If there’s one word I’d use to summarize the tenure of Mayor Murray, it’d be “disappointment”. But perhaps that’s wrong–to be disappointed by something, you’d have to expect something beforehand. And yet, despite my general lack of expectations from Mayor Murray when he came into office, he still managed to disappoint me with a consistent pattern of resisting or rejecting worthwhile (and often vitally important) projects and pushing, or at least, signing on to, boondoggle.
Now, I’d like to begin with a disclaimer: I don’t blame Mayor Murray for all of our problems. In fact, I genuinely think that he is trying to make an effort to oppose the NIMBYs who seem to have a strangle-hold on Seattle housing policy. The problems with our housing policy are the same problems most West Coast cities seem to be facing these years, and have been aggravated not by an incompetent mayor but by the indomitable political power of Seattle’s single-family, middle-to-upper-class, white neighborhoods–a political machine as strong as New York’s Tammany Hall at the height of its power, but without even the veneer of populism and concern–and their glorified megaphone, the Seattle Times.I hope that the attempt to destroy the reactionary neighborhood councils succeeds–neighborhood activism should not be for the haves but for the have-nots. I merely want to emphasize that I’m not here criticizing his attempts at challenging Seattle’s Tammany.
What I’m criticizing here is instead those many, many times where he acts as the agent for Seattle’s Tammany, refusing funds and taxation for worthwhile projects but creating similar taxation proposals for boondoggle. Let’s begin with the best-known, and one of the earlier, examples: Bertha. The issue of the Alaskan Way Viaduct replacement has a long history, but from the 2007 advisory ballot onwards, we notice a common theme: popular opposition to the building of either an elevated structure or a tunnel (with improvements to public transportation often fielded as an alternative to be funded), and hamfisted efforts by powerful interests, including Seattle’s Tammany, to push the building of a tunnel (though the state government preferred the elevated structure). Mayor McGinn, throughout his tenure, resisted the tunnel option, despite the opposition of the city council. Mayor Murray capitulated, and now it’s estimated that we’ll be spending $4.25 billion, with an estimated $223 million cost overrun to be footed by the Seattle taxpayer, who might prefer other projects, such as improvement in public transit. This is a highway tunnel, so it’s an investment in automobile usage and thus a contribution to global warming. Let us not forget that this was never approved by the citizens of Seattle–who, after all, rejected both options for replacement of the Alaskan Way Viaduct in 2007. The construction is now three (3) years behind schedule.. The (nearly comical) news surrounding this boondoggle tunnel-boring project has somewhat unfairly soured public opinion on other tunnel projects (such as tunnels for Link Light Rail, a project whose time has come), which do not involve such massive and unreliable implements as “Bertha” and often finish ahead of time and under budget, despite the massive smear campaign against them perpetrated by Seattle’s Tammany and their conservative allies (most prominently, Tim Eyman).
Now, for residents of our fair city, the Bertha nonsense should be old news. But Mayor Murray has backed another boondoggle project as of late: a $160 million (though recently shaved to the much smaller amount of $149 million) police station for the SPD’s north precinct. The first question is of course, why does Seattle need to spend more money on its police department? Even discarding philosophical and political objections to the institution of the police, there seems to be no reason to expand it, especially as the SPD (as well as police departments across America in general) is already very well-funded. Crime rates have been dropping for the past three decades (and that’s even accepting the dubious-at-best, though widely-held, assumption that spending on police has anything to do with crime rates), and the city has many other needs which perhaps deserve more public spending. Take, for example, the shortage of housing in the face of growth (and the concomitant rise in homelessness, that even Murray claimed was an “emergency”), or the expansion of public transportation at a time when the state government is trying to kill it through cuts, or the poor educational opportunities among the youth of South Seattle and South King County as a whole. Even if you do decide that you want an extra police station, $160 million is unreasonable. It, to put it frankly, is boondoggle, nothing more, nothing less. Still, five members of the City Council have decided to rush down the massively pared down $149 million proposal, with no input by the people of Seattle.
To add to this shameless frittering of public funds towards the SPD, Murray has now shown that he is indeed willing to tax businesses–not for public transportation, nor municipal broadband, nor enforcement of labour laws, or housing, though. For those, unfortunately, Murray has said there’s no money to be had, especially not from taxes on business. But there is money, to be collected from businesses (specifically, according to The Stranger, from increases to the business and occupation tax and business licence fee), for hiring 200 new cops by 2019. Again, the necessity of this seems questionable at best, even bracketing away the issues of police brutality and white supremacy in America. As The Stranger notes, this proposal is looked upon with some approval by an institution of Seattle’s Tammany, the Chamber of Commerce.
So now we ask the following question of Mayor Murray: why do you deserve a second term? For, after all, he has announced that he is seeking re-election next year. Clearly, he has shown himself to have no understanding of the issues facing this city, nor of how to manage priorities or the public purse. Unless a sufficiently convincing reason arrives in the next year, we urge all Seattle voters to oppose Murray’s re-election
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