Goldy

I’ve had trains on the brain recently, what with the triumphal opening of the Link light rail (and given Seattle’s history, it was a triumph), which may help explain why I just booked a 7 hour and 20 minute train reservation from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh.

Now, at first glance, that might seem a little crazy, considering a non-stop flight on US Airways clocks in at under 1 hour and 20 minutes gate to gate. But on closer examination it’s not as nutty as you might think, an examination that speaks to the many competitive advantages of intercity rail… advantages, alas, that most American cities aren’t able to enjoy.

The cost comparison is fairly easy. For example, the airfare (with tax and fees) would come to $133 round trip, plus $15 each way to check my bag, and $20 each way for the airport shuttle in Pittsburgh. That’s $203 to fly, versus the $91 I just payed to book on Amtrak.

But is a $112 savings really worth 12 hours extra traveling time round trip? No, probably not. But then, what with all the time spent wandering around the airport, flying doesn’t really save me 12 hours, does it? After all, with frequent logjams at the TSA checkpoints, most airlines recommend arriving an hour and a half before a domestic flight, so subtract three hours there. And, of course, while flight time is measured gate to gate, you still have to account for deplaning, walking to baggage claim, waiting for your baggage, and then getting to (and on) ground transportation, so subtract another hour of airport time at either destination, and we’re down to a seven hour advantage.

Then there’s the airport shuttle to and from the hotel in Pittsburgh, maybe a half an hour each way to cover the 20 miles, depending on traffic, plus additional time if we’re not the only stop. Throw in the wait for the shuttle at both ends of the line, and that shaves another hour and a half from our total, bringing the air travel advantage down to five and a half hours, because oh yeah, rather than being on the outskirts of town, Pittsburgh’s Amtrak station is right across the street from my hotel.

On this particular trip, getting to 30th Station in Philadelphia will be just as much a hassle as getting to the airport, as I’m coming from the Jersey shore, so there’s no time saved there due to its central location, but on the way home, the train stops in Ardmore, PA, just a 10 minute drive from my sister’s house, whereas the flight would leave me inconveniently at the airport. So I save at least another 30 minutes travel time by rail.

So… is $112 in savings really worth twelve five hours of my time? Well, it is for me when you consider that instead of going through the hassle and stress of getting to and from two airports and on and off two flights, I get to sit on a train with ample leg, elbow and head room, walkable aisles and a convenient cafe car… all the while knowing that when I get to my final destination I’ll actually be at my final destination. Yeah, its an extra two and a half hours traveling each way, but I spend much more time than that writing each day, and with power outlets liberally scattered throughout each car, I’ve got no concern about draining the batteries on my laptop or iPhone.

And then, of course, there’s the added bonus of not having to hand even more of my money over to the despicable US Airways, which on my last flight set a new record for poor customer service by actually threatening to have me arrested. (It’s a long story.) I know, I know… at least my daughter and I arrived safely, eventually… but should the bar really be set so low that the standard for acceptable service is a flight that doesn’t end with you standing hip deep in water on the wing of a plane floating in the middle of river?

Of course, not everybody holds the same visceral hatred for US Airways, unfortunately the only airline to fly nonstop between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh or Seattle, so perhaps your calculus would be different from mine, and perhaps the bizarrely slow train between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh (7 hours, 20 minutes to travel only 300 miles? Really?) isn’t the best example of intercity rail’s inherent advantages. I mean, why would anybody fly the shuttle from DC to NY when even the non-Acela trains can get you downtown to downtown in less total time, and at two-thirds the cost?

Yeah I know, we’re different out West, where the distances are longer and the right to a single occupancy vehicle is written into our state constitutions. But the distance between Seattle and both Portland OR and Vancouver BC is actually less than the distance between Philadelphia and DC, so imagine a Cascade route upgraded to mere NE Corridor speeds (which is itself, substantially less than European standards) cutting up to two hours off the current three and a half hour trip in either direction. Yeah, at current gas prices you could drive for less… but would you really want to?

One of the stupidest arguments against rail—light, heavy or otherwise—is that it is an antiquated, 19th Century technology, whereas the automobile, itself more than a century old, is the transportation of the future. Puh-lease. Different technologies make sense for different purposes and in different circumstances. For short and medium intercity trips from downtown to downtown, nothing beats heavy rail (at least rail done right), whereas even a bullet train wouldn’t make sense coast to coast compared to modern air travel. And as much as I love the new Link light rail, and plan to use it extensively between my neighborhood and downtown Seattle, I’m the first to admit that I’m not ready to give up the convenience of owning a car.

