Archives for December 2008

Seriously, shaddup:

The decision by transportation planners to possibly map a replacement for the Alaskan Way Viaduct along Western Avenue worries those at the Pike Place Market who fear it could damage the Market’s historic character.

“We’re disappointed this was chosen,” said Carol Binder, executive director of the Market. “We’re going to have to change and look at some of the ways we operate.”

Apparently, the folks at the Market would rather have an elevated freeway in their front yard than an arterial street. Huh.

If you’re not 100% clued in to why they’d be upset with the surface “couplet” option, here’s the skinny:

Instead of a viaduct freeway through downtown Seattle, the “couplet” would send traffic north and south on a reconfigured street grid, using Alaskan Way’s southbound lanes and Western Avenue’s northbound lanes as replacements, knitting together the street grid without building a limited access freeway through the neighborhood.

Western currently comes to a four-way stop at the north end of the Market, near Victor Steinbrueck Park. The plan would be to lid Western near the park, sending traffic under the Market instead of through it.

There is all sorts of hyperventilating over this whole viaduct mess. The Pike Place Market has nothing to worry about. On an issue where so many can disagree, everyone involved agrees that the Market is something worth protecting.

Crazy:

Six candidates have filed to run for King County elections director in an election that will be held without a primary — and, apparently, with gloves off.

…

Julie Kempf, who was fired as King County elections superintendent after she was accused of lying about why thousands of ballots were mailed late in 2002. She denies she lied.

Kempf said she decided to run after she was threatened by political opponents who didn’t want her to run. She declined to offer details of the threats. “If you give in to a threat, they’ve won already,” she said.

Wow. The word “delusional” doesn’t quite cover it.

I thought making the elections director an elected position was supposed to increase the quality of the candidates. So far, we’ve got a “raging bullshiter“; a carpet-bagging state senator with a penchant for irate outbursts; a crackpot civic activist with his own residency issues; and a software guy who nobody has heard of.

Then there’s the incumbent, Sherril Huff, who’s doing us all a “solid” by throwing her hat in the ring. I don’t know what her political beliefs are, and I don’t care. Like Dem chair Dwight Pelz said:

“Sherril Huff isn’t the Democratic candidate in this race, she’s the competent candidate in this race.”

Sounds pretty bad.

A bomb exploded at a West Coast Bank branch in Woodburn Friday, killing at least one person, and injuring at least two others.

The bomb detonated late afternoon around 5:45 p.m. at the bank in the 2500 block of Newberg Highway.

A Marion County deputy medical examiner said he was en route to the scene, saying that he was told of at least one fatality. He added that police were concerned about a secondary device in the area.

The bank had been evacuated before the bomb detonated, according to West Coast Bank chief executive Robert Sznewajs. The branch has been there for at least 10 years, he said.

Things are getting weirder. Turns out the Ghosts of Sixties Past are not as scary as the real life monsters in the bedroom right now.

Men’s Journal looks into the frazzled mind of CNN’s Iraq reporter Michael Ware, who’s been in Iraq covering the war for so long, he’s now an Iraqi citizen. I’m always impressed by Ware, but he has truly sacrificed his sanity to be so close to such a horrific human tragedy.

It’s not just the old media that is struggling to maintain political coverage, as newcomer PolitickerWA has reportedly shut its doors as part of a company wide purge that saw the closing of 12 of Politicker’s 17 state sites.   Bryan Bissell made a good go at it here in WA, and it’s too bad to see the experiment fail.

The future of journalism is online, but you still need deep pockets or not-for-profit support to survive for the moment until the revenue model catches up with the business reality.  Speaking of which… I’m looking for some angels to help me continue and expand my political and news coverage here on HA, so if you’re interesting in getting in on the ground floor of an innovative and exciting local media venture, drop me an email.

I’m glad this is finally being broached. 

Fox Chicago News reports that Emanuel, the Chicago congressman who was appointed shortly after the election to be Obama’s White House chief of staff, had “multiple conversations” about the issue with the governor himself and with Blagojevich’s chief of staff, John Harris — who this week was charged along with his boss.

I’m disappointed, though, that it has to be FOX. While the NYT was busy playing up Blago’s Obama quote —“They’re not willing to give me anything except appreciation, fuck ’em”—as evidence that O’s team was clean (heck, they even ran an article with a headline that cut across 8 lanes of traffic to imply that Obama was partially responsible for bringing Blago down), my take on Blago’s Obama rant was this: If Blagojevich was pissed at Obama, it’s possible Obama’s people knew Blagojevich was wheeling and dealing for quid pro quos. So, the question I had was: Why didn’t they blow the whistle? 

