Mark Baerwaldt, creepy Belltown millionaire/Monorail supporter/Sound Transit hater weighed in on KUOW the other day with this gem:
“The relief cannot be provided by Sound Transit; it takes decades to complete their mission”
See, this is the trouble with weirdo rich guys. They spend their way into the public debate, and onto our public airwaves, into the studio of KUOW, only to give out totally bullshit information. It takes years to build new infrastructure, that’s true, but Sound Transit had had commuter trains up and going for years now. If voters pass Sound Transit 2 (if it gets to the ballot), a great many projects will be implemented within only three or so years.
Add service to existing 11 bus routes serving the north, south, and east side corridors
Start new bus route between downtown Bellevue, Overlake and Redmond
Expand the bus fleet (obviously)
Break ground on Tukwila Sounder station
Break ground on expansion of Sumner, Puyallup & Everett Sounder stations
Fund Burien park & ride expansion
Finalize agreement with BNSF to expand Sounder service between Seattle and Tacoma
* Open Link light rail between Seattle and SeaTac Airport*
* Break ground on Link from downtown Seattle to UW via Cap Hill*
* And get going on design & engineering of the LRT extensions*
* Currently funded under phase 1
Compare this to Mark’s plan, which is…
Does Mark even have a plan?
Mark Baerwaldt is right on!
Everything just takes too long so it should never be attempted.
Like drilling in ANWR or all the other sites around N America that would guarantee energy independence. Way too long to wait for oil that would have already been flowing if we’d begun a decade ago…
Or fighting radical islamists in the Middle East ’cause after all, slavery under shia law is the same as what we have here in America and it would just take too long…
Don’tcha hate it when yer liberal arguments come back to bite cha in the @ss? It’s called hypocrisy.
#1 – ROFLMAO. Funny! No logic at all, but funny! One guy claims Sound Transit isn’t the solution to traffic problems next year (which it isn’t), so that means the “liberals” are wrong on ANWR and George W. Bush’s made up “War on Terrorism”(tm)…not to be confused with our “War on Poverty”(tm)…or “War on Drugs”(tm)…all of which have been going on for decades with GREAT success! I think that’s a WEE bit of a stretch you’re making in setting up a straw man argument. I know Republicans are always wrong, against science, prefer faith based versus reality based education, and facing massive losses in this years elections, but don’t let it get you so down as to feel the need to make silly stretches like comparing Sound Transit to the war on terror. :)
The Sounder stations in Sumner and Puyallup are out of parking and need to be expanded ASAP.
Yeh how many F’n stations has this trillion dollar light rail boondoggle put in outside of SEATTLE?
Missed F’n SOUTHCENTER SHOPPING CENTER completely, what a major FU, but then it isn’t a key F’n Mall area for Transit to pass by, DUH, even though it could have and should have!
Missed Boeing SEATTLE completely, where workers work, because it wanted to re cement and rebuild Martin Luther King’s Slums
But gee if you are a visitor to SEATTLE, you can sure get from the Airport to town..er not so fast, because it is a hell of a walk from the Airport, and once you get on…Ha Ha yer sorta SAFE? At least until you get down to street level on MLK.
I hope you can run real F’n fast at night with all your BAGS, cause you goin need too!
Have a good trip, bring a semi auto 9mm, you will need it!
Will-
Mark did not support the Monorail. I personally witnessed him arguing against it with Falkenbury.
I get that this is only a blog but you should still do your homework before posting.
1 Hey, I’ll at least give ya a point for referring to other possible new petroleum sites in the US. To hear most ‘wingers tell it, ANWR is absolutely the only game in town.
As a matter of fact, there’s something like 62 million acres in oil leases the oil companies have bought and paid for in the US, most of ’em all permitted and the enviro prereqs already addressed. Somehow, while everyone pisses and moans about ANWR, what’s happening in all these other places?
Nothing. Not a test hole, not a stake in the ground, not so much as a wet finger held up in the air.
What gives?
3 Pretty well blows the guts out of the claim that nobody rides transit, huh?
Somehow, as our lovely “system” of freeways and suburbs and gas-sucking behemoths continues to fall apart, the right-wing opponents of anything different sound more and more like Cohaagen near the end of Total Recall, desperately and irrationally screaming, “No!!!! You’ll kill us all!!!!!!!!”
Art @ 7
No, that doesn’t prove ridership. That only proves parking.
Will,
Take a closer look at what ST2 gets:
“Breaking ground…” (starting what you might not finish) and a lot of plans to plan plans. You want to pass these things? Put down on paper, with executives’ jobs on the line, an EXACT number of routes and miles and vehicles we’ll get for our dollars.