Our nation has been on an airport and road building binge over the past half-century while neglecting or even tearing up our aging rail infrastructure, and the persistent anti-rail bias is based on little more than ideology… a lazy, free market tirade against government subsidies. But government has long subsidized transportation, from canals to railroad right of ways to the interstate highway system. You think the airlines picked up the cost of building SeaTac? Think again. Those are your tax dollars at work.

So if heavy rail between cities and light rail within them can efficiently divert traffic from the roads and the air, doesn’t it make sense to spend some of our tax dollars providing travelers with more choice, not less? And should it really require “trains on the brain” to recognize the value of such investments?

A lot of folks, both online and off, have been eulogizing Walter Cronkite over the past week, but undoubtedly one of my favorites comes from our friend Carla at Blue Oregon, whose own unique relationship to the CBS newscaster apparently dates back to her toddler years:

Every week night at 5PM, the CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite would come on our television. This happened to coincide with my father getting off work and making the quick journey to our home. Dad would walk through the door each night like clockwork, just after Mr. Cronkite would begin reading the news.

Back then, which was the mid-60s, many parents plopped their kids in baby walkers, I suspect with the fine intent of helping kids get mobile without being so frustrated. My mother was no exception.

No matter where I was in our house, as soon as I heard the music and the announcer for the news, my mother says I’d come tearing through the house in the walker yelling “Con-KITE! Con-KITE!”, waiting at the door for my father.

It was my first word.

And thus the genesis of a news geek.

Personally, I associate Cronkite more with the space program and young men dying in Vietnam, but I prefer Carla’s sentimental memories over my own.

Over at Publicola, Josh goes out of his way to say “Thank You Rob McKenna” for saving light rail from implosion during Sound Transit’s troubled early years:

[H]ad the crisis in 2000 gone undetected, stand up leaders like Joni Earl would never have been asked to step in. The project would have quietly failed, and the agency would have simply dissolved around 2003 or so. It took a loud crisis, to wake everyone up and get the project back on track.

And while the press (and I’m proud to have played a role ) deserves some of the credit for spotlighting the agency’s financial disasters, it was dissident Sound Transit board member Rob McKenna (the others were party line cheer leaders) who nudged the press to take the closer look. He already had taken a closer look—and his spread sheets were more than compelling. […] I’d say Rob McKenna (ironically, given that his agenda was to bring the project down) was one of the most important Sound Transit board members there has been.

Yeah, well, I suppose, maybe, but it’s worth pointing out that just because McKenna worked as hard as he could to discredit Sound Transit and its early leadership, doesn’t mean that’s its management woes wouldn’t have otherwise been uncovered and corrected. I mean, its not like Sound Transit didn’t (and doesn’t) still have plenty of powerful enemies without him.

So while it sure is amusing to give McKenna ironic credit for unintentionally saving the rail line he tried to destroy, in truth, he was merely a conduit and public voice for a cabal of anti-rail partisans (you think he actually compiled those spreadsheets himself?), so I think Josh overstates his case.

At least when it comes to Sound Transit Phase I.

Phase II on the other hand, and the East Link extension that will comprise the bulk of the project… now that will be McKenna’s bastard child without a doubt. For if not for McKenna’s insistence on mandating the onerous “subarea equity” provisions into Sound Transit’s financing scheme, the agency would never have had the revenue stream available to make East Link light rail possible.

At McKenna’s insistence the Sound Transit taxing district was divided into five subareas, with an equity provision requiring that taxes raised in each subarea be spent on projects directly benefiting its residents. With the bulk of the Central Link line running through Seattle, revenues generated in the North King subarea have already been fully bonded for years to come to pay for construction, maintenance and operation of the recently opened line.

But the relatively minor improvements thus far constructed on the Eastside—mostly park and rides, bus ramps and expanded bus service—have been much less capital intensive. This leaves oodles of East King subarea Phase I tax revenue still coming in, unencumbered by existing debt, and available to bond a billion or two of the several billion dollars needed to cross I-90 and build out through Bellevue to Redmond in Phase II’s East Link plan.

Subarea equity was meant to cripple Sound Transit, and it has; financial constraints are one of the reasons it takes Sound Transit so long to complete construction. Indeed, without the billion or so of federal grants—money McKenna went to DC to lobby to block—the existing line and the University District extension might not have been possible.

