Posted Tue, Mar 27, 5:55 p.m.

I'm all for street life and sandwich boards and sidewalk cafes -- with one exception. When the sidewalk cafe closes for the winter, take down the damn fence and give us back our sidewalk! Keeping that public land walled off for several of our cold and wet months, for no ...

Posted Thu, Mar 15, 7:30 p.m.

One step to help equalize the playing field in Seattle council elections is to adopt district elections, like every other big city in the US. An ambitious candidate can doorbell her district and directly reach a large percentage of the voters. Have a series of coffee hours (remember them...?) and ...

Posted Mon, Nov 7, 7:17 p.m.

If council president Conlin went back a few elections, a half dozen or so, he would find far fewer than one-third of incumbent councilmembers got there by defeating incumbents. Rule of thumb in Seattle is that a councilmember has to really screw up (hit his wife, sell out to a ...

Posted Mon, Oct 31, 7:52 a.m.

Projects like this in Seattle streets require that a Traffic Control Plan be established. It would be interesting to examine the TCP for this work, to see what was included, omitted, and/or not implemented regarding pedestrian safety and convenience. TCPs should be documents subject to a public disclosure request.

Posted Tue, Oct 4, 8:13 a.m.

Regarding Mr. Reed, I have to reflect that it would've been awfully easy for him to put his thumb on the scale ever so slightly during the 2004 governorship recounts and thus swing the result. Lots of Republicans seem to hate him for that, but to his everlasting credit he ...

Posted Mon, Oct 3, 8:56 p.m.

I think the mistake made all around was assuming that local television news is journalism as we grew up believing it should be. Nobody who believes in journalism would've stonewalled the truth like KIRO did. I tuned in KIRO's "11 at 11" once and lost count of the house fires, ...

Posted Thu, Feb 24, 5:14 p.m.

"Low rise gondolas"? Why do I think Monorail when I examine your links? Been there, tried that; thanks very much. No need to develop some exotic shuttle system when all we have to do is restore the George Benson Waterfront Streetcar. With the viaduct gone, there will be plenty enough ...

Posted Tue, Feb 15, 12:44 p.m.

Ummm, not quite, Matt. Seattle isn't all that large, and offended citizens can easily cross district lines to doorbell and raise funds for an opponent. Neighborhood issues too frequently get little or no attention from any councilmember precisely because councilmembers' attention spans, their political horizons, are focused only on city-wide ...

Posted Tue, Feb 8, 12:18 p.m.

I would also add a further discussion of issues of race in Seattle policing. I know as a gray-haired white man that I will always be treated with deference by SPD, as that's been my experience in 40-some years in this city. I can drive for months with a license-plate ...

Posted Sun, Feb 6, 10 p.m.

A good idea, but it creates too many problems for the redistricting commission. The commission's first priority, for both parties, is to give all incumbents seeking re-election a district to run in, and one they have a reasonable chance of winning. What do you do in a district where both ...

Posted Thu, Feb 3, 5:23 p.m.

I will believe the SPD has been reformed when I'm convinced that the "blue wall of silence" is no more. Recall officer Shandy Cobain stomping on that Hispanic bystander, and offering to "kick the fucking Mexican piss" out of him, and then officer Mary Lynn Woollum coming up and stomping ...

Posted Wed, Feb 2, 12:38 p.m.

It would've been helpful, Knute, to describe, at least briefly, what this new and improved pothole fixing technique is all about. Why do they take longer and last longer? I drive on several streets that are nothing but a series of "potholes" a few inches apart. On those, simple pothole ...

Posted Wed, Feb 2, 9:15 a.m.

Thank you, Jean, for your thoughtful comments. How I wish we could back to the days of George W. and his Republican-controlled Congress, when they reduced the size of government, balanced the budget, and all was right with the world... Yes, indeed; you Republicans sure know how to get things ...

Posted Mon, Jan 31, 7:38 a.m.

"Discussions" such as this have little meaning without looking at the numbers (of dollars...) and comparing them with other enterprises, public and private. There's a lot of anecdotal evidence indicating excessive compensation for some staffers at the ferry system. KING5 got into some of that in their investigative series last ...

Posted Thu, Jan 27, 1:10 p.m.

But Mr. Kane, my concern is that public education should not be viewed as just another government function like zoning or issuing building permits. In Seattle, too much activity of school board members is meddling and nit-picking in response to small groups of noisy parents and neighbors. You may think ...

Posted Thu, Jan 27, 6:39 a.m.

No school reform measure is going to be very effective if it leaves in place the 300-odd separate school districts, all operating as independent fiefdoms. If we were inventing public education today, we would never divide it up among such geographically-based separately-elected units of local government. There HAS to be ...

Posted Fri, Jan 21, 1:16 p.m.

Wow. Too bad one of our local philanthropists (say a certain billionaire with a penchant for libraries...) couldn't have arranged to acquire the whole collection, and keep intact here locally.

Posted Fri, Jan 21, 7:37 a.m.

Disappointing. I was hoping to see some numbers from Mr. St. Clair, how much a private operator might pay to buy the system, how much rates might be to cover the debt service, plus operations and mainenance costs, and profits to shareholders. The current system's numbers are all out there ...

Posted Thu, Jan 20, 7:41 a.m.

Thanks, alally, good observation. Being from Beacon Hill, I know from experience that freight locomotives are the only land-based transportation still spewing visible, and fragrant, smoke into the atmosphere. I guess railroads hold so much power they are kept exempt from the clean-air regs that apply to all other modes.

Posted Thu, Jan 20, 7:06 a.m.

The author says "A freight locomotive's fuel efficiency, per ton-mile moved, is typically three to four times that of a tractor-trailer." That's true for an intercity train hauling freight on the main line. But I have to wonder if the same holds true for a switch engine shuttling one or ...

Posted Wed, Jan 19, 12:40 p.m.

"...concerned many will be left out because most of the artists do not have business licenses, tax returns, or other documents the DOT has asked for." The author seems to be saying that these "artists" are supporting themselves "under the table" and avoiding taxes that legitimate businesses and residents pay.

Posted Thu, Jan 13, 1:43 p.m.

People have long complained about the influence of special interest groups, usually exercised through the persuasive power of lobbyists and campaign contributions. Whatcom County is just carrying that to the next logical step by eliminating the middle-men.

Posted Fri, Jan 7, 12:16 p.m.

Limiting density in major cities inevitably results, at least over time, in outward expansion of development (sprawl) that consumes forest and farmland; e.g. it cuts down trees. Don't think we want to go there. The root question is what do we do about population growth? Once many years ago I ...

Posted Wed, Jan 5, 12:37 p.m.

Those arguing against the SEIU strategy assume that the Legislature, the union's target audience, is a rational place and makes decisions based on wisdom and the public interest. But we all know it isn't. While we might blanch at some of the rhetoric, it's not entirely misplaced.

Posted Wed, Dec 22, 2:08 p.m.

Your night photo of the Canale Grande (taken from the Ponte dell'Accademia?) is just stunning.

Posted Fri, Dec 17, 7:53 a.m.

PJS, please explain how you could possibly pay $36,000 in income taxes on an annual income of $100,000??? You are way exaggerating there. A typical family with that income would be paying something on the order of $7,000 in federal taxes, give or take.

Posted Thu, Dec 16, 9:10 a.m.

Thanks for that, Andy. And another thing those comparison charts miss is they omit payroll taxes, which don't apply to income beyond $100K or so. When comparing federal tax burdens among the classes, we should be talking Federal taxes, not just income taxes.

