Posted Wed, Apr 25, 9:34 a.m.

And this is why Pioneer Square sucks to work in. http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2018061279_yesler25m.html Yes I love those old brick buildings. Yes I love Occidental park even though it's full of ner-do-wells and bird poop. But I do not like that it's full of characters looking to have a good time by mugging ...

Posted Tue, Apr 24, 11:55 a.m.

"Taxes, fees, fines, etc. on motorists generate more revenue in WA state than is spent on all roads in WA, including federal, state, and local roads and highways." Must depend on how you add it up: http://publicola.com/2012/04/19/the-wsjs-nightmare-a-car-free-utopia/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm;_medium=twitter&utm;_campaign=publicolanews has links to things like this: "the amount of government spending diverted to ...

Posted Tue, Apr 24, 8:52 a.m.

"and programs of propaganda demonizing our automobiles. " No need to generate propaganda about automobiles, the death and injury statistics do that all on their own... over 30,000 dead this last year, and 100,000's injured. (with the death tolls closer to 40,000+ per year in the past 20 years.) If ...

Posted Tue, Apr 24, 8:42 a.m.

"The tax revenue spent to build airports is from taxes on airline tickets, landing fees, etc.. Airline passengers pay for the airports." Actually not here. The Port Of Seattle operates at a loss. Since they co-mingle their funds from shipping/airport/marina it's nearly impossible to get the exact figures, but the ...

Posted Mon, Apr 23, 5:33 p.m.

Here's a much better article on the whole Columbia fiasco... http://www.counterpunch.org/2012/04/19/america-for-gods-sake-pay-your-whores/ As for the title of this article, "Government Institutions Falling Down".. well we don't collect enough taxes to pay for the services we've committed to. We're headed to a very rocky landing and it's not that far off.

Posted Mon, Apr 23, 4:46 p.m.

"They are against stupidly expensive transit which is heavily subsidized. Build a transit system which pays for itself without any tax subsidy, and who would complain?" No such system exists. We subsidize air travel via building airports with tax dollars. We subsidize driving by property taxes to pay for local ...

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

"faster to walk." that will be true if you are going from Union Station/ID tunnel station to Harborview. The Hospital used to run a shuttle bus for it's employees but it got cut. This street car route with the delay between runs, it will still be faster to walk. BTW, ...

Posted Fri, Apr 20, 4:17 p.m.

I would also like to mention that a number of graphic artist/book writers are using this self publish model to stay in business. They run a pre-sale until they get enough orders to justify a printing then print them at a bulk rate, mail them out themselves to their fan ...

Posted Fri, Apr 20, 11:38 a.m.

". It would now like authors to skip the traditional book publishers and sign directly with the new sugar daddy in town." Yep, that's the model that Amazon is pursuing, self publication. Amazon offers, not just e-books, but print on demand. Which lowers the barrier to entry for an author. ...

Posted Thu, Apr 19, 11 a.m.

Great work Tony! I'm riding to work nearly every day. I take days off whenever I have a conflict that makes bicycling difficult but the more I ride, the less conflicts I seem to find. I found that by not making a big deal about skipping a day it made ...

Posted Thu, Apr 12, 11:45 a.m.

Drive to work if you want to, die early from type II diabetes, heart disease, obesity, and need to take Viagra due to poor circulation, but to people who have a problem with some of us choosing to bicycle to work, the same could be said: "bugger off." Nobody wants ...

Posted Thu, Apr 12, 11:20 a.m.

bills.. . They usually fail, however, to provide for capital replacement." The essential problem with collecting money for future capital replacement, say 20 years out, is that, what do you invest the money in? A state bank would work, because you could loan that money back out to the state, ...

Posted Wed, Apr 11, 3:19 p.m.

It's not your water utility that is running up your "Water and Sewer" bill, it's the sewer part. Specifically the cost overruns at Brightwater, and the fact that it was located far from the Sound so as not to offend the neighbors. While I don't want to live next to ...

Posted Wed, Apr 11, 3:14 p.m.

"Why not Southcenter" About two years ago it dawned on me why LINK skipped Southcenter. "Northgate & Downtown Seattle" and It's because Northgate mall is within the Seattle city limits, and Southcenter is in Tukwilla. Why does this matter? If you make it easy to get to a place to ...

Posted Wed, Apr 11, 12:41 p.m.

"First of all, ordinary Americans at home and at work don’t even pay the cost of getting their water delivered to them. So the water bill we pay at home or business doesn’t even cover the cost of the electricity or the staffing to run the water utility to get ...

Posted Wed, Apr 11, 12:26 p.m.

"Duck hunting in the South lands" Sure the old name for that land wasn't "Duckwilla?"

Posted Tue, Apr 10, 4:16 p.m.

"aggressive driving..." http://commuteorlando.com/wordpress/2012/04/05/salute-to-a-heroic-bus-operator/

Posted Tue, Apr 10, 4:14 p.m.

"lack of attention:" Why it seems only yesterday.. http://spdblotter.seattle.gov/2012/04/09/child-struck-by-van-in-south-seattle/

Posted Tue, Apr 10, 2:30 p.m.

Also It would appear that we need to fix our taxing in this state to fully fund education. http://www.geekwire.com/2012/cheezburger-ceo-ben-huh-fix-education/

Posted Tue, Apr 10, 1:46 p.m.

The other problem is that drivers of autos are killing not only each other, they are killing bicyclists. 64.2% of the time Motorist failed to yield 21.6% Bicyclist failed to yield at intersection 16.8% Motorist merged or turned into bicycle 12.1% Bicyclist failed to yield mid-block 11.7% Motorist overtaking bicyclist ...

Posted Tue, Apr 10, 12:18 p.m.

20/20 hindsight makes an article like this easy to write. Look for important turning points, link them to present day successes and look! "We were destine to be great!" Of course predicting our future is much, much harder. Short term crisis's coming to the world: Credit freeze up. When the ...

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

It's not just hitting someone else that makes it so that a car will kill it's driver, it's also the just plain lack of exercise that a car gives you. Why walk to the store when you can drive? Why walk to school when you can be dropped off via ...

Posted Tue, Apr 10, 9:52 a.m.

You can see that South Center Mall is in an ex-wetland because there is a this pond at near surface level just South of it. http://g.co/maps/zk3km

Posted Mon, Apr 9, 5:02 p.m.

Hi Richard, An entity which can tax, and plan, and spend is a "local government" Just because they can't write laws and jail people doesn't exempt them from the term. Crossrip's complaint when you get to the core of what he says is that ST, borrowed all the money they ...

Posted Wed, Apr 4, 10:06 a.m.

Ok, so we have subsidized the Century Link stadium, the Mariners, the convention hall, McCall Hall, ACT, The Seattle Rep, The Intiman, The Ballet theater, Horse racing, etc. At some point, enough is actually enough and we should subsidize housing for the poor, public schools, roads, transportation, the courts (public ...

Posted Tue, Apr 3, 9:30 a.m.

As long as the "right of way" remains in the public domain, we can always convert a rail/trail back to rail, or monorail, or pod cars whatever. The loss is when we've broken up the "right of way" into short segments. Then the cost of eminate domain condemnation gets ridiculous, ...

Posted Tue, Apr 3, 9:23 a.m.

Last time I looked Pro-basketball was supposed to be an entertainment business. Like, make money or something, maybe even break even. So if the teams can't afford to own their own stadiums, maybe they need to either, pay players less, charge more for seats, or some combination of the two. ...

Posted Tue, Apr 3, 9:19 a.m.

I was thinking of going until I saw the seat prices, $79 ea adults. For $160, I think I'll do something else. But I suppose the ACT knows their target market, and young 20's tech workers still dating would be willing to toss down that kind of cash for a ...

Posted Mon, Apr 2, 11:52 a.m.

Converting the rail bed to a bicycling coridor, could actually turn into an economic benefit for the cities along it. http://bikeportland.org/2011/07/01/summer-reading-economic-benefits-of-bicycling-55794 http://takingthelane.com/2011/12/19/why-bicycle-transportation-will-save-portlands-economy/ As for it being a viable rail line, it isn't. It's a single track with a huge number of uncontrolled intersections with a speed rating of 25mph. Which ...

Posted Wed, Mar 28, 10:09 a.m.

I voted for McKenna as Attorney General. I've met him, and I thought he'd do a good job and mostly he has. However given his position on women's reproductive rights and his pandering to the far right of his party I won't be voting for him again... well dog catcher ...

Posted Mon, Mar 26, 3:26 p.m.

"high fashion, regardless of its cost, never seems to go out of fashion." Maybe the fashion isn't out of style, but stores that cater to a smaller and smaller market often to go out of business. As for why they sold this property at a discount, more likely they have ...

Posted Mon, Mar 26, 3:19 p.m.

Wait! Won't a proliferation of sandwich boards which stand alone put all those homeless people who hold signs at the corner for your latest "mattress going out of business sale today only!" be out of work? Truthfully I don't mind sandwich boards because for things like a temporary business location, ...

Posted Fri, Mar 23, 1:10 p.m.

Condos, in general are a terrible investment until all available land for building them is gone. As for housing prices bouncing back.. but you still can't buy or sell a house and "know" that you have clear title to do so, thanks to MERS. The WA Supreme court heard arguments ...

Posted Thu, Mar 22, 12:45 p.m.

If the president were serious about energy independence he would be talking about Thorium salt nuclear reactors. Instead he's still a tool of the oil & gas lobby. Still none current Republican Candidates stand a chance of winning against Pres. Obama. (Historically sitting presidents win, they have a huge advantage ...

Posted Thu, Mar 22, 12:38 p.m.

Wheat grass? It still tastes like lawn clippings smell. I don't care how much syrup you put in it, I won't be drinking the stuff any time soon.

Posted Mon, Mar 19, 9:10 a.m.

10 lanes for cars and trucks does seem a bit wide to me, but then I haven't read the transit study.

Posted Mon, Mar 19, 8:43 a.m.

Chris, read up on Thorium Salt reactors. They aren't in the same ball park as the light water fission guys. As far as I can tell the only reason the USA doesn't use them is that they don't have a byproduct of plutonium which the military wanted for bombs.

Posted Fri, Mar 16, 9:51 a.m.

"nuclear power is dangerous" All nuclear power plants are not created equally. Fluoride Thorium Salt plants don't have the same issues as the U-235 water cooled ones. And you can extract Thorium salts from coal, which beats burning it.

Posted Mon, Mar 12, 10:13 a.m.

Ted you forgot the other reason we are in Afghanistan, control of the Empire. The USA doesn't like to admit that's what we are up to, but we are following the late 1800's early 1900's United Kingdom Empire book, "how to control the world's resources." Afghanistan control is a base ...

Posted Mon, Mar 12, 10:06 a.m.

Since McKenna is not pro choice, and women tend to be the swing votes in WA. If Inslee puts him in that corner, which should be pretty easy given the Republican base, then that's it. You can count the Inslee votes from the top of the space needle and a ...

Posted Sun, Mar 11, 1:05 p.m.

"in Japan was how far the plates slipped past each other during the quake: More than 160 feet in some spots, about half the length of a football field." "But the Japanese disaster showed that a lot of what scientists thought they knew about subduction zones was wrong, said Yeh, ...

Posted Fri, Mar 9, 12:06 p.m.

After the March 11 9.0 earthquake, all Tokyo monorails resumed running. http://www.monorails.org/tMspages/archive072411.html Of course we could have had one on instead of this tunnel but nooooo.

Posted Fri, Mar 9, 12:02 p.m.

"quaking would occur directly below a densely populated area." Picture, the Southern portion of the tunnel moving 6 ft. That tunnel may do more than "oscillate", it's 80 feet below sea level under Jackson. The soil there is sand and fill. There's likely to be a wave coming up over ...

Posted Fri, Mar 9, 11:58 a.m.

"The vandalism was a tough pill to swallow for Ruth Williams and other volunteers" Or "the trees were illegally pruned" One can understand why when the article mentions that the neighbors wanted to "feel safe" walking through the park, and that there was "drug and alcohol abuse there." If these ...

Posted Tue, Feb 28, 10:32 a.m.

I'm with Ryan on this one. I want no part in being the club held over other cities head's for them to cough up the dough to build another sports palace. Either these things can exist on their own as a business or they can't, in which case they need ...

Posted Tue, Feb 28, 9:59 a.m.

If you want to target these companies, there are plenty of valid reasons: ie: http://motherjones.com/politics/2012/02/mac-mcclelland-free-online-shipping-warehouses-labor or Foxconn (that's where Amazon makes their Kindles.) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazon_Kindle http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/454/mr-daisey-and-the-apple-factory Starbucks vs the Farmers http://www.newint.org/features/special/2008/04/01/starbucks/ Nike using child labor: http://www.cnbc.com/id/43024998/Labor_Issues_Still_Pervasive_In_Contract_Factory_World Those are plenty of good reasons for a "Christian" person not to want to cooperate ...

Posted Mon, Feb 27, 1:20 p.m.

Actually my kid had to threaten to sue an employer who worked in the city of Seattle for wages. The job, soliciting funds for the Democratic party. The company, "Grass Roots." the deal they tried to impose, was fixed working hours, specified locations, and you only got paid if you ...

Posted Fri, Feb 24, 9:27 a.m.

Sounds like a nice ride. The city bicycle trails are almost there. We need a few more good connections here and there so that you don't have to ride down S. Dearborn. That bit of road is going to get terrible if they build that Fred Meyer at the corner ...

Posted Tue, Feb 21, 11:24 a.m.

Also what will the city look like when gasoline hits $9/gal? Will we be looking at that tunnel wondering what else we could have bought with $2.3Billion? (Or when it goes over budget like it will.) Except for the new office towers, Basketball, 520 bridge, the downtown tunnel are all ...

Posted Fri, Feb 17, 11:02 a.m.

Looks to me, like we are being played as patsy's to force Sacramento to build a stadium. How many years of this nonsense are we willing to put up with. Yes the big winners are McGinn and Constantine. They don't have to do anything but look good for the camera.

Posted Mon, Jan 30, 2:26 p.m.

Actually SeaTac is a huge employer, with over 10K employees. However they provide free parking so there is little incentive to take the train there. Secondly the Port of Seattle generates a 1/3 of their revenue from SeaTac via parking which is why they recently doubled the size of the ...

Posted Mon, Jan 30, 1:41 p.m.

Actually the winter snow storm showed that McGinn is way better than his predecessor Nickels at managing the city. Also bicyclists vote, and the current crop of possible candidates from the city council have all the same problems as the Mayor, in that they are also responsible for the current ...

Posted Mon, Jan 30, 1:34 p.m.

I had season tickets to the Intiman the year before it crashed. I was considering them again when they went down in flames. That the board without asking the season ticket holders whether they wanted to donate their tickets to the unpaid actors, just took the money and ran. Shades ...

Posted Thu, Jan 26, 10:33 a.m.

Ok, churches are stepping up, but realistically we should be running the equivalent of a KOA. Even if people are making lifestyle choices to live in their car, who are we to say they shouldn't have a safe place to park overnight? Access to a bathroom, and an address for ...

Posted Thu, Jan 26, 10:25 a.m.

It's too bad they picked a "proven to list" design! As for the extra power, http://www.pbase.com/trackside_photography/image/87518046 And if you were on that boat, you'd be glad they had it. While the extra weight of the engines could be affecting fuel consumption it's much more likely to be the shape of ...

Posted Thu, Jan 5, 6:16 p.m.

