SEATTLE NEWS ARCHIVES & FEATURES

Dori: How I would fix the city if I was Seattle mayor

Jun 7, 2018, 9:00 PM

seattle rent...

(File)

(File)

As we’ve discussed quite a bit lately, I would never, ever, ever run for political office. However, if I ever wanted to run for office, I could win the Seattle mayor job in a heartbeat.

I’ve been receiving emails from panicked people in Magnolia because the city says that it needs to tear down the Magnolia Bridge, but doesn’t have the funds to replace it.

RELATED: Dori says lunatics are running Seattle

Really? Seattle’s 2018 budget is $5.6 billion, about twice that of Boston (which has roughly the same population as Seattle). Seattle has 1,400 cops while Boston has 2,200. Boston also has just a couple hundred un-sheltered homeless people.

It’s all about prioritizing. If I were the Seattle mayor, I would just get rid of a third of city employees. I could save you about $500 million a year just by doing that. We have added 1,300 Seattle government workers since the accused child rapist Ed Murray became mayor. All of that would be gone.

Then we would start prioritizing — the first thing I’d do would be to hire more cops. I’d make sure we empowered our cops and enforced all our vagrancy and drug laws. Then we would be able to start cleaning up the homelessness problem. The two things the municipal government should be responsible for are public safety and taking care of infrastructure. So get rid of the bureaucrats, and start focusing on infrastructure. Build that Magnolia Bridge because you need it.

Where else could we carve out some money? A listener tip told us that the council’s education and preschool tax will bring in $637 million over seven years. What is one of the things they’re going to put in with this money? A $1.4 million health clinic exclusively for LGBTQ kids at the Nova alternative high school. Now, they already have a clinic there. But the problem of course, is, anytime anything has LGBTQ attached to it, no one is allowed to question it. So the Seattle City Council decides to spend $1.4 million on a health clinic for a small percentage of students. That’s not being a smart steward of money. Frankly, you should build a bridge for Magnolia to replace the decrepit one before you start building stuff like that.

RELATED: Which Puget Sound bridges are the most structurally deficient?

If a Seattle mayor with some common sense came in and slashed the size of government, funded infrastructure and public safety, and held off on the free giveaways, that would do a world of good. The only thing we are doing now is teaching kids to be freeloaders, teaching them at a very early age that government is the provider of all and everything in life is free. All of those programs would be on the back-burner until you replaced the bridges and hired more police officers.

I could get this done. I know I could. But I just don’t want the gig — because the one I have is too much fun.

Associated Press

DOJ says it’s investigating whether White House TV pool’s coverage halt violated antitrust law

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. Department of Justice is investigating whether the decision of the White House television press pool to halt coverage of President Donald Trump last month violated antitrust law, an agency spokesperson said Saturday. Emily Covington, a spokesperson for the department, said group boycotts among business competitors might violate U.S. law. “The […]

2 hours ago

President Donald Trump speaks with reporters as he arrives on Air Force One, Saturday, Oct. 10, 202...

Associated Press

Trump urges Sen. John Fetterman to switch parties and become a Republican

JOINT BASE ANDREWS, Md. (AP) — President Donald Trump openly encouraged Democratic Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania to switch parties and become a Republican just weeks before the midterm elections could reshape control of Congress. “I’d love to see him as a Republican,” Trump told reporters at Joint Base Andrews on Saturday as he returned […]

2 hours ago

Associated Press

4 family members and shooter dead in rural Georgia shooting

Four victims and the shooter have died following a potential murder-suicide in a rural Georgia home late Friday night. Officials say those involved were adult family members of the shooter, who died by suicide, and was found in the family’s home on the outskirts of Douglas, a small city roughly 200 miles southeast of Atlanta. […]

3 hours ago

NBA player Karl-Anthony Towns of the New York Knicks sits for a discussion with Rich Kleiman at the...

Associated Press

Knicks champion Karl-Anthony Towns opens up about grief for World Mental Health Day

NEW YORK (AP) — Karl-Anthony Towns has been traded from Minnesota, lost the conference finals and won the NBA title for his childhood team — and still feels he is in the period of grief that began six years ago. Just 10 days before the New York Knicks’ banner-raising celebration, the All-Star big man marked […]

6 hours ago

Associated Press

Philadelphia police officer killed, another injured after responding to reports of man with a gun

A Philadelphia police officer was shot and killed and another officer was injured Saturday after responding to a report of a man with a gun, police said. Shane Seiber, 40, was killed early Saturday morning in west Philadelphia, according to Police Commissioner Kevin Bethel. Seiber, a 10-year veteran of the Philadelphia Police Department, and the […]

9 hours ago

The East Potomac Park Golf Course is seen from the Washington Monument, Tuesday, Sept. 15, 2026, in...

Associated Press

Park service could remove more than 500 trees at historic golf course Trump wants to redesign

WASHINGTON (AP) — The National Park Service has begun a new round of tree-cutting at a historic golf course near the National Mall as the Trump administration proceeds with a plan to renovate the East Potomac Golf Links into a championship-level course. More than 500 trees “that do not contribute to the historic landscape will […]

9 hours ago

Dori: How I would fix the city if I was Seattle mayor