Subduction Zone

Northwest Dealings

Author: ed itor

Seattle / Sports / Taxation

Build It Privately or Let the Sonics Go At the End of Their Lease

Steve Kelley is back to wanting to subsidize the Sonic’s owners and players. OK, I understand. He has never been opposed to using tax payer money to line Clay Bennett’s pockets; to help pay the dramatically excessive player salaries. Some comments on a few of Steve’s thoughts: These robber barons want to move the team, period. Nothing new here. The rest of us knew this from the day the sale was announced. And this detailed relocation plan is a sobering call to arms for Seattle’s mayor and city council, for the governor and the state Legislature. And a call for...

Legislature / Taxation / Washington

NASCAR is Gone!

Here is the good news: A Florida-based racetrack developer has abandoned plans for a $368 million NASCAR speedway near Bremerton, where local opposition to the project was fierce. Unfortunately there is some bad news as well. First, the governor and the legislature did not immediately say no to this project. Second, the developer may be back looking for another handout: But the company said it will look for other track sites in the state and might come back to the Legislature with another proposal in the future. “We think the Northwest is still a great opportunity for the company,” said...

Sports / Washington

Staying for the Spoils?

Steve Kelley in a column about whether Spencer Hawes may stay another year or more at Montlake quotes Bill Frieder: “If he leaves and does whatever he’ll do in the NBA, he’ll never have another day that compares with today,…” There was a point in the second half of yesterday’s win over UCLA that I said the same thing from my couch as I watched Hawes overflow with excitement after a particularly nice play. Earlier in the article Kelley says: Deep into his first year of college, Hawes is digging life on Montlake. The game is slowing down. The pressure...

dave reichart / Government / Washington

Checking Up: Were You Watching burner/reichart on TVW

Earlier tonight I was enjoying reading the Seattle Times* while eating dinner with the burner-reichart debate playing in the background. This bit of multitasking was not all that hard as the candidates were dramatically content free. About halfway through the debate this blissful time was interrupted by the phone which would have been fine had it been a friend calling. But no, it was the fine folks at Meyer Teleservices who note on their website: Our goal is to reach out, in a friendly personal manner, using the telephone to engage prospects in a one-to-one conversation with immediate results. They...

Journalism / Seattle / Washington

Do They Read Their Own Paper

Today’s Seattle Times has some interesting articles on population growth in Seattle and Phoenix. There are many more important issues in both articles however in this brief note I simply want to ask the question: Why don’t they read their own articles before they put the paper to press? In the Seattle article is the following: Nickels favors the most aggressive of four growth scenarios envisioned by planners, one that would add 350,000 people to Seattle’s population, which now stands at about 575,000. …… Planners generally agree that the four-county Puget Sound area will see its population swell by 1.6...