“I don’t care what you call it, as long as you ride it.”
Those were the Mayor’s words just before the VIPs and press guys boarded the orange streetcar. Nobody referenced the streetcar’s nickname. What a fucking relief. That joke is getting really old, guys. Real. Old.
I rode the second train out of Westlake. The sucker was packed, but everyone was excited. As folks were mashed in, I mentioned to the crowd, “it’s starting to get really unpleasant… You know, like on a bus.” Everyone laughed. People laughed because everyone hates riding the bus, at least on some level.
Folks were waving at the train, and from the train. You don’t see this much with buses. People only wave from buses if they’re going to summer camp or coming home from prison. I did the whole route, and on the way back I got off at Denny. The number 17 bus was coming up, and I said aloud to the crowd, “is anyone waiting for the bus?” Everyone laughed, because no one will wait for a bus when they can take a streetcar. No one.
There was a sad-looking lady holding a sign at Westlake that said “Watch Out for Injured Cyclists.” I watched out, but all I saw were smiling, pleasant people waving at the streetcar. My heart goes out to cyclist who commute through the city, but the next time I see a fixie-riding, no-helmet-wearing douchebag hipster blow through a red light at 20 miles and hour, that goodwill goes away. If you’re a cyclist that can’t figure out how to ride your bicycle over railroad tracks, then maybe riding a bicycle isn’t the best sport for you.
Which reminds me. I hear that a bicycle advocacy group is doing, or has done, some “protest rides” in South Lake Union, protesting the fact that the rails the streetcar runs on could pose a hazard to cyclists. Right. On a side note, me and some friends are going down to City Hall to protest the Treaty of Versailles.
Regardless of the internet whining, people who ride the streetcar tend to like it. It’s a short line, but it’s effectiveness as a transportation option only increases as it is expanded. Same thing can be said about the Link Light Rail. I will make a point to use it, and if I have the chance, I’d live along the route.
I’ve got a magnet on my fridge that tells me I’ve got a free ride on the Seattle Monorail, which opens the Green Line this Sunday. Except that it doesn’t, because it never got built. The monorail fell apart, crushed by it’s own hubris and a bullshit financing plan. Maybe this streetcar can be expanded to serve West Seattle, northwest Seattle, or other parts of town that were promised transit but never got it. Let’s expand the streetcar throughout the “Center City”, and deliver transit investment to the people who are most willing to ride it.
Injured cyclists? Policy wonk David Goldstein said on Saturday that a few unwary street people (cyclists, pedestrians) may be maimed or may die from close encounters with the SLUT, but survivors will soon learn that a Fred Rogers trolley is good for us. It’s from the government. It’s here to help us. We WILL like it.
Well, SLUT might be better than METRO.
One, it’s ONLY the first line. The first line of any subway, train, street car, bus route, etc isn’t that useful. It will only get better as it expands. I use Portland’s street car/max lines every time I’m there. I COULD walk from downtown, to Powells, then to 23rd for shopping/dining…but it wouldn’t be really practical.
Two, we need SOMETHING. PLEASE run a street car from the water front through stadium area, downtown, and up Cap Hill. That’s a LOT of hills to walk. Every tourist/friend who visits complains there’s no good obvious transit “up hill”. Sure I could pour over a dozen bus routes and cobble together something (eventually), but NO one likes multiple bus transfers to cross town.
Three, I KNOW it’s not fast, but that’s NOT the only reason why transit exists. School buses aren’t as fast as Formula 1 cars, but that’s not the point. It’s ONLY 17 blocks, but walk 17 blocks in the freezing cold rain, with high heels, lots of packages, a bad foot, or just being flat out tired. In those cases, a ‘ride’ on the street car will seem MORE than worth it…even if it’s not crazy fast. Sure I COULD walk the route, but I’d arrive tired, wet and sweaty. Not ideal. SORRY SEATTLE, not EVERYONE can bike up Queen Ann, or climb Rainer with one leg tied behind our back…some of you can and YOU GO GIRL, but some of us are mere mortals.
Does a Metro transfer get you on the streetcar for free or do you have to pay another fare? Does the streetcar give you a transfer that you can use coming back the way you came?
Will, I feel your pain on cyclists that just don’t seem to give a fuck. I’m a considerate driver, giving bikes as much room as possible, but you have no idea how many times I’ve had to lock up my brakes to avoid splatteing some moron on a bike who either isn’t paying attention (sometimes even on a cellphone as he/she/it rides – it’s not illegal in Nevada yet), or thinks I’M the bad guy because I’m doing my job (casino courier – 180 miles a night) in my pickup that gets 30 mpg.