The other bit left out of this piece is that the number of people in the state has increased over that last 10 years, that's part of why the cost for administering social programs has increased, there more people who need those services. The increase in people should have also ...

Posted Thu, Jan 5, 5:39 p.m.

Indian country? Both parties work hard to keep native Americans from voting. Who are you kidding? A better article to help native Americans on voter suppression would serve Indian country far better than this drivel. http://www.gregpalast.com/recipe-for-a-cooked-election/ For the start of your investigation. After all who cares how Indians vote, if ...

Posted Thu, Jan 5, 5:38 p.m.

"just go to the hospital" but if they have no insurance, taxpayers pick up the tab. Having promoters pay a fee to help the state recover some of the incidental costs of these fights is not a bad thing.

Posted Thu, Jan 5, 5:36 p.m.

Look Randy Revel was the King County Executive for a term and he suffered from mental illness, but through medication was able to function. All mental illnesses are not created equal. But to make a claim that crazy times call for crazy leaders, have I got a place in S.American ...

Posted Thu, Jan 5, 4:43 p.m.

Ah Blue light you missed the key phrase in that article: "The melting of the arctic shelf is melting 'permafrost' under the sea, which is releasing methane stored in the seabed as methane gas." So the global warming which is caused by burning fossil fuels is melting the arctic pack ...

Posted Thu, Jan 5, 4:39 p.m.

Iowa with it's incredibly low turnout has almost no bearing on who should be president or who among the Republicans has a chance at picking up the independents who are key to winning.

Posted Thu, Jan 5, 4:35 p.m.

"but their normalcy is a liability in tough times, when realism and divergent thinking are critical." And this is proved how? That crazy people do the right thing when things tough? Sorry but having dealt with a crazy person, I can truly refute this claim. Crazy people make sane people ...

Posted Thu, Jan 5, 11:59 a.m.

On recycling, yep a $0.10 per bag fee would cause most bags to get recycled. Why only this morning I spotted a guy going through the trash can at a park to remove the cans and bottles for redemption. Add plastic bags to his list, and he'd have separated those ...

Posted Thu, Jan 5, 11:57 a.m.

If you heat your shellfish to 140F it kills parasites. If you are eating raw shellfish, well you are definitely taking your chances and not just with round worms. http://www.marex.uga.edu/seafood/SafeSeafood.htm Cooking, it's as old as man's discovery of fire. Unfortunately cooking plastic doesn't remove it.

Posted Thu, Jan 5, 10:16 a.m.

Ah Pet waste eventually breaks down and becomes dirt. Plastic bags break down into smaller and smaller pieces which are then eaten and become part of the food chain. Of the two problems, I'd rather eat a crab that ate fish that sucked up plankton that ate pet waste than ...

Posted Fri, Dec 30, 4:25 p.m.

There is a great movie about another person who has autism and succeeds in having a full life: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temple_Grandin_%28film%29

Posted Fri, Dec 30, 2:22 p.m.

Yes, this article speaks to me, but you are wrong about one thing, it isn't just old houses that are trying to fall down every minute of the day, all houses do this. I am merely the caretaker of my house and it's house slave but mostly we get along ...

Posted Fri, Dec 30, 9:45 a.m.

Yes! Welcome to Seattle! Where in late March, you can ski in the morning, ride a bicycle, and fish all in the same day. (if you rush). And yes it rains here, it is after all a "Temperate Rainforest" one of the few in the world. But SoCal could be ...

Posted Tue, Dec 27, 11:59 a.m.

If I recall correctly from reading that New Yorker article, the author alleged that hazelnut oil is often used as a substitute for olive oil. And that cheating customers over olive oil is as old as the Roman Empire. Which makes one wonder, since most olive oil sold here isn't ...

Posted Fri, Dec 23, 2:45 p.m.

In a sunny place like Kenya it sounds like another good tool in the cooking toolbox. Smoking meat does help preserve it, which is one side effect of that style of cooking. But not having to gather wood for every meal is a huge time benefit.

Posted Fri, Dec 23, 12:05 p.m.

"President Friedman"?? Gag me! The man does not have a clue. How about President Still, an actual candidate with an actual clue and an existing party, with a plan for: a) how we enabled this mess, b) how to get out of it. http://still2012.com/

Posted Thu, Dec 22, 12:07 p.m.

"Say Wa!" Yeah I knew you could... Promoting tourism is a great idea, but somehow we don't seem to do a very good job of it. Italy on the other hand has Rome, and Florance, and all the art, plus the Alps, easy access from the rest of Europe, money ...

Posted Wed, Dec 21, 10:45 a.m.

"dare-to-be-dull era of (insert anything here) history" is what is taught in high schools. Which is really too bad, because real history is anything but. In fact I've given up reading novels because truth is stranger than fiction and I've yet to come close to reading all the history books ...

Posted Wed, Dec 21, 10:23 a.m.

Greyhound should buy the parking lot on S. King between 5th and 6th. http://g.co/maps/5x4q4 Build a new bus station there, it's got easy off the freeway access same as the metro buses. It's not too far from LINK, The tunnel, and King Street station. And it's empty land. 6th is ...

Posted Mon, Dec 19, 4:49 p.m.

I beg to disagree, but the key to sustainability is at the local level. Mayors are leading in this area as they have to live in the city they govern and it's where the rubber meets the road so to speak. Federal funding does help, but really it's just a ...

Posted Mon, Dec 19, 4:46 p.m.

You can also vote Libertarian if you want to repeal the laws on incarceration of marijuana users.

Posted Mon, Dec 19, 4:45 p.m.

Natural Gas Pipeline companies doing things that are less than open and honest? I'm shocked..shocked! http://www.gregpalast.com/xl-keystone-the-pig-in-the-pipelinethe-gop-is-pushing-a-pipeline-that-could-blow-you-to-pieces/ After all these are the same guys who don't look for leaks in their pipes so they don't have to fix them.

Posted Fri, Dec 16, 11:12 a.m.

There is a soft material that may take a hit and help prevent injury. http://youtu.be/Bgn08OMIAG8 (d3O) That may make bicycle and Motorcycle armor work.

Posted Thu, Dec 15, 4:51 p.m.

It's not about safety gear that irritates bicyclists, it's about what works. I contend that even a soldiers bullet proof vest/body armor will not protect a bicyclist from an auto collision. Bicycle helmets protect us from a regular fall where it's just the pavement we hit at bicycle speeds. Motorcyclists ...

Posted Thu, Dec 15, 10:14 a.m.

"Every Christmas story ever told" at the West Seattle ArtsWest theater is also fun and a nice alternative to the ACT's Christmas Story.

Posted Wed, Dec 14, 2:30 p.m.

"This guy is a fraud, an obstructionist and a doofus" Really? He campaigned on "Mike Bikes!" which in fact he does. Obstructionist for forcing an up/down vote on the tunnel? One can hardly call it obstructionism by asking the people who are going to be stuck with this project for ...

Posted Wed, Dec 14, 12:35 p.m.

Using fish traps near the mouth of the river is the way to go. Sort, and keep or return. The fish are alive, generally unharmed and it's easy to decide which fish to keep and which to let through. One giant fish trap. For the keepers, just hand them out ...

Posted Wed, Dec 14, 12:24 p.m.

2012 is going to be the year that the Euro dies, and the national economy heads into tailspin. How McGinn leads during this difficult time will determine whether he gets a second chance. The state doesn't have full funding for the Tunnel, or the 520 bridge, that's going to be ...

Posted Wed, Dec 14, 10:24 a.m.

"Re Safety Gear on bicycles" Show me a full face helmet and body armor that you can ride in that would have saved either bicyclist in Kirkland. It doesn't exist. Remember it has to keep you alive after 3,000 lbs of car crush you. I've looked at full face helmets, ...

Posted Wed, Dec 14, 10:04 a.m.

"Ralph Nader's in 2000 took enough Florida votes from Al Gore to win it for George W. Bush." Actually no. The real vote count done after the election showed that Al Gore won Florida on his own by 77,000 votes. http://www.gregpalast.com/florida-by-the-numbersal-gore-won-florida-in-2000-by-77000-votes/ http://www.gregpalast.com/vanishing-votes-by-greg-palast/ and more if you care to know the ...

Posted Wed, Dec 14, 10 a.m.

"vote for Warren, it's more of the same." Really? Ms. Warren dates married men? She loans money to former friends who then don't pay child support? Cameron, you need actual dirt if you want to paint Ms. Warren with the tar of campaign money, instead of slander by association. If ...

Posted Wed, Dec 14, 9:56 a.m.

Re: "just add little" Also if there are more than one alley off a main street, how do you name them all? Should we pick a variant that includes the main name? "Green Olive" "Black Olive" "Jumbo Olive" "Pitted Olive" etc?

Posted Tue, Dec 13, 5:48 p.m.

"a woman was killed by a cyclist in Renton" That's it, "A Woman".... how many died from being hit by cars? http://map.itoworld.com/road-casualties-iframe-usa#lat=37.435607202745395&lon;=-98.81468125314737&zoom;=4 for an interactive map that shows most if not all traffic deaths from 2001 to 2009. One bicyclist hit a pedestrian.. Can you count the number of dead ...

Posted Tue, Dec 13, 4:50 p.m.

Re: Ms. Warren, If she decides to run for President in 2016, I'd vote for her as well. However the fundamental problem which Senator Obama found as soon as he got in office is that Congress and the President don't control the money supply. The bankers do, that's why he ...

Posted Tue, Dec 13, 3:11 p.m.

Yesterday and this AM was ice fog. Sorry about not seeing any bicycles on the street, but ice fog negates riding a bicycle. Oh, Thursday morning, I rode from the Bicycle Tunnel to Capital Hill all on back roads. No cars at all. Why do we waste money on roads ...

Posted Tue, Dec 13, 2:59 p.m.

Co-signer: Cantwell. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/13/plan-b-kathleen-sebelius-morning-after-pill_n_1146217.html Oh, and a campaign donor who is a scum bag via dating a Senator and his own divorce is the best you can come up with? I came up with a campaign donor who took millions of foreign aid money and let the people in the country ...

Posted Tue, Dec 13, 1:17 p.m.

When the good Senator starts sending risque photos, hiring escorts, AND scr*wing the public, then I'll care. Until then ALL politicians seem to have crumby personal lives. I don't vote for these people to have them over for dinner, I vote for them to do what's best for the state ...

Posted Tue, Dec 13, 1:12 p.m.

Then we'd have "little Jackson" not sure that would pass the morality in naming police.

Posted Tue, Dec 13, 1:04 p.m.

I'm voting for change this time around, Libertarian Bill Still at least has a grasp on what the fundamental problem with the economy is. http://still2012.com/ After all there are more than two parties in this country.

Posted Mon, Dec 12, 2:37 p.m.

"Occupy and the Unions deserve each other" Couldn't agree more. The OWS has helped the unions get their spine back.

Posted Mon, Dec 12, 2:36 p.m.

Republicans love "flat taxes." So why don't they pay more of them? The payroll tax is as flat as it gets, just extend it to all your income, investment or payroll, and a lot of the deficit spending goes away. As for continuing to keep this cut, it's stupid. We ...

Posted Mon, Dec 12, 2:32 p.m.

The beauty of Mr. McKenna is the more I know him, the less I like him. Campaign here all you want Rob. Let the voters really know where you stand on issues that swing votes, abortion, gay marriage etc.

Posted Mon, Dec 12, 2:30 p.m.

On the "Dotzauer Divorce" the smoke looks like an affair between Mr. Dotzauer and Senator. Cantwell. Who gives a rip? http://blog.seattlepi.com/seattlepolitics/2006/10/02/sound-politics-alleges-cantwell-other-woman-in-divorce/ http://andrews-dad.blogspot.com/2006/10/ron-dotzauer-lobbyist-slimeball.html Politicians all seem to have trouble with their married lives. I don't care what they do in the bedroom. I care what they do to the rest of ...

Posted Mon, Dec 12, 2:23 p.m.

-dbreneman: If you want to understand what's wrong with government, go look at Bill Still from the Libertarians. He's got a fix on the monetary issue that is the over riding problem. http://still2012.com/the-still-report-sr-33-address-to-the-libertarian-nation/ It also answers the question of how we ended up with "I got mine, you're on your ...

Posted Mon, Dec 12, 10:21 a.m.

Re: Edit: run your mouse over your own posting along the top, you'll see an "edit/delete" feature. As for naming Alley's, good grief, what a waste of civic effort. While I'm not opposed to naming alleys, with rising homelessness, large numbers of hungry people at the food banks, do we ...

Posted Mon, Dec 12, 10:14 a.m.

Thing is Obama had a similar story before he got into office. We can see how well that worked out. As far as it goes for Ms. Warren, she appears to have a better moral compass. And what is hilarious to me is that the Karl Rove attack ads against ...

Posted Thu, Dec 8, 4:37 p.m.

The biggest risk is that US the "to big to fail" banks have Collateral Default Swaps on the Euro and would become recognizably bankrupt. With BofA being Washington State's bank, we could see state banking freeze up. There is no way to currently know what the exposure really is as ...

Posted Thu, Dec 8, 3 p.m.

"The only nasty comments I ever see are in the Seattle Times, after there’s a story on immigration,” says Shane Rock" Must not read the comments in Crosscut.com

Posted Thu, Dec 8, 12:26 p.m.

"That may, in some ways, explain the Great Recession. Beneath it all lurks an addiction, an addiction to more, born of an emptiness in our collective soul. We lack an adequate story and corollary ethic." "We Kemo Sabe?" We, the 99% got taken by the 1%. It didn't matter that ...

Posted Wed, Dec 7, 5:05 p.m.

"birth certificate stupidity" and we have Obama and his team to thank for even more stupidity by releasing a copy of a birth certificate which is an obvious fake. The typography has kerning in it, something a typewriter is incapable of. Look, the newspaper birth announcements aren't fakes, after that, ...

Posted Wed, Dec 7, 2:24 p.m.

"cheating" or not, the photos on the publisher's page are beautiful. However I already own too many coffee table photo books, so this one doesn't make the list.

Posted Wed, Dec 7, 1:58 p.m.

Canadians are not totally business centric. It is possible to have civil disobedience in Canada. They have protested clear cutting in some forests and at least slowed down the logging. There is still hope that tar sands mining won't be full disaster that it could be.

Posted Wed, Dec 7, 1:55 p.m.

Look, the park service shoots bears all the time in Yellowstone. They decide that a bear is a problem, move him and paint him. If he returns, they "whack" him. The same rule should apply to any animal. We don't hear about defenders of the rights of mice to run ...

Posted Wed, Dec 7, 1:46 p.m.

Too bad these performances were at the Moore. That theater has to have the worst sight lines in all of Seattle. Otherwise I would have bought tickets.

Posted Wed, Dec 7, 10:56 a.m.

The city/state could keep more money in state if there was a state bank to borrow money from instead of issuing bonds. That way the interest on the money would go to the state bank and thus state residents and not bond holders who could live anywhere. Secondly the rate ...

Posted Tue, Dec 6, 1:41 p.m.

Watching the cost of reclaiming this land and cleaning up the mess, it's hard to understand why anyone would think that the future power sources for the country should be nuclear.

Posted Tue, Dec 6, 1:39 p.m.

As midwest land values crash, now's the time to expand the reservation. As a tribe, you may be able to get the land for free from the Federal government by offering to manage it. I'm thinking about most of Eastern Montana here, land that was once homesteaded but is now ...