I’m not saying this news about Emanuel proves anything (as TPM pointed out, it does make sense that Obama’s people were talking to Blagojevich), but it does nudge this story in a direction that seemed obvious, but for some reason, was being downplayed by the likes of the NYT.

If the NYT learned anything from the Bush years, I’d hope it’s that they need to be more skeptical of what the President (or President-elect in this case) says.

Come on People. If this was Bush, you’d be asking the same questions.

It is nice to know that at least somebody is willing to speak honestly and openly about both sides of the budget equation:

The chairman of a legislative task force exploring how to improve the way the state pays for K-12 education says a tax increase is the responsible way to pay for the roughly $3 billion worth of ideas in the group’s final report.

Dan Grimm, a former state legislator from Puyallup as well as a two-term state treasurer, said Thursday that he was inspired by a phone call and letter from Gov. Chris Gregoire to propose an extension of the sales tax to services. That would make things such as doctor’s visits and financial advice subject to sales tax.

On Tuesday, the task force voted to approve a proposal that asks for more state money to pay for things such as a longer high school day, smaller class sizes in the younger grades and regionally adjusted pay for teachers. Cost estimates range from $2 billion to $3 billion over each two-year state budget cycle.

[…] Grimm said Gregoire made it clear in their brief phone conversation that if task force members suggested a plan for raising taxes she would support putting that proposal before the voters as a referendum.

Too often we’ve had a one-sided conversation when voting on budget issues, with a rash of statewide initiatives over the past decade that have either mandated new spending or cut existing taxes, with little or no debate about the budgetary intersection between the two.  And recently, editorialists have pressured legislators and the governor to ignore the revenue side of the equation in attempting to close our state’s looming $5 billion shortfall.  But it’s time to start treating voters like grownups, and have a grownup conversation about education funding and other budget priorities.

The fact is, we spend too little on basic education, and the sorts of increases the panel is suggesting would prove widely popular.  But the money has to come from somewhere, and while I don’t dismiss the notion of re-prioritizing existing funds as part of the solution, it would be totally irresponsible and fantastical to attempt to address this issue without at least discussing the revenue side of the equation.

Extending the sales tax to personal and professional services is certainly a reasonable proposal, as year over year these activities make up a larger portion of our economy as opposed to the sale of goods, the ever shrinking segment on which we currently rely for the bulk of state revenues.  Raising taxes is never popular with voters or politicians, but if we’re going to talk about increasing spending on education, increasing taxes needs to be part of the conversation.

And perhaps in this context it is also time for elected officials to start talking about an income tax, as either a dedicated tax or part of a broader restructuring that both increases education funds while lowering the overall tax burden for the vast majority of Washington families.  For example a Graduated High Income Tax of 3% on joint incomes over $200,000 per year ($100,000 for individuals), and 5% on incomes over $1 million, would raise about $2.6 billion per biennium, while exempting 96% of households. (Yet it would still leave us with a highly regressive tax structure that largely favors the wealthy.  Imagine that.)

The point is, there are two sides to the budget equation, and it is both silly and childish to insist on talking about one without talking about the other.  Any substantial tax increase or restructuring is going to come before voters, one way or another, so if the anti-tax folks truly represent the sentiment of the majority, they have nothing to fear from an open and honest debate.

The most exclusive kleptocracy in the world refuses to act.

A frantic, last-ditch attempt to forge a relief package for the auto industry collapsed in the U.S. Senate, dealing a giant blow to the immediate hopes of the Big Three.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada suggested the $14 billion wouldn’t be revisited until January. “It’s over with,” he said.

The talks, which appeared close to a deal several times, broke off due to a sharp partisan dispute over the wages paid to workers at the manufacturing giants.

Every time a bell rings an angel gets its wings regular Americans lose. Maybe the Senate can send workers an enrollment in a jelly of the month club.

An advisory panel has narrowed the replacement for the Alaskan Way Viaduct down to two options, and surprise… neither is state House Speaker Frank Chopp’s mile long Suicide Park Mall.

One is an elevated-bypass hybrid that would run along the waterfront on two independent bridge structures side by side with two lanes in each direction. It would connect to the Battery Street tunnel on the north and a new intersection on the south near Qwest and Safeco fields. Alaskan Way would be placed under the elevated structures. The cost estimate is $2.3 billion. When construction costs, traffic mitigation and related projects are added, the cost would be $3.5 billion.

