It's hardly a surprise that Carlyle would endorse Sly. According to PDC, Sly already has the financial support of education "reformies" like the League of Education Voters' Kelly Munn, and the anti-union "Teachers United" liar for hire Christopher Eide.

Sly is a good guy, but he is taking advice from the wrong people, especially Christian Sinderman, who should have advised Sly to run for the open seat, which he would have won handily. But he didn't, because he already had his foot soldier in the war on cars, the carpetbagger Jessyn Farrell, in that race.

Farrell will lose, and so will Sly. Sly thinks he is getting the "youth vote," but he isn't. Pollet was a leader in the fight for higher education funding, against tuition increases, and for ballot drop boxes on college campuses. The 46th rewards service, and not hype.

It is so great to see Fizz today.

Yes, glad to not have to wait too long to get my daily dive into local politix. mb

Welcome back, Josh & Erica!

Wonderful to still be reading this. Bravo to Crosscut for keeping the Fizz bubbling.

Welcome Fizz! Curious what you think about the Pelz strategy.

Pelz - nasty, patronage, fawn of the aristocracy.
None of the D campaigners inspire me in any way. Basically, they represent more of the same, staus quo, white paint. Having revealed my darkest feelings, I hope Colonel Pelz succeeds in resetting the "contest" in the 1st. In conclusion, I will comment no further in order to avoid tipping Col. Pelz to a truism of politics.

There is already an overpass from the NSCC Campus to 5th Avenue. No need to build another one. The overpass is N. 92nd Street. It is on the south end of the campus. It is a multi-use structure. Students can walk across, ride bikes, skate, drive, hop-skip and jump. What kind of wasteful nut would propose building a Rainbow Bridge to the Park and Ride ? If the children are too tired to walk the walk, they can call a cab to take them across or buy a scooter.
Jsa

Jamesa -

A pedestrian bridge across I-5 near the new light rail station has been long discussed and asked for by the Northgate neighborhoods and NSCC. The walking distance between the transit center/light rail station and NSCC is about a mile longer and less safe than a bridge.

Having a bridge would allow a large number of people who currently drive to the Northgate Transit station to walk or bike and would lower the number of parking stalls needed. It would allow NSCC students to have the option of taking light rail to school. And, a bridge would cost less than a new garage.

Long discussions and repeated requests by vested interests do not, in themselves, constitute good policy. Much as the City has attempted to train the masses into believing that talk makes right, decisions are better made by using the old bean, and checking to see if you are spending on your priorities.
It sounds like you are saying that people will park at NSCC and walk / bike to Northgate. That idea did not appear in the story. I believe the appropriation of NSCC parking would create a bit of a ruckus in the "education community" ..... unless a patronage payment can be made.
You are recommending spending how much (?) to make the route a mile shorter? Seriously, N. 92nd borders the campus! There is a sidewalk on the overpass! People are getting fatter! A mile is less than halfway around Greenlake! People used to walk a mile for a CAMEL! Holy Cow! Take the money and daylight a creek! Repair some crappy roads with concrete instead of asphalt produced with oil. Put an awning over the N. 92nd St route to your shopping center! Good grief ! A giant overpass across the freeway !!!!! The size, span, wind, and weather would require some serious engineering and construction. You could probably hang gondolas off of each side and make it a tourist destination !
A bridge would cost less than a garage. Granted. Unfortunately it makes less sense. It is kind of a begger thy neighbor idea. Shift traffic impact to the area around NSCC. There is no indication in the story that this will add any parking spaces, nor decongest the area around Northgate.
Recommend reading: "The Power Broker; Robert Moses and the Fall of New York" ...... aside from the terrific book itself, you can get an idea of the impacts of "city planning run amuck" and their attempts to diffuse population, useage, and density away from congested urban centers.
I guess "crazy" is seeping north from the mayor's office.
This was fun.
Take care.
Jsa

People from both sides of the freeway would benefit, not just students. Buses coming from the Aurora side wouldn't need to cross over, thus saving time and traffic. Yes, you can go around, but the extra mile (tacked onto the existing distance) is often enough to make people use other systems.

