Posted Wed, Apr 25, 8:55 a.m.

Another question is "what is the role of secret service?" What is their duty to report bad behavior, or illegal behavior, and to whom? There is a real tradeoff of protecting the president being made more difficult if the secret service is not completely trusted by the President. That is ...

Posted Wed, Apr 25, 7:54 a.m.

Maybe Mr Meyer can list all the people he would, in the same position as Mr Van Dyke, have reported behavior that was clearly illegal. Let's see, how about: J Edgar Hoover: Mr Meyer, would going to him have done any good? Attorney General of the US: Mr Meyer, would ...

Posted Mon, Apr 23, 11:30 a.m.

I personally find it really hard to believe secret service agents in the late 1950s and early 1960s would have gone out and hired prostitutes. if they had, we probably would have heard about it by now.

Posted Mon, Apr 23, 9:15 a.m.

It is always interesting how some ideas don't even get included in the comparison matrix. It is unfortunate there were no major news stories comparing both the up front and the ongoing operating costs of the rubber tired trolley buses to the rail trolleys at the time the decisions were ...

Posted Fri, Apr 20, 12:20 p.m.

And note the ads below: "how to publish your book", "how to publish a book" and "ebook publishing services". Friesen Press and xlibris and ebookpublishing are at least trying to get some new customers.

Posted Fri, Apr 20, 12:18 p.m.

One thing that is really strange about how epublishing is going is you still have to buy an entire book. Often there are just a few chapters that matter in many books, for example certain technical books or travel books. There is definitely a lot of room for improvement with ...

Posted Tue, Apr 10, 11:40 a.m.

I have to question this sentence above which seems to be a justification for many other assertions: "The fact of the matter is, Seattle voters are not like Portland voters. Seattle is much more car-centric and less supportive than Portland when it comes to high capacity transit. " The first ...

Posted Mon, Apr 9, 10:29 p.m.

To go back to the article itself ... there were a few things that struck me. First, the challenges with building rail between cities varies widely. For example, going to Vancouver BC with high speed rail would either mean some very challenging work along Puget Sound, or would mean some ...

Posted Wed, Mar 28, 11:32 a.m.

I hope he wins. In the mid 1980s, I was a member of the UW Marching Band. Each year, we would go to the Kingdome and play at a pregame and halftime show for the Seahawks. I remember marching on the "field". It was terrible! My ankles got sore just ...

Posted Sun, Mar 25, 6:49 p.m.

Less demand in China would mean less export opportunities. -- A big question every time I read "the deficit is projected to be $$$ trillion" is "who is going to buy all that debt?" It won't be Japan. Will it be China? They have their banking problems too. T bills ...

Posted Thu, Mar 22, 7:30 a.m.

I encourage my children to read the newspaper, but some of the ads in the sports section are definitely not things grade school kids need to see. It would be interesting to have an article about how ad policy has changed over the years.

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

I looked up the height of the 205 bridge. According to Wikipedia, it is 144 feet at low water level. So it seems kind of odd why anyone would think 95 feet would ever be sufficient. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glenn_L._Jackson_Memorial_Bridge

Posted Mon, Mar 12, 2:21 p.m.

Agree on the bad condition of the roads. There are stretches of I5 in the Boeing Field to Convention Center area (north of what was repaved a few years ago) that are down to rebar.

Posted Fri, Feb 24, 9:54 a.m.

One of the talking points about the arena deal is that supposedly it would not exist otherwise. However, housing is going to exist. People need to live somewhere. Subsidizing housing in one location results in increased costs elsewhere, as illustrated above by the point that more police, fire, etc will ...

Posted Tue, Feb 21, 3:48 p.m.

Given the news today about the Phoenix Coyotes, the NHL seems really unlikely. Spending $400 million for 900 incremental seats for 41 pro games a year seems like a big waste of money.

Posted Tue, Feb 14, 9:37 a.m.

I wonder if the NBA is just using Seattle to try to extract more from Sacramento and other cities. They seem to periodically need some city to use as a threat with cities that aren't doing what they want, namely, using tax dollars to support their owners. The NHL part ...

Posted Sun, Feb 12, 7:53 a.m.

I hope someone will assess the impact on viaduct replacement tunnel tolling revenues. If the area is really congested, more traffic may divert to I5. A new arena would need to be busy a lot of weeknights in order to make the finances for it work.

Posted Tue, Dec 20, 10:41 a.m.

Also could Mr Valdez explain why there's nothing being built above the rail station itself? Here's an idea: if the rail station won't have anything built above it, then just put it in the area where the 40 foot buildings would go.

Posted Tue, Dec 20, 9:55 a.m.

I read the comments in the Publicola article, and they create the impression that the density boosters will never, ever, listen to the people who actually live in neighborhoods. This could well be a case of "win the battle, lose the war" because the way this has been handled makes ...

Posted Tue, Nov 15, 6:50 a.m.

Going to the SNC meetings didn't really fit into our family's schedule, but Kent's write-ups were always very informative. I will greatly miss Kent.

Posted Mon, Oct 24, 11:48 a.m.

I just got a lot more interested in the Seattle school board election, even though I don't live in Seattle. The reason is a call from a group called "Stand for Children". The autobot said something along the lines of "please be ready for a call tomorrow night for your ...

Posted Thu, Oct 6, 3:22 p.m.

the end should be: I would abbreviate the closing line: Reality: the absence of trust is what’s truly dangerous. to this: Reality: is what’s truly dangerous. Why? because over and over, reality is what proves to undercut the grandiose projections and promises. Reality is what actually leads to distrust. Does ...

Posted Thu, Oct 6, 3:19 p.m.

I've read the article three (3) times, trying to figure out how the headline equating trust with speed and the rest of the article actually fit together. "More speed = more trust" - yes or no? Or "more trust if there's more speed" - yes or no? I'm not sure ...

Posted Fri, Sep 30, 1:36 p.m.

Orino, I was thinking about how a parliament has major advantages as well. This is shaping up as a really depressing election, in large part because I think we're guaranteed more gridlock which in and of itself keeps increasing certain problems.

Posted Mon, Sep 26, 10:06 a.m.

A big question on any poll is "how are the questions asked" and another is "which words are used." Terms like "the wealthy" may or may not equate to a couple earning $250K in a high cost area, especially if that couple has several hundred thousand dollars in student loans ...

Posted Sun, Sep 25, 10:28 p.m.

When President Obama says "tax the rich", the stereotyped reply is "no class warfare." Maybe instead we should be asking "do we want a return to the marriage penalty?" It would be really interesting to see some data of who these people are who would pay more under his proposals. ...

Posted Mon, Sep 19, 1:39 p.m.

The total impact of various proposals is really hard to assess. For example, the windows are often made of oil-based products, and therefore a carbon tax would actually increase the cost of them. I wondered how many GHG emissions occurred during the fabrication of the windows, and what the payback ...

Posted Fri, Sep 16, 7 a.m.

At our house, we installed new windows (before any type of tax breaks by the way) in the areas that lost the most heat in the winter and that required the most cooling in the summer. Those areas are now more usable and we are glad we have the windows, ...

Posted Tue, Sep 13, 9:29 p.m.

To ask related questions to Bubbleator's: what is the best example of density? What models should we try to emulate? What is at least ok for many ages and stages and financial resources: from first time home buyers to empty nesters or retirees, from singles to families, etc. Much of ...

