Kemper Freeman Jr. doesn’t like the fall roads/transit ballot measure. In fact, he’s funding the opposition. He’s been vocal for years about how he sees transit as a waste of money. Recently, he compared transit supporters to commies and terrorists.
But don’t think Kemper Freeman Jr. isn’t thinking for himself. See, Junior has his own roads plan.
The engineers found that if we simply increased the capacity of the overall road system – 6 percent more lane miles, half of which would be additional lanes on existing freeways, the other half would be additional lanes mostly on existing arterials – we would reduce congestion from today’s level by 36 percent. And it would fully accommodate the 45 percent increase in trips expected over the next 30 years.
Hmm… Only 6 percent more lane miles? But isn’t there another way to reduce congestion the “Freeman Family Way”? I got to thinking.
Kemper Freeman’s Jr.’s grandfather, Miller Freeman, was a renowned racist and white supremacist.
“To-day, in my opinion, the Japanese of our country look upon the Pacific coast really as nothing more than a colony of Japan, and the whites as a subject race.”
“My investigation of the situation existing in the city of Seattle convinced me that the increasing accretions of the Japanese were depriving the young white men of the opportunities that they are legitimately entitled to in this State.”
In fact, when Japanese Americans were herded into internment camps, nice businessmen (not unlike Miller Freeman) were kind enough to hold onto their property for them. In fact, some of them still do!
So is there a way to mix Miller Freeman’s racist vision for a “white’s only” region with Kemper Freeman, Jr.’s vision for wide-open freeways? Simple.
Intern The Asians. Stay with me, people.
Asians comprise 12.9% of King County, 7.4% of Snohomish County, and 5.7% of Pierce County [check out the scary facts here]. That means Asian people are more than 6% of the population of the three counties served by Sound Transit and the RTID.
Taking 6% of the region’s drivers off the road will free up highway space for loyal, hardworking Caucasians like me. Also, interning Asian people will be cheaper than building new highways, and we can lock them up quicker than pouring new concrete.
Instead of 6% more highway, how about 6% fewer drivers? As a loyal American, isn’t that my birthright? Isn’t it yours, too?
Will – let me clue you in to something. Pretend you already knew this. K. F. Jr. would gain enormous wealth (for himself, his partners, and his family) instantly if ST2 + RTID passes.
Light rail right to his commercial properties in Bellevue, and billions spent upgrading I-405. What does that mean for him and a half-dozen other obscenely rich commercial property owners in downtown Seattle and Bellevue? The value of their holdings would skyrocket the day after approval of this mess in November.
Suuuuuure, he’s being sincere when he says he’s against it. He’ll laugh AT YOU all the way to his offshore bank.
Why so over the top? Why play the fool? Because K.F. Jr. doesn’t want to be the object of truthful stories. The truth is that regressive sales taxes slamming this region for generations would make him filthier rich. So he dons the clown mask, and makes like he doesn’t want all the transportation upgrades for his properties.
Want to give a good stiff FUCK YOU to that prick? Vote no, and work your damndest to get everyone else to vote no. Dash Freeman’s hope for a get-rich-quick payday in November – make sure this bloated fucker-of-a-proposal fails at the polls.
@1
Wait a second, so you’re saying that he’s funding the opposition to ensure that it passes?
I guess you were trying to be funny, or at least I hope so. Using the views of Freeman’s relatives (and a dead one at that) to discredit him is a pretty cheap shot if meant seriously.
(And of course, if you want to call someone a racist with regard to the Japanese, why go after a guy who merely said things about them? Why not excoriate the person who actually ordered the internment – FDR? All the stuff said didn’t amount to a hill of beans against the actual taking away of their liberty).
One of Sound Transit’s most frequent ST Express Routes is Route 550 to Downtown Bellevue, I have seen it, it gets good ridership, but quarterly ridership reports show it gets stagnant ridership growth. Metro 7 will be getting a safety valve when LINK opens. It gets overloaded at times, even the Night Owl run fills most of it’s seats at least.(Those who claim empty buses never explain if there points are based on whether it is full of standing passengers, or if just the seats are full, and whether they actually rode the bus or not)
It looks like “Will” misses the good old Fascist days.
@ 2 —
All Freeman is doing is just throwing a few token dollars out there now.
Neither he, nor anyone else, is going to be spending big when it matters. He’s play-fighting: his punches are designed not to land. He’s hitting at areas ST wants hit. It is choreographed fighting, like in West Side Story.
In the weeks leading up to the election there will be millions spent by those who’d get rich off the measure if it passes. Virtually nothing will be spent on ads in opposition.
