I Endorse Peter Steinbrueck

Your vote is due Tuesday.  …There are four viable candidates  .. McGinn, Harrel, Murray and Steinbrueck.

Why Steinbrueck ?

Seattle is at a juncture where it may become a major world class city where no one lives  or visits except for business.  The Vulcanizarion of Seattle is shown by the endless blocks of faceless condos and fortressed business towers being built by Vulcan at South Lake Union.

Of course people will live in these towers.. to work.  Those people will have to move out if they want the decent family life a great city like Boston, San Francisco, or even Portland offers.  If they work in Seattle, Vulcan’s SLU means moving their homes to LA style suburbs rather than living in the  kind of high density  communities a great city should offer.

Vulcan is  Paul Allen’s real estate firm.  He wants them to preserve and increase his money.  Steinbrueck is opposed by Seattle’s liberals and by Vulcan.  The libs and Vulcan say that they stand for better use of urban space, they use words like vertical neighborhoods to describe what is happening in South Lake Union and depict Steinbrueck as a NIMBY, not in my back yard, who wants the city stuck in a 50s TV epitome of picket fences and mom running the vacuum cleaner.

The Vulcan PR image is absurd .  Vulcan’s projects are about $$$ not about  how Seattle is going to grow.  They are correct, we are going to have a LOT more people living in condos and apartments.  The question is not whether to build towers and light rail, the question is whether we are to do grow this new city in a way that also creates schools, walkable streets, places for small businesses to grow … and maybe even some public amenities like small public squares.

For Seattle to grow into a city like Boston or London, we also need a sense of where new growth is good and where it is bad.  Bringing business to South Lake Union was and is a good thing.  Building two 24 story towers on the edge of Lake Union is a bad thing.  Vulcan’s styleless towers cut off the lake from the city and turn a world class asset into an amenity for the owners of the condo penthouses.

While this is going on, the current Mayor’s campaign seems based on his record in learning how to be a good city manager.  McGinn  was elected as a firebrand opposed to the replacement of the viaduct with a tunnel.  He lost that and then became an avid student of city budgets, fixing potholes, and getting the sea wall built.  These are all good things, but … aside from supporting more bike lanes … Mr. McGinn’s major achievements seem to have worked well with Vulcan in running the city.  McGinn  is not a leader.

Back at Steinbrueck, you should imagine him as Mayor after the viaduct comes down.  WE will build a new waterfront for Seattle then.  Will that waterfront look like the shores of Lake union or will it be built in the spirit of Pike Place Market?   So, I will vote Steinbrueck!

Can Peter win?

I would not vote for him if I thought my vote was a mere gesture.  Most pundits think that McGinn and Murray will be the finalists. If I thought Peter was a lost cause I would vote for Ed Murray.  I admire Ed and think his skills as a community leader and state legislature would be great for Seattle.  I would LOVE to see a Murray v Steinbrueck race!

For that matchup to occur, Harrell and McGinn have to lose.  Harrel is likely to lose.  He is a not very bright political opportunist. The only way he can win is by convincing enough people that voting for a Japanese/African American is the right things to do.   I do not think there are enough knee jerk”person of color”  voters to help Harrel and neither the (small) Japanese/American community nor the larger African/American community thinks of Harrel as their own. I doubt many Ethiopian or Somalis will vote for Mr. Harrel.

So, I see the race as three way .. McGinn, Murray and Steinbrueck.  Since I only get one vote and am not a fan of McGinn, that leaves me the opportunity to vote for Peter.

Can Peter Win, II?

Publicola has a great analysis of this question.   They point out that “Steinbrueck has the least resources for paid voter contact and a field game that is the most modest. This is not typically a recipe for success in the home stretch. It’s far from clear whether his campaign will be able to muster any real movement in his numbers with six days to go.

But if we do see Steinbrueck make a serious move into the second spot as returns come in, it probably means undecideds were not moved by Mayor McGinn’s final arguments and ended up in Steinbrueck’s column because he was the candidate they felt they knew and was the “safest” choice.

Yes, some of his voters will be anti-arena folks, neighborhood activists, and balanced growth advocates—but let’s face it, most people vote on gut, feel and comfort with a candidate—and substantive issue debates have been few and far between this election cycle. Ironically, his fate may have nothing to do with his campaign efforts, but whether Peter Steinbrueck has built up enough goodwill over his decade on the city council and his father Victor Steinbrueck’s civic activism to carry him through this primary.”

VOTE STEINBRUECK!