The other option is a surface/transit scenario, which would create a pair of north and southbound streets along the waterfront. Alaskan Way would become a one-way southbound street with three lanes and a bike lane. Western Avenue would become a one-way northbound street with three lanes and a bike lane. The cost is estimated at $2.2 billion. With construction and traffic mitigation and related projects, the cost would be $3.3 billion.

An “elevated-bypass hybrid,” huh.  Back in the 1950’s, I think they called that a “viaduct.” 

If I were a betting man, I’d bet on the surface/transit option.

Oops.

The Seattle Times editorial board warns against deficit spending:

Washington already borrows billions for capital projects such as roads, ferries and university buildings. These are expensive assets that last many years, and borrowing spreads the cost over the generations.

Borrowing to build a university hall is like borrowing to buy a house. Borrowing to pay salaries of state workers is like taking out a mortgage to buy groceries.

Yeah, well, it depends on what those state workers are being paid to do.  For example, if they’re being paid to educate our children, well, that’s a long term, expensive asset that lasts many years too (13 to 26 years to fully educate, a half century or so of productivity).  So it kinda makes sense to spread that cost over generations as well, doesn’t it?

For example, study after study shows that investing in universal preschool and early, comprehensive intervention for troubled children and their families, pays off huge financial dividends down the road in the form of higher wages and lower costs.  Same holds true of investing in preventative health care.  So really, how is borrowing money to pay for a teacher or a vaccine any less justified than borrowing money to pay for a school or a hospital?

Again, I’m not ready to argue that the state should necessarily borrow a couple billion dollars to help ease the pain of this economic downturn, but the knee jerk arguments against it aren’t very conducive to an informed debate.  The issue is not nearly as black and white as the folks at the Times want to make it out to be, and I hope our legislators adopt a more nuanced approach.

Worst since 1994.

The mood of uncertainty was evident in a local report this week showing that only 318 new and pre-owned houses sold in Clark County in November. That’s down 37.3 percent from the 507 home sales in the same month last year. November’s total was the lowest for that month since 1994, according to “benchmarks,” a tracking service of Vancouver’s Riley & Marks appraisal firm.

“Uncertainty” is probably the key word, as the article explores somewhat. How bad are job losses ultimately going to be? Will interest rates be set at 4.5%? Who knows?

A couple weeks back, in writing about our incredibly stupid special election for King County Elections Director, I urged Jason Osgood to drop out of the race in favor of a more viable candidate if the alternative would mean throwing the election to a partisan, career politician.  Well, yesterday, Jason did exactly that, throwing his support behind current Elections Director Sherril Huff.

Jason Osgood, a previously declared candidate, announced Tuesday he was dropping out of the race and throwing his support to Huff, whom he called “the most experienced and best-qualified candidate.”

I doubt you will ever meet anybody more passionate about election reform than Jason, and he deserves a ton of credit for such a gracious and responsible move.

FYI, I will be moderating the King County Democrats candidate forum on Monday, December 15th, 7-9 PM, at the Renton Carpenters Hall, 231 Burnett Avenue North in Renton.  All candidates who file by Friday’s deadline will be invited to participate, and I urge them all to do so with confidence that I will be tough but fair.

Bad kitty.

Earlier this week, over at Slog, Erica dismantled Jim Vesely’s proposal that bikers pay a $25 bike license fee for bike lanes and trails. Vesely’s idea might make some sense if accommodating biking didn’t also benefit car owners, and more important, if bikers didn’t have to simultaneously pay taxes and levies to fund roads that are largely dedicated to cars.

As Erica correctly points out, car owners do benefit from bikes and bikers are helping subsidize car owners:

Every year, the US government spends more than $100 billion to subsidize driving above and beyond driver expenditures on gas taxes, vehicle purchases, and license plates. 

Add on other shared costs related to cars—pollution, land use costs—and it’s hard to ignore that everyone, including those who don’t own cars, are subsidizing cars.

In turn, bikers shouldn’t be the only taxpayers to fund bike lanes. 

I’m revisiting Vesely’s ignorant editorial a few days late because it’s hard to ignore another example that’s come up this week where the public—bikers included—are going to be paying for car owners: The Feds are about to commit $15 billion to bail out GM, Chrysler, and Ford. 

I’m not saying bikers should be exempt from saving the auto industry, but as the kids say, I’m just sayin.