Moreover, by having a convenient “opposition” group on the scene, Sims can choose one of them to author the “Statement Against” in the Voters Guide. That means Bill Eagan (who authored the bizarre and wholly-unpersuasive Statement Against “Transit Now” last year) gets to draft something inane for the Voters’ Guide this Fall.
That’s a great way to up your chances of winning a ballot measure: have a stupid “Statement Against” in the Voters Guide.
To believe Freeman’s claim that 6% more lane acreage will reduce congestion by 36% and absorb a 45% increase in traffic, you have to believe there’s a lot of unused infill space on existing concrete.
You know, I think he’s right — it’s there alright, if you reduce the present following distance of 6 feet between vehicles to 6 inches. Now there’s efficiency for ya!
@5 It looks like you wouldn’t recognize satire if it hit you over the head with a two-by-four.
Is the public going to be told whether this tax increase takes care of the region’s transportation problems — or is just a down payment?
Is there enough money in this package to complete 520 bridge replacement … or only build the approaches?
If we dig deep to pay this enormous tax increase, will we find out later that we have to dig even deeper to finish the job?
The people who write transportation tax packages make car dealers look like kids selling Girl Scout cookies.
I don’t suppose it ever occurs to the pols and bureaucrats who shill for this stuff that people might walk away when they realize the base price doesn’t include everything and realize they can’t afford the optional steering wheel, optional seats, optional breaks, option door locks, optional fenders, and optional headlights.
When I read in news reports a few years ago that WSDOT had a Puget Sound wish list topping $100 billion, I knew right then the bullshit would be flying thick and heavy.
Considering half the state population lives in the 3-county Puget Sound area, that amounts to $100,000 for a typical family of 3, and there’s no way taxpayers would ever agree to that without deceiving them about how much the “wish list” really costs. So, you break it up into pieces, and stuff the pieces down their throats one at a time. And do it in such a way that, after the first piece, they can no longer say “no.”
This is the first piece, and this may be your only opportunity to say “no.”
“Is there enough money in this package to complete 520 bridge replacement … or only build the approaches?”
Well, Treasurer Murphy’s said he wouldn’t sell State bonds backed by the RTID taxes, and if RTID sells the bonds itself it will cost the region probably a billion EXTRA in taxes just because RTID is a local government that would need huge reserves before bondholders would buy the paper.
Plus designs and EIS studies are nowhere near complete.
So, I’d say if this abomination is passed in November we’d be looking at the State upping the sales tax (without a vote by the public) to cover the funding gap. After all, RTID (and ST for that matter) only have incentives to lowball the cost estimates now. There’d be zero accountability, for anyone, if the real costs were twice what voters are being told now. They’d just cut back on some projects, and tax to the max for another couple of decades.
Pass this pile of dog shit in November and everyone in the future will piss on our graves.
I’m not against transportation spending per se. We need transportation improvements, and they’ll cost money.
My objection is to (a) gold plating these projects and (b) taxing those least able to afford it. Such as senior citizens on fixed incomes who won’t use the transportation improvements.
This tax package is WAY too heavy on sales taxes and vehicle licensing fees, and not nearly heavy enough on user fees and employer taxes. Transportation infrastructure primarily moves commerce and gets workers to their jobs. This tax package transforms a cost of doing business into a cost of living. And that’s not fair.
Why should a senior citizen who drives 1,000 miles a year making neighborhood trips to the grocery store and doctor’s office pay the same vehicle fees as a Boeing engineer with seven times the income who commutes 80 miles a day?
13 Dunno about why should, but the answer to why does is that the asshole politicians think the engineers are more likely to vote than the retirees.
@14 Of course it’s politics. That’s why the poor always get hit up for the heaviest tax burdens … and are the first to get drafted for a war … and get the worse police and fire protection … and so on. As the late great Kurt Vonnegut said, “so it goes.” Always has, always will.
If you believe the newspaper polls, this tax package is going to pass overwhelmingly. But my vote won’t help pass it. That’s all I can do … and I’m going to do it.
Money talks. That’s why Seattle neighborhoods south of the Ship Canal get stuck with all the sewage plants, heavy industry, flight paths, bus barns, rail yards, and other high-impact activities.
Remember all the bitching from the upstanding citizens of Laurelhurst when Children’s Hospital wanted a helicopter pad a few years back? They’d rather let kids with medical emergencies die than have their peace and quiet disturbed for even 5 minutes. Of course, when you have to pay over a million dollars (nowadays) to get into a neighborhood, you do expect special privileges that other people don’t have. However, Laurelhurst residents are not better or more deserving than the rest of us; they merely have more money (and they didn’t necessarily work for it; some of them inherited it, others stole it).