But now that Sound Transit has survived to open the first segment and convince voters to expand its revenues to pay for Phase II, the subarea equity provision has come back to bite the anti-rail schemers in the ass, enabling Sound Transit to deliver to voters a much more ambitious East Link line than Phase II revenues alone could afford. That is, through the magic of subarea equity, East King Phase I taxing authority is now subsidizing Phase II construction.

So, yeah, thank you Rob McKenna, for making East Link possible… and so much more difficult for you and your anti-rail buddies to kill off.

Lost in the hoo-hah over the opening of light rail this weekend, was a bit of tangentially transit related news that will have a huge impact on the quality of life for thousands of South Seattle residents: Safeway’s reversal of plans to shutter their aging Othello ST store, and instead invest $3 million in a long needed remodel.

In a saga that has long been chronicled on the Rainier Valley Post, Safeway had not only planned to close the store, but had put the property up for sale with a deed restriction that would have prevented future owners from bringing in a grocer, pharmacy or gas station. This was not only a cynical and self-serving effort to push customers to Safeway’s two other, much newer and much larger South Seattle locations, it would have been a devastating blow to a community whose redevelopment had focused on making it a walkable neighborhood.

The Othello Safeway is part of a retail complex located at the NW corner of MLK Jr. Way and S. Othello ST, just across the street from Link’s Othello ST Station. It is also conveniently nestled at the foot of the hill leading up Othello to the New Holly development, and just to the north of the not yet completed Othello Station residential development along MLK Jr. Way. This makes the Othello ST Safeway not just the only supermarket within walking distance of thousands of new, mixed income houses, townhouses and apartments, but also the closest supermarket to any of the stations on Sound Transit’s new Link light rail. And with proximity to a full-service grocery store one the most crucial factors in determining the ability of low income households to maintain a healthy diet, Safeway’s remodel, including expanded meat, seafood, produce and organics sections, will prove a boon to the entire community.

To its credit, Safeway apparently heard community complaints, and set up a booth at Saturday’s Othello street fair to trumpet the remodel to the crowds showing up to celebrate the opening of light rail. The $3 million refurbishment is perhaps less than Safeway has invested in other neighborhoods, and the store will still remain one of the chain’s smaller and more cramped local outlets in this age of modern megastores (certainly compared to its roomy, Rainier Ave. cousins), but it is welcome nonetheless. Whatever the motives and economics (such as the two, large developments planned for the Eastern side of the intersection, which might have included a competitor’s store had Safeway moved out), Safeway’s remodel can only be considered an act of responsible corporate citizenship, whereas its prior plans to sell the property with a deed restriction would have epitomized the opposite.

Those who judge light rail by mere ridership numbers miss the point; rather than just getting commuters from home to work and back, the goal is ultimately to help create a more walkable city where residents drive less, not because they have to, but because they are simply less dependent on their cars. And no neighborhood is truly walkable without easy access to healthy and affordable fresh groceries and produce.

UPDATE:
I posted the picture above hours earlier, from my iPhone, while on the train, somewhere south of the Beacon Hill tunnel. But I just thought I’d take a moment to explain the headline, which really isn’t as snarky as it sounds. In fact the words had come  to me spontaneously, earlier in the day, as I climbed the stairs into the bright daylight and chaotic street scene outside Nordstrom’s, above the transit tunnel at Westlake Station.

It was a moment of serene familiarity, one like many hundreds of other moments I experienced in many other cities, but mostly New York, where I lived for a couple years… that sudden rush of sensation as one emerges from the subway, and is thrust headlong into one’s destination. Riding a subway is much like taking an elevator. You are one place, the doors close, the doors open, and suddenly you are someplace else.

Standing outside Nordstrom’s, adjusting my eyes and ears to my surroundings as the crowds rushed by me, I exclaimed to my daughter “It’s almost like living in a real city.”

I’ve walked through downtown Seattle many times since moving from Second and Pike to my South Seattle house. But for the first time in a long time, the downtown really felt like home.

Walter Cronkite, the most trusted man in America, has died at age 92.

Remember a time when you’d watch the news on TV, and just, well, believed it? I do.

I’m not ashamed to admit I that I like Joel Connelly. Sure, he’s a curmudgeonly old curmudgeon with a penchant for repeating the same old jokes and stories again and again (and again), and yeah, as a writer, he’s one of those persnickety old-timers who apparently believes that Strunk & White was carved in stone by the almighty hand of, well, Strunk & White. And then there’s his wistful nostalgia for the mythical days of statesmanlike bipartisanship. Oy.