Posted Thu, Dec 16, 3:02 a.m.

Good point about post-WWII rebuilding in the 50's, db. I'll settle for returning to the tax rates of the 90's when we were running surpluses (yes, I'm repeating myself). Taupe, how does restoring Clinton-era tax rates help the middle class? Well, it's one step in defusing the debt bomb that's ...

Posted Wed, Dec 15, 5:31 p.m.

Kieth, I understand the rhetoric about high marginal tax rates leading to distortions, etc., but I've seen enough interesting articles pointing out the high economic growth this country has experienced during times of high tax rates (no time to look up cites, alas). These are personal income tax rates we're ...

Posted Wed, Dec 15, 12:07 p.m.

C'mon, Kieth, we're talking about marginal tax rates here. With a $1m AGI and a top bracket of 70%, the tax owed is NOT $700,000! But then you probably know that and just wanted to shove more junk into the discussion. Conservatives rage against high marginal tax rates, claiming they ...

Posted Wed, Dec 15, 7:32 a.m.

Warren Buffet recently pointed out that there's class warfare going on, "and my class is winning." How high should income tax rates be set? How about back up to where they were during the time of America's greatest economic growth, or perhaps to where they were the last time this ...

Posted Sat, Dec 11, 6:52 p.m.

Even after all these years, our family sometimes wonders what to bring home for the kids to eat, when we can't be home in time to cook. A bagful of Dickburgers, cheeseburgers actually, with a few fries, and maybe a couple of Deluxes...is always well received. The only fast food ...

Posted Fri, Dec 10, 7:30 a.m.

So days I think I'd like to see a transit strike, and an Amtrak/Cascades strike, so all these complainers can see for themselves what the world would be like with all that extra traffic on our roads and highways. Talk about a world-class traffic jam, that would be it.

Posted Thu, Dec 9, 10:19 a.m.

Let's run the numbers indeed, Cameron. The majority of King County's population lives outside Seattle. That majority elects a majority of the King County Council and can elect the county executive when it wants to. No more talk about Seattle-centric governing policies. Please.

Posted Wed, Dec 8, 2:41 p.m.

In our I-5 corridor, the main trip is Seattle-Portland, and the need there is for a good, solid, reliable 2-hour trip, which can be achieved with a 110-mph system. Faster than than 110 gets you diminishing marginal returns. The 2-hour trip to Portland beats driving and flying (when you include ...

Posted Mon, Dec 6, 4:51 p.m.

Yes, tiresome diatribe. You are turning into mukaseyisatyrant or whatever he calls himself. Or perhaps you are he, and this is just another moniker.

Posted Mon, Dec 6, 1:10 p.m.

Wow. We start out with three ideas to create jobs, and Cross turns it into yet another tiresome diatribe against Sound Transit. Sigh....

Posted Fri, Dec 3, 12:37 p.m.

I didn't say it's a fact, C, I said it was possible, and here's your proof: 1,175,303 is a larger number than 878,687. The smaller number could easily be a subset of the larger.

Posted Fri, Dec 3, 12:17 p.m.

I can't get too excited about TIF, Roger. As I understand it in principle, it's a means to fund public capital improvements which stimulate private tax-paying development. In other words, it stimulates private development that would not be there BUT FOR the public improvements. It's the But For that's important ...

Posted Thu, Dec 2, 8:20 p.m.

Cameron, read the statement again. It's perfectly possible that the 878,687 Yes voters on 1105 were among the 1,175,302 Yes voters on 1100.

Posted Wed, Dec 1, 12:42 p.m.

Problem was that BOTH of the initiatives were written with corporate interests primarily in mind. So it wasn't that difficult to build a case for voting No on both. That said, 1100 did get substantially more votes than 1105, so not everyone voted the same on both initiatives. The author ...

Posted Tue, Nov 30, 9:45 p.m.

Thanks for a breath of fresh air, Sarah. Nice to see interspersed with the rants. Cross, your "ST could have chosen to put a different tax or fee on the ballot, or the state could have guaranteed the bonds..." doesn't fly. ST is only allowed to propose the taxes that ...

Posted Tue, Nov 30, 3:49 p.m.

Hey, Blue. This ain't the Slog. Take your cheap sniping over there, where it's appropriate and welcomed.

Posted Tue, Nov 30, 12:28 p.m.

Like Martin7341, I too thought we were voting on a Funding Mechanism to build a new baseball stadium. I read the voters' pamphlet and generally know a little bit about what I'm voting on. It never occurred to me at the time that voters like Cocktail42 were taking this as ...

Posted Tue, Nov 30, 8:01 a.m.

Your rant is misdirected, Cross. Those terribly regressive sales tax increases were not imposed by Metro and Sound Transit, they were authorized by the voters! And why do voters up the sales tax to fund local needs? Well, it's virtually the only tax available. The first Eyman initiative eviscerated the ...

Posted Tue, Nov 30, 7:33 a.m.

One thing I've consistently noticed over the years is how poorly elected officials communicate with their constituents. Instead of honest explanations of what services are rendered and how they are paid for, or not paid for in the current environment, we get little pats on the head, usually written by ...

Posted Sat, Nov 27, 10:34 p.m.

One overarching issue that could (and should) unite centrists in the political effort being discussed is the preservation and expansion of the middle class. As I understand the numbers in recent years, the rich have gotten richer and the poor have gotten poorer, and the middle class has shrunk as ...

Posted Wed, Nov 24, 8:54 a.m.

But Chris, will the Republican House pass anything that has come from the Democratic Senate? Or anything that has a prayer of getting through the Democratic Senate, i.e. a Compromise...on something...? Everything I read, the answer to that question is No; Republicans would rather shut down the government, and do ...

Posted Tue, Nov 23, 3:07 p.m.

Yes, SteveC, "The last Republican governors - Dan Evans and John Spellman - were moderates, and succeeded in capturing not only independents, but many Democrats." But that was when the great body of the GOP was moderate, except for fringe elements in the John Birch Society (remember them, Tea Partiers?). ...

Posted Tue, Nov 23, 9:53 a.m.

Another Rossi shortcoming, Mannix, was being such a sore loser in 2004. A gracious exit after the final vote count would've gone a long way towards making him a likeable candidate the next time around.

Posted Tue, Nov 23, 8:03 a.m.

This year's election could very well represent a high-water mark, re the GOP's appeal to and success with moderate voters. A GOP year, an off-year election, a non-Tea Party candidate; the stars were aligned and they still couldn't pull it off. The problem probably lies within the GOP itself. Candidates ...

Posted Fri, Nov 19, 10:25 a.m.

What has worried me the most about the deep-bore tunnel comes from one of the project's senior engineers, who looked me in the eye last summer and said, after repeating my name for emphasis, "the risks in this project are just SO enormous." I was expecting a little pep talk, ...

Posted Thu, Nov 18, 11:15 p.m.

I agree in principle with MarkSJ when he supports the need to keep a substantial industrial base in Seattle, but this section of Fremont just isn't a part of that base. It's an eclectic mix of commercial, retail, and some old residential uses. The same zoning code we use correctly ...

Posted Tue, Nov 16, 7:21 a.m.

Sad thing is, Prof. Sell, today there are people out there who will take you seriously.

Posted Mon, Nov 15, 12:14 p.m.

Sometimes I wish that all the illegal immigrants in this country just disappeared for a while, so we legal Americans could then see and feel just how much work wouldn't get done. The crops that wouldn't get picked, the buildings that wouldn't get built, the factories that would suddenly be ...

Posted Tue, Nov 9, 7:19 a.m.

