Before we start, check out part 2 of The Deal over at Glibertarians. Also, you should look over the twice-daily links posts at Glibertarians – the Monday afternoon links post is managed by Glibertarians patron saint STEVE SMITH, now featuring 100% more Sasquatch.
Now then: People in Seattle are unhappy. No shit. Excerpt:
By a decisive margin, Seattle residents continue to view the city’s leadership as failing at public safety and homelessness, according to new poll numbers to be unveiled Monday. City leaders, especially long-tenured incumbents directly responsible for the rot of voter distrust, must answer the broad demand to do better with decisive, course-correcting action.
In its second round, the Seattle Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce-sponsored citywide poll interviewed 100 registered voters in each of Seattle’s seven council districts. The results are stark: About 73% of residents said their neighborhoods are less safe than two years ago. Two-thirds of voters said they’ve considered leaving the city. Almost three-fourths say they don’t feel safe going downtown at night. In every slice of poll respondents — by age, party or section of the city — more than 60% of every group distrusted the way the city spends its money.
These findings should be a cold-water shock to any political leader still deluded that the city’s degeneration has escaped voters’ ire. The poll adds to evidence that people aren’t looking away from the persistent tent encampments under Interstate 5 and in Woodland Park, the closure of Little Saigon fixture Seven Stars Pepper Szechwan Restaurant or the drug-centric lawlessness plaguing grimy downtown streets. When city bus drivers report being distressingly familiar with the smell of passengers smoking narcotics — described by King County Metro driver Erik Christensen as “burnt peanut butter, mixed with brake fluid” — must the red flag be any bigger?
The red flag is going to have to get bigger still, it seems, because the denizens of Seattle keep voting in the same idjits that allowed the city to get to this state. Nothing – nothing, I say again nothing will change until the “progressive” nincompoops who have been making up the Seattle municipal government are turned out, decisively, by the voters, and some people who have at least a nodding acquaintance with reality given the chance to fix things.
Maybe they could set the example for Los Angeles (and a bunch of other big, blue cities) while they’re at it.
The article concludes:
When so many people are this frustrated, leaders must get in step or get out of the way.
No. When people are this frustrated, they need to step in themselves and vote out the assholes who made this mess. That’s the only way this once-beautiful city will ever get fixed.