And my wife and I will be quite happy to ride the SLUT next time we come up to Seattle on vacation (The Camlin is just up the hill a few blocks from the line). We have no problem with mass transit whatsoever, and wish more people would realize that a bus or train is more than something that homeless people use to stay warm and drool on other passengers.
BTW, what the hell is a ‘fixie’?
Emily, unlike the Monorail, I think the streetcar integrates into the Metro system. A Metro or Puget Pass will work for example: http://seattletimes.nwsource.c.....ide10.html
Fixie= fixed gear bike.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fixed-gear_bicycle
I thought SLUT was Paul Allen’s affectionate nickname for Greg Nickels.
Oh wait, his nickname is “slave”.
“Yeah the EMP got your record (first recordings of Dick Powell, The Sonics, Jan 1961), What, you going to sue?” as said by Denise Ward MSW-Children’s Outpatient Child Psychiatry, Feb 2001. When confronted as to why she led me to believe that a severe bruise (foster mother’s hand print?)on my non-verbal, special needs son’s cheek happened at a Shoreline Public School, yet she knew it happened in the foster home my son attended for eleven weeks. Or why Denise Ward MSW, looked the other way as my son was removed from a Federally funded program for autistic children at the U of W. Thanks for ruining the Seattle music scene, Paul Allen.
Yeah, I hope it expands. I’m not THAT hopeful, but it would be great if it does. I mean, transit that doesn’t get out of traffic is pretty much fucking useless, but whatever. Maybe if it expands it’ll actually get some dedicated lanes. I’m pretty cynical about transit in this region. And I’ve only lived here six years.
I guess I just have to accept that Seattle is not a visionary city. Big projects scare us. I wouldn’t have used the first monorail line, but I can see how a fast, 14 mile line connecting two major parts of the city would be a decent backbone to a future system. THAT made sense to me. I can’t see how a slow, 1.3 mile line (at grade!) connecting nothing of much use will be a harbinger of transit change in Seattle. I mean, our 1 mile monorail line hasn’t spawned anything else after 45 years.
I will not take the SLUT, just like I’ve never ridden the monorail (the one downtown, not the one the mayor killed). If Paul Allen doesn’t make it a point to take the bus, I’m not going to go out of my way to take his train.
Also, calling it the “SLUT” is old, I guess, but what’s it actually called? Am I really supposed to refer to it as a “Street Car?” The “SLUSC”? Sorry, I don’t even call it the SLUT to be funny anymore, it’s just the most convenient name, in the absence of anything else to call it.
Exelizabeth has a point. SLUT is not a joke. It is an affectionate nickname. It is the kind of moniker that, once applied, is so appropriate, so right that you just can’t shake it, no matter how many times a grumpy Mayor, his Billionaire crony, or a well-meaning blogger tries to dismiss it. The more they try, the more the name just clings to its victim like a lamprey to its writhing host.
You can’t wave from a prison bus, Will. They have screens over the windows.
What, exactly, is the difference between riding on a streetcar and riding on a bus? Besides the clackety-clack of the wheels, I mean.
Because there is the chance that when I ride my bike on the road that my tire might get stuck in one of the new street car tracks, I think they should rip out all the tracks and do away with the street car.
I also think all metal sidewalk grates on earth should be eliminated because women with stiletto heels might get their shoe stuck in them and twist an ankle, or worse.
The problem with this streetcar is that it does not connect with the now dormant but someday to be revived waterfront streetcar, and they both will have independent maintenance facilities. It also does not connect to the in the works light rail nor the old monorail. It is a fragment, not the start of a system. If it linked to any of the others, I’d be more optimistic.
Torture Works
by digby
A commenter points me to this account of a successful “enhanced interrogation;”
. . . On Wednesday, June 28, 1628, was examined without torture Johannes Junius, Burgomaster at Bamberg, on the charge of witch-craft: how and in what fashion he had fallen into that vice. Is fifty-five years old, and was born at Niederwaysich in the Wetterau. Says he is wholly innocent, knows nothing of the crime has never in his life renounced God: says that he is wronged hefore God and the world, would like to hear of a single human being who has seen him at such gatherings [as the witch-sabbaths].
Confrontation of Dr. Georg Adam Haan. Tells him to his face be will stake his life on it [er wolle darauf leben und sterben], that he saw him, Junius, a year and a half ago at a witch-gathering in the electoral council-room where they ate and drank. Accused denies the same wholly.