Now let's also get rid of those pesky and expensive building inspectors. Contractors and homeowners can inspect their own structural, electrical and plumbing work just fine. And all those traffic cops! Instead we can rely on motorists to turn themselves in when they run a red light or speed through ...

Posted Wed, Nov 3, 9:58 p.m.

Sorry, Cross, you're the one talking about what the Port commissioners will do -- you show us their pledge, which you apparently know all about, to pick put the tab for the overage, maybe even for the entirety of the Port's $300m pledge in addition, to put all the buck ...

Posted Wed, Nov 3, 1:30 a.m.

Sorry, Cross, you misidentify me. Yes, the Port supports the deep-bore tunnel, but that does not make it a Port project of the type listed in the law giving the Port LID authority. Best to read the whole law, not just one section that you like. It would be a ...

Posted Tue, Nov 2, 7:35 a.m.

Some time ago, he was interviewed on NPR about the Cuban missile crisis. Absolutely riveting. I was in my car at the time and pulled into our driveway and couldn't get out until it was over. He was a brilliant man, and you're sadly correct in noting how few there ...

Posted Tue, Nov 2, 7:26 a.m.

Cross, yes, LID authority exists in state law, but LID stands for Local Improvement District; Local as in, well, local. Where is it written that the State has the authority to establish, to impose, an LID inside of a city for purposes of partially funding a State project? Where? Cite, ...

Posted Mon, Nov 1, 7:09 a.m.

Not your best day at the keyboard, eh, Wells? The fatal flaw with the cut-and-cover tunnel is that its construction would shut down all waterfront businesses and activity for its duration. Just too high a price for whatever benefits it might provide. Oh, and there's also that pesky ballot measure ...

Posted Fri, Oct 29, 7:32 a.m.

Another downside to all-mail balloting is the loss of voter privacy. In a multi-voter household, the dominant individual can making voting a group activity. Voters who may not agree with mom or dad's decisions don't have the privacy to vote their own decisions with someone else inspecting the ballot before ...

Posted Thu, Oct 28, 7:30 a.m.

Nobody should be surprised by all this. The whole Top Two scheme just invites such shenanigans.

Posted Tue, Oct 26, 6:44 a.m.

Can somebody please inquire into why "charging stations" need to be so costly? If I bought an electric car, I'd expect to be able to plug it into a standard wall socket in my garage, or a standard 3-prong dryer socket if it took 220-volt power. Away from home, I'd ...

Posted Tue, Oct 19, 3:31 a.m.

We were there for opening night and were just overwhelmed. Unquestionably the most wonderful experience we've ever had in an opera house anywhere. Mr. Holden's superlatives are all warranted, and then some. The voices were perfect and all heard easily up in our cheap seats. This is Aleksandra's first Lucia ...

Posted Mon, Sep 27, 10:49 p.m.

"The mayor has all the staff reporting to him regarding whether that administrative matter has been completed properly..." Crossrip, it's precisely because the mayor has all those staff (16 dedicated to the tunnel project and paid for by WSDOT) that he should've been fully informed about the DEIS and whether ...

Posted Thu, Sep 23, 3:48 a.m.

I was around 35 years ago when the I-90 deal was cut. The only way Seattle was going to get onboard was with a commitment that the center roadway could be converted to rail transit at some time in the future. All the parties signed the interlocal agreement to that ...

Posted Thu, Sep 16, 8:45 p.m.

Chris Vance seems a little too eager to acknowledge the trend towards Murray. Maybe he'd like to see Democrats lulled into a little complacency?

Posted Tue, Sep 14, 7:45 a.m.

I haven't been to Morgantown but I have seen it described as not PRT but GRT -- group rapid transit. Their cars are not the tiny pods for individual transport envisioned for PRT but much larger cars built to accommodate small groups. Think elevators. Thus, as Wiseline noted, it's not ...

Posted Wed, Sep 8, 11:10 a.m.

Quick, somebody alert Michael Ennis! I'm sure he can tell us that these improvements are too expensive, that it would be cheaper per passenger mile for travelers to carpool in a Yugo.

Posted Wed, Sep 8, 9:57 a.m.

I agree that Peter Steinbrueck would be an invaluable member of the selected team. If the team he is now affiliated with is not selected, the City is perfectly within its rights to insist that Peter be a part of the team they do select. Mix and match is a ...

Posted Tue, Sep 7, 9:30 a.m.

Ah, BlueLight. Another fringe Republican who feels much better when he drops the "ic" off the end of the Democratic Party's name. If most of the people and organizations supporting Puget Sound cleanup are affiliated with the Democratic Party, maybe there's good reason -- the Democratic Party has consistently been ...

Posted Wed, Sep 1, 12:28 p.m.

Mark, re your "The winning team will devise the overall framework for the central waterfront park, but not necessarily be the final design team." Could you elaborate a little on this please? What components will be included in the "framework" and what will be in "final design"? What is the ...

Posted Tue, Aug 31, 5:59 p.m.

I remember many years ago a plan to add insurance costs to the price of motor vehicle fuel -- so the more you burn the more insurance premium you pay. Very similar to pay-by-distance without the Big Brother intrusion involved in all the GPS monitoring.

Posted Mon, Aug 30, 11:27 p.m.

David, re your "The levy as a whole is not operations cost-neutral. To do that, you would have to have very little new development and almost no new acquisition. That's not what citizens said they wanted in the hours and hours of public testimony we took as part of putting ...

Posted Mon, Aug 30, 11:27 a.m.

I often score Jordan with both pluses and minuses, but this one is all pluses. Hear, hear! I vote for levies and bond issues just like he does, nearly always Yes, but I think it's time to give us a rest. Two full years (at least) with no Seattle $$$ ...

Posted Mon, Aug 23, 11:35 p.m.

Sorry if I erred on the lease issue, Crossrip. I took the text copy-and-paste right out of your earlier post, about the lease being 40+35 years. My mistake, assuming you knew what you were posting about. That said, this is still a non-issue because even in 40 years, the public ...

Posted Sun, Aug 22, 8:19 p.m.

Crossrip, from your own post above: "Sound Transit would lease the express-lane space for 40 years, with an option to renew for 35 more years." That sure looks to me like a 75-year lease; why do you keep calling it a 40-year lease. ST has the option to keep the ...

Posted Sat, Aug 21, 3:49 p.m.

Mr. Lincoln, where in Seattle have you determined that additional freeway lanes could be built at a cost of only $10m-$25m per mile? Clearly the new Waterfront tunnel project is a huge waste of money since its costs are coming in at something like $240m per lane mile. I hope ...

Posted Sat, Aug 21, 11:14 a.m.

Mr. Ennis is a middling propagandist, practicing the art of combing documents for bits that can be made to support his point of view while ignoring everything contrary. I expect he was an avid student of Darrell Huff's classic, "How to Lie with Statistics." The most important fact is that ...

Posted Wed, Aug 4, 4:33 p.m.

Good take on the Muni League, Knute. Over the years, mine has been a little different. Even assuming the Muni League DOES rate candidates accurately according to their criteria, to a voter who cares about the issues, about policy, their ratings are irrelevant. I'd much rather have an Adequate or ...

Posted Wed, Aug 4, 8:07 a.m.

The original concept behind the Interstate Highway System, as I understand Eisenhower's vision, was for the highways to link major cities in the US, but not actually penetrate them. Highways for commerce, not for commuters. But local social engineers saw opportunities to put more local travel into automobiles and away ...

Posted Sun, Aug 1, 12:30 a.m.

