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Comcast is donating to defeat mayor who is bringing gigabit fiber to Seattle
- CamperBob2 13y agoIt may not be a single-issue sort of thing. McGinn has not exactly been popular across a wide cross section of the local electorate, as anyone who has spent five minutes walking (or more likely ducking and running) through downtown Seattle can attest. Comcast may be trying to kill the fiber project, or they may have some other reason for opposing McGinn.
- flippyhead 13y agoFrom what are you ducking and running?
- augbot 13y agohipsters?
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- jspaur 13y agoI'm assuming he means the Pike/Pine alley and Pioneer square, sadly famous for aggressive panhandling, unruly 'youth', and shootings. I live in and work in downtown (haven't driven in months) and it's def. getting a little more 'rough' by the month. Especially Westlake area. (http://seattletimes.com/html/localnews/2021614421_downtowncrime1xml.html http://seattletimes.com/html/localnews/2021614421_downtowncr...)
- dubfan 13y agoMost of those complaints are from people who haven't lived in Seattle long enough to know those areas have been problem spots for at least 20 years. My father worked downtown in the early/mid-80s and says it was exactly the same then, if not a little bit worse. Not that that excuses the problem. Also, the Seattle PD is absolutely petrified of doing anything that might incur the wrath of the Department of Justice. Blaming McGinn for the street people is like blaming him for I-5 traffic: it's been a problem before, and it will continue to be a problem until something very drastic happens (and in the case of street people, it will take something unpalatable to Seattle's NIMBY/sensitive electorate)
- jspaur 13y agoCrime is down nationally since the 80s. So for things to be the same, or only a little better says a lot. I completely agree that SPD is petrified. I've live/worked in downtown Seattle for a while - and while I think some of the 'scaryness' is overblown, it's hard not to see a change in the trend over the past few years.
- CamperBob2 13y agoI don't know that I'd call it "petrified" -- I believe the common term is "de-policing." It's a passive-aggressive way for SPD to deal with leadership that they don't respect. SPD has an incredibly strong union, which is where the real problem lies IMHO. A bad cop almost literally has to murder somebody before they can fire him. DOJ took note of the resulting abuses, but of course they aren't interested in going toe-to-toe with the union, and neither is the mayor. It's a complex problem but it stems from a fairly ordinary failure of leadership, and that particular buck stops in the mayor's office.
- era86 13y agoCan confirm this. Fiancee works in Pioneer Square and I worry every time she has to work late... And Westlake is looking a lot more like Portland every year (as far as homeless youth go).
- wehadfun 13y agoHomeless youth? Are they homeless or just kids hanging out?
- jspaur 13y agoConsidering a lot of them are there during school hours and you'll see the same ones there sleeping with tarps at night - I think its safe to say homeless. Probably better to say 'young adults' though - Seattle YouthCare (http://www.youthcare.org/ http://www.youthcare.org/) does a great job with the younger groups.
- era86 13y agoI apologize, this is an assumption I'm making. I guess I meant the youth that hang out all over Westlake, especially later at night, resemble the homeless youth around Portland.
- vkou 13y agoIf you want to find a scapegoat for panhandling, I'd first turn to the recession... And the anemic social/medical/mental safety net in this country.
- jspaur 13y agoNot looking for a scapegoat, only a solution. And I lived here before the recession/GFC. I'd completely agree that the "social/medical/mental safety net in this country" is a major problem.
- jlgreco 13y ago> "If you want to find a scapegoat for panhandling, I'd first turn to the recession..." How many of those homeless people are on the streets because they lost their factory jobs and the bank kicked them out of their McMansion? I am guessing very few. The recession didn't make these people heroin addicts or mentally ill. The homeless people that make people concerned about walking around downtown Seattle during the evening aren't the "couchsurfing until I can find a new job" kind of homeless people. Pointing at the state of healthcare, mental or otherwise, hits the nail on the head. That is a problem larger than Seattle though.
- gisenberg 13y agoI used to work at the intersection of 2nd and Pine, where a stabbing took place right outside of work. Most of the violence in the area being gang-related isn't exactly the best reassurance of your safety.
- BlackDeath3 13y agoI'm going to guess "rain".
