Posted Thu, Apr 14, 8:31 a.m.

We may have had some cuts here and there, but remember, we still have plenty of money to fund deluxe projects like the downtown tunnel. So from my perspective, it's just a matter of priorities. Straight A students might not be able to get into the UW, but we'll have ...

Posted Thu, Apr 7, 6:51 p.m.

Billions for tunnels, streetcar tracks and trains, but not one cent for culture! But wait, since most of the traincars and streetcars are pretty much running empty, inventive but impoverished artists will be able to rent rehearsal, and perhaps even performance space for the price of a ticket, albeit not ...

Posted Sat, May 8, 12:59 p.m.

Re-engineer after the cost overruns? Oh please. Let's see, how to re-engineer a tunnel in mid-dig... shorten it? use cheaper concrete? less lighting? Now is the time to re-engineer, as many of the commenters have noted. New York and San Francisco both replaced elevated highways with surface streets (west side ...

Posted Thu, Mar 25, 10:11 a.m.

This just shows how bankrupt our political process is. McKenna really had no choice but to join the suit -- if he stayed out, good luck getting the next Republican nomination for anything. But by getting in he aligns himself with the hysterical right-wing ranting over what's essentially a pretty ...

Posted Wed, Feb 17, 2:17 a.m.

I'm one of those folks who was greatly disappointed when McGinn made his tunnel u-turn. Now at least he's talking about the "deal-breaker" issue, as Joe puts it, of planning for cost overruns. Of course there are going to be enormous overruns on this project -- no one has ever ...

Posted Fri, Jan 8, 7:02 p.m.

The light rail does look very cool -- as Philip says, not only a convenient and uncrowded way to travel, but you get to see how the "other half" lives as you roll by overhead. Plus, by and large, it should only take a couple of hours to get from ...

Posted Thu, Nov 5, 5:55 p.m.

Am I missing something? The Secretary of State's office reports, 164 K votes in Seattle (43% turnout) with about 27K ballots received today. It's showing 137 K ballots counted, that is, all the ballots that weren't received today. So, is the complaint that the ballots weren't counted the same day ...

Posted Thu, Sep 24, 1:57 a.m.

Judith, thanks for a great posting. Eyeman has made himself tons of money and very powerful with a very simple technique -- have people vote on whether to reduce taxes. And, it's very likely people will vote to reduce taxes, no matter what the long term consequences. I think you're ...

Posted Wed, Aug 12, 12:12 a.m.

Crosscut continues its dive to the bottom of the barrel. Flacking for a CNN watcher poll -- the people who watch the network of Lou Dobbs and assorted other idiots. So, which show was the poll done on? Um, column doesn't say, but apparently the author thinks that CNN viewers ...

Posted Tue, Aug 4, 10:22 a.m.

How cutesy and clever and snide the above piece is. I thought Crosscut was a promising idea, but it's devolving quickly into this kind of snarky stuff. As to what the author says, why pass a law to compel what most of Seattle does anyway? Gee, I didn't know that ...

Posted Tue, Jul 14, 2:45 a.m.

Yes it's really wild to see David Brewster making the case for Susan as a serious candidate. Who'd have thought David would actually find a little appeal in a right winger saying, let's cut government spending in a recession by taking it out on those overpaid lazy government employees (effective ...

Posted Mon, May 18, 12:51 a.m.

Wow, a candidate for mayor whose idea of public policy is, why spend lots of money and tear up the street for rail-based streetcars, when trolleys serve exactly the same functionality? Because, streetcars will be controlled by the city politically, while trolleys would be controlled by Metro, of course, and ...

Posted Sun, Aug 31, 1:51 p.m.

Yep, been to Shanghai: In fact, stayed with some local folks in a neighborhood, a housing block far off the tourist beaten path. No subway anywhere nearby. But, that great Shanghai bus system. If you don't like riding with the locals and never seeing a westerner, you wouldn't like these ...

Posted Sun, Aug 31, 7:57 a.m.

If it's a boondoggle, it must be worth it!: My own take on the train we are now bullding is, while it might be a good idea to have some train, it surely isn't this one. We're actually spending 1.7 billion dollars to build a line from downtown to the ...

Posted Mon, Aug 11, 7:17 p.m.

Pay as you go, or don't go: Well, I'm no friend of permanent taxes or of rail as a solution to traffic problems. (I think buses are a much more cost effective, flexible and sensible solution, together with some technology to try to route traffic better.) But the comments about ...

Posted Tue, Jun 17, 5:57 p.m.

It's a blog so what the hell..: Senate candidate Burner?

Posted Sun, Apr 6, 8:10 a.m.

That's one perspective: I too was a precinct delegate to the 43rd District democratic caucus. What I saw was a little disheartening to me as a Democrat. We had 1300 potential new Democratic party activists, the vast majority of whom identified themselves as first-timers in the process, who spent several ...

Posted Tue, Mar 4, 1:43 p.m.

Huh?: Clinton campaign propaganda? I thought this was supposed to be an on-line newspaper. If it's about volunteering for campaigns, surely there are volunteers for each of the major candidates. Or is this some student essay contest or something?

Posted Sat, Jan 19, 1:08 p.m.

And exactly what do rails have to do with it?: There's nothing about the SLUT that wouldn't be done just as well by an extension of Seattle's trackless trolley system (called buses by many). Bigger windows? A minor redesign. Cost, zillions less, approximately. A trackless trolley is essentially the very ...

Posted Thu, Dec 13, 1:42 p.m.

Yes, It's A Streetcar. But Why is It a Streetcar?: So, just what is better about a streetcar than the trackless trolleys we have in the Seattle core already? Tracks in the street? Doesn't seem like a huge benefit to me. Pedestrians and bikers have one more type of minor ...

Posted Tue, Nov 6, 7:59 a.m.

I'm From Missouri Too -- and It's the Show Me State, not the Compromise State: Missouri Compromise? Ironically, the Missouri Compromise helped prolong slavery in the US, not solve the problem. More apt to Seattle's transportation issues is Missouri's actual nickname -- the Show Me State, home (once upon a ...

Posted Wed, Oct 31, 9:45 a.m.

If It's a Horse Race, Why Not Just Go to the Track?: Why do we Americans so love turning our political process into a horse race? Isn't polling itself a big part of why our political process has so degenerated? Politicians no longer really care what's right or wrong, but ...

Posted Tue, Oct 30, 11:59 a.m.

An Alternative to Congestion Pricing: The argument in favor of Prop 1 is -- more of the same, actually alot more. Proponents never talk about cost benefit -- it's going to be a big bite on middle income households. Congestion pricing is often posed as the best alternative, but it ...

Posted Sun, Oct 28, 8:39 p.m.

Correction -- $73.5 Million for Hamilton Voted on a Few Months ago, in 2007 and approved: While I do agree with Kent that we should be careful with these sorts of capital expenditures, I have a big problem with his case against the Hamilton renewal in particular. The $73.5 million ...

Posted Sat, Oct 27, 3:39 p.m.

Um, the Voters Approved these Projects in the 2001 School Levy, I think: The renovations discussed by Kent are funded by a levy passed by the voters in 2001 -- the projects to be funded and the costs were on the table at that time, and the voters approved the ...

Posted Thu, Oct 25, 10:45 p.m.

Does it actually cost something?: The argument that we need to vote for this because, otherwise, our elected politicos will be upset is a very weak one and when someone as smart as David Brewster can't come up with anything better it shows how flawed this proposal actually is. David ...