Reply #80: No state income tax

[stumblnrose]

Means people pay through sales tax which is weighted against lower income folks. Means funds are allocated through bonds and levies rather than in an ongoing basis. Maybe your church can fund everybody. Ron Sims one of few state politicians w/ stones to back income tax. Just look at the viaduct, it could be taken down and downtown Seattle could have thriving harbor, maybe a good aquarium. Have you been to Vancouver aquarium. Just having something doesn't make it good. Would be great for a real thriving downtown, not some Paul Schell/Allen manufactured hotel/condo model with homes starting in the mid-500s.

With inflexible zoning and no effective arts advocacy one has to be wealthy to be an artist or on a very long waiting list. I have worked with council members to create zoning variances for live/work housing in SODO and this will take decades vs the developers' ability to rezone in the meantime.

I am over our little grouse. I think lack of intellectual curiosity is just endemic. And theater here sucks. Just having a theater doesn't make it good. Believe me both me and my wife were in theater for over twenty years in NY. You don't see Daniel Sullivan giving back to his roots, this is a stepping stone to quality. Anyway, how many people attend per capita - I see the same faces at almost every art performance in Seattle. What was the last show you went to with three of your friends? Theater is expensive relative to quality and there are plenty of smaller cities with far better theater scenes that don't just cost an arm and a leg for imported material. And where's the Seattle art Museum? Come on, this town has to grow up, either under the developers' image or humans with vision. Or as people like you remind me, it doesn't have to growy up at all.

I guess I've learned in urban living it's not the size - it's what you do with it.