Posted Tue, Dec 6, 10:56 a.m.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BkK2vEZ5bTk For an Atlatl demo. You may not die from a point in the rib, but if you are a stone age hunter you probably retrieve all useful spear points stuck in the carcass because they are so much work to make. On clovis people, it's also possible that while ...

Posted Tue, Dec 6, 10:39 a.m.

The biggest failing McGovern had was to not use his wartime experience against Nixon. He let the republicans paint him with the "hippy loving, peacenik" brush and while he was a man of peace. He had actually fought in the war. The similarities between him and Kerry are also astounding. ...

Posted Tue, Dec 6, 9:31 a.m.

If they manage to kill it, it's also possible that they will kill a pipeline to Kitimat as well. Tar Sands mining is a huge ecological disaster.

Posted Mon, Dec 5, 3:40 p.m.

Being a reformed evangelical druid, I don't throw any phoney parties. Nope mine are the real deal, with real people who like each other. The solstice day is one to remember around my household!

Posted Mon, Dec 5, 12:23 p.m.

And what "regional" problem does the author propose to solve? None that I can see in this article. If perchance he means a melding of the ports on Puget Sound, then perhaps he'd like to suggest a voting district that allows both the actual vote and the right of the ...

Posted Sun, Dec 4, 12:57 p.m.

Hi Ted, I too am suspicious about his drowning as well. As a long time boater it just didn't ring true. And having read a zillion spy books that have made it to print, it totally fits. Plus Regan got to blame him for Iran Contra...yeah it was all this ...

Posted Fri, Dec 2, 4:49 p.m.

Thing is the Republicans are supported by some of the worst of the worst of the 1%. And as Molly Irvins used to say, "you dance with who brung you." More here: http://www.gregpalast.com/romney-advisor-threatensbbc-investigative-reporter/ or google "Paul Singer Vulture capitalist" for some light reading.

Posted Fri, Dec 2, 4:47 p.m.

Also, there is a good chance that "Free Trade Agreements" are unconstitutional. Since they are essentially treaties between two countries the constitution specifies that they need to be ratified by 2/3rds of the Senate. Since that would never happen, they've been relabeled. But if it quacks like a duck.... But ...

Posted Fri, Dec 2, 1:21 p.m.

Hey Bluelight, Looks like the tribes have to follow the same EPA rules as the states do. http://www.epa.gov/tribalcompliance/buildandveh/bvregsdrill.html#assumption

Posted Fri, Dec 2, 11:36 a.m.

I think we've seen the "real Obama".. business as usual. Organizes shutdown of popular protests (occupy xxxx camps raided on the same night) Killing of US citizens via drones without benefit of trial... etc etc. Romney might be worse if he kept his campaign promises, but his history at least ...

Posted Fri, Dec 2, 11:02 a.m.

"Free Trade" what's not to like? http://www.counterpunch.org/2011/12/02/outsourcing-jobs-offshoring-markets/ Does a pretty good job of outlining the problems. But in case you don't like that, let me add, that when we outsource our polluting industries to countries that don't have the same regulations, the pollution does come back to us eventually via ...

Posted Fri, Dec 2, 9:22 a.m.

When I was a kid, my mom made an Advent calender. It was just sew out of felt and had numbers on a series of open topped sleeves sewn on holiday background. I think she sewed bells and candy canes on it as well. But anyway that's not important. What ...

Posted Thu, Dec 1, 2:25 p.m.

So the question is, will a heavier truck that carries less fuel "waste" more fuel making multiple trips than the occasional one that spills it's load? ie. is the air pollution that burning more fuel worse than the spilled fuel ground contamination and air pollution? In any case as the ...

Posted Thu, Dec 1, 12:34 p.m.

The social change is already happening. My kids think nothing is strange about being openly gay/lesbians. They wonder what the fuss is all about with gay marriage. A few more dying seniors and that change will happen at the polls. The Occupy movement has correctly identified the culprits for our ...

Posted Thu, Dec 1, 11:05 a.m.

You can celebrate the 12 days of Christmas if you choose. With my blended families it's been very easy to schedule different events all along those two weeks. The kids seemed to enjoy each event and more time was spent with each part of the family than if we had ...

Posted Thu, Dec 1, 9:47 a.m.

Wait! I thought tearing down the viaduct and building a tunnel made us a "world class city!" You mean there's more? Amsterdam has world class bicycle paths, we have road rage and the Seattle Times ditto heads screaming about taxes and how bicyclists are greedy. We have the Mariners, a ...

Posted Tue, Nov 29, 4:06 p.m.

I wonder if the same voter forces will propel McGinn to a second term even though the ditto heads hate him.

Posted Tue, Nov 29, 4:05 p.m.

You know I recently found out that in the middle ages, people picked up dog crap to sell as a leather tanning product! So that's what we need, a leather tanning shop to recycle our dog doo doo! As for banning those stupid bags, about time. I'm sick of picking ...

Posted Mon, Nov 28, 1:50 p.m.

It's both health & malpractice insurance and pharmaceutical costs. If a doctor doesn't want to be sued, they have to order every possible test that's in the text book. A malpractice insurance pool would help doctors. Pharmaceuticals could be less if we let transborder or pooled purchases by medicare. Medicare ...

Posted Fri, Nov 25, 12:44 p.m.

"reduce congestion" Anyone who has looked at transit systems will understand that no improvements to transit ever in the long term "reduce congestion" short of decimating the reason for going there in the first place. Why? *) For every thing you do to reduce congestion, ie add a freeway lane, ...

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

If the state truly wanted to suck less, they could get out of BOA, and start their own bank. That way they could loan money to municipalities instead of forcing them to go to the bond market to borrow money. And they could borrow from the Fed like every other ...

Posted Fri, Nov 25, 10:52 a.m.

Hey Amy, I love fresh cranberry relish. I used to can lots of things until I realized that while my stuff was better than what I could buy in the store, it was way less good than if I froze it. Your relish recipe does look good though.

Posted Fri, Nov 25, 10:50 a.m.

"Curb Bulbs" Street Films has a blurb on how they help pedestrians. http://www.streetfilms.org/snowy-neckdowns-redux-winter-traffic-calming/#more-49170

Posted Wed, Nov 23, 2:36 p.m.

"Refuse to buy crap" Oh yeah, I always go shopping for crap. "Hey honey! Don't we need more crap in the house? It's 50% off!" And then I put it in my shopping bag... What are you talking about? Now, "refuse to buy into phony sales deals." I can get ...

Posted Wed, Nov 23, 2:31 p.m.

Good grief! Just put the bag in the freezer! (double bag it if you plan to leave it there for a couple of months.) Defrost as needed.

Posted Wed, Nov 23, 12:51 p.m.

"My guess, my forecast, is that Europe will do what it takes to avoid a banking crisis,” Good luck with that! The EU replaced the prime minister in Greece, and Italy without holding elections and still the debt in those countries is causing bond rates to rise. http://youtu.be/2gm9q8uabTs http://market-ticker.org/akcs-www?post=198023 The ...

Posted Wed, Nov 23, 12:38 p.m.

There's a park on top of the Port building? What? I never knew that! No wonder no one but Port employees use it. Steinbruk Park, people are afraid to go into it? Well it's full of homeless people laying around. While I don't begrudge them a place to loaf, without ...

Posted Wed, Nov 23, 10:28 a.m.

As a bicyclist I want Seattle to spend money fixing the dang potholes and cracks. Being slower than cars I can see every one of them. Besides, when the city fixes a road it also brings it up to "the plan" which means adding sharrows, sidewalks, bike lanes, and road ...

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

Time for an employer based head tax. $25 per driver $15 per transit rider $10 per bicyclist $ 5 per walker No transit is free and all users of the roadway need to pay for their usage. You can argue about the exact dollars per group, but each group costs ...

Posted Tue, Nov 22, 2:04 p.m.

"buy local"... Trader Joes? Are we talking about the California based grocery store? Or some guy named Joe who sells stuff, because buying from "Trader Joes" is no more local than buying from Safeway. (Blueberries from Maine, not Snoqualamie, Tomatoes from Florida... etc. etc.) It's not that Trader Joes sells ...

Posted Tue, Nov 22, 1:19 p.m.

Un-elected leaders? Why not emulate Italy and Greece which replaced both prime ministers without an election??? Yeah a dictatorship that's the answer to the problem of politicians listening to constituents. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qKidMcJFWp8

Posted Tue, Nov 22, 9:18 a.m.

Sorry, but the budget needs to be cut by 30% in one year. That's because current tax revenues don't cover current expenses. That's a recipe for long term failure. And since we've been doing this for the last 30 years, long term is rapidly approaching "now." Kabuki Theater is right. ...

Posted Mon, Nov 21, 10:47 a.m.

Here's a Heathrow video. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6SIvJN8jSBE

Posted Mon, Nov 21, 10:42 a.m.

"high-level bridge crossing the Ship Canal" Where have I heard about that before for transit? Oh right, the monorail project which owned the land but died from lack of a tax base to build it. And what has changed since that project failed? Not the tax base, that got worse ...

Posted Mon, Nov 21, 9:23 a.m.

I'd like street cars a lot better if the city would a) keep the one they had, ie the Waterfront Street car. But no, they only needed to build a maintenance shed and they couldn't manage that. and b) give them signal priority. I can walk faster than the SLUT ...

Posted Fri, Nov 18, 4:32 p.m.

@Randy I've been using paper bags here in the PNW for over 30 years and have yet to have the rain destroy one before I got it home. I have had plastic bags rip before I got them in the cart. I use recyclable bags mostly because my home was ...

Posted Fri, Nov 18, 1:13 p.m.

Looks like it's not limited to just Penn State: http://www.cnn.com/2011/11/18/us/new-york-syracuse-coach/index.html?hpt=hp_t2

Posted Thu, Nov 17, 3:44 p.m.

If electrical rates are set as they currently are, low usage pays a low rate, and high usage higher rates, the poor who are only using electricity for light, dryers and appliances won't be any more worse off than they are today. In short if done fairly the higher usage ...

Posted Thu, Nov 17, 1:18 p.m.

On the OWS here's a way better analysis. http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/how-i-stopped-worrying-and-learned-to-love-the-ows-protests-20111110

Posted Thu, Nov 17, 1:13 p.m.

What would make this idea work with today's grid? Why it's the power to weight ratio. So lighten the vehicle to it's minimum, two wheels, remove the cab and extra seats, the power steering can go as it's not necessary for the lighter vehicle. Keep the auto transmission but put ...

Posted Thu, Nov 17, 10:47 a.m.

The second thing a state bank could do is make loans to municipalities. That would provide an alternative to the bond market for raising money and all the interest on the money would stay in the state. I'd expect a fight by bond salesmen as well.

Posted Thu, Nov 17, 10:43 a.m.

In Arizona around Phoenix anyway you can drive a golf cart on city streets where the speed limit is 35 or less. It's a perfect, go to the grocery store, post office, hardware store vehicle. And that law has been in place for years. If we truly wanted to "go ...

Posted Thu, Nov 17, 10:40 a.m.

NPR: "National Petroleum Radio", a liberal bias! Hah! These guys couldn't break a story on progressive issues if they tried. As a progressive I agree with BlueLight and their government funding should be cut off. The government has no business funding the media.

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

So why is only 17% of congress women when 51% of the citizens are women? Clearly women don't vote based on sex alone, otherwise they'd have 100% women.

Posted Wed, Nov 16, 8:57 a.m.

Nothing this committee does has any binding on the next congress. Every congress is on it's own when it comes to spending. It's in the constitution. This is all a lot of hot air and bluster to obscure that we can't pay for the services we promised, no matter who ...

Posted Wed, Nov 16, 8:54 a.m.

Looks like the Homeland Security guys took up where the FBI left off. http://www.examiner.com/top-news-in-minneapolis/were-occupy-crackdowns-aided-by-federal-law-enforcement-agencies

Posted Wed, Nov 16, 8:22 a.m.

These guys without asking their subscribers kept all of the money collected for season passes. Until the board is replaced, and apologizes I won't be attending any of their performances.

Posted Wed, Nov 9, 1:52 p.m.

If the state wanted to fix some of it's financial problems it would create a state bank and deposit it's tax receipts there instead of banking with "Bank of America.". As a state bank it could also lend money to cities and counties instead of those same municipalities issuing bonds. ...

Posted Wed, Nov 9, 1:47 p.m.

Hey Crossrip, Could "Sound Transit" buy out the state's interest in the I-90 corridor? I know that would be expensive and as far as the tax payers concerned a shuffling of money, but would that fix the constitutional problem? It wouldn't be a handover but a sale.

Posted Wed, Nov 9, 11:16 a.m.

Big changes can occur when a lot of people make a small change. Rain gardens aren't the whole answer but dumping straight to the river isn't either.

Posted Wed, Nov 9, 10:29 a.m.

@RAE "The return of the Waterfront Streetcar is an obvious and functional part of the new waterfront." But it's not in the plan! In fact its specifically excluded.

Posted Wed, Nov 9, 10:26 a.m.

I-1125 was never about tolls. It was designed to fail in the courts due to it's multiple issues. Then allow bond favorable judges to create more case law to support the rights of bond holders. Fortunately King County voters distrust Eyman initiatives enough to vote against them.

Posted Wed, Nov 9, 10:24 a.m.

Hey Mark, What about Indianian voter repression? How about an article about how New Mexico goes out of it's way to make sure that their votes are never counted?

Posted Wed, Nov 9, 10:22 a.m.

The Costco buyout of the liquor deal was more beneficial to the state. At least in the beginning. I'm suspicious that the next campaign we will hear about is to lower the costs to the sellers of the stuff. But at the legislature level where it's easier to buy the ...

Posted Wed, Nov 9, 10:19 a.m.

As a commuter bicyclists, Seattle needs to fund more road repair. Potholes are killers for me. There are cracks everywhere that need a good sealing to preserve the road. Heck with sharrows, and bike lanes, fix the d*m roads first. Also Street car tracks are a menace to bicyclists.

Posted Tue, Nov 8, 4:04 p.m.

Piers for parks? That's stupid. Piers are necessary for boats, they are totally worthless for parks, except maybe a few fishing finger piers. But large flat light blocking creosote soaked wood is not ecologically good. The only reason the piers are still here is that it's cheaper to keep them ...

Posted Tue, Nov 8, 9:56 a.m.

What this space cries out for is water access for the people who live and work downtown. We don't need more places to look at the bay, we need more places where we can get down to it. ie stairs to a kayak launch every 1/4 mile. A graded boat ...

Posted Thu, Nov 3, 4:54 p.m.

"flat tax" another phrase for "tax the middle class." http://www.counterpunch.org/2011/11/02/secrets-of-the-flat-tax/

Posted Thu, Nov 3, 4:52 p.m.

Actually I think McGinn is doing a good job with what he has. We are in a serious economic crisis and the city seems to be moving along. We have had some "bad cop" actions but nothing compared with Chicago or Oakland. The population is up, but driving is down, ...

Posted Thu, Nov 3, 4:43 p.m.

As a former employee of a company that needed these licenses, it was a royal pain to acquire them from each of the different groups, the players, the stadiums, the teams etc. Everyone has his hand in the pot, probably doubled the cost of the product to use the exact ...

Posted Thu, Nov 3, 3:16 p.m.

"Cowed technocrats" WTH? Where are technocrats in this article? There are plenty of scientists who advocate for the removal of dams which generate little to no power and block fish habitat. Not every dam we have ever built is necessary now and forever more. And the headline of this article ...