Posted Mon, Sep 12, 12:35 p.m.

Unfortunately there seems to be a lot of empty retail space in many of buildings that have ground floor retail and upper floor housing. There's a point of market saturation for a neighborhood, where more units do not necessarily generate enough demand to fill additional retail/restaurant space. If the space ...

Posted Sat, Sep 10, 11:15 p.m.

I am curious about what Mr Borkowski would refer people to besides some Youtube videos to refute the history portion of the 911 commission. I looked at Wikipedia and the article on Building 7 states the following: World Trade Center controlled demolition conspiracy theories say the buildings that collapsed on ...

Posted Mon, Aug 29, 12:41 a.m.

The article by Mr Gross is well worth reading. This paragraph stands out: Having run up our credit card to keep on spending, we have reached market-enforced limits that force deleveraging. It is not the debt, however, but the lack of global aggregate demand that is at the heart of ...

Posted Sat, Aug 27, 7:20 a.m.

Also, from my experiences volunteering with teachers: assessing them is really hard. There are two parents who I respect very highly who had completely opposite opinions about a particular teacher. One was adamant: "their child must be moved into the class with that teacher." The principal refused. The parent stuck ...

Posted Fri, Aug 26, 10:39 p.m.

I have been very involved as a parent volunteer in my children's classrooms. There are a wide range of parental backgrounds, expectations, abilities, interest and enthusiasm, not to mention language skills and intellectual aptitude. The big question to me is what we can do to help the students we perceive ...

Posted Tue, Aug 2, 11:37 a.m.

Why does Goldman Sachs, oops I mean SSA, want to ship grain out of Whatcom County when there are already lots of existing grain terminals, including the one at the Port of Seattle? Is it because grain exports will be increasing, or because they want to have a club to ...

Posted Tue, Aug 2, 7:22 a.m.

This is really interesting perspective. But it is really hard to be enthused about 2 lanes each way because when there's a problem in one lane on a two lane bridge, the backups quickly become really bad. Will it be any different in the tunnel? The financial costs and potential ...

Posted Fri, Jul 1, 9:53 a.m.

Whether or not Mr Sonntag runs, I hope he will speak about opportunities to improve overall state government and get candidates to discuss the opportunities contained in his office's audits.

Posted Thu, Jun 23, 12:01 p.m.

Suggestion for a follow up story or stories: 1. results from 1989 to present of what the money has actually done. Has the past money actually closed the achievement gap? What have been the big successes? What has not worked well, and how are those lessons being applied to the ...

Posted Wed, Jun 15, 9:05 p.m.

There's something else that needs to happen: all the growth in tax revenue can't be allocated to the TIF repayment. Some needs to be available to cover growth in other expenditures. It seems there is potential for TIF to take up "all" of the increase in revenue even if TIF ...

Posted Wed, Jun 15, 2:49 p.m.

A question on TIF: if the assumption is the property value will increase, but then it turns out the overall market drops so much that even with the new amenity the total revenue is less, then what happens?

Posted Tue, Jun 14, 6:32 p.m.

It is just plain sad and disturbing that our Port attracts business by running ads pointing out the costs to shippers of LA's efforts to improve air quality If the cargo business is so price- sensitive, it also makes me wonder where the Port of Seattle is going to come ...

Posted Fri, Jun 3, 7:43 a.m.

Idea for a Crosscut story: outline every single unfunded liability, including pensions, at all levels of government including all the local cities, schools, ports, fire districts and so on up to the state level.

Posted Thu, May 26, 9:53 a.m.

The Berkeley Barb editor forgot: many years, it appears USC football players have also had some significant income. So if we had a jock tax, every time USC played the UW, we could get some tax dollars too.

Posted Wed, May 25, 9:24 a.m.

The provision Gregoire, Sims and Nickels agreed to stating that there would be a lot of additional bus service seemed to be a key to signing off on the deep bore tunnel. That funding and the plans for that service now seem nowhere to be found. On all of these ...

Posted Tue, May 24, 9:29 a.m.

A big question is what type of bus service will be available to help avoid the blocking. This is where the eventual closure of the bus/ rail tunnel to bus traffic needs to be considered in the context of just where should the busways go and how many will really ...

Posted Sat, May 14, 8:02 p.m.

no

Posted Tue, May 10, 8:59 p.m.

And in the spirit of proposing solutions, I would like to ask Mr Meyer just how big the unfunded liabilities should be, can be, and would be with any funding solutions he has to offer. The National Review article that was linked to in Crosscut's clicker the other day has ...

Posted Mon, Apr 4, 5:40 p.m.

I would like to hear more about this assertion / conclusion: universal health care coverage (is) the only sure way to lower the overall cost of health care. Is it? Some would say the way to lower the cost of health care is to invest in public health. This does ...

Posted Thu, Mar 31, 1:47 p.m.

A quibble: how could online sales in 1992 be two percent? That was pre-internet. Was this 2% equal to mail order sales? Besides health care as noted above, another big increase has been in education costs. People in their 20s who have $50K in college loans are not able to ...

Posted Wed, Mar 23, 8:52 p.m.

As a volunteer in schools, I have to agree with the comment above. 1. there is a real limit to how many adults are qualified, willing and available to make a meaningful contribution. 2. there are real limits imposed by the need to run background checks, make sure the volunteer ...

Posted Wed, Mar 23, 6 p.m.

Third grade reading sounds like a good goal. I am reminded of this acronynm for setting goals: S = Specific M = Measurable A = Attainable R = Realistic T = Timely The third grade reading goal is a SMART goal. There should be a few others that are just ...

Posted Mon, Mar 14, 11:10 p.m.

5,000 years from now, will our distant great great ... grand children criticize us more if we did the best we can in dealing with nuclear waste, or for not trying to come up with a better solution than the alternative? Will they criticize us more for using energy sources ...

Posted Fri, Mar 4, 7:35 a.m.

The Port is also pleading poverty when it comes to assisting people who are impacted by noise and operations from the third runway. I guess it is all a matter of priorities.

Posted Wed, Feb 2, 3:14 p.m.

There's also the Quick buses that go between Seattle and Vancouver, with stops in between. You have to cross an international border on their bus, you can't go Seattle-Bellingham. Seatac to Vancouver Airport is 4 hours 10 mins. Downtown Vancouver takes longer because of various stops along the way. Fare ...

Posted Wed, Feb 2, 3 p.m.

I had heard ads a while ago for Shuttle Express's door to door service between the Seattle area and the Portland area. Looking at their web site, it appears it is no longer offered. http://www.shuttleexpress.com/seattle-to-portland/default.aspx It would be interesting to find out what happened to this: how many riders, whether ...

Posted Sun, Jan 30, 10:41 p.m.

I think the main point could also be expressed as "some growth leads to prosperity, some does not." The opposite of growth of course is decline. A study of the Detroit metro area or other areas might find, wonder of wonders, that prosperity doesn't come from decline either.

Posted Fri, Jan 21, 7:54 a.m.

I think Governor Gregoire is onto something and I hope her ideas get a solid discussion, not just a knee-jerk "this will impact our turf" rebuttal. For non-traditional learning, I highly recommend the Teaching Company videos and audios of university lectures. Many are available through the King County Library System. ...

Posted Thu, Jan 6, 11:57 p.m.

