I was extremely glad to see the letter written jointly by the five members of the Seattle City Council who voted against Chris Hansen’s vanity sports arena [“Don’t let hateful voices intimidate you into silence,” Opinion, May 12].
The five women in fact showed more guts than the four men who voted for vacating part of a Sodo street for Hansen’s project — the five were adhering to the actual conditions that the contract set forth.
Why Hansen should have gotten an extension on his option despite his failure to fulfill his end of the bargain is beyond me. His attitude reminds me of Boeing when it bent Olympia to its will (in a special, three-day session, specifically called for its benefit) and got an obscene amount of tax breaks all the way till 2040. The City Council’s majority vote is a rare example of democracy actually holding sway against the moneyed and corporate elite these days.
I stand with those five council members. May other governmental bodies take up their example and vote for right, not financial might.
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Michael Spence, Tukwila