- potatolicious 13y agoCrackheads, the homeless, and a particularly loud (and occasionally violent) group of youth that are constantly at the corner of 3rd and Pike. Persistent (though not apocalyptic levels of) gun crime. Downtown Seattle can be a bit rough. I wouldn't lay it squarely at the feet of the mayor though - a lot of it traces back to city planning gone disastrously wrong. Just a few off the top of my head: - the southern end of downtown is strictly commercial. Little to no mixed zoning here, meaning that as soon as 5pm rolls by the entire area is a ghost town. If you're there past 6-7pm you will see that the homeless and addicts move in to fill the void. There is no residential or leisure traffic to balance this out. This is US-style single-purpose urban zoning run amok. Vast portions of the urban core is entirely idle after work hours. - downtown Seattle isn't a cultural or entertainment core, unlike the downtowns of most cities. The actual food scene, nightlife scene, music scene, etc, are in surrounding neighborhoods like Capitol Hill, Ballard, Fremont, etc. This contributes to low foot traffic after work hours, which contributes to higher crime and simultaneously a magnified perception of danger. - poor urban planning decisions meant an explosion in large-scale development without sufficient requirement for retail frontage. Lots of buildings that take up the entire block with little to no ground-floor retail, making it a pedestrian dead zone and contributing to the feeling of walking down a shady alley no matter where you are. See: much of Belltown, where the declared intent was to produce a walkable neighborhood full of restaurants and nightlife - except few residential buildings wanted to play host to them. This has resulted in little pockets of activity with vast stretches of nothingness in between them.
- kevin_rubyhouse 13y agoI live in Redmond/Bellevue and this is very interesting. Do you know anywhere that I can read more about this?
- aaronbrethorst 13y agoJustin Carder from CHS talks periodically about 3rd and Pine even though it's off his 'beat.' That street corner is a mess but it's been a mess for quite a while and it's obvious that stepped-up police presence alone won't address the problems there, or they'd already be fixed.
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- dragonwriter 13y ago> It may not be a single-issue sort of thing. McGinn has not exactly been popular across a wide cross section of the local electorate Can you suggest anything which there is a reasonable basis to believe is more significant than the fiber project in Comcast's analysis of the political landscape in Seattle relate to their interests, or is this just pure distraction?
- CamperBob2 13y agoCan you suggest anything which there is a reasonable basis to believe is more significant than the fiber project in Comcast's analysis of the political landscape in Seattle relate to their interests, or is this just pure distraction? No. I don't live in Seattle, and don't have a dog in the fight. Just pointing out that a lot of people -- "corporate persons" and otherwise -- are dissatisfied with McGinn's performance as mayor.
- streetnigga 13y agoPerhaps those "corporate persons" should run for mayor. Oh that is right, they are not persons since they cannot be jailed or hold a position that a real human would. Maybe if the real persons behind the corporations would lobby with their identity rather than through a lawyer protected corporate shield I would believe they have the interests of the population they are lobbying against. But they don't. So their opinions and lobbyist dollars only look like means to obtain more profits from the corporate structure they are invested in. Constituents are living batteries for these 'corporate persons' and the political process is just a way to enact corporate will as regulatory code or law, yielding profits from the living wallets under the politicians control.
- ldh 13y agoI don't think it matters at all whether it's a single issue agenda or any number of issues. Is there any reason whatsoever for a company to donate to political causes other than to manipulate policy to maximize their profit? Of course they'd benefit if better service was kept out. I guess if they can hand-wave it as not directly related it looks a lot less crass to some people, but to me it seems irrelevant.
- egypturnash 13y agoUm? Have you ever spent any time in downtown Seattle? I live in Seattle and I feel no fear going down there to do things; I do it pretty much every week. You say you "don't live in Seattle" in a lower comment; do you live in the Seattle metro area at all? I voted for him last election and I'm planning to vote for him again.
- CamperBob2 13y agoI live in north King County, outside the Seattle city limits. I don't feel much genuine "fear," just annoyance that I have to deal with it whenever I go downtown. If I had any business interests downtown I'd be hopping mad.
- bqe 13y agoCould you be more specific? What exactly annoys you about downtown Seattle?
- CamperBob2 13y agoIt's been adequately described farther down the thread by others, I think.
- sanskritabelt 13y agoThere are a huge number of middle aged middle class white people in the suburbs who are absolutely terrified of Seattle.