There is a mix of responsibility: teacher, curriculum, parent, student. So I partly agree with the conclusion that cultural shift is needed, but sometimes it is more than that, and sometimes there are "blocking factors" like bad curriculum that make the whole point moot. Today I was helping in my ...

Posted Thu, Dec 30, 8:44 a.m.

When it comes to education, one major opportunity is Chinese language for children. The Beacon Hill Elementary School in Seattle has a big wait list for its dual language program. This shows there's a lot of interest from parents and children already. The challenge is fitting Chinese or any other ...

Posted Fri, Nov 12, 3:21 p.m.

Actually Debo, things are worse. The real unfairness is the debt that recent college grads are stuck with. How are they ever going to get the savings together for a house down payment, or for their own retirement? I do not blame the legislature for this. But a part of ...

Posted Fri, Nov 12, 7:28 a.m.

I definitely think taxpayers need greater understandings of just what risks and unfunded liabilities they are facing at both a state level and also at the level of other public entities such as county and city. We also need better up front communication about the assumptions used to "sell" big ...

Posted Mon, Oct 4, 9:21 a.m.

I tried out the Rapidride service on Sunday evening. Metro has done a good job with it. It will be interesting to see if it results in additional ridership above the level of the previous routes. The best view is south of 272nd, looking to the west over Puget Sound. ...

Posted Fri, Sep 24, 6:13 p.m.

I think the comments ba makes are correct about business expenses and the ability of people to smooth out income via their schedules. Andy asks "wouldn't it be inheritance" in the case of the widow? This is something a tax expert will have to answer. The big question is what's ...

Posted Fri, Sep 24, 3:01 p.m.

Adjusted Gross Income can be very different than the income we usually think of as net income. AGI includes Wages, Salaries, Tips (line 7), dividends (lines 9a and 9 b), capital gains (13), business income (12), IRA Distributions (15a), social security benefits (20a) and more. This is all added up ...

Posted Thu, Sep 16, 11:53 a.m.

I didn't read anything in the article about chronology, I read about voter dissatisfaction and assigning responsibility for things they don't like. "Experts" may say something was unjustified, and they could well be right, but impacted voters are unlikely to read an "expert" opinion. Some "economists" may say things are ...

Posted Sat, Sep 11, 11:26 p.m.

I am very interested in the answer to the question Cameron asks. To rephrase it slightly, what IS fair? How do we know when we have a perfect system? Because unless we know what we are aiming for, people who are raising concerns about how this is just "the start" ...

Posted Fri, Sep 10, 10:12 a.m.

Thoughts on a few comments above: --income tax is probably a lot less stable than property tax, or even than sales tax, when applied to everyone. Just look at Oregon, California, Illinois, New Jersey, New York etc. Without stability, the legislature is in an even more difficult situation when it ...

Posted Fri, Sep 10, 7:29 a.m.

Besides the questions at the end of this excellent article, there are many other questions voters should be asking as well. I sent these questions to the 1077 campaign in May, and then to the 1098 campaign in August. I have not received a response. Here are the questions: 1. ...

Posted Sun, Aug 22, 3:02 p.m.

Hi, I did not have any particular thoughts of 'why' WSDOT would want to structure a contract one way or another. It does seem though if they committed to a lease for longer than when the bridge would be operational, they could be in breach of contract quite easily. So ...

Posted Sun, Aug 22, 8:40 a.m.

the I90 bridge will eventually wear out. I think it is in the range of 2060 or so, which would be 70 years from when it opened. At that time, the bridge will require very expensive work. Maybe that's a reason for the time limit. We could well be facing ...

Posted Fri, Aug 20, 12:51 p.m.

Did anyone notice the ads from schools at the bottom of the page? The record of what the schools say is mixed. People could read more carefully, but the disclaimers are not any stronger than any other school would give, which is a problem considering how costly they are. Here ...

Posted Sat, Jul 31, 12:28 a.m.

The stadium votes still bug me also. I look at all the cuts to schools, police and public health that we are facing and really wish the funds were going there, not the stadiums. I agree with Mhays: there are a lot of unknowns about every one of these options. ...

Posted Wed, Jul 28, 12:23 p.m.

Re Crossrip's comment: in "selection" one could add: --ignore the differences between tunneling under the water table, which was not done for any of the tunnels Councilmember Godden cites. --ignore a very experienced bidder, Kiewit, dropping out. --ignore the decision by Sound Transit to not tunnel under First Hill for ...

Posted Mon, Jul 12, 10 a.m.

Putting assets on the line is probably not realistic, but pension payments may be. You make a very good point about how there could well be cost overruns on any of the possible approaches, including a rebuilt, a cut and cover trench tunnel, surface transit plus improvements in I5, etc. ...

Posted Tue, May 25, 10:32 a.m.

when you look at the Washington page mentioned above, it does sound really scary. I think the author's point is things are even scarier for other states. How are individual cities and school districts? What type of liabilities do they have if the plans are underfunded?

Posted Mon, May 3, 6:59 p.m.

The gain for renters is going to be minimal: it all depends on the willingness of the landlord to pass along the tax savings, a point made in the Yes web site. My guess is for many apartments the property tax reduction would be $50 to 75 per year. Senior ...

Posted Mon, May 3, 11:31 a.m.

I sent the following questions to the campaign this morning: I am wondering if you're going to post the actual initiative so people can read it online? Also, how is "income" defined? Which line from the IRS form 1040 are we talking about? Are the dollar amounts indexed for inflation? ...

Posted Wed, Apr 28, 3:15 p.m.

What are your sources for your assertions? Can you point to news stories or web sites? Monorail sounded good to lots of people at the price it was originally supposed to cost. Monorail sounded bad to lots of people once they knew the true cost and the way it would ...

Posted Mon, Apr 26, 10:33 a.m.

I appreciate the responses from Ted and from Pepper. I do hope we can see some sort of back-testing of how this would have worked. California and New Jersey and New York all have the proverbial three legged stool with high earner taxes and those states are not a model ...

Posted Mon, Apr 26, 9:08 a.m.

I am very interested in how the revenues from this would have gone up or down if the income tax had been in place during the past 10 years. What would have happened to fill any shortfalls: would the base have dropped (so say $150K instead of $200K) or would ...

Posted Fri, Apr 23, 8:44 p.m.

I agree. Let's see the original numbers. Let's hear Sound Transit's side of this, and explanation of how the length of the debt and interest repayment schedule is different from that of the Monorail. Let's also hear their assumptions about what interest rates will be at the time they issue ...

Posted Fri, Apr 23, 10:40 a.m.

There was a comment above about the oil oligarchs. The assumption seems to be light rail is a way for independence from them. That remains to be seen. As noted above, if oil prices go up anytime during the construction project, then construction costs will increase, and most likely sales ...

Posted Thu, Apr 22, 11:57 a.m.

yes, "partly true, partly not true" that the route has new capacity. With the UW station, I just hope it will be possible to have some sort of connector buses to the nearby area, including the south side of Montlake. In the diagrams it is hard to see how buses ...

Posted Thu, Apr 22, 10:15 a.m.

Interesting point about Las Vegas. I know some people will say "well we're building new capacity." That's partly true, partly not true. Retrofitting a tunnel is not adding capacity. The changes on I90 are changes, not a new bridge.

Posted Thu, Apr 22, 7:50 a.m.

One of the big issues is a reality check on best case how much new development can be built within walking distance of the stations. Does anyone have any figures on this? eg, if you have six story buildings, with a mix of studio, 1,2 and 3 bedrooms, within half ...

