Posted Thu, Apr 26, 11:08 a.m.

I hope the author is right; I'd love to see Pioneer Square rejuvenate itself. But the point that business creativity is aided by certain urban characteristics and a lot of street level face time is something that needs thoughtful consideration. For one thing it ignores all the patents that came ...

Posted Wed, Apr 25, 11:38 a.m.

I note that one of Queen Anne's most beloved and best patronized coffee shops is in a four story 1990s building of no particular merit. The essence of the Bauhaus is not the building (at least I hope not); it is or should be the character of the space, the ...

Posted Fri, Apr 13, 5:29 p.m.

knute000; Horton Plaza does sort of look like it might have been designed by Charles Moore but the architect of record is Jon Jerde.

Posted Fri, Apr 13, 5:13 p.m.

"To rationalize denying those establishments public support, we’ve adopted an “ideology of austerity.” I think I understand what Ms. Robinson is saying here ( private indulgence as compared to public austerity) but public expenditures are not that austere are they? thanks for the article, I will read Ms. Robinson.

Posted Fri, Apr 6, 11:31 a.m.

We've had some startups around Seattle, Real Networks comes to mind, that were good citizens, said all the right things and may have been generous donors. If they don't grow or if they die it does not help Seattle or the surrounding area. I'll take Amazon. The carping above about ...

Posted Tue, Apr 3, 9:20 p.m.

Thank you Judy for a very good piece and thanks for your thoughtful response to BlueLight. When we old guys think "what has gone wrong here" we have to think of our own lives. I moved from a farm to a moderately large city to work for a large corporation ...

Posted Tue, Apr 3, 2:35 p.m.

I think David Smith has got it right. I never thought I would agree with a defense of Frank Chopp but somebody had to stop the bleeding.

Posted Mon, Apr 2, 5:24 p.m.

Very interesting! hard to believe the walkers/riders are that dominant. You may have noticed Trader Joe's is building at the old Huling Bros dealership so I think Admiral is out of luck. But it's closer than Queen Anne. I suppose credit card companies have better data on who shops where ...

Posted Sat, Mar 31, 11:30 a.m.

It took the court about 150 years to see where laws penalizing abortion were precluded by the constitution and roughly the same amount of time to see that police must advise arrestees of their right to a (taxpayer paid) lawyer and the right to remain silent. Those discoveries were written ...

Posted Sat, Mar 31, 11:20 a.m.

I am puzzled by the defense of the clerical intricacies this incident. To (non-academic) me the signature crime of foot kissing seems pretty harmless, the kind of lapse that might be well covered by an oral admonition, not a pile of documents that makes it way to the upper echelon ...

Posted Thu, Mar 29, 4:58 p.m.

Mr. Howard's book is excellent and so is this article. Thank you Mr. Robinson.

Posted Tue, Mar 27, 6:51 p.m.

Folks like you make democracy work, Orino.

Posted Fri, Mar 23, 11:36 a.m.

Nice to read Barry Mitzman again. The Times is in desperation mode, descending into the pathetic but, here's the sad part: we'll all be worse off when it's gone.

Posted Tue, Mar 20, 10:47 a.m.

" ..a transit hub for the center" , "hard to get to..." C'mon David Brewster, this was 1962. There were maybe two "research centers" in the USA. Seattle pursuing a research center would have been. like Cle Elum going after a major league baseball team. In fact the space worked ...

Posted Mon, Mar 19, 11:06 a.m.

“You can't apply for a [Coast Guard] bridge permit until you have a record of decision.”.. and, apparently, can't talk to them either. We're doing all this with borrowed money (and newly printed money). Sad.

Posted Mon, Mar 12, 5:02 p.m.

When campaigning for President, Obama denigrated the Iraq venture and said our efforts should concentrate of Afghanistan. It is perhaps for that reason that Mr. O. felt he had to increase our commitment in Afghanistan instead of beating an readily defensible retreat two years ago. Yes Harris, big talk can ...

Posted Mon, Mar 12, 10:01 a.m.

Good article, thank you. I think you underestimate the pain withdrawing from Afghanistan will cause (Al Queda will be back in a few years) but I don't think we are left with any other choices. If we can help protect Europe, Japan and Israel I think we can muddle our ...

Posted Sat, Mar 10, 3:10 p.m.

I may have missed it but I don't see who hired PFM. The objectiveness of the SSA/Goldman Sachs report is rightly questioned but the PFM report is presented with no balancing skepticism. A 2010 presentation on the Bellingham waterfront project (included in the link above) shows the waterfront development as ...

Posted Wed, Mar 7, 9 a.m.

The 216 acre waterfront project in Bellingham is not described. Is it the usual entertainment, hotels, condominium assembly? PFM group must have had something to compare to the jobs provided by the coal port and one probably should assume that those jobs are in the hospitality industry. Those jobs are ...

Posted Tue, Feb 28, 2:23 p.m.

Knowledgeable planning folks are "snubbing the suburbs"? the evidence being that someone's eyes glazed over at a lecture? it's not easy to see the motive for this piece. Suburbs are what they are and very close to what they were fifty years ago, nice places to live, car dependent, quiet ...

Posted Fri, Feb 24, 5:34 p.m.

There are not many industries that would interest spectators but I think shipping is an entertaining, sometimes picturesque exception, an industrial tableau that that enlivens our downtown. If you bike or walk the shoreline from Pier 91 to the Spokane St. Bridge, down West Marginal Way, maybe ride the Water ...

Posted Tue, Feb 21, 11:34 a.m.

Silly me, I must've translated a rumor into a fact. Good article, I agree that spring training is better than the regular season, especially for second tier teams (it's been an idle dream to go to some of the spring games; I envy you).

Posted Tue, Feb 21, 11:28 a.m.

The consensus of comment seems to be that the "poor" (not exactly defined) are worse off in Washington than they are in, for example, Oregon or California. That may be true but I have never seen it demonstrated with any kind of objective evidence. If you can't get a job ...

Posted Mon, Feb 20, 5:16 p.m.

Felix now plays for the Yankees. Did I miss something?

Posted Mon, Feb 20, 2 p.m.

": If to achieve economic security all adults must be employed, who will care for the children? " (Marcia Meyers quote). Surely this must be the most profound question of the piece. Economically, the case for mothers working was at least partly based on the belief that a relatively well ...

Posted Wed, Feb 15, 2:59 p.m.

Good article. Thank yu.

Posted Tue, Feb 14, 2:34 p.m.

Let's see now, an autonomous public agency with unlimited ability to issue bonds and, because of the low interest rate environment, a brisk demand for tax sheltered public debt. Did we not have an agency like that some time in the past? and what was the result? not good, was ...

Posted Mon, Feb 13, 10:45 a.m.

Candlestick Park is not really on the water. I think you mean ATT Park which is, and which I regard as the the USA's only triumph of sports stadium as urban feature. Sports stadiums do create traffic jams but, in the case of ATT Park it may be worth it.

Posted Tue, Feb 7, 2:31 p.m.

Yes, animalal, and remember when that California developer (fancy houses) wanted $70 million to upgrade the Kingdome? King County briskly shot that down and then went on to tear down the entire Kingdome and build the present palace- ostensibly with Allen's money but with enough long term side benefits to ...

Posted Sat, Feb 4, 1:59 p.m.

"Thus the total dependency ratio will increase from 56 percent to 76 percent, suggesting that, by 2040, 24 percent of the population will be supporting the other 76 percent." Thank you Mr. Nelson for this terrifying projection (2011 to 2040, I assume). If anything is unsustainable that is. So we ...

Posted Sat, Feb 4, 1:43 p.m.

The code was there before the process began and the building code (as distinguished from the zoning code) is not a local production; it is a national code and is, putatively at least, based on actual risk. So "flexibility" in code enforcement is not a promising avenue. A building designed ...

Posted Thu, Feb 2, 4:26 p.m.

Well put, jml. The author at least gestures in the direction of comparing "green energy" (windmills) to gas wells. The economics of windmills are poor; the industry survives by subsidy and tax break; maintenance is costly and the output is not reliable. And, if anyone wants my opinion, windmills are ...

Posted Tue, Jan 24, 5:17 p.m.

This is a sad piece, revealing more about the author than about the subject. In 1968 there were riots (remember those? the Yippees were not black) and to say that preferring, or promising "law and order" conceals a racist message is foolish if not paranoid. Mr. Locke thinks it is ...

Posted Fri, Jan 20, 1:45 p.m.

"Washington's consumer spending was 5 percent less than 2005's levels overall,..." It seems to me that lower consumer spending is going to have a much greater impact on our economy than the loss of the government jobs. I think the headline may be ignoring the more important story.

Posted Tue, Jan 17, 5:21 p.m.

Thank you Crankyoldlady for your comment/question and thank you Crosscut for giving it an editor's pick.

Posted Tue, Jan 17, 10:22 a.m.

I'm glad to hear that other people have better luck finding telephone numbers on the web than I do but consider this: after I look up "wallpaper" in the yellow pages I don't get a dose of spam promoting interior finishes. There is a secure sense of anonymity in those ...

Posted Mon, Jan 16, 3:11 p.m.

Full agreement with Eric and commenters; the trend with online search is to hide every bit of information behind layers of advertising and (I suspect) data-gathering functions. The web is not to serve us; it's to provide focused information to marketers; they're smarter than we are and we've probably just ...

Posted Sat, Jan 14, 9:35 a.m.

"..Experience elsewhere suggests that except for very localized effects on populations already in trouble, those fears are largely fantasy." Well, maybe; a family member who ranches in another state reports that even coyotes kill newly born calves. It's a minuscule loss ( "localized effect") unless, of course, it is your ...

Posted Fri, Jan 13, 2:39 p.m.

There are some things that the State is mandated to spend money on; among them, roads and (at least) elementary education. So why does DSHS take 30% of the state budge right off the top? it seems that, given the constitutional mandate, the first things that should be funded would ...

Posted Fri, Jan 6, 5:33 p.m.

Ending the free bus zone would sure be a worthwhile experiment and I think I read that was in the works. The 3rd Ave. bus route (M2, for me) seems to have become a social magnet for badly dressed, undoubtedly poor, sometimes threatening people. Some of these folks are criminals, ...

Posted Thu, Jan 5, 5:28 p.m.

Thank you Mr. Scigliano. Presidential primary elections might have some political and social value but the caucuses serve no good purpose at all. Well, they keep newspeople occupied when they might otherwise be violating some celebrity's privacy. Hard to tell which is worse.

Posted Wed, Dec 28, 5:05 p.m.

Ignorance of the local sex ads seems like a minor flaw in an Attorney General. The point of the article is either, " get hip and tolerate prostitution" in which case the author, Mr. Scigliano, would be obligated to defend that argument... which would be pretty tough. Or, maybe the ...

Posted Wed, Dec 21, 3:58 p.m.

I think JGP and MisterZ have a good argument: namely that the transportation node that is most promising is at SeaTac. My observations (limited, I admit) are that the airline customers have more in common with the Greyhound clientele than the Amtrak crowd. Amtrak seems to be a pleasant way ...

Posted Tue, Dec 20, 11:47 a.m.

Commenters, read woofer (someone I seldom agree with). If the children had love good training at home this problem would diminish by 80%. A child has learned a lot by age five.

Posted Sun, Dec 18, 1:27 p.m.

I guess we should make it clear to the world that we just want to export airplanes. Fortunately, they are environmentally benign and help millions abroad that need to get from one place to the other (where there are some decent beaches, for example).

Posted Sun, Dec 18, 1:19 p.m.

Thank you, Tony, and thank you Crosscut. A moving piece.

Posted Thu, Dec 15, 1:13 p.m.

Someone in this thread makes the argument that the reverend was simply exercising his first amendment rights. He was, probably, but he was also preventing wage earners from using public rights-of-way as they are intended to be used (and allying himself with people who throw things at the police). We're ...

Posted Tue, Dec 13, 4:06 p.m.

There is a duality in Seattle's pedestrian code: the pedestrian has the right of way at all street intersections, right? OK, so why do we have crosswalks at street intersections? it's as if a pedestrian has double indemnity at the crosswalks and is protected minimally elsewhere. Most laws are not ...

Posted Fri, Dec 9, 5:05 p.m.

Yes, at 5PM "many of the shops (in the "historic district) are closed". But it's worse than that; there are no businesses in about half the retail space on Meeker St. between the BNSF tracks and the (I think) Sounder tracks, i. e., "downtown" Kent. Physically it's a very nice ...

Posted Wed, Dec 7, 2:21 p.m.

This reads like a cautionary example of letting public policy be set by the plaintiff's bar. If the Park Service pays this claim then the pressure is on to eliminate an ever expanding list of "risks" on public trails. Those slippery wood bridges, sharp rocks, pests that carry unpleasant viruses, ...

Posted Wed, Dec 7, 9:23 a.m.

All observers testify to Lariviere's brilliance but I have to wonder about his failure to notice who he was working for. Douglas MacArthur was regarded as very smart also (or, even better, very lucky) but he failed to recognize a very important fact: he worked for President Truman, not God.

Posted Tue, Dec 6, 11:44 a.m.

Good article and good comments. It does surprise me that exporting coal is not mentioned. Well, it does not benefit Washingtonians much and it has the stigma that coal has rightly earned but if we are going to import massively then we have to export something other than IOUs don't ...

Posted Fri, Dec 2, 10:32 a.m.

A beautiful piece; thank you Mr. Robinson.

Posted Wed, Nov 30, 3:38 p.m.

Good piece, Knute. Sometimes what I read in Crosscut makes it sound as if Mr. Corner was just asked to come up with some ideas for a waterfront somewhere west of the Cascades (like Disney at Seattle Center). There must be a sober, thoughtful committee that has been tasked with ...

Posted Wed, Nov 30, 3:37 p.m.

Good piece, Knute. Sometimes what I read in Crosscut makes it sound as if Mr. Corner was just asked to come up with some ideas for a waterfront somewhere west of the Cascades (like Disney at Seattle Center). There must be a sober, thoughtful committee that has been tasked with ...

Posted Tue, Nov 29, 5:22 p.m.

Artifacts, I did not write clearly. What I meant to say is that historically significant things have happened in warehouses, gas stations and Dunkin Donuts. Those plebeian buildings, anonymously designed, are not nominated because John Dillinger shot someone there or some of Harry Hopkins papers were stored there. Significant events ...

Posted Tue, Nov 29, 9:06 a.m.

Some of the arguments for "saving" the building seem to stray awfully far front the merits of the building itself. The architect, the Federal Reserve itself and its history could both be associated with a very poorly executed building (even good architects make mistakes) and would not, I presume, lead ...

Posted Sat, Nov 26, 6 p.m.

Your sights are way low. I look for "single payer" food supply. We all need food and the wealthy and upper middle class eat far more healthy, nutritious, not to mention tasty, meals--they live longer too. The idea that we all, rich and poor, compete to buy food simply drives ...

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

If you had some score to settle with Dorm Braman it would have been better to do it while he was still alive, Barbara.

Posted Thu, Nov 24, 12:20 p.m.

Lincoln, anyone who disses "curb bulbs" gets a sympathetic listen from me. Those stupid, anal, prissy devices (did I say stupid?) help pedestrians in no way but do prevent right turns, passage of emergency vehicles and the like. Yet, after twenty years or so, the Street Engineering Dept. cheerfully adds ...

Posted Wed, Nov 23, 5:58 p.m.

Mr. H. thanks for keeping up with this; I don't see coverage anywhere else. I think I agree with your suggestion of diminishing the scope of the design area. Also, I think we've all noticed that a large part of the "green" and the design exclamations are on public property ...

Posted Wed, Nov 16, 10:54 a.m.

David, you write as if Air America didn't exist (actually, maybe it doesn't anymore).

Posted Wed, Nov 16, 10:45 a.m.

How difficult would it be credit those who paid the full sales tax (and sold their old car separately) for the sales tax collected on the sale of their old car? it would be more cumbersome but since when has that stopped a tax law? The cost of new cars ...

Posted Mon, Nov 14, 3:43 p.m.

Yes, he was a good guy. Very nice piece, thanks Knute.

Posted Sat, Nov 12, 12:14 p.m.

Willie, you can pick your time frame to help support many trend arguments. For example crude was (inflation adjusted) at over $102 per barrel in 1980, something of an anomaly but my point is that the commodity does bounce around. See http://inflationdata.com/inflation/inflation_rate/historical_oil_prices_table.asp Is that a relentless chart? I don't see ...

Posted Fri, Nov 11, 7:04 p.m.

I expect ObamaCare to be validated by the Supreme Court, GeofS, so we will see if the cost curve is indeed "bent down".

Posted Fri, Nov 11, 5:47 p.m.

The fact that John Kennedy was likable, good looking and well spoken did not make him a particularly good president (incidentally, I don't think Churchill wrote any "complete account of WW I"... you must mean WW II). To people like Mathews Kennedy has become the image of a good president ...

Posted Fri, Nov 11, 2:23 p.m.

Willie, during what timespan have "fuel costs" been rising? we all pay just under $4 per gallon for normal 90% gasoline. As I remember I have paid more than that within the last two years. Crude is bouncing around near $100 (up from $85) and it was over $120 just ...

Posted Tue, Nov 8, 8 p.m.

Rainier Ale was good. And it was cheap. Normally that would be a winning combination but the brew's popularity with the alcoholic population gradually undermined its fine objective attributes. First the local liquor store stopped carrying it; then stores that did carry it (a diminishing list) started stocking quarts only, ...

Posted Tue, Nov 8, 3:25 p.m.

mspat; in the case of the fines at least the money collected goes into the taxpayer's account. In the Cap and Trade legislation that was before congress earlier this year that was not the case; money would simply go to the lesser polluters. And, no, fines and penalties (like traffic ...

Posted Tue, Nov 8, 2:37 p.m.

Very good article and good comments, especially gabowker, Dublin. A submerged contradiction regarding the famous Highline is the decades-old aversion in Seattle and elsewhere to pedestrian bridges and the like. I believe it is recorded policy in Seattle to keep pedestrian activity at the sidewalk level and to discourage any ...

Posted Mon, Nov 7, 4:45 p.m.

It's satisfying to have a big, especially foreign, corporation to demonize but doesn't the “It’s far worse to stand next to a roadway.” quote apply to Saint Gobain also? and it would be helpful to know how much of particulate matter in the Puget Sound area comes from industry and ...

Posted Fri, Nov 4, 11:03 a.m.

The article gives no indication of what portion of the total capital gain income in this state is due to the sale of houses. I'm guessing that the portions high, 50% or more. When you sell the house that you have owned for 25 years to buy a condo you ...

Posted Thu, Nov 3, 2:01 p.m.

When I read the law was appealed by "..four off-road vehicle groups.." (and no timber companies) I was convinced. It's good law.

Posted Tue, Nov 1, 5:22 p.m.

Thank you, Harris. How stories like this get airtime is the scandal.