Mhays, re Marksp's comment about the tunnel not accommodating trucks (actually, he said "commercial traffic"), I think what he means is that very little commercial freight needs or wants to go between Aurora Avenue and SODO. He's echoing my point about the absence of mid-tunnel connections and the severe limitation ...

Posted Sat, Jul 31, 11:19 a.m.

I'm not sure I see a Republican red tide coming this November. Given the depth of the Great Recession and the struggles we're having to climb out of it, I expect many voters will remember that it was the Republicans who drove us into this mess in the first place. ...

Posted Thu, Jul 22, 10:58 a.m.

Jordan is bouncing around here trying to define a cultural split that really doesn't exist. People from all walks of life have various opinions that are hard to so neatly categorize. As for the issue of transportation and our industrial base, let me observe that most of our transportation problem ...

Posted Fri, Jun 25, 6:04 a.m.

Too bad the article didn't include some photos that would allow us rube non-architects to better grasp what you're talking about.

Posted Fri, Jun 18, 7:26 a.m.

In this era of finite resources, it's more important than ever that we get things right when it comes to capital megaprojects. I agree with the mayor's cautions and concerns over the big-bore tunnel and the rail-less 520 bridge, and I lament his bumbling communications over these issues. Being a ...

Posted Mon, Jun 14, 11:20 a.m.

Sorry, I can't get excited about the radio station. KCTS occupies a huge lot on the corner of the Center and contributes nothing in the way of activity. Radio stations are like TV stations: they can go anywhere and do their job. They should do what KCTS should've -- find ...

Posted Tue, Jun 1, 11:17 a.m.

"Hostile business climate"? If that were true, Forbes magazine would not have given Washington such a high rating as a place to do business, one of the top handful in the nation (forget the exact number). HBC is just a Republican talking point; expect to hear it a lot from ...

Posted Tue, May 25, 5:44 p.m.

A thoughtful piece, well put together. My radio listening is almost always NPR and KING-FM. I hear that NPR gets great ratings, but they don't show up in the discussion because it's non-commercial radio. What I can't figure out is why one of the aspiring AM (or FM) commercial stations ...

Posted Tue, May 25, 10:14 a.m.

I still remember a few years ago when the Mariners passed over local phenom and fan favorite Tim Lincecum and instead chose...oh, what's-his-name? How'd that work out for you, M's management?

Posted Wed, May 19, 9:37 a.m.

Good comment, Pepper. We should note too that special elections, primaries, and odd-year elections (the only kind we've had since Obama was elected) all tend to draw a smaller, more select set of voters to the polls. Those electoral results are not predictive of what will happen in Nov. 2010. ...

Posted Thu, May 13, 1:09 p.m.

Keith, not if the risk is that the bridge falls into the river in the next earthquake. Or if the opening mechanism fails, locking up the river to larger vessels. I drove that bridge regularly and my heart always skipped a beat going from one side to the other, hoping ...

Posted Thu, May 13, 7:26 a.m.

Great piece, Jordan. South Park is small and relatively isolated, especially from the homes of City officials, all of whom are elected city-wide. It's one of those neighborhoods that doesn't show up on any City politician's radar scope. At least not to the extent they detect a need to exert ...

Posted Wed, May 12, 11:09 a.m.

Good piece, Kent, but I gotta nitpick. The Seattle Department of Transportation has been known as SDOT (pronounced Ess Dot) for some years now, ever since the arrival of Grace Crunican from Portland, who apparently thought that SeaTran was too much like C-TRAN, the transit agency in Clark County, just ...

Posted Fri, Apr 23, 11:04 a.m.

Interesting column by Kate Riley -- 7 years ago. These are the kind of Republicans I remember when I started voting in the 1970's, and I often voted for Republicans like she writes about. But what's happened since then? and since she wrote in 2003? The GOP has lurched even ...

Posted Wed, Apr 21, 3:38 a.m.

Hmmm. I was looking forward to Vance's analysis of the Tea Partiers and their influence on races this year, particular of course in Republican primaries. But nary a mention by the former GOP state chairman. Between the Tea Party zealots and the Party of No agenda they pursue in the ...

Posted Tue, Apr 20, 4:55 p.m.

Lincoln, some current rail riders did drive cars (or carpools) to work downtown, and some rode the bus. Putting commuters on rails frees up capacity on buses, leaving empty seats for new riders (caveat: to be filled as the economy recovers...) It also frees up space on the highways and ...

Posted Tue, Apr 20, 11:55 a.m.

Well-said, smacgry. It's impossible to imagine doing away with Link or Sounder rail services and substituting vanpools. Where in downtown Seattle could we park a couple thousand full-size vans? Assuming that most rail riders would willingly switch, which is hard to fathom. The big shortcoming of vanpools is that it's ...

Posted Mon, Apr 19, 7:45 a.m.

McGinn is a newcomer to the PSRC and doesn't have all the experience, and baggage, that long-term members have. He made a principled vote on this plan. How many of the proposed new lane-miles of urban highways are REALLY there simply to provide commute capacity for single-occupant vehicles? -- full ...

Posted Wed, Apr 7, 12:37 p.m.

Thanks for hounding Ted on the proper definition of the VAT, Vince. I kept thinking the same thing as I read through, and I'm delighted at your thorough responses. That's really Ted's big problem; when he gets his mind made up, it's really made up and nothing he reads or ...

Posted Tue, Mar 30, 2:43 p.m.

Hacknflack, the Commons votes went down not because the people didn't like the idea of a grand Central park, but because it was a stand-alone ballot measure that asked ALL Seattle voters and taxpayers to pay for one park for one district of town. People love parks but they love ...

Posted Tue, Mar 23, 7:32 a.m.

If McKenna and the other Republican AGs succeed in getting the individual mandate removed, what's the fix to keep health care reform in place? Seems to me the cure would be Single Payer or Medicare For All or whatever else you want to call it. Liberals have lamented the absence ...

Posted Mon, Mar 1, 8 a.m.

Interesting piece. Yes, Republicans are understandably reluctant to develop an alternative all-cuts budget because they know what the public reception would be. It would damage their hopes of gaining back some of those moderate swing districts, such as in the King County suburbs. Yes, Republicans raised taxes in 1982 in ...

Posted Wed, Feb 24, 4:38 p.m.

I've long felt that if we were just now inventing public education, we wouldn't create 300 separate units of government based on geographic areas large and small, and have each one of them ruled by a separately elected board. The governmental model may work for counties and cities, but it ...

Posted Thu, Feb 18, 12:59 p.m.

dbreneman, you'll have credibility when Republican (or "prefers" Republican) candidates denounce, or apologize for, the excesses their party was responsible for during the W years. Until then, Republican bluster about "fiscal responsibility" is just that: bluster. Tip, Jim Wright, and Tom Foley were no Republicans but they did acknowledge that ...

Posted Thu, Feb 18, 11:29 a.m.

Pudge, you say that voters "do like intelligent, principled, and consistent people who will do what they can to stop massive spending increases..." Would that they could find such folks in the Republican party. What was the Republican ("consistent people") track record on deficit spending during the Reagan/Bush years? and ...

Posted Thu, Feb 18, 12:45 a.m.

Gotta give Chris credit for always looking at that silver lining. Re the recent GOP victories in NJ, Virginia, and Massachusetts, I wonder what those results would've look like in a high-turnout presidential-year election. Odd numbered years and special elections attract way smaller numbers and the results skew conservative. RE ...

Posted Wed, Feb 17, 11 a.m.