Posted Wed, Apr 21, 8:47 p.m.

Any time you have a high percentage of interest payments for a project compared to the actual cost of the project, the most important driver in the overall total cost is the interest rates on the borrowing. Here's where our country's long-term finances are really sobering. I mentioned above how ...

Posted Wed, Apr 21, 2:48 p.m.

The PSRC Vision 2040 and the light rail financial projections both seem to assume peak oil won't really impact energy costs, or sales tax revenue that can fund bus service as well as pay off the rail debt. This may be a bad assumption. Those plans also assume no VAT ...

Posted Fri, Feb 5, 3:54 p.m.

"trained mathematicians" - I remember in high school one of my science teachers had training above the others, but he was , for most students, not as effective a teacher as ones who still had subject expertise but not as much "training." Teaching is just plain hard. I am sorry ...

Posted Fri, Feb 5, 11:18 a.m.

Last spring, various op-eds in the Seattle papers mentioned districts that had used the curriculum called "Discovering Algebra and Geometry." I called the San Diego Unified District to get their perspective. They have over 20 high schools. I talked with people in the central office of math instruction and also ...

Posted Wed, Jan 20, 12:27 p.m.

It depends on how you define "present medicare benefits." In the Senate version, I believe Florida was exempted from the cuts to Medicare Advantage for example. How the "savings" would work is not at all clear to me. Here's a story with a critique of the medicare savings from the ...

Posted Tue, Sep 22, 1:41 p.m.

First, John Fox also wrote a follow up comment in the comments section of his original article here, http://crosscut.com/2009/09/10/transportation/19224/ the comment is well worth reading. In it he responds to the comments by a person named Allie, from SDOT. It is quite striking to read Allie's comments, and then the ...

Posted Thu, Jul 30, 1 p.m.

Very fun reading! Hope you'll share some more of your Lopez adventures.

Posted Sat, Jul 18, 9:56 p.m.

Re our state's budget, I think 2 years ago, the forecast was that the next biennium, we would be on track for $2 billion deficit. It grew to $9 billion. So it is not correct to blame all of the deficit on the national economy's decline, or all of it ...

Posted Fri, Jul 17, 12:50 a.m.

Wow, nothing like some personal attacks here. For what it is worth, Normandy Park has had a significant amount of construction in the past two years of both higher-density housing and commercial property. So has Burien. Both cities' developments have been impacted by the economy and are not filled with ...

Posted Thu, Jul 16, 11:13 p.m.

So, what are some other ideas for keeping off the fiscal roller coaster?

Posted Thu, Jul 16, 4:48 p.m.

There were actually lots of people including me who asked about the lack of parking, about the lack of funding for feeder buses, and about just how many people will realistically live within walking distance of a station. There is no doubt that for some people, light rail is going ...

Posted Wed, Jun 3, 11:06 p.m.

I think the silence says it all: regional planning is just a mirage. It is really all about local politics: "if you don't dump an airport in my back yard I'll get my county to vote for light rail" - thanks Bob Drewel. There's no way when Nickels is up ...

Posted Thu, May 28, 7:46 a.m.

I read that Medicare actually ran a deficit in 2008, and I guess paid for it by drawing down the so-called trust fund. You're right: the Ponzi schemes Congress has in place far dwarf anything Madoff or anyone else has done. The approach of Congress seems to be the same ...

Posted Wed, May 27, 10:31 a.m.

One wonders: how is a suburb defined now? It used to be a place where people would live but not work. Now though there are lots of people who go from the center out to the periphery. For example, from Seattle to Redmond. The above comment about terminology is right: ...

Posted Fri, May 22, 10:40 p.m.

Japan and Europe are going to be in even worse shape because of their demographics. Japan is aging very rapidly. They simply do not have children. Most countries in Europe are facing the same demographic crunch as well. This will result in fewer people to slough the next round of ...

Posted Fri, May 22, 10:36 a.m.

The deficits are really spooky, especially if there are very uncertain payoffs associated with them. Investing in a child's education is going to increase their earning power, and therefore the tax revenue they will generate. Investing in Chrysler? I'm not so sure. The percentages of GDP are hard to digest. ...

Posted Fri, May 22, 10:27 a.m.

I definitely thin 509 should be tolled, with commercial trucks paying more than passenger vehicles. I have a hard time seeing HOT lanes on I5 (Seattle to Northgate) unless the express lanes are somehow retrofitted into two-way traffic. One of the pitches used to support light rail has been "adding ...

Posted Tue, May 19, 5:30 p.m.

Yes, and another point to consider when looking at month to month data is the number of regular work days, holidays, and weekend days. A challenge is backing out transfers from one agency to another, for example, if a person takes Kitsap transit to the ferry dock, walks on, then ...

Posted Tue, May 19, 12:06 p.m.

ok, now I'm really curious. What have been past fluctuations from month to month, for example, was there some sort of a drop in 2007 or 2008 the way there has been in 2009? I tried to find some stats on the Metro web site of month by month reports ...

Posted Tue, May 19, 12:14 a.m.

The point of the post seemed to be first, you get a different perspective about growth depending on what time period you compare. Sound Transit is comparing year to year in the comments. But the data shows that month to month, in recent months, gives a different perspective. It is ...

Posted Fri, May 15, 11:31 p.m.

I'd read somewhere that the funding for operations for the trolley came in part from Metro money that the City of Seattle requested be used for the trolley instead of for buses. So the city may not control the funding directly, but it apparently can request how it is used ...

Posted Thu, May 14, 9:20 a.m.

Supposedly the arrival of light rail is going to free up buses. How big will the impact of this be on Metro's finances? Also would there be a way for new development, for example the one mentioned in Issaquah, to pay fees that would cover bus service from that area? ...

Posted Mon, May 11, 3:37 p.m.

I do not know of all the audits, but the audit of the Port of Seattle appears to have found some major issues and definitely has spurred a lot of work by the Port that does have the potential to save taxpayers money. I would not be surprised one bit ...

Posted Wed, May 6, 9:21 a.m.

Unfortunately the requirement for spending was "shovel ready", not "positive ROI", however that return is defined.

Posted Mon, May 4, 11:08 a.m.

A lot of the sales tax revenue seems to be generated by purchased paid for by debt, either public or private. Too late now, but we should have insisted income from more or less "one time" events like the sales tax on building a sports stadium be spent over a ...

Posted Thu, Apr 30, 5:56 p.m.

I agree with the comment about the huge negative impact the move of Frank Russell would have on Tacoma. It would be really tragic. Boeing is a mixed blessing. I find myself thinking "what do they really want. How many tax breaks do they need, what regulations are they ticked ...

Posted Thu, Apr 30, 11:38 a.m.

The Clicker on Monday linked to an extremely interesting article about higher ed. It is worth re-reading. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/27/opinion/27taylor.html The most interesting point here is: the fundamental business model of higher ed is broken. Too many grad students are used as low -cost teachers to undergrads, get stuck with huge amounts ...

Posted Tue, Apr 14, 2:21 p.m.

First, I'd like to know how other states are balancing their budgets, and for that matter how they fund their universities. I know Michigan has extremely high tuition and is essentially independent of the state, so it is not being dragged down by the state of Michigan's budget problems. Second, ...

Posted Wed, Mar 4, 9:48 a.m.