Posted Mon, Oct 31, 5:49 p.m.

Bill Clinton, known as a serial adulterer, remans very popular and I think he could win the Presidency again if it were legal. Did I miss something? it seems like the case of Mr. Clinton belongs in this article.

Posted Sun, Oct 30, 5:28 p.m.

OK Knute, we concede, Muir is better than whatever Republicans you are talking about but what does that have to do with the subject? I think it should be said that Raban's writing about London (Soft City, about 1975) had a detached, circumspect viewpoint that is kind of how he ...

Posted Tue, Oct 18, 7:13 p.m.

Thanks to Eric and Crosscut for even acknowledging that Mr. Bolton spoke hereabouts (I did not see anything in the Seattle Times or the PI). I think Bolton's truculence can reasonably be traced to the widely acknowledged fact that the Models for Western Democracy have thrived deeply in debt to ...

Posted Sat, Oct 15, 1:45 p.m.

Someone I was reading recently (history of Hedge Funds) pointed out that very few HFs went bust in the recent economic storm and, those that did quietly doled out their losses to their investors and , just as quietly, ceased to exist. I am guessing that Jesus would respect, maybe ...

Posted Thu, Oct 13, 6:55 p.m.

The true Christians would then be represented by the General Motors Corporation, they graciously accepted government aid and then shared it with their workers. Jesus must be pleased.

Posted Sat, Oct 8, 11:25 a.m.

Allow me to be tiresome on the subject: the tunnel is a lousy solution to the problem of the doomed Viaduct. It was selected because the other alternatives were even worse.

Posted Fri, Oct 7, 2:20 p.m.

I'm sure there was a time when driving a car did not entail insurance either and my parents just paid the doctors when they could but if you have an investment of $trillions in staff, facilities and machinery there has to be a reliable stream of revenue (not my parents). ...

Posted Fri, Oct 7, 9:16 a.m.

...the obscene idea arise that providing health care for humans ought to be a profit-making enterprise?" and food? how about clothing? most people still pay for shelter out of their own pockets. If I smoke, drink, use illicit drugs should I be cared for in the commons? the arrangements we ...

Posted Thu, Oct 6, 4:05 p.m.

Protesting to stop a war is at least coherent and understandable. Furthermore the President and Congress are capable of stopping wars by passing a bill of probably no more than twenty pages. In this case, the message from "Occupy Wall Street" is obscure. Do they mean "Outlaw Collateralized Debt Obligations", ...

Posted Thu, Oct 6, 12:20 p.m.

I think Burns developed a brilliant technique for recounting historic events in The Civil War series. Other than that he is a rather pompous messenger of the conventional wisdom. Klezmer was never mentioned in the Jazz series. Other than the fact that he is or was an alcoholic why is ...

Posted Wed, Oct 5, 1:20 p.m.

You write good stories! thanks.

Posted Wed, Oct 5, 8:40 a.m.

Some years ago the Stranger revealed that the new City Hall used more energy than the old City Hall on a per sq. ft. and per occupant basis in spite of its well-publicized green credentials. Do public buildings (the Library comes to mind) record and compare energy usage? I am ...

Posted Tue, Oct 4, 5:23 p.m.

Roger, I try to think of a fast growing city I would consider living in. There's Brasilia, that's the screaming model for fast growth but, of course it's not a reasonable comparison. Think instead about Phoenix, Denver, LA (another model), Dallas-Forth Worth, Huston. Compare their growth rate to what Seattle ...

Posted Mon, Oct 3, 11:56 a.m.

I think the author should have at least mentioned that Vancouver is a boom economy and has been for twenty years. "Boom" economies with their fast growth tend to attract immigrants and many of these immigrants are poor and looking for work. This will raise the underemployment and unemployment rate ...

Posted Thu, Sep 22, 11:06 a.m.

It's OK to export logs and CO2 emitting airplanes but this coal comes from elsewhere and consequently must adhere to a more stringent set of rules.

Posted Thu, Sep 22, 11 a.m.

Good piece, thank you. My reservation is that the focus is on the host who quite obviously suffers only marginally. As with many diseases it is the caregiver who deserves our sympathy and esteem. I think the fear of alzheimer's ("just shoot me") is not for one's self but for ...

Posted Tue, Sep 20, 4:23 p.m.

smacgry makes a good point: who has determined that car ownership is the way to divide the haves from the have-nots? I see people on the bus with laptops that probably cost more than some of the cars that get people to work. Good piece by Mr. Royer.

Posted Mon, Sep 19, 4:14 p.m.

Very good piece. Thank you Mr. Hinshaw. There is little reason that ground floor street level spaces can't be used as residences. Many people routinely keep blinds closed or are sufficiently unconcerned about privacy to make this work; there are certainly enough of these human types to occupy a lot ...

Posted Sun, Sep 18, 3:44 p.m.

Our experience with new windows is similar to sjenner's but there is something satisfying about reducing recurring monthly expenses (call it the Micawber principal). The trouble is that petroleum, water power and natural gas are all too cheap to justify the silly windmills and (so far) photovoltaic power generation. I ...

Posted Thu, Sep 15, 4:37 p.m.

I'm curious: why is the $500k referred to as "bail"? they've been tried and convicted, yes? wouldn't ransom be a more accurate term? and who is paying? the families? State Department (the rest of us who hike in more friendly territory)? As usual, good article. Thank you.

Posted Wed, Sep 14, 10:30 a.m.

When Mr. Moyers lists his daily sources of information I am reminded of a cartoon from forty years ago that had a young man saying, "I read TIme, Life and Fortune to get a rounded view of things". Well Moyers at least says he reads Gretchen Morgenson and Joe Nocera ...

Posted Tue, Sep 13, 8:57 a.m.

I don't ride a lot but I have ridden a bicycle in Seattle and environs for a long time. My experience is totally different; I can remember people shouting bad names at me from mildly inconvenienced pickups back in the 80s. Drivers are much more tolerant and considerate now. As ...

Posted Fri, Sep 2, 2:16 p.m.

It's good to be kept up to date on this stuff, thanks David. GaryP is surely correct about the waterfront trolley. First Avenue isn't going to work for the trolley line, that's just a sop, and junking the trolley for some trees is a bad trade. I haven't seen any ...

Posted Wed, Aug 31, 10:04 a.m.

Good article, very interesting. After the Boeing Bust of 1969-70 I think similar patterns of dramatic value reduction at the fringes of suburbia, with attendant foreclosures, housing abandonment, etc. showed up. Close-in areas faired much better. I think one reason for is that the older developments had a history of ...

Posted Tue, Aug 30, 4:48 p.m.

Steve E., a natural disaster in New York or Boston is orders of magnitude more costly (in all respects, physical destruction and loss of life) than a disaster in Minot. Those of us who choose to live in areas prone to earthquakes should pay for that risk. Likewise floodplains or ...

Posted Tue, Aug 30, 10:38 a.m.

If you ignore the Republican bashing Knute has a good point; we need insurance against disasters. But shouldn't it be a program that collects premiums (especially from urban areas, maybe especially in coastal areas, that are susceptible to catastrophic loss of life) rather than a "spend whatever can be plausibly ...

Posted Tue, Aug 30, 9:42 a.m.

Gruesome behavior especially in the downtown free zone should be at least acknowledged in this article. Incidents where unstable, violent or merely obnoxious people use transit as a base for depredations downtown should be at least mentioned. There may be no solution to the behavior of mentally ill people that ...

Posted Sun, Aug 28, 2:54 p.m.

Very good piece, thank you. It would be interesting to speculate on which senators in the Gang of 12 are likely to seek reelection. I doubt if Murray will run again and that would tend, maybe, to make her more "statesmanlike" in this endeavor. Kerry is also unlikely to run ...

Posted Fri, Aug 26, 10:57 a.m.

Good piece, Knute and very nearly even-handed. I would quibble with the implied equivalence between those who believe "God Created Earth in Seven Days" and "truthers" who, as I understand it believe carefully placed explosives inside the Twin Towers took them down rather than the airplanes we all saw on ...

Posted Thu, Aug 25, 4:15 p.m.

Well, mikemc, there might be more than one horse in that barn. Good piece, Eric, the Fed laxity seems to derive from rather obscure and perhaps unknowable risks that accompany low levels of radiation and so, as you say, the urgency is totally missing. Statistics coming from Japan in the ...

Posted Tue, Aug 23, 9:06 a.m.

Lincoln, I don't know about I-90; it's certainly conceivable to me that fewer lanes would have a negligible impact on the total transportation picture. My point is that more lanes on 520 is just a foothold to widen I-405 and (horror of all horrors) add lanes to I-5. I do ...

Posted Mon, Aug 22, 7:47 p.m.

Lincoln, I am not Knute but, given the congestion at both I-5 and I-405, I think just replacing the two lanes each direction (I suppose there would have to be breakdown lanes) would make sense. Why have six lanes? more places to park?

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

The Tea Party that we all read about wants to reduce government spending (and, especially, borrowing). That issue will perhaps indirectly affect trade and imports but selecting the Tea Party as the villain (played by the Catholic Church in the original) for this clumsy and mean satire makes no sense. ...

Posted Wed, Aug 17, 3:02 p.m.

The old building looks pretty good in the photos. I can't say the same for the addition. I'll take your word for it; it's good but having some good photos would make it easier to believe you (night photos are always suspect... hell, Columbia Center looks good at night).

Posted Tue, Aug 16, 1:45 p.m.

Thank you debbalee for asking. If the job gained is in retail does that count? from the author's description it sounds like anything will conform to the program except housing. The land is presently zoned to exclude housing, yes? Doesn't the presence of two surface railroad track systems in the ...

Posted Fri, Aug 12, 3:04 p.m.

".. quixotic ..?" yes, the word is perfect. The argument that shipping coal to China will lead to more coal fired plants there than they would otherwise have built may be true. I don't think anyone knows but the argument itself is slippery. If I use less gasoline in my ...

Posted Tue, Aug 9, 9:25 p.m.

"somewhere", WSJ, 8/9/11, the rating agency is Egan-Jones of Haverford, PA

Posted Tue, Aug 9, 6:02 p.m.

As we speak Port of Seattle is eagerly seeking customers for its container ship unloading operations. These containers are shipped by diesel trucks to a variety of transfer points around the Seattle/Kent/Tacoma area. Generally, these efforts by the Port are applauded here but maybe not by doctors who really know ...

Posted Tue, Aug 9, 5:49 p.m.

Very good piece, Kent, as usual. I think what you are saying, in part, is that it's largely a parenting problem but families are outside the reach of conscious public policy. Mothers work, fathers work and TV takes care of the rest. Looking back many years I remember people who ...

Posted Tue, Aug 9, 3:38 p.m.

Some salient facts: Chinese and German rating agencies downgraded US debt before S&P; did (just google "downgrade US debt rating") and I have read somewhere just today that a boutique rating agency in the USA (paid not by issuers but by investors... big difference) also downgraded the US debt two ...

Posted Mon, Aug 8, 10:27 a.m.

If your quote is correct and he said "...a good argument can be made..." then your piece is built on a strained interpretation. I believe good arguments can be made for things I oppose. The phrase means what it says; there are rational, coherent people who disagree with me.

Posted Sun, Aug 7, 4:55 p.m.

HM, it's probably not hard to find economists who advocate continuing to borrow and spend to inflate our economy back to a more vigorous growth mode (there's always Krugman) but I think the unspoken and unspeakable end game of that strategy is a repudiation of the debt in one way ...

Posted Sun, Aug 7, 11:34 a.m.

I'm curious; what happened to H. Meyer's commentary?

Posted Sat, Aug 6, 3:06 p.m.

Good piece, TVD and it's also good to read such a brave and tightly reasoned defense of our President by Mr HM.

Posted Sat, Aug 6, 10:17 a.m.

Thank you. That needed to be said (most of it news to me). Mr. Z has enjoyed way better press coverage than he deserves.

Posted Thu, Aug 4, 11:33 a.m.

GaryP, I have to say I didn't know that Paul Allen gave Seattle the new football stadium. Good piece but thank you Crtc2 for putting better background on view. I think the author is way too kind to the Gates complex and seriously wrong about the REI building, a mess ...

Posted Tue, Aug 2, 2:46 p.m.

An idea that comes from an "institute" with unconcealed, shameless contacts with Republicans and others of that ilk. No wonder that particular genesis has not been trumpeted by tunnel advocates. Good article though.

Posted Sat, Jul 30, 4:45 p.m.

What I read, here and elsewhere, is that the responsible, public spirited thing to do is to borrow some more money to pay the interest on money we have already borrowed . Furthermore I have absorbed the message that it is caddish and unseemly to quibble about this action. It ...

Posted Sat, Jul 30, 4:19 p.m.

Enlightening piece. Thanks

Posted Thu, Jul 28, 4:04 p.m.

Interesting article; thank you. You do not say so but the limitations of the existing rail lines north of Everett do argue in favor of the Longview export terminal, does it not? perhaps not so much as an alternative but as a valuable supplement. I would be dismayed if passenger ...

Posted Wed, Jul 27, 1:30 p.m.

Thanks Kent. Surprise upzones are like printing money for the current owners of the property; it's a one time windfall that has tremendous motivating power and, in all likelihood, does no one else any good. The high density developments near transit stations make sense on a planner's scale but we ...

Posted Mon, Jul 25, 11:22 a.m.

Eric, I use some of the same buses you do and the closures do seem perverse. It raises suspicions in my mind that Metro is "sending a message" to as many people as possible. That's maybe how they figure to get voter approval but your very good piece does not ...

Posted Wed, Jul 20, 4:54 p.m.

C'mon Knute, parking meters are unpopular too. I would expect them to poll at 30% or under. Is it a big social issue, like regressive taxation? well it is in the same way paying for your car tabs are I guess. I think my neighbors BMW pays the same tab ...

Posted Tue, Jul 19, 5:52 p.m.

It is not a slow news interval we have now what with the debt ceiling, unemployment and the ongoing recession so it does surprise me that this seemingly entirely British event is such a feature in the news. I think animalal has it right; it's an opportunity for those antagonistic ...

Posted Sat, Jul 16, 11:31 a.m.

David, I think the historic basis for the "lively street" goal is the souk. You know better than I do that the street markets of lower Manhattan were to some urban theorists the model for a public space that included face-to-face negotiations, haggling, theater, purchase of daily necessities all done ...

Posted Sat, Jul 16, 9:35 a.m.

The word "corrosive" needs some definition, doesn't it? it is my understanding that, for example, rust corrosion proceeds more quickly in water with a high oxygen content. Maybe I am wrong about that. I also believe the acids that contribute to other corrosion do not necessarily correspond to fluctuations of ...

Posted Tue, Jul 12, 5:57 p.m.

I think it's unusual, at least on the West Coast, to have such intense shipping activity within the amphitheater of hills and tall office and residential buildings. It is interesting and entertaining to watch the port operations so I think Seattle has a resource here that is rewarding in several ...

Posted Tue, Jul 12, 2:46 p.m.

Very good piece. Thank you. The theory that shop windows are essential for lively streets has always struck me as superficially convincing but thin intellectually. For example you have the handsome Eagles Hall but what do you see through the windows? lobbies, a stairwell and, during most days, no people. ...

Posted Fri, Jul 8, 2:01 p.m.

Thanks for publishing this. He is a great artist, his own invention.

Posted Fri, Jul 8, 11:12 a.m.

I think it's a mistake to believe that the tax receipts that support education will actually be higher without the presence of Boeing and all its peripheral suppliers and subcontractors. I think Gregoire has done the arithmetic; we're better off subsidizing the deal.

Posted Thu, Jul 7, 2:40 p.m.

Interesting article. It would be good to have a total dollar figure to compare with the "approximately" $1 billion that SC put up in incentives (I realize that politicians will tend to conceal those totals). Governor Gregoire appears to hope that there is a momentum of investment/training/job creation that can ...

Posted Wed, Jun 29, 2:05 p.m.

Good piece. You could argue that the City should just make all employers pay higher wages then, supposedly, the employee who came down with fever and vomiting could just afford to pass up his pay and stay home. It adds up to the same thing doesn't it? the employer can ...

Posted Mon, Jun 27, 5:42 p.m.

The author fails to explain what uses in the ferry terminal would occupy space and perhaps even draw customers to the terminal beyond the ferry passengers. It's easy to imagine a Starbucks or a Subway taking some space and doing enough business to help pay off the bonds but I ...

Posted Fri, Jun 24, 3:57 p.m.

Obama's "surge" in Afghanistan probably was prompted by some poorly chosen criticisms of then-President Bush ("we should be fighting Al Queda in Afghanistan rather than wasting treasure and lives in Iraq"). As President he may have felt compelled to at least make a show of trying to win in Afghanistan. ...

Posted Tue, Jun 21, 6:17 p.m.

I agree with chuck. It seems like the well connected or (in this case) the culturally aggrieved both have a claim on that public space. The Chihuly thing was sold as a rent paying budgetary solution. This proposal represents a new direction; that a racial or cultural group that seeks ...

Posted Sat, Jun 18, 3:14 p.m.

Good piece, Mr. S. I think the key metric is the $20K to $30K per month. That would equal the rent for about 20,000 sq. ft. in a moderately upscale office building. If accurate, that is staggering. Controlling that is going to be like controlling crack; you can try.

Posted Mon, Jun 13, 8:41 a.m.

A public official we can admire! good article.

Posted Sat, Jun 11, 10:55 a.m.

HM, he said "Europe", he didn't say "Western Europe".

Posted Fri, Jun 10, 10:07 a.m.

Harris Meyer, assuming Mr.Hall is relatively young and normally healthy, not covered by Medicare or Medicaid, he would have the choice of either foregoing the treatment or paying for it himself in this country, the USA. It's obvious that Mr. Hall would have chosen the former and, from what he ...

Posted Thu, Jun 9, 4:54 p.m.

Very good article. Conservatives (me, for example) would ask whether or not you would pay for the cataract surgery with your own money, the market standard for balancing utility and cost. You do not specify whether that was an option in the case of your eye. Harris Meyer, is there ...

Posted Tue, Jun 7, 12:36 p.m.

A possible motivation for Obama to involve our country in this venture is seldom if ever mentioned: we are asking other NATO countries, including France and Great Britain to lend their military services to our effort in Afghanistan. They have reluctantly complied. Now France and Great Britain are asking us ...

Posted Thu, Jun 2, 3:02 p.m.

et tu afreeman. Your links don't work either way.

Posted Thu, Jun 2, 9:23 a.m.

David, you bring up an interesting comparison and if I knew anything about Spokane St. I would cheerfully comment. There could be dozens of reasons why Spokane St. can be done relatively efficiently. I did spend time looking at the schematics that someone (Victor Grey, to begin with) did on ...

