The Sonics Arena proposal took a first step today by officially coming out of committee in the senat. Dave Postman provides great commentary with my favorite parts below.
http://blog.seattletimes.nwsource.com/davidpostman/
Roach, so far the only Republican to back the bill out of committee, came up with what might be a winning argument for the Sonics arena ...quot; it's an anti-Seattle vote.
"Everything is so Seattle-centric. If you're Auburn, particularly, you just get a little tired of that ...quot; all the benefits going to the city of Seattle all the time. And I'm going to vote for this bill out of committee ...quot; still deciding floor action.
"But I think we should have a chance to have a little bit of all this in the south end and I just wanted to mention that. I think this is a breath of fresh air to see something that would be coming in and really putting some vitality into southeast King County, which has been the second cousin to the city of Seattle and Bellevue now for 70 years."
MORE: Ryan Blethen sort of agrees with Pam Roach on this. Blethen wrote this morning:
The SuperSonics' migration out of Seattle makes sense, not because Seattle voters passed an initiative that makes it virtually impossible to build a new arena in the city, but because the Puget Sound region has matured to a larger-functioning unit beyond the official limits of the state's largest city.