Confronted with Hopffens Elsse. Tells him likewise that he was on Haupts-moor at a witch-dance; but first the holy wafer was desecrated. Junius denies. Hereupon he was told that his accomplices had confessed against him and was given time for thought.
On Friday, June 30, 1628, the aforesaid Junius was again without torture exhorted to confess, but again confessed nothing, whereupon, . . . since he would confess nothing, he was put to the torture, and first the [Page 24] Thumb-screws were applied. Says he has never denied God his Saviour nor suffered himself to be otherwise baptized; [1] will again stake his life on it; feels no pain in the thumb-screws.
Leg-screws. Will confess absolutely nothing [and] knows nothing about it. He has never renounced God; will never do such a thing; has never been guilty of this vice; feels likewise no pain.
Is stripped and examined; on his right side is found a bluish mark, like a clover leaf, is thrice pricked therein, but feels no pain and no blood flows out.
Strappado. He has never renounced God; God will not forsake him; if he were such a wretch he would not let himself be so tortured; God must show some token of his innocence. He knows nothing about witchcraft. . . .
On July 5, the above named Junius is without torture, but with urgent persuasions, exhorted to confess, and at last begins and confesses.
[…]
Burr’s note: So ended the trial of Junius, and he was accordingly burned at the stake. But it so happens that there is also preserved in Bamberg a letter, in quivering hand, secretly written by him to his daughter while in the midst of his trial (July 24, 1628):
Many hundred thousand good-nights, dearly beloved daughter Veronica. Innocent have I come into prison, innocent have I been tortured, innocent must I die. For whoever comes into the witch prison must become a witch or be tortured until he invents something out of his head and–God pity him–bethinks him of something. I will tell you how it has gone with me. When I was the first time put to the torture, Dr. Braun, Dr. Kotzendorffer, and two strange doctors were there. Then Dr. Braun asks me, “Kinsman, how come you here?” I answer, “Through falsehood, through misfortune.” “Hear, you,” he says, “you are a witch; will you confess it voluntarily? If not, we’ll bring in witnesses and the executioner for you.” I said “I am no witch, I have a pure conscience in the matter; if there are a thousand witnesses, I am not anxious, but I’ll gladly hear the witnesses.” Now the chancellor’s son was set before me . . . and afterward Hoppfen Elss. She had seen me dance on Haupts-moor. . . . I answered: “I have never renounced God, and will never do it–God graciously keep me from it. I’ll rather bear whatever I must.” And then came also–God in highest Heaven have mercy–the executioner, and put the thumb-screws on me, both hands bound together, so that the blood ran out at the nails and everywhere, so that for four weeks I could not use my hands, as you can see from the writing. . . . Thereafter they first stripped me, bound my hands behind me, and drew me up in the torture. [2] Then I thought heaven and earth were at an end; eight times did they draw me up and let me fall again, so that I suffered terrible agony. . . .
[…]
And so I made my confession, as follows; but it was all a lie.
Now follows, dear child, what I confessed in order to escape the great anguish and bitter torture, which it was impossible for me longer to bear.
Burr’s note:Here follows his confession, substantially as it is given in the minutes of his trial. But he adds:
Then I had to tell what people I had seen [at the witch-sabbath]. I said that I bad not recognized them. “You old rascal, I must set the executioner at you. Say–was not the Chancellor there?” So I said yes. “Who besides?” I had not recognized anybody. So he said: “Take one street after another; begin at the market, go out on one street and back on the next.” I had to name several persons there. Then came the long street. [3] I knew nobody. Had to name eight persons there. Then the Zinkenwert–one person more. Then over the upper bridge to the Georgthor, on both sides. Knew nobody again. [Page 28] Did I know nobody in the castle–whoever it might be, I should speak without fear. And thus continuously they asked me on all the streets, though I could not and would not say more. So they gave me to the executioner, told him to strip me, shave me all over, and put me to the torture. “The rascal knows one on the market-place, is with him daily, and yet won’t name him.” By that they meant Dietmeyer: so I had to name him too.
Then I had to tell what crimes I had committed. I said nothing.
. . “Draw the rascal up!” So I said that I was to kill my children, but I had killed a horse instead. It did not help. I had also taken a sacred wafer, and had desecrated it. When I had said this, they left me in peace.
Now, dear child, here you have all my confession, for which I must die. And they are sheer lies and made-up things, so help me God. For all this I was forced to say through fear of the torture which was threatened beyond what I had already endured. For they never leave off with the torture till one confesses something; be he never so good, he must be a witch. Nobody escapes, though he were an earl. . . .