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

Congratulations Knute, you have struck the tunnel nerve. Again. I sometimes think of the much admire "Viaduct Repair" as being sort of a Pogue Carburetor (http://www.snopes.com/autos/business/carburetor.asp) for Seattle's mobility junkies. Viaduct Repair enthusiasts believe Seattle and State of Washington officials (the elected ones) should frown, scratch their heads and say, ...

Posted Fri, May 27, 9:54 p.m.

Is California Green? I think Governor Gregoire and certain legislators may have observed the financial disaster in that state and gained wisdom.

Posted Fri, May 27, 5:06 p.m.

Publishing comments as Crosscut does is helpful. Crosscut readers often spot errors and dubious reasoning in posts. Our local printed paper does post some comments online for, I think, a quite limited period of time. In the case of the Seattle Times the print version of Letters to the Editor ...

Posted Wed, May 25, 5:14 p.m.

"..striking from above.." is diplomatically put. From everyplace else it looks pretty dim. NBBJ is a very good firm but something went wrong here. It is reported that there was a Plan A and that it was jettisoned for something more eye-catching (maybe due to a fear of being outshone ...

Posted Wed, May 25, 2:49 p.m.

I get it. We don't get an NBA team we know who to blame.

Posted Tue, May 24, 4:39 p.m.

Wells, I would expect the tolls for the tunnel during peak hours will be set to fill the tunnel to near capacity during those hours. That's what we want isn't it? if the toll is $100 then no one uses the tunnel and the tunnel loses money. If the toll ...

Posted Tue, May 24, 9:40 a.m.

David, if the work by consultants is being corrupted and is not reliable then the entire argument becomes untethered and we can all guess what should work the best and cost the least. Some of what you suspect may happen; people may self edit their estimates but (correct me if ...

Posted Mon, May 23, 2:05 p.m.

Highway 99 proceeds to downtown from the Duwamish River three lanes each way. After the Battery St. Tunnel (two lanes each way) Highway 99 proceeds north to Green lake three lanes each way. Take out the Viaduct and what have you got? great opportunity for transit, right? fix the Viaduct? ...

Posted Sun, May 22, 4:37 p.m.

Relax Pythagoras, Mr. Dunphy categorizes the Republicans according to the best local tradition. I read his statement as at least strongly implying that Republicans want to make cuts in an unthoughtful way.

Posted Sat, May 21, 11:35 a.m.

The design puts a big piece of the green part out over the water. The overland portion is, as one would expect, mostly roadway. Given the constraints that is probably a good tactic. How much benefit is a green development going to do up on the roof of the ferry ...

Posted Wed, May 18, 9:55 a.m.

Very good article, thank you. Your comments on Counterbalance Park were accurate but perhaps too constrained. It is a public space with no redeeming qualities. How can it be so totally bad and still be boring? you are also too kind to South Lake Union Park. The designers would have ...

Posted Tue, May 17, 2:12 p.m.

A variable that is only lightly covered in this article is the age of the patient. My schizophrenic mother took medications for the last twenty years of her life (she lived to be 89), for the final ten years a rather heavy dose. It made her life bearable and even ...

Posted Tue, May 17, 1:57 p.m.

That's bad news. CR handled politicians very well. He is never rude but frequently pursues answers.

Posted Mon, May 9, 5:45 p.m.

In 1961 there was a pancake restaurant on Union St. between 6th and 7th. It was on the NW side of the street. Back then downtown was more congenial to a downscale crowd who probably found cheap places to live in or near downtown. I worked nearby and the pancake ...

Posted Sat, May 7, 12:06 p.m.

So Crosscut should have a battalion of editors to vet these pieces? that sounds silly. One would expect a good internet opinion site to publish pieces with a variety of views and it looks like that is what Crosscut is doing. I didn't think the Valdez piece was very good ...

Posted Sat, May 7, 9:23 a.m.

Thanks for amusing me and explaining what happened to our old recycle bin (which was slightly damaged and had a concave top that collected water). I like the new one but at $50 (does SPU pay sales tax on that?) it's not a bargain.

Posted Fri, May 6, 11:41 a.m.

Very good article, Kent. Thanks.

Posted Thu, May 5, 9:28 a.m.

Good piece, Knute. Interstates 5 and 405 are both, I believe, over capacity so where does all this free flowing traffic go? generous, up-to-Federal-standards parking lots at the east end of 520 and at the west end, maybe the whole thing. Could be a nice place to park, relatively speaking.

Posted Wed, May 4, 9:21 a.m.

The New Yorker link, ( "...social issues might be better addressed on the molecular level..") is frustratingly vague on the "treatment"; what's "molecular" about it? sounds like more social services that governments in the first world have been doing for several generations. Maybe concentrate efforts on the children of addicts? ...

Posted Tue, May 3, 2:37 p.m.

"...on the right the Birther cowd is joining the Arab Street...etc." The link supporting that statement is to Andrew Breitbart and I think it's a stretch to link him to "birthers" When I google Breitbart+Birther I get the following (which seems to exhaust the subject): "Though he called the "birthers" ...

Posted Sat, Apr 30, 1:54 p.m.

Cascade has 13,000 members and they got ballots from 700 of them. That doesn't sound like a political sea change no matter who was elected.

Posted Fri, Apr 29, 9:09 a.m.

There is very little equivalence between the tactic of applying income taxes to non-residents (OR income taxes on Washington State residents) and collecting sales tax on purchases by out-of-state buyers. What Washington is doing is economically beneficial to the State and to the buyer; it allows border retailers to compete ...

Posted Wed, Apr 27, 2:35 p.m.

Good piece. This is more penetrating commentary that anything I have seen in the "bigs", WSJ, NYT or WP.

Posted Wed, Apr 27, 9:07 a.m.

So the parking lots are the problem; so we will make it profitable to build on the parking lots, right? well, no because parking is also a problem. The solution is parking garages? no, I'm sure the solution is transit. Sure. If Seattle possessed a building that was priceless and ...

Posted Thu, Apr 14, 9:06 a.m.

Wilbur, of course the two areas are not analogous, that wasn't my point. By the way I hope you are not saying that people NOT arriving by car requires taller buildings. The specifics of the PS district certainly demand careful investment and design but I do not see how taller ...

Posted Wed, Apr 13, 6:04 p.m.

It puzzles me that knowledgeable observers think raising height limits will help "revitalize" Pioneer Square. Let's say it happens, your property that was zoned for a five story building is now zoned for a ten story building. That's great, you can sell the property for considerably more money or develop ...

Posted Wed, Apr 13, 4:21 p.m.

jmrolls: "One thing that the Lin Study does is validate the restoration as a viable option." P. 18, referenced T. Y. Lin Study (read the final sentence): "Conclusion With all of the above factors in mind our committee concludes that the relatively narrow difference in costs between the choice of ...

Posted Tue, Apr 12, 2:18 p.m.

"restoring the Viaduct", "seismically retrofit the existing Viaduct"; is there a Cargo Cult in Seattle? please reference a single study by engineers (real licensed engineers) that show fixing the existing Viaduct is a realistic option. The "fix" would be good for 25-40 years, it would be ugly and expensive and ...

Posted Mon, Apr 11, 5:48 p.m.

".... nation's best approach to public funding, which will keep these new buildings filled with good producers.... also tapping developers, who underwrite these new centers" this is confusing to me. "new buildings" and "good producers"? does this mean Denver is building studios with public money? maybe just for performance art? ...

Posted Sat, Apr 9, 4:51 p.m.

jmrolls, " thirty member Alaskan Way Viaduct Committee", do you have a link to that report? thanks.

Posted Sat, Apr 9, 12:51 p.m.

Excerpt from the referenced KPFF Presentation: "The costs of all retrofit schemes proposed to date are high relative to the cost of completely replacing the viaduct with a new elevated structure. According to WSDOT estimates, the damping retrofit scheme proposed by the Viaduct Preservation Group, and designed through schematic level ...

Posted Sat, Apr 9, 9:32 a.m.

jmrolls, I admit to ignorance about the two DOT studies or the T Y Lin study. Are they findable on the web? the two DOT studies do not show up in my search.

Posted Fri, Apr 8, 6:22 p.m.

Somehow the notion that the viaduct is repairable persists in spite of a lack of serious analysis that would support that idea. An ASCE study estimated the cost of repairing the viaduct at $2.3 Billion (see link below). Critics will probably say that ASCE and WSDOT cooked the estimate and, ...

Posted Fri, Apr 8, 9:33 a.m.

If one thinks of Washington's available finances as a pool collecting money from everyone A thru Z and if citizens A thru D actually are net beneficiaries, withdrawing from that pool, then one would expect that if the pool diminishes in size then A thru D would get to withdraw ...

Posted Wed, Apr 6, 10:19 a.m.

Startling article, very good. I have read that the real estate bubble in China differs from our recent experience in that the Chinese investors are buying with cash. That situation may or may not apply in Vancouver and I think the article could have been even better if it had ...

Posted Wed, Mar 23, 5:14 p.m.

I don't want to sound like I am defending the sickening tide of political messaging that I see and hear. It's bad. What I am saying is that it's always been bad. Selling a political idea is a rough enterprise. I have shaken a (very) few politicians' hands and I ...

Posted Wed, Mar 23, 9:30 a.m.

Pepper, part of what you are saying, "..those are hours not spent at local events, etc. " is what one would expect, namely that the time spent fund-raising is leveraged via big media into delivering a message to a great many people. OK, the message is manipulated to grab attention ...

Posted Tue, Mar 22, 2:10 p.m.

A depressing thing to read and, I'm sure, accurate. You could have mentioned that the big spenders do not always win. I don't know the ratio but it seems that I fairly often read that "so and so" won in spite of being outspent. There is at least the glimmer ...

Posted Thu, Mar 17, 6:07 p.m.

Knute always makes his ruminations into interesting reading but, appealing as the image is, government is just not analogous to retailing. Take another look at Texas. Or North Dakota or South Dakota. Maybe someplace that hasn't tasted so much easy money.

Posted Sun, Mar 13, 6:27 p.m.

One thing that would make closing "loopholes" more attractive to the voter is if the closure of the alleged loophole were balanced by a general tax reduction; i. e., the elusive "revenue neutral" tax revision. What I hear sounds more like a simple quest for more revenue but, ideally, without ...

Posted Sat, Mar 12, 6:06 p.m.

Well said, Steve, but the examples you select would extend out to the far decimals of one percent of tax revenue. The big exemptions, rent where sales tax is concerned, Boeing and Microsoft special status in both sales and B&O; tax are unlikely to be challenged. The exemptions are there ...

Posted Sat, Mar 12, 9:35 a.m.

We all know why there is no sales tax on the rental of housing; right now, if the legislature enacted a tax, it would raise everyone's rent. That could cause some annoyance. The other exceptions (barbers, engineers, lawyers, etc.) are due to corruption of one sort or another I suppose ...

Posted Thu, Mar 10, 12:34 p.m.

Good piece, Kent. I plan to read the book. One comment: the "no-till" procedures that I am somewhat familiar with does require a lot of herbicide and it is difficult to keep the highly developed seed stock from becoming contaminated with invasive species.

Posted Tue, Mar 8, 12:28 p.m.

Chris, didn't Washington State's descent into financially troubled waters commence about the time a State Senator (from the 36th District, probably) who was some sort of budget chairwoman for years retired --probably about 2002(?). I'm embarrassed that I can't remember her name but she was rightly respected by both Democrats ...

Posted Mon, Mar 7, 8:58 a.m.

Cued by Knute, the Seattle Times intoned the "trust" issue yet again.

Posted Fri, Mar 4, 2:41 p.m.

A separate article in Crosscut (which I can't find now) listed the quantity of coal that passes through Seattle, Everett and Bellingham on the way to BC ports. The amount is significant and I would expect the number of "pass through" trains destined for BC to be reduced with the ...

Posted Wed, Mar 2, 5:41 p.m.

"Surface advocates like Cary Moon of the People's Waterfront Coalition, are calling for the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) to do more to explain how tens of thousands of more cars on unimproved streets after the tolled tunnel opens and the Viaduct comes down will be handled." I certainly ...

Posted Tue, Mar 1, 5:36 p.m.

Maybe we should all belong to unions. Then employees could all expect at least the best job conditions, health care and retirement plan that their particular industry could afford. Less profitable businesses would presumably pay less and provide fewer perks or, perhaps, go out of business. Businesses or public services ...

Posted Thu, Feb 24, 4:03 p.m.

" It cites 27 organizations in Washington as belonging to this category, that generally "define themselves as opposed to the 'New World Order,' engage in groundless conspiracy theorizing," I have to assume that includes the 39% of Democrats who believe George Bush (at least) knew in advance about the 9/11 ...

Posted Wed, Feb 23, 5:26 p.m.

Who are the "responsible parties"? and are they all on the City's payroll? we all know police representatives would be at the table but who else?

Posted Wed, Feb 23, 9:20 a.m.

"Even if Gateway Pacific were to fail the permitting process, the railroad will likely continue running coal trains to Canada, so rail issues will continue." So we get the trains whether the terminal is built or not. That means Bellingham's negotiating position is not strong, right? and which, according to ...

Posted Fri, Feb 18, 9:10 a.m.

Governor Schweitzer may resent the Monkey Wrench Gang tactics used by Washington attorneys. The discussion in the article mentions the trains. About 35 trains per day pass a friend's house in Blue Ridge, only a handful are passenger trains and a large portion are over a mile in length. Only ...

Posted Thu, Feb 17, 9:45 p.m.

Underneath the legal discussion contained in the article and in the comments is a moral strategy that is less admirable than appears at first. We should perhaps be glad that Boeing exports of commercial aircraft do not have to transit through Wyoming or Eastern Montana. The Boeing 747 (sales cheerfully ...

Posted Wed, Feb 16, 3:54 p.m.

The image of the Seattle area in 1850 as old growth evergreen forest reminds me that 100 ft tall trees are simply incompatible with a city. Even if the trees did not have economic value they would have had to be removed to make a livable city. People do build ...

Posted Sun, Feb 13, 5:41 p.m.

Wells, I will agree that if average driving distance is reduced by 40% the fuel consumed would also drop by 40%. Your and the author's presumption is that the "town centers" are going to be closer (not just closer but 40% closer) to customers than the strip developments are. "Cross-country ...

Posted Sun, Feb 13, 10:04 a.m.

So people use less gas by driving to a shopping mall or "town center" than by driving to a single store on an arterial? well, maybe so, but we are not talking about significant savings are we? and the congestion? I think both shopping modes involve roughly the same aggravation ...

Posted Sat, Feb 12, 10:19 a.m.

A very good piece. Thank you Mr. Carlson and thank you for vigorously responding to commenters; you defend your beliefs effectively. I think I agree with Lifer that we do not yet perceive the entire effect of the Reagan Administration but it is clear to me that the recent USA ...

Posted Thu, Feb 10, 2:53 p.m.

"Urbanists", are those the people who have built all that "ground-related housing" perched on top of garages all over Seattle?

Posted Tue, Feb 8, 12:05 p.m.

Very good piece, Kent. I think if #3 were implemented the other three suggestions may not be necessary. You are right to emphasize just how tough that job is.

Posted Tue, Feb 8, 9:47 a.m.

Good article. yeomalt, I couldn't get that link to work but it might have just been busy.

Posted Sun, Feb 6, 4:38 p.m.

My guess is that very few people will stand up for dumb growth. But what is it exactly? presumably the sort of growth that does not employ young people... or at least a lot of young people. The undeniably dumb growth of 2000 to 2007 probably did employ a lot ...

Posted Wed, Feb 2, 10 a.m.

"I suspect that one of Holl's problems was that he had recently completed the Bellevue museum, and Seattle trendsetters probably didn't want to come along behind the suburb." Another reason is that BAM is a poor design, maybe not the "architect's fault" but the architect has to suffer at least ...

Posted Tue, Feb 1, 6:14 p.m.

A mischievous proposal, clearly designed to make a point and not a very good one. Incomes are lower in rural Washington and citizens there are more apt to think critically of any added taxes. This should surprise no one. Poor people in King and Whatcom County probably oppose increased taxes ...

Posted Mon, Jan 31, 9:06 a.m.

It sounds like the legislation would encourage building beyond current development standards in "willing" cities with little or no regard to legacy population and buildings. Well, what is a "willing city"? one that is prepared to jettison its zoning regulations? do the authors of the subject legislation have any particular ...

Posted Fri, Jan 21, 9:05 a.m.

Has it been established that the shooter listened to "talk radio" (Rush Limbaugh, I assume)? or that he was an admirer of Sarah Palin? I have not read of such a finding. Since WWII four of our presidents have been attacked with intent to kill, one successfully. In none of ...

Posted Sat, Jan 8, 8:54 a.m.

In the not-so-distant past during a period of low snowpack and sparse rains did we not buy power from the coal fired plant that is down near Chehalis? I believe we did and that illustrates that when we need the power and all other options have evaporated we too will ...

Posted Tue, Jan 4, 11 a.m.

When a private sector union negotiates with, say The Boeing Company, there is a clear line between management and stockholders on one side and the unionized workforce on the other. There is, as far as I know, no ownership position in Boeing by any of its unions. When the Washington ...

Posted Fri, Dec 31, 1:10 p.m.

I am very pleased things worked out so well and I admire the perseverance of the appellants. I have argued against development also but it would be interesting to know just where we will get our gravel now to replace this loss. My guess is that at least some of ...

Posted Mon, Dec 27, 6:04 p.m.

One or two good examples would be nice.... a contrast will help us see what you are talking about (examples would not necessarily have to be high-rises) I think that pinkish granite building on 3rd Avenue near Columbia (?) is good at both 2nd and 3rd Avenue. I'm guessing it's ...

Posted Sun, Dec 26, 11:30 a.m.

".. Palestinian terrorism is wrong, but it doesn’t have an American subsidy." It troubles me that this seems to be an important distinction in Mr. Brown's mind. Applied to the North Korea/South Korea conflict it would seem to suggest that we look very carefully at the behavior of South Korea ...

Posted Wed, Dec 15, 4:40 p.m.

R on Beacon Hill, I am embarrassed; you are, of course right. I think the remaining point I make is correct; very high tax rates result in very great distortions to normal business decisions. Back in the days before the 1986 tax reform arranging one's life to minimize taxes was ...

Posted Wed, Dec 15, 9:59 a.m.

Good straightforward article, Mr. Lilly but in your comment above you do not respond to the request from (I think) dbrenemen as to what you think the top income earners should be paying. Another (accurate) comment above is that the top 1% earners in this country pay nearly 40% of ...

Posted Sat, Dec 11, 10:33 a.m.

Back in the 1950s California car cultists, who I fiercely admired at the time (that's how old I am) went to great lengths to remove all emblems, product names, badges and other polished chrome decoration from recently built mass-produced cars. You can still see a few of these at the ...

Posted Fri, Dec 10, 6:02 p.m.