- RandallBrown 13y agoWhich is weird. Whenever I'm downtown at night (Belltown not included) it seems like the only people there are older upper-middle class white people who are going out to dinner at fancy restaurants. Sure, there are a handful of homeless people and people waiting for buses, but there's nothing too scary.
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- techpeace 13y agoIf you'd like to donate to the mayor who is fighting for gigabit fiber for Seattle (and thus cancel out a portion of Comcast's donations), you can do so here: https://services.myngp.com/ngponlineservices/contribution.aspx?X=qhuzDOZ0xKqvW9ig8jZCBUcAyUPUT7MgYFFyqKatDIY%3d https://services.myngp.com/ngponlineservices/contribution.as...
- jsnk 13y agoCan Canadians donate to a candidate?
- eli 13y agoNo, not unless you're a green card holder. Maybe there's a way to do it through a 527 group, but I don't think it'd be a good idea.
- hobs 13y agoI thought super pacs made this completely legal?
- dragonwriter 13y agoNo, they don't make it legal for people or entities that could not otherwise give to candidates to give to candidates. People/entities can donate to Super PACs that cannot donate to candidates, but that's because Super PACs -- or "independent-expenditure only committees" -- are not controlled by and do not coordinate with candidates
- sb057 13y agoHow about this: As an U.S. citizen, I'll donate to McGinn, so long as you, as a Canadian, donate against Rob Ford?
- niuzeta 13y agoDeal.
- jspaur 13y agoComcast has other serious challengers here in Seattle as well between CascadeLink (terrible website, but top notch service) and CondoInternet, if you can get either of those, you'll never look at Comcast again (between $30-60/month for 30/100mbit)
- icelancer 13y agoThose are hardly challengers; they service upscale condos and select buildings only. I live in the damn city and I can't get CenturyLink/Quest 40mbps (12mbps max), CascadeLink, CondoInternet, or the future Seattle Gigabit. Ridiculous.
- jspaur 13y agoComcast services only select locations too. A good number of apartments around the city don't even offer Comcast (and instead the aforementioned and other services such as 'Wave'). The building I live in (granted, yes, an upscale condo), had several offerings. Full on competition? No. But better than a wide majority of cities? Yes. (Try living in Florida...ugh)
- keypusher 13y agoThe css and fonts are completely busted for me. FF24 on OSX.
- codemac 13y agoThey were busted on 25 as well, but my FFbeta just upgraded to 26.0 while I had the article open - it's fixed.
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- mwnz 13y agoAh, the corruption of democracy.
- veritas20 13y agono...the foolishness of the citizens united decision
- mwnz 13y agoAgain, this is a corruption of the democratic process. The fact that any corporation can contribute financially to influence an outcome is corruption in itself.
- veritas20 13y agoit's just the plain corruption of human nature, democratic process or not....democracy was not structured to work this way
- firefox 13y agoWhat else could we expect of one of the worst customer service companies in the world? Fair competition?
- misiti3780 13y agoI agree - except i think it is sort of fair competition isnt it ? Anyone can donate
- sage_joch 13y agoMayor McGinn brought this up in his recent /r/Seattle AMA (worth reading if you're at all interested in the race): http://www.reddit.com/r/Seattle/comments/1ox3gd/my_name_is_mike_mcginn_and_i_want_to_earn_your/ http://www.reddit.com/r/Seattle/comments/1ox3gd/my_name_is_m...
- thethimble 13y agoI don't see why this is a bad thing? Comcast is contributing to the campaign that is best in line with its interest. As long as political contributions by corporations are OK (which is another debate which is out of the scope of this issue) this seems completely reasonable.
- bluthru 13y agoIt's legal, but it's bad. It's good to highlight examples of allowing corporations to donate to political campaigns minimizes's the citizen's voice.
- dx4100 13y agoYou're trading one monopoly for another. There's no guarantee that the city will provide the same or better quality of service that Comcast has. People are somehow okay when the monopoly is government, even though time and time again government does a piss-poor job when given control.
- dubfan 13y agoGigabit Seattle is a public-private partnership.
- lemonberry 13y agoIf gigabit fiber is a go ahead Comcast is prohibited from offering services in the area?
- greyfade 13y agoWhat does that matter? What's important is that this fiber infrastructure will compete directly against Comcast, and Comcast is working hard to eliminate or at least hamper that potential competition in order to maintain the status quo of their oligopoly. It is an incredibly bad thing for the City for Comcast to be doing this, because it's not in the Public's interest. Increased competition, however, is in the Public's interest.
