Just got e-mail from Michael McGinn’s staff saying he is making “an announcement” Tuesday morning at Piecora’s Pizza. Notable here for the geography of the announcement alone, you also might be interested due to the success of McGinn’s Great City Initiative efforts.

Michael McGinn will be making an announcement tomorrow at Piecora’s Pizza on Capitol Hill. Please join him at 11:30 a.m.

When: Tuesday, March 24 at 11:30 a.m.

Where: Piecora’s Pizza

1401 East Madison St

About Michael McGinn
Michael is a former president of the Greenwood Community Council and former local chair of the Sierra Club. An attorney, he was a partner at Stokes Lawrence in Seattle before founding the Seattle Great City Initiative in 2006

Michael lives in north Seattle with his wife Peggy and children Jack, Cian, and Miyo.

I recently appeared on a panel with McGinn — he was great and was definitely alpha testing a few key messages with the audience. My favorite exchange was captured by the City Club’s twitter feed:

Audience question: What would you cut in order for us to hold on to transit and public education?

McGinn: I would suggest we take a look at the 2 million dollars slated for the tunnel.

Key question: Does this mean Dan Savage won’t run?

UPDATE Tuesday 3/24/09:
McGinn has, indeed, announced his candidacy for mayor. He identified three focus areas for his campaign:

• Schools: If district doesn’t improve, city should take it over
  
• Internet & technology: create a ‘broadband utility’ to improve Seattle’s technology infrastructure
  
• Transportation: expand bus programs
  

And he got in some good lines about the waterfront tunnel, Nickels’ shortcomings and his hope to establish a more decentralized City Hall. More on the announcement later today when Cheesecake has his video coverage wrapped up. In the meantime, more takeaways:

• Publicola says Sierra Club gives McGinn formidable clout.
• Seattlest notes a conversation I had with PI.com’s Joel Connelly outside Piecora’s. Connelly talked about the pizza joint’s role in the arrival of Howard Dean on the nation’s political scene in 2004. This Stranger piece documents the night where a meetup became something bigger.
• Slog gives an unusually straight-up play by play of the announcement.
• PI.com calls McGinn an ‘environmentalist.’
• Times emphasizes Sierra Club and McGinn’s plans for schools.

Here’s McGinn’s campaign announcement video: