Here’s your noon sandbox, kids.

Sweet jeezy:

King County would take over the Vashon Island foot ferry and try out passenger ferries on up to five other routes on Puget Sound and Lake Washington, with property owners financing the service through a tax levy slightly higher than indicated earlier, County Executive Ron Sims proposed Thursday.

In a letter to the County Council, which also serves as the board of the recently created King County Ferry District, Sims called for a 10-year property tax of 5.5 cents per $1,000 of assessed valuation.

What will they do with these taxes?

Conduct two-year tests of five other ferry routes, beginning with one route in 2009 and adding another each of the next four years. The routes have not been selected, but possibilities include Lake Washington runs to central Seattle from Kenmore, Kirkland and Renton and Puget Sound trips to downtown from Shilshole and Des Moines.

Is this the first step of the “greenest package you have ever seen” transportation plan Ron Sims had in mind? What’s the carbon footprint on one of those suckers? Those diesel engines don’t run gypsy tears or lollipops, that’s for sure! (Or biodiesel for that matter).

Really, what the fuck are we doing even considering putting ferries into Lake Washington when King County’s South Park Bridge is deteriorating before our eyes?

To be clear, I think King County is right to invest in passenger only ferries to Vashon Island, because, well, it’s a fucking island. Kirkland, from what I remember, is not an island, and that Kirklanders manage to get around pretty well without boat service. Even the West Seattle Water Taxi, a sort of quasi-novelty item propagated by West Seattle-based county councilmen from the past and present, seems like something worth keeping.

I find it funny that Sims, who attacked the South Link light rail line for not being “worth the money”, is proposing a new transit system that will have an astronomical per-rider subsidy. Besides, people like to criticize light rail for being “two hundred year old technology,” but what about ferries? Isn’t that, like, four fucking thousand years old?

To recap: Vashon Island ferry, yes. Water Taxi, sure, why not. Ferry from Kirkland to UW? No way.

Carless in Seattle:

This is the first salvo in the post-Prop 1 debate, and the gates are wide open for every proposal under the sun. I know the pro-bus, anti-rail Left is going to do their damndest to kill more light rail–assuming we get a chance to vote on mass transit independently from roads. I beg the pro-bus, anti-rail Left to think twice about this, and here’s why: we rail supporters and mass transit users don’t believe a word of what you’re saying, and if we split, the pro-asphalt crowd will win.

Read the whole thing.

…doesn’t mean that the nightclub doesn’t deserve it, Dan.

From the P-I:

In a move that is sure to rile Seattle’s hipster crowd, Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels wants to shut down another Belltown nightclub.

Nickels said it was not an attempt to extinguish all night life in Seattle but a public safety issue.

Nickels has asked the state Liquor Control Board to suspend the license of Ximaica, a bar at Second Avenue and Blanchard Street, after an alleged incident last month in which two patrons were allowed to enter the club while brandishing guns. Club employees failed to call 911, according to security at a neighboring club.

I know this club (I live within a few blocks) and they’re fucking clowns. They have fights every night (almost), and their music is plainly audible from a block away. All of this says “please shut me down” in no uncertain terms. They’ve been asking for it.

Also, you gotta love the first line of that P-I article. Right after midnight, it read “sure to rile Seattle’s non-voting hipster crowd,” but I guess they thought that was pouring it on a bit much.

Since when are we taking our cues from these guys?

This isn’t about the personal religious beliefs of a pharmacist. This is about enforcing a religious code that governs the behavior of individuals. Women who want to avoid pregnancy use Plan B to avoid having to make the choice of abortion later. But that’s not good enough, apparently.

I have heard stories from women who go to the drug store to get Plan B. They tell me that the pharmacist has told them that they’re a “whore,” or that they need to find Jesus. This isn’t about a pharmacist’s personal beliefs governing their own actions. It’s about their personal beliefs governing yours.

Oh goodness:

A doctor can’t be held liable for resuscitating a baby who was born without a heartbeat and survived with severe disabilities, the state Supreme Court says.

The baby’s parents filed a malpractice lawsuit after the baby’s 2004 birth. They claimed doctors in Vancouver, Wash., were negligent when they continued to resuscitate the baby for almost half an hour, after he was born without a heartbeat.

