Things happened in 2014. Lots of them, in fact. But let’s be honest: Some of them were important, some of them… well, not so much. And remembering all those important things can be tricky, because you’re busy, weed is legal, blah blah blah. We totally get it. And luckily we’re here for you.
To be certain, the Seattle that enters 2015 is decidedly different than it was a year ago. We’ve got new laws, new faces, new accomplishments, and new problems. And by and large, all of these can be traced to a defining moment of the past 12 months that changed us forever, for better or worse. To put it mildly, 2014 was quite a year.
In that spirit, let’s ring in 2015 with a look back…
The Minimum-Wage Law Becomes Reality
In early January, SEIU 775 vice-president Sterling Harders was one of a dayful of speakers to address a fiery crowd packed into downtown’s Labor Temple. At the time, Seattle Weekly’s Nina Shapiro described the organization behind the rally, 15Now, as “a new group pushing for a $15-an-hour minimum wage.” It was hard then to foresee the impact 15Now would have on life in Seattle in 2014, but it proved significant. Emboldened by the recent election of Socialist Alternative candidate Kshama Sawant to the City Council, Harders told the crowd that they’d reached this point because of “heat in the street,” going on to say that much more of that heat would be necessary to make a $15-an-hour minimum wage a reality. Harders, of course, was right, and the crowd erupted in solidarity to what Shapiro painted as a “ferocious energy” from the podium. Six months later, in June, with new mayor Ed Murray and the City Council having been firmly swayed by the “heat” generated by Sawant and the 15Now movement, Seattle passed its historic $15-an-hour minimum-wage law.
The Bertha Boondoggle
Just when you thought it couldn’t get any worse for Bertha, Seattle’s stuck, broken, and disgraced deep-bore tunneling machine, it did. In December came unsettling news that—thanks to efforts to rescue the $80 million contraption that’s been stranded underground for a full calendar year—businesses in Pioneer Square were literally sinking, streets were literally cracking, and no one knew for certain just how safe the still-standing Viaduct even was. Naturally, members of the Seattle City Council began to lose confidence in the massive undertaking, with councilmember Nick Licata telling Seattle Weekly, “This is like a nightmare you don’t wake up from.” None of this, however, stopped WSDOT Secretary Lynn Peterson from telling the Council on Dec. 15 that “the vast majority of the replacement of the Viaduct is complete—in fact 70 percent done and on the ground.” That’s complete garbage, of course, considering that Bertha has dug only 1,000 feet of a two-mile tunnel and is now stuck underground with no certain rescue date in sight. Perhaps 2015 will be Bertha’s year.
mdriscoll@seattleweekly.com
