Odd duck Douglas Tooley isn’t at all happy with The Stranger’s Erica C. Barnett. You see, Erica is advocating for more transit-oriented development in SE Seattle:
Hey ECB there’s a word for how you environmental folks are treating the people in SE – it’s called H A R R A S S M E N T, or if you wish, environmental racism.
Why don’t you start with your own neighborhood and make that work, rather than taking over everbody elses?
Where does Erica C. Barnett live?
SE Seattle
Considering the reality of what we are facing in these economic times, why would we want to write a check to replace the Alaskan Way Viaduct with the most expensive, most risky, least studied and slowest-to-construct option?
That’s from Rep. Geoff Simpson’s recent opinion piece in the Seattle Times. It’s about the tunnel. You know, the thing that’s got all that “critical mass“?
Here’s something I bet you didn’t know:
In other parts of Washington State, the highways are built and maintained using the state’s tax dollars. But the legislature and Governor Gregoire have proposed adding extra taxes, taxes that will be paid by the residents of varying taxing districts:
Residents of King County would pay the state gas tax each time they fill up their tank and about $200 or more for car tabs each year. Then, the taxpayers in the Port of Seattle’s district — which again is everyone in King County — will be on the hook for another $300 million from property taxes. Through the shell game of tax-increment financing and other city taxes, Seattle’s citizens alone will shoulder nearly a billion dollars. And finally, if the state Senate transportation chair has her way, we’d each have to pay a toll to drive in the new tunnel.
In other parts of the state, it doesn’t work this way:
in Eastern Washington and other parts of the state, the state actually pays for state highways. What confuses me is why local taxpayers should be taxed time after time to pay for infrastructure that is vital to the entire state’s economy. State highway projects anywhere else in the state would be paid for with state funds, not local taxes.
If the state doesn’t have the money for a tunnel, where does that leave us?
We don’t need a tunnel because there is another option that is faster, cheaper and less risky. Replacing the viaduct with the surface/transit proposal is the best available option because it is financially responsible, better for the environment and leaves our options open for the future. It removes the dangerous viaduct earlier and we could still build a tunnel or another elevated roadway. And it will carry enough traffic to get by for several years.
If it takes an op-ed from a Kent firefighter to shake up the stale conventional wisdom that surrounds the viaduct debate in Olympia, then that’s what it takes. What I want to know is, where are my Seattle legislators? I want to know why they’re ready to sign on to a project that’s 1% designed, a project that could cost as much as 12 billion dollars. Why are Seattle legislators so willing to lock us in to a terribly unfair scheme of local taxes for a state highway?
“Everybody’s really glad they reached a decision,” said Sen. Mary Margaret Haugen, D-Camano Island, chairwoman of the Senate Transportation Committee. She said the intention is to approve the design during the current legislative session.
“The tunnel,” said Sen. Dan Swecker, R-Rochester, the Senate committee’s ranking GOP member, “seems to be something that’s got critical mass.”
That, my friends, is what politicians say when they are invited to polish a turd.
But this one is my favorite:
On Friday, Chopp said there are questions about how to pay for possible tunnel cost overruns. “Additional questions are being raised around transportation capacity, for example going from six lanes down to four,” he said, but for the moment he’s focused on the state budget and relief for families and businesses.
Doesn’t Chopp’s own Viaduct vision also reduce waterfront capacity from six lanes to four?
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Tuesday she hoped that incoming US President Barack Obama will consult and cooperate with his international partners, and took a swipe at the unilateralism of George W. Bush by saying no country can solve the world’s problems on its own.
“I hope our cooperation will be characterized by listening to one another and taking decisions on the basis that any one country can’t solve the world’s problems on its own, but that we can only do it together. And I will meet him in that spirit,” Merkel told Germany’s ARD television on Tuesday ahead of Obama’s inauguration.
She said Obama’s inauguration as the first black president of the US was “a truly great hour for America” that offered “a multitude of opportunities.”
It’s worth noting that Merkel is a conservative, and is the leader of Germany’s “center-right” government. She’s another name on a long list of friends and allies excited for change in American foreign policy.
Seriously. That invocation was not “presidential inaugural” worthy.
There are plenty of right wing pastors out there who can preach. Instead we get Rick Warren reading the Orange County phonebook.