Dear child, keep this letter secret so that people do not find it, else I shall be tortured most piteously and the jailers will be beheaded. So strictly is it forbidden. . . . Dear child, pay this man a dollar. . . . I have taken several days to write this: my hands are both lame. I am in a sad plight. . . .
Good night, for your father Johannes Junius will never see you more. July 24, 1628.
Burr’s note:And on the margin of the letter he adds:
Dear child, six have confessed against me at once: the Chancellor, his son, Neudecker, Zaner, Hoffmaisters Ursel, and Hoppfen Els–all false, through compulsion, as they have all told me, and begged my forgiveness in God’s name before they were executed. . . . They know nothing but good of me. They were forced to say it, just as I myself was. . . .
@17. And what does that have to do with the streetcar?
More to the point, it wasn’t designed to link to anything else, or to be the first line in a city-wide system. It was designed to provide taxpayer-funded infrastructure to a neighborhood where Paul Allen is the dominant landowner. He also owns a lot of SoDo now, so maybe we’ll see a streetcar there, too. But unlike light rail, it’s not meant to be part of a system. It’s a gimmick to get Paul Allen new tenants. See how many people are riding it in three months, or three years. And see whether Mayor-for-Life Nickels is interested in any lines that don’t service (oops, is that the wrong word?) a billionaire. The Kool-Aid (er, punch) they were giving out today was nice, but this is not how you build a transit system. Or there would have been about five other lines built (or, in the case of the waterfront, restored) first.
FWIW, Will, I do share your frustrations with moronic gonzo bicyclists blowing through red lights. When I was younger I bicycled for my sole in-city transportation, but then and now such bikers piss me off – they’re a danger not only to themselves, but they also piss off motorists and make it less safe for everyone else that bicycles.
@18 It has absolutely nothing to do with the streetcar. But if horsesass is going to emulate SLOG why shouldn’t we commenters get in on the act. Read the piece I posted. It says it all about our current government. Fear, inhumanity, religious zealotry, torture and killing. By both the Republicans and Democrats I should add.
@ 17 Torture is reading your incoherent post.
Methinks the SLUT moniker is with us to stay, whether the powers that be like it or not. Kinda gives a whole new meaning to the term “Metrosexual”, doesn’t it?
If people love streetcars but hate buses, why not simply fit the buses with “high-railer” gear and run ’em on the tracks?
21 Naaaah. #9 has to take the award for Incoherent Post of the Day.
Typing on my phone- bear w/me… The streetcar stops @ westlake, light rail stops @ westlake, monorail stops there too. How is it that they dont connect?
I’ve grappled with that question before, why a streetcar and not just a bus. Fundamentally it’s just psychological I guess, but there IS a difference. Go to Portland, New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Washington DC or ANY city that has buses AND some rail (street/trolley/light). It’s hard to explain, but there is a difference between the two systems. Part of it comes from the awkwardness of buses. Rail lines and their few stops are on ‘official’ stations, well marked, easy to see, with maps of the relatively simple route(s). You can see the tracks easier than ‘searching’ for a bus stop sign on the street (for YOUR bus # even). By and large you can guess if there’s two tracks, one is going one way and one the other (duh). Buses on the other hand (ESPECIALLY in strange cities) are more difficult. Catch the 37 from Alki to downtown, great! Get off on 1st Ave. Guess what, the return bus might be on 3rd Ave. How would you know…you wouldn’t, most street bus stops have little if ANY maps of the system. You’re lucky if you just a little posting of bus times. Then you get to 3rd Ave…guess what, after 2pm the 37 becomes the 53…or it becomes the 53 after crossing Elliot Ave, etc. Buses are neat but in any city you travel to you’ll find you take the train/rail most often and buses the least. Transit isn’t ALWAYS about the fastest. Every transit mode has it’s use. Cars if you are hauling 5 bags of groceries and a new lamp, subway if you need FAST, buses for routes you know well, street cars in place of ‘walking’ when the weather is bad and you’re tired or whatnot. NO major city has JUST ONE mode…they’ll have buses AND subways AND streetcars/trolley/light-rail. Seattle conversations tend to bend toward why ONE is the best over the other…as if we can/should only have one. Silly.
7:
How……..quaint. I outgrew those things in the fifth grade.
I wonder how much it costs? No, not the fare, but how much it costs to operate per boarding, trip mile, etc. after subtracting the recovered fare?