One other perspective on the 4 trillion of spending in 2010 is to compare it to the overall stock market capitalizaton. Right now, the Wilshire 5000, which is actually composed of about 6300 stocks, captures nearly all stocks of US companies with a market weighted capitalization. The overall value of ...

Posted Thu, Feb 12, 9:43 p.m.

Sorry to be cynical, but if Mr Geithner wasn't aware of the details of his taxes, for example reading notices from IMF that he was a contractor to them and would have to pay self-employment taxes, then why should we expect he would have a grasp of details on the ...

Posted Tue, Feb 3, 11:49 a.m.

Lots of good comments above, but ddmiller's nails a really important point: parents need to participate with their children in these type of groups to make them work. They are not just babysitting. Scouts does open some doors, literally: the cub scout troup got to tour KUOW studios, a police ...

Posted Tue, Feb 3, 9:42 a.m.

I have no first hand experience of scouting in the 70s or 80s when I was growing up. However, I knew some boys who were in boy scouts and I think they got a lot out of it. One of the members has gone onto a career in outdoors recreation ...

Posted Mon, Feb 2, 7:07 a.m.

The other unfunded element is the repairs and maintenance on what we already own. I5 repaving, South Park bridge, and the like. I was hoping the so-called stimulus would address some of those items, but at this point it is really hard to tell what factors are guiding any priorities ...

Posted Thu, Jan 22, 10:19 a.m.

Re the trade deficit: it seems most of what we've "exported" has been financial instruments, like mortgage backed securities or treasury bills. How much of that do people outside the US want to keep buying, and at what price? That's one of the big questions for the stimulus: what will ...

Posted Thu, Jan 22, 8:56 a.m.

Today's Wall Street Journal front page has a story about Congressman Barney Frank's insertion into the TARP program of a measure to help a bank in his district that would not have otherwise qualified, and his constituent follow up to make sure the bank actually got funding. This is business ...

Posted Tue, Jan 20, 1:32 p.m.

One of the big questions is: should we spend all of the "rainy day fund" this biennium? No easy answer on that.

Posted Wed, Jan 14, 10:43 a.m.

I don't know the full circumstances about the I90 cost overruns, but earthquake science has advanced a lot since the 50s and 60s, so I don't think it is fair to blame WSDOT for what we know now about the vulnerability of certain structures to earthquakes. The fundamental problem with ...

Posted Fri, Jan 9, 7:51 a.m.

I am really curious about how prioritizing projects will really work. I think the resurfacing / repaving of I5, and the rebuilding of the South Park bridge, are exactly the type of project that fits with a safety and lets catch upon the overdue maintenance theme I heard at one ...

Posted Thu, Dec 18, 9:39 p.m.

I have to speak up about the snide comment on "tough work load" and "updating". My children's teachers in K, 1 and 2 have been "wow, wow and wow" teachers. I camped out overnight so my children could get into a tuition based all day kindergarten, and it was definitely ...

Posted Tue, Dec 16, 3:16 p.m.

As the old saying goes, "the cost is the benefit." It will be really interesting to see what metrics the Obama administration uses to prioritize projects and make tradeoffs. I think I read Emil Jones, the guy who gave Obama a bunch of high profile wins in the Illinois legislature, ...

Posted Tue, Dec 9, 11:01 a.m.

I think Watergate pulls Nixon to the bottom. Nothing was as bad as that.

Posted Mon, Dec 8, 11:24 p.m.

It is easy for people who don't live on Vashon or Maury to want to put people who do live there at risk of damage to their drinking water aquifer, which sits right underneath the gravel mine site. I read through the Army Corps permit, and it has a lot ...

Posted Fri, Dec 5, 2:26 p.m.

I don't live in Seattle, so am not quite as impacted by the Council's decisions. However, if we're really serious about fighting global warming, then we need to set some goals of reductions in vehicle miles traveled, reduced CO2, etc, then figure out what some realistic alternatives are to get ...

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

After reading several of Mr Lilly's articles over the past few days, the hardest part is to figure out what the alternatives are or what he suggests instead. I would suggest an article on what cuts should be made or how the district can best move forward. The writer above ...

Posted Sat, Nov 15, 12:05 p.m.

I thought performance audits had a specific source of funding. It seems like State Productivity Board and the citizens hotline should be looked at as investments with a relatively short payback time, probably within the budget cycle. So hard to tell if this would actually make the budget worse.

Posted Thu, Nov 6, 12:15 p.m.

You are right on target about the difficult of finding the substance among the chaff. One of the hard parts though is knowing how long the shelf life is of a substantive article. Is it dated within a few hours, as happened during the financial crisis? A week or a ...

Posted Thu, Nov 6, 9:34 a.m.

A melancholy piece, but it seems like there have been repeated decreases in the number of stories in papers, and a lot of stories (maybe an increasing percentage) about polls and the latest standings. I think the real challenge is - how do humans absorb information? Print stories are good ...

Posted Mon, Oct 27, 9:24 a.m.

Can you please supply a reference for the cost per passenger mile of rail and of bus, mentioned above as $1.24 and 0.75 respectively? Good points about the tunnel capacity not being greater with rail than with the current buses, and of how there's a substitution, not addition of capacity ...

Posted Sun, Oct 26, 7:16 p.m.

Minor correction: the Reichert/Burner race was just 2 years ago.

Posted Fri, Oct 24, 2:18 p.m.

Yes, "being competitive" or "keeping up with the Jones" = same thing. I got a call from a campaign volunteer of the Sierra Club, since I'm a member. I started asking her some questions and she didn't really have solid answers. But then she said something about "we need light ...

Posted Thu, Oct 23, 12:40 p.m.

How about CNG buses? Has anyone looked into them? MacDonald brings up the most important point of all: realistically, where are people going to be able to afford to live? How much of the growth of central puget sound will be inside the taxing area, and how much outside? And ...

Posted Thu, Oct 23, 8:20 a.m.

Some Comments: 1. Our frozen in 1965 attitude may in part be the assumption that we have a hub and spoke framework for getting to and from work. The reality now is we have lots of point to point. As an example, in the 1980s, when Microsoft built in Redmond, ...

Posted Tue, Oct 21, 10:26 a.m.

What percentage of the growing population will live within the Sound Transit taxing district? It seems that Marysville, Maple Valley, Buckley, Covington, Monroe, Smokey Point, Snoqualmie Ridge/North Bend, and many other areas are growing quite fast and are poised to take a significant part of the residential growth because they ...

Posted Tue, Oct 21, 7:28 a.m.

Wow, those are quite the attacks on the messenger, not the message. Ironically, they support Mr Van Dyk's point.

Posted Wed, Oct 8, 4:42 p.m.

Karen Keiser's bill of a few years ago: State Sen Karen Keiser in 2006 got a bill passed a few year focused on financial literacy being included in schools. I don't know what the implementation has been like but she had a good idea.

Posted Mon, Oct 6, 10:56 a.m.

A bad experience, and 2 suggestions: One freezing night at Seatac, my family had to wait for 40 mins outside for a van. Because of small trunk spaces and possibly because of Stita policies, they don't like to take a family of 4 in a regular taxi car, just in ...

Posted Fri, Sep 26, 10:47 p.m.

Interesting, some good, some questions: Overall, I think this is an interesting idea. I would like to see a 3D mockup of just how high it would be, and also see whether there could be more openings, the way he proposes for the street crossings. What comes to mind is ...