I would have to assume that no rational developer would cover the view windows in his building with a sign. So the signs are going to be caps to the buildings, right? in place of (or incorporated into) the pyramids, barrel vaults, gables, etc. that architects and their clients top ...

Posted Tue, Dec 7, 9:03 a.m.

Kent, wonderful, excellent piece. Thank you. If you haven't already, read "Shopcraft as Soulcraft" (can't remember the author).

Posted Sun, Dec 5, 5:50 p.m.

I think it would be embarrassing to see the Hawks in a playoff game. Let some other wimp take the fall.

Posted Sat, Dec 4, 11:40 a.m.

Good piece. I think you stretch hard to find flaws in Whittaker Chambers; he was gay, probably somewhat unstable but blaming Senator McCarthy on WC seems needlessly unkind. I agree with you that there is very little surprising (surprising in an important way) in the total Wikileaks package. The caution ...

Posted Thu, Dec 2, 9:24 a.m.

Auction off citizenship. Make the deficit drop some more.

Posted Mon, Nov 29, 3:18 p.m.

I think Pioneer Square was originally boosted by the fact that space was relatively cheap. The adventuresome retailers that rented there transformed the area, partly because of the economic advantage. I don't know how it is ever going to overcome the stadiums but you wrote a good article, thank you.

Posted Thu, Nov 25, 2:35 p.m.

Those of you who think Wal Mart is a monopoly are, of course, free to buy their stock. In the case of Wal Mart it sells at a low multiple and has not done particularly well. You'd have made more money buying Nordstrom. Suggesting that Wal Mart has limited competition ...

Posted Thu, Nov 25, 9:54 a.m.

I haven't read the book but your account describes a very troubling phenomenon. Blaming public tax policy may not be the entire story. I think about Wilt Chamberlain, who was I think the most dominant player in professional basketball for about ten years, and I doubt if his salary ever ...

Posted Mon, Nov 22, 3:39 p.m.

Belltown has a lot of tall buildings. So one would expect that with crowds of middle class people on the sidewalks it would be safe as a church. It hasn't worked out that way has it? the resident patrolled sidewalks only seem to work up to maybe past the dinner ...

Posted Sun, Nov 21, 12:03 p.m.

"..During the Reagan years many state asylums were shut down entirely to save public funds.." Since President Reagan had absolutely nothing to do with state mental health institutions I suppose you are simply identifying the years between 1981 and 1989. Just happens to coincide with the rise of disco. Hmmm.

Posted Tue, Nov 16, 3:20 p.m.

I think DSHS consumes something like 35% of the state budget. You say most of this is mandated or matching funds that enable federal subsidies (well, the feds have a lot of money, no problem there). But, given the proportion of DSHS to total state spending I think it deserves ...

Posted Wed, Nov 10, 4:50 p.m.

".. One is reminded of a New Yorker cartoon from way back in the 1960s, of a conversation between two city leaders. One says, what can we do about these poor people? The other says, Just zone them out!" So, Mr. Morill, you think different zoning would make for housing ...

Posted Tue, Nov 9, 2:45 p.m.

And, David, you do not mention the profoundly different votes on a state income tax (I-1098). As I understand it, the Oregon income tax initiative was worded fairly close to what was in 1098. Oregon passed it by, I think, about 53% favorable. Washington rejects the same thing by a ...

Posted Tue, Nov 9, 10:46 a.m.

A relevant issue is who provides the most money to our government? I think I have read that in addition to all those voters, the Puget Sound area provides the overwhelming majority of tax money to the state bank account. I forget the proportion of total taxes paid but King, ...

Posted Thu, Nov 4, 3:12 p.m.

Knute, Whitman and Fiorina may be "creeps" but you should explain to us just why. Fiorina was a very good CEO at Hewlett-Packard even though largely unappreciated at the time; Whitman, I don't know much about, she might have been just lucky. But do more than just call names. In ...

Posted Tue, Nov 2, 9:04 a.m.

"rough justice"? I don't see anything rough about it. Seattle should pay for a huge slice of the cost of the tunnel. McGinn knows this and also knows that the tunnel would be even less popular if we Seattle dwellers knew we really had to pay for it. The Mayor ...

Posted Fri, Oct 29, 4:17 p.m.

You do not mention it but those conservatives who voted against State Sen. Jean Berkey apparently because of a flash campaign that was financed by liberal democrats and labor unions would probably like to have their vote back also. Someone should do some jail time on that one and I ...

Posted Wed, Oct 27, 8:40 a.m.

I think Argosy did a better job on the SeaCrest Park to Downtown passenger ferry than whoever is managing that service now. More pleasant (admittedly slower) boats with lots of open deck and better adherence to schedule. Metro spent a bunch of money on the new, less convenient, dock downtown. ...

Posted Tue, Oct 26, 1:22 p.m.

Knute's theme is reminiscent of the taunt to socialists back in the 60s, "..if you like socialism so well, why don't you move to Sweden or (in extreme cases) to Russia?". That was a poor argument then and so is Knute's argument now. What works for Texas will probably not ...

Posted Wed, Oct 20, 5:48 p.m.

McGinn could start by charging a fee to the hemp people for the use of Myrtle Edwards and Elliot Bay Park (after several inquiries I have concluded that there is NO rental charge for a venture that essentially denies the use of the Park to normal users for eight or ...

Posted Wed, Oct 20, 8:30 a.m.

California, Hawaii, Florida. I appreciate your point, David, but it looks like respondents thought sunshine first and perhaps not much else. There are times hereabouts when I would answer the same way.

Posted Sat, Oct 9, 5:32 p.m.

Mr. Simmons, I notice you do not answer my question. If the campaign by Mr. Dobbs is offensive to you, MSNBC and The Nation then maybe you should explain why. I have never watched Dobbs but I have gleaned the notion that he is intense. The media we have ("Unfair, ...

Posted Sat, Oct 9, 9:43 a.m.

Is it "illegal" for orchard owners in Eastern Washington and elsewhere to hire illegal immigrants to pick their crops? actually, I don't think it is, I think they have a special dispensation for that particular line of work (and, as a matter of fact, I suspect horse raising and training ...

Posted Sat, Sep 25, 12:14 p.m.

Pythagoras, you write about Ms. Runstad's list of accomplishments as if they were a bad thing.

Posted Fri, Sep 24, 6:07 p.m.

Andy, I read your link: "..Direct taxation was not well-developed in ancient Greece. The eisphorá (???????) was a tax on the wealth of the very rich, but it was levied only when needed — usually in times of war." Is that the system you see in "the vast majority of ...

Posted Fri, Sep 24, 2:09 p.m.

"don't tax you, don't tax me, tax that man under the tree" I-1098 is disquieting for the simple reason that in a democracy the majority can vote to tax a specified minority. I don't make nearly enough money to have this Initiative affect me; in fact, I probably have no ...

Posted Wed, Sep 22, 5:11 p.m.

I suppose you regard the Library and the Experience Music Project as "quirky". I think neither advances the interest of the City and its citizens. And, by the way, I have never seen the High Line, only photos, but I notice no one is publishing photos of what is under ...

Posted Sun, Sep 19, 9:54 a.m.

I have wondered for several months (a year maybe) what was driving Green Mountain Coffee Roasters. Now I think I understand the pitch. Thanks. I would never buy one, rather pay the barista, but I suppose it's an unavoidable marketing move.

Posted Sat, Sep 18, 5:55 p.m.

I tend to agree with Quinn, a few name-callers can be ignored. It's not like there's an audio.

Posted Fri, Sep 17, 6 p.m.

Cars are really pretty efficient if you have the full passenger load. I'm not talking about Corvettes or Miatas but a passenger car or moderate SUV with all its seats filled is probably quite competitive with a half-full bus not to mention the fact that the car takes you right ...

Posted Sun, Sep 12, 5:56 p.m.

I visited Little Big Horn battle site in 1957. At that time the road from NE WY to Broadus, MN was gravel, 40 miles of bad road. I was the only visitor at the time and I'll bet the only one that day. I do not remember any white crosses; ...

Posted Fri, Sep 10, 5:28 p.m.

Mr. Zemke, I believe you are picking your numbers selectively. The ITEP study you quote notes that the "total" tax rate in WA is 12.7% for people making $20k per annum. The 17.3% you quote is for people making LESS than $20K and that percentage does puzzle me (if you ...

Posted Sun, Aug 29, 12:10 p.m.

Good piece, David. It's interesting to read about the grand scheme of local things. I hate to be tiresome on the subject but public transit is not likely to deliver big carbon savings as some of the commenters above seem to think. Only when trolleys and buses are near fully ...

Posted Sat, Aug 28, 11:14 a.m.

"The passive response from the community is based on, I believe, around the thought of not making things worse for her." The above is understandable and probably represents the thinking of a lot of us. However the experience of western european nations who have been "absorbing" Muslim immigration for much ...

Posted Wed, Aug 25, 9:03 a.m.

I did not hear the KUOW program mentioned above but what you describe is the best McGinn theme I have heard. Almost makes me like the guy.

Posted Sun, Aug 22, 1:43 p.m.

Thank you Mr. Dutton for the reminders. The Cargo Cultish theorizing that goes on about "affordable" energy is depressing. Folks seem to think that if the government just primes the pump miracles will happen and then.... we will get to continue living our high energy dream of a life with ...

Posted Mon, Aug 16, 10:29 a.m.

Wonderful piece, Knute. It's good of you to mention Ridley and Graham as part of the design team. I happened to be working at Graham's store planning department during the summer of '61 and, as I recall, some of the early designs were posted in a corridor or lobby as ...

Posted Fri, Aug 13, 8:44 a.m.

Fears about e-coli have lead most outlets to overcook their meat. Last time I bought a burger (it's been some time) I could not get the meat cooked rare. They would not do it. The reason burger places concentrate on additives and sauces is that overcooked hamburger has little flavor ...

Posted Thu, Aug 12, 12:54 p.m.

Well what if scientists told us that we should stop eating beef? I'm fairly sure that no one would be terribly surprised. The arguments have been out there for several decades now that the beef industry and the beef product is less than environmentally and nutritionally benign. Higher ups at ...

Posted Tue, Aug 10, 5:45 p.m.

Radio is a wonderful thing, especially when subsidized by the generous Mr. Allen. KEXP can play anything they want and we can listen to it for free. You can't improve on that. For KEXP to say to us that what they really need is a live venue, also free, in ...

Posted Tue, Aug 10, 2:07 p.m.

The job description of Field Manger includes the term "expendable" I think but this is a particularly perverse incident. I am no expert on baseball but it looks to me like they should have kept Wakamatsu and fired everybody else (should such a thing be possible).

Posted Fri, Aug 6, 2:10 p.m.

Most businesses would probably like to move from a location where they are paying rent to a "public" forum where, even if they do pay rent, the landlord is a known philanthropist and not a tough bargainer. This is a good opportunity for KEXP and maybe they are a better ...

Posted Thu, Aug 5, 11:10 a.m.

Knute, the shrink wrapped buildings and especially the McGuire fiasco deserve a lot more attention than they are getting. I believe the McGuire flaws were discovered because of an unusual post occupation inspection which just happened to reveal that the post-tensioning cables were at risk of failure. This should have ...

Posted Tue, Aug 3, 8:22 a.m.

Are there any actual card-carrying Republicans in the Muni League?

Posted Thu, Jul 29, 4:59 p.m.

It does seem fair that Seattle should pay more than, for example, farmers in Whitman County for a tunnel that does more than just move vehicles on Highway 99. It is our preference to demolish something cheap and ugly and build something that more gracefully moves cars past our downtown. ...

Posted Mon, Jul 19, 5:29 p.m.

In, I believe, 1968 thousands of UW students and like minded people surged on to Intersate 5 (Northbound only, I think) and stopped traffic for several hours. It was a major event and could be reasonably regarded as historic; it likely changed Washington politics for at least a generation and ...

Posted Sat, Jul 17, 5:47 p.m.

Are preservationists keeping track of the building where Bill Gates, Paul Allen and maybe one or two others cobbled together the infamous "QED" operating system? and then where was Slo-Mo made? I think the distinction should be made between the B-17, an undoubtedly fine work of engineering and manufacturing, and ...

Posted Fri, Jul 16, 3:13 p.m.

"Pro-tunnel City Councilman Tom Rasmussen asked McGinn if he would support a tunnel if the clause were repealed. The mayor wouldn't say "yes," but only that he would carry out the council's policies. "My independent position is it's not a good project even at the list price," added McGinn -- ...

Posted Thu, Jul 15, 4:04 p.m.

" He maintains the cost provision is the only thing standing in his way regarding implementation. " Knute, I am surprised to read this. Councilman (I believe) Conlin asked His Honor if he would support the tunnel if the cost overrun issue was resolved in Seattle's favor and, as I ...

Posted Wed, Jul 14, 8:47 a.m.

Thank you kilgoretrout. Good points all.

Posted Mon, Jul 12, 2:16 p.m.

I think people, including myself, compare him to other thieves, especially the white collar variety and admire his resourcefulness. What he has done is reprehensible but I tend to compare him to other criminals and unlike those other criminals he has skills and imagination, not just greed. So he's bad ...

Posted Mon, Jul 12, 9:44 a.m.

Excellent piece. However, DoGooders will never work. They'd become known as the DoGoobers or possibly just DoGs. You can see the problem.

Posted Sun, Jul 11, 9:43 a.m.

There are two issues I would have liked to have read about in the above article. First, the total enrollment at UW must be (very roughly) proportional to the cost of operation. Isn't that true? and, if so, one option is for the UW to further restrict enrollment, perhaps eliminating ...

Posted Thu, Jul 1, 5:57 p.m.

I think many people are going to be disappointed in the Waterfront that is left after the Viaduct is removed. I don’t think I will be. I support removing the Viaduct and building the tunnel but articles such as this and a recent article by David Brewster suggest a transformational ...

Posted Wed, Jun 30, 5:08 p.m.

"... embrace all those who seek refuge at our shores." That may be a fine sentiment but it seems to ignore the fact that we are a nation that is defined geographically. Controlling our physical borders seems to be a modest and attainable goal. Mr. Spohn apparently argues that we ...

Posted Thu, Jun 24, 3:17 p.m.

A footnote on the Alaska Way Viaduct: in the 70s, I believe, Thiry's office proposed a megastructure of offices, hotels, etc. to be built over the Alaska Way Viaduct, enclosing the roadway more aggressively than the recent Frank Chopp version. The scheme was published in the Argus and maybe in ...

Posted Wed, Jun 23, 3:05 p.m.

Lincoln, energy efficiency is not the sole benefit of transit. Transit makes urban area work better; compare downtown Bellevue to downtown Seattle. Compare downtown Las Vegas with anyplace. I am sympathetic to your claim about energy efficiency but you overstate your argument. See the following website which is at least ...

Posted Tue, Jun 22, 6:01 p.m.

Isn't it an exaggeration to refer to this space as a park? after the Viaduct is gone there will remain a major arterial and access to the ferries and tour ships, not to mention an occasional military vessel; trucks will have to serve the piers that have any kind of ...

Posted Mon, Jun 21, 8:44 a.m.

Knute's referenced article mentions to the sterilization of "sexual perverts" which could mean child molesters or rapists. I guess I will take your word for it but it does seem outrageously stupid and pointless to sterilize homosexuals.

Posted Fri, Jun 18, 4:08 p.m.

GaryP, that's Seattle Pacific University, not Pacific Lutheran University. I occasionally bike along the Ship Canal paralleling Nickerson and it seems to me that only a few blocks remain to produce a separate bike path from the Fremont Bridge to the Ballard Bridge (and didn't I read something about negotiating ...

Posted Wed, Jun 16, 12:04 p.m.

There is obviously a huge contradiction between the City encouraging downtown living in condominium developments and a "24 hour downtown" that provides watering holes for hoodlums. Belltown may not be "dangerous", certainly not in the daytime, but people I have known who live in or near Belltown avoid the sidewalks ...

Posted Sun, Jun 13, 11:45 a.m.

"Some Native Americans, including some of the Puyallup tribe, are newly pushing to re-designate the mountain Ti'Swaq, "to rightfully reclaim and restore the Creator (God) given names to the holy and sacred sites, starting with what is now known as Mount Rainier,' " It would be interesting to know what ...

Posted Fri, Jun 11, 8:43 a.m.

Good piece. I agree with a lot of what you are saying but I think you use the term "poisoning" and that seems, to me at least, an exaggeration. The oil is coming out of the earth in a way similar (so far at a smaller scale) to the eruption ...

Posted Sun, Jun 6, 6:08 p.m.

When Mayor McGinn says he desires to protect "Seattle residents" from cost overruns he is speaking of the property owners who will presumably benefit from the removal of the Viaduct and who would then, under the terms of the State authorization, pay the added cost. Is that a correct interpretation? ...

Posted Fri, May 28, 4:37 p.m.

Thank you, MudBaby. Claims for energy parsimony at City Hall should be backed up by City Light bills and with rigorous comparisons with the old City Hall and comparable contemporary office buildings.

Posted Thu, May 27, 8:49 a.m.

TVD, I like it that you respond to comments and enlarge on your original remarks. That practice is frequently helpful in defining your views and it often deflates the fierceness of your critics. Thank you for your patience and civility.

Posted Wed, May 26, 9:18 a.m.

Assuming an 8% return in the 1990s may have been reasonable but it sounds very optimistic now. Back then we had an economy that was growing around 3% along with mild inflation. We also had, for a brief moment, a balanced federal budget. Debt burdens are likely to slow everything ...

Posted Tue, May 18, 11:36 a.m.

Good article. Thank you Mr. Chasan and thanks also to Crossrip; I have followed some of the legal arguments on this issue (Volokh) but I have not read the 5th Amendment argument before. Sounds plausible. I am not a lawyer.

Posted Fri, May 14, 4:32 p.m.

Developers are universally disliked, except by the people who want to buy or rent their product (and, sometimes, not even by them). Nevertheless we all live in dwellings that were produced by developers. It's compromise we make I guess. I sometimes wonder where (the uncompromising) Mr. Fox lives. I imagine ...

Posted Fri, May 14, 8:48 a.m.

I am going to speculate that the greatest stress on the bridge foundations is during the opening operation and the period of time when the bridge is in the "up" position. I confess I did not know that bridge ever opened, I have never seen it opened and that makes ...

Posted Thu, May 13, 11:33 a.m.

We've all seen "Load Limit" bridges in the hinterlands, maybe 10,00 lbs maximum or something like that. Why not leave the bridge open to cars and pickups for a few years? that would leave the big players (Boeing, warehouses) with plenty of motivation but help out the residents down there. ...

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

Good analysis, Kent, but it's not just the unions and the politicians. When was the last time a bond issue got rejected in Seattle? we, the voters, have given our political leaders the impression that we see ourselves as undertaxed.

Posted Sat, May 8, 10:43 a.m.

