Following closely on Tuesday's decision to restrict streetcar construction to South Lake Union comes a City Council vote to encourage streetcars on South Jackson Street. The extension of the existing line would cost more than the proposed Lake Union line but total ridership is projected to be lower. It seems that the council's earlier vote was not one of sanity, but rather one of pique: Mayor Nickels supports the Lake Union line, and the council is using this opportunity to assert itself as it has not been able to do, for example, with the past few city budgets.