Can somebody, anybody, cite an example where a multi-billion-dollar public works project, a situation where cost-overruns were sloughed off on an unwilling third party? Hell, cite ANY public works project where that was the case. I know the People In Charge of the AWV tunnel project, and their support crew, ...

Posted Tue, Feb 16, 1:16 p.m.

Thank you, Loren Bliss, for defending the right of the mentally ill to own and use firearms. The authors of the Second Amendment would be proud indeed.

Posted Thu, Feb 11, 1:02 p.m.

Sigh...more retrofit talk, again. Art finally admits that a retrofit would be a 1+Billion matter (probably more with all those "invisible" structural fixes he promises). Further it would not put needed shoulders on the viaduct, nor improve unsafe merges, nor fix unsafe turn radii. And we STILL wouldn't have a ...

Posted Thu, Feb 11, 7:35 a.m.

The tunnel accommodates only about half the traffic now using the viaduct, and that's due to the omission of on- and off-ramps to downtown and Elliott and Western avenues. This very large and very expensive tunnel only serves through traffic between SODO and Aurora Avenue. Traffic between Ballard/Interbay and SODO, ...

Posted Wed, Feb 10, 7:35 a.m.

Sigh...When there's a 2/3rds vote to do anything, the minority party is in charge, Cameron. That's why Republicans like supermajority requirements so much -- they get their way either way.

Posted Wed, Feb 10, 7:18 a.m.

Ted's presuming that lots of voters have very short memories and have forgotten about the extraordinary deficit spending when Republicans are in charge, and the financial abyss that W steered the country towards, leaving Obama and the D's to deal with. No; Ted, this voter does NOT want to return ...

Posted Tue, Feb 9, 10:13 p.m.

Cameron, the Republican Party is controlled by forces who believe all taxes are bad and the only thing to do with taxes, no matter the problems faced by the community, is to cut them. Put them in charge and watch us emulate California (where it takes two-thirds majorities to pass ...

Posted Tue, Feb 9, 7:21 p.m.

Careful with that Cameron -- voting out the current majority and replace them with the Party of No, would not be an improvement!

Posted Tue, Feb 9, 2:25 p.m.

There's a reason the Speaker of the House says, upon approval of a bill: "The bill having received a constitutional majority is declared passed." Constitutional Majority being the operative words of course. In suppressing the will of the Senate majority, our dear Lt. Governor, presiding over that body apparently said ...

Posted Mon, Feb 8, 10:47 a.m.

Ted's experience mirrors mine, in a minor criminal trial last year. Yes, it does help restore faith in the system. The option to donate jurors' fees, a nice idea, is a new feature, not there when I served 11 months ago. smacgry, I hope you sought out the prosecutor after ...

Posted Fri, Feb 5, 3:29 p.m.

What a load of crap from lorenbliss. I've had kids in Seattle Public Schools for more years than I can remember (only 3 more to go!) and he describes maybe one or two of the scores of teachers I've come in contact with. Get a grip; find a good counsellor.

Posted Fri, Feb 5, 10:02 a.m.

The dilemma exhibited here is compounded by the fact that public education is divided among 295 separate school districts, each one repeating this process over and over and coming up with different answers. We should seriously investigate the Hawaiian solution -- a single state-wide school district run by full-time professionals, ...

Posted Thu, Feb 4, 11:51 a.m.

I see no evidence that anyone is being hateful towards the legitimately handicapped (as opposed to those who use the cards unlawfully). The issue is, does the City have an obligation to provide unlimited free parking to the handicapped, everywhere parking is permitted on city street rights-of-way? I think the ...

Posted Wed, Jan 27, 10:34 a.m.

Yes, we all have issues, of varying magnitudes, about the district, how it's run, how it's maintained, etc. etc. but none of the critics, here or elsewhere, have satisfactorily explained how failing one or both levies would improve things. With too few resources chasing too many priorities, less money is ...

Posted Fri, Jan 22, 2:47 p.m.

There's no reason why improved surface Alaskan Way should have any more stoplights than it has now, unless the purpose is just to be meanspirited. I suspect the folks who don't want that option simply put them in, without evaluation, knowing it helps make that option unattractive.

Posted Tue, Jan 19, 3:46 p.m.

And NOAA is part of the Department of Commerce that just happens to be administered by a certain former governor of our fair state? Bob, I think your inquiries (and worker complaints) should be directed at a higher target! Gary should be embarrassed by what you report.

Posted Thu, Jan 14, 3:14 p.m.

Interesting piece; thanks for contributing. I'd like to see a followup where you identify some ground transitions that actually work well, even if the building above is not highrise office. There have to be some positive lessons out there

Posted Wed, Jan 13, 1:08 p.m.

Just a few weeks ago, Seattle voters approved a tax levy to refurbish (again) the buildings that comprise the Pike Place Market. The campaign focused on the cherished historical nature of the market and why we can't let it continue to deteriorate. Not a murmur about any change of use ...

Posted Wed, Jan 6, 9 a.m.

Good ideas Bob and John. Let me add one more -- develop a cadre of friends from across the city, whose judgement you trust, and task them with letting you know candidly and quickly when things are not working. I'm thinking of the kind of early warning system that Mayor ...

Posted Wed, Jan 6, 7:31 a.m.

I don't follow the e-book and e-reader business very closely, and I won't be buying either until there's an open source reader that will allow me to buy and read e-books from any vendor. My idea of Hell is buying a Kindle and being forced to buy e-books only from ...

Posted Mon, Jan 4, 12:43 p.m.

You nailed it. It's shocking how much radio is trying to defeat the iPod alternatives by becoming one itself. Truly brainless.

Posted Mon, Dec 28, 8:32 p.m.

Has anybody explained how tolling would work in the real world? I have to chuckle at Mr. Baker's "...there is 400 million more from tolling, then 400 million more from more tolling if the original tolling is not enough." Hit-em again, hit-em again, harder, harder. But the tolls don't apply ...

Posted Mon, Dec 28, 10:28 a.m.

Sorry, Art, but no matter how many times you tout the retrofit of the existing structure, it only postpones the inevitable. It's not a permanent (i.e. 75+ years) solution. We will just be leaving the problem to our children, or if we get lucky, our grandchildren. I'd rather we not ...

Posted Mon, Dec 28, 10:21 a.m.

Yes, AWV is part of a state highway, a highway that is punctuated by intersections and stoplights north of Mercer St. and south of Spokane Street. Only this short section through downtown Seattle is limited-access freeway. Nobody has made a solid case why this is necessary, why the configuration north ...

Posted Mon, Dec 28, 7:23 a.m.

Yes, Mr. Baker, a pass-through tunnel; for maybe half of the SR-99 corridor traffic. And the other half will travel on surface city streets. A multi-billion-dollar tunnel to carry half the traffic for a distance of two miles? Sorry but more conversation is necessary on this one, and Admin Account ...

Posted Wed, Dec 23, 11:34 a.m.

Re Ted's "The history of major domestic reforms is that they cannot be sustained unless passed on a bipartisan basis. The pending health-care package was a Democrats-only exercise that got the necessary 60 Senate votes only at the cost of outrageous payoffs extended to favored states and industries..." The key ...

Posted Wed, Dec 16, 7:11 a.m.

I'm still amazed at how so many well-meaning people can embrace a project like this deep-bore tunnel, when it has NO on- or off-ramps to serve downtown or Interbay/Ballard. It only serves that traffic going between SODO and Aurora Ave. It is ONLY a downtown bypass facility and at most ...

Posted Sat, Nov 28, 11:36 a.m.