- mikeash 13y ago
- detcader 13y agoThis is how every issue plays out in US politics at the state, local, and national levels, as law professor Lawrence Lessig explains [1] [1] http://www.ted.com/talks/lawrence_lessig_we_the_people_and_the_republic_we_must_reclaim.html http://www.ted.com/talks/lawrence_lessig_we_the_people_and_t...
- tantalor 13y agoHere's the page for the fiber project: http://gigabitseattle.com/ http://gigabitseattle.com/
- kodablah 13y agoCan someone help me understand how a public-private partnership with Gigabit Squared for fiber is different that a similar project with Comcast for coax? Will there be any deregulation of the fiber at any point in time (e.g. a sunset date) or is this just trading one company for another?
- greyfade 13y agoThe primary difference is Comcast's indifference to improving their network and services or lowering prices, despite their astronomical profit margin.
- kodablah 13y agoThe result is different (because Gigabit Squared hasn't reached city-wide fiber monopoly yet), but the stage is set the same. This feels so much like history repeating itself. Wouldn't surprise me if people made the same argument in favor of Comcast over Southwestern Bell (or other local telco monopoly).
- jhspaybar 13y agoThis is going to be a comment that needs to know a bit about the Seattle area, so if you're out of town, I'm sorry :). I currently live near the top of the hill of Queen Anne, my options for internet are Comcast, or Comcast essentially. Century link is also up there with a plan for a whopping 7mbps of speed down and less than 1mbps up. Comcast offers a plan for 50mbps down and 10mbps up, I need more upload speed, but I can make do with an upload running for hours a day. This wouldn't be bad if Comcast actually worked, but it doesn't. Probably 2 or 3 nights a week my internet becomes near unusable during peak times, I resort to putting my cell phone on LTE and seeing what I need to that way, I can't even keep up with the buffer rate on the lowest quality Youtube videos. Downtown though, there are a number of apartment and condo buildings that offer 100mbps up & down internet for $60 a month (compared to my $75 for Comcast), or 1gigabit up and down for $120 a month(not available from Comcast at all). So, we do have some gigabit internet, and I've actually found a few places I'd consider living and likely will affect my decision when I eventually move. At least in my neighborhood, Comcast has terrible(often broken) service with absolutely no alternative. I suppose maybe the density of Queen Anne can't justify the cost of gigabit fiber to the top of the hill, but given how many Microsoft and Amazon people live up here I'd be shocked if there weren't huge interest. This seems damning as to the economic viability of fiber that a relatively dense upper income neighborhood can't get fiber without government subsidy.
- dubfan 13y agoHave you called Comcast about the connectivity issues? I was having problems with connections dropping and packet loss. I called them, they sent a tech out who replaced a bad wire connecting to the building. Apparently others in the building had the same problem, but I was the only one who had a tech come out.
- Amadou 13y agoWhen damaged, coax (and POTS-based DSL for that matter) are both susceptible to environmental changes, so a cool-down in the evening can significantly change the characteristics of the wire, higher levels of humidity don't help either. In other words, yet another reason fiber to the premises is superior.
- tehwalrus 13y agothis is why only voters, not companies, should be allowed to donate to political campaigns (and even then, at a capped rate.)
- mVChr 13y agoI know it's a public-private partnership, and I know the key point is "hey, it's faster/better," but after all the NSA revelations, do we really want the government to have direct control over our network access?
- Karunamon 13y agoIt is a local government, to be fair. And honestly? The current legislative landscape means there's almost no functional difference between public internet and Comcast internet. There's still the pretext of a warrant in specific cases, but after that? Bring out the trap and trace gear and the NSA black box for everything else!
- tlrobinson 13y ago"Comcast executive named Janet Turpen contributed $500 to Murray's mayoral campaign in October 2013" Errr, in a large company aren't you likely to find individual employees donating to almost any given cause?
- Amadou 13y agoNot in the executive class.
- sashaeslami 13y agoEveryone, quick, click on comcast ads. The power of the internet.