But Joel’s also a walking encyclopedia of Northwest political lore and a deft practitioner of the lost art of the follow-up question, and unlike the rest of our local media’s persnickety curmudgeons and curmudgeonly persnickets, he respects us unruly whippersnappers enough to actually engage with us… sometimes passionately.

Take for example his column today at SeattlePI.com (or, “coloooom” as Dwight Eisenhower used to pronounce it), in which Joel attempts to slap me and Erica for our “anti-religious bigotry.” At least it shows he cares.

Militant secularists in the Internet estate are demonizing the former KIRO-TV anchor and candidate for King County executive. David Goldstein, on his Web site Horsesass.org, sneered at Hutchison for her Honolulu prayers, and witness that the prayers were answered with the message that God wanted her both “professionally ready” and “spiritually ready for the next step.”

“What is this thing with Christians praying for touchdowns, and lottery tickets and news anchor jobs, and thinking that God doesn’t have more important things to do than answer their petty, materialistic prayers?” Goldstein wrote.

Huh. I think I snickered more than “sneered” at Hutchison getting down on her knees and asking God “Why aren’t you doing this for me?” in regards to a coveted job promotion that wasn’t happening, but regardless, I think I raised a valid theological question.

I mean, what is it about this Santa Clausification of God in which earthly rewards are lavished upon those who pray (to the right God, in the right way), and at what point does this brand of religious devotion border on mere magic?  I’ve read my Max Weber, and I understand the Calvinist ethos in which our material success here in this life is supposedly a reflection of our eternal glory in the next, but I don’t need to accept or respect it. Praying for a weeknight anchor job just strikes me as petty and narcissistic, and voicing that opinion is not an act of religious bigotry. Perhaps Hutchison is one of the millions of her fellow Christians who absolutely believe that I am going to burn in Hell for all eternity, simply because I refuse to accept Christ as my savior; would it be religious bigotry for me to question that particular religious tenet as well?

Whether Hutchison actually talks to God, and whether He actually answers back in His own voice—as in, “And He told me something then that I have never forgotten…”—or whether her reported conversation with the Lord was merely meant as a metaphor for her own internal dialogue, I don’t know. But when she uses this anecdote to talk about how being “spiritually ready” is more important than being “professionally ready,” I think it a reasonable springboard to a discussion of how professionally unready she is for the job she seeks.

If Joel wants to get his undies in a knot over such blunt theological discourse, that’s up to him, but when he argues this Christians-as-an-oppressed-minority bullshit, I’m totally unapologetic.  First of all, to even imply that my opposition to Hutchison is based on religious bigotry is patently ridiculous when I’ve been such a famously unrepentant fanboy of Ron Sims, an openly devout Christian himself. It’s not their faith that sets them apart in my mind, but how Hutchison, through her association of with the Discovery Institute, endorses the dominance of a Christian theistic world view in the public sphere.

Second, from my perspective as a non-Christian in a nation dominated by Christians, Joel, I’m not sure you understand how incredibly overbearing, intrusive and insulting your people’s incessant proselytizing can really be.

Missionaries are allowed to come to my door to tell me that I’m going to burn in Hell for not believing what they believe, and that’s okay. Preachers are allowed to go on television and tell me that I’m going to burn in Hell for not believing what they believe, and that’s okay. Rev. Ken Hutcherson is allowed to come on my own radio show and tell me that I’m going to burn in Hell for not believing what he believes, and that’s okay. But publicly critique their crazy religion, and apparently that’s off limits.

Or, God forbid, publicly embrace my own atheism, and that makes me, in Joel’s eyes, a “militant secularist.” Talk about a double standard.

The truth is, Joel, as both a Jew and an atheist, I’m the oppressed minority, not you or Hutchison or any of your Christian brethren. I’m the one your people are so convinced is condemned to hellfire (except, technically, for the Catholics, who officially grandfathered us Jews into Heaven under Vatican II), and honestly, if they believe their benevolent Lord would have me tormented for all eternity in the next world, how can I trust them to treat me with respect in this one?

Tell me Joel, in all your years of covering politics, how many overtly open, self-proclaimed atheists have you ever known to be elected to Congress? And how many Bible-thumping Christians? Now tell me, in the political realm, who is the real victim of bigotry here?

As for Joel’s other critique, that I am a brazen sexist:

Goldstein is also brazenly sexist in his treatment of Hutchison. He calls her “Suzie” and headlined his commentary: “Susie talks to God.”