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

Or we could advocate for healthier lifestyles which would reduce the costs of old people on Medicare. http://www.bfw.org/2011/11/02/biking-could-save-billions/ Instead of blabbing about a fictitious "war on cars." Also "shared sacrifice" includes those multinational corporations which currently pay NO taxes. http://money.cnn.com/2011/11/03/news/economy/corporate_taxes

Posted Thu, Nov 3, 12:58 p.m.

The problem with geothermal has been that they pump water down into to rocks to warm it, and then back out. If the rocks are actually on a seismic fault line, the extra water tends to lubricate the rocks sufficiently to cause small earthquakes. Whether it's good or bad depends ...

Posted Thu, Nov 3, 10:55 a.m.

Until there is fair sacrifice, there will never be willingness to share it. As for Social Security and Medicare, two different problems. One is a shift of wealth from the young to the old. The other is burdened by a costly medical structure that must be reformed. On Social Security, ...

Posted Wed, Nov 2, 4:51 p.m.

Ah Bluelight, population increases in the PNW isn't illegal immigration it's legal movement of US citizens and their having children. And yes increase population puts pressure on fishing habitat by the runnoff from the roads and other non porous surfaces. However preventing habitat restoration while you await a one child ...

Posted Wed, Nov 2, 4:40 p.m.

Cain is toast. He's a man without a plan, or a clue. His 9-9-9 plan is a disaster. And today a third woman has appeared. It would be one thing if he admitted it, "I did it. I was wrong. I won't ever do it again." But that doesn't appear ...

Posted Wed, Nov 2, 4:35 p.m.

In Seattle, the hills and the rain is not a problem for most of us. When you first start riding you walk then ride then walk the hills. After about a month you'll ride it all the way to the top. A month later and you'll remember walking that hill ...

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

"Come gather 'round people wherever you roam. And admit that the waters around you have grown. And accept it that soon you'll be drenched to the bone. If your time to you is worth savin'. Ahh you better start swimmin' or you'll sink like a stone. For the times they ...

Posted Fri, Oct 28, 4:29 p.m.

What we have is a republic that is leaning toward an oligarchy. Take the banks out of government by instead of using fractional banking to create the money supply, just print it. Congress has the authority, it's in the constitution. Just decide the value of a dollar and print just ...

Posted Fri, Oct 28, 4:25 p.m.

May your bookstore long thrive!

Posted Fri, Oct 28, 3:54 p.m.

I pay $35 x 3 on my tab fees for the three cars my family owns. But I ride my bicycle, so do I get a rebate for not ruining the streets? Anyway as a bicyclist I want the streets repaired. A pothole is a pain for a car, its ...

Posted Wed, Oct 26, 4:54 p.m.

Sacra blu monsieur rolls! My beret has flown off! Seattle must become a world class city! And how else but by having world class debts that we cannot pay?

Posted Wed, Oct 26, 3:48 p.m.

This piece glosses over so much stuff I don't know where to start. But look, they don't call it the "lost decade" for nothing in Japan. The failure in Japan was not realizing the losses in bad investments that the banks made, letting some of the die, nationalizing the rest ...

Posted Wed, Oct 26, 3:44 p.m.

The future isn't burning coal, it's Geothermal, wind and solar. http://idealab.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/10/new-google-map-reveals-us-geothermal-resources-10-times-coal.php Check out this map of the thermal energy available to us. It's not cost free but it looks better than digging up the last of the coal and selling it.

Posted Wed, Oct 26, 3:42 p.m.

Mercer Street has been a sink hole for money and mayors since I-5 was built. Paul Allen at least is building something around the new street, those buildings will have a higher value, increasing property taxes for South Lake Union and eventually the city will get it's tax money back.

Posted Wed, Oct 26, 3:40 p.m.

I have no problem giving the boat building to Todd Shipyard, the only place big enough to build the ferries. That way we get the money back in the form of taxes on the workers when they spend their salaries. And those purchases finance other local jobs, there is like ...

Posted Wed, Oct 26, 1:17 p.m.

So 25 wind mills equals one dam. Seems like a fair switch to me. I'd rather have the river and the salmon than the lake, although the Seattle Times was reporting that only 7,000 fish used to return to this system. That's not a lot compared to the Elwah river ...

Posted Wed, Oct 26, 1:04 p.m.

Oh you can do a two-fer with street repair, make some side streets not through streets by every couple of blocks make everyone turn right, and add a sidewalk through it. It slows down residential traffic, keeps folks from trying to use it as an alternative rush hour route. And ...

Posted Wed, Oct 26, 1 p.m.

Blaming the loss of the MVET for the predicament of the ferry system is a good one. This is the same system that retired lawmakers go to work for a second pension. Dead weight is the essence of this dept.

Posted Wed, Oct 26, 12:58 p.m.

As a sailor I hated "Passage to Juneau" such terrible dribble for a sailing book. There are so many better books on that specific trip. Read "A voyage in a dory: From Sitka to Tacoma by oars, sail, and tow rope" by R. N DeArmond who did the trip in ...

Posted Wed, Oct 26, 12:50 p.m.

As a bicyclist I prioritize smooth roads over bike lanes any day. Hitting a pothole is not pleasant in a car, it can be a header fall on a bicycle, or make us swerve into traffic to avoid it. (And swerving all around to avoid potholes makes it look like ...

Posted Tue, Oct 25, 3:59 p.m.

"I'm not sure why, for a nanosecond, Boeing would consider locating a new plant our state." Because you can't build planes with substandard machining and engineering. If the plant in Everett hadn't been here there wouldn't be a 787 flying now. Secondly Boeing outsources it's knowledge to foreign countries at ...

Posted Tue, Oct 25, 9:35 a.m.

"growing things like hay." Turns out, Washington Hay is a world class crop, who knew? So I can see the pressure to put more land into agriculture. It does feel a little short sighted as we are mining the soil to grow it but it doesn't feel as bad as ...

Posted Mon, Oct 24, 2:32 p.m.

Or use a "diagonal" cross walk. http://www.streetfilms.org/la-gets-diagonal-crosswalks-again/ ALL cars stop, all ways.

Posted Mon, Oct 24, 2:29 p.m.

Slowing down drivers on residential streets would go a long way to improving safety for everybody. http://www.streetfilms.org/no-need-for-speed-20s-plenty-for-u

Posted Mon, Oct 24, 2:23 p.m.

Don't mistake me for a dam hater, I'm not. They have their place but we overbuilt and destroyed the fishery and now some of them are going to go. The Snake River 4 are next on the list. Besides all dams fail eventually. It's a certainty, might as well evaluate ...

Posted Mon, Oct 24, 10:16 a.m.

Well they could put in about 8 wind turbines and generate the same amount of power. http://www.efsec.wa.gov/wildhorse.shtml

Posted Mon, Oct 24, 10:13 a.m.

"In fascism, government still owns all the guns, and will use them against business interests it finds inconvenient." Would that be like the government selling alcohol but not allowing private interests to sell it? or hard drugs? Or perhaps selling guns? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fascism "endless war" It still looks to me like ...

Posted Sat, Oct 22, 10:01 a.m.

When I first read about this and the conclusion that it was "suicide" it sure seemed more like a coverup by the team of blue for one of their own. Yet I have only the details from the news to go by. So I'm hoping that this final inquest will ...

Posted Fri, Oct 21, 5:40 p.m.

Ah we have King County members elected by district and an executive who is elected "at large" Seems to work most of the time. Bellevue has a mayor selected from the council, that's not working nearly so well. Just look at the planning process for Sound Transit's LINK. It's taken ...

Posted Fri, Oct 21, 3:21 p.m.

I'm comfortable with Mormons in the White House. What I'm not comfortable is with morons, and that's what the whole Republican field looks to me. Not a one of them has a grasp on economics, world history, monetary policy, or the rule of law. Willful ignorance, or blatant corruption either ...

Posted Fri, Oct 21, 3:18 p.m.

"Cedars of Lebanon" Seen any lately? Me neither. There used to be giant cedar trees in Lebanon but they cut them down, changed the micro climate and they never came back. Those woods in New England you walked through? Deciduous trees right? Well in the 1600's they were mostly conifer ...

Posted Fri, Oct 21, 3:14 p.m.

C02 as high as 7000ppm? yeah, like when were mammals the dominate species on the planet when that happened? Oh, like never. http://www.daviesand.com/Choices/Precautionary_Planning/New_Data/ Humans, last 100,000 years, C02 less than 300ppm for the last 400,000 years.

Posted Fri, Oct 21, 3:08 p.m.

Fascism is already here, no need for another coup at all. A government that works only for the corporations is by definition a fascist state. And reviewing "Citizens United", "Free trade agreements" which are treaties that less than 2/3's of the senate ratify, is in fact a Fascist government.

Posted Fri, Oct 21, 3:06 p.m.

"Prevent tolls on motor vehicles from being used to pay for transit." If only that were the only thing in this initiative. But it's not, it's as cross rip says, its designed to allow more case law for bond holders to override voters. And yes the title of this article ...

Posted Fri, Oct 21, 9:13 a.m.

Oh and here's another article as to why WA state should get out of BoA. http://www.counterpunch.org/2011/10/21/is-bank-of-america-headed-for-the-glue-factory/

Posted Fri, Oct 21, 8:23 a.m.

So where is the State of Washington bank? The state deposits tax receipts at the bankrupt Bank of America which refuses to loan money to farmers and small businesses of WA. Time to follow the North Dakota model and form our own bank.

Posted Fri, Oct 21, 8:20 a.m.

Bunkum - this initiative fails the single issue rule. Even if it passes at the polls, it fails in the courts. And has been alleged is designed to allow the courts to create more rulings to favor bond holders over voters. And as a shipper, Mr. Royer knows full well ...

Posted Thu, Oct 20, 1:41 p.m.

That last doubling is actually quite hard to do in practice. It does it easily in mathematics and of course unpaid loans, pensions etc. but in terms of population growth when the resources get tight, reproduction slows way down. You can see it in the population growth of Japan, Italy ...

Posted Thu, Oct 20, 11:19 a.m.

The beauty of adding more bicycling to a community is that there are direct economic benefits from not sending money to foreign countries for things like fuel. http://www.altaplanning.com/App_Content/files/fp_docs/2008%20Portland%20Bicycle-Related%20Economy%20Report.pdf Portland in 2008 has a $90Million bicycling industry. That's not just pocket change.

Posted Wed, Oct 19, 12:11 p.m.

Dear Mr. Simmons, Thanks for a great piece on the history of this piece of shoreline. Corporations focusing on the short term rarely make the right choice for the long term. Destroying the herring breading grounds would have subtle but long term consequences not easily fixed. And again destroying our ...

Posted Wed, Oct 19, 10:39 a.m.

On the $60 vehicle fee: Yes bicycles are here to stay, and the riders are increasing. Better to plan for the growth and put some paint on the roads so that cars and bicycles can share the space. Ted, you should feel lucky not to live in London where they ...

Posted Wed, Oct 19, 10:35 a.m.

On I-1183, I don't see how the state makes more money unless Costco et.al. sells more hard liquor. Currently the state makes money on first the 50% mark up, and then on the tax. I assume that it will take fewer Costco employees to sell the same amount of bottles, ...

Posted Wed, Oct 19, 10:28 a.m.

I-1125 also suffers from the multiple topics problem of other Eyman's initiatives. I'm in agreement with Crossrip, it's designed to pass at the polls and fail in the courts. And I'm also in agreement with him as to why.

Posted Wed, Oct 19, 10:19 a.m.

My uncle when he was alive used to farm. Back breaking daily work, as he was a dairy farmer. You could die and still have to get up at 4am to milk those cows. Forget vacations, who are you going to get to come milk the herd for a week? ...

Posted Wed, Oct 19, 9:17 a.m.

I'd be happy if the banksters who committed FRAUD were brought up before a jury. We have congressional testimony on the fraud, we know they didn't transfer the mortgages to the bond holders even though the bond sales said they did. We know that when the loans went bad, they ...

Posted Fri, Oct 14, 4:02 p.m.

If there were wolf packs in Oregon there would be fewer coyotes. Whether that would translate into fewer livestock deaths total is an open question.

Posted Fri, Oct 14, 1:44 p.m.

It's a "transaction tax" same as a "sales tax" which you pay when you buy something. Wall street can handle this, it will just be priced into their models. It's not likely to slow much down though, same as a sales tax doesn't prevent you from buying something.

Posted Fri, Oct 14, 1:32 p.m.

Oh, and once they took down the Bartell Drug store, everyone could see what the developer of Westlake knew, it has a direct view of Lake Union. You can see it from ground level. And it was a public park tragedy, but a retail success story. I remember when the ...

Posted Fri, Oct 14, 1:27 p.m.

Thanks for this piece. I always wondered what happened to the artist who created that beautiful ball & chain for Hammering Man. What a terrible waste for him to die by train/suicide.

Posted Thu, Oct 13, 4:25 p.m.

"I note the absence of bars and bookshops." The Worlds biggest book shop, Amazon.com, is in SLU! Or do you mean like "Elliott Bay Books", but I can't remember a time when there was a decent book store down in SLU. Prior to the Vulcan development it was light industry. ...

Posted Thu, Oct 13, 2:17 p.m.

I see no chance for President Obama to grow a spine. The man sold himself out to Wall Street and will run on a campaign of "that other guy is nuts!" I also suspect that he'll go down to defeat because the core of his voters from the last election ...

Posted Thu, Oct 13, 11:46 a.m.

Or perhaps this one suits you better? http://www.aesops-fables.org.uk/aesop-fable-the-woodman-and-the-serpent.htm Woodsmen: 99% Serpent: banks

Posted Thu, Oct 13, 11:40 a.m.

Blue light, Me thinks the better fable would be Aesops' fable of the Lion, the fox and the Wolf. http://www.aesops-fables.org.uk/aesop-fable-the-lion%27s-share.htm Lion: banks Fox & Wolf: the rest of us.

Posted Thu, Oct 13, 9:14 a.m.

Henry Blodget did a nice graphic piece on what's wrong with the economy: http://www.businessinsider.com/what-wall-street-protesters-are-so-angry-about-2011-10?op=1 So Calvert, your feelings about the inequity of things is perfectly aligned with the data.

Posted Wed, Oct 12, 2:39 p.m.

I wonder if these buses fit under the trolley wires?

Posted Wed, Oct 12, 10:09 a.m.

The real reason the US doesn't use these nerve gases is that controlling them once released is nearly impossible. And as a weapon there are far more deadly ones without the lingering side effects, see fuel air bombs. Thirdly the political ramifications are terrible for the country that uses nerve ...

Posted Wed, Oct 12, 10 a.m.

"Or that one group works and the other doesn't." Exactly. These kids played by the rules and don't have jobs. We need them to be working and paying taxes. Here's another take on the whole crisis. http://market-ticker.org/akcs-www?post=195841 And yes the whacking of the protesters in Boston was wrong.

Posted Tue, Oct 11, 3:06 p.m.

Here's another take on the message: http://www.alternet.org/occupywallst/152683/5_conservative_economic_myths_occupy_wall_st._is_helping_bust/ I'm going to have to wait to watch the Battle for Brooklyn until it comes to Netflix.

Posted Tue, Oct 11, 1:37 p.m.

Hey Randy! Nobody got rich on their own... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XcFDF87-SdQ It's not communism to want an even playing field, it's justice.

Posted Tue, Oct 11, 1:33 p.m.

"Allen sat on that property, waiting for the next big idea"... And some grandiose idea it turned out to be! No one would ever have guessed that he would bulldoze the small buildings and erect new office space! OMG! it was brilliant and no one could ever have foreseen it! ...