And, lately, we’ve had the upstanding (and affluent) denizens of Woodinville bitching about Brightwater. They should’ve put it next door to Michael Dunmire’s spread, simply because he deserves to have a shit-processing plant in his backyard.
The righties are always talking about oil wells and refinery capacity – let’s build some of that shit in Spokane and in Bellevue.
Will,
Not to mention that if we send them back, they’ll have more people to make our cars.
I see someone’s been reading Jonathan Swift. I would propose a better solution in regards to this dilemma in interning all the righties, but that would take so many solo drivers off the road, all Roger’s oil stocks would crash. And no one would want to see Roger in such dire straits, sleeping in a crack under the sidewalk outside the UGM, peddling (bunny) tail in Pioneer Square…….
In the early 1940’s, a large strawberry farm occupied what later became Bellevue Square Mall. This farm had been farmed by Japanese-Americans who later became interned.
Kemper Freeman’s grandfather was not simply a racist. He published articles calling for Japanese to get interned.
Yes, FDR ordered the internment, but Kemper Freeman’s family directly profited by it. Kemper Freeman Senior, known as the “Father of Bellevue” opened up Bellevue Square Mall in 1946.
Do you think they paid market value for these former strawberry fields?
Kemper Freeman Junior has always been against anything transit related..It may be short sighted, but I think his view is that people who ride transit have less money to spend at his mall than the folks who drive alone to the mall in their Mercedes.
@ 20
But, aren’t lots of Japanese cars made in Mississippi and Alabama?
Hortense Slag: so by voting no, and doing what Neocon Dinosaur Kemper Freeman wants us to do, we will actually be giving him a big FU?
Makes sense.
The laughable conspiracy theory you use to back up your inane statements is equally entertaining.
Roger Rabbit needs to stick to his comedy routine. When he ventures into the world of transportation planning, Bugs Bunny digs his front teeth in to the dirt….witness:
“Considering half the state population lives in the 3-county Puget Sound area, that amounts to $100,000 for a typical family of 3”
Uh, Rabbit, that’s some serious Dori Monson / Sound Politics math yer doin’. While you’re at it, why not bring in the Reagan/Eyman/Freeman “free lunch” proposal – you know, where we get needed infrastructure without raising taxes?
The “no new taxes” legislature (buttressed by timid D Governors) tried that stunt throughout the 80’s and 90’s…up until 2003, actually. And look where it got us: where we are NOW.
Sticking your head in the rabbit hole isn’t going to fix the problems that lie ahead any more than Kemper Freeman’s obsession with building un-buildable and ineffective freeways will…
Typical http://www.horsesass.org ploy that I unfortunately have come to expect all too oftern.
Don’t have any reasonable policy arguments to refute the other side, so, hey, here’s an idea . . . let’s just defame the other side.
The pathetic thing is — there are lots of good policy arguments in favor of RTID and transit.
The posters at horsesass.org are just so pea-brained, they’ve more or less consigned themselves to complete irrelevancy when it comes to thoughtful discussion of varying viewpoints on serious public policy issues in this town.
So why are you here?
Boy @ 25
“The posters at horsesass.org are just so pea-brained…”
Mmmmm…peas. THAT’s what I’ll prepare for dinner tonight!
Oh…and were you going offer some serious public policy discussion, or did you just stop by to defame the posters?
Maybe superboy can practice what he preaches, and go out and find the Kemper Freeman quote where he renounces his grandfather’s sick racism (which bought him his mall, afterall) rather than calling the name-callers more names.
At least he would be consistent with his own statements.
Look, you can try and claim Kemper’s twisted right wing family history may have little to do with his his current fringe right wing views (good luck with that) but the fact of the matter is, his xenophobic past ties right in with the scare tactics Freeman has used – and will use – to scare the public into his “terrorists are among us” world view. http://slog.thestranger.com/20....._socialist
Another example of Roger Rabbit’s Republican math (if he was actually serious):
“For example, I have an old pickup I use for hauling yard waste once a year. Think I want to pay $100 for tabs for it? ”
Roger, is your 20 year-old pick-up worth $13,000? Is that thing sitting on a set of gold-plated 24′ rims worth $12,000? If so, the DOL doesn’t tax your rims…just an fyi.
But at least you were making a more rational argument the other day:
“To get people in south Pierce County to vote for it, they throw in a south Pierce County project. To get people in Bellevue to vote for it, they throw in 405 lanes. To get people in Snohomish County to vote for it, they throw in a bunch of projects in that county. Instead of building a few core projects the region needs, you end up with an ornament hanging from every branch, ”
Yeah, Roger Rabbit – such is one of the weaknesses of democracy. Get used to it.
