People get tired of (transportation) change: Municipal elections edition

1. This week, Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels lost the primary election for a third term. See "Ousted Seattle mayor: 'We are not a broken city' "Nickels' era one of major changes" from the Seattle Times. From the perspective of generally doing good things, such as with transportation and green policies, he's been at the forefront of "goodness" nationally, although there were occasional failures during his tenure. And is the Alaskan Viaduct issue the #1 matter that got him "fired"? (I'd say yes, the reality is that as much as people talk about public transportation in Seattle, the reality is that most people who can drive, because of the distances involved--it is a spread out region--and because for the most part the transit system is based on buses, which aren't that comfortable a ride, especially for long distances.)

2. In 2008, Ken Livingstone lost his attempt at a third term in London to the Conservative Party candidate Boris Johnson. See "Why Ken Livingstone lost" from Indigo Jo Blogs. A big part of it was taxation policies and expansion of the Congestion zone, not to mention arrogance.

3. And Enrique Penalosa just can't get reelected as Mayor of Bogota in Colombia (he served as Mayor from 1998-2000), despite repeated tries. But he did great things to improve the quality of the life in the city, including new bus rapid transit, the heralded TransMilenio system, closing streets to exclusively feet use (the widely copied Ciclovia), etc.

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Makes you wonder about Mayors in other places such as New York (see "The Untouchable" from the New Yorker Magazine) and DC (see "Poll: Only 30 percent say Fenty 'definitely' has their vote" from the Examiner) as elections come forward next year. Although credible opponents are a must.