In short, Godden tells the story of the time she shared a “jazz cigarette” with Duke Ellington, sports columnist Royal Brougham’s penchant for performing back-alley abortions, and the time former editor Lou Guzzo drank a bottle of absinthe and declared himself “Duke of all the West.”
In other (less made-up) P-I news:
My grandmother, Anne Stuart, was a reporter for the Seattle P-I from 1940 to 1947. My grandfather (and Ms. Stuart’s husband) Robert W. Kelley was a photographer for the Seattle Times. (Kelley would later work at LIFE magazine.)
Before the bad-old JOA days, the Times and P-I were in competition with each other, so Mr. and Mrs. Robert W. Kelley couldn’t talk about their work assignments at home.
“I’m going out, and I can’t tell you where,” Bob Kelley would say.
“Well, I’m going out, and I can’t tell you where!” answered his wife Anne.
With the sexual mores of that day, I’m told this kind of exchange was quite scandalous.
If you care about transit oriented development, you may have resigned yourself to the idea that state policymakers in Olympia will never be a major player on the issue. The state doesn’t invest in light rail, and doesn’t do much to assist localities in providing transit service. Sometimes they can be downright hostile. Which makes this proposed legislation such a welcome change:
Transportation Choices and Futurewise are running a bill that seeks to capitalize on the ST2 investment. The bill which will be sponsored by Rep. Sharon Nelson (D-Vashon Island) and Senator Chris Marr (D-Spokane) will encourage transit oriented development around transit stations across the state. The bill is entitled “Creating Transit Communities” and will create land use guidelines and incentives to ensure that dense, walkable, and accessible development takes shape around light rail and BRT stations.
The state does some heavy lifting on land-use issues. Things like passing, then defending, growth management. Encouraging transit oriented development is something usually left to counties and municipalities. Some of the goals of this legislation:
Encourage walkable compact communities with an average density of 50 units per acre within a half mile radius around high capacity transit stations.
Provide local jurisdictions the resources and a framework to grow in a sustainable way.
Offer incentives for development in transit oriented communities.
Allow for transit oriented development in our urban centers that encourages a reduction in vehicle miles traveled and helps Washington achieve its emissions reductions goals.
Strengthen existing provisions to ensure that low-income housing is available within the transit accessible communities.
Things are getting interesting as once local housing activist (who also is a die-hard light rail opponent) is spreading disinformation about the bill.
UPDATE:
Apparently these three open houses were mentioned by the Seattle Times over the weekend, neighborhood blogs, KIRO TV amd radio, KING TV and KOMO TV. Not to leave out Don Ward of Seattle Weekly, who also talked them up:
Fifty staff members from City Hall, Police and Fire Departments, Metro and Seattle City Light stood idly around for 90 minutes, confering in small groups and glancing at watches while individual residents meekly made their circuit around the community center gym. The scene was somewhat reminiscent of a career fair at high school.
and:
Mayor Nickels – assuming the politician-listening-to-constituents-stance – chatted amicably with all the citizens (as well as a trio of kids going to swimming practice at nearby Green Lake Pool) and solemnly ruminated afterwards about understanding their concerns regarding garbage service and clearing roadways.
ORIGINAL POST:
Angry columnists and talk radio hosts blew their tops at Mayor Greg Nickels and the city’s response to Snowpacolypse 2008. In response to their response, the mayor and others attended meeting throughout the city to take your feedback.
SEATTLE – Mayor Greg Nickels invites Seattle residents to talk with him, department heads and city staff about their winter-storm experiences. The input is being gathered as part of a citywide performance review of emergency snow operations.
Three meetings are planned and residents are invited to attend any or all:
Tuesday, Jan. 13, 6:30 to 8 p.m., at the Green Lake Community Center,
7201 E. Green Lake Dr. N.Wednesday, Jan. 14, 6:30 to 8 p.m., at the Garfield Community Center,
2323 E. Cherry St.Thursday, Jan. 15, 6:30 to 8 p.m., at the Southwest Community Center,
2801 S.W. Thistle St.The sessions will offer residents an informal opportunity to talk one-on-one with the mayor and meet with staff from transportation, utilities and other departments.