Also, for the record: 405, 522, US2, Hwy 9,167…those “Christmas Tree projects” you refer to – each and every one of them is on the state’s key corridor and high priority list, but the state just doesn’t have the money to pay for them.
Somebody living in fast-growing E Pierce county would probably call Seattle’s $4 billion 520 floating bridge project “fluff” the same way you diss their critical projects.
See how that works?
@24: Voting NO shoots K. Freeman’s dream for a huge payoff in November to shit. Voting NO shoots the wealth wet dreams of a handful of other commercial property owners to shit. Limitless sales taxes that would directly enrich downtown Bellevue & Seattle property owners = double-sucky idea.
29 We’re really talking about the tonnage fee here, aren’t we?
Kemper Freeman, circa 1995:
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/.....170064.asp
“This thing is off by so much, it’s unbelievable,” said Kemper Freeman Jr., a Bellevue developer who is the primary source of opposition. His analysis: A solo driver in a four-passenger car is more efficient than public transit.
Kemper Freeman spent hundreds of thousands of dollars back in 1995 and 1996 against Sound Transit, and prevailed in the 1995 voting (lost in 1996, of course). There is no reason to think that he will do anything less in 2007.
His tough message was viewed as overkill by rank-and-file officers and led to a no-confidence vote.
Now Kerlikowske is under fire for allegedly being too lenient. A citizen-review board has found that the chief improperly interfered with an internal investigation and then cleared two officers of serious allegations of misconduct before all the facts were known.
Kirlikowske made me proud to be a liberal when he held back the officers from over reacting during the Mardi Gras fiasco. He did let some officers get out of control during the WTO protest, but for the most part did a commendable job. This is just deplorable.
This porkchop package is going to go thump so badly in the night, that Roger will think there was an earthquake in the Burough.
Good luck bringing it back in an Election Year.
Suuuuueeeeeeeeeeeeeee
Some jerkoff just posted the following tripe: “Kemper Freeman spent hundreds of thousands of dollars back in 1995 and 1996 against Sound Transit, and prevailed in the 1995 voting (lost in 1996, of course). There is no reason to think that he will do anything less in 2007.”
Here is a big, fat, hairy “reason” Freeman wants this particular ballot measure to pass so bad he can taste it – in ’95 and ’96 the taxing would not have given his sorry ass any personal riches. HOWEVER, THIS MEASURE WOULD.
Kemper’s sorry ass would get HUGE riches if ST’s light rail lines were extended to his properties’ doorsteps in Bellevue (as planned), and the $6 billion in roadwork is spent on I-405 and its feeders (as planned).
Freeman’s a greedy bastard and he wants ST and RTID to make his properties worth tons more. Duh.
Kemper’s feigned opposition to RTID/ST2 is transparent.
Fuck him sideways: vote NOOOOOOO.
And the moron calling itself “Richard Pope” lacks any semblance of a clue. Or it flat-out lies. Whatever.
Well ST1 was to be done in 2006 now we have ST2 and talking about a ST3. RTID1 has nothing in it to fix the congestion and chock points as promised in order to pass the gas tax of 9 ½ cents plus the 5 cents the year earlier. Hume, there must be a RTID 2&3 coming to you pocket book.
While collecting years of taxes that should have fixed the congestion instead they spent it on studies, HOV, Bike lanes and everything but fixing the chock points. Now, by not doing anything but creating more congestion their hoping the public will buy into their programs. Vote NO on all tax increases until they fix the congestion and choking points that they have made over the years.
Be sure and write out your check for 18,333 per man woman and child in your family when you vote yes to this one of many of the planned takings. Be sure and drop this whopping check into the ballot box.
Or vote no and take one hell of a nice all expenses paid trip, buy a brand new Hybrid or two, or three for that matter, leave them in the garage like Mayor Nickels does, and hire a driver to take your old SUV or Lincoln for a spin.
Let’s see, what a tough decision that will be…….
NO
ACLU gives St. Louis residents video cameras to monitor police conduct in high-crime areas
Yes!!! We need more of this. The police profiling in these areas is simply out of control. We need to stop the harrassment of young black males who carry guns.
I am for a law making it illegal to ban tape recorders or video recorders in the public classroom. In fact I think it should be encouraged.
Why Asians???
how about taxing trips by the weight of the passengers???
Each car culd ahve a built in scale that would transmigt the passenger weight to the internet. That way we would decrease fuel consumption while imporving the nations’ health!
Worse yet, Goldberg stated that charter schools outperformed public schools without making it clear that, again, his example was drawn from Washington, D.C. Nationally, that is an absolutely false statement.