I know overall fares account for less than 20% of the cost to operate….I was stunned even further at how much it is subsidized and disappointed with supposed mass transit. I’m curious what recovery ratio streetcars will be.
Modes like vanpools tend to have 90% to 100% fare recovery and even help that overall average and are still an attractive option for commuters.
It will be interesting to see how the streetcar fares….pun intended. ;)
I was on the 3pm train and it was still packed. I spent my time taking photos of the train from about 2pm until 4:15 when I went off to Sounder back home to Kent.
My observations:
Top speed was 26mph.
107-114 people were onboard on the 3pm train give or take. This was consistant throughout my time of photographing the runs.
They were running the 3 Streetcars until 3:30pm when the Purple car made it’s way back to the maintenance facility. The power over Fairview Avenue is still not finished and the cars still need to be towed over it. The batteries do not have the power to move the cars off the hill.
It was VERY popular, there were a lot of business type folks on board including a few developors that want the Streetcar to be extended to the University of Washington and Fremont for new developments they are working on including a new Kent Station, The Landing style developments. Mixed housing, shopping, banking, stationary, and typically a new movie theater.
Pat, the Metro Transit supervisor for the Streetcar is a very popular person!
The Streetcar lines can be extremely popular and easy to expand when they are extended. Expansion again can be built very quickly. Stacy and Witbeck has the expertise to do these extensions. The Downtown Portland Mall Loop is nearly completed and that started in May 2007.
http://www.stacywitbeck.com/
Time to look at Fremont, UW, Extending the Waterfront Streetcar to at least Interbay and getting a route through Downtown Seattle (and turning the retro cars into special event cars or something to that affect?)
Those that were riding the Streetcar yesterday probably noted it was slow. This was intensional because of the high loads. Today’s run will be at the posted road limits (25-35mph)
Alas we live in a black and white world in which either you’re with us or you’re against us.
If I have to choose, I’m anti SLUT (though I’m pro-nickname).
Mayor McCheese continues to talk out of both sides of his mouth, proclaiming that we want to encourage cycling while pushing for this tracked tourist attraction though major cycling corridors.
All the criticisms about the SLUT seem more correct to me than incorrect – it’s slow, it doesn’t go anywhere or appear to have potential for expansion or be part of a wider transportation solution.
If I’m allowed a nuanced opinion anymore, then let me say: bicycling is truly great, we should all do it (and if I were king that would be the law of the land) but I’m totally for the anti-fixie backlash (at least until someone makes one with disk brakes – that’d be cool!)
http://bikesnobnyc.blogspot.com/
@19 Geov
I think readers here are missing Geov’s point. SLUT is not designed to provide transit. It is designed to help Vulcan make some $$ for Paul Allan.
I worry about those dollars, not because it seems unfair to tax me to support Mr. Allan, but because … to my knowledge .. Allan has NOT made a long term commitment to stay invested in SLU. The low quality of construction. lack of development of amenities, and lack of planning suggest to me that Vulcan is a DEVELOPER rather than an investor. Their goal may be to build and sell rather thasn build and make $$ off of a long term investment.
If this si true,, the Slut is … as the name suggests .. a hire4d whore that will help Vulcan sell tis wares but without any sort of longterm commitment.
I LOVE being the devils advocate to a bunch of whining backseat drivers… :)
Get over it folks. We TRIED to make that empty warehouse/vacant homeless camp of South Lake union a park. You didn’t want that. Now some developer (Allen) puts a billion dollars of development in there to make offices and condos (since we didn’t want a park) and you bitch again. You don’t want a park, you don’t want offices. What magic land DO you want? A billion dollars of development and the city folks up $53 million (much, not all, it will get back in fees/taxes/adverts)…and you think that’s out of line? You think EVERY development over $100 million doesn’t involve give & take with the city over sidewalk/transit/infrastructure improvements? What are you people, 10 years old? Are you that naive? Grow the hell up, this is how grown up works kids. This is how every city has worked forever. If I tell the city I’m willing to risk a billion dollars of capital to build some development, I can probably “get” them to do something like the street car. Shocking!
And I don’t get the argument that NO ONE will ride this ‘useless’ trolley…yet Allen somehow strong armed the city into it and wouldn’t build his offices/condos unless the city gave in. Why the hell does Allen (a successful businessman) care about a junk trolley that no one uses? Why would he press for something that, IF NOT USED, wouldn’t add ONE dollar of value to his property. If the line is junk, becomes and empty train running back and forth, that does NOT increase his property value. ONLY if it’s successful and carries people around/through his property does it make financial sense, in which case it’s then WORKING as a transit mode.