Posted Tue, Oct 11, 11:25 a.m.

Some how I don't think a lack of bars in Beacon Hill caused Amazon to Move to South Lake Union.

Posted Tue, Oct 11, 11:24 a.m.

"The Creative Class is a Lie" ... what drivel trying to pass itself off as journalism, not a cited fact in sight, an attempt to link minimum wage jobs at Borders, Tower Records etc to knowledge workers jobs. "American doesn't manufacture anything and never will again".. nice crystal ball you ...

Posted Tue, Oct 11, 10:42 a.m.

Roger, the top 1% want you to feel like you belong to their "club" so you'll vote for things that benefit them, but the truth is you don't and never will. Being in the top 25% or even the top 10% is a great feat of accomplishment, and I'm glad ...

Posted Mon, Oct 10, 1:21 p.m.

Knox has no choice but to become a traveling circus. She has millions to collect and pay back for her freedom. Events have totally overtaken her life, she has to write that book, make those media events, do the dog and pony show for whoever has money to pay. What ...

Posted Mon, Oct 10, 10:30 a.m.

Lets also not forget that the Basque's were fishing off the Grand Banks of Nova Scotia in the 1200's feeding Mid-evil Europe salted Cod, but keeping pretty mum on where they were catching those fish. And that Columbus had a pretty good idea that there was a large land mass ...

Posted Fri, Oct 7, 4:13 p.m.

It would seem that Wikipedia has a pretty good outline of the known events of the trial, the purported evidence and the characters involved. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Meredith_Kercher

Posted Fri, Oct 7, 1:39 p.m.

And don't forget it was the Apple computer that allowed Aldus to make Pagemaker (desktop publishing) and Adobe (photoshop, PDF et.al.) tools which have changed the world.

Posted Fri, Oct 7, 10:35 a.m.

Who the heck knows what happened that night? Certainly by reading about it in the local media we don't have a clear picture. We do know that Mr. Guede fled the country and had his DNA on Ms. Kercher. We also know that Ms. Knox only knew Ms. Kercher for ...

Posted Fri, Oct 7, 10:15 a.m.

There are at least a couple of good reasons why there should be profit in the health care industry. We want people to spend a lot of time and their own money to develop and invent cures for what ails us. That we should also use government research funds for ...

Posted Thu, Oct 6, 2:27 p.m.

"Trust but verify" would be a better axiom. Woe is the rich man who trusts his accountant and lawyer but does not verify that trust is not misplaced. Greed & Lust are some of the human conditions that we see that makes trust so fragile. Me thinks the rhino in ...

Posted Thu, Oct 6, 2:15 p.m.

We can't legalize Pot! People would just grow it at home 'cause it's like a weed! No taxes, no revenue. OMG government funding would collapse. What's actually humorous is that farmers in North Carolina want to grow industrial hemp instead of tobacco. Tobacco is extremely hard on the soil and ...

Posted Thu, Oct 6, 11:31 a.m.

Trust is not the reason it took so long to decide to dig a tunnel on the waterfront. The problem is that there are competing visions for the future of Seattle. On one side you have folks like myself who see a future that has fewer cars due to rising ...

Posted Wed, Oct 5, 3:34 p.m.

People forget that the success of a climb is being back at home safe, not the summit. You have to set a "turn around time" that which after which you will no longer take one step up, and you will start back no matter how close you appear to the ...

Posted Tue, Oct 4, 12:44 p.m.

So the solution is more un-elected boards like Sound Transit? Ie taxing authority but no accountability?

Posted Tue, Oct 4, 12:43 p.m.

Ah, but the state seems to have plenty of money to dig a tunnel in Seattle to replace the viaduct. So I guess they are planning on having those poor folks pick up a shovel and get digging?

Posted Tue, Oct 4, 12:03 p.m.

Ah, in the '50's alcohol was freely available. So I'm not sure how modern pharmaceuticals factor into this tale of sex, murder and justice. And AFIK, trial by media rarely results in justice. And this article has no information relating the Knox case at all, other than the photographs are ...

Posted Tue, Oct 4, 11:57 a.m.

To add to Crossrip's arguments, the funds used to clean up Lake Washington and create Metro back in the 70's were also bonds. And the person who designed this financing system, Mr. Ellis, also worked for the law firm that helped setup and sell those bonds. So the Puget Sound ...

Posted Mon, Oct 3, 2:23 p.m.

Oh by the way the neighborhood groups got Children's Hospital to reduce it's employee trips by auto by 50%. So Children's got creative, increased the price of parking, and built bicycle facilities (lockers, showers, bike cages), and subsidizes those who ride a bike at $100/mo. The net result was this ...

Posted Mon, Oct 3, 2:16 p.m.

The reason to not sell coal to China is not to save the planet from more CO2 from coal burning in China, they'll just buy it from someone else, it's to preserve a source of energy for our own country. We are going to need to power our own infrastructure ...

Posted Mon, Oct 3, 11:41 a.m.

I've been across the country on a bicycle and you see it more "slowly" because there is no way to just speed through a town. You have to stop more frequently because like 60 miles is a big day, and that meant you also stopped at 30 miles to each ...

Posted Fri, Sep 30, 4:43 p.m.

So now we can blame the wars in 5 countries, the failed economy, the military trials at Gitmo, the lack of prosecution of the fraud in the banking industry on the followers of the president instead of noting that president appointed these lame associates and hasn't done squat to fix ...

Posted Fri, Sep 30, 1:48 p.m.

As any disease researcher will tell you "there is a whole lot of meat walking around out there." And nature abhors a vacuum, hence something eventually will evolve to use that food source. What an icky thought but highly likely. On the optimistic side, at least since the 1918 outbreak ...

Posted Wed, Sep 28, 1:36 p.m.

I don't think my bride would ever go for wedding at the plant. She'd have to be a civil engineer or something to make it work. Oh Snoqualman, isn't the pumping problem bringing raw sewage up to the plant from the folks who live downhill by the water? I would ...

Posted Wed, Sep 28, 1:34 p.m.

I'm undecided whether I'll ever ride through the x-jungle. It's unlikely that all those characters are going to "just leave" and let the rest of us stroll and ride through unmolested. Meantime, you can always walk through Judkins park down to Dearbourn and to the waterfront. It isn't pretty or ...

Posted Wed, Sep 28, 1:32 p.m.

Unless some new actual jobs are created that make something from other materials that add value, what is the point? Thing is artists do this, but it's not just government support for the arts, it has to be market based as well. When 400 families have all of the wealth, ...

Posted Wed, Sep 28, 9:18 a.m.

"They will never establish a major salmon run in the Elwha river as long as there are nylon nets across the river." That depends on how long you leave the nets in place. If you take fish from only one river you have a strong incentive to not take all ...

Posted Tue, Sep 27, 4:12 p.m.

"what about the people?" You can see the people here: https://occupywallst.org/ And it isn't pretty. But neither were the early days of the Vietnam protests.

Posted Tue, Sep 27, 3:59 p.m.

The key is that the pre-dam removal studies were done. We may not have good post dam removal data, but if we eventually look we will see what happened. We just won't have as good a time line for how fast it happened.

Posted Tue, Sep 27, 1:43 p.m.

That animated billboard that's down on I-5 just North of Tacoma is HUGE distraction and a visual blight on the land. King County members should be ashamed of letting any more of these be built in our county. "I think that I shall never see a billboard lovely as a ...

Posted Tue, Sep 27, 11:01 a.m.

You can watch a trader talk about the crisis in Europe here. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aC19fEqR5bA He's equating it to the crash of '29.

Posted Tue, Sep 27, 10:19 a.m.

One future for small rural towns.. Bicycle Tourism. http://bicyclealliance.blogspot.com/2011/06/us-bike-route-10-work-begins.html If the four dams on the Snake river go, there will be fishing again. And the grain will be loaded onto trains instead of barges. The big losers will be future mining operations. Ore is heavy stuff and barges are an ...

Posted Mon, Sep 26, 11:01 a.m.

One of the disasters for fish was the invention of GPS, as it allows a deep sea trawler to make exact passes along the bottom of the ocean scraping up everything in it's path. Where in the old days, boats would turn and try to get very thing, without visual ...

Posted Fri, Sep 23, 3:05 p.m.

Converting bus routes to street cars, on the same road will lessen the maintenance of the road because the rails can take the load, vs the constant bending of a road by a bus. Same for moving people from buses to Light Rail. In the case of Light Rail to ...

Posted Fri, Sep 23, 10:29 a.m.

McGinn Lite? An environmentalist, yet an investment banker with the Monorail project? Hardly a winning combination. She'll never make it out of the primary. I've got a better idea, run for city council. You have a chance there.

Posted Fri, Sep 23, 10:25 a.m.

Dear Mr. Harris, Yet again you attack the messenger and not the data. As my lawyer friends always say, if you have the facts, argue the facts, if you don't blow smoke. Facts: Current atmospheric CO2 394 parts per million. Got a better data for this rise than the burning ...

Posted Fri, Sep 23, 10:16 a.m.

Oh, and the era is going to be known as the "Second Great Depression" before we are done.

Posted Fri, Sep 23, 10:12 a.m.

I wonder if we will ever see another "Harry Potter" mania moment again. I'm talking about a thousand kids and their parents lined up at a book sale event. The party of the decade once every two years as each book was released. Each release the party got bigger and ...

Posted Thu, Sep 22, 3:11 p.m.

The other problem with Pioneer Square is that game day traffic makes regular retail almost impossible. If you cater to fans, you might live but otherwise you're toast. The late night problem with Pioneer Sq is the alcohol and gangs who come downtown for a fight. I can't tell you ...

Posted Thu, Sep 22, 3:05 p.m.

On this one I agree, sitting next to a busy road inhaling exhaust, oh! I can't wait to bring Grandma and the kids and the dog to the city to show them this! If a business wants to convert a parking space into outdoor seating, or bicycle parking, fine, pay ...

Posted Thu, Sep 22, 2:07 p.m.

Iceland has one more thing going for it, a real democracy that told the EU banks to go suck eggs. That the bond holders who lent them money could sue in court for what they could get and that Icelandic depositors would be the only one's made whole after the ...

Posted Thu, Sep 22, 2:04 p.m.

If I were a member of the Midwest/Montana tribes I'd vote to take that Casino money and buy up Eastern Montana as tribal range land and grow buffalo on it. They used to live there and could again in the future. And people still need to eat and beef requires ...

Posted Thu, Sep 22, 1:59 p.m.

Even if it were sane to sell China coal, in the long run it's stupid for the USA to export it's stored energy. We are going to need it ourselves clean or not. Yes it should remain in the ground but with it there, it's still buried energy held in ...

Posted Thu, Sep 22, 1:55 p.m.

The port commissioners while they may be well intentioned are a poor choice for running such a large operation. First, why in the heck does the port have taxing authority over all of us? Why should the tax payers be subsidizing the port operations? Most commissioners are pawns of the ...

Posted Thu, Sep 22, 1:47 p.m.

I too have wondered who put up the $1.5M ransom money. And I read the other day that they are out of prison. But the whole trip was nuts from start to finish. But no doubt they can write a book about it, sell the movie rights and recoup the ...

Posted Thu, Sep 22, 1:42 p.m.

If the woman in the photo rides more than 5 blocks in those high heels I would be amazed. That it's a 2006 photo before NYC got serious about bike lanes and cycle tracks is even more amazing. As for being representative of the Seattle riders it's not even close. ...

Posted Thu, Sep 22, 12:33 p.m.

Unfortunately for the country Obama is no Roosevelt, but he's no Jimmy Carter either. Carter had a hard time making any decisions, Obama has no such problem. That he makes ones that favor his corporate backers is a function of the destruction of our republic by the big money interests. ...

Posted Thu, Sep 22, 12:14 p.m.

34 more beds is good, but it isn't enough. Every homeless person with a serious problem that we turn loose back on the streets is a giant headache. They often don't show up for followup work, they often sell their pain medication for cash, and as the article points out, ...

Posted Thu, Sep 22, 11:44 a.m.

What? The gist of this article is that because we have a huge backlog of street maintenance problems, and less tax revenue from past taxes than we expected due to the crumby economy, we should vote no on this tax to fund fixing any of those problems?? Convoluted nonsense it ...

Posted Thu, Sep 22, 11:37 a.m.

So when Dick Nelson's job writing about trade with South Korea is exported to South Korea, he didn't lose his job, it was "displaced." Yeah right Dick, this agreement sucks rocks. "Fair Trade" not "Free Trade".

Posted Wed, Sep 14, 8:13 p.m.

Sorry, electric cars are not in your future: http://market-ticker.org/akcs-www?post=186250 The power/battery usage just doesn't work. Martin: Do you have the right to ban bicycles from the road, nope there either. http://apps.leg.wa.gov/RCW/default.aspx?cite=46.61.755 "Every person riding a bicycle upon a roadway shall be granted all of the rights and shall be subject ...

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

BTW: Peak oil has already come. The internal combustion engine burning fossil fuel is on it's way out. I had hopes for algae creating Hydrogen gas from sunlight but that hasn't worked out yet. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PjOFCegjoik

Posted Wed, Sep 14, 4:17 p.m.

"It's simple, roads are for cars. Bicycles are for children" Another misguided driver... lucky you don't live in China where you have to apply for a permit to drive on the roads. They are handed out in a lottery once a month. You can buy a car, but the privilege ...

Posted Tue, Sep 13, 2:24 p.m.

@Urbanist: Re Cycletracks The key with a cycle track is that all intersections which cross the cycle track must be "controlled" either by a light or stop signs. The problem is that a bicyclist in a cycle track is out of sight from drivers in the lanes adjacent, so that ...

Posted Tue, Sep 13, 12:43 p.m.

5 mph over kills... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BpZRxo3EWAc http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BpZRxo3EWAc http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQEboDzE-qE Slow the F' down.

Posted Tue, Sep 13, 12:25 p.m.

When car drivers drive the "SPEED LIMIT" and not 5mph over, stop for all stop signs and not roll through with a "California stop." Move to the right for slower traffic on the freeway. Move over when impeding more than 5 cars on a two lane road. I'll perceive that ...

Posted Tue, Sep 13, 12:18 p.m.

"Having access to paid sick days would really help the economy; it would help employees keep their jobs, reduce employee turnover, and increase productivity.” If this is really true, then why don't all businesses do it? (not trying to be a Geezer, but something isn't adding up here.) And I ...

Posted Tue, Sep 13, 11:14 a.m.

Kids die in cars, are hit by cars all the time, yet we don't write articles about how parents hate their children by driving them to school. We take reasonable precautions like using child seats, and putting them in the back seat, but yet kids still die in cars. Driving ...

Posted Tue, Sep 13, 10:15 a.m.

Drivers hate bicyclists, because bicyclist represent change. The age of fossil fuel is ending. All of the easy to get oil has been discovered leaving only the difficult stuff, tar sands, deep ocean drilling, arctic drilling, fracking old oil wells. With the rise in energy prices coming being able to ...

Posted Mon, Sep 12, 2:37 p.m.

Dear Mr. Banel, As a journalist you owe it to your readers to at least research the hard questions that deal with the Commissions report. Then since this article was about a member of that commission, ask them "what happened here?" If it was purposely ignored, why? In the age ...

Posted Sun, Sep 11, 8:24 a.m.

It wouldn't have taken a large number of people to blow up building 7. However it would have been difficult to do it the day that jets hit buildings 1 & 2. Ego, the explosives were in the building aprior for a "just in case" event. Although no one has ...