This idiot just made a good point for more charter schools. If there is no difference in performance between a charter school in the worst school district in the country and the rest of the nation, then he is saying that charter schools work. The problem with public schools is not a lack of money; rather it is that liberals are in control. Until people figure this out we will continue to have terrible public education.
C’mon Will, this is garbage thinking. I’m embarrassed for you.
And Henry Ford had pro nazi views
Have you ever driven a Ford, Will?
@24 I didn’t say I’m against building transportation infrastructure, nor did I say I’m against transportation taxes.
I’ve clearly stated, several times, that what I’m opposed to is gold-plating and regressive taxation.
@21 ” … interning all the righties … all Roger’s oil stocks would crash …”
I could live with that outcome. It seems like a fair trade-off.
@25 “Don’t have any reasonable policy arguments to refute the other side, so, hey, here’s an idea . . . let’s just defame the other side.”
Why should Republicans have a monopoly on that technique? If it’s good enough for them, it’s good enough for us, too.
@29 I don’t need the 520 bridge and won’t use it, but I haven’t called it “fluff.” I haven’t even called adding 2 more lanes “fluff,” but the extra lanes appear to be unaffordable.
@37 They can’t fix the congestion. Congestion is unfixable. Every large city has congestion.
I’ll tell you what will fix congestion: $6 gas.
Roads are what economists call a “free good.” According to economic theory, the demand for “free goods” is infinite. No matter how many lanes you build, drivers will fill them.
34, 39 Just what this blog needs, another wingfuck pretending to be a Democrat! Well, I can understand why they don’t want to call themselves Republicans. The GOP brand name is a bit tarnished these days.
@41 That’s discriminatory against well-fed rabbits.
Kemper Freeman is a family friend, and even if I personally can’t stand the guy, he’s very honest and up front about this light rail thing. He’s really against it, and he honestly thinks its bad for the east side.
The guy might be an egomaniac, and a dummie-lazy republican, but he honestly means well. This subject is just more proof that being rich is faaar from being right.
Windie: You mean like Dianne Feinstein & Barbara Boxer? They are rich and they are hardly ever right!
MS Tennis Shoes and MS Boyfriend on Sex Retainer are too stupid to be rich!
@53
I’m impressed by the unselfishness of SeattleJew’s comment @41. He’s not the slimmest of rabbits… :)
Will @23
You’re right. I’m behind the times. We need to send them to those states to do the whole Gung Ho thing (remember that movie with Michael Keaton, or are you too young?), doing calisthenics in the parking lot and shit…
http://www.truthdig.com/avboot.....ranian_tv/
@54 “This subject is just more proof that being rich is faaar from being right.”
Guys like Freeman and Blethen prove we need a confiscatory inheritance tax so every generation starts on a level playing field and acquires wealth and power through merit instead of who their parents (or grandparents, or great-grandparents) were.
“He’s really against it, and he honestly thinks its bad for the east side. The guy might be an egomaniac, and a dummie-lazy republican, but he honestly means well.”
Windie, that’s nice – but so far Kemper has spent over a million bucks fighting rail (his own claim) and hasn’t produced a single viable argument, or practical alternative to make his point. If you are able to come up with something yourself, please do so here.
And if “meaning well” equates to the implication that transit causes communism and terrorism, windie – I would hate to see what Kemper is like when he goes into the Karl Rove mode….
“Be sure and write out your check for 18,333 per man woman and child in your family when you vote yes to this one of many of the planned takings. Be sure and drop this whopping check into the ballot box.”
GS, it’s nice to see you got your ‘Republican math’ skills from talk radio and Sound Politics. Come back and visit when you figure out how to cite actual sources for such ridiculous and outlandish numbers.
Rog @ 49 & 50:
The UK has $7/gallon gas, and there’s still congestion.
Two Asian cities have whipped congestion problems. We’ll present both of their policies for consideration:
Singapore:
1) Amazing mass transit system, as long as no gum gets stuck in the doors.
2) Ruinously expensive Certificates of Entitlement which will double the sticker price of your car.
3) Gas taxes slightly above US levels.
4) Congestion pricing for entering downtown Singapore during peak hours.
Pyongyang:
Deprive people of food so that people are thinking of getting fresh tree bark to eat, and not thinking of cars.
“Freeman’s a greedy bastard and he wants ST and RTID to make his properties worth tons more. Duh.
Kemper’s feigned opposition to RTID/ST2 is transparent.
Fuck him sideways: vote NOOOOOOO.”
Oh, I get it, Hortense Slag/Onan Generator: you’re just another one of those psycho Absurdity Trolls, who makes silly contradictory arguments for sport.
Sorry – I thought you were actually serious for a while…