Yesterday’s Seattle Times piece on Seattle DOT’s salt-free snow removal policy apparently struck a nerve with frustrated readers, at least judging by the four follow-up stories and editorials in today’s edition, plus two more in today’s Seattle P-I.
Huh. It turns out the lack of salt can cause high blood pressure too. Who knew?
Mayor Nickels better hope the city thaws out soon, before the nascent Frozenwatergate scandal threatens his reelection prospects. But for all the calls for the city to change its no-salt policy, it’s likely way too late for the current storm system, if not much of the winter season. A no-salt policy means that the city stockpiles… um… no salt. And anybody who’s trekked to their local Home Depot this week in hopes of buying some rock salt knows that it is usually in shortest supply when it is needed most.
With many of the city’s major arterials glaciated over the past week, including much of the downtown, the city will no doubt reevaluate its no-salt policy. But deciding to use salt, and having it available to use are two different things, so for now we’ll just have to wait for rain and warmer weather to melt our icy streets.
there is some facebook thing I just caught off a p.i. online article.
Seattle: Save Out Streets
Seattle, WA
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=44303430652
I know I sound OLD, but … I haven’t done the myspace facebook thing … WTF is it for?
I’m 48, it seems to be something all the 20 and 30 somethings do cuz it is new … BFD.
Maybe I’ve been on the couch reading too many crappy books, but, so I apparantly missed where facebook and myspace changed the world.
rmm.
It really should be called abunchofwhiningpussiesgate. It’s freakin’ raining now. The snow will be gone from the roads in 24, just like every other NW snowstorm in history (post-neo-classical-liberal history, at least). What a bunch of whining pussies.
#1
that site…
“The City of Seattle’s complete incompetence when it comes to dealing with snow is now a hurricane Katrina-level example of governmental neglect.”
They really gotta work on their satire, it’s totally flat. It’s not even a good joke.
@3. I missed that comment, but, you’re right.
there aren’t 1400 dead, or blackswampwellwaterwhatever in charge of charging Uncle Sugar 40 or 80 bucks an hour on a no bid contract to hire illegals with NO benefits at 6 bucks an hour so cheney’s management scum buddies can pocket the rest.
out here in ballard, all kinds of service things are open so us ‘working from home’ or on vacation ‘professionals’ to stand in line and complain about dodging work,
meanwhile … WHY are the gas stations and coffee shops and grocery stores etc etc open??
cuz the low / no benefit serfs GOTTA work or they won’t make their rent next week!
of course the serf class is invisible to our graduate degree policy makers, well, except they studied being broke in college and care …
ugh.
rmm.
Ridiculous.
BTW, in MN, Senator “Norm” Coleman is in very big trouble right now. With Al Franken leading by 47 votes, his Supreme Court lawsuit was his best shot at coming from behind. And it just failed, making a Franken win nearly a foregone conclusion when this recount finishes up in early January.
Buh-bye, Norm.
@6: Daddy Love
Good bye Norm, don’t let the federal prosecutors imprison you on the way out the door for the corrupt money your wife is making off of lobbyists.
Hey, I know it is the “republican” way, but there is a new sheriff in town and the real law is about to be enforced.
And your slavish, sycophantic voting record with the Bush administration- that is going down the drain too.
I don’t particularly like Nickels – but this is a bogus political issue. Seattle has always had the attitude that the snow will melt soon enough. this place shuts down in the snow. However, the entire west coast is like this (‘cepting alaska). This issue is melting away (said with falsetto by the wicked witch of the west).
You may have heard about the really high approval rating that President-elect Barack Obama has during the transition.
At 82% approval, these are numbers that usually accrue to a president in times of national emergency. It is a testament to the wreckage being left by the Bush administration that Obama has this stratospheric approval.
But Republicans beware! You are planning (and we all know you are) to obstruct and attack a president who comes into office with the kind of numbers that YOU ALL SAID were a reason not to oppose Bush in 2002.
You WILL suffer when you execute your plan. It will be fun. For us.
I’d call our current mess a national emergency.
BREAKING NEWS –
Flash – Attention Mr. and Mrs. America and all the ships at sea…
Seattle – December 24, 2008 – 3:38 pm PST…
Sources inside both the NFL commissioner’s office, Qwest Field, and the Seattle Department of Transportation confirm today that the underlying reason for the $10,000 fine against New York Jet football player, Shawn Ellis, for ostensibly tossing a large snowball at Seattle Seahawk fans this past Sunday, was pressure from Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels.
Nickels, per the sources, was furious that anyone, especially a carpetbagging visitor from New York, a city regarded by the mayor with tremendous sophistication-envy, would deign to actually remove more snow from a publicly owned surface in Seattle in two seconds than the SDOT would in two weeks.
Upon seeing news footage of Ellis’ efforts, including his disrepectful tossing of it toward Seahawk fans who had, just moments before, been pelting Jets players with hard-packed snowballs, sent Mayor Nickels into a paroxysm of anger such that, it’s reported, he had to be sedated and placed into protective custody.
While being hauled away, he directed city staff to ramp up pressure on NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue to demand the fullest possible sanctions be imposed upon Ellis, already under investigation for allegedly violating the league’s drug abuse policy.
Looking to diffuse the situation and fearful of retaliation directed against himself, Tagliabue acceded to the mayor’s demands.
Rumors, as yet unconfirmed, that the offending large snowball tossed by Ellis was immediatly taken out and placed at the intersection of Fifth and Union to replace a patch of ice displaced by an errant set of tire chains on an SUV, are the subject of an ongoing ivestigation.