Of course people have other alternatives, but you can say that about any new transportation system in our area. After all, why ride the light rail when you can just ride the bus? The obvious answer is that it will be much faster. Well, this bridge will make things much faster as well.

Let me give you an example: Let's assume you live in Thornton Place, and go to school at NSCC. Will you walk? Maybe. It is a little over a mile, which means you can probably walk it in a half hour. On the other hand, driving takes less than ten minutes, and you might be in a hurry. You could ride your bike, but then you have to go up and over the hill (at 92nd) or deal with the nasty traffic on Northgate Way. If the bridge is built, the obvious answer is that you walk, saving about twenty minutes. Now multiply that by the numerous buildings in that area, many of which are just a little bit further away. Add the other buildings that will likely be built in the next twenty years, and you can easily see that the bridge would be very popular and save a lot of time.

Isn't that the point of a transportation system?

If you own a car, get ready to start paying an extra $20 on your annual registration starting in June. The temporary (two-year) extra charge, which the King County Council approved last year, will forestall what would have been a 17 percent cut to Metro service.

Metro was threatening “a 17 percent cut” in service if it didn’t get this new tax? That would have been an extreme service reduction.

Why would such a huge cut in service have been required? Metro’s operating revenues for 2011 were about $550 million:

http://metro.kingcounty.gov/am/budget/revenue.html

Even without the new tax those revenues likely would increase by about 4%, or $22 million, to $572 million.

This new car tab tax will raise about $25 million per year:

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2015729067_cartabs26m.html

Anyone really believe Metro would need to reduce service by 17% if its annual operating revenues were at the ~$570 million level instead of at the ~$595 million level? Makes no sense at all . . ..

Governments commonly do things like this. If they can't persuade people, they threaten them. The $20 tax increase was never justified.

Perhaps this will help. When Dow was still a King County Councilmember he "found" an "extra" 100 million dollars in the capital fund. The fund is primarily used to replace buses. This "found" money was used to reduce the shortfall for operating costs.

Of course, later it came out that we may not have enough money to p[roperly replace the electric trolleybus fleet, but let's not look back.

It is unfortunate that the writers of this piece don't do the background work to have any significant understanding of the issues.

If you look at the 2011 operations revenues sources chart (http://metro.kingcounty.gov/am/budget/revenue.html) you can see that transfers from the capital account last year only were 3.6% of the total, or about $20 million. Transfers from the capital account haven't been a significant factor for years.

My point is there is no way Metro's management should need to cut service 17% if it did not get the additional ~3.5% in operations revenues this new car tab tax would bring in.

Do you think that threat of a 17% service reduction Metro's lobbyists in Olympia used to obtain the new taxing authority was reality-based, or is it just BS that these authors are continuing to spread for tax pimps?

Good one, "crossrip." The bureaucrats always try to terrorize the citizens into giving them more money. Oldest tactic in the book. Second oldest: Lying about it.

Northgate Mall is a shopping destination for many people who live outside NE Seattle. They're not going to take transit, and they're certainly not going to bike or walk.

Having to type illegible words for ReCaptcha is really annoying.

Northgate Mall is a shopping destination for many people who live outside NE Seattle. They're not going to take transit, and they're certainly not going to bike or walk.

So why should Sound Transit's management spend tens of million$$ to build parking that would provide valuable benefits primarily for the retail stores at that mall?

There should be plenty of parking garages near outer transit stations, but they shouldn't be free, including for transit users. The model should be Boston, where the parking at outlying stations costs money.

A "temporary" $20 car tab fee? Since when have the "progressives" who run Seattle ever willingly instituted a temporary tax?

By the way, if King County metro really wanted to raise revenues, there is a very easy fix: Make transfers last for an hour, rather than 3-1/2 hours, and make them good only in one direction. This is how the bus system worked where I grew up.

The end of the downtown free-ride area will help. People have scammed that one forever, by getting on within the free ride area and then staying on for the whole ride. If you're going to ride transit, you should pay to ride, period.

ECB: U Link has THREE tunnel boring machines. Brenda dug the twin bores between Capitol Hill and downtown Seattle. Togo and Balto dug the twin bores between Capitol Hill and the UW Stadium Station. See: http://projects.soundtransit.org/x1698.xml