Posted Fri, Sep 9, 1:26 p.m.

"Boats armed with mounted machine guns bounced beside our ferries in Puget Sound" Are these stupid or what? Let's imagine that terrorists take over the ferry by driving on a truck load of explosives threatening to blow it up. What are these mini gun boats going to do? Strafe the ...

Posted Fri, Sep 9, 12:41 p.m.

Also the commission never explained how building 7 collapsed into a pile of dust. Watching the videos it sure looks like it was a controlled demolition. (After it caught on fire.) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iEuJimaumW4

Posted Fri, Sep 9, 12:19 p.m.

No wonder that "Whole Paycheck" salmon taste better. They haven't been gill netted.

Posted Fri, Sep 9, 8:56 a.m.

Hi Richard, Yes national politics needs reform, and I have my own theories on how to get the money out of it. But until that happens, the one place we "the people" have left which we can affect change is in the cities. Yes it would be easier if the ...

Posted Thu, Sep 8, 12:05 p.m.

Nice piece, and great looking boats. Is it any less authentic, to buy a full plastic replica boat, if what you don't want to do is a lifetime of sanding and refinishing wood? www.ghboats.com has built a business building fiberglass copies of classic boats. And they are are much fun ...

Posted Thu, Sep 8, 9:46 a.m.

Hi Richard, I totally agree with you. Cities, and Mayors are where the action is. That's in part because you don't have a long distance travel to make yourself heard. And Mayors have to live in the city that they govern so they suffer the consequences of their decisions. Including ...

Posted Wed, Sep 7, 2:55 p.m.

The other big cash business for air freight is war. Both sides need ammo and supplies, post fighting the NGO's need transport of aid supplies. And then there's always the drug smuggling. I can't seem to find the article but it mentioned that when the Soviet Union broke up an ...

Posted Wed, Sep 7, 12:47 p.m.

Here's the link to Iraq and George Bush Jr. http://www.truth-out.org/price-911/1315403131

Posted Wed, Sep 7, 12:03 p.m.

Looks like Idaho hunters shot 29 in 2009. The state limit was 220, so while some hunters got a few, most skedaddled for the high country. http://howlingforjustice.wordpress.com/2009/10/06/phantom-hill-wolf-killed-idaho-count-goes-up-to-29/

Posted Wed, Sep 7, 11:58 a.m.

"They're shooting wolves again in Idaho and Montana, " Well they allow you to shoot wolves with a permit, but wolves being what they are, aren't exactly sitting around waiting to be shot. Once the word got out among the wolves that they were a target, they promptly took to ...

Posted Wed, Sep 7, 11:54 a.m.

Why does the Village Voice defend "Backpage.com?" One word: money. They make a ton off those ads.

Posted Wed, Sep 7, 11:51 a.m.

"My hopes presently ride with Obama and the possibility that he will rise to the occasion Thursday, and from Thursday onward, and govern as if there was no 2012 election — only a country to be led for however long he occupies the White House. If he leads effectively, that ...

Posted Wed, Sep 7, 11:47 a.m.

"We are trying to oust the present Syrian regime but thus far have succeeded only in enraging it and contributing to the deaths of many thousands of Western-encouraged democratic protesters." Another bit of dreaming and assuming guilt where none exists. The USA has had absolutely no effect on the Syrian ...

Posted Wed, Sep 7, 11:41 a.m.

"The George W. Bush administration believed false intelligence that Saddam Hussein had ongoing nuclear, biological, and chemical-weapons programs and possibly intended to share them with fundamentalists." This is a crock. The Bush administration went to war with Iraq over oil. They had the information about the WMD's being destroyed after ...

Posted Tue, Sep 6, 1:58 p.m.

What is also interesting is that Portland whose residents buy less gas because they are bicycling, riding transit, use that extra cash to buy stuff locally, like theater, food, entertainment etc. Somewhere around $1Billion was the number cited due to the 10x multiplier of buying stuff from people who live ...

Posted Fri, Sep 2, 12:47 p.m.

"But it won't be easy, particularly given Seattle's way of building and bungling major projects." Like the tunnel itself? "that they'll automatically be overrun by drunks. We have this perception because "... Pioneer Sq & Victor Steinbrook Park are full of drunks. Two places the city keeps harping on are ...

Posted Fri, Sep 2, 12:43 p.m.

I don't get it, the Viaduct will be gone, there are currently 4 lanes of traffic there, a wide sidewalk and a bike path, and somehow "there isn't room" for the waterfront trolley??? Someone isn't measuring up here, or telling us the truth. A waterfront trolley is not the same ...

Posted Thu, Sep 1, 4:17 p.m.

"Free Trade" agreements are bunk. A better term would be "move your job offshore agreements". Tariffs are designed to even the playing field. If a company dumps all it's waste into the air in a country which allows it, vs being constrained here in the USA, where do you think ...

Posted Thu, Sep 1, 4:13 p.m.

Steve E, that's the myth of the American West. "Small towns" They are drying up due to a number of other factors as well, the number one being the mechanization of farming allows one farmer to do what it used to take 9 to do. And then when the 8 ...

Posted Tue, Aug 30, 10:35 a.m.

As a bus pass user, I don't care whether it's a Ride Free area or not. As for lost fares, you can't count my using the bus downtown at lunch as lost fares. I did pay. Oh on the homeless, the smart ones have a stack of multi-colored paper transfers, ...

Posted Tue, Aug 30, 10:13 a.m.

It would be easier to convert a state to a parliamentary form of government than to try and do it nationally. Jessie the body, Ventura tried to get rid of one of the houses in Minnesota. Which if you think about it in state government the Senate is pretty useless. ...

Posted Mon, Aug 29, 4:22 p.m.

Ok Tom, As a professional liar you need people without google to earn your keep. http://www-das.uwyo.edu/~geerts/cwx/notes/chap01/icecore.html and http://www.daviesand.com/Choices/Precautionary_Planning/New_Data/ You'll note that CO2 has never been higher than it is now. As for being anonymous, my name is Gary P. and the data doesn't lie, your response to my complaint does.

Posted Mon, Aug 29, 4:06 p.m.

At least they are looking at Railroad beds as well as auto roads. The future in long distance travel is not going to be fossil fuel automobiles. Way too energy inefficient. Locally the tribes had to sue the state (and won) to build the necessary culverts that should have been ...

Posted Mon, Aug 29, 4:01 p.m.

Jobs, Jobs, and more jobs. That's the problem. Falling tax revenue will continue until people have a job. No corporation will invest all that cash unless they have customers. Without jobs this is a death spiral. Taxes, there are plenty of easy fixes, no one who writes the laws wants ...

Posted Mon, Aug 29, 3:03 p.m.

Oh, and SLU is not a "downtown" by any means. No decent post office, almost no retail. Only a couple high priced eating places (Tom Douglas prices dominate). It feels more like an expensive add on to a suburban city, especially with Whole Paycheck being the grocery store. It's one ...

Posted Mon, Aug 29, 3 p.m.

The other problem with SLU besides the Aurora trench is the I-5 trench. Getting up to Capital hill is a pain from SLU. You can go through one of the worst intersections at Fairfiew, Denny & Boren, or go over the top on Lakeview. Any sort of pedestrian ADA compliant ...

Posted Thu, Aug 18, 4:22 p.m.

This is not an area I plan to ride in, daylight, streetlights or not. Opening it up as dog free run place will keep the homeless moving but the drug trade isn't likely to move. First it would have to have clear sight lines that means clear cutting all the ...

Posted Thu, Aug 18, 4:15 p.m.

If Europe crashes and it looks bad over there in the EuroZone, Microsoft, Amazon, and Boeing are all going to take one heck of a whack from their sales/profits. Don't think this area is immune to the troubles of the world's economic troubles. We are way interlinked.

Posted Thu, Aug 18, 4:11 p.m.

Oh and Blue Light, what you don't seem to get, is that the increase in snow levels on Mt. Rainier, Mt Bachelor etc. are due to there being more moisture in the air from evaporation from a warmer ocean and air. Thus at altitude it snows more and harder. You ...

Posted Thu, Aug 18, 4:08 p.m.

Thanks Pythagoras. It sure read like a climate change denier piece. Usually the tone gives them away, trying to sound like a wise old person but never actually confronting the fact that CO2 is over 350ppm and in the history of the ice, we've NEVER seen it this high. And ...

Posted Wed, Aug 17, 9:42 a.m.

I like Knute's article better. It points out that even if the tunnel is built there are still a host of other related problems that it will create that need to be worked on. I've got "stupidity" fatigue. And if/when this tunnel is built I doubt I'll ever use it. ...

Posted Wed, Aug 17, 9:35 a.m.

@BlueLight - "what happens if the boring machine bores into a midden?" Why construction will grind to a halt while archeologists hand dig the midden. Of course what would be even worse is to bore into a native American grave site.

Posted Wed, Aug 17, 9:33 a.m.

What happens if Moody downgrades King County and Washington's debt rating? http://www.kingcounty.gov/exec/news/release/2011/July/29Credit.aspx?print=1 "The City of Seattle was among the governments cited by Moody’s for possible review." Why the cost will rise.

Posted Tue, Aug 16, 4:05 p.m.

Without the mandate the Private Insurers will go broke. There's no reason to buy health care insurance until you are really sick. Any minor thing, pay with cash/credit card. Then if you get cancer or whatever, buy the policy. Guaranteed to take all the private insurers down. Of course we ...

Posted Mon, Aug 15, 3:07 p.m.

"because the bike routes are completely separated from motor vehicle traffic. Everyone in Europe agrees that such an arrangement is safer and results in more efficient traffic flow; cars and bicycles get in each others' way because of their vastly different speed capabilities." Mr. Forester would disagree with you on ...

Posted Mon, Aug 15, 3:03 p.m.

Orino, nice web site! http://scootinoldskool.wordpress.com/page/2/ "More moped parking: Bellingham" the photo is of all scooters! opps. eh?

Posted Mon, Aug 15, 2:30 p.m.

"think bike advocates are a bunch of insufferable, sanctimonious hectoring jerks. — bubbleator " Gee thanks for the thoughtful and insightful comment. It shows the bias of the author vs that of the general population. Ok, "Mopeds" came, and went. I've seen a few around town. Condition: rusted, junk. At ...

Posted Mon, Aug 15, 2:11 p.m.

Obama is toast. What will be interesting is that if any candidates start a stealth campaign to challenge him next year in Iowa and then New Hampshire. It will show his lack of support. The question is, given the way campaigns are financed, can anyone short of a multi-millionaire run ...

Posted Mon, Aug 15, 11:28 a.m.

Randy, "40 million acres of marginal farmland were added to production to grow feedstock for biofuel. " Don't blame environmentalists for that fiasco. Blame "Cargil" and "Monsanto" and Arther Daniels Midland". These are the corporations raking inn the profits from growing corn based ethanol. The best that can be said ...

Posted Mon, Aug 15, 10:41 a.m.

Good grief people! CO2 death? That's not what this climate change is about. It's about releasing too much CO2 which warms the planet, which warms the tundra which releases methane, which warms the planet.... Making the area we are currently growing crops unsuitable... Scaring little kids with "planet" death is ...

Posted Fri, Aug 12, 5:25 p.m.

"non-Tour-de-France-conditioned riders in hilly areas like Seattle." I'm a middle aged guy, and I ride the hills nearly every day. You get in shape pretty fast. I do see that not everybody is blessed with genes and good luck to arrive at middle age with a body that can ride ...

Posted Fri, Aug 12, 5:21 p.m.

("can't bring the kids.") Sorry.

Posted Fri, Aug 12, 5:21 p.m.

"What ever happened to mopeds?" The cool rich kids ride them. I see a few on my commute in every day. There are a dozen or so at my work place. "Vespa" the hot version. The thing is you get charged for parking like any motorcycle, but it can't cross ...

Posted Fri, Aug 12, 2:59 p.m.

"I don't ride a bike a) too many hills b) can't carry groceries c) 2 kids to move to activities. Bikes will never work for the vast majority of families." However an electric assist cargo bike would work for short trips. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIea5W4U8Wc http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=llK-Ek7DAYM http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dKF8-RyQn94 Those arguments when you look closely ...

Posted Fri, Aug 12, 9:59 a.m.

The trouble with a "bond" to pay for street maintenance is that you are borrowing money from the future to pay for today's problems. That can easily double the real cost of the repair. It's much better to do pay-as-you go. On the road usage, it's pretty clear that bicycles ...

Posted Fri, Aug 12, 9:29 a.m.

"Real Change" is one of the last real newspapers in town. The vendors are earning money by selling it and none of it is spent on administration, expensive advisers etc. If you talk the people selling it, they are just trying to get back on their feet with a "real" ...

Posted Thu, Aug 11, 2:47 p.m.

OMG, people are upset that someone talks to you on the way to your shopping errand? Get a grip folks. Just say "No thanks, gotta run," smile and keep walking. sheesh. Richard, I've had the same response as well. In fact it's often interesting to stop and talk to them. ...

Posted Thu, Aug 11, 1:26 p.m.

To plan for the next revolution in farming read: "Dirt" which is way better than "Collapse" and in addition Montgomery includes a plan to get out of this mess, Organic and no till farming as being both reducing the need for petroleum based fertilizers, pesticides and sequestering carbon. McGinn is ...

Posted Thu, Aug 11, 1:20 p.m.

Missed the rise of bicycling and the failure of the Monorail to be anything other than the short ride for tourists.

Posted Thu, Aug 11, 9:51 a.m.

Oh yeah, how do I know this? My daughter worked for Grassroots campaign for a month and we threatened to sue. It was for the Democrats fund raising for the 2008 election and being stanch progressives were supportive of the fund raising. Oh, and remember they are often just kids ...

Posted Thu, Aug 11, 9:46 a.m.

These companies also often try to get around Washington State's Minimum wage law by only paying the canvassers a rate based on the amount they collect. When in fact it's illegal to pay them less than minimum no matter if they collect nothing. If you want to have fun talk ...

Posted Tue, Aug 9, 1:55 p.m.

What's totally ridiculous is that Standard and Poor's slapped AAA ratings on all those junk mortgage bonds that caused most of this mess. The USA has a tax fairness & collection issue for sure, but as long as everything is denominated in dollars, we'll pay those debts. We'll just print ...

Posted Tue, Aug 9, 11:29 a.m.

Actually what I resent is being ripped off. And I expect government to deliver retribution to those who rip me off. ie. Banks and their failure to transfer mortgages properly instead creating the MERS system for them to sell worthless bonds. I expect government to step in and say "stop ...

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

I agree with Frederica. It should become a residential building. I could easily see it reverting to an old folks home. There is a pretty easy access park to the North East. It's not too far from Pill Hill. It's not flat however and very old people have trouble with ...

Posted Mon, Aug 8, 2:08 p.m.

The issue is "Eminent domain." As long as a transit agency can just condemn land, and build a shopping center or whatever it's hardly fair to the original land owner to have their property taken at the value of whatever it was before the rail station was installed and then ...

Posted Mon, Aug 8, 11:44 a.m.

"lies with our huge overhang of public and private debt" Not according to Robert Reich either. http://robertreich.org/post/8644148810 As for Obama in 2012, as a strong progressive, I'll be working to unseat him in the primaries. He's a failed president and unless the economy crashes in late 2011 early 2012, and ...

Posted Mon, Aug 8, 11:35 a.m.

'All the bikers and walkers had better begin preparing now for a more dangerous future as all the traffic that uses the viaduct now will be looking for a new and reasonable way to get from point A to point B. " As a bicyclist, the more the traffic is ...

