decidedlyodd

Initially, I had thought about going to the Showbox for The Stranger’s election party. However, because of heightened interest in the election, I’d heard it was at capacity long before I was even going to leave to go there.

Instead, I decided to go to an election party my coworker was throwing. The election was called so early here on the west coast, we actually turned off the TV and played “Apples to Apples” for a couple hours. Definitely a fun evening on both counts.

I was surprised by the results, but not because they didn’t turn out as I’d hoped or even perhaps expected. Having first voted in 1998, pretty much my entire adult life has been spent in a political malaise for progressive and liberal causes. My voting life has largely been constrained to GWB’s presidency. It’s like I’d forgotten what it’s like to be on the winning end of not just one election race, but a whole pack of them.

Here in Seattle, we had a pretty resounding election. Sure, I’m happy about various candidates winning (still holding for Darcy Burner–locked in a superclose election in the Seattle suburbs with Dave Reichert in the district where I used to work), but the real mind blowing result was the vote for RTA Prop 1 (which will substantially extend the light rail system that’s slated to open next year) and the vote against I-985 (which would have fucked up transportation in this area big time). Transportation is a huge issue in Seattle, mainly because so little has been done about it over the years. The only urban rail we have is a heavy rail commuter train and the SLUT, although lightrail to the airport is on the way. Most of the freeway system hasn’t appreciably changed since the 60s. As the area’s grown, transportation infrastructure hasn’t. Seattlites are notorious for fighting over transportation while the situation becomes more dire. The large majorities on both issues are important and give me hope that perhaps maybe this region might actually do something productive wrt transportation!