone, now we’re not even bowling at all.

Eduardo M. Peñalver argues in the Wa-Po that the bursting of the housing bubble combined with high gas taxes might mean the end of sprawl. I’m not that optimistic, but it’s an argument we need to hear more often. With all the cockamamie ideas out there for reducing global warming (“huge mirrors in space!”) the [...]

In a lame attempt to be contrarian, noted sprawl apologist Joel Kotkin writes in Sunday’s Seattle Times that dense city living causes global warming, because they generate “heat islands” which extend far beyond the city’s boundaries. No, wait — he doesn’t actually argue that, but you have to read the piece twice to realize it. [...]

I saw this on the Seattle Channel the other day, but it went past rather quickly, and I’m glad there’s a print reference that I can link to. In an article about Tacoma’s ban on panhandling, C.R. Douglas finds a homeless man with an interesting perspective: Tacoma’s approach does seem like a hard sell in [...]

New Orleans developers are building more mixed-income, multifamily units: Real estate specialists predict that these projects will serve as catalysts for the neighborhood’s revival. “The Tulane corridor will transform into something it hasn’t been for 50 or 60 years,” said J. Mark Madderra, a principal in Madderra & Cazalot, a mortgage banking firm, who is [...]