The sweetheart deal for Comcast working its way through city hall does little to benefit access to communications for Seattle residents.

In a Progressive city like Seattle while we’re being lauded for our leadership on issues like the Kyoto Treaty and global warming, we’ve done little to create access to cable television and the ability to create original programming for Seattle residents.

“Public Access “ programming is the missing link in the new sweetheart deal with Comcast. Demand has been strong for creating public access programs, and the limited space on one channel has not kept up with the demand. With each subsequent contract, funding from Comcast for equipment for the Public Access channel has been reduced, while funding for the Seattle Municipal channel has been increased. The programming for the municipal channel is controlled by the city, not by the public.

Very few people would disagree that the programming on Seattle’s Public Access channel often lacks quality. Yet the conundrum of bad programming and open access can be addressed by creating two Public Access channels, one with ongoing shows that are approved by the Public Access Board of Directors, the other channel open to the public on the existing lottery system. With an investment in equipment for show producers and with two Public Access channels, Seattle will be able to claim our Progressive label. We’ll be able to create real access for the public to producing quality community television for civic issues, the arts and for other points of view.

Anyone who's been paying attention to the craziness surrounding the open seat at the Seattle City Council should head on over the The SLOG and check out Josh Feit and Erica Barnett's live blogging of yesterday's city council meeting, in which all 99 contenders for Jim Compton’s seat got 3 minutes in front of the city council.

Coverage begins here.

Does anyone else think it's total bullshit that two council members, Tom Rasmussen and Richard Conlin, didn't attend the meeting due to "other commitments"? Seriously, what were they doing? It better be a good excuse. It sounds like they just didn't want to be put through the pain of people like this but it's their job.

Conlin and Rasmussen, you're on notice.

Here at BetterDonkey.org we don't agree on everything, but we do agree on some things. One of the things we agree on is that with the right resources, we are all totally capable of figuring stuff out for ourselves. Like who to vote for.

Instead of endorsing candidates, we wanted to let our members and readers know who BetterDonkey is voting for-- when we agree, at least. Then we want to hear from YOU.

Seattle City Council: How BetterDonkey is voting

Position 2: Richard Conlin-- You gotta love Conlin. He's a wonky heartthrob, and he puts together the facts before he makes a decision. Brilliant!! His opponent, former Port commissioner Paige Miller, is really freaking lame. She pulled a page from the Karl Rove playbook and tried to accuse Conlin of being a flip-flopper all through the campaign... perhaps a ploy to disguise the fact that she's got no real plan for the city?

Position 4: Jan Drago-- Jan Drago is the current City Council president and she's got a long record of smart leadership. Plus, a vote for Jan is a vote against Casey Corr, who is so the Mayor's lapdog. Think about it: a no-name Mayoral candidate got a huge percentage of the vote in the primary. People are pissed at Nickels, but you know that none of us are going to have the guts to vote him out in the generals. The next best thing? Vote against the guy who's going to rubber stamp the Mayor's agenda.

Mayor Nickels withdraws his support for the monorail

Fifth vote on the monorail will happen this November

The Seattle Times reports:

Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels withdrew his support for the financially troubled monorail yesterday, refusing street-use permits and calling for a fifth public vote on the project in November.

The ballot measure would ask voters whether they want to kill plans, three years in the making, for a 14-mile line to connect Ballard, Seattle Center, downtown and West Seattle.

"This is perhaps the most disappointing day for me since I became mayor nearly four years ago," Nickels said at a news conference. "... Put simply, the monorail does not have enough money to pay for the project."

The mayor's turnabout marks the biggest setback yet for a project that began as a grass-roots movement for a functional transit system that rises above traffic. By this summer, though, the public rebelled against a finance plan that would have required at least 50 years of taxes totaling $11.4 billion to pay for a $2.1 billion line.

Is this the end of the monorail? How do you feel about it? Which way will you vote? Why?

This November's off-cycle election is turning out to be the most important election in the last 20 years for residents of Seattle. The monorail and the gas-tax will effect your everyday life much more than George W. Bush ever could.

Last night chrisz and I went to the Recording Academy's Music Community City Council Candidates Forum at Neumo's (were you there? I didn't see you!). First of all it was such an awesome education in the idea that political forum doesn't have to mean a handful of frumpy oldsters drinking coffee and eating cookies in a church basement. It can mean beer & smokey clubs & DJs. Dear Political Leaders: If you are so sincere about wanting more younger people participating in "the process," why don't you take "the process" out of "the basement" more often? Drop me a line and we'll talk about it.

Anyway. So the point was for city council candidates (incumbents and challengers alike-- I'll give you a full line-up of who's running for which seat after the jump) to prove to the artists, producers, and consumers of local music that they are with us, not against us. There were three panelists-- Josh Feit, Kate Becker, and Glenn Lorbecki-- who each had one question for all ten candidates to answer. I was super proud of the candidates because most of them held out from abject campaigning all the way until the second question. Ahem.

The basic problem for the music industry in Seattle can, it seems, be broken down thusly: the awesome culture of Seattle has grown the city and made it too expensive for the creators of said culture to live and do business here... plus the city only figured out five minutes ago how much money music brings to the economy-- it's on par with stuff, like tourism, that the city doesn't think twice about subsidizing (or "incentivizing," if you like Policy Speak. Eeeeew). The basic problem in this forum was that there really wasn't a whole lot said that made any one candidate stand out that much. They all support music, culture, small businesses, affordable housing. A number of candidates had a plan or two in mind (get yer skivvies out o' yer rear; I'll get to the specifics in a minute), but no one truly said "Not only will I vote for this legislation, but I'll be the one to propose it."

Now for the highlights. This gets pretty long, 'cause it's 10 candidates... but consider bookmarking this page. It might be pretty useful to you in about a month.

Hi. Wanna hear a story? Good. I thought so. So, once upon a time-- actually once upon a couple of months ago-- I got you all excited about the Seattle City Council race. Really excited. Remember? You had your pants off. I saw you. Ever since then you've been wait wait waiting for me to tell you more!!! I know. But see, I've been waiting too. For something good. Some crazy mud-slinging, a scandal, something that would really show you how fun all this stuff is.

So I found some stupid crap. Does that count? See, okay. Let's review. Dwight Pelz, Paige Miller, and Casey Corr are all running for Richard Conlin's council seat. Conlin is Mr. Transportation, and really, so is our man Dwight. Casey I still haven't figured out. Anyway, so Little Miss Miller has the money and the corporate support, but she's a port commissioner and-- you wouldn't vote for a port commissioner, would you? You'd vote for a friendly green transportation type. So Paige decided she'd be a friendly green transportation type, too. What a smartie.