Posted Mon, Aug 8, 11:24 a.m.

At least on I-90, even poor-er people can walk out onto the water. The greatest crime of the original 520 was the lack of a bicycle/pedestrian path.

Posted Mon, Aug 8, 11:22 a.m.

Ron is beholden to the base Republicans. He can't condone "Gay Marriage" and thus even if he'd want to, he can't sign such a bill. "Marriage" should be a function of religion. Co-filing of taxes, co-responsibility for raising children, co-sharing of finances/inheritance is a function of the state and yet ...

Posted Mon, Aug 8, 11:14 a.m.

The failure of good architecture of the Vulcan office campus is that what was driving "The Commons", an attachment to "SOUTH LAKE UNION!" ie the Lake! It's entirely cutoff from everything by Mercer and Valley. Two hideous roadways that are a constant traffic jam, an eye sore, pedestrian un friendly, ...

Posted Sun, Aug 7, 10 a.m.

Architecture matters because bad design influences how people interact. Large blank walls that face the street are horrible for good urban interactions. They invite unauthorized street art and intimidate pedestrians. That's not to say that artistic touches up on the top edges of buildings matter, they might not but no ...

Posted Fri, Aug 5, 11:06 a.m.

After disparaging bicycle riders I'd like to point out that I rode in today with a heap of young riders all on their way to those great paying knowledge worker jobs. All not impeding the N/S traffic through the city. If $2B was invested in making bicycling safer, it would ...

Posted Fri, Aug 5, 11:02 a.m.

Fitting that the building that was once was a cubical hell should now become a cell. As an office building it's location was terrible.

Posted Thu, Aug 4, 2:04 p.m.

Mr. Redden is doing the job he was appointed to, making sure that the government via NOAA has actual data on fish survival rates. Whether or not the West river basins warm or not, doesn't matter. Currently the salmon die in huge numbers going through the dams on the way ...

Posted Thu, Aug 4, 1:55 p.m.

I totally agree with that trolley. The tracks are a menace to bicyclists. It doesn't have light priority. It runs so slow that you can beat it by walking during commute hours and if you have to wait for one to arrive on the 15 minute schedule, you can easily ...

Posted Thu, Aug 4, 11:07 a.m.

The greatest fear that the dam supporters have is that the breaching of the Elwah dams turns out to be successful and that salmon return in large numbers to that river basin. That's in part why it took so long to get permission to remove those dams. But Dam removal ...

Posted Thu, Aug 4, 10:44 a.m.

On Mr. Bezos not giving back to the community: I'd venture to say that he hasn't realized his own mortality yet. Paul Allen after a bout with cancer decided to at least have a little fun with his money. He's given Portland the Trail Blazers, Seattle the Seahawks, the stadium ...

Posted Wed, Aug 3, 11:56 a.m.

"he'd ponder a move to Vancouver. He says any other Viaduct alternative solution will "get the crap beat out of it." There's never going to be consensus on a solution. When there's no consensus, the tough, like Ceis, get going" When there is no consensus, the viaduct will fall down/crack/shift/fail ...

Posted Wed, Aug 3, 9:51 a.m.

Hi Pete, Sorry for the confusion, but your article mixes species up with your claims. Sockeye, Coho, and Chinook hatcheries seem to work quite well at increasing the fishing stocks. I'll buy that steelhead are different and perhaps should be left alone, and Pinks seem to be doing quite well ...

Posted Wed, Aug 3, 9:36 a.m.

Hey Orino! I looked at Vespa's et.al. and because they can't easily keep up with freeway traffic and I'm currently living on one side of Lake Washington and working on the other it won't work for me. But when they buzz by me as I ride over capital hill I ...

Posted Tue, Aug 2, 4:23 p.m.

For once I happen to agree with BlueLight. There is no way that a VA levy should be a local taxpayer problem. Congress got us into these wars, didn't fund the war or the VA and now we are being asked to pay the price? Give me a break. What ...

Posted Tue, Aug 2, 4:09 p.m.

"These fish are so far removed from their original, wild ancestry that when spawning in the wild they produce close to zero offspring (and, in fact, the original wild Chambers Creek steelhead population is now extinct). On top of this, a five-year fishing moratorium will be in place during the ...

Posted Tue, Aug 2, 4:06 p.m.

Anyone who would like to know more can read about it here: "King of Fish: The Thousand-Year Run of Salmon" by David Montgomery a local MacArthur Grant winner and professor at the UW.

Posted Tue, Aug 2, 4:05 p.m.

These guys are seriously confused about where those "Hatchery" fish come from. They are harvested from the wild stocks that return the river. The only difference is that the juvenal mortality rate is lower because the hatchery hangs onto the fish until they are a bit larger than they would ...

Posted Tue, Aug 2, 4:02 p.m.

"severely underbuilt land " Otherwise known as fill dirt. And if the earthquake that is predicted to take out the viaduct forces us to take it down then none of these building should be built either. But somehow I don't think that was in Glenn's thinking.

Posted Tue, Aug 2, 3:59 p.m.

Heck, my bicycle takes no time at all to fill up, other than I spend all day eating because I ride so much. And bicycles are available to the poor as well as upper middle class smug people of color as well as those with a deficiency of melanin. However ...

Posted Tue, Aug 2, 11:49 a.m.

Everyone in Physics "knows" that Newton didn't get it right for really tiny particles but mostly it works well enough. And it doesn't hold for really really big things without viewing space as being "bent". But hey, he did his work in the 1680's. One has to be impressed with ...

Posted Tue, Aug 2, 11:40 a.m.

The worst offender in the whole health care mess is the insurance companies which add great expense but no value.

Posted Tue, Aug 2, 10:51 a.m.

Interesting history that leaves out the bit that the parks are unfunded by the state. And the city hasn't shown that it has the money to build them leaving us with the possibility that the development rights will be sold of as soon as they can be in the name ...

Posted Thu, Jul 28, 9:27 a.m.

Ok, but WHY is "purified" water bad? Let's have some science here. Is it the addition of chlorine? fluoride? Lack of dissolved gasses? Too many minerals? Bottled water is bad because it's stupid to pay for a truck to carry plastic bottles of water around, to store it in an ...

Posted Mon, Jul 25, 2:54 p.m.

If the vote this summer is the 2/3rds of the people who want something other than the tunnel, that may delay the project enough so that it becomes obvious to everyone that the state can't fund it. (which they can't.)

Posted Fri, Jul 22, 11:23 a.m.

Excellent piece on the Tunnel over at "The Stranger" http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/its-official-downtown-traffic-after-the-multibillion-dollar-tunnel-would-be-nearly-identical-to-shutting-down-the-viaduct-and-doing-nothing/Content?oid=9125286 "It's Official: Downtown Traffic After the Multibillion-Dollar Tunnel Would Be Nearly Identical to Shutting Down the Viaduct and Doing Nothing"

Posted Fri, Jul 22, 11:20 a.m.

Sorry Ted, but I stand by my comment about the pre-prison Mr. Milkan, as I understand it he issued Junk bonds which enabled people who had no cash to buy things that had to appreciate in value, or have their pension funds raided to fund the business and pay back ...

Posted Thu, Jul 21, 11:58 a.m.

I was wondering what was up with those houses. I ride by them on my way to work often. I'll have to stop in on my way home.

Posted Wed, Jul 20, 3:04 p.m.

"What I’d like to address here is how it's clear I-1125 violates the “single-subject” rule of the constitution." Yeah I saw that reference in a Seattle Times article and wondered what the heck is Kemper Freeman and his lawyers thinking? They aren't the one's selling the bonds on this project. ...

Posted Wed, Jul 20, 2:56 p.m.

a couple more years of litigation and the only thing the state will be able to afford is to just demolish the viaduct. Add an anti-tolling referendum and the money really goes away even faster.

Posted Wed, Jul 20, 2:53 p.m.

Oh and it looks like the acorn didn't fall all that far from the tree: http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/jul/20/james-murdoch-gordon-taylor-payoff Looks like they were willing to pay any price to keep other victims from knowing about the hacking. Wonder what the FBI will dig up on the families of the 9-11 victims, whether they ...

Posted Wed, Jul 20, 10:33 a.m.

Oh in case anyone thinks my anger is misplaced, you can easily find a list of the things gone bad at News Corp without even turning on Fox News to watch political slander at it's worst. http://www.salon.com/news/rupert_murdoch/index.html?story=/news/feature/2011/07/20/eu_britain_phone_hacking_15 http://www.alternet.org/media/151694/the_12_nastiest_villains_in_the_murdoch_phone-hacking_scandal/?page=entire http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2011/jul/20/bskyb-david-cameron-news-international If we are truly lucky this fiasco will bring down the ...

Posted Wed, Jul 20, 10:23 a.m.

Nice piece Mr. Russell. It's always interesting to know how the state agribusiness is doing. I'm pleased that these vintners are going organic, I do hope they are including that information on their labels. If you can do a followup article on what that means specifically, I'd be interested to ...

Posted Wed, Jul 20, 10:17 a.m.

I think of Mr. Murdoch as a human being with no moral compass. Sorry. I guess guys who cheat people out of billions, Milken deserve to still have friends, and it makes total sense that another guy with no moral compass would stay his friend. Fox News has the same ...

Posted Wed, Jul 20, 9:50 a.m.

I-1125 will harm SR520 in that it will make the tolls on that road last much longer. I for one will avoid paying the toll when I have a choice, and when will that be? Off hours driving. It's 6 of one half dozen of the other to drive to ...

Posted Tue, Jul 19, 9:40 p.m.

Been driving on the RL Thompson freeway lately? Me neither, no one has because it's never been built. Life didn't end then either. Also remember that it was a long time before I-5 joined to I-90. Life didn't stop then either. And all that time we saved by not getting ...

Posted Tue, Jul 19, 2:50 p.m.

should we also ignore the 2000's and the great recession? Seems to be caused by baby boomers gone wild in the financial markets! Oh yeah, we can blame them for Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Bahrain, et.al. But seriously baby boomers in marketing made old people's opinions meaningless in an attempt to ...

Posted Tue, Jul 19, 10:46 a.m.

Mr. Brewster, No actual evidence suggests any ties between you and the current management of the Weekly. So please do not take the above yellow journalism smear as anything but the cr*p it is.

Posted Tue, Jul 19, 10:45 a.m.

let's see, can we smear Crosscut.com? David Brewster, a crosscut founder and editor used to edit the "Weekly". The weekly has been accused of running child prostitution ads. ipso facto, is Mr. Brewseter an internet pimp? We accuse, you decide.

Posted Mon, Jul 18, 10:34 a.m.

ah Knute, You need to spend some more time with finance.google.com Microsoft alone employes 89,000 people with a market cap of $222 Billion. Boeing is only at $51 Billion, and that's both commercial and military work. Military aerospace is the salt on the meat in the Puget Sound Region. Thank ...

Posted Fri, Jul 15, 3:24 p.m.

"More signs in other languages? How about the people learn basic english? " We have a lot of tourists who come from Japan to watch Ichio play ball. That's $$$ in the pocket, and spending a few $ to have some signs so they know how to get around would ...

Posted Fri, Jul 15, 9:50 a.m.

Looking at a map, it seems totally reasonable to add a station at Graham street. It will add another minute or so to the total time to get to the Airport, but if that one minute is the difference between making your flight and missing it you haven't spent 20 ...

Posted Thu, Jul 14, 12:51 p.m.

unfortunately not everyone is recycling: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lt-MivNezes

Posted Thu, Jul 14, 12:13 p.m.

"free bags for low-income shoppers" How will the store clerks determine who's a 'low-income shopper'? Probably the same way I determine who is a low income shopper, by the way they dress and the fact they asked for a handout of something worth a $0.05. Real street people I know ...

Posted Thu, Jul 14, 12:10 p.m.

Who is not paying taxes who should? "What do you think the following profitable corporations paid in actual total federal income taxes in that period: American Electric Power, Boeing, Dupont, Exxon Mobil, FedEx, General Electric, Honeywell, International, IBM, United Technologies, Verizon Communications, Wells Fargo, and Yahoo? Nothing! CTJ reports that ...

Posted Wed, Jul 13, 9:44 p.m.

Want to cut $2 Trillion from the budget in 10 years? Just stop the three wars, that'd do it. Bring the boys home now! Give peace a chance.

Posted Wed, Jul 13, 9:40 p.m.

Hmmm -- thetruth sounds a lot like a port consultant. But whatever. Looking up the state audits on the port, one finds some interesting reading. Look at http://www.sao.wa.gov starting in 2005, search for "Port of Seattle" miss use of credit cards, paying for work before it was done..miss management of ...

Posted Wed, Jul 13, 9:08 p.m.

The wizard of Oz series was for the generation of the '30's the same phenomenon. If you haven't read the books, the original 8, it's worth it. Or wait until you have some young children to read to. Of course as a parent of the fans it was a great ...

Posted Wed, Jul 13, 1:35 p.m.

"this volume makes Seattle or Tacoma a first port of call for shipping lines," That's also in part because Seattle and Tacoma a day's sailing closer to the Asian ports where the ships start out. Prince Rupert is even closer, so a fuel costs rise, I would expect more Midwest ...

Posted Wed, Jul 13, 1:30 p.m.

Those trucking jobs don't look all that good. If this article by the PI is to believed, the current truckers are stuck doing it because they have to pay off the loans on the trucks. http://seattlepostglobe.org/2011/02/21/how-port-of-seattle-shifts-some-burden-of-cleaning-the-air-on-truckers-making-28k-a-year

Posted Wed, Jul 13, 1:24 p.m.

"those on the left complain about abuses of government power, what they really detest is a Republican at the controls of the monster" Sorry, when I complain about the abuses of government power, I mean that it's a problem when the government abuses it's power. I don't care who is ...

Posted Wed, Jul 13, 9:29 a.m.

"All this raises a question for honest progressives everywhere: If Gitmo, JSOC, unilateral military action, and the Patriot Act amounted to a “constitutional crisis” three years ago, what do they constitute today? " Total betrayal of my vote: Hence I will be actively working during the primary to get a ...

Posted Wed, Jul 13, 9:03 a.m.

"These are for containers being shipped to inland markets in the midwest." This is the biggest problem for Seattle. Prince Rupert's new cargo container port is a direct challenge for us. Having removed the tracks over Snoqualamie pass leaves us with a bottleneck of a system if anything happens on ...

Posted Wed, Jul 13, 9 a.m.

"waterfront because a lot of containers are landed in Seattle then transferred by truck to large distribution centers nearby in the Kent valley or down around Tacoma" This is in fact an ideal place to use rail. Those are fixed destinations and short haul freight lines used to deliver this ...

Posted Tue, Jul 12, 4:55 p.m.

I volunteered at my kids 1st grade class once a week for a morning and one thing I noticed was that good architecture can make volunteering better & easier. The school had class rooms laid out in "quads", ie at one corner all 4 class rooms were open to a ...

Posted Tue, Jul 12, 3:05 p.m.

A key problem is the lack of sufficient pressure from parents and citizens to demand better schools" ha! The parents have made their pressure known and decamped to the suburbs. Cliff Mass spent a heap of time/money to try and derail the worthless discovery math program and to no avail. ...

Posted Tue, Jul 12, 2:55 p.m.

Ok, the question needs to be asked, why are there ANY trucks moving cargo on waterfront at all? Why isn't there a rail spur right out onto the dock so that the crane could pick the container off the ship and drop it on the rail car?? If the port ...