The parents also said the medical team should have gotten their consent before continuing to revive the baby.

I don’t know how many XBox’s/toys/TVs/trips to Disney Land you have to buy for your kid to make it up to them, but I’m guessing it’s a lot.

daimajin:

* They counted 1,250 Seattlites of their 5,004 voters. That counts Seattle as 25% of the region instead of 20% as it is. And, in turnouts, Seattle performed worse than other areas.

* Their “rest of King County” did not show where they came up with those 1,998 voters. Were they all in Federal Way or Bothel? It’s a big county.

* They only counted 646 Snohomish County voters, half as many as Seattle voters, when far more Snohomish County folks voted than Seattle folks.

Even if this poll is shoddy, people do care about global warming. Do they care enough to trade in their comfortable, convenient, privately-owned automobile for a city bus?

Goldy talked about how he’s going to vote no on everything:

We gave you your gas tax. We gave Ron his buses. But you refused to give us our light rail. And you did so believing that despite being dicked over on the one thing we really wanted, we would remain good progressives, pragmatically voting to tax ourselves for good infrastructure projects, whenever they came our way. Well fuck that.

What’s more, if Ron Sims “green transit package” looks like some BRT, variable tolling piece of shit, then I’m out. Fuck ’em. People who talked absolute shit for months about Prop 1 and then demand that I be reasonable and negotiate? Fuck them. Ron Sims and the Sierra Club savaged the proposed line to Tacoma for months, and I’m supposed to shrug that off and roll with it? Erica C. Barnett’s title says “Pro-Light Rail Enviros May Have Swung Prop. 1 Election.”

Well, but…

The Sierra Club didn’t campaign on a pro-transit theme. They campaigned on an anti-global warming theme (I remember, I was there).

All the players in this game are figuring out what this election means, and what the next step is. I want to see Sound Transit go right back to the voters in November of 2008, a high turnout election where liberals will vote in droves, with the same 50 miles of rail and the rest. To me, anything else is unacceptable, and will get a big fat ‘no’ vote from me.

Old White Guys Against Rail. These guys are the real winners when Prop 1 went down. I bet their old bellies are full of whiskey and Ensure right about now:

Photo credit: Tom Reese of the Seattle Times.

Ughhhhh.

Dem landslide in Kentucky:

Beshear & Mongiardo D 619,654 58.7% percent of the vote
Fletcher & Rudolph R 435,857 41.3% percent of the vote

The ethically challenged Gov. Ernie Fletcher gets tossed by a big margin. Democrats also win/retain AG, Treasurer, Auditor.

Kos says:

Also, State Auditor Crit Luallen is cruising to reelection with around 62% of the vote. All eyes will be on her soon to see if she jumps in the KY-Sen race against Mitch McConnell.

The Kentucky GOP had fought hard to dump Fletcher in favor of a former Rep. Anne Northup (who was canned in ’06). Now, what was previously unthinkable is now plausible: Minority Leader Sen. Mitch McConnell will face a top-shelf Democrat in ’08, and the Kentucky Dems will be fired up.

And in Virginia, Dems are poised to take the state senate.

Mississippi: GOP Gov. Barbour wins big. Unlike everyone else, Barbour held it together during Katrina. Benefit of low expectations to be sure, the race was never close.

That’s it for now. SF Mayor Gavin Newsom will likely win, as will Houston Mayor Bill White. I like both of them, especially Bill White. He’s going places. He’ll make a great Secretary of Commerce for the next Democratic president.

I won’t update for the rest of the night, so that’s it. Stay safe and don’t drive drunk.

Because if this guy doesn’t need 60 percent of the vote to get approved…

…then neither should Washington school levies.

If you want to get involved…

Sign up to phonebank here. If you want to do some rush-hour sign waving, contact the campaign here.

I lived in rural King County for much of my childhood. In 1992, me and my dad went to Husky Stadium to watch the undefeated UW Huskies destroy Pacific. My dad hated (and hates) sports, and it was nice of him to do an activity that only I wanted to do. It was a fun; a day of watching football surrounded by drunk-ass WASPs and rowdy college kids. Mark Brunell (yeah!) and Bill Joe Hobert (boo!) split time at QB, and Napoleon Kaufman was unstoppable at tailback.

