Posted Tue, Apr 24, 12:45 p.m.

GaryP, Getting back to the subject of the article do you by any chance know what the percentage subsidy is for the Seattle street cars or if we want to get back off topic for Light Rail. How does this compare with the ~50% subsidy to roads.

Posted Mon, Apr 23, 9:48 p.m.

I am not sure what all the fuss is about. When we have this remarkable piece of ground breaking world class technology installed, residents of Capitol Hill will will be able to ride modern public transportation the 15 miles to the airport in about 80 minutes including time waiting for ...

Posted Sun, Apr 15, 1:32 p.m.

Shopping malls led to 60 years of unprecedented prosperity. The fact that about twice as much retail space was built in the property bubble than we really need and that we need to move on to adapt to a changing world doesn't mean that we need to disown the past. ...

Posted Thu, Apr 12, 7:30 a.m.

bubbleator Rather than posting a correction, please go in an edit your original post

Posted Wed, Apr 11, 7:23 p.m.

GaryP - if you live in Seattle then your water bill is paid to Seattle Public Utilities who in their own words "provide reliable water, sewer, drainage and garbage services for 1.3 million people in King County, Washington". The entities providing water and sewer services are one and the same ...

Posted Wed, Apr 11, 1:15 p.m.

Charles Fishman clearly does not live in Seattle. Most people do not discriminate between the costs of getting clean water and costs of getting rid of waste it - it comes on one bill. It always amazes me that despite having water efficient appliances and fixture, I pay more for ...

Posted Tue, Apr 10, 7:33 a.m.

It is the School Board not the people of the Seattle who hire the next superintendent so if we are going to have any hope of achieving Sherry Carr's goal then the School Board must get its act together. To make the job of superintendent manageable, the School Board needs ...

Posted Mon, Apr 9, 8:41 a.m.

"Tax Increment Financing allows local government to borrow against the increases created in property value by new development" - so in other words it encourages local government to gamble on increased property prices created by new developments. This sounds like a rather dubious idea at best and a recipe for ...

Posted Mon, Apr 2, 9:15 p.m.

So Frank Chopp single-handedly saved the taxpayers of the King County and City of Seattle from contributing $75M each to subsidize a basketball team - Hurray for him! It is about time that America lived up to its reputation for capitalism and let major league sports teams support themselves. If ...

Posted Sun, Apr 1, 7:43 a.m.

How much does Caffe Vita expect to contribute to the construction of rain gardens? The article states that "Hilary Bromberg, Strategy Director with EGG, a firm specializing in sustainable brands, says the uniqueness of the campaign, gives it a leg up". This is no doubt true but if it is ...

Posted Thu, Mar 29, 1:11 p.m.

This article is very one-sided. Seattle elects all its council citywide and so most people would argue that neighborhoods often lack any substantive voice in land use decisions. While one can couch land use issues in terms of the "feel-good" need to increase density, the realities of rezoning on the ...

Posted Tue, Mar 27, 8:25 a.m.

Blue Light, it is easy to click on edit tab that appears on the date line of your message to delete the 2nd post.

Posted Mon, Mar 19, 2:17 p.m.

Orino I am afraid that Portland does have "world-class" aspirations just like Seattle. Their city council passed a bicycle master plan with the specific goal of becoming a "world class bicycling city". Planners for the Portland and environs Metro Council are also striving hard for world class status (e.g., http://news.oregonmetro.gov/1/post.cfm/road-to-becoming-a-world-class-city-is-two-way-says-national-expert)

Posted Fri, Mar 16, 2:03 p.m.

Coolpapa hits the nail on the head. It is not that potential Superintendents should be shielded from a group interview but it should focus on education which is after all the only role of the Schools. By all means have an advocate for families where English is not the children's ...

Posted Thu, Mar 1, 2:27 a.m.

This sounds like an interesting book and one can always learn from other cultures but the arguments seem to have an element of the grass is greener on the other side of the fence. One wonders whether there is a counterpart French author who spent a few years in an ...

Posted Mon, Feb 27, 8:07 p.m.

This article rather lacks in substance. We are told in the subheading that we need to be "taking some smart risks for more sustainable projects". What on earth is a "smart risk" and how does it differ from a regular "risk"? We are told that "McIntire should embrace borrowing for ...

