At the Seattle Times yesterday columnist Jon Talton posted a very simple poll question. Is Seattle growing too fast, dumb, or just right?

I answered “Just right” almost reflexively because I know that there is a lot behind the ideas of growth being “too fast” or “too dumb.” Obviously, we’re growth champions. But when I reflect on the actions of the City Council over the last year and a half, I’d change my vote to “too dumb,” not because I don’t want growth, but that the City Council doesn’t seem to know what it’s doing.

Erica Barnett wrote a great post exposing Councilmember Mike O’Brien’s NIMBYism in pushing a horrible change to design review on behalf of a few of his angry neighbors. Sadly, her post comes too late to fix the damage or stop it, but at least the Seattle Transit Blog is allowing open criticism by name. When I wrote a similar post four years ago, I was put on probation; all my posts had to have at least one person read them. Seriously.

The fact that Barnett’s post has garnered more nods of recognition of O’Brien’s loss of his anchor to sustainability than howls of sympathy for him is, well, progress? Recognizing that the Seattle City Council is presiding, through O’Brien, over an era of dumb growth is a first step, but when are we going to do something about it? One important first step is making the Councilmembers feel uncomfortable with their bad decisions by telling them. This isn’t pleasant, but it’s what the angry neighbors do all the time. We should too.