That’s just plain silly. As Erica pointed out in her own response to Joel, that’s what Suzie’s close friends call her, and in fact I was merely mimicking what her close friends and fellow far-right-wingers David and Peggy Boze called her on air (as in, “Hey Suzie… you are our Sarah Palin”). Similarly, my close friends call me “Goldy,” which is an admittedly faggy nickname for a grown man, yet I don’t consider it anti-gay to hear it come from even total strangers.

In referring to Hutchison’s job as director of the Charles Simonyi Fund for the Arts and Sciences, he has called her a “philanthropic kept woman.”

Yeah, sure, that snide quip comes off as a little sexist, I’ll give Joel that. But it sure was funny, so I stand by it 100 percent.

But all this misses the point, which is: are Hutchison’s religious beliefs pertinent to her campaign for King County Executive? Joel emphatically says “no.” Erica and I say “yes”… not because we are religious bigots, but because we rightly fear that Hutchison would attempt to use the office to impose her values on others in a way that the equally Christian Ron Sims never did. Indeed, even those issues, such as Intelligent Design, which on the surface appear to have no bearing on the duties of the county executive, offer voters a useful glimpse into the candidate’s character and competency, yet Joel would apparently consider such a discussion off limits if she came to the issue from of a position of faith.

Had Hutchison rejected the science of evolution due to a cognitive deficit resulting from an unfortunate boating accident, I suppose even Joel would agree that voters had the right to know, and the right to reasonably question whether her head injuries might similarly impact her capacity to grapple with other complicated issues. But reject evolution from a position of faith….

Yeah… I better pull back from that analogy before I prove Joel’s premise.

The point is, Hutchison’s presumed opposition to abortion, her rejection of evolution, and her financial support of candidates who oppose even birth control, are pertinent campaign issues, however relevant they are to the duties of the executive, because they speak to her values, her intellect, and most of all her willingness and ability to decide complex issues based on the facts, rather than her faith.

Ironically, for all his fury, I think it’s safe to say that Joel, Erica and I are on the same side in this race, and that none of us wants to see the woefully unprepared Hutchison win office. Which briefly brings us to one last point of Joel’s, that of strategy.

Charles Darwin is not an issue in deciding how King County will better deliver services, cope with budget deficits and manage growth in a place of great beauty where 1.6 million people live.

[…] Instead, we should ask a question she didn’t answer at Thursday’s debate: Will Hutchison try to change (read dismantle) King County’s urban growth boundaries? Will the Building Industry Association of Washington find in her a willing ally? Hutchison has excoriated the county’s Critical Areas ordinance as a scourge on rural residents. “It tells citizens who own land how they will use it,” she told a Bellevue debate on Thursday.

OK, but how do you protect endangered salmon populations and keep building in flood plains?

Problem is Joel, people don’t vote for issues, they vote for people. And with the latest poll showing Hutchison still attracting support from 28% of Democrats and 18% of liberals, there are clearly plenty of voters who haven’t yet gotten to know Hutchison well enough.

So you stick to the issues Joel, it’s the responsible thing to do, while I do my thing and drag Hutchison through the muck. My muckraking may not be as noble as your pursuit, but after all, it’s the only time the persnickety curmudgeons seem to pay much attention to anything I write. Even, alas, lovable persnickety curmudgeons like you.

I’m increasingly becoming a big fan of Seattle Times financial writer Jon Talton, who once again calls bullshit on his colleagues’ lazy and/or biased coverage:

Most Americans don’t get out much, so light rail is exotic, strange, even threatening (especially to a mythmaking minority of anti-transit fetishists and to the oil industry). The media, which are curiously incurious about the hidden costs and damage caused by freeways, will scrutinize every bump and burp of light rail.

For example, three non fatal collisions with light rail trains since testing started have garnered huge headlines, while how many people have died on our region’s roads during the same time period with nobody questioning the inherent safety of our roads and highways?

It’s a good thing for Susan Hutchison that she’s expected to breeze through the August primary into the general election for King County Executive, for as Richard Pope reveals in the comment threads, it looks like she probably couldn’t count on herself to deliver a crucial vote:

Someone should make an issue of Susan Hutchison’s voting record. Susan S. Hutchison (DOB: 03/24/1954) failed to vote in the August or September primary elections in 2000, 2002, 2003, 2005 and 2007. […] She didn’t vote in the presidential primaries in 2000 and 2008 either…

Eh… who bothers to vote in odd-year primaries anyway, what with only those peripheral local races on the ballot?

