Late hit: What SB1 and ideology did to the city budget

Moments after City Council voted 5-3 to cut millions from the next phase of the riverfront plan, City Attorney Malak Heiney turned to Mayor Sharon Tucker and mouthed: “What now?”

It had already been a rough night for the administration, with department head after department head making their cases — and often leaving dejected as pleas were rejected along party-line votes. But the unkindest cut came later: a $1 million reduction to the Southeast Strategy Plan, a blueprint for investment in long-neglected neighborhoods. Impassioned pleas came from At-Large Councilwoman Michelle Chambers and Fifth District Councilman Geoff Paddock, followed by righteous indignation from Sixth District Councilwoman Rohli Booker, but the vote again fell along party lines. Even if At-Large Councilman Tom Freist