Posted Thu, Sep 18, 10:34 p.m.

Problems and Solutions: Newspaper coverage: This article by Mr Chasen is one of the few that has looked at Brightwater at all. I wish the Times and PI had done more than cursory coverage of it when the initial planning was going on. I wish that coverage had discussed the ...

Posted Thu, Sep 18, 2:51 p.m.

The Washington Governor race: The news today that the state budget gap is now $3 billion should make the budget deficit a more prominent issue in the Washington governor race. Hopefully a future column could look at what the candidates' records have been in the past on managing situations like ...

Posted Mon, Sep 8, 11:10 p.m.

Minnesota costs: I looked up the new line in Wikipedia. The cost for 11 miles on the new line is estimated at $920 million for 11 miles. That works out to just under $84 million per mile. Construction would start in 2010 and be done by 2014. This is a ...

Posted Tue, Sep 2, 10:09 p.m.

Any comparable perspectives on Sen Obama?: I am curious, are there any first-hand perspectives from people who worked with Sen Obama or who were his neighbors? Perhaps some people who benefited from his community organizing, or from his constituent service while he was in the Illinois legislature? I think the ...

Posted Fri, Aug 29, 11:16 a.m.

RE: emodeling costs are a choice: The point is, if we're misled on a remodel, we have some choices. With the monorail, voters had some choices. With ST2, voters have no opportunity for input or a revote if they are misled or the numbers turn out to be wrong. This ...

Posted Fri, Aug 29, 8:30 a.m.

Remodeling costs are a choice: This is a false analogy: --Meanwhile, voters confronted with bond issues for such mighty plans might keep in mind the same rule of thumb that works when you call an architect to remodel your house: Double the budget and double the estimated time.-- If I'm ...

Posted Mon, Aug 18, 10:22 a.m.

McCain's Asia Experience: I wonder if Sen McCain's years in Vietnam also gave him a feel for Asia? Maybe they prepared him to work on difficult situations with Asians, like working to reconcile the US - Vietnam relationship. Maybe this would be an interesting story to write about too.

Posted Mon, Aug 11, 10:49 p.m.

request for a source, please: Hi, could you please include the page number of the Sound Transit 2 plan to back up your assertions about how there is a sunset provision? Thank you.

Posted Tue, Jul 29, 11:48 a.m.

A correction about Metro's taxing authority: Actually, according to the Puget Sound Business Journal, Metro can only collect a sales tax of 0.9%. This is the limit per the state legislation letting transit agencies collect any sales tax. So Julia Patterson is right when she says "Metro's taxing authority is ...

Posted Tue, Jul 29, 11:45 a.m.

What regions serve as a model? And costs.: Are there any regions that serve as a model of what to do to actually create affordable housing that is somewhat convenient? How about Minneapolis, or Denver, etc? I think there are plenty that serve as a model of what not to ...

Posted Fri, Jul 25, 11:39 p.m.

More Straw men: Interesting article. There are three "straw men" that really stand out. The first is the "40 year hole." Are you referring to outcomes, for example share of transit ridership to overall commuters, or infrastructure? I would assume infrastructure. But if we look at transit ridership to overall ...

Posted Tue, Jul 22, 10:35 p.m.

The Sims / Nickels debate: The op-eds are now posted. http://blog.seattletimes.nwsource.com/edcetera/ I read Ron's first. It is a serious attempt to serve the public with what he thinks they want. Nickels tries to be funny. I don't think this one in particular is funny to people who are jammed onto ...

Posted Fri, Jul 18, 10:10 a.m.

more Double Checking: I re-read the article again and have a few more comments. First, let's look at this introduction again: "The region has tried a largely bus solution for 40 years, and by now the capacity flaws are apparent. If we are really serious about building density, we need ...

Posted Thu, Jul 17, 2:26 p.m.

RE: Politics of transit: This is oh so true: "With the reality of climate change and $4.50 a gallon gas, it's a different world out there." I was hoping the response to Mr McDonald's critique would somehow have some sort of convincing point about the reductions in Greenhouse Gas we ...

Posted Thu, Jul 17, 10:37 a.m.

Assumptions: I wrote in comments on the pro-rail article of the other day: "I think if the Sound Transit board does go ahead with a ballot measure, they need to be very specific about the assumptions for costs, the assumptions for cost recovery from operations, and what gives if there ...

Posted Wed, Jul 16, 4:35 p.m.

Bay Area part 2 - closing comments: Fourth, one of the key motivators in the article seems to be "Density is good. It leads to encounters of creative class people, who interact and create economic wealth." The assumption seems to be BART drives density. Yet, San Francisco struggles with the ...

Posted Wed, Jul 16, 4:18 p.m.

SF Bay Area: Part 1: The story and comments are quite interesting. The story takes a very different approach than Mr McDonald's perspective. Maybe next Crosscut can run an actual rebuttal of Mr McDonald's numbers and data. Mr McDonald's points not responded to include his assertion that the use of ...

Posted Fri, Jun 27, 10:57 a.m.

RE: A Big "thank you", and a comment rider expience and on meeting unmet demand: Well, I guess one way to phrase MacDonald's argument is "if we spend nearly all of the money on rail, we won't have any money left to put into bus expansion." So if we put ...

Posted Thu, Jun 26, 4 p.m.

A Big "thank you", and a comment rider expience and on meeting unmet demand: This series, and the dialogues that are a part of it, really are re-shaping journalism. A big "thank you" to Crosscut and to Doug McDonald. There definitely seem to be a lot of myths about transit. ...

Posted Thu, Jun 26, 3:50 p.m.

Rider Experience: I'd take a seat on a bus with wi-fi over a seat on a train, even if the bus doesn't accelerate or decelerate as evenly. I'd take a cushioned seat on a bus over a hard-back seat on a train. I'd take a seat on a train for ...

Posted Tue, Jun 24, 7:34 p.m.

RE: ailing at reality: The other day I was driving on 405 south, then turning south onto I5. I was in the carpool lane. To go from it to the southbound I5 carpool lanes, you have to cross two lanes on 405, then switch back into the carpool lanes on ...

Posted Tue, Jun 24, 10:57 a.m.

Extremely Insulting RE: e: Old White Male Farts Against Light Rail: I can not say how ANGRY this post makes me. My strong involvement in fighting for schools is a driving factor in my involvement in transportation because I know from personal experience how hard it is to get a ...

Posted Mon, Jun 23, 11:28 p.m.

Not me RE: e: I'm white and over 60: I post a lot, but I don't fit the stereotype Mr Laborde outlines. I'm 44. I work from home. But gosh, I am a white male. So does that mean my opinions don't count? or maybe they only partly count because ...

Posted Sat, May 24, 10:35 p.m.

A closing question: So I would like to close with this question: What plan could we implement that would have a significant, say 20%, impact in the next five years on vehicle miles traveled or on greenhouse gas emissions? And as a coda: what plan would result in a 50% ...

Posted Sat, May 24, 10:33 p.m.

Interesting qualitative perspectives: There are lots of qualitative perspectives in the comments above, what's missing are the actual numbers, along with context about those numbers. There is no doubt for people who already live within walking distance of where a light rail station will be built, or who can afford ...

Posted Wed, May 14, 11:27 a.m.