UPDATE:
Richard points out that the other four county executive candidates all have perfect general and primary voting records from 2000 through 2008.

Future Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels in 1989 on the completion of the I-90 floating bridge:

”It’s a dinosaur,” Greg Nickels, a member of the King County Council, the governing body that covers the Seattle metropolitan area. He said the transportation solutions of the next century would include light rail systems and car pools.

Twenty years later, light rail is about to open, and soon to be extended across that very same bridge.

You can read Mayor Nickels in his own words, about the significance of tomorrow’s milestone, in a guest post over at Seattle Transit Blog.

As painful as it may be to write, I once again agree with the Seattle Times in their efforts to have court documents unsealed from Susan Hutchison’s discrimination suit against KIRO TV:

Hutchison, through her lawyer, says she supports open records but not when it comes to intruding into the privacy of an individual who availed themselves of the court. That sounds too much like she supports open records — just not her records.

That’s called hypocrisy, especially coming from someone who claims to have been a journalist. (Though in all fairness to Hutchison, it’s hard to call reading words off a teleprompter “journalism.”)

Court records and proceedings are generally public by default, both as a First Amendment right, and as a matter of judicial principle, as public oversight of the courts is our primary safeguard in ensuring that justice is meted out fairly. Indeed, such openness is fundamental to our entire system of justice. Think about it: secret courts equal tyranny and oppression.

That’s why court records are normally only sealed under certain circumstances, such as closed adoptions, juveniles (criminals and victims), witness protection, trade secrets and national security. Personal privacy is generally not one of these circumstances, apart from obvious things like social security numbers. Choose to bring a civil suit and you choose to make the information disclosed by both parties public. That’s the way the system works, and that’s likely the second most common reason, after cost, that parties choose to settle disputes privately, before their dirty laundry is aired out in court.

Hutchison was an aging female newscaster demoted from her weeknight anchor job in favor of a younger (and less expensive) woman. Right or wrong, that’s not uncommon in the cutthroat TV news biz. Still, she probably could have secured a modest severance settlement out of KIRO TV, simply by threatening a discrimination suit. That too is common in the biz. But whatever KIRO TV offered apparently wasn’t good enough for Hutchison, so she exercised her right to sue in civil court.

Hutchison and her surrogates claim that KIRO TV’s willingness to settle proves her discrimination claims, but with the records sealed and the terms of the settlement secret, such assertions are totally unsupported. Perhaps little or no money changed hands. For all we know, Hutchison ended up paying KIRO.

What we do know is that Hutchison failed to win her old job back, and she failed to secure a comparable anchor position at any of the three competing stations, so while age and gender no doubt played a role in her demotion, it was a cold, cruel business decision based on ratings and performance more than anything else. I mean, not every female newscaster is shoved aside once their youth fades; for example, Jean Enersen’s reporting and interviewing chops have earned her a steady hold on the KING-5 anchor chair since 1972.

The Times warns that Hutchison risks “squandering credibility by fighting this case,” but really, how much credibility did she have to start with? As a newscaster, certainly not as much credibility as Enersen. And as a political candidate for executive office with little or no political or executive experience at all… well… um…?

Perhaps we’ll be able to answer that question better once the court documents are unsealed.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=paeuC-i8E1o&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]

I grew up about a half-mile from Cynwyd Station, and as kids, my friends and I found the train to center city Philadelphia much more convenient than relying on our parents to cart us around to movie theaters, sporting good stores, and other attractions. But it wasn’t just those of us with youthful vigor who frequently hoofed our way to the rail stop, for every morning as I prepared to walk to school, I’d see a stream of business suit clad men lugging their briefcases down the street in the other direction, some of whom routinely walked to the station from more than a mile away.

These weren’t granola crunching tree-hugging hippies. These were doctors, lawyers, businessmen and other professionals who, weather and circumstances permitting, left their cars at home in the driveway most days, not because it was the right thing to do, or the less expensive thing to do, but because it was the obvious and natural thing to do. Why battle traffic on the Schuylkill Expressway each morning when the train was a 10 minute walk away?

The commuter suburb of my youth grew up around the station, not by accident, but by design. Built in 1886, this short spur of the Pennsylvania Railroad was as much a real estate development project as it was a transit line, and that rail-centric ethos survived at least a century, before SEPTA budget woes resulted in drastically reduced schedules. The point is, people didn’t take the train because they had to, but because they wanted to, and with parking always limited at the station, many were happy to walk a mile or more for the convenience.

