Keeping King County's tiny Navy afloat
Posted Mon, Sep 28, 6 a.m.
Is seemed like a good idea back when there was money sloshing around, but now the county's promises for foot ferries are proving hard to honor.
READ MORE 4 COMMENTSMost Popular
Crosscut articles of the past 10 days with the most clicks.
- Updated: Crosscut's new approach
- The 787: Not the plane of the future
- A guide to the City Hall transition
- A bad election for moderates
- Mayor McGinn: Welcome to City Hall inertia!
- Concert Review: The Pixies' Doolittle live
- Revisiting Bellingham's Fairhaven Highlands development
- Battle in Seattle, 10 years after
- Following California off the cliff
- Sex, death and 'Bodies'
Most Commented
Crosscut articles of the past 10 days with the most reader comments.
- A bad election for moderates
(28 comments) - Updated: Crosscut's new approach
(16 comments) - Memories of a horrible November
(14 comments) - Battle in Seattle, 10 years after
(14 comments) - Sex, death and 'Bodies'
(12 comments) - Following California off the cliff
(11 comments) - Mayor McGinn: Welcome to City Hall inertia!
(9 comments) - A guide to the City Hall transition
(9 comments) - Once again an insurgent mayor conquers city hall
(6 comments) - Most kids left behind
(6 comments)
Popular Blog Posts
Crosscut blog posts of the past 10 days with the most clicks.
- U.S. approves Salish Sea name
- KVI kisses Kirby goodbye
- I Forgive You, Paul Dorpat (and maybe Ivar’s, too)
- Crosscut By 2: Why slow runners are good for marathons
- Loyalty is a two-way street
- Free advice for the unemployed
- Island Girl: The gift that keeps on taking
- Island Girl: A tribute to Sandra Day O'Connor
- A few last living words from World War I
- Campaign contributions: who gives and what do they get?
Ferries
Crosscut most recent
The classic ferries that got away
Posted Fri, Sep 11, 6 a.m.
The state should have found a way to save its 1927-vintage Steel Electric-class boats, ultimately sold to Mexico for scrap. Sinking one to create artificial reefs for divers, as B.C. has done, was one big missed opportunity.
READ MORE 3 COMMENTS
Humor: Beware of kids bearing gifts
Posted Sun, Sep 6, 11:44 a.m.
The estate tax is scheduled to zoom back up in 2011. This requires a code-red state of alert during 2010, watching out for things like gift pigs from children.
READ MORE COMMENT NOW
The Great Vancouver vs. Seattle Debate
Posted Mon, Jun 22, 6 a.m.
Is the civic grass greener on the other side of the border? Two urban experts each make the case for the others' home town.
READ MORE 19 COMMENTS
Ferries: Why we should float our own boats
Posted Fri, Feb 13, 6 a.m.
A former Washington ferry inspector says there are real benefits to buying locally when it comes to state ferries. That said, the system could be improved.
READ MORE 7 COMMENTS
Ferry workers' wage freeze: mostly smoke and mirrors
Posted Mon, Feb 9, 6 a.m.
The workers scored a photo-op for helping the state in a fiscal crisis. But the reality is they just postponed receipt (with interest) of increases.
READ MORE 10 COMMENTS
A process that needs to progress: decision-making in Seattle
Posted Wed, Jan 14, 6 a.m.
As Seattleites react to the announcement that public officials agree on a bored tunnel to replace the Alaskan Way Viaduct, it's time to assess the process that makes a decision like this one drag on for eight years.
READ MORE 11 COMMENTS
Puget Sound foot ferries migrate to San Francisco
Posted Mon, Jan 12, 6 a.m.
The Bay Area makes use of our former foot ferries, and then some, all paid for by tolls.
READ MORE 4 COMMENTS
We need new ferries. So why don't we get them?
Posted Mon, Dec 15, 6 a.m.
The state makes it almost certain that ferry bids will come in way over budget, in a misguided attempt to keep the jobs in state. Here are the latest sad figures.
READ MORE 27 COMMENTS
A state agency eyes public-private transportation funding
Posted Tue, Sep 2, 2 a.m.
No less than the Washington State Investment Board, which oversees public pensions, is giving serious consideration to government-business partnerships to make infrastructure improvements. Experts identify several possibilities, including the Highway 520 bridge rebuild, I-5 across the Columbia River, and improvement of ferry service.
READ MORE 2 COMMENTS
Sailing into oblivion
Posted Sat, Jun 14, 8 a.m.
Seattle's last old Pacific schooner is about to be dismantled. The Wawona's impending "death" this summer offers a lesson in the challenges of maritime preservation. It's a tough end for a landmark ship that people have worked so hard for so long to save.
READ MORE 4 COMMENTS
At City Hall, a showdown over historic preservation
Posted Wed, Mar 19, 10 p.m.
Trouble is brewing as critics and defenders of Seattle's landmarks process prepare to face off at a public meeting. Meanwhile, a lawsuit over the recent designation of a Ballard diner hangs over the debate.
READ MORE 15 COMMENTS
Traffic's so bad, we might actually be willing to pay a toll
Posted Tue, Mar 4, 5 a.m.