Now that George Bush is no longer in office it's hard to find someone to seriously blame for this stuff. I guess the American consumer is almost all that's left standing. Knute worries that we will pay "at the pump" for disasters; well Knute where else should the money come ...

Posted Thu, May 6, 8:33 a.m.

You do not mention the building at First and Yesler (SE corner) that Olson, et al did maybe twenty years ago. Modernist but fits in quite well. The key factors in this success includes the relatively modest window sizes as you suggest. I think you are also right that an ...

Posted Fri, Apr 30, 9:27 a.m.

I believe that President Wilson's Attorney General (the infamous Palmer) initiated both during and after WWI blatantly unconstitutional deportations along with associated harassment of individuals and groups that were either anarchists or radical in other ways. Prior to this anarchist murders and bombings had been a problem. In effect the ...

Posted Tue, Apr 27, 4:36 p.m.

"...many of those who howl about property rights are conservatives...." I think even liberals who happen to own property would howl a bit if they get assessed $35 or $40K to analyze and preserve artifacts that are for the benefit of society in general and especially if these artifacts are ...

Posted Thu, Apr 22, 8:53 a.m.

Some commenters above argue that higher energy costs will drive transit demand. This may be true but only to a small degree. Transit of all kinds, rail or bus, enjoys only a small advantage in energy efficiency per passenger mile over even a single-occupancy vehicle. Meanwhile a five passenger Prius ...

Posted Mon, Apr 19, 2:58 p.m.

A real attraction of the B&O; increase is that when businesses (like Fly's) raise prices the customers are unlikely to blame State of Washington, Christine Gregoire or Frank Chopp. On the other hand, maybe Fly's customers are sophisticated enough to understand where the money is going. I hope so.

Posted Fri, Apr 16, 3:16 p.m.

How can WAMU lose money by placing mortgages and then selling the paper to FannyMae and FreddyMac? or, in some cases, to brokerage houses that bundled them into CDOs? it seems like a license to print money. I guess they just couldn't move the paper fast enough. But here we ...

Posted Fri, Apr 9, 6:05 p.m.

Seneca, that link appears to require a subscription. I think a short way of saying what you express is that we no longer (not that we ever really did) have the power to police the world. What we had was a congenial world. That seems to no longer be the ...

Posted Fri, Apr 9, 9:20 a.m.

The Stranger is a private institution. It is supported by advertising and only by advertising (they have no fund-raisers that I know of) and the last time I opened the Stranger it was accepting advertising from just about anyone with a credit card. Tobacco, escort services, masseurs with eye shadow, ...

Posted Thu, Apr 8, 8:02 a.m.

The game is hide the tax. Lisa Brown must know how this works but she didn't want to hide it. The default explanation is obliviousness but it may be integrity. We'll probably never know.

Posted Wed, Mar 31, 9:47 a.m.

Thank you for writing this. It would seem that in a functioning democracy a few prominent people in both our major parties would be airing plans for how to balance the Federal budget, not with the intent of immediate legislative moves but just to acquaint us voters with the scale ...

Posted Mon, Mar 29, 9:05 a.m.

Ms. Brown seems a little too enthusiastic about taxes at times but at least she is willing to seek revenue in a broad based highly visible tax. The alternatives that Chopp and the Governor advocate are taxes that are largely hidden from voters, perceivable only in slight added costs for ...

Posted Sat, Mar 27, 9:08 a.m.

There is a video clip taken during the Clinton-Obama debates that appears occasionally on the web. In the clip Mr. Obama concisely demolishes the argument for mandatory health insurance (generally, not just the Massachusetts example) quite convincingly. He sure convinced me. That was the "extrinsic" Obama.

Posted Sun, Mar 21, 11:27 a.m.

I have to ask: where did the nasty dumpsters go?

Posted Sun, Mar 21, 11:24 a.m.

You just had a good one. Thank you, very funny and I will try to remember at least one of those.

Posted Thu, Mar 11, 10:41 a.m.

These people (Wright, et al) must know what they're doing but it does make me wonder if the idea of having a big glass room full of Chihulys will be such a great experience. The ceiling treatment at the Belagio works pretty well probably because it's maybe 200 sq. ft. ...

Posted Wed, Mar 10, 11:11 a.m.

And, taupe, in the case of insurance companies the profit percentage owes at least some to the fact that insurance companies invest the proceeds of their income from premiums. It is at least theoretically possible for an insurance company to pay out all premium income to pay claims and yet ...

Posted Sun, Mar 7, 4:40 p.m.

I think Mr. Cheek is adopting a most generous, Christian attitude toward a less-than-mediocre work. The Bassetti firm has done fine work in the past. Not this time.

Posted Tue, Mar 2, 5:29 p.m.

Maybe you are a little too intense, Mr. Conlin. DB did not mention Hinshaw that I can find and your examples are not what I would define as "namecalling". I think Hinshaw makes a good argument.

Posted Mon, Mar 1, 8:42 a.m.

Maybe the question should have been, "What would the Republicans in the Legislature have suggested had they been dedicated to the well being of Washington State to the exclusion of political concersn?" I read better comment in the Seattle Times than what I hear coming from Republican leaders. Demand for ...

Posted Fri, Feb 26, 11:28 a.m.

I wish Mr. Burgess well but I suspect the truth is that the majority of the offensiveness that annoys downtown shoppers (including me) is going to be hard to define as illegal.

Posted Thu, Feb 25, 5:20 p.m.

"Home food production generated 40% of the nations calories during war time rationing" Fly, I would like to believe that. Poking around Google for three or four minutes I couldn't find anything that would support that claim (or even define "Home Economy").

Posted Thu, Feb 25, 9:50 a.m.

Kent, that really needed saying. Thank you.

Posted Tue, Feb 23, 2:37 p.m.

Two cheers for a sales tax increase. It tends to indicate that the politicians in Olympia are willing to stand up for their budget and, for better or worse, make us pay for what government wants to do for us. If enacted this will be much more politically courageous than ...

Posted Fri, Feb 19, 6 p.m.

Good piece, Kent. Speaking of office vacancies, how much of the Municipal Tower is occupied?

Posted Sat, Feb 13, 11:27 a.m.

I don't think it's wise to let defense considerations have a large part in urban design. But, even if we did, we should remember that the 1993 World Trade Center bombing involved a van with almost a ton of explosives, detonated in a parking garage beneath the building (North Tower?). ...

Posted Sat, Feb 13, 9:42 a.m.

Do I understand this right? Ms. Munson, using her real name, wrote this piece about her real husband, his (and their) difficulties. Of course I did not read the article but it seems, by your telling, to be self-congratulatory. Ms. Munson seems to be saying "..because of my mature judgement ...

Posted Thu, Feb 11, 8:54 a.m.

Question: if part of White Center joins Seattle and is no longer a responsibility of King County then are property taxes payable to King County reduced? silly question, I probably know the answer but it does seem to be a logical query doesn't it?

Posted Sat, Feb 6, 2:23 p.m.

At least you feel guilty about it. That's something.

Posted Thu, Feb 4, 9:32 a.m.

"The state of Washington Department of Licensing has very rigid policies for granting handicapped-parking permits." My experience (sadly, three experiences) tend to cast doubt on the rigidity of at least the application of these policies. Although slow to deliver tags are issued for excessive lengths of time. I have at ...

Posted Wed, Feb 3, 10:42 a.m.

Oregon is great, it's my favorite state but if I were looking for a job I don't think I'd bother looking in Oregon.

Posted Fri, Jan 29, 5:49 p.m.

Comments that view Mr. Van Dyke as some sort of Republican Fellow Traveller puzzle me. Is it a condition of employment at Crosscut that all house writers support the left? is Mr. Van Dyke not simply wrong but, somehow disloyal? (his comment above could almost be considered a loyalty oath) ...

Posted Thu, Jan 28, 2:33 p.m.

dn, when I divide $787B by 2M (the claimed jobs created and "saved") I come up with about $395,000 per job. If I am right then I hope you are right. I'll leave it up to Mr. Van Dyke to tell us if that is good economic husbandry.

Posted Mon, Jan 25, 5:53 p.m.

Citizens should be willing to tax themselves to pay for the services provided by the state. Being willing to tax someone else for those services (airplane owners, cigar smokers, people who have exceptional incomes) has a less wholesome aspect. If Oregon needs the income why not raise the taxes on ...

Posted Fri, Jan 22, 5:54 p.m.

Thank you, Knute. Incidentally, I think your article was funny as well as to the point. You are saying that as of 1907 it was not legal for corporations to contribute money to political causes. If that is true I stand corrected.

Posted Fri, Jan 22, 4:37 p.m.

Good piece, Knute, but "100 years of lawmaking"? the only thing overturned was a decision of about ten years ago. I note that the ACLU argued in favor of the appellant.

Posted Wed, Jan 20, 4:39 p.m.

I'm glad that pepper2000 mentioned Social Security and hinted at its imminent insolvency because the Washington DC debate over Social Security liabilities did, in some ways, mirror the discussion of health care. The Bush Administration proposed something like individual retirement accounts that would over a great many years reduce taxpayers ...

Posted Mon, Jan 18, 7:56 a.m.

I think the popularity of "Jessica" can be explained by that bodacious cut by Dicky Betts (Allman Brothers) back about that time. Or maybe it's the other way around.

Posted Sun, Jan 17, 10:04 a.m.

I think spock has raised a good point; namely that to provide the tidelands, fish habitat and eelgrass, etc., you give up the deep moorages that were the reason for the seawall in the first place. In addition to the ferries there are tour boats and the occasional navy vessel ...

Posted Sat, Jan 16, 11:33 a.m.

I would think that even modest savings are worth pursuing. Are you arguing that the State workforce would abandon their jobs for other employment if these terms were to be renegotiated? does not seem likely.

Posted Sat, Jan 16, 11:26 a.m.

Very good article. Underlying your very fine survey is the (I think, correct) assumption that it is the Christian faith that is central and not a belief in God. I think those of us who were raised as Christians but do not believe in God are very likely to still ...

Posted Sat, Jan 2, 12:38 p.m.

Daniel Schorr?? pontification to spice up the New Year? well, OK. I suppose that if you are nominating him to replace Dick Clark the loss would be minor.

Posted Wed, Dec 23, 3:03 p.m.

Good to remind us, Kent. Thanks.

Posted Mon, Dec 21, 3 p.m.

Knute, I hope the consultant you mentioned is not the same one who recommended (and I think succeeded in) cutting down 30 or so trees in Occidental Park about five years ago. The motive for this was, of course, removing crime-fomenting vegetation (always the first of usual suspects). I suppose ...

Posted Mon, Dec 21, 11:53 a.m.

Good piece, Knute. Pioneer Square worked once. We all know what's different; it's the stadiums. I can't think of a single stadium in this country that is located in a healthy urban neighborhood (the SF Giants have a gorgeous place and the surroundings are OK so far, maybe you know ...

Posted Fri, Dec 18, 4:09 p.m.

Isn't Gary Locke, forbidden by custom (and probably statute) from favoring his home state? I think he has more to lose by meddling in this decision than does Cantwell. We expect, after all, that our representatives and senators elbow vigorously for a wide place at the federal trough. Those that ...

Posted Tue, Dec 15, 9:03 a.m.

Good article that contains good news, a rare combination. You did not mention the predicted swarm of electric cars that will be tapping our grid during the next decade or two. Without knowing anything about the numbers it does seem like that could be significant.

Posted Thu, Dec 10, 10:01 a.m.

bthornton said what I was going to say. Thank you.

Posted Mon, Dec 7, 1:38 p.m.

OK, Seattle is not so great. I buy your argument, but compared to what? Palo Alto? LA?, Vancouver? NYC? I think you left out the competition (there's also Detroit and Buffalo).

Posted Thu, Dec 3, 4:46 p.m.

I have to agree with the critics who argue for a disengagement. The likelihood of winning, as Mr. Van Dyk asserts, is small and, even if we "win", what we are faced with an open-ended obligation to support, both financially and militarily, a make-believe nation. This is not like VietNam ...

Posted Sun, Nov 29, 5:59 p.m.

If Bush and Cheney, et al, were still making strategic decisions they would have decided, what? probably the same decision you predict Obama will make. I don't begrudge him the time but the decision you envision sounds a lot like a consensus of inner-circle players who do not have the ...

Posted Sun, Nov 29, 9:28 a.m.

" Taft-Hartley prohibited closed shops, meaning when an employer agrees only to hire union members." I don't believe that statement is true. Are you saying that if you work for (for example) General Motors you do not have to belong to the UAW? I believe you do.

Posted Mon, Nov 23, 9:08 a.m.

Yes, MSFT is a quite portable corporation, at least compared to Boeing. It's not likely that the Governor or the Legislature will simply raise the sales tax (everyone pays that and a boost would be unpopular) but, if they have to raise taxes, that's what they should do. What Knute ...

Posted Mon, Nov 16, 8:56 a.m.

The developed world has a large investment in airports. How do you unload a flying wing? well, sure, there is a way but the fuselage design appears to be more amenable to entry and exit (maybe especially emergency exit). Up until now it was my understandng that the B2 is ...

Posted Sat, Nov 14, 3:29 p.m.

"Teabagging is a slang term for the act of a man placing his scrotum in the mouth[1] or on or around the face (including the top of the head) of another person, often in a repeated in-and-out motion as in irrumatio. The practice resembles dipping a tea bag into a ...

Posted Sat, Nov 14, 8:59 a.m.

Thank you Bryan Myrick for calling out Knute on the "teabagger" epithet. I have to admit I have no vision of the sexual practice referred to but I assume Knute does and I think it is simply name-calling. Submerged inthis is the presumption that anyone who pays and then complains ...

Posted Mon, Nov 9, 1:41 p.m.

Lincoln's cabinet was not elected. If you are comparing Councilmen with Lincoln's cabinet the analogy seems strained.

Posted Fri, Nov 6, 9:22 a.m.

"Malkin’s problem plagues pundits at both ends of the spectrum." Yes, it's easy to find them on TV and on the web. Malkin and others make themselves less interesting by trying to make the same sale (nearly) all the time. I probably agree with her over half the time but ...

Posted Thu, Nov 5, 8:37 a.m.

I hope you are right, Chris, it would be nice to have two (breathing) political parties in Western Washington.

Posted Wed, Nov 4, 6:14 p.m.

So the problem was mainly the fault of the Bush administration (Karl Rove especially). Now we have a new administration and the vote of the potato farmers still carries weight. That is shocking.

Posted Tue, Nov 3, 4:29 p.m.

Knute said it clearly; the bicyclists would have taken away a city park for one day. The event would have severely restricted other (I have to say, normal) uses of the park. Why should this be done? why does Parks allow Hempfest to completely remove Myrtle Edwards Park from normal ...

Posted Fri, Oct 30, 2:11 p.m.

It's not implausible that the alterations to Republican and Harrison Streets are integral to the tunnel scheme but the proponents of the Mercer Project certainly have not been forthcoming about the design. I have been unable to find anything but a written description of (what I believe is called) "Mercer ...

Posted Thu, Oct 22, 1:46 p.m.

California and Oregon both rely heavily on a state income tax. California also has a sales tax. Both states have budget problems worse than Washington. The Value Added Tax that is being promoted in Washington DC (by members of both parties but primarily by Democrats) is a sales tax applied ...

Posted Sun, Oct 18, 5:05 p.m.

If Elliott Bay Books just wants to downsize then I presume they could make arrangements with their present landlord but if they want a more genteel location then the choice of Capital Hill puzzles me. I can't think of any other big retail moves to Capital Hill. What am I ...

Posted Fri, Oct 16, 9:33 a.m.

Very good. "..landscape of the disposed" a landfill! yes.

Posted Wed, Oct 14, 1:48 p.m.

Boeing, in its pure pre-MacDonnel-Douglas phase was discretely aided by the federal government in (as I recall) about 1973-72 because of misreading the market for airliners. The 747 would probably have bankrupted the company without the military contracts that (again, as I recall) were accelerated. Then I remember some Boeing ...

Posted Fri, Oct 2, 11:41 a.m.

Good work, Knute. In answer to the question of the day, I think Mr. Sale has it right but I think it should be emphasized just how different Seattle's geography is from Manhatten Island. The Lower Manhatten Expressway was an especially useless and destructive proposal. It did nothing for the ...

Posted Thu, Oct 1, 2:07 p.m.

"... put lids on property taxes" Bring me up to date: what lid is there on property taxes? the State limits the growth of taxes but that limit does not apply to expenditures that are approved by the voters, bond issues, special levies and so on.

Posted Thu, Oct 1, 10:26 a.m.

Thanks for writing this article. Very good.

Posted Tue, Sep 29, 11:34 a.m.

It's not clear from your piece but I am assuming that it is now legal to carry an unconcealed pistol in a public park (with a permit, of course). I do not think that should be legal. Even if the penalties are symbolic it disturbs me that any single person ...

Posted Sun, Sep 27, 12:10 p.m.

Good piece. I think the worst of it goes back to the later Clinton administration and those (on the right) who made the president into a feckless devil. This was returned in spades during the Bush administration when the "Bushitler/ Bush Chimpanzee" image was promoted by the fringe psychos on ...

Posted Wed, Sep 23, 12:21 p.m.

Brouhaha, she said "sound bites". I guess that means something different to you than it does to me.

Posted Wed, Sep 23, 9:02 a.m.

" .... edible sound bites to help frazzled voters digest their main points,..." I think you have a future in politics. Yes, we frazzled voters thankfully absorb those sound bites. If they are short enough they go directly into our memory without disturbing our conscious mind. Keep them coming.

Posted Mon, Sep 21, 3:28 p.m.

Vince; "...then where?" well probably, where the voters aren't looking. Increasing allowable density on single family lots (i. e. duplex zoning) would bring out angry crowds and that is not what our civic leaders want. "Backyard cottages" sounds cute and, let's acknowledge right off, that they can be cute but ...

Posted Sun, Sep 20, 12:35 p.m.

Back in the seventies and eighties the green fields of suburbia filled up with new one and two story buildings that sheltered high and low tech businesses, housing all kinds of skilled people that were generally well paid. Microsoft was just the biggest; there are hundreds of low buildings surrounded ...

Posted Wed, Sep 16, 6:07 p.m.

David, you have a "third scenario" but no scenario one or two. Or is this part two of a two part article? what did I miss? Chas Royer turned out to be a good mayor with little or no executive experience. Correct me if I am wrong but I think ...

Posted Sun, Sep 13, 9:36 a.m.

Not really funny, Mr. Clifford, but excellent nevertheless. Thank you.

Posted Fri, Sep 11, 4:34 p.m.

I think the Ferry System did the right thing. How many times have we heard the "...coulda been a contender" type lament offered by promoters of creative new uses for bits of history like the Wawona, the Kalakala, some building that has good lumber but no tenants, and so on. ...

Posted Sun, Sep 6, 4:28 p.m.