My hopes: 1. The city council and whoever's paying the bill (nearby property owners, city residents, etc) have full and accurate information about just how much it costs to operate these trolleys, and where the funding will come from on an ongoing basis. 2. They won't slow down buses and ...

Posted Sat, May 3, 4:07 p.m.

Gerberding and Time Management: Hi, I remember Dr Gerberding was on the board of Safeco and possibly another one as well, in the mid 1980s. Being a board member was a lot simpler then, and the pay a lot less. I do wonder how much time Dr Emmert will be ...

Posted Thu, May 1, 1:33 p.m.

RE: Still waiting after all these years: "rail based streetcars" are somewhat different than a light rail system or a higher speed system. The streetcars seem to cost far less because they just use an existing street (so no land acquisition cost), and they go only a few miles in ...

Posted Thu, May 1, 1:27 p.m.

RE: Correcting a Straw Man travel time: U district to downtown: "We" could not do this, but Portland (home of Nike) could. that's where the 6 mph was occurring.

Posted Wed, Apr 30, 4:58 p.m.

RE: Correcting a Straw Man travel time: U district to downtown: Hi, dedicated right of way obviously has its advantages. Unfortunately the 20 to 25 at grade crossings of roads over the rails in the Rainier Valley, and the shared rail/ bus use of the tunnel, mean that we are ...

Posted Tue, Apr 29, 4:30 p.m.

Correcting a Straw Man travel time: U district to downtown: I read John's reply, then re-read Richard's post. I missed something in the first reading: ---Currently getting from Westlake to the UW via Capitol Hill takes 40-55 minutes via bus. With the light rail line, it will be about 6 ...

Posted Mon, Apr 28, 11:28 p.m.

Push Polling RE: sound transit=non-starter: Various people used various terms to describe the poll. What I wrote in one of the comment strings was "The way questions are phrased, it sounds like a push poll, similar to what Paul Allen funded before the Seahawk stadium vote." That was a gut ...

Posted Mon, Apr 28, 12:09 a.m.

A few closing thoughts: I do think the economy will impact a tax increase for transportation this fall. I think also we're going to hear a lot about shortfalls at the city, county and state levels, which may well mean some tax increases there as well. I also really, really ...

Posted Mon, Apr 28, 12:08 a.m.

No shortage of Emotion in the comments: What's striking in reading the comments is: no one really replies to the quote by Transportation Secretary Hammond. Her point seems to be that there are a lot of unknowns, like how transforming the I 90 express lanes into rail would in turn ...

Posted Thu, Apr 24, 9:35 a.m.

Another possibility: I wonder if Clay will claim he personally was misleading his partners? He could claim he did have a good faith intent to keep the Sonics in Seattle, but his partners all along wanted to move and so he was misleading them by saying his intent was to ...

Posted Wed, Apr 23, 10:12 a.m.

Affordable family housing is the key: This is a very sobering article. Amen to this: >>Can we see the numbers, please, for our public transportation alternatives, including innovative bus and van transit services and modern park-and-ride centers, as compared to just a few light rail stops? It's time to take ...

Posted Tue, Apr 22, 11:54 p.m.

RE: Governance reform is a bad deal: I'm not sure CETA or SANE were trying to get light rail to go to Tukwila. I do know the Tukwila City council was asked about route alternatives. They expressed their opinion that connecting light rail to the eastern edge of the Southcenter ...

Posted Tue, Apr 22, 11:42 p.m.

Michigan and Florida: I think without Michigan and Florida, the popular vote is Obama's. With it, I bet it would be very close to a tie. This is a really odd situation, not exactly "democratic." The whole process definitely has its quirks. I wish we could have a break on ...

Posted Thu, Apr 17, 10:25 a.m.

RE: Ted Van Dyk response: You mention Chicago. I looked up a typical train line schedule. THey offer express trains. http://metrarail.com/Sched/cnw_w/cnwwwki.shtml One of the great frustrations of light rail is that it is will have to stop at every station, there are no ways to run an express train without ...

Posted Wed, Apr 16, 8 p.m.

RE: Straw Men: You raise a good point about what's really different. Maybe a better way to express my thought is "the need to get more funding has resulted in efforts to portray Sound Transit as a reformed agency." I agree that Sound Transit's finances and topics like sub area ...

Posted Wed, Apr 16, 9:47 a.m.

Straw Men: Richard raises a lot of good points. However, with the monorail, the voters could send a signal via both their vote for a board member, and their vote in favor of shutting the project down when it turned out to be very different than they'd been promised. Will ...

Posted Thu, Apr 10, 8:30 a.m.

The News Side: A while ago (maybe last summer), Mike Fancher and Mike Lindblom of the Times spoke at a meeting of the Seattle Neighborhood Coalition. We had a very positive discussion about the news business. A few things stood out from the conversation: 1. People had lots of suggestions ...

Posted Thu, Apr 10, 8 a.m.

RE: Why don't you ask the customers (readers, advertisers) what the Times should do?: This comment is right on target - the audience that should be asked is advertisers. The Times has done some things to reach out to advertisers, for example sponsoring some Seattle Direct Marketing Association events. They ...

Posted Tue, Apr 8, 10:49 p.m.

These ideas are not exactly new: I think the Times has tried some of these, for example, I think at one point non subscribers got a mailer that has the ads in it along with a little bit of content. I don't know if the Times printing presses can print ...

Posted Thu, Apr 3, 11:29 p.m.

The UW too: The UW also recently announced some dorm plans. Yes, these price increases do make college less affordable. On the other hand, residential living can be a great part of the college experience and the new dorms may still be less costly than living off campus. When I ...

Posted Tue, Apr 1, 10:37 a.m.

The Cost is the Benefit: There's an old saying "the cost is the benefit." The higher the cost, the more certain interest groups benefit. I personally have a very hard time evaluating the engineering of the retrofit, or what the level of earthquake damage could be under a one in ...

Posted Sun, Mar 16, 10:50 p.m.

The Sonics are worth something, but .....: Pro basketball and other pro sports seem to be a bottomless pit. I think there was an article a few months ago in the Times: The Mariners were quietly lobbying against the tax going to the Sonics because the Mariners know that at ...

Posted Mon, Mar 10, 12:36 p.m.

What about the delegates of John Edwards, Bill Richardson etc?: Hi, it seems like these delegates would also matter a great deal. I don't know if they are enough to push either Obama or Clinton over the top, but they could get them a long way, possibly creating a cascading ...

Posted Tue, Mar 4, 12:59 p.m.

continuation of comments: Before question 6, we get a blurb about Sound Transit, mentioning how it was founded in 1996 by the voters, is doing various things, and will have light rail up and running in 2009. It is always interesting to ask "what assumptions do people have when answering ...

Posted Tue, Mar 4, 12:54 p.m.

Improved, still uneven, interpet answers carefully: The survey is somewhat improved. I think the quote in the PI was on target "Gray said the survey is "not a research instrument" but a public-involvement tool whose purpose is "not to measure public opinion in a scientific way, but rather to provide ...

Posted Sun, Mar 2, 11:06 p.m.

RE: a sad band of ST haters plays the media again: Garbage in, garbage out. If we don't have facts on the table, if we don't have accurate information and perspectives, whatever is up for vote is just going to get defeated again, setting us back further from solutions taxpayers ...

Posted Sat, Mar 1, 4:01 p.m.