From what I’ve been told, a grand total of fifteen people showed up to the first event at the Green Lake Community Center. Maybe Seattle folks are just passive-aggressive, and are taking it out on our mayor by ignoring him. Or maybe Seattle folks aren’t really all that pissed off.
How things change…
Last month, Gregoire issued her findings on the viaduct options, saying the state could afford the $2.8 billion elevated highway but said the finance plan for the $4.6 billion, six-lane tunnel didn’t pencil out.
The overall project is estimated at $4.25 billion, with $2.8 billion coming from state gas taxes and federal bridge funds. That is supposed to cover the tunnel construction, as well as most of an interchange and elevated segment in Sodo.
How can “not having the money” be grounds to spike a tunnel in 2007, but not in 2009? What has changed, other than time?
In any case, back in 2007, State Sen. Ed Murray (D-43) seems to have nailed it:
Murray said he doesn’t believe the idea of eventually building a tunnel is dead yet.
“We’re not done,” he said.
[T]he bored bypass tunnel, along with surface and transit improvements, must be among the options that move forward for further environmental review and design when the Gov. Christine Gregoire announces her viaduct-replacement recommendation.
I think the Alaskan Way Viaduct, and the circus surrounding it’s replacement, are proof that Seattle is one of the least corrupt cities in America. If we were a little more corrupt, the civic elite, with the city’s monied interests, would have put this issue to bed long ago, and we would never had had that ridiculous, and totally ignored, advisory vote back in 2007. After all, asking for the people’s input is really only useful if you plan on following their suggestions.
Barney Frank is right about Barack Obama:
Frank worries that Obama’s evenhandedness may prove to be a political liability. “On the financial crisis, Obama said that both sides were asleep at the switch,” Frank said. “But that’s not true. The Republicans were wide awake, and they made choices to oppose regulation. They had bad ideas. He says, ‘I don’t want to fight the fights of the nineties,’ but I don’t see any alternative to refighting the fights of the nineties if we want to change things.”
Frank illuminates the president-elect’s chief weakness.
Also: Has conservative ideology been discredited by reality? Frank thinks so:
“We are at a moment now when liberalism is poised to have its biggest impact on America since Roosevelt, because the conservative viewpoint has been so thoroughly repudiated by reality,” Frank said. “Someone asked Harold Macmillan what has the most impact on political decisions. He said, ‘Events, dear boy, events.’ Events have just totally repudiated them, and we’re now in a position to take advantage of that.” He went on, “You know Hegel. Thesis: No regulation at all. Antithesis: Now the government owns the banks. What I gotta do next year is the synthesis.”
Conservatism doesn’t exist anymore. One could argue that conservatism isn’t so much an ideology, but rather a reaction to liberalism.
Conservatives do not feel obligated to offer solutions to problems. Why? Because if government is used to solve problems, then they can no longer argue (with a straight face) that government is always the problem.
Conservatives, like alcoholics, come in varieties. There are “unrepentant conservatives.” They argue from absolutist positions that have no basis in reality. There are “functional conservatives.” Bush is a bigtime “functional conservative.” No Child Left Behind, the Medicare prescription drug program, bailouts for businesses… While Bush’s programs have a mixed record of success, you have to give him credit for at least attempting to solve problems with government.
If you have a used car you’d be willing to part with, I’m interested. I’m about to start a new job, and I’m going to need some wheels, at least for a few months. (Until my Maserati clears customs… Damn American emissions regulations!) Click on my name to contact me via email.
Thank you! Back to regularly scheduled programming on the demise of local media…
Shoes? We’re throwing shoes now? Seriously? Shoes? Really? Fucking shoes?
By the way, this whole footwear chucking incident gives George W. Bush the chance to show off one of his best attributes:
He’s spry.
Did you see him dodge that shit? Bush is the fuckin’ mack-daddy of dodging shit. If you can’t hit a guy from 10 feet out with your Adidas trainers, you need to pack it the fuck in.
I have to say, this incident proves there has been at least some progress in Iraq. If somebody had tried that shit when Saddam was in power, that reporter would be dog food right now. I’m talking some serious flys walking across eyeballs shit. Fucking six feet under.
So, that’s an improvement.
The headline right now at Huffington Post is:
“GATES: DON’T TEST OBAMA”
…which made me think of this.
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!