That was a good story (dunno whether it's true or not) but I think the commenters should lighten up. There's lots of ways to get hurt in this world and dogs are pretty low on the list of threats.

Posted Fri, Sep 4, 2:33 p.m.

It may be a false sense of security but I do feel better biking in a 30 mph lane when there is a sharrow; as noted above, it gives some (more) legitimacy to the cyclist. If there is no space for a bike lane (and I agree with the comments ...

Posted Fri, Aug 28, 6:15 p.m.

"The state directs such small accessory units, to increase housing in cities" It seems mildly perverse to mandate separate structures on residential lots while militantly battling honest (or even concealed) duplexes. Well, OK, the battle is less than militant but the intent is definitely there. Which would you rather have ...

Posted Thu, Aug 27, 9:27 a.m.

unter says no problem and Chris V. says there may be a big problem. I think Chris is right but we shall see. As I understand it the Green river did flood regularly back before the dam was built but that was when the valley was farmland. What has happened ...

Posted Wed, Aug 19, 1:39 p.m.

I think DannyK has it right. It was the Tunnel. Other than myself I only know of two other voters who approve of it. Voters have a short memory, we will have another Paul Schell and we won't like that either. I think Nickels is the best mayor we've had ...

Posted Wed, Aug 19, 8:30 a.m.

Yes Mr. Harris, responding to your question, just like Cash for Clunkers is good for auto dealers but not good for the country. If that's exactly your point then I don't understand your argument.

Posted Tue, Aug 18, 2:15 p.m.

The people you quote don't seem deluded to me. I am a medicare recipient. It has been good for me. But I do not believe it is good for our country. The cost of the program has exploded; what was conceived as a generous gift to the elderly (quite belatedly, ...

Posted Mon, Aug 17, 6:12 p.m.

I think Mr. Van Dyk's critics here are ignoring some large misteps by Obama and the congress. Mr. Obama started out by claiming that a major virtue of his proposal is all the money it will save. The Congressional Budget Office claims exactly the opposite. So one or the other ...

Posted Thu, Aug 13, 11:47 a.m.

"... affordable, high quality health care for all; a cleaner, safer environment; better wages, benefits, and working conditions for working Americans; the protection of civil rights and elimination of discrimination; reproductive freedom; fiscal responsibility; and corporate accountability." Pretty bold statement, here in Seattle. Even though you do not mention it ...

Posted Tue, Aug 11, 11:36 a.m.

There must be at least a submerged disquiet about one thousand page legislation being passed a few hours after it has been compiled ("Cap 'n Trade" was about 1300 pages and passed the House less than 24 hrs after it was finalized). There are several "Health Reform" bills agitating in ...

Posted Mon, Aug 10, 1:39 p.m.

Thanks Knute, another reason to not like the (ironically named) "smart car". The smart car gets less miles per gallon than a Prius even though it weighs about 40% less. It is cheaper and it must be easy to park but, like a lot of things, the buyer allure is ...

Posted Fri, Aug 7, 12:34 p.m.

Oh, I forgot Marion Berry. He gained a position in with federal agency.

Posted Fri, Aug 7, 12:27 p.m.

Knute, I was expecting you to list mayors of other cities that went big time (expecting to be surprised). Well, John Lindsay never went anywhere much and Guilliani just made some sort of federal appointment (?), let's see, who was mayor of New Orleans? did Julian Bond make Mayor of ...

Posted Wed, Aug 5, 5:19 p.m.

Mr. Shindler's main point is a good one; Seattle's citizens are remarkably compliant with policies that are coherently and consistently presented to them. When our reservoirs are low folks lower water use dramatically, compliance with the dog shit law is amazingly high. It might take a few years, but have ...

Posted Wed, Jul 29, 8:56 a.m.

Thanks, a good and timely reminder.

Posted Sun, Jul 26, 1:52 p.m.

Yes, walking has other benefits than the aerobic kind. A good reminder for us.

Posted Fri, Jul 24, 2:44 p.m.

So it is built from good lumber? functioned well for 100 years? looks ordinary and is ordinary? I am puzzled that preserving buildings that are merely old and once useful have become a Cause. No one wants to buy it, it apparently has little useful life left (I presume the ...

Posted Thu, Jul 23, 9:24 a.m.

Sidewalks get mentioned a couple times in the article (by the way, thank you Mr. C., good piece) and it raises the question of who is responsible for sidewalk construction as a matter of law and tradition. When the sidewalk in front of my house needs repair I pay for ...

Posted Fri, Jul 17, 8:36 a.m.

teyman, it would be helpful to show what those figures (state expenditures 1985 thru 2008) would have been had the limits of Initiative 1033 been in place. We did have some considerable increase in population during that time period and inflation has not been negligible. Comparing the dollar increase with ...

Posted Thu, Jul 16, 9:26 a.m.

It was big but it didn't really change anything. Brown v. Board of Education, "The Feminine Mystique", Bill Gates and friends, Qutb (unfortunately), they all changed a lot of things but, as you nicely put it, we still struggle with the the same or similar problems.

Posted Wed, Jul 15, 4:15 p.m.

Good response, David. If you had said that "King County does nothing" you wouldn't have been far wrong. King County has been inundated with money for the past fifteen years and it's hard for me to see what it has accomplished.

Posted Sun, Jul 5, 2:25 p.m.

" Of course, headliners will be exempt." Funny.

Posted Wed, Jul 1, 5:47 p.m.

"..seeing it is a system that will only work if massive redevelopment takes place in transit corridors, development that will favor big developers and drive up housing price(s).." Massive development takes place (increases the supply of housing, yes?) and this, of course, drives housing prices UP. Knute, I think your ...

Posted Sun, Jun 21, 4:08 p.m.

Mr. Van D: speaking of addled memories; just which local politician argued against Sound Transit? I honestly do not remember...yes, I do remember that Ron Sims made some bleating noises on the last bond issue but I think you strain your argument to hang whatever is bad about ST on ...

Posted Sat, Jun 20, 2:58 p.m.

Bubbleator, thank you for your comments. The present situation south of Lake union is a disgrace. Existing right-of-ways (Broad, Mercer Fairview, Westlake) have been sacrificed to the service of Interstate 5; it is a nest of exit and on-ramps. Rectifying this and going back to a system of two-way streets ...

Posted Fri, Jun 19, 6:11 p.m.

I am not an enthusiastic defender of the Mayor but anyone who gets such uniformly negative coverage ( "...he may have crossed a picket line in RI..." wow!!) should get at least get credit for some obvious good moves. One, housing prices are down, remember when housing cost was public ...

Posted Fri, Jun 19, 8:55 a.m.

Perceptive comments above. Speaking of "short on examples" , I would be interested in one or two examples of "dumb, hugely expensive, and largely in the interests of Nickels' principal financial and political backers." I think anyone in the Mayor's position would have had his patience tried by the saga ...

Posted Thu, Jun 18, 3:31 p.m.

The casual observer (me) would say the big bottleneck for the Port of Seattle is way south of the Viaduct. The jury-rigged system for transferring containers to the long-haul trucks and rail lines (owner-operated elderly diesel tractors) is a civic embarrassment. Mssrs. Bryant and Yoshitani must have some good data ...

Posted Mon, Jun 15, 10:03 a.m.

"An average Oregon income-earner will pay no more in direct taxation as a result of the tax increases..." And that, in itself, is not something to celebrate. If public funds can be raised by extracting more money from a diminishing slice of the population a rather unhealthy dynamic is reinforced; ...

Posted Wed, Jun 10, 5:10 p.m.

The NYT article showed no photos of the space below the elevated park. That is the other side of the coin isn't it? hard to imagine that the street below the trestle would not have benefited from its removal.

Posted Thu, Jun 4, 10:04 a.m.

Very good piece, Mr. C. Regarding scythes, my father, in late middle age acquired a gas-powered grass and weed cuter, very primitive but effective. But we always had a scythe around the farm and he used that frequently up until he died. When asked why he used the scythe instead ...

Posted Tue, Jun 2, 4:03 p.m.

It is their bridge. Whose else would it be? Bike helmet and seatbelt laws are aimed at protecting people who wish to do themselves no harm. That is a different than erecting public barriers to keep people from harming or killing themselves intentionally.

Posted Tue, Jun 2, 10:18 a.m.

Excuse my ignorance, is the barrier designed to span the entire bridge or just those sections of the structure that are over land? falling bodies threaten boaters too but I can't remember any reported collisions.

Posted Thu, May 28, 1:22 p.m.

".. to misread (if not actually to fabricate) evidence of "WMD," Seneca, name any members of the Armed Services Committees or the Intelligence Committees (House or Senate) who interpreted 2002 intelligence any different than the Bush Administration. So maybe Bush "fabricated evidence? is that an accusation or just an easy ...

Posted Fri, May 22, 2:50 p.m.

TE's response was longer than it should have been but some of the information in it was new to me and probably should have been in McKay's article.

Posted Tue, May 19, 9:21 a.m.

“We must be willing to look at the failure of collective action.." I wonder if Lancet really understands or even examines the tradeoff between quick decisions/fast action as opposed to the other way to make decisions. Or to not make them, as Gates seems to be suggest.

Posted Wed, May 13, 10:47 a.m.

" All this will help bring more people into the neighborhood, night and day, supporting small business, filling up the streets and parks with friendly folks." I'm not sure that strategy has worked really well in Belltown. I will concede "middle class housing" is probably the only even faintly promising ...

Posted Tue, May 12, 8:57 a.m.

It's a shame those recycling bins for glass are gone. Now Steve has to actually open his neighbor's cart do his investigation. Not exactly suave.

Posted Fri, May 8, 8:57 a.m.

I think your piece reveals why prospective candidates fade out. What are the issues? Maybe I missed something but just what does the anti-Nickels run against? his deputy is kind of a tough guy? that should get a few votes. Some big buildings have been built? who, exactly is to ...

Posted Wed, May 6, 6:03 p.m.

What Eric is saying makes sense regardless of whether or not climate change is human caused. The case against fossil fueled private cars is good even if climate change is an illusion.

Posted Wed, May 6, 8:30 a.m.

"A republic, if you can keep it." Shortly after 9/11 I was at a gathering with some friends and among them, I think it was generally believed that similar attacks would occur several times a year on into the future. I certainly thought so. How could you stop determined men ...

Posted Tue, May 5, 2:32 p.m.

Good piece, Kent. Cutting management is very hard for management to do. They'd rather cut the line workers and that's what they will do, reminding us we need to pay higher taxes to keep all these services. You imply that private industry does better and I think I agree but ...

Posted Thu, Apr 30, 2:24 p.m.

Fifty years ago the Pioneer Square area was home to folks on the bottom; alcoholics, day laborers, unemployed single men and a few slumming college men late at night. It was the resurrection of Pioneer Square that was the anomaly. PS has succumbed to social gravity. The night life in ...

Posted Thu, Apr 30, 11:06 a.m.

I agree, good piece. Boeing and others will leave because of (a), relatively militant union, (b), tax structure (?, high property tax, I suppose; the business tax on gross--which I understand Boeing has adroitly diminished) or, (c) the transportation bottlenecks? All of the above, I suppose. I am guessing (a) ...

Posted Thu, Apr 23, 9:21 a.m.

Mr. Van Dyk is correct in his comment that the tax protests are not aimed solely at the Obama administration. The profligate ways of the Bush years just built up the public anger and that has now erupted because of what we can all see as a financial mess that ...

Posted Wed, Apr 22, 1:47 p.m.

Mr. Sell's arguments are reasonable. We all enjoy the benefits of our collective wealth and, as things stand now, taxes do not seem outrageously high. But it is equally reasonable to be terrified about the tax levels that will be necessary to service the debt our government has incurred in ...

Posted Tue, Apr 21, 8:03 a.m.

".. and Teddy Roosevelt, the icon of progressive Republicanism, he was a proto-fascist." Knute, I think you are getting carried away here. Maybe proto doesn't mean what I thought it meant.

Posted Mon, Apr 20, 3:15 p.m.

A modest defense of the sales tax: 1. It is not as regressive as its critics generally allege. A family that has an income of $150,000 pays a lot more sales tax than a family that makes $50,000. Rents, food and prescription drugs are after all exempted. 2. Everyone pays ...

Posted Sun, Apr 19, 10:57 a.m.

",,, he shouldn't have put on all that weight. But now he weighs that much and can't work....." smacgry, that's an pretty open-ended commitment, isn't it? if you drink too much or if you are addicted to pain killers, smack, cigarettes or if you have anger management problems and are ...

Posted Tue, Apr 14, 11:21 a.m.

"Anti-Intellectualism in American Life, pummeling eggheads is the American way." Our President has a PHD, our Governor has passed the bar exam. Where are the eggheads who have been pummeled? A lot has changed since Hofstader wrote "Anti-intellectualism...etc." and I don't think you can blame the great unwashed anymore. The ...

Posted Fri, Apr 10, 6:31 p.m.

It shared some characteristics with military service. Less discipline, better pay but pretty severe living conditions. Each experience was helpful for some people. "Godsend"? that seems a bit strong. In the midwest the CCC furnished roadside cleanup services (raking dirt that blew away) and other uninspiring busywork.

Posted Fri, Apr 10, 8:50 a.m.

jmrolls; did you really mean "illegal"? what "may be illegal" about it?

Posted Wed, Apr 8, 8:41 a.m.

What would happen to our economy if people decided they could get along fine without all the crap they are buying? horrifying thought.

Posted Sat, Apr 4, 11:02 a.m.

PJS, the economics of ski resort development are known to anyone who even picks up a brochure. There's been at least one book written on the subject ("Downhill Run" -approximately-). The ski runs are not economically viable; the money is made by selling the condos and lots; then the developer ...

Posted Thu, Apr 2, 8:38 a.m.

Good article, Knute. And good advice. But I do question whether cats present much threat to birds. We also no longer keep a cat but for the twenty years or so when we did I think one of our cats got maybe a couple of birds (through no lack of ...

Posted Wed, Apr 1, 3:17 p.m.

Bless you. That was good to read.

Posted Fri, Mar 27, 2:42 p.m.

Everyone on this planet must know the USA has overdrawn its account. Yet the ten year treasury note is selling at about 2.75%. Would you loan money to our government at 2.75%? why would anyone? it's a pretend economy and no one is eager to drop the pretense. "..just one ...

Posted Mon, Mar 23, 9:05 a.m.

"break out the salt next time" Having bought two used cars that were quickly rusted to death by salt I am less enthusiastic about salt as a road clearing agent than some people. The newest of those cars (junked at age seven) had spent a lot of time in Chicago. ...

Posted Sun, Mar 15, 11:10 a.m.

"Finances and economics,not lack of a fan base, are the hurdles in Portland." Isn't that like saying "It's not lack of willing buyers that is threatening GM (they sold over 300,00 cars last year!), it's economics and finance". Why can't the size of the stadium be tailored to the actual ...

Posted Thu, Mar 12, 9:02 a.m.

"Tim Eyman’s Initiative 960, passed in 2007, and Initiative 601, passed in 1993, any tax increase requires two-thirds votes in both houses of the Legislature or a vote of the people." That darned Tim Eyman. If it weren't for him and all the stupid people who voted for those initiatives ...

Posted Tue, Mar 10, 9:56 a.m.

Richard, the plug-in electric car will pay NO gas tax. Ergo, there needs to be a mechanism for plug-in vehicles to pay their share. There may be another way for electric cars to pay into the road maintenance fund, other than the snoop chip (tax on batteries, tires?), but there ...

Posted Mon, Mar 9, 9:33 a.m.

abcs: Ah, now I get it. It's to counter the plug-in vehicle. Why didn't Rosenberg say that? why write an article that ignores the the only rationale for what seems like a totally perverse idea? dealing with the electric car dilemma is worth writing about.

Posted Fri, Mar 6, 9:21 a.m.

And instead of taxing cigarettes at the store, when BUY your cigarettes, you tax people when they SMOKE them. This more accurately penalizes people who pollute the atmosphere and their fellow citizens lungs, meanwhile going easy on those who buy a bunch of cigarettes but just leave them around the ...

Posted Thu, Mar 5, 9:09 a.m.

So the Wawona has been "Historic" for thirty nine years, listed on the "National Register of Historic Places". Aside from the question of why a ship would be registered as an "Historic Place" I have to ask what happened to the Wawona in those thirty nine years? whatever it was ...

Posted Wed, Mar 4, 9:02 a.m.

" We can’t live on credit forever" People have been saying that for a long, long time now. And people said house prices could not continue to rise forever. They said that for a long, long time. Both right. There must be a plan somewhere in someone's brain below the ...

Posted Sat, Feb 28, 9:38 a.m.

So Mr. Burgess' "natural supporters" fear retribution. That makes me wonder who his natural supporters are. City employees would be an obvious possibility, those consultants who have contracts with the City (or who seek them), maybe even developers who foresee a major negotiation in their future. We've had Mayor "nice ...

Posted Fri, Feb 27, 2 p.m.

I haven't been in Moab for thirteen years but my impression, at that time, was that "slick rock" mountain biking was a relatively benign activity, comparable to hiking in the amount of soil and vegetation disturbance. In thirteen years a lot can happen. It must have if you compare Moab ...

Posted Wed, Feb 4, 8:57 a.m.

ONE WORD: HILARIOUS

Posted Mon, Feb 2, 6:04 p.m.

I don't remember going to Broadway to see many movies but Del Teet and Keeg's were certainly Broadway magnets.

Posted Mon, Feb 2, 11:10 a.m.

Good thing you didn't drive through downtown San Bernadino. An empty ten story hotel, a "mall" that could function as a fortified enclave, a daytime occupation force of public employees and NO restaurants (in downtown!!). I had to eat breakfast at a Jack in the Box. They do a passable ...

Posted Sat, Jan 31, 6:03 p.m.

" ..... already pump $730 billion to our economy in outdoor recreation. That supports 6.5 million jobs or one in 20 American jobs." So we can recreate our way out of this? other than government jobs and government contracted work what you are talking about is tourism. OK, tourism is ...

Posted Sat, Jan 31, 2:59 p.m.

Knute, neither the city nor the state can print money. For them (us) it is a zero sum game; if the state decreases services it can lower taxes. The reverse is also true. No Keynes for the locals. I usually think that is a good thing.

Posted Sat, Jan 31, 11:37 a.m.

"..linchpin of democracy" is not an exaggeration. Like all other democratic institutions newspapers have their flaws but one has only to compare the anglo/western tradition of privately controlled journalism to its opposite; Pravda, The People's Daily. I, for one, will greatly miss newspapers and I think our society will suffer ...

Posted Tue, Dec 30, 11:01 a.m.

So why not just raise the gas tax? if Oregonians are, as the article suggests, buying more fuel efficient cars (high fives all around) then why would a complicated, likely expensive and surely cheatable miles-driven program offer any better solution than the gas tax? I read the article hoping to ...

Posted Sun, Dec 28, 5:31 p.m.

