{"id":303877,"date":"2010-02-10T18:24:55","date_gmt":"2010-02-10T23:24:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/seattletimes.nwsource.com\/html\/northwestvoices\/2011038357_huskystadiumrenovation.html?syndication=rss"},"modified":"2010-02-10T18:24:55","modified_gmt":"2010-02-10T23:24:55","slug":"husky-stadium-renovation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/303877","title":{"rendered":"Husky Stadium renovation"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Not just a fair-weather project<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I generally read politicians\u2019 comments with bemusement and Jim Brunner\u2019s article about House Bill 2912 was no exception [\u201cHusky Stadium, Safeco Field cut out of tax plan for now,\u201d NWWednesday, Feb. 10]. Despite politicians being willing to throw money at virtually any project imaginable \u2014 in the misguided name of \u201cstimulus\u201d \u2014 they are reluctant to fund a renovation of Husky Stadium at a time when labor is relatively cheap.<\/p>\n<p>The reason given by Rep. Bob Hasegawa, D-Seattle, for this selective act of fiscal responsibility is that it \u201csends the wrong message that we\u2019re willing to fund a stadium.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>But what message does it send when representatives are unwilling to keep a government-owned structure safe for the public to use \u2014 stadium or otherwise? Upkeep isn\u2019t sexy, politically speaking, but it is their responsibility, like it or not. The only alternative \u2014 which I favor and which will never, ever happen \u2014 is to privatize those things that government is too irresponsible or simply unable to keep up properly.<\/p>\n<p>It is notoriously hard to keep public infrastructure in good condition in even the best of times. Roads and bridges fall apart even as politicians drool over brand new projects \u2014 like unnecessary rail lines and a multibillionaire\u2019s pro-football stadium. Upkeep is even more difficult to fund in hard times, but it is no less necessary.<\/p>\n<p>Hasegawa doesn\u2019t think that tax dollars should go to sports stadiums in a bad economy. I don\u2019t think the public should be forced to fund anything coercively, regardless of the state of the economy. So I propose that politicians do something that goes against their nature: be consistent.<\/p>\n<p>To save the taxpayers money, the Legislature should immediately strip funding for any and all sports-related spending whatsoever \u2014 and for arts too. Somehow, I really doubt that will happen.<\/p>\n<p><em>\u2014 Scott Frost, Kenmore<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Not just a fair-weather project I generally read politicians\u2019 comments with bemusement and Jim Brunner\u2019s article about House Bill 2912 was no exception [\u201cHusky Stadium, Safeco Field cut out of tax plan for now,\u201d NWWednesday, Feb. 10]. Despite politicians being willing to throw money at virtually any project imaginable \u2014 in the misguided name of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2861,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-303877","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/303877","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2861"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=303877"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/303877\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=303877"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=303877"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=303877"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}