So how did we get from Redmond to Montlake? My dad drove us to the Downtown Redmond Park and Ride. We parked and waited for the Metro bus that would take us, across the Governor Albert D. Rosellini Bridge, to Montlake and Husky Stadium.

Well, the bus never showed, so we had to drive. Traffic sucked, as it always does. We missed kickoff.

I chalk it up to the inherent drawbacks of a bus system. If my dad had driven us to the Downtown Redmond Light Rail Station, it would have been a very different story. Given that light rail has suburban headways of eight minutes (depending on demand, service could be more frequent, or less frequent), the train (barring some calamity) would have shown within those eight minutes, and we would have saved big bucks on parking.

Suburban and rural folks are likely to engage with transit through park and rides. When Sound Transit does community forums out in the ‘burbs, the first question is always, “where are the park and rides?” This is a sensitive issue, especially for enviro-folks, who don’t like park and rides because they think them too accommodating to the automobile.

Josh Feit writes:

It sounds counterintuitive, but you have to be strategic about using mass transit to promote density.

Light rail is not just a pour and stir fix.

Running the line where there’s already some earnest development will suck in development and fight sprawl. Spending billions to run it out into Yenemsvelt [Yiddish for “far, far away” -Will] will simply create park and rides and more sprawl.

Opposing light rail on because of park and rides is so incredibly short-sided. If suburban citizens are going to pay taxes for transit, they’ll demand park and rides. Lecturing them to think otherwise is mostly a waste of time.

Besides, who cares? Park and rides become popular, they fill up, and the decision is made about what to do next. Sometimes they’re expanded into parking garages. And those parking garages eventually become paid parking garages, which turn into paid carpool parking garages, which turn into… apartments with retail. I know, evil right?

The park and rides along I-5 are slated to become light rail stations. The empty lots and asphalt slabs that surround these stations are going to turn into mixed-use developments (if you want examples, visit the line that’s opening in ’09). Those developments with attract the kinds of folks who will leave the car at home and ride the train instead. Sure, they’ll use the Honda (or better yet, a Prius Plug-In Hybrid) to run to the store, but many trips, especially the everyday commute-type trips, can and will be made by train. If they need a car at work, there’s always Flexcar (soon to be ZipCar). Give people choices and they’ll respond.

Like Josh, I would err on the side of fewer park and rides at rail stations. Unlike Josh, I’m not going to kill a huge light rail investment over park and rides.

…fucktard.

A Seattle Times editorial on Prop 1 includes this turd of a statement:

Rail on I-90 would leave two lanes empty most of the time, even at rush hour. And, that means light rail will reduce the capacity of the bridge, particularly to people from Sammamish and Issaquah, since the light rail wouldn’t go there.

What total bull!

Here’s a depiction of 177 cars. (Just imagine the Times ed. board in their BMWs in the front)

Now here’s the same number of people, but his time they all rode the train.

Light rail will dramatically increase the capacity of the I-90 bridge. When the East Link line opens, we’re going to see a 50 percent increase in peak-hour transit use for the corridor. In plain English, the increase in transit use will be huge between Seattle and the Eastside. A Seattle Times/Ron Sims/Kemper Freeman Jr. bus plan doesn’t come close. Not by a longshot.

Oh my gosh…

I stumbled across this website at Craig’s List. It’s run by Rossi superfans, and I think they got a little too carried away:

…which looks super similar to this:

Way back when, the local GOP stirred up all sorts of fake outrage when the WA Dems put a bumper sticker on their website for 5 seconds. (The sticker, if you don’t remember, made the allusion that Christians could be hypocrites, which we all know isn’t true.)

And no, I’m not saying Dino Rossi is a Nazi (cool your heels, Don!) The Iron Cross had a long history before being corrupted by Adolf Hilter. But if I was a Republican running in a race that’ll be tough enough already, I’m not sure I’d be happy if my fans were putting my name on Nazi-ish iconography.

[UPDATED]

A Maltese cross, while very similar to an Iron cross, is not the same thing:

[Oops, the above should read “Maltese cross” and “Cross pattée”]

Alright, I’m officially freaked out about how much I know about this stuff…