I am trying to think of our last non "wilfull" mayor. Paul Schell, maybe. I think Mayor Nickels (who I did not vote for) perceives some things that elude his critics; namely, that new, well-paying jobs can help Seattle in a lot of ways. Mr. Allen (I didn't vote for ...

Posted Tue, Dec 23, 8:39 a.m.

"Or are we living in an age of symbolic, self-congratulatory environmentalism?" The question answers itself. But the answers to other troublesome little questions do get fuzzy for us consumers. I had a conversation with transportation expert Dan Sperling this past summer and, in discussing the relative fuel consumption of a ...

Posted Fri, Dec 19, 12:03 p.m.

People who can think well and write well will always be employed if there are people who can -and do- read. I think the government focus should be on ensuring that the supply of readers is growing. I see more and more video options on blogs and established websites. I ...

Posted Thu, Dec 18, 12:53 p.m.

Mr. B, that is interesting. Thanks for having a fine memory or some impressive files. Or both.

Posted Thu, Dec 11, 8:46 a.m.

The compromise has been reached, it seems to me, by throwing out the ground rules. A year ago, fixing the seawall was critical, simply had to be done. And the tunnel under downtown (David does not say which Avenue) was, I think, described as even more expensive and troublesome than ...

Posted Tue, Dec 2, 5:39 p.m.

" Where's the real improvement for any of us?" This is a familiar response to the Viaduct problem and the Mercer St. project. It's as if the city exists to conduit vehicles; other amenities to be considered whenever possible but if money is to be spent, faster moving traffic must ...

Posted Sat, Nov 29, 10:08 a.m.

The US Attorney General "deserves" to be called a tyrant? by what reasoning? the US Supreme Court too, I presume. If a terrorist attack had just occurred in the USA he would have shouted "..Incompetent! boob", "Islamic stooge!!" aligning himself with all the virtues of the news cycle. You are ...

Posted Thu, Nov 27, 6:16 p.m.

"... you can’t help but wonder why we try to save some folks who can’t be saved." Very good piece Kent. It's the best piece on the homeless that I have read and I thank you for writing it. You do not pursue the above quote; it is, to me ...

Posted Mon, Nov 24, 4 p.m.

According to its website, Department of Social and Health Services consumes 30% of the State budget (this does not include the federal contribution to DSHS). DSHS has grown like Medicare. There is no limit to its theoretical growth. Cutting education and leaving DSHS to its relentless growth is a terrible ...

Posted Tue, Nov 18, 2:26 p.m.

I think Crosscut is very good. Also think Clifford is funny. Knute is a treasure. I devoutly hope Crosscut continues, profit or non.

Posted Mon, Nov 17, 3:43 p.m.

It's nice to have a 2nd Amendment backer writing at Crosscut but I can imagine this situation: You are with your children at Woodland Park; kicking the ball around. You notice there is a group of young men with at least one of those big blocky Glocks (as I understand ...

Posted Fri, Nov 14, 2:23 p.m.

The rationale for an inspection fee that will almost surely be passed on to the tenants citywide has always puzzled me. Licata and his allies have noticed that some landlords rent rundown units. They can probably be forced to upgrade the units to make them more nearly code compliant. So ...

Posted Thu, Nov 6, 2:16 p.m.

"This year we saw exhausting coverage of Sarah Palin's wardrobe, of Joe the Plumber's lack of a plumbing license, of John McCain's rantings about Barack Obama's past associations." I note the contrast: not "coverage of Barack Obama's past associations" but "John McCain's RANTING about Barack Obama.'s past associations." As far ...

Posted Mon, Oct 27, 2:36 p.m.

Ted Van Dyk, which presidents in our history (maybe just back to 1900) do you credit with nuance and ambiguity?

Posted Mon, Oct 27, 12:15 p.m.

Ted Van Dyke, good piece. It will probably influence at least one of my votes. I agree with your reservations about John McCain but please reconsider this portion of what you wrote: "..not a man who grasps nuance or ambiguity. Obama has lived it." A man who has lived nuance ...

Posted Sat, Oct 25, 6:13 p.m.

It is comforting to think that crude oil prices are going to continue downward and make mobility cheaper. I wish us luck on that one. Crude oil futures for Dec. 2012 are around $80 or approximely double what they were 18 months ago. I don't think everyone thinks we are ...

Posted Sat, Oct 25, 12:55 p.m.

It's easy for me to believe that Seattle's terrain and major water hazards make transportation costly. High land prices don't help. But voters should at least acknowledge that it is not going to get easier. I-5 has already claimed a huge portion of our city; the streets are pretty crowded; ...

Posted Fri, Oct 24, 4:29 p.m.

"The attending physician may sign the patient's death certificate which shall list the underlying terminal disease as the cause of death." It doesn't say anything about the "immediate" or "proximate" cause of death so it does make me wonder why they phrased it in that limited way. In spite of ...

Posted Thu, Oct 23, 9:45 a.m.

Yarrow, that was not my point. "..has he ever held a position where he controlled hiring of anyone other than his own personal staff?" If you know the answer to this please tell me. This is not a trick question.

Posted Thu, Oct 23, 8:29 a.m.

John, that is very good. Funny and sad. Thoughts that are related came to my mind during the coverage of Sarah (and Todd) Palin's attempts to have a state trooper fired. "What if Obama had done that?" I asked myself.... then I wondered if Obama has ever fired anyone? does ...

Posted Wed, Oct 22, 3:40 p.m.

hackenflack: Your argument is that the vitality of the Market is driving condo prices? that's a stretch. Rent on other commercial competing retail space is commonly based on a percentage of gross sales (often with a tax and insurance escalator). If that rent structure is used at the Market some ...

Posted Wed, Oct 22, 12:34 p.m.

It was annoying to me that the newspaper articles describing the scope of the work showed pictures of obviously neglected pipes and ducts. Things that should be part of responsible maintenance and paid out of yearly income. I think the same article identified the Hillclimb as the big expense with ...

Posted Mon, Oct 20, 10:10 a.m.

Yes, good work Knute. My recollection is that Lovett was one of a small group who designed the building. From its appearance I would assume Lovett was the design lead but I think the other architects should be mentioned. Didn't Daniel Streissguth have a part in that project and maybe ...

Posted Sat, Oct 11, 2:04 p.m.

Matt, I really doubt if Knute hates Seattle. Then there are the statistics you cite (39% reduction in traffic accidents.. ): I wonder if the kind of "traffic circles" we have in Seattle have been around long enough to generate any meaningful statistics. A traffic circle melds traffic at an ...

Posted Thu, Oct 9, 11:15 a.m.

FOLKS STROLL IN SF: and they just walk around here. Might as well get used to it, Knute. A quible: the complaint about garage doors vs gossip-friendly front yards is, by this time, getting close to cant. What the city now requires for front yards (and side yards too) is ...

Posted Tue, Oct 7, 2:56 p.m.

GOOD YOU WARNED US: "..I said the comparison should not be overdone." Yeah, well we noticed that she's female and wears different kind if clothes but still....

Posted Wed, Oct 1, 1:52 p.m.

I AGREE: " mayor and council members should not be rubber stamps for a commercial venture whose success should not depend on public subsidies" but still, most of the criticism of this project (at least that I have seen) chews fiercely onthe movement of vehicles. Is it possible, I wonder, ...

Posted Thu, Sep 25, 7:45 a.m.

3RD STORY PARK: "Can people at the south end actually see that there's a park 50 feet in the air, and easily get to it?" Good story and good criticism. We don't like the viaduct so make it bigger? has putting a park on top of I-5 been a ripping ...

Posted Fri, Sep 19, 10:14 a.m.

GOOD OLD DAYS: I think Knute is observing a fact. Seattle was a better place to live in 1970 than it is now (and even better in 1960 before I-5). Relatively slow growth has granted some grace to Spokane (as it has to Portland). Can anyone name a city west ...

Posted Fri, Sep 19, 9:07 a.m.

PLEASE DON'T: mention this to Frank Chopp.

Posted Mon, Sep 15, 11:27 a.m.

TWEAKING GLOBALIZATION: David, you make some of the consequences of higher fuel prices sound good: reduced migration, more costly imports (not that we should forget exports), fewer vacations in other hemispheres, maybe a resurrection of some local industries, less ritual burning of the gasoline on national holidays. It could help. ...

Posted Sat, Sep 6, 6:02 p.m.

and spending billions on more road capacity: In a rational world the entire air travel/hotel/convention complex would be receiving some skeptical looks from all levels of government. The business model exists because of a perverse federal tax writeoff that subsidizes travel and the specialized consumption that travel embodies (restaurants, taxis, ...

Posted Tue, Sep 2, 9:58 a.m.

SAME FOR MEN?: If a male candidate revealed his daughter's unwed pregnancy would it cause such a fuss? I am guessing no.

Posted Sat, Aug 30, 8:38 a.m.

HEAVY, OBSOLETE, SWEAT PADS: Anyone can wear what they please but, if you want to stay warm and carry the minimum, wear synthetics.

Posted Sat, Aug 30, 8:30 a.m.

Having been photographed hugging Bush,: Gee whiz, Knute, even Putin hugs Bush.

Posted Wed, Aug 20, 6:01 p.m.

AND THE ONLY THING WORSE: than a republican is a rich republican.

Posted Mon, Aug 18, 12:08 p.m.

UTILITY COSTS: I note that monitoring usage of electricity, natural gas and water, while readily available to the LEEDS community, is not mentioned in the above article. Why not? One example: the claims that a large sliding glass door saves energy is supported by what data?

Posted Sat, Aug 2, 10:40 a.m.

This is a voluntary fee: Thanks Knute. How did Nickels get himself on that loser of an idea; he seems smart sometimes. The big freebie is, of course, free parking. Is there any environmental holy grail that free parking does not undermine? gasoline, global warming, storm water runoff, all evil, ...

Posted Wed, Jul 30, 1:19 p.m.

PRETEND DESIGN REVIEW: Neighborhood Design Review sounds like a good thing. Democracy in action. It probably works sometimes but neighborhood folks really can't take responsibility for a design; that would simply be unworkable: "..we'll design the building, you pay for it." The City (DPD) pretends to have Design Review and ...

Posted Mon, Jul 28, 6:13 p.m.

TREND OR ISOLATED INCIDENTS: I have been riding a bicycle in Seattle for about 20 years (I don't commute, I ride for errands and pleasure). I have noticed a distinct improvement in the attitude and courtesy of Seattle drivers in that time. I can remember pickup drivers shouting bad words ...

Posted Wed, Jul 23, 9:54 a.m.

BUILDING SHAPED LIKE A LEAF: I think Venturi wrote about the fast food joint shaped like a duck (served duck soup, I guess). Makes me wonder why a building that looks sort of like the TWA terminal at Kennedy airport should have any green credentials past that first literary allusion. ...

Posted Sat, Jul 19, 8:47 a.m.

"smarmy smiles of the politically incorrect": So now it is the politically incorrect who are the smarmy ones. I admit I have always been a little hazy on "smarmy" but I thought it was the teachers pet who was smarmy. People are obviously annoyed at The New Yorker because some ...

Posted Sun, Jul 13, 10:31 a.m.

BRASILIA: "the pool halls and such all" along First Avenue. I just have to mention the death star of urban nightmares. I think it's our unconscious fear; an all new city. I think I read somewhere that Brasilia was gradually, after forty years, creating some wrinkles that made it less ...

Posted Fri, Jul 11, 1:19 p.m.

Where has the Mayor been on this all these years?: And where was Peter Steinbrueck when this abominable code was written? was he, by any chance, the Land Use Chair for awhile (I honestly do not know the answer to that but I think he was).

Posted Sat, Jul 5, 7:14 a.m.

The real third place is probably your car: I think you hit it. Good work Knute. Starbucks did create something, we just don't know what it is yet.

Posted Sun, Jun 29, 11:12 a.m.

MY 1.5 TON JACKET: Well, I think I'll go to the store and get some carrots, milk and bread and, of course, I will take 3,000 lbs of plastic and metal with me. So if I take the bus, along with 20-30 other people then I am doing somewhat better, ...

Posted Wed, Jun 18, 1:35 p.m.

$125 per hour: scotr21: "....with a severely underpaid staff." On a 2007 permit application I paid $125/hr for review time (not overtime). DPD staff may indeed be underpaid but it's hard for me to see just why. As you imply, the complexity of the code discourages intelligent, concerned citizens from ...

Posted Tue, Jun 17, 9:44 a.m.

COUNCIL TO THE RESCUE: Wonderful article, Kent. "Seattle codes are measured by the pound, and even developers have to hire specialists to find loopholes to getting around inconvenient details" The city council over decades has created a monster rivaling the US Tax Code . I agree with you about the ...

Posted Mon, Jun 16, 5:09 p.m.

PHEVs: Cascadia Center acknowledges that wide use of Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles would, perhaps, "strain the grid". I seem to remember some similar mild warning prior to the pursuit of ethanol from corn. Something like, "... broad use of ethanol refined from corn may raise the price of food grains ...

Posted Thu, Jun 12, 4:11 p.m.

Australia vs USA: Jake, I have to admit I have missed a lot of what you see in Seattle (I ride the bus, walk and ride the bike). I see some cheap booze, some of which I buy myself; it's not often that I am accosted by a disturbed or ...

Posted Tue, Jun 10, 1:20 p.m.

IN-PLACE-VALUE: Knute, (and Art) what makes you think that the IPV is not reflected in the price of the property? A 10 unit building near downtown, a few parking stalls; let's say it grosses $100,000 per year in rent which, in today's market might (MIGHT) just make the building worth ...

Posted Tue, Jun 10, 9:49 a.m.

It helps to read: dn, I actually did read Rypkema. He describes the problem nicely. I don't think he said anything that contradicts my "guess". Thank you jvfox; I am strictly K12. You tell me you want lower production of housing and lower prices. At the same time. With the ...

Posted Mon, Jun 9, 6:34 p.m.

how many were built?: jvfox, the demolished statistic does not mean much unless compared to how many were built does it? The political forces seem to have decided that the way to cheaper housing is to let the developers overbuild. Who can argue? developer harrassment via DPD, and the preservation ...

Posted Mon, Jun 9, 1:57 p.m.

What it costs: The way it's supposed to work is that the cost of demolition and development of a property is compared to the cost of leaving it alone, renovating, restoring it or just tweaking. Then the owner makes his or her decision based on those costs. Our society is ...

Posted Sun, Jun 8, 9:43 a.m.

Their main goal is to protect their private profit.: Well, most businesses exist to make a profit. We should recognize that this condition is near-universal and has been a part of our system for 200+ years. The question I have is that if landlords pass along this expense to their ...

Posted Fri, Jun 6, 10:49 a.m.

Reducing Poverty: "..who did more to reduce poverty than probably any American president..." I agree that Lyndon Johnson deserves greater respect than he is commonly given these days but I don't think the statistics mentioned (by Califano) really support that claim. Poverty reduction very closely parallels growth in our Gross ...

Posted Wed, May 21, 9:39 a.m.

some resignations ought to come from the board, not from staff.: Flag, I disagree with you on a lot but you are certainly right on the board. They let themselves be stampeded into an obvious bad choice. Dumb building, mediocre architect and enthusiastic folks in the bleachers (including the otherwise ...

Posted Tue, May 20, 3:40 p.m.

TIM STRIKES AGAIN: David, if voters had not approved the Eyman intiative then the Ferry System would have had more money and would have been able to go ahead with the ambitious terminal program. Maintenance and upkeep on the vessels themselves (which naive me would have expected to come out ...

Posted Sat, May 17, 6:13 p.m.

THEY FILL TIME: Knute, you let the air out of that balloon. Funny and accurate. Why are they that way? I think everyone has one or two friends who may be smart, maybe not, but they keep a conversation going. Weather, gossip, pets. It's a social virtue. The TV heads ...

Posted Tue, May 13, 12:02 p.m.

"through Myrtle Edwards Park": In my mind I had trouble following the route described but I would be concerned about rail line going "through Myrtle Edwards park". Isn't the Park only a few hundred feet wide in several places (and even less in some places); how much park would remain ...

Posted Mon, May 12, 11:58 a.m.

NOTHING TO BE DONE: The Olympian, if correct, describes an insoluble problem. Our economy (I predict we will not give it ups) depends on the culprits; cars, trucks, roads. But what about Rotterdam, Shanghai, Tokyo? are they all just as bad? Does the Hudson River keep the Jersey ports relatively ...

Posted Fri, May 9, 6:08 p.m.

WHEN BAGS ARE OUTLAWED ONLY OUTLAWS ....: For our groceries my wife has completely switched to the stout cloth bags with serious graphics and big loop handles and by now they litter our car and kitchen. I have decided against using them for the kitchen waste. What I have done ...

Posted Tue, May 6, 4:57 p.m.

COMPARED TO?: Yeah, Nickels deserves a few razzberryies but people who throw the really sharp darts should identify just which past mayor exceeds Nickels in skill and effectiveness. No fair choosing Gordon Clinton.

Posted Sat, Apr 26, 3:50 p.m.

MORE GAS TAX: jniles, stuka and tarl: The lack of specifics may, in itself, be a selling point on the high tech toll concept. But clearly at some point the driver is intended to see how much his trip is costing him and make decisions about driving that are influenced ...

Posted Sat, Apr 26, 10:31 a.m.

LIBRARY BUDGETS: "...but wasn't sufficient to build a bunch of new Carnegie buildings." Chicago built a traditional library after a well-publicized design competition in, I believe, the mid 1990s. The winning design was patterned after a McKim Mead and White design of the late 19th century. Photos of the completed ...

Posted Fri, Apr 25, 2:33 p.m.

AND THIS IS BETTER THAN A GAS TAX BECAUSE...: "That gave study participants a risk-free financial incentive that would approximate real-world conditions without causing them any pain." I am generally in favor of tolls. Seems like a reasonable and probably helpful response to (especially bottleneck) congestion problems. But when the ...

Posted Wed, Apr 23, 5:17 p.m.

CAUCUS DELEGATES: Mr. Obama seems to do especially well where delegates are selected by caucus as opposed to secret (and convenient) ballot. Someone must have quantified the extent to which his delegate lead has benefited from that fact. Anybody know?

Posted Thu, Apr 17, 1:12 p.m.

HAPPY MEDIUM: Well, Kurt, you have gone on record as a critic of the overheated Seattle economy (or at least certain manifestations thereof) and now you have bracketed your notion of the ideal economy: cooler than Seattle, warmer than Pomeroy. That should leave plenty of latitude for economic fine-tuning.

Posted Tue, Apr 15, 7:04 a.m.

BASSETTI BUILDINGS: Fred and his partners have done great things. What is most impressive to me is that their style is their own. By the late sixties their design approach owed very little to modernism or to any of the magazine- generated styles from the East coast and California. As ...

Posted Wed, Apr 9, 2:33 p.m.

