In the interest of contributing a little fairness and balance to HA’s coverage of Prop 1, the proposed Sound Transit expansion, I am posting this audio message from Kemper Freeman Jr.
[audio:http://horsesass.org/wp-content/uploads/kemper.mp3]Can’t Bring Yourself to Type the Word “Ass”?
Eager to share our brilliant political commentary and blunt media criticism, but too genteel to link to horsesass.org? Well, good news, ladies: we also answer to HASeattle.com, because, you know, whatever. You're welcome!
stop paying attention to this douchebag – no one gives a shit, unless they live and breathe this stuff. And that just seems bad for your health.
From Sarah Palin & Kemper Freeman to Mark Baerwaldt & Chris Van Dyk – rightist and Libertarian populism is based on a very strange variety of elitism.
All these creeps think they know “what’s best” for us. But to avoid sounding like the progressive social engineers they despise, these populists deliver their lies and anti-social messages via the old Rovian playbook.
ugh @ 1: Kemper Freeman has bought his way into public discourse. You may not want to pay attention to him, but his dollars are making sure the rest of the region is exposed to his lies.
I wish somebody in the local media would spend a small amount of time poking around in all the bogus “studies” Kemper bases his lies on. For that matter, how’s about looking his ridiculous “27 projects to relieve congestion”, complete with laughable price tag, and near-impossible engineering.
To a certain degree, Kemper Freeman has avoided any scrutiny, because his ideas are so absurd (same goes for the Discovery Institute and Kemper’s Washington Policy Center) – but that doesn’t mean others aren’t influenced by the endless supply of crap Kemper and his henchmen crank out on a daily basis.
LOL. O the fairness and balance…
I bring this up in every rail thread, but I lived in St. Louis and witnessed the birth of the Metrolink system there. St. Louisans had all the doubts and fears that get expressed (by trolls mostly) in every rail thread on HA: It won’t work for us, we’re car people, it’s going to attract “bad elements.” All of that FUD turned out to be… well, just FUD. Not only did rail catch on in St. Louis beyond all expectations, they’ve expanded the system during the last 8 years. It can happen here!
I’m not interested in what Kemper Freeman says about anything. But people should listen to Roger Rabbit on light rail. Light rail makes sense in many cities, but here in Seattle where construction costs are at least 6 to 8 times higher than the U.S. average and it will be 20 years before the system is fully up and running, it makes more sense to invest limited mass transit dollars in expanding the bus system, which provides an immediate alternative to car commuting and is more flexible than light rail — you can adjust bus routes to population and employment patterns, but you can’t move tunnels or rails.
One of the arguments made in favor of light rail is that it will be faster thanb buses because it doesn’t have to stop at every intersection. But light rail isn’t significantly faster than buses if it’s making frequent stops to pick up and let off passengers. Bus stops typically are 2 blocks apart, which is about as far as many people want to walk, and some people (especially the elderly) are capable of walking. To realize the speed advantages claimed for light rail, you can’t have very many stops, and given the cost of building stations (especially underground ones), in fact there won’t be very many stops compared to the bus system. With light rail stations few and far between, light rail will be much less convenient than buses and this will discourage ridership.