My memorable TV moment from the early days was in 1955 when Tex Johnston barrel-rolled the Dash-80 over the hydroplane races on Lake Washington. KING5 replays the film from time to time in their historic recaps. Was that not broadcast live, thus not meeting your list criteria?

Posted Fri, Nov 20, 10:31 a.m.

Hey, Sam. Good piece. You bring back a lot of memories, most of them fond ones. Glad to see you are still around. I'm optimistic about McGinn and his policies revolving around openness. I'm interested to see how he organizes his communications shop, whether he can make openness work.

Posted Tue, Nov 3, 8:47 p.m.

Van Dyk is right as rain when it comes to things like district elections for Seattle councilmembers and the naivete of non-partisanship, but when it comes to public transportation, he just doesn't get it. Perhaps if he were a full-time resident and commuted daily, he'd have a more well-rounded perspective. ...

Posted Tue, Nov 3, 1:18 p.m.

Interesting conclusion: "...Hutchison keeps open the option of holding to an independent label, should she be elected." Not much liklihood that she'd keep that independent label in a run for statewide office. No matter how Palinized (great term!) the Republican Party gets, they will still put up a GOP label ...

Posted Mon, Nov 2, 7:41 a.m.

David, I got a good chuckle out of your item 6 on Susan Hutchison. I don't see how she or her campaign can be seen as a pathway out of the wilderness for the Republican Party -- when she spent the entire campaign season steadfastly denying she's a Republican.

Posted Thu, Oct 29, 1:39 p.m.

Thanks for a good piece, Judy. I'm convinced that ending homelessness requires a national effort or at least nationwide implementation of housing solutions. If one city or county makes notable headway in ending homelessness in their jurisdiction, word gets out and their reservoir of homeless people only gets refilled. If ...

Posted Thu, Oct 29, 7:24 a.m.

Thank you Bill for getting the answer to the question I posted to your earlier article.

Posted Tue, Oct 27, 4:44 p.m.

Ummmmm, Taylor, re your "In most cities where you see mayoral control, you will also see school boards that are populated by members who were selected by the mayor. You will also see a mayor who can be influenced greatly by business interests rather than educators, parents and students." Just ...

Posted Tue, Oct 27, 4:39 p.m.

Thanks for the good work, Chuck. I'd like to see some further research into how much of the Times' daily circ of 263,588 is actual PAID circulation. Too many stories out there about P-I subscribers being continued on freebie plans.

Posted Tue, Oct 27, 7:57 a.m.

I too have heard these tales of widespread free subscriptions, free extensions of subscriptions, etc. The real question should be: How much of the Seattle Times distribution is PAID?

Posted Thu, Oct 22, 7 a.m.

Dick Conlin? I've known Richard Conlin for some twenty years and I've never once heard anyone call him or refer to him by any name other than Richard. I too find voting to be an uplifting experience, and that's the biggest reason why I won't be voting for Mallahan for ...

Posted Tue, Oct 13, 4:20 p.m.

The Commons park was a good idea but poorly executed, just like the monorail. When the Commons' plans were being finalized, Seattle parks advocates were already planning the Pro Parks levy for the 2000 ballot. It would have been relatively simple for Pro Parks to wrap the Commons into its ...

Posted Tue, Oct 6, 5:25 p.m.

Ease up, Sean. Kent is asking for a mayor with a sense of connection to ordinary people; don't read so much into his specific examples. Personally, I think he's on to something.

Posted Fri, Oct 2, 12:58 p.m.

"Spady’s wife, Fawn, will head the new group and lobbying effort, according to the email." Sigh. I think it's time for some new blood in this effort, a lot of it. Better to bring some of that in first, before self-appointing the same old failed leadership again. Personally, I've voted ...

Posted Tue, Sep 1, 12:58 p.m.

I didn't suggest that lobbyists NEVER communicate in writing, only that the most meaningful (i.e. interesting to the public) communications are most often not in written form. And if this change in law goes through, there won't be any real increase in "transparency" because lobbyists will just stop putting the ...

Posted Tue, Sep 1, 9:06 a.m.

C'mon bthornton, think things through. If special interest groups are pressuring legislators, they're most likely not doing it in writing. They have paid lobbyists to carry their messages personally! And in the case of whistle-blowers, the facts of such cases are often too complicated to convey in a telephone call, ...

Posted Mon, Aug 31, 8:02 a.m.

It wasn't the snow storm mess per se that contributed to Nickels' defeat, it was his indifference to, or unawareness of, the City's dismal performance -- the B grade. It was only later, after expensive consultant reports revealed the mismanagement across the Transportation department, that the mayor apologized. Too little ...

Posted Tue, Aug 25, 3:20 p.m.

"and I fault him for not insisting that Sound Transit have stations that work well by focusing density and intercepting commuters." Huh, David? Aside from Stadium and SODO stations, which light rail stations are not well-suited to "focus density"? Maybe Tukwila, but that decision was forced on Sound Transit by ...

Posted Sat, Aug 22, 3:16 p.m.

Rail transit, high-speed or intracity, may or may not stimulate development around stations, depending on a number of factors such as local government support (zoning, and political support), station locations, land-owner interest, developer interest, and of course the state of the economy and local market. I toured most of the ...

Posted Thu, Aug 20, 10:41 a.m.

Gregory Wade, you are laboring under the assumption that a European-style health care system in the US would add costs to taxpayers. But this country is already spending a HIGHER percent of GDP on health care than these European countries, and the data show we have LESSER outcomes then the ...

Posted Tue, Aug 11, 10:46 p.m.

I'm awestruck at mhays and others who suggest, no, come right out and assert that any surface option would just shut down downtown Seattle and lead to chaos. We need to go back and review Cary Moon's thoughtful analysis of what happens when urban freeways come down and are replaced ...

Posted Thu, Aug 6, 8 a.m.

Mr. Odland ignores the absence of any mid-point connections to/from the new big-bore tunnel. No mid-town connections at Seneca, and most critically, no connections to Western and Elliott avenues. The tunnel only serves through traffic, between SODO and Aurora Ave. Local freight movements between Ballard and SODO are left with ...

Posted Tue, Aug 4, 12:17 p.m.

Huh? "Seattle School District: I voted for Betty Patu and Kay Smith-Blum." How did you do that, Ted? In primary elections, Seattle School Board candidates run in separate districts. You can't lawfully be registered to vote in both Betty Patu's district 7 AND Kay Smith-Blub's district 5. Or did you ...

Posted Tue, Jul 21, 11:11 p.m.

Sound Transit won in 2008 because voters could see the results that ST had delivered to date: Commuter rail trains to Everett and Tacoma, Express bus routes all over the region, A long list of transit centers, park-and-ride lots and freeway bus ramps, and of course over 14 miles of ...

Posted Tue, Jul 21, 12:55 p.m.

Thanks, MadisonAve. Helps confirm one of my observations -- people who dislike a given transit system are those who use it least. DC Metro suffers from too many years of deferred maintenance, brought about by inadequate budgets. Tim Eyman, can you listen?

Posted Tue, Jul 21, 10:20 a.m.

Ted (and/or David), some two dozen metropolitan cities in North America have built and expanded modern light rail transit systems since San Diego began with its Tijuana Trolley in 1983. Please name one that has regrets, that has civic leadership working "to undo it"?

Posted Thu, Jul 16, 10:45 p.m.

Why is Eyman doing I-1033? Because running initiatives is how he makes his living. I suspect in his heart of hearts he doesn't really care if it passes or not. Either way he will be back next year with another one, so he can keep the $$$ flowing from his ...