PRIVACY?: I would like to hear you expand on that David. I can't see any privacy issue. If the tolls are used in law enforcement do you think that's a bad thing? I grew up in a farming community where you could be sure that wherever you went within a ...

Posted Wed, Apr 2, 3:42 p.m.

SO FAR SO GOOD: So Chopp blocked state aid to Husky Stadium and Key Arena. David, you make it sound like that's a bad thing. Good piece though. As far as I know you are the best/only source for state legislative entrails poking and it makes for interesting reading. Why ...

Posted Tue, Apr 1, 5:28 p.m.

GOOD SAYING: "the cost is the benefit" is new to me but I will try to remember it. Sure applies here. Kurt, you have noticed that the call to patriotism and bond issue approval in Seattle has become ".... and the existing structure does not meet current earthquake standards". It ...

Posted Mon, Mar 31, 4:37 p.m.

AND THAT AIN'T ALL: Thanks Kurt, very good piece. A friend pointed out to me that the googie of all googies at Paradise is currently being demolished. What she is talking about is the 1970s era flying saucer-inspired lodge, designed as I recall, by an Hawaiian firm. It's probably less ...

Posted Sun, Mar 30, 4:39 p.m.

RELATIVELY cheap: is what I wrote. Are you arguing that SE Seattle is expensive RELATIVE to other areas? not likely. Why does eminent domain enter into this issue? is Seattle assembling land for these developers? if so it is not something I have heard of. If the developer is tasked ...

Posted Sun, Mar 30, 10:18 a.m.

HELP ME OUT: Ganado82, what do these percentages mean for rents or sales price in terms of dollars? I am assuming that the 65% figure means that a customer can allocate 65% of his/her income for housing (doesn't sound right). Locations: the affordable housing has to go where land is ...

Posted Wed, Mar 26, 4:27 p.m.

WELL PUT DAVID: Right clear through. Ever climbing home prices are poison. Falling prices will be an unpleasant medicine but we might luck out and have ten years of relatively stable prices. We can hope.

Posted Fri, Mar 21, 9:01 a.m.

NO HOSTILITY TO DEVELOPERS HERE: "developers can always find a way to keep buildings that should be preserved while still making millions." In the case cited that is yet to be proven, right?

Posted Wed, Mar 19, 9:14 a.m.

DORM STIMULUS: Seems like a good idea. I have to wonder though whether dormitories are very good at enlivening shopping streets. The Post WWII dorms on Campus Parkway and the later developments along NE Pacific haven't ever stimulated anything like commercial bustle down there. That was then, I guess. What ...

Posted Sun, Mar 16, 10:16 a.m.

WETLAND: AZChristopher, thank you for the link and the information. Your explanation of the timing, Monorail vs. Benaroya is helpful. Again, I cannot raise your link; tried my usual tactics. I did google Hat 'n Boots, Seattle. A May 31, 2000 ST article describes the situation, efforts to save, background. ...

Posted Sat, Mar 15, 6:51 p.m.

YOU BOUGHT A WETLAND: AZChristopher, thank you for the information and the links. According to the linked site, Twin TeePees was not "saved" for the following reason: "Ultimately, the owner couldn't afford the repairs and upgrades, and has been attempting to sell the land since 2003" OK, if the owner ...

Posted Sat, Mar 15, 9:25 a.m.

NO SCHOOLS PAGE: Total agreement here, Kent. People like their entertainment and they like their entertainers. Something that needs talk is the symbiotic relationship between big sports and the media. Note the amount of space the ST devotes to sports. Cheap filler, right? a couple of airheads intoning and a ...

Posted Fri, Mar 14, 12:45 p.m.

YOU BOUGHT A WETLAND: The Landmarks Preservation Board has a lot of power. They can, with their designations, remove significant market value from property belonging to anyone. It is a power that one would like to see wielded with visible and reassuring discretion. Does anyone see discretion here? The "googie" ...

Posted Fri, Mar 7, 10:33 a.m.

BILLIONAIRE SAVES TEAM: Isn't there a lawsuit, City of Portland vs Paul Allen? didn't that bright public/private venture turn bad? or was that settled amicably? cheerful taxpayers sucking up and paying? I also seem to remember voting on an initiative that called for something like "no subsidies for professional sports ...

Posted Sat, Mar 1, 8:58 a.m.

INVEST AND HOPE: They have to invest somewhere. Treasuries? they're not paying much these days, 3.8% or so, could well be eaten up by inflation (the official 2.2% inflation rate is, I am sure, optimistic). The tolls might be a pretty safe and lucrative bet but Mr. Brewster reveals some ...

Posted Fri, Feb 22, 5:33 p.m.

Got it Right: Hackenflack nails it. The Hat 'n Boots was saved...somehow.. but I don't think it was through the efforts of the Landmarks Board. Maybe no developer to thwart, ergo no motivation.

Posted Fri, Feb 15, 9:20 a.m.

Who is David?: In his better moments a Scientist, is my guess

Posted Sun, Feb 10, 2:40 p.m.

..AND THE BEEF IS?: I can't watch politicians talk, even ones I like, so consider me ignorant and agnostic. I am curious. What is he going to do? raise taxes? lower taxes? abandon Iraq? continue the Iraq occupation? is he going to open our borders more completely to casual immigration? ...

Posted Sat, Feb 9, 5:53 p.m.

$.001 PER GALLON: When Lake Washington was "cleaned up" a major part of the work was a collector sewer that was installed around the lake. This was a simple thing to understand. Not to do but to understand. The sewage was collected, it was treated and discharged (somewhere). High fives ...

Posted Mon, Feb 4, 3:50 p.m.

CORRECTED NUMBERS.: Sleepy, thank you. I now recall the special dividend.

Posted Sun, Feb 3, 10:19 a.m.

THE NUMBERS: Microsoft earns $1.76 per share and they pay out dividends of $.44 per share. So the payout is about 25 percent of the net profit. Yahoo Finance is telling me that IF MSFT had a profit of $92 billion (your figure) then the payout in dividends should be ...

Posted Fri, Jan 25, 10:54 a.m.

QUESTION TO ASK: I wonder if anyone has asked Kreisman if he thinks saving the Ballard Mannings is a good idea.

Posted Fri, Jan 25, 9:07 a.m.

YESBUT: CRD: If the fault goes through the stadium area then it is located under the surface segment of Highway 99 not the elevated segment. Is that correct? David: The surface option is slightly less popular than the big, elevated replacement option. If the viaduct is torn down in 2012, ...

Posted Sun, Jan 20, 11:54 a.m.

The feds would pick up most of the tab: Knute, we all know the feds have lots of money. It's fairly cheap to print but even if they pick up "most" of the tab that still leaves considerable money someone's got to come up with. So Gregoire is looking at ...

Posted Tue, Jan 15, 5:51 p.m.

WHAT WILL HAPPEN: If the original $.35 toll translates to $1.94 in 2008 then, by the time the equipment is installed in 2009 or 2010 it would be $2.00. Let me make a guess: daily commuters will get a monthly pass that will work out to about $4.00 a day ...

Posted Thu, Jan 10, 4:40 p.m.

PRIUS: The Prius may be "bass-ackward" as you say. The car is far from perfection but I can drive it down to Portland and back the same day. The limitation of 100 miles between charges (and how long do they take?) is a limitation that would take some getting used ...

Posted Sun, Jan 6, 11:46 a.m.

MAYHEW IMPORTANT? II: Knute, thank you. I do not see the name Michelson or Hess in the Report bibliography nor can I find it anywhere in the Report. There is some tepid praise from David Gebhard about one of Mayhew's houses. My recollection is that Gebhard is a respected historian...

Posted Sat, Jan 5, 6:19 p.m.

MAYHEW IMPORTANT?: I am puzzled by the repeated claim that Mayhew is an important architect. Are people confusing him with Maybeck? The Historic Report states that Mayhew worked for Gardiner Daily. Gardiner Daily is, indeed, an important architect. The photos contained in the historic report show Mayhew's work to be, ...

Posted Fri, Jan 4, 6:22 p.m.

COMMENT?: Knute, I went to the Landmarks Board site and it does not look like there is a procedure to comment on these designations. I thank you for covering it.

Posted Fri, Jan 4, 5:37 p.m.

UPSCALE RETAIL: I am scratching my head; did the Mayor's plan for the replacement of the Viaduct really include retail of any kind? "upscale" or otherwise? or even condos? I thought I was paying attention. Al Zeimer

Posted Sun, Dec 30, 10:30 a.m.

REPUBLICAN ENVIRONMENTALISTS: When I think of a Republican environmentalist I see someone with a three ton diesel pickup with a double wide horse trailer behind it. They certainly value the land. Where would they ride their horses, their ATVs and their snowmobiles if it was all fenced off for silly ...

Posted Mon, Dec 17, 4:37 p.m.

CAUSE OF THE FLOODING: "Already it's clear that development patterns, logging practices, and greed played a role in the Lewis County flooding" I don't think it's that clear. The Mapes article in the Seattle Times stated that the practice of allowing the filling and raising of areas for development was ...

Posted Wed, Dec 12, 5:26 p.m.

AFFECTED AREAS: "...the influence of the proposed corridor and station locations..." On your map that does not look like a very strong correlation: Mercer Island, Queen Anne, Wallingford, southern part of Bellevue all have a lot of yellow (slightly positive). I don't see how these areas would have benefited. Did ...

Posted Sun, Dec 9, 5:37 p.m.

AFFORD A LAWYER: "Brenda King couldn't afford a lawyer, but her husband, Michael King, could. " From what I saw on Channel 23 that assertion was not "part of the record". It was discussed and left unresolved because there was no evidence or recorded claim that Mrs. King could not ...

Posted Thu, Dec 6, 9:12 a.m.

GREEN ROOFS: "The 14 scientists called for, among other things, a commitment to "low impact development," which might involve green roofs, permeable concrete, minimal disturbance of vegetation" The ecological allure of "green roofs" has mystified me for some time. Clean rain water falls on the roof. Part of the water ...

Posted Sat, Dec 1, 10:08 a.m.

ACTUAL QUOTE: Many Democrats have anticipated that, at best, Petraeus and U.S. ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker would present a mixed analysis of the success of the current troop surge strategy, given continued violence in Baghdad. But of late there have been signs that the commander of U.S. forces might ...

Posted Fri, Nov 30, 5:14 p.m.

NOBODY WANTS TO ARGUE, PIPER: You done good. Had to be said. "Republican party's dramatic and frightening lurch to the right" That phrase, somewhere above, caught my eye. Recently we had a Democrat in the leadership of the House of Representatives saying, "it's a problem..(for democrats)" if things go too ...

Posted Thu, Nov 29, 1:30 p.m.

KNUTE BERGER MY FAVORITE: Knute gives good column. Westneat does about one good column out of every four....which is not bad. You can tell he's from Seattle which is not good.

Posted Wed, Nov 28, 4:45 p.m.

LOW DENSITY: 50 persons per acre is a suburban density; the kind of density you might find at Snoqualmie Ridge. It was a fine project but it's economically and functionally obsolete.

Posted Thu, Nov 22, 4:51 p.m.

THEY DESERVE IT: " 20 income taxpayers will get kicker checks averaging about $786,000 apiece. Why so huge? They paid more than $4 million in state taxes on average." Anyone who pays that much in state income taxes (never mind the federal income taxes) deserves the refund. Don't quibble.

Posted Thu, Nov 22, 1:26 p.m.

STILL PUZZLED: OK, rcr says Eyman is a "Republican" and has something to do with "Jack Abramof" I am unaware that Eyman has any connection to Abramof and I think that assertion is mistaken. He may be a card-carrying Republican, I am not so sure of that either. Cameron says ...

Posted Wed, Nov 21, 4:32 p.m.

A PUZZLING HOSTILITY: " Eyman would still dictate state tax policy while banging the bars in jail." Wishful thinking, Mr. B. I sometimes wonder at the media's overt hostility to Eyman. How is he different from (other) politicians? why does his advocacy cross a line that so rankles the commentariat? ...

Posted Wed, Nov 21, 4:32 p.m.

A PUZZLING HOSTILITY: " Eyman would still dictate state tax policy while banging the bars in jail." Wishful thinking, Mr. B. I sometimes wonder at the media's overt hostility to Eyman. How is he different from (other) politicians? why does his advocacy cross a line that so rankles the commentariat? ...

Posted Sun, Nov 11, 3:12 p.m.

WHATIF: What if we had an ideal city, good transit, healthy economy, dense housing along with notsodense housing? and what if the land value increased toward the center of this urban paragon so that, viewed as a 3D model, the valuation model would shape itself like a pyramidal tent with ...

Posted Thu, Nov 8, 8:56 a.m.

VOTER ID: Knute, I'm sure photo ID was required before they let you sign in and vote. In my case, this was reassuring until my wife reminded me that next year the "identification" will be some apparatus that reads my signature. The device that "reads" your signature on your bank ...

Posted Wed, Nov 7, 9:02 a.m.

VANCE WINS: Mr. V's argument is devastating. We coddle ourselves into inattention thinking that quasi-anonymous group of career planners and engineers can solve our transportation problems. Or even point us in the right direction. Or, especially, take responsibility for mistakes. Larry Phillips has represented me on the County Council for ...

Posted Mon, Nov 5, 4:03 p.m.

PROOF IN PUDDING: I think what Mr. B. is saying is that if his favorites win it's pragmatic. I can't argue with that.

Posted Sat, Nov 3, 11:55 a.m.

I AGREE WITH YOU BUT....: "It would be financed by tax increases on middle- and low-income citizens." Mr. V; do you really think high income people do not pay sales tax? just asking.

Posted Tue, Oct 30, 5:20 p.m.

WITH FRIENDS LIKE THESE: At least here at Crosscut, there is a distinct and noticeable lack of enthusiasm for Prop. 1. The defenders, Mr. Chasan and (earlier) Mr. Brewster make eloquent apologies but I interpret what they are saying is "hold your nose.." The best argument for Prop. 1 is ...

Posted Sat, Oct 27, 5:36 p.m.

LEVY: Ken Shear: I think Mr. K's subject here is is projects that were allowed to exceed the levy, e. g.: Garfield from $78M to $100M and: Cleveland $68M to $93.8 M. I would assume that the smaller figures were in the levy and, by some means, the levy amount ...

Posted Sat, Oct 27, 11:53 a.m.

IT'S THE PROGRAM: Sean, I think the question is whether that's a good way to compete with the private schools? it sounds like we are constructing Potemkin Villages. Very good and timely work, Mr. K. I suspect the culprit is, to some extent, in the program stage of planning. Like ...

Posted Mon, Oct 22, 10:21 a.m.

CAMPAIGN OVERLOAD: Mr. Vance makes a provocative case. But i, for one, do not want to receive any more bumpersticker-like manifestos in the mail nor do I want to see more campaign advertising on parking strips. The information quotient in these forms of political advertising is very small. I get ...

Posted Tue, Oct 9, 6:06 p.m.

NOTSOBAD: The Channel 21 stuff I have seen is pretty good. The interviews with public figures are good (CR Douglas); no genuflecting. This will probably change but for the moment they're doing well. I seldom watch or listen to their music selections. I'm glad they're getting some favorable notice.

Posted Mon, Oct 8, 9:34 a.m.

BREAKING NEWS: Wow. It's not every day that a prominent academic bravely castigates President Bush and, lest we forget, decries the lack of federal funds for his particular interest. I've been counting and that happens every other day.

Posted Sat, Sep 29, 11:37 a.m.

NON WORK-RELATED: That was good to read Mossback. Thank you. Note also that according to what I have read in, I believe, the Seattle Times something like 75% of automobile traffic in and around Seattle is not work-related. I confess that I do not know just how "non work-related" is ...

Posted Wed, Sep 12, 9:12 p.m.

NO SPOKANE: I am thankful there is no Tri Cities and no Spokane in eastern Oregon. There is, instead, a heartbreaking empty beauty that we should cherish. Bend/Redmond is working away at the center/west but, further east, there is still county after county from Interstate 84 to (at least) Winnemucca ...

Posted Tue, Sep 11, 5:58 p.m.

DOING WELL: You compare very well to other weblogs; good, interesting writers and worthwhile commentary from the audience.

Posted Sun, Sep 2, 3:20 p.m.

SOLICITING FOR SEX: ".. it is also illegal to solicit sex in a public bathroom." Is it legal to solicit for sex anywhere? obviously not for money but I am wondering about the legal doctrine that separates public toilets from other public places (parks, streets and museums for example). It ...

Posted Fri, Aug 17, 1 p.m.

GREAT BENEFITS: "Nevertheless, the centrality of China to trade and its emergence as a global power suggest that the U.S. would have a lot to gain by a presence in Shanghai." Remind me again of what exhibitor nations gain. Convince people to emigrate to the US? buy our products? support ...

Posted Sun, Aug 12, 3:45 p.m.

NOT A MYTH: Piper is right. I hire day laborers occasionally and I know a building contractor who has hired a homeless man for several months (heavy drinker, good worker). I have hired homeless day laborers who, for one reason or another, have chosen to live in garages or abandoned ...

Posted Wed, Aug 8, 3:35 p.m.

RE: Accommodating density in Seattle: Sarajane, non-conforming "Mother-In-Law" apartments have been an issue for at least 15 years in Seattle. The controversy is there but, in fact, the enforcement of single family zoning is so weak that I doubt if complete legalization of MILs would make a whole lot of ...

Posted Wed, Aug 8, 10:23 a.m.

IT'S THE ECONOMY STUPID: " notably the "Reagan Revolution" agenda to restore and protect the wealthy class" Not the best line in the article. I think the wealthy needed no protection and the "revolution" was more like the enabling of new categories of wealthy people, new ways to get rich. ...

Posted Fri, Jul 27, 9:37 p.m.

SETTING THE BAR TOO HIGH: Bundy's argument is very good; we have to look at more than the operating costs of transportation systems for the simple reason that the initial investment is so enormous. I suspect, however, that any really big investment (Grand Coulee Dam, Interstate 90, Evergreen Point Bridge) ...

Posted Sun, Jul 22, 10:59 a.m.

RAILROADS: In the case of the railroads the motive was populating the west which may have involved some security concerns. Western USA was nominally under the control of the US Government but the lack of settlers must have made that control somewhat tentative, especially in California. The frenzy of corruption ...

Posted Fri, Jul 20, 6:18 p.m.

INTERSTATE HIGHWAY SYSTEM: Good article. The establishment of the Interstates has not always been referred to so kindly. The Interstates destroyed our privately owned and operated railroads for several decades, they have enabled a lifestyle and life patterns that are recklessly wasteful. Recreational vehicles and travel trailers alone should be ...

Posted Sun, Jun 3, 4:35 p.m.

WORST TIRESOME BOOK: Don't start with Worst Hard Time. It is a clumsy, repetitive knock-off of Bad Land by Jonathan Raban.