Poster child @29: Screw bicycling in this climate! Who the hell wants to bike to work in 35 degree rainy weather? Ain’t gonna happen. I’m sorry, I biked all the time in Arizona, but here? No effin way.
I don’t hate riding the bus. I like the bus, in fact. I get to read on my way to work, and most days, there’s a bunch of pretty women to look at. It sure beats hell out of driving.
@31: Allen “cares about a junk trolley that no one uses” because it is a(nother) demonstration that the city is willing to invest hard infrastructure in a neighborhood that, prior to Vulcan’s development push, had virtually none. That helps him (at least in theory – in a soft market, not so much) attract tenants to long-term leases. Vulcan sells, makes its money. It doesn’t matter a bit to Vulcan whether SLUT goes anywhere or whether anyone ever rides it once the novelty wears off.
I notice in your list of land uses for the neighborhood you omitted “light industrial” and “affordable housing,” which is what the neighborhood largely was before the real estate-inspired name change from “Cascade” to “South Lake Union.” But it’s an understandable omission, since nobody at the city seems to give a rat’s ass about either category.
Meanwhile, since when did caring about how forcibly extorted tax dollars are spent by public officials make anyone a “whining backseat driver”? I would think conservatives would be all over that public accountability thing, especially in a liberal-run city like Seattle.
LOL. Just playing devils advocate here…keeps it interesting.
I think you’re a bit tin foil hat for me…but interesting thinking. It’s all of clever conspiracy to ‘trick’ folks into long term leases for the magic of this trolley? If it’s so obvious no one will use it, you REALLY think the folks who would leave space down there haven’t thought about that? If they’re “dumb” enough to get sucked into this shame as you consider it, then they’re really dumb business people and will loose their shirts soon anyway.
Affordable housing? Very little. And light industry? Some, some still there, and why is that magically MORE important than any other business (office, bio-tech manufacturing, retail). Why should we make a “light industry” museum out of the place?
There were a mere handful of apartments down there, for the size of that land, it was virtually empty. Yes, every single person that gets pushed out is sad, but that was a POOR use of land. It wasn’t some magic wonderland of nature or large pile of cheap apartments. I lived right next to it for years. It was LARGELY empty….a literal ghost town after 5pm. A few periphery business (many of which are still there) and literally a handful of apartments. The VAST majority of what was torn down to make the new office buildings were little used/junk buildings and warehouses.
This is the same story from every city over the history of our country. As Chicago grew from 5,000 to 5,000,000, think HOW MANY cheap houses/apts were created then destroyed as the city grew and changed. It’s just part of natural growth. The ‘cheap’ apartment areas will always move as land inevitably becomes worth more…cities will grow. It’s happened before and it will continue. The downtown ‘core’ will grow…it will push the smaller buildings out further…which will push the residential areas…and push the industrial areas. This has happened in every city throughout time. Cities aren’t static museums. They’re organic growing/changing things. No one type of business/use has any more RIGHT to any location than any other.
“Which reminds me. I hear that a bicycle advocacy group is doing, or has done, some “protest rides” in South Lake Union, protesting the fact that the rails the streetcar runs on could pose a hazard to cyclists.”
Memo to bike nuts: how’s about worrying about the cars and potholes instead of those mean trains.
well, Drewvsea at 32, I’m not sure why you felt you need to comment to me directly to screw bicycling,… good thing for you I’m not king.
Of course traffic here would be that much better (for everybody) if you’d stayed in AZ.
Blech
STREETcar. It runs on the street and obstructs and is obstructed by traffic. How friggin retarded is a streetcar? The monorail was a great plan (except for the irrational detour through Paul Allen’s big ugly ego trip). It was hamstrung by funding restrictions and lack of cooperation with sound transit. If Pickles wanted to do what was best for the city (and what the voters wanted) he would have found a way to fund and integrate. Help out the inept funding board to save the project. Instead he hamstrung and starved it. Paul Allen is a tacky dork and Pickles is his fatass lapdog.
Shouldn’t that sign read “HELLO SAILOR”?
-I notice in your list of land uses for the neighborhood you omitted “light industrial” and “affordable housing,” which is what the neighborhood largely was before the real estate-inspired name change from “Cascade” to “South Lake Union.” But it’s an understandable omission, since nobody at the city seems to give a rat’s ass about either category.-
Righto, Geov. All those auto-glass shops and auto lots were once havens for dense & affordable housing.