Posted Sat, Jun 27, 9:55 a.m.

Mr. Niles cites just about all the locations where existing lane capacity could be taken for bus/HOV lanes, areas where buses could conceivably be made to operate as high-capacity transit, similar to rail. Everywhere else he would have to build new ROW, much of it on elevated guideway or in ...

Posted Fri, Jun 26, 1:36 p.m.

Good points again, mhays. What Mr. Niles omits is that light rail trains run on new ROW, they provide additional capacity above and beyond that provided by the road/bus network already at work. The only way his BRT-buses-only vision works is to commandeer existing lanes from our current road and ...

Posted Thu, Jun 25, 9:39 p.m.

Thanks, mhayes, my thoughts exactly. Ted's one of a dwindling handful of people who still go out of their way to knock Sound Transit and Link light rail using, as you note, bogus comparisons and criticisms. Light rail is opening to the public on the weekend of July 18th with ...

Posted Thu, Jun 25, 12:54 p.m.

Well-said MJH -"...a wonderful case for why we need to preserve the down-home vernacular architecture that marks our neighborhoods and makes our city special...." In City government's relentless quest to increase density everywhere, even in all the traditional single-family neighborhoods, how much "down-home vernacular architecture" will survive? DPD voices sought ...

Posted Thu, Jun 25, 7:30 a.m.

Hmmm. Too bad David didn't at least mention a few of the Port of Seattle customers lured away by Tacoma. What goes around comes around, folks.

Posted Fri, Jun 12, 11:13 a.m.

Right-on, Debo. This topic needs more light and less heat. CPPS isn't advocating that the current contract be abrogated, in how layoffs are determined, rather that the District negotiate for revised contract terms that take personnel evaluations into account when layoffs must occur. Sounds pretty reasonable to this old Democratic ...

Posted Fri, May 29, 2:53 p.m.

If we took all the funds currently spent on provision of medical services to people -- Health Care for the insured and Illness Care for the uninsured -- and devoted it to Health Care for All, wouldn't existing spending be enough? By this I mean, divert all the funds now ...

Posted Fri, May 8, 7:37 a.m.

Your historical comparisons are from an era when both parties were "big tent" organizations. The new Republican Party, however, has remade itself into a much smaller force, controlled by those who adhere to hard-right, hard-edged Club For Growth politics. At 21 percent support among the population nationwide, if Republican challengers ...

Posted Fri, Apr 3, 10:54 a.m.

My first, gut-level reaction to P3s concerns why the private sector likes them so much -- they socialize the risk and privatize the profit. If there is another way to structure these deals to better balance risk and costs, I'd sure like to see it. And I remember Frank Chopp ...

Posted Mon, Mar 23, 10:30 p.m.

Douglas, my point about stations was that the two that were "cut" were cut for very specific and serious reasons, not "arbitrarily" as stated by Mr. Van Dyk. Rather than do his homework (easy to do, even from Arizona) and find out the real reasons, he's content to toss off ...

Posted Sun, Mar 22, 10:09 p.m.

Too much work to create and use an index? Not a credible position in this digital age. I'm sure Google could be configured to generate useful and functional indices with just a few keystrokes. What's the REAL agenda here, City Council????????

Posted Sun, Mar 22, 9:34 p.m.

This may come as a shock to Mr. Van Dyk but the Sound Transit folks who erred in 1996, when they estimated the cost and schedule for the first phase of light rail, are NO LONGER IN CHARGE! They left in 2000-2001 and were replaced by the management team that ...

Posted Sun, Mar 22, 4:17 p.m.

No, Mr. Van Dyk, Sound Transit's taxing authority is NOT open-ended. Rather it is capped at the maximum rate approved by voters last November; 0.9 percent; 9 cents on a $10 taxable purchase. Any higher taxes would have to be approved first by the Legislature and then by the region's ...

Posted Mon, Feb 2, 12:20 p.m.

dbreneman, nobody is trying to dictate to anyone about where they live, work, etc. I just don't see this compulsion you fret about. People will forever be free to choose home/work combinations that result in a long commute for reasons, as you suggest, because it "maximimizes their utility" somehow. What ...

Posted Mon, Feb 2, 7:26 a.m.

Mr. Vance argues that "Many greens and liberals will oppose anything that might lead to more cars on the road..." As one of those green liberals, let me say it's not that simple. What I oppose is highway expansion projects whose only justification is increasing the number of single-occupant vehicles ...

Posted Mon, Jan 12, 6:54 p.m.

This tunnel connects Aurora Ave. to the viaduct corridor south of downtown, but with no ramps connecting to Western and Elliott, it does nothing for all that industrial traffic to/from Ballard and Interbay. If this selection moves ahead in its present form, most all of that local freight and commercial ...

Posted Fri, Aug 1, 10:36 p.m.

It's not tourism: Space tourism is the wrong term. What's being offered is a thrill ride, not Tourism in any meaningful sense of the word.

Posted Tue, Jul 29, 11:39 a.m.

RE: Feels Like the City of 1975?: A consensus, BTW, that included, indeed DEPENDED on the ultimate development of rail transit in the center roadway of I-90 -- a fact that various and sundry people now want to overlook.

Posted Sun, Jul 27, 8:54 p.m.

RE: Sean, your the typical rail shallow supporter: Step, you continue to amaze. Don't add lanes to old-fashioned freeways -- build entirely new freeways instead! At what cost? When I-5 was built through Seattle, it wiped out 6,000 homes. How many would you propose to destroy in your wave of ...

Posted Sun, Jul 27, 8:47 p.m.

RE: too late, wrong funding, outdated technology: 10ft., it's not a nickel increase in the sales tax, it's a half-cent increase -- 0.5% -- a half-cent on the dollar. No, it's not a good tax, but it's the one the State allows us to levy. It's up to the voters ...

Posted Mon, Jul 21, 7:33 p.m.

Ted, you're recycling again: This is just more repetition of what you've already said before, in the P-I and here at Crosscut. That tedious recycling is what got you canned from the P-I op-ed page. Chuck and David may be tolerant people, but I expect they have their limits also. ...

Posted Fri, Jul 18, 10:52 p.m.

RE: easons: I tend to not respond to rant posts like Step's, but a couple of thoughts do come to mind. Don't vote for light rail because you'll never ride it? Fine; then next time a freeway project comes up that I will never drive, such as the 520 bridge ...

Posted Wed, Jul 16, 11:20 p.m.

RE: BRT plans: John, I'm amused at your -- "I hold the view now that bus service and associated rights of way can be incrementally and constantly improved with a variety of features associated with BRT," Have you read Tim Eyman's I-985 which is likely to be on the ballot ...

Posted Wed, Jul 9, 9:03 p.m.

RE: BRT does not meet the transit need: Yes, Niles' dozen ways are just working around the margins, even in total, they don't replicate the speed, capacity, reliability, or permanence of rail transit. And they certainly don't represent the Long Range solution that rail does. Sooner or later, the service ...

Posted Tue, Jul 8, 8:23 p.m.

RE: a dozen ways to make bus travel faster: I'm disappointed, John; perhaps you didn't see the challenge posted above yours, about what you and your BRT-over-rail colleagues are going to do about Eyman's latest, Initiative 985, that keeps HOV/HOT/BAT lanes in service only during the height of weekday peak ...

Posted Tue, Jul 8, 5:06 p.m.

The Pro-BRT/Anti-Rail advocates, and I-985: It will be very interesting to see if any of the Intelligent Designers and other BRT champions/light rail bashers join in fighting Eyman's latest, Initiative 985, if it makes the ballot in November. Limiting HOV lanes to 30 hours a week, on highways and arterials ...