So when I continue to read news reports about complaints over the lack of free parking around most stations on Seattle’s soon to be opened Link Light Rail, I can’t help but shrug my shoulders. Build it, and they will walk. And if the folks who live there now aren’t willing to hoof it, over time these neighborhoods will attract new residents who will.

Which gets me thinking about my own relationship to the Seattle light rail system I’ve so passionately advocated, and how far I’m willing to walk to use it. I’ve half-jokingly complained for years about the elimination of the Graham Street station from the final plan, which would have been a mere 10-15 minute walk from house, quite possibly close enough to bump up my property value. I’ve also wistfully talked about moving into Columbia City to be walking distance both to its business district and its light rail station. But I’d never actually measured the distances myself.

As it turns out, the little map app on my iPhone says that Othello station is about a mile away, only a quarter mile further by foot than the corner of MLK Jr. & Graham, so my dog and I decided to walk it today for ourselves. At a comfortably brisk pace we clocked 18-minutes there, and 20-minutes back (climbing the hill from Rainier Ave. on the way home), and we could probably have made it a little faster but for the need to obsessively mark the path with urine, and briefly stop to pick thistle from our paws.

So, will I walk to light rail?

Well, at least for the moment, I don’t commute, so it’s kinda a moot point in the context of this discussion, but if I were a commuter, and the rail line took me reasonably close to my workplace, yeah, I’d be willing to walk a mile in each direction, weather and circumstances permitting. If it was really hot or really cold or raining very hard, I don’t know that I’d be up for that hike, and if my afterwork plans took me inconveniently off-route, I’d probably take my car. But some days—perhaps most days—I find it a reasonable distance to walk.

Of course, if my circumstances were different, a daily walk to and from the train station would be more of a no-brainer. Before our divorce, we were a one-car family, and the opportunity to save the expense of buying and insuring a second car (let alone fueling and parking it) would make a walk+rail commute all the more attractive. But as a single father, going carless in Seattle isn’t as much of an option, and thus the cost savings of commuting by rail aren’t nearly as great.

As for my recreational use of light rail, the 2-hour parking restriction presents much less of a problem, as it’s only enforced 7AM to 6PM, Mondays through Friday, leaving the spots open nights and weekends for casual hide & riders like me. Meeting folks for drinks or dinner downtown? You can freely park your car near the station starting at 4PM, and make it downtown in plenty of time for happy hour. As a moderate drinker (even when Drinking Liberally), I’d likely choose that option over hiking it home late at night.

Opponents of light rail have long criticized it as social engineering, and to some extent they’re right. Like the commuter lines of the old Pennsylvania Railroad, the South Seattle segment is proving as much a real estate development project as it is a transit line, as evidenced by the massive residential redevelopment going on along MLK Jr. Way. Mixed income houses, townhouses, apartments and condos are being built for folks who want the convenience and economy of living a reasonable walking distance to a light rail station, and as these developments expand further out from the stations, so will the notion of what a reasonable walking distance is.

If anything, these quarter-mile restricted parking zones are too small, and neighborhoods will likely clamor for their extension when hide & riders cluster along the border. And after a while, the notion of healthily walking a couple miles a day to and from work, rather than driving to and from the fitness club for your daily workout, will become as commonplace around here as it was in the commuter-rail suburb of my youth.

And the best thing is, if you don’t want to be part of this new, socially engineered, walk & ride culture, there will always be plenty of Seattle neighborhoods without it.

That’s right, I support the Seattle Times… in their efforts to unseal court records from Susan Hutchison’s discrimination suit against KIRO TV.

The Seattle Times contends that of 859 pages filed with the court in the lawsuit, 753 are sealed improperly.

Hutchison’s attorney says that the King County Executive candidate supports open records, except, you know, when it comes to herself. For their part, KIRO TV apparently has nothing to hide, their lawyer telling the Times that “the court should unseal the files and has all authority to do that.”

So what’s Hutchison trying to hide?

I’ve been told that much of Hutchison’s suit was based on her claims that she was demoted to noon anchor because she was white, while KIRO responded with details of her abusive, insubordinate and unprofessional behavior on and off the set. Of course, the court records are sealed, so I don’t know if any of that is true. They’re just rumors. But if these rumors aren’t true, and the court records don’t support them, you’d think Hutchison might want clear the record by having it unsealed.