You want my money? You tell me what I get for it. Not warm fuzzies and empty promises.
If wishes were horses, then government could…
GS @ 4, yeah, it missed Southcenter Mall, a facility with one free parking space for every employee and for every shopper — great transit environment there. And the route deviation necessary to serve the Mall would’ve added cost and travel time.
And yeah, it goes down Rainier Valley instead of the Duwamish Valley because, get this, that’s where the people are! Transit service to serve riders, instead of running mostly empty trains up and down the Duwamish.
I’d say Sound Transit got it more right than not.
The light rail line is a disaster. It’s a glorified bus route on rails. It’s slow, meandering, will not reduce congestion, and will not get anyone out of their car. It’s a giant waste of money. It’s a political route. Nothing more.
I know this sounds like all of her other public speeches, but I thought everyone would want to see Darcy taking a call from a supporter:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=num7HWqvDCg
To be fair, it DOES sound like she’s discussing her (un)Reasonable Plan to abandon the Iraqi people at the 0:03 mark. She also mentions Obama at 0:13.
Goldy, you’re right. She IS smarter than most Dem politicians.
correction @ 13
Upon hearing it again, I realized that it should have been her “(ir)Responsible Plan.” While it is unreasonable, “irresponsible” is a more accurate description.
#11
The people live on MLK & Henderson?
Would that be in the crusty old appliance store, or the Polynesian grocery? I do not see any houses or aparments there. What exactly is the density at Othello Street that makes light rail a necessity?
The reason that ST needs to take a vote before the rail line opens is because it is a quite useless piece of transportation, a bigger SLUT.
It is an airport to downtown rail line, built to get people to their hotels downtown. It will take longer to get to the airport on this boondoggle than it presently takes to get there on the #194.
It sure would be nice if people started using facts, instead of pointing out what suckers they are.
$9,000,000,000 for a slower ride to the airport. Now that’s progress!!!!!
Zander @ 5
“Once an enthusiastic supporter of Seattle’s monorail plan, Mark Baerwaldt is crusading again. But this time he’s opposing Proposition 1, the roads-and-rails ballot measure.”
Link
What about White ?
Has there ever been anyone on this comment board (besides Puddybud) that so reflexively swallows and regurgitates so much right wing bullshit as the idiot in 1?
@6 Artfart
What logic is there in using American oil at all? All of our oil is expensive to drill, Saudi oil is cheap. As the Saudis use up thjeir oil, their costs rise, making ours more vlauable and more competitive.
Since the supply of this stuff is limited, logic says we should SAVE our resources until we really need them.
OTOH, coal and nuclear deserve far more attention. Both are domestic. Capital costs for both are relatively high but, unlike oil, productions costs are very low.
Of course the least expensive alternative is to redo our trabsportation system to make the US more competitive with rail rich countries. We need to understand that the cost of LA is as much a part of our costs as the cost of oil is. In effect, we all pay a tax so that folks can live 30 to 60 miles form work and commute by single occupant car.
One good step to address this problem would be a national toll on all freeways. Thgat toll could be used like the current highway trust fund but in this case to support the capital costs of urban transit systems.
Another approach that would raise tax money while lowering consumption would be a national minimum price for fuel. I have read that 50% of the current cost of fuel is going to speculators who believe that demand will continue to drive the price up. By raising the minimum price, with the difference going to a government fund devoted to energy conservation, demand would presumably be stabilized and speculation would be decreased.
@15 Busdrivermike
You have too little imagination.
The aurport::Seattle link will serve many purposes.
First, assuming the parking is handled correctly, for many of us it will provide an alternative to parking at the airport.
Second, the SeaTac area will transmogrify into a business supprting area for offices that benefit from proximity to the airport but need communications with downtown.
Third, real estate development along the corridor will (and is already) BLOOM.
Fourth areas served by the terminal in Seattle, esp., Broadway, will develop new housing and business appropriate for communication with the airport.
I do not have the expertise to comment on whether we are paying fare costs, but the benefits seem to me to be immense.
@9
They park and then hop on the Sounder train and ST has the ridership numbers to prove it.
I know it’s just one of those quirky Left Coast regionalisms, but I had to chuckle when SeattleJew suggested (emphasis added, spelling corrected):
Heh! “Toll” on “free”ways.
Again, I’m aware that westerners call all limited-access highways “freeways”, even if they have tolls. I always find amusement in it.
I’m not suggesting that it’s necessary to go all the way to the common East Coast term turnpike (a term as closely tied to toll roads as freeway is to, well, being free). You could call them highways or interstates, and thereby separate the applicability of tolls from the nomenclature of the road.