Polling is good, push polling is not: I am very curious to see who will defend this survey as it is implemented today. Asking the public though is a good idea. I just wonder, seriously, is anyone listening? I feel the highest priorities for transportation are the 520 and viaduct ...

Posted Mon, Feb 25, 6:22 p.m.

RE: The real cause of rush hour ...: The theory of light rail is we'll move to new transit oriented development close to the stations, so no need to move the jobs, the people will move closer to the job locations. There have been some studies about how companies locate ...

Posted Mon, Feb 25, 1:50 p.m.

RE: The Survey is Broken!: I filled out the first page again, after having completed the survey, and when I hit submit I went right to the second page. I am not going to do the whole survey a second time. Not sure why your IP address would trigger that ...

Posted Mon, Feb 25, 12:25 p.m.

RE: Can we have a commenter's pick for good posts?: Context counts, and that's another thing missing from the survey. A plan that makes sense with current 520 may be very different than what makes sense if a new 520 is in place. If a new 520 is in place, ...

Posted Mon, Feb 25, 11:28 a.m.

RE: Sound Transit research methods: I had not thought about the problem of people faking zip codes, but even if they are correctly entered, there are probably some zip codes that are partly in and partly out of the sound transit taxing district. So you could have people who say ...

Posted Mon, Feb 25, 10:16 a.m.

What's missing on the survey: This is an interesting survey, both for what's asked and for what's not asked. Missing: anything related to greenhouse gas emission reduction as a priority. to alternatives for paying for the tax increases, and also whether you voted yes or not on RTID. The survey ...

Posted Sat, Feb 23, 8:54 a.m.

Perspective on college costs and diversity: There are lots of ways to measure diversity. I took a quick look at the Stanford web site. This page: www.stanford.edu/dept/uga/financing/5_2_faqs.html#seven states: "More than half of our students are on need-based financial aid, and the average aid award exceeds $23,000 per year." So, that ...

Posted Sat, Feb 9, 10:42 p.m.

The challenges of dealing with Airport pollution: I live near Seatac, which has over the years dumped an immense amount of runoff into Puget Sound via Miller, Walker and Des Moines creeks. The good news is overall the Port is making progress on taking care of its pollution. However, the ...

Posted Fri, Jan 25, 10:58 a.m.

I didn't know either: Hey CR, I didn't realize the columns were on the hardpan either, though in retrospect I think there were some diagrams in the Seattle Times that might have shown that. It certainly wasn't clearly explained though that they were not built on fill. So this raises ...

Posted Sun, Dec 16, 3:03 p.m.

a few more thoughts: timing and taxes: First, I wonder, how realistic were the cost and engineering projections for the 1968 rail? We've learned the hard way: tunneling under capital hill and beacon hill is really tough because of the type of rock / fill in them. Second, I wonder ...

Posted Thu, Dec 13, 7:01 p.m.

Hypotheticals: It is very hard to tell what the real cost of ownership would have been, really. How much of the construction would have been done before about 1974, and how much after? That's when inflation and interest rates went way, way up. Also, would the 1968 train have run ...

Posted Tue, Nov 20, 7:05 a.m.

I agree, glad he's trying: I lived in the Bay Area in 88-90, and there were groups then that tried to find solutions for middle class housing back then. It did not really work. Are there any cities that are "world class" with amazing amounts of new wealth, growing populations, ...

Posted Thu, Oct 25, 9:30 a.m.

One more thing: Please, have a time limit on the taxes. My children are going to be stuck with massive bills for the accumulated federal deficit, for medicare, for social security, for environmental cleanup, for skyrocketing costs of their own health care, for dealing with global warming, for education, etc. ...

Posted Thu, Oct 25, 9:26 a.m.

a suggested approach: David makes many great points, but I think his forecast for what will come next if RTID / ST2 passes is too rosy. I am wondering when we're going to see the revised forecast for the train station at Seatac? Did I miss it? I simply don't ...

Posted Mon, Oct 8, 10:05 a.m.

Ron Sims is my hero. Think about the shortfalls: I've sent Mr Sims a note of thanks. If you agree with him, you should too, his contact info is here: http://www.metrokc.gov/exec/contact.aspx I too had the same reaction to a poster above about Gregoire claiming he said he'd stay neutral: it ...

Posted Thu, Oct 4, 2:17 p.m.

Costs and Prices: A big problem is: the costs of roads and rail are driven by different factors than the income that's paying for those costs. We see that with the gas tax: gas prices go up, people drive fewer miles, reducing the projected income -and also at the same ...

Posted Tue, Sep 11, 3:33 p.m.

RE: Some comments: This was supposed to be a reply to Tiptoe Tommy's comments to Jniles above, not a separate comment.

Posted Tue, Sep 11, 2:55 p.m.

Some comments: Re "So, unless you build dedicated lanes everywhere including downtown areas, buses will get caught in traffic. And if you build those dedicated lanes you lose much of the cost savings claimed. This is classic bait and switch." Actually, the dedicated bus lane already exists. It is called ...

Posted Mon, Sep 10, 11:39 a.m.

an accounting issue: total cost of ownership: One missing item from our "investment" decisions is the total cost of ownership. This includes both up front construction, maintenance and operations costs, and then eventual replacement or rebuilding. WSDOT does have information about the costs of replacing bridges, but we voters are ...

Posted Thu, Aug 16, 11:49 a.m.

A big advantage of tolls: costs will be much easier to see: One of the big challenges in keeping our road system going is deferred maintenance. A big advantage of tolling is it is much easier to communicate to the public what the cost of replacement is for various alternative ...

Posted Wed, Aug 15, 10:45 a.m.

affordable housing: Hi, it is interesting and sobering to look at other metro areas. In Silicon Valley, the housing developments that are for housing affordable to a family with an average income are a very long distance away, like 90 mins to 2 hours. I think the analogy in our ...

Posted Mon, Aug 6, 10:40 a.m.

"acres of parking": Hi, certainly there's been new development in the Rainier Valley along the rail route. Would that be any different without rail? I don't think New Holly depends on rail being built. The goal seems to be to rebuild the businesses in that area, not to add in ...

Posted Mon, Aug 6, 10:36 a.m.

Where are the rebuttals?????: There are some very strong statements made in the posts above. So, where are the rebuttals to the statements about 350K, to the availability of revenue for tunneling, etc?

Posted Thu, Aug 2, 2:58 p.m.

RE: The "statistics": Since a lot of the stations, at least in the Rainier Valley, are above ground and are in areas surrounded by roads, safety should not be a huge problem there. There are plenty of directions one can run if someone threatening approaches. In the Philadelphia tunnel, keep ...

Posted Thu, Aug 2, 12:11 p.m.

The "statistics": By the way, the headline made me think I was going to see some solid numbers about ridership in Seattle. I didn't really see that. It is really hard to know all the factors that go into decisions in Vancouver, Ottowa etc, but I'm guessing there's a lot ...

Posted Thu, Aug 2, 12:06 p.m.

who's the target audience? "increasing density": The Seattle Times recently had a story mentioning in an offhand manner "there will only be 600 parking spaces in the garage at the 154th street light rail station, and that's the only parking lot built next to a rail stop, at least initially." ...

Posted Tue, Jun 12, 9:59 a.m.

Tolling is a good idea, but what would a transit system look like?: I think the most important thing is to define what the bus system would look like to make this happen. How can people who live very long distances actually get somewhere without a car? And don't criticize ...