I’m just sayin’….

Seattle Times editorial columnist Bruce Ramsey stopped by Drinking Liberally last night, and I immediately groused about how a dearth of irritating editorials in recent weeks has reduced me to dumpster diving over at Crosscut. Ramsey explained that he’d just returned from vacation, and that my complaint would be remedied in the morning with an editorial he penned on trade.

He didn’t disappoint: “Anti-trade bill that would hurt Washington state trade jobs should be stopped.”

At the risk of destroying his credibility with his co-workers, I have to admit that Ramsey is my favorite Times editorial writer (though as I explained to him last night, “it’s a pretty low bar”), largely because I find his columns both readable and consistent. The latter quality I attribute to his passionate libertarianism, a passion clearly on display in today’s editorial:

The Trade Reform, Accountability, Development and Employment Act makes private commerce subject to the moral imperialism of advocates who do not conduct trade and don’t care about it.

Under the bill, if a foreign trading partner’s government doesn’t have “adequate labor and environmental regulations” — the adequacy determined by busybodies — the trade can be stopped.

If the foreign government hasn’t “taken effective steps to combat and prevent private and public corruption” — the effectiveness defined by busybodies — the trade can be stopped.

If the foreign government doesn’t have “transparency” and “due process of law” to suit American tastes, the trade can be stopped.

Uh-huh. Passion… check. Consistency… check. Facts… not so much.

Putting aside his efforts to dismiss those of us who care about human rights and environmental protection as mere “busybodies” (you know, “busybodies” like the Pope), Ramsey’s passionate hyperbole substantially misrepresents a bill that doesn’t actually include the authority to “stop” anything. Rather, the stated purpose of the TRADE Act is to review existing trade agreements, draw up standards on which to base future agreements and renegotiations, and provide greater Congressional oversight of the process, its main provisions consisting of:

• Require a comprehensive review of existing trade agreements with an emphasis on economic results, enforcement and compliance and an analysis of non-tariff provisions in trade agreements.
• Spell out standards for labor and environmental protections, food and product safety, national security exceptions and remedies that must be included in new trade pacts.
• Set requirements regarding public services, farm policy, investment, government procurement and affordable medicines and compare them with components of current trade agreements.
• Require the president to submit renegotiation plans for current trade pacts prior to negotiating new agreements and prior to congressional consideration of pending agreements.
• Create a committee made up of the chairs and ranking members of each committee whose jurisdiction is affected by trade agreements to review the president’s plan for renegotiations.
• Restore congressional oversight of trade agreements.

All existing trade treaties remain in force, and this bill provides no authority to modify or “stop” them. As for future agreements, the language within the bill is far from anti-trade or heavy handed, for example, Section 4, Subsection D:

(D) provide that failures to meet the labor standards required by the trade agreement shall be subject to effective dispute resolution and enforcement mechanisms and penalties that are included in the core text of the trade agreement…

In truth, the “busybodies” Ramsey refers to are members of Congress, and even if they were to determine that a particular trading partner was, say, violating fundamental human rights (defined in the act as “the rights enumerated in the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights”), they still wouldn’t have the power to unilaterally “stop” the trade as Ramsey implies. Rather, under future treaties, our government’s recourse would be to pursue “effective dispute resolution.”

Hardly a draconian, anti-trade provision.

Ramsey is right that Washington is perhaps the most trade dependent state in the nation, which makes trade a sensitive subject for members of both parties. And if anybody doubts the extent to which “free traders” like Ramsey control the debate in this state, look no further than the fact that none of our state’s House delegation are among the 110 U.S. representatives who co-sponsored the TRADE Act… not even typically reliable progressives like Jim McDermott and Jay Inslee.

But Ramsey does a disservice to our state and to his readers when he reduces a 44-page bill into a 229-word, knee-jerk screed against trade restrictions of any kind:

The idea behind this bill is that commerce is bad and is making workers in America poor. Tell that to workers assembling aircraft, writing software, or moving containers on the docks.

Yeah, well, tell that to the tens of thousands of Washington workers who have seen their jobs shipped overseas to low-wage nations with lax environmental, workplace and product safety standards, and often no right to organize at all.

I appreciate that Ramsey’s objections to this bill are consistent with his steadfast libertarianism; in fact, I almost respect it. But rather than foster informed public debate on this issue, his intent appears to be to quash it, and I expect better than that from my favorite Seattle Times editorial board member.