In addition to the all-but-impossible task of building a legislative basis for putting highway tolls into a non-highway trust fund, you’d also have to overturn the prohibition on putting tolls on interstates (unless grandfathered or through a specific waiver).
@7
People ride effective transit.
Y’know YLB, it’s usually unproductive to get into mindless name-calling, but I haveta ask ya (and every other ignorant liberal-which is well, all of ya):
Exxon just sold EVERY LAST gas station they have in the U.S. The other brands are hot on their heels to follow suit. This means that NONE of the major manufacturers will have any reason to sell their product here in the U.S.
Barry Hussein has made it clear that oxcarts and walking are the equivalent of driving (except to his fellow elitists like algore).
Since the liberals in Congress and the whackjob environmentalists (hypocrites all) have shown such absolute loathing of these gas/oil Co’s, what would be their reasoning to continue sales in the U.S.? Red China and India (and the rest of the world) have shown much more favor and benevolent attitudes towards these Co’s. What is Exxon’s incentive to continue to enhance YLB’s quality of life and the lives of all/any Americans?
Answer: None.
If Barry Hussein gets elected to Jimmy Carter’s second term: Watch out! Gas rationing and shortages will be more than commonplace. They will be the norm. To an extent multiplied far beyond anything America has ever suffered before.
You folks have talked America down so much and with such fervor that Companies like Exxon see the writing on the wall. They are getting out while the getting is good.
Yessir, nothing like the Luddite leftists to improve quality of life. Welcome to the Stone Age, Part Deux.
The term “freeway” was always a misnomer. We paid through the nose to build ’em in the first place, the justification being that they were needed as part of the Cold War to move military stuff back and forth around the continent.
Boy, some of the trolls sure go off the handle when they see a threat to their four-wheel penis substitutes, don’t they?
19 Stephen, I’m with you on just about every point.
It is worth pointing out that LA is a sort of a weird case. A lot of their sprawl developed before the Concrete Revolution. The “Red Car” went pretty far in many directions–remember the conductor in the old Warner Bros. Cartoons going “A-zu-za, Cu-ca-monnnn-ga and San-Boy-na-deeeno”? That’s waaaay out th hell and gone. It’s also of note that Los Angeles has put in a lot of new rail in recent times. They’re still wrangling with the issue of a “subway to the sea” from downtown out to Santa Monica/Venice/Culver City. The delay is partly political, and partly because of the problem of building a tunnel in that area and preventing it from accumulating a dangerous accumulation of methane. This may eventually force a surface system running down the middle of one or more of Sunset, Santa Monica or Venice Boulevards.
Now I can see why Mark Baerwaldt poses as a bus supporter when it is convenient. He enjoys parking in the bus zones. Without license tabs.
I suppose former Oil Company Executive Baerwaldt only started paying them when the monorail tax came on line.
Aliases: MARK BAERWALDT
State/Province: WA
Make: AUDI
Model: A4
Color: PEARL
Case Number- Description-
201276689 BUS ZONE 1100 31 AV S EAST SIDE
201192319 EXPIRED / IMPROPER PLATES
201192319 STOP SIGN APPROACH (30′)
201598316 EXPIRED LICENSE PLATES (OVER 2 MONTHS)
201590091 EXPIRED LICENSE PLATES (OVER 2 MONTHS)
201509620 EXPIRED LICENSE PLATES (OVER 2 MONTHS)
Looks like this Belltown jerk-off just decided to stop paying his license plate tabs. Love the Libertarian weasels.
28 Was this guy previously known as “FNU LNU”?
Would that be in the crusty old appliance store, or the Polynesian grocery? I do not see any houses or aparments there. What exactly is the density at Othello Street that makes light rail a necessity?
busdrivel mike , you have got to be one of the most ignorant trolls I’ve ever come across.
C’mon, man. Have some self respect once in a while. If you’re going to make a pronouncement, can’t you at least TRY to pretend you know what you’re talking about?
At least Baearwaldt has figured out how to make it appear as if he’s telling a partial truth.
It sure would be nice if people started using facts, instead of pointing out what suckers they are.
Sweet Jesus. Just when I thought busdrivel mike couldn’t get any dumber. Since you seem too goddamn ignorant to comprehend basic facts, how’s about looking at the pretty pictures:
Not seeing any crusty old appliance stores in that high density development.