Posted Thu, Jun 26, 10:13 p.m.

RE: BRT - not as good as rail: A couple of the benefits of rail transit that are too often ignored or underappreciated are that (1.) it is new right-of-way that will forever be free of other traffic and congestion, and (2.) its roadway cannot be converted to General Purpose ...

Posted Mon, Jun 23, 4:08 p.m.

RE: Pay now or Pay Later... but what will cost most 20 years from now?: No, Sound Transit spent months examining the route via the Dearborn cut. Dearborn and Rainier Ave. (north of I-90) have high traffic volumes because they are major access routes to/from I-90. There was no satisfactory ...

Posted Thu, May 1, 10:17 p.m.

RE: Missing something in analysis: I talked briefly once with Charlie about his housing program, and the concept has much merit. Poor and working poor people can find subsidized housing in the City. The upper-middle and wealthy can buy or rent at the market. It's the middle-income folks, too "rich" ...

Posted Thu, May 1, 10:11 p.m.

RE: The Generalized Metastasized Seattle Process: Lest anyone get to romantic about the "good old days" when a few leaders could "get things done", please remember the grim side: Elected bodies deliberated and voted in Executive Session, smoke-filled rooms with no press or citizens observing. Public hearings were formalities held ...

Posted Thu, May 1, 10 p.m.

RE: Ward Politics Repeatedly Rejected by Seattle Voters: And every one of the successful candidates for Seattle City Council last November made a persuasive case that they were liberal Democrats also. Yes, 2 are racial minorities, and they are there only because the majority votes colorblind. It my come as ...

Posted Wed, Apr 30, 9:57 p.m.

RE: Correcting a Straw Man travel time: U district to downtown: Every year, Metro needs to put out thousands of extra bus hours onto the streets, not to add trips to serve riders but to make up for the longer times it takes buses to cover their routes, end to ...

Posted Tue, Apr 29, 7:07 p.m.

RE: Article forgot to mention the Capitol Hill Station: This thread is getting way complicated, but a couple of John's comments warrant responding. John has started calling Link light rail "low-capacity" service -- compared to what? To BART trains, sure. But comparing to any of the other light rail lines ...

Posted Tue, Apr 29, 6:47 p.m.

RE: Correcting a Straw Man travel time: U district to downtown: Sjenner, you are looking only at today, not the future. Every year, Metro buses get slower and slower covering their routes. I recall reading recently that over 25 percent of Metro bus service is regularly off-schedule. Whatever the time ...

Posted Mon, Apr 28, 6:55 p.m.

RE: sound transit=non-starter: Just because a few people chose to brand Sound Transit's poll as a Push Poll didn't make it one. A push poll asks questions after giving a biased "push" message. Example: "If you knew that candidate Jones was secretly supporting a state income tax, would you be ...

Posted Mon, Apr 28, 6:39 p.m.

RE: Ward Politics Repeatedly Rejected by Seattle Voters: Umm, Rat, Seattle is one of only two large cities (>500K pop.) that elects all of its city council at-large. The other is Detroit, Michigan. District elections have nothing to do with "ward politics." The political machines of old were fueled by ...

Posted Sun, Apr 27, 3:59 p.m.

RE: sound transit=non-starter: Rasul's red flags are in fact red herrings. Sound Transit admitted to problems in its initial move to build the Capitol Hill tunnel in 2000. The people responsible left the agency (voluntarily and not-so-voluntarily) and new people were put in charge, who did indeed "clean up its ...

Posted Tue, Apr 22, 10:51 p.m.

RE: Governance reform is a bad deal: Indeed, Southcenter is a designated Urban Center, but one with one free parking spot for every employee and every shopper (except for a few days at Christmastime); in other words, not a priority for the first light rail line. But more importantly, Southcenter ...

Posted Tue, Apr 22, 7:13 a.m.

RE: Citations provided: HOV lanes which Rossi disdains carry disproportionately more people each day than do the SOV lanes beside them. How sustainable is a policy that ignores that efficiency and instead lets that lane jam up with congestion like the general purpose lanes beside it? The dollars spent on ...

Posted Tue, Apr 22, 7:02 a.m.

RE: Governance reform is a bad deal: It's amusing to hear you rant about scope creep, Tom. The term is usually applied as scope expansion, yet you say it's lead to abandonment of light rail stations (which ones?). And the anti-rail organizations you worked with when you lived here, CETA, ...

Posted Tue, Apr 22, 6:54 a.m.

RE: On budget: Bus/HOV ramps are put in where present and/or future traffic justifies the expense. Bob Drewel stepped down as Snohomish County Executive due to term limits in their county charter. He was a highly respected public official when he left.

Posted Mon, Apr 21, 8:20 p.m.

RE: Citations provided: If traffic congestion was limited to 3 hours on weekday mornings and 3 hours on weekday afternoons, then nobody would care about opening HOV lanes during the rest of the time. But we know that's not the case. When buses and carpools can't get through, during non-peak ...

Posted Mon, Apr 21, 6:33 p.m.

RE: Ted Van Dyk response: Where does this stuff come from? Yes I "headed" PMT during the late 1990's, and Mr. Borkowski became president when the group reorganized in 2000. Yes, I went to work for Sound Transit in 2001. There was no overlap, Doug. I could suggest again a ...

Posted Mon, Apr 21, 6:26 p.m.

RE: Ted Van Dyk response: Happy to provide the cites, Tom, re my statements above about Mr. Rossi and Mr. Eyman. Please see page 13 of Mr. Rossi's transportation plan where he calls for opening HOV lanes to all traffic during non-rush hours. Also see Sec. 2 of Initiative 985, ...

Posted Mon, Apr 21, 6:21 p.m.

Citations provided: Happy to provide the cites, Tom, re my statements above about Mr. Rossi and Mr. Eyman. See page 13 of Mr. Rossi's transportation plan where he calls for opening HOV lanes to all traffic during non-rush hours. Also see Sec. 2 of Initiative 985, Mr. Eyman's latest, where ...

Posted Mon, Apr 21, 6:15 p.m.

Evidence please: Doug, the responsibility falls on the accusers, not on People for Modern Transit, re the statement that the organization took money from Sound Transit, or its predecessor RTA. Proving the negative can be a bit difficult, won't you admit? Let's see the evidence, please. That's not too much ...

Posted Thu, Apr 17, 9:08 p.m.

RE: Ted Van Dyk response: Yes, light rail trains typically stop at every station. Dwell times can range from 10 to 20 seconds -- much less than a typical bus stop. About 2 dozen modern light rail lines have been built in North America in the last 25 years, and ...

Posted Thu, Apr 17, 8:43 p.m.

RE: Comment by Ted Van Dyk: I am the former president of People for Modern Transit, and served in that role just prior to Richard Borkowski. I can also assert that at no time during my affiliation did PMT receive any funds from Sound Transit (then known as the RTA, ...

Posted Fri, Feb 15, 12:38 p.m.

Similar experience: My experience exactly in my precinct on Beacon Hill. And every other account I have read of people experiencing their Democratic caucus this year in our region -- they all tell a similar story. Something special IS happening this year. Unlike anything like I've experienced in all the ...

Posted Mon, Apr 23, 5:10 p.m.

Community involvement; please.: I'm on any number of City Hall email lists, and I have no recollection at all of receiving any announcement of last Thursday's event. It's been my observation in recent years that community outreach at the City is at best a haphazard affair and not a high ...