A draft of a press release from the mayor’s office was slipped to several journalists quoting the mayor to the effect that citizens who complained about shoddy snow and ice removel efforts should be told, “Let them eat slush!”
The mayor, rumored to have left the city for a Palm Springs holiday, could not be reached for comment.
###
I still think the city of Gig Harbor takes the cake by plowing snow off the roads and onto the sidewalks and then declaring a “state of emergency” and asking people to walk instead of driving.
http://blogs.thenewstribune.co....._gig_harbo
Finding a candidate to run against Nickels probably has more to do with his reelection prospects than this snow.
@9
Ah yes, the honeymoon is in full swing.
There is however a BIG difference in “picking the team”, and “playing the game”.
Since PE Obama has yet to do anything in any official capacity (he is not President yet) he gets the benefit of the doubt…
We’ll see….
Minnesota Update
The latest tally from Associated Press, dated yesterday, has Al Franken winning by 48 votes.
@14 It’s a lot easier to get over the bar of expectations when your predecessor has buried it in the ground.
@13 Rarebit
I hope there are lots of carrots under your fern and that the season is conducive to your most pleasured activity?
As GN, the problem with running against him is simple .. Seattle has no finctionl public media so running =money. GN has lotsa of money behind him.
sic transit Demcracia
GOP Election Stealing Operative Assassinated
Mike Connell, the man in charge of Karl Rove’s black box strategy in 2000 and 2004, was killed by a plane crash on Friday. Connell had been subpoenaed to testify about, among other things, how vote tallies from Ohio counties were routed from GOP Secretary of State Ken Blackwell’s office to a GOP-controlled computer boiler room in Tennessee for “processing” before being released to the media and public. Connell also was in charge of making White House e-mails disappear. Many observers thought Connell was fed up and ready to sing.
Bush Cost Put At $10 Trillion
An article in Harper’s magazine estimates the cost to Americans of 8 years of Bush’s policies at $10 trillion. Based on a population of 300 million, that’s $4,167 per person per year, or $12,500 a year for a typical family of three. Meanwhile, stupid wingnuts salivated over their $300 tax rebate checks …
CBS reports new unemployment claims last week were at the highest level since the Reagan Depression of 1982.
Who was the Chicago mayor who got ran out because the streets weren’t cleared out after the snow storm, IIRC it paved the way for harold washington the first AA mayor of Chicago
@ Roger Rabbit — Funny…I just said the same thing to a friend this morning. “Hey, remember who was president 26 years ago?” So how’s that trickle-down thing working for you unemployed Republican voters? Feeling pissed on yet?
Last time we were in the black? When Clinton left office.
Cynical @ 11 is using satire, but at the same time he unintentionally demonstrates that it’s not that much different from his usual posts: a tiny bit of fact surrounded by a whole lot of B.S.
But hey, thanks for the humor, anyway.
If you’re not going to use it, why have it available?
Unless the seller of the salt contributes to a democrat and expected to be compensated for their contribution.
And yet liberals/democrats opposed bush in 2002. Wouldn’t it be “fair” to oppose the messiah? Or is this another example of the liberals/democrats/dixiecrats double standards?
I thought dissent was the highest form of patriotism, was that the CHANGE obama kept talking about?
Cheney kicked off the NY times off the plane during the 2000 campaign, obama kicked off 3 newspapers off his plane during his campaign. More CHANGE?
The 43 route…on Friday the 26th… is still not running. Despite completely clear roads. COMPLETELY CLEAR.
Calling Metro Transit they said that parts of the road might be icy so they aren’t going to run the route. Might, like in they don’t know so let’s just not do anything.
They were running buses during the storm, but somehow now after all this time has passed they have decided they can’t.
This city is embarassing.
I hope everyone caught the whine-fest over at Sound Pathetics. Nothing like a tiny bit of adversity to send the conservatives sniveling about how the nanny state should care for them, 24/7. Even one of their regular commenters, Bill Cruchon, has expressed embarrassment at their blowing snot everywhere, instead of shoveling snow.
Well, the snow is pretty much gone now, due to a warming trend and some rain.
But I am AMAZED at how long it took shop owners to clear their lots. This past weekend up in Everett, the streets were just about completely clear (well, except for the turn lanes), but the parking lots were a complete mess – packed snow, soft snow, ice underneath, and slushy water on top.
We had to go buy some paint, and my wife called four different shops to get prices, but three of them advised her not to come unless we are driving a 4X4 that does “real well” in the snow. We went to the place that had a cleared parking lot, paid an extra $5.00 for a gallon of paint, but avoided some grief.
Some of these places have pretty small parking lots – they couldn’t get out with a shovel and just clear it? When I asked some stores about it, they just shrugged and said “well, it’s going to melt in a day or two anyway”, or “we’ve been trying to get someone with a snow plow out here, but they are so busy they can’t come until next week”. Or go by Labor Ready or the Millionaires Club and hire some temporary day labor to get the job done? Or send two salesmen out with shovels to do it themselves – they were just standing around anyway, because nobody would come into their parking lot in the condition it was in.
And when it came time for lunch, we passed by four restaurants who hadn’t cleared their lots, finally just went through the drive-through at Wendy’s.
And Everett Mall???? That was the biggest mess of all. They obviously had a plow run around the main drive around the buildings, but that was about it. You would think that with all the businesses hurting for customers this year, they could have made a better effort than that. I’m sure a lot of customers who wanted to brave the after-Christmas sales took one look at that lot and said “never mind”.