Missed F’n SOUTHCENTER SHOPPING CENTER completely, what a major FU, but then it isn’t a key F’n Mall area for Transit to pass by, DUH, even though it could have and should have
Jesus H Christ. Are all these transit opponents stupid? Don’t get hay in that keyboard, GS Yeah, lets go buy flatscreen tv’s at the outlet shop via light rail. Skip the massive sea of free parking, and git on the train! And look at all that housing around the mall! Definitely a candidate for density! (you see, the problem is, that South Center cement wasteland does actually remind GS of home. Which is why he’s always so assbackwards on this stuff…or, is it purposeful stupidity? You decide)
Missed Boeing SEATTLE completely, where workers work, because it wanted to re cement and rebuild Martin Luther King’s Slums
GS, if you’re this easily confused, go drive your rusty pickup down to the site where that station was. You could fire off your shotgun and not hit anything. Why do transit critics always pick the worst performing projects and stations, anyways? Is it because they are being deceptive, or super stoopid? GS, I hope…like busdrivel mike…that failure and stupidity don’t dominate the other aspects of your lives the same way they do whenever the subject of transportation arises.
But gee if you are a visitor to SEATTLE, you can sure get from the Airport to town..er not so fast, because it is a hell of a walk from the Airport, and once you get on…Ha Ha yer sorta SAFE? At least until you get down to street level on MLK.
We get it, GS. Yer afraid of black people. Chalk ’em up as another “racist against rail” chump.
I couldn’t define the ignorant redneck stereotype any better if I tried. But the icing on the cake: GS wallows in his stupidity. A badge of honor if you will.
Exxon just sold EVERY LAST gas station they have in the U.S. The other brands are hot on their heels to follow suit. This means that NONE of the major manufacturers will have any reason to sell their product here in the U.S.
cmiklich, it warms my heart to know you’re giving these other ignorant, racist right wing clowns a run fer their money.
Talk about dime store Freeper conspiracy theories. Cmiklich, here’s an explanation for your paranoid fantasies. Sure is complex:
Of the 12,000 Exxon Mobil stations in the US, about 75% are already owned by distributors, who buy the company’s products and pay to use the name. Industry officials say the major oil companies own fewer than 5% of US gas stations.
cmiklich, get some self respect, man.
I pose the question again: are there any smart conservatives left? Anywhere? Are cmiklich, busdrivel and GS actually libs posing as stoopid redneck Republicants? If so, that is an effective charade.
See, this is the trouble with weirdo rich guys. They spend their way into the public debate, and onto our public airwaves, into the studio of KUOW, only to give out totally bullshit information
But, Will, Larry Lange, Mike Lindblom and Steve Scher need the Mark Baerwaldt, Kemper Freeman, John Niles and Emory Bundy weirdos to feed off of. The people who are actually smart on these issues sound terribly boring and unpolitical. Stick with with the sensationalist bullshit. It works so well for the racist Trolls on HA.
Brainsfullofshit I’m terribly sorry your lobotomy was such a success. Send your doctor a tip.
Southcenter is a major location in the South end. Where thousands of people travel to from all over hell on a daily basis. Unsound transits light rail’s intentional choice to run down the opposite side of the freeway and omit a major station there is absolutely stupid. It is a major hub for I5, and I405 traffic, where all off and on ramps are already in place. Who in the F is going to drive to Burien to get to Seattle. NOW THAT MADE SENSE DUH
Oh and
Talk to Oregon about their new safety of their MAX train. They are in the News today with their new safety plan
http://www.portlandonline.com/.....?id=200781
“Choose a safe person on the MAX train. When you get on the train, use your intuition to
choose someone that you feel would be safe to help you. If someone makes you uncomfortable,
or you need help, you can ask this person for help by being direct, “You in the red shirt, I need help! Call 911!”
Right, maybe the red shirt will help you with your suitcases from the airport. I hope they have a concealed weapon permit.
And Yes Boeing, with a major employment center in Seattle was totally F’n bypassed
Light Rail has built it’s last inch. It was defeated soundly last November and will be defeated soundly this November…Bring on the vote!
34 – Lord, the whole MAX IS DANGEROUS saw– spare us.
You are far more likely to be attacked on buses than on the MAX. Your chances of getting attacked on the MAX hover in the 1 out of 1,000,000 area overall.
The boeing station was scuttled by the feds, just like the First Hill station was. It can still be brought back, easily, unlike the First Hill station.
And Southcenter is a retail area, which tend to be lower priority (and rightfully so, we have malls in DT Seattle).
Your point about the 194 being faster is completely wrong. The 194 takes 32 minutes, the Link takes 36. The 194, however, has limited use of the DSTT (unlike Link, which will have total access) and has more lights to go through and several vehicle queues. It does not have a dedicated route, either. My last trips on the 194 took between 40-45 minutes to get where they were going, and that was with a low occupancy. I shudder to think what a full 194 takes.
Finally, Light Rail was not defeated in November– roads were. The tendency toward ignoring that aspect of Prop 1 is very telling.