Puget Sound policy-makers have been taking the public pulse. Their surveys reveal that people are generally pessimistic about the future, frustrated with traffic, and willing to pay to cross Lake Washington in a car – as long as it's really cheap.
READ MORE 14 COMMENTSThe Border Patrol swoops in on a domestic ferry run
Posted Fri, Feb 1, 3 p.m.
Last week, cars and passengers disembarking the San Juan Islands route at Anacortes were met by feds who inquired about everyone's citizenship. Normally, no big deal. But this checkpoint was for a boat that had not been to Canada. The government isn't saying much about it, but islanders are buzzing.
READ MORE 5 COMMENTS
Should King County be in the ferry business again?
Posted Fri, Dec 21, 8 a.m.
The county once before ran ferries, only to be rescued by the state. Now the state is too broke to keep the passenger boats running, and the county has got the bug again. It's expensive, there are other solutions, and Vashon Islanders were once dead set against passenger-only ferries. But hey, nostalgia springs eternal.
READ MORE 5 COMMENTS
Putting on the Doggerel: All the news that's fin to print
Posted Thu, Sep 13, 1 p.m.
What do Paul Allen, a gray whale, and the Washington State Ferries have in common? They all displace a lot of water. Or two of them are running out of gas, and one of them is all gas. You decide.
READ MORE 4 COMMENTS
Beware of the feds bearing gifts
Posted Thu, Aug 16, 5 a.m.
New grants for congestion relief in Seattle and New York have big strings attached. And implementing road tolling is not as E-Z as it looks.
READ MORE 20 COMMENTS
In search of passenger-only ferry service that pencils out
Posted Thu, Jul 5, midnight
A 'return of the mosquito fleet' might make sense, but finding the right combination of public and private money to float a useful and economical service has proved elusive.
READ MORE 2 COMMENTS
1. Highway tolls are inevitable in metro Puget Sound
Posted Sun, Jun 10, 11 p.m.
King County Executive Ron Sims has his own inconvenient truth to convey: Tolls are inevitable on all major Seattle-area freeways. And he already has a plan for us to discuss.
READ MORE COMMENT NOW
2. Avoiding a collision of transportation decisions
Posted Sun, Jun 10, 10 p.m.
Mere talk about road tolls is seen as a threat to an unrelated $14.5 billion transportation ballot measure in November. That's why a proposal for widespread tolling has been secret until now.
READ MORE COMMENT NOWOther media
Blog posts
Survivor's guilt at Boeing
Posted Wed, Oct 28, 3:38 p.m.
News at the company isn't good, and that's for those "lucky" enough to still be there
MOREName that boat!
Posted Tue, Sep 15, 6 a.m.
If our ferries are going to have corporate names, we might as well have some fun. Lusty Lady: now boarding!
MOREThe dumbest Smart Car
Posted Sun, Aug 9, 1:10 p.m.
They may be good for the environment, but they aren't exactly seaworthy
MOREFerries etiquette 101
Posted Tue, Jul 7, 6 a.m.
No fanny packs. No white pants. And don't eat the food on the boats.
MORESave the ferry!
Posted Tue, Jan 13, 8:10 a.m.
There's talk of eliminating the Anacortes-Sidney ferry line.
MOREBC Ferries offer better fare
Posted Fri, Aug 8, 5:01 a.m. 2008
Even though I'm a Washingtonian, if I had to choose between the Washington State Ferries (WSF) and the BC Ferries, the Canucks win by a kilometer. Granted, BC Ferries has had its share of mishaps. In 2006, the Queen of the North sunk while cruising the Inside Passage on its 18-hour journey between Port Hardy and Prince Rupert. One hundred and one passengers were on board, and two are still missing and presumed dead. Human error was blamed for the sinking. Two years later, the Queen of Oak Bay lost power and plowed through dozens of boats at a marina in West Vancouver while attempting to dock at the Horseshoe Bay ferry terminal.
MORESausage Links, bag fees and phone ban edition
Posted Fri, Aug 1, 11:37 a.m. 2008
Plastic bag fees are so rive gauche. First, Seattle instated a 20-cent fee on disposable plastic bags. Then Portland decided to consider a similar idea. Now, the residents of Pullman say they want a bag fee, too. ...
MOREFrom Whidbey to Seattle via ferry and rail
Posted Mon, Jul 28, 6:12 a.m. 2008
As a Whidbey Islander living in Langley, Wash., I won't be able to vote for the Sound Transit levy in November. But as somebody who uses mass transit whenever possible, I'm hoping it passes. I worked for Metro Transit three decades ago when voters turned down an important levy, one that could have changed the face of transportation in our region.
MORESausage Links, "freedom to get drunk and blow stuff up" edition
Posted Mon, Jul 7, 1:23 p.m. 2008
Chris Mulick at the Tri-City Herald has today's top story, reporting this morning that Tim Eyman's Initiative 985 and the Service Employees International Union-backed Initiative 1029 would – if passed by voters in November – increase the state's budget deficit by an estimated $300 million.
MORE