- discardorama 13y agoSorry to divert off topic, though but: I wish local governments would start treating the Internet as a basic utility; like electricity. You'd have 2 entities involved: the government (PUC) which would, for a very basic rate, maintain your fiber; and an ISP which would actually route your traffic to/from the Internet. So, as a consumer, you'd pay a small amount ($5/mo?) for the fiber; and then depending on your service requirements, pay some gateway to get out to the 'net. This way, Comcast would just be a gateway provider. GW providers would offer different types of services to set them apart from each other (VPN? Movies? Music? etc.). That's my dream. :-)
- techsupporter 13y agoIn a large minority of states, they can't. In North Carolina, Arkansas, Missouri, Nebraska, Texas, and 16 other states[1], state law prohibits any form of municipal broadband, including acting as a common carrier. The reasoning is that municipal networks can be (but usually aren't) funded by local tax dollars so it represents a theoretically unfair advantage relative to private corporations. I find that reasoning specious especially considering I can look out my window in Texas and see a city water tower standing right alongside a private water supply company's tower, yet both departments are funded solely by ratepayers, not out of a general tax fund. 1: http://www.gwlr.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/Stricker1.pdf http://www.gwlr.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/Stricker1.pdf
- a3n 13y agoHigh speed is cool 'n all, but on the other hand do you really want the government owning or controlling data pipes that you use for personal business? Seattle police, for one thing, have a history of hostility toward its citizens. I'm sure they'd love easier monitoring of, for example, anti-police groups.
- pktgen 13y agoSolution: government runs the fiber to a cross-connect point, private companies offer services (anything, Internet, TV, phone, or something we haven't even thought of) over that fiber and pay a small fee for use of the line. Right of way is a natural monopoly. There's a limited amount of space on poles and in conduit. The market can't support having even 4 or 5 providers all running their own lines (even if they all had equal penetration rates, none of them would be making a profit). When it's done this way, you can choose from many different providers (see UTOPIA and the, what, 9 or 10 providers they have that are all offering 1G for $65-$70/mo.?) and there's actual competition. Those ISPs can choose to provide options for L2 encryption as well (supporting it on their end and providing CPE that supports it).
- Amadou 13y agoYes, let the government own the monopoly on the "pipes" and let private enterprise compete on the type of "water" that flows down the pipes. We will never have meaningful competition for pipes anyway so we gain none of the benefits of the free market by handing them over to private ownership.
- jaibot 13y agoNext they'll have government controlling our water and electricity.
- a3n 13y agoYou can't monitor people via water or electricity. It can make sense for a city to run those things. For example, Seattle was not caught up in the WPPS (pronounced "woops") nuclear power debacle, because they run (or ran, I haven't lived there in 20 years) their own electric utility.
- bredren 13y agoThis article would have been better if it quickly described the donations against the scale of the campaigns themselves and the size of the PACs. Looking at this, it appears that all Comcast related donations to McGinn's opponent total to less than $70k. This is a serious amount of money, but how does it really factor in against all other donations? I don't know because the journalist didn't really share that information. Outside of PACs, here is the direct total contributions to each campaign: http://www2.seattle.gov/ethics/sumreps/sumreps.asp?ElCycle=el13a&n1=contributions&n2=total&n3=amount&n4=campaignbycategory&n5=mayor http://www2.seattle.gov/ethics/sumreps/sumreps.asp?ElCycle=e...
- plink 13y agoI was about to make a donation to the PAC of Concerned Good Patriots for Niceness and Helpfulness. Then I looked into the organization and discovered it was run by nonagenarian ss officers intent on converting welfare recipients into soylent-green. Imagine my astonishment!
- tn13 13y agoWell, Comcast is protecting its business interest.
- aaronpickus 13y agoHey everyone, I'm a working to help re-elect Mayor McGinn to Seattle. We're in a close race with our opponent, who has received thousands of dollars from Comcast. I'm hoping that you will consider helping us out so that we can show the rest of the country that we can do something about improving internet service. Would you consider helping us out with $5 or $10 donation? Here's how you can help: http://www.mcginnformayor.com/donate http://www.mcginnformayor.com/donate. And this isn't the only issue in the race. You can read about the mayor's positions and his vision for the future of our city here: http://www.mcginnformayor.com/why http://www.mcginnformayor.com/why Thank you, aaron
- Fuxy 13y agoSeriously? Instead of investing into the infrastructure Comcast is investing into political interests to ultimately hold back technological progress. This should be illegal in so many ways...