Posted Thu, Feb 23, 10:19 a.m.

Every time I start thinking that perhaps I should become a member of Crosscut, they publish a fatuous article by Roger Valdez

Posted Thu, Feb 23, 5:54 a.m.

It is unclear to me why this should be considered a loss for Democrats. In the case of public universities it is very hard for anyone to make a convincing case that admissions should be based on affirmative action. Universities have the option of giving preference to applicants from families ...

Posted Thu, Feb 16, 9:50 p.m.

Perhaps I missed it but I read this article and didn't see anything other than anecdotal assertions supporting the statement in the subtitle "Start with better academic performance". If nothing else, the US education system tests its students up the wazoo so it cannot be a lack of data that ...

Posted Wed, Feb 15, 8:31 a.m.

This is fabulous news. If WSU (and UW) athletics can return to football prominence with the help of generous alumni, then who cares that our higher education system is falling apart.

Posted Thu, Feb 9, 8:32 p.m.

Snoqualman Plan B might be to (1) Stop spending more on defense that the rest of the world put together. (2) Really reform health care so we only spend the same per capita as the next most extravagant nation (Switzerland which spends about 60% per head and has a population ...

Posted Thu, Feb 9, 8:22 p.m.

The Republicans are helping Democrats not by their focus, but by fielding such bunch of weak (and in the case of Mitt Romney totally insincere) candidates in their presidential primaries.

Posted Thu, Feb 9, 8:12 p.m.

The gist of this article seem to be that since McGinn has not inserted himself in the news much of late - not surprising since his one issue is no longer newsworthy - and thus has not had much opportunity to make a fool of himself, he is suddenly a ...

Posted Thu, Jan 19, 10:36 a.m.

And the only ones who will continue suffer from decades of School Board ineptitude are the kids in the schools.

Posted Thu, Jan 19, 10:18 a.m.

Ivan, I am advocating getting rid of the School Board not saying that I liked the previous one. I also allude in my post to the fact that the next Superintendent will likely be from a minority. Maria Goodloe-Johnson was hired in a search in which School Board politics pretty ...

Posted Thu, Jan 19, 9:13 a.m.

The responses from coolpapa, ivan and DistrictWatcher illustrate why we will never have an effective School District until we abolish the School Board and have the Superintendent report to the Mayor with oversight from the City Council. Why would any decent candidate want to work under the dysfunctional group we ...

Posted Tue, Jan 10, 8:19 a.m.

Since there are no easy solutions, the President probably needs to be given time. The previous administration's "bright idea" was to cede control to non-academic administrators and implement a very simplified version of activity-based budgeting - the UWs antiquated accounting system does not allow the more sophisticated version that have ...

Posted Fri, Oct 21, 11:43 a.m.

I am no fan of Tim Eyman and will vote against this initiative like all his others but Jordan Royer seems to be advocating one set of rules for progressives like himself and another for people he does not agree with. As Royer notes the current phase of Sound Transit ...

Posted Mon, Sep 19, 9:26 a.m.

Has this author ever been out of downtown? One hardly has to go to Vancouver or the UK to see these ideas in action. How about N45th Street in Wallingford, NW Market Street in Ballard, Queen Anne Avenue N, California Ave SW & SW Alaska St in West Seattle, or ...

Posted Wed, Aug 31, 10:18 a.m.

In an article like this it is hard to draw the line between objective analysis and the author's desires to social engineer where people live. Furthermore, predictions made during a decade-long housing bust are likely to be as equally flawed as those made during the boom. It is probably a ...

Posted Tue, Aug 30, 9:21 a.m.

After our own 2001 Nisqually Earthquake (hardly a major disaster), FEMA spent tens of millions in Puget Sound rebuilding brick chimneys, mostly for people who could well afford to do it themselves, and did not even require that they be rebuilt in a way that makes them less likely to ...

Posted Mon, Jul 25, 8:10 a.m.

As a region we the voters, under the advice of the same leaders who now want to raise more funds to preserve bus service, have set our priorities and are putting billions into light rail that costs about 10x per mile what light rail does in more geologically/geographically friendly settings. ...