Posted Mon, Jul 11, 2:20 p.m.

Don't forget Jeff Bezos and his Blue Origin space company. They are still cooking along under Jeff's money and government contracts. "We will have failed as a species." If we destroy the environment of the planet we live on. Never mind that we can't get off it to destroy other ...

Posted Mon, Jul 11, 9:57 a.m.

Ok, so who here has complained to the good Senator? If you have time to write a comment here, you have time to let Senator Cantwell know as well. http://cantwell.senate.gov/contact/

Posted Mon, Jul 11, 9:45 a.m.

BTW, the NYTimes did an editorial on the case. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/10/opinion/sunday/10bruni.html?partner=rssnyt&emc;=rss It's much more balanced than the piece by Mr. Van Dyk. Yet makes the same conclusion, justice wasn't served.

Posted Fri, Jul 8, 3:47 p.m.

Here's a link to an article by a journalist who was actually much closer to the actual evidence than our favorite punching bag, Mr. Van Dyk. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-lohr/caylee-anthony-case-i-was_b_892787.html#s300027&title;=Caylee_Marie_Anthony "As Casey came around the corner [of the pool] she saw George Anthony holding Caylee in his arms," the defense attorney told the ...

Posted Fri, Jul 8, 3:33 p.m.

A tariff can protect a home grown industry. Since I know of only one or two USA shoe manufacturers left, I'd assume that instead of lowering the tariff it should be raised. Last I looked the economy lost jobs both in the government and the private sector. We should be ...

Posted Thu, Jul 7, 11:29 a.m.

If Boeing management handles the 737 -> 797 transition as badly as it did with the 787, there won't be a Boeing anywhere. We'll be lucky if Mitsubishi http://www.mrj-japan.com/ doesn't decide to get into the very lucrative small commercial jet business. Never mind this whole discussion of tax breaks in ...

Posted Thu, Jul 7, 10:07 a.m.

"Unions function by nurturing a hostile relationship between labor and management/ownership" Actually you have this backwards, unions exist because of the hostile relationship between management and workers. At companies where management treat workers as part of the team no unions exist. As far as computers teaching students to replace in ...

Posted Thu, Jul 7, 9:55 a.m.

Dear Mr. Van Dyk, The other side of the coin is summed up here: http://www.nola.com/crime/index.ssf/2011/03/us_supreme_court_rejects_14_mi.html When it appears that the prosecution can and does withhold evidence, make up evidence (See LA cops planting guns & drugs on youth) it becomes almost impossible for people this far away from the crime ...

Posted Thu, Jul 7, 9:24 a.m.

"The tunnel will give back Seattle its waterfront and make it a place with fewer cars and less noise and exhaust." Except that the tunnel will leave 40,000 more cars on the surface than the current viaduct does. Who are these self appointed environmentalists anyways? They clearly don't represent the ...

Posted Wed, Jul 6, 4:03 p.m.

I share your grief at the loss of the fourth estate. Just kidding you about the tribal arts!

Posted Wed, Jul 6, 12:39 p.m.

Oh yeah, Cities that promote bicycling apparently are richer as well.. http://www.theatlantic.com/life/archive/2011/06/americas-top-cities-for-bike-commuting-happier-too/240265/#slide10

Posted Wed, Jul 6, 12:31 p.m.

Oh and Seattle isn't the only place which built a highway which it now regrets. http://www.streetsblog.org/category/issues-campaigns/highway-removal/ The times they are a-changing.

Posted Wed, Jul 6, 12:23 p.m.

"WTF is a Seattle Arts Consultant? What do they do? Who pays them?" BlueLight, use the "google" and all will be known. http://www.mahlerfinearts.com/ Apparently architects and folks who want to live in a beautiful environment but are lacking in artistic "taste" can hire a consultant to help them decorate their ...

Posted Wed, Jul 6, 9:43 a.m.

While Attorney General Rob McKenna filed suit to dismantle the Affordable Health Care Act. We now know where he stands on this issue, with the Insurance Companies.

Posted Wed, Jul 6, 9:16 a.m.

"The question is whether or not there is an efficient bypass available for commuters to pass through the area" Yes, that is the fundamental question. A mile and a 1/2 of slow streets while passing through a city of a million people. Oh dear! You can't drive 60mph through it? ...

Posted Wed, Jul 6, 9:10 a.m.

Seattle is located in a "temperate Rain forest". The forest part, our great grandparents, and grandparents cut down, but the rain part remains. Moving here from a land where it's both cloudy and snow sticks around 4 months of the year, I find it wonderful. My kids having grown up ...

Posted Tue, Jul 5, 8:55 p.m.

Here's a link to the James Corner vision for the waterfront. http://thesunbreak.com/2011/02/18/james-corner-on-restitching-seattles-waterfront-into-a-whole-photos/ I can get behind that basic set of ideas. And the transformation of travel has begun, the younger workers at my office by and large either live close enough to walk, or bicycle or ride the bus to ...

Posted Tue, Jul 5, 3:22 p.m.

People choose the viaduct because it's what they know. The drawings for a replacement with the higher barrier walls, the wider footprint for the break down lane is what they'll get. They can't imagine that future because it hasn't been shown to them. Same for a high fuel cost future. ...

Posted Tue, Jul 5, 2:03 p.m.

I would have no problem with a unicameral state legislature, at the Federal level not so much. If I were to modify the constitution, I'd finish adding the Equal Rights Amendment. (perhaps modifying the working to include Gays & Lesbians.) Add an amendment specifying that corporations are NOT citizens. Add ...

Posted Tue, Jul 5, 10:07 a.m.

Hmmm... 10 lanes of traffic? Mayor Ron Sims? That guy is more hated than McGinn... Gov. Rob McKenna.... not after his piece in the Seattle times opposing gay marriage, he's toast. Just because Mr. Brewster favors a tunnel does not make it the right thing for the future of the ...

Posted Mon, Jul 4, 3:42 p.m.

Pres Obama has disappointed progressives across the country. So in the primary you can count on me voting against him. Come Nov, and if he's the candidate running against a Tea Party Rep. and well, I'll as usual hold my nose and vote democratic. However he has a long way ...

Posted Fri, Jul 1, 10:14 a.m.

This tunnel used to be open to Mt Bikes as well, has that changed?

Posted Thu, Jun 30, 4:10 p.m.

"war on cars" what a load... They are reducing the incoming freeway from 12 lanes to 8! That's still a major road.

Posted Thu, Jun 30, 3:58 p.m.

"His major drawback is the “R” next to his name " That would also be the "R" for "Rob" as in the "Rob McKenna" who spoke out against Gay Marriage to the Seattle Times. http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/dannywestneat/2015320752_danny15.html Another deal killer for the Liberal part of the state. Guy's toast.

Posted Thu, Jun 30, 3:19 p.m.

One might also remember that the "Maine" blew up in Havana Harbor from coal dust. It's not a totally mundane material. I'm sure that "adequate", meaning "no precautions" will be taken by the shipper to avoid this catastrophe. I'm with Wilbur on this one, no point in sending our one ...

Posted Thu, Jun 30, 2:57 p.m.

"The metropolitan area is the basis of success in the global marketplace" Yet one place where it should work, the Port's of Tacoma, Seattle, Everett, Bremerton, and Bellingham should work together to bid for shipping etc. Each has something unique to offer, yet they function as independent entities that bid ...

Posted Thu, Jun 30, 2:20 p.m.

Hey, I happen to know that the bike lanes were used by 10,000+ bicyclists during "Bicycle To Work Month." That represents a pretty large group of users, for which the city spends 3% of it's streets budget on. And happens to be about 3% of the total commuters. It's another ...

Posted Fri, Jun 24, 11:46 a.m.

Here's another view on what to do with the national debt. http://market-ticker.org/akcs-www?post=188789 He talks about Iceland and Ireland but it could just as easily apply to the USA. A crisis of debt will force this discussion, along with the claims to go back to the gold standard.

Posted Fri, Jun 24, 10:49 a.m.

Oh, and it looks like QE-3 is the Fed's plan. "Once the Fed sets an "explicit inflation target", then (if the CPI is below the target and rates are already at zero, as they are today) the Fed can buy as many bonds as they please until their goal is ...

Posted Fri, Jun 24, 10:39 a.m.

Of course going to a single payer health care system would lower the costs by 1/2 if Canada's and the UK's costs are similar. But GOP tea partiers won't have it, now that it's been branded creeping socialism by the conservative blog-o-sphere. Still it's going to have to get worse ...

Posted Thu, Jun 23, 11:57 a.m.

If I were in charge of tribal government's funds, I'd be buying back the land around the Res. If I were a tribe from Montana, I'd go for acquiring Eastern Montana. But then that's probably not profitable land, and it's probably not at it's bottom dollar yet.

Posted Thu, Jun 23, 11:54 a.m.

"I don't want my State government "partnering" with sovereign nations that aren't subject to the same laws as I." So are you against the Federal Government signing free trade agreements with sovereign nations? ie. NAFTA? What about your State government "partnering" with sovereign states, that have different laws? Last I ...

Posted Wed, Jun 22, 2:07 p.m.

Dinner at Ray's for $25? Are you kidding me? http://www.rays.com/boathouse/entrees Check out those Entries: Grilled Alaska Salmon $34. Assuming they paid the same price that I would at QFC, $18/lb, and that they gave you 1/2lb of uncooked fish, $9, plus $2 worth of vegetables, They have $11 in ingredients, ...

Posted Wed, Jun 22, 1:57 p.m.

What is totally amazing to me is how a democracy elected a dictator. It didn't take much for the institutions that should have prevented this from being overwhelmed by the craziness of the Nazi's. Failure of the courts to prosecute the abuses of power, failure of the citizens to riot ...

Posted Wed, Jun 22, 1:54 p.m.

Just talked to my relatives in CA, they were experiencing blackouts as the local transformer was failing due to the high load from air conditioners. PG&E; is totally unprepared for the additional load of electric cars.

Posted Wed, Jun 22, noon

Dear Ms. Lightfoot, Thank you for sharing your story with your father. Glad that you found him even if he couldn't stay attached to you. Some people are like that, wanderers with no way to settle down. And it explains your interest in the mental health treatments and homeless.

Posted Tue, Jun 21, 11:43 a.m.

"We're FORCED to buy this dirtier oil sands petroleum because environmentalists won't let us drill for our own cleaner process oil." Not exactly. We do have oil and unfortunately it's only about a year's worth at current burn rate. And since oil is a commodity, adding the miniscule amount of ...

Posted Tue, Jun 21, 11:35 a.m.

I'm sorry, but money is the fundamental limiting factor in the growth of the local economy. Yes quality of life is very important, and if we could somehow measure how much better life was, that would be great. But if we send all our money outside the state and none ...

Posted Tue, Jun 21, 11:30 a.m.

Dear Ms Lightfoot, Do you have an update on this story, or are things pretty much still muddling along?

Posted Mon, Jun 20, 5:31 p.m.

Mr. Hays, Maybe I wasn't writing clearly. Crossrip is contending that one of the problems with the current mass transit system is that all of the tax money collected is flowing away from the region. You and I have correctly pointed out that auto transit has the same problem. What ...

Posted Mon, Jun 20, 2:01 p.m.

Mhays, Name one shoe manufacturer in town? I can think of only one clothing manufacturer left, Filsons. There is at least two bicycle builders, and maybe 5, but most bicycles are made outside this region as well. (In addition all the tires, chains, brakes, brakepads, bicycle clothing, is manufactured elsewhere. ...

Posted Mon, Jun 20, 1:56 p.m.

Clearly this writer has never worked in the fast food industry. Yes one can trade shifts, but without some income to cover the occasional illness, it's dang hard to eat. And trading shifts implies that workers are already working less than 40hrs/week. Otherwise you are trading time when? And like ...

Posted Mon, Jun 20, 11:25 a.m.

One more thing, Sound Transit's contractors do employ local workers, so that money does stay in the local economy. One might as well rail against auto purchases as well since there are almost no auto parts/subcontractors/manufacturing facilities in Washington State. It is important to keep money flowing in the "local" ...

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

Oh Crossrip, Amazon collects sales taxes on sales within Washington. So that does help the Puget Sound economy since they have over 7,000 local employees, many of whom shop on line.

Posted Mon, Jun 20, 11:09 a.m.

"where Greece defaults on its bonds, causing problems in other countries such as Portugal or Ireland. That put pressure on European banks and then U.S. banks. Didn't you mean "When Greece defaults on it's bonds"? http://www.counterpunch.org/hudson06062011.html Greece cannot pay it way out of it's debt problem. It's only a matter ...

Posted Fri, Jun 17, 1:32 p.m.

If you want a good read about the Paris Worlds Fair: "Eiffel's Tower: And the World's Fair Where Buffalo Bill Beguiled Paris, the Artists Quarreled, and Thomas Edison Became a Count" by Jill Jones is an excellent read. What of course is interesting is all the vested interests lining up ...

Posted Fri, Jun 17, 11:48 a.m.

While I am glad you have a good relationship with your daughter, this piece reads like paid PR for the BlueFin Restaurant. Not that I have anything against restaurant reviews but really? Also I as a previous single parent with daughters I suggest that the two of you spend time ...

Posted Thu, Jun 16, 11:58 a.m.

"you can count all the votes you need from the top of the space needle." Anyone running for governor of WA has to heed that observation. Which is why McKenna is doooooooomed. He used to be seen as a moderate Republican, but with first his lawsuit against ObamaCare, and then ...

Posted Thu, Jun 16, 11:44 a.m.

More mindless bureaucrats enforcing more Federal Regulations is one way to add jobs, a Civilian Conservation Corp. and a WPA, would be much better. Japan had a lost decade in part because they refused to acknowledge that some debt was never going to be fully repaid, and to try and ...

Posted Thu, Jun 16, 9:44 a.m.

What is interesting is that Mr. Sonntag is a fiscal conservative, the very voters that Mr. McKenna needs to win. Mr. McKenna is currently busy collecting the base social conservative vote by his comments about being against Gay marriage, and his suit against ObamaCare. But you can't win WA with ...

Posted Thu, Jun 16, 9:22 a.m.

"Tax Increment Financing" Is a plan where bond salesmen allow you to build something based on the supposed increase in value of the land around it. Goldman Sachs.. Lousiville KY stadium... and guess what, the economy sucks, the land didn't increase in value that was expected and now the taxpayers ...

Posted Tue, Jun 14, 2:50 p.m.

hmmm Mayor Sims, maybe but to run against McGinn without McGinn retiring would require a bit of a hat trick. We know that he's tried to run for Governor and the Eastside of the state totally was against it. But Mr. Neumann may be right and Ron is unlikely to ...

Posted Tue, Jun 14, 2:47 p.m.

I recommended the Westlake station for the pick up because it's at the end of the line. So the instructions are simple, get on, ride to the end, get off. The stadium station is very visible, no platforms to climb etc, should be easy to drop off curb side, going ...

Posted Tue, Jun 14, 2:41 p.m.

Hmm, very interesting. Readers should know that the Olympic Mts exist because they are scrapings of the Pacific plate as it passed under the San Juan Plate. And that the tallest is Mt. Olympus at over 7K feet.

Posted Tue, Jun 14, 10:23 a.m.

"Cities that do not have them have single family DETATCHED homes for less that $200,000 - such as Albuquerque, NM and Fort Collins, CO" Those cities also have far fewer jobs. Trust me, if I could find decent employment in a small city with good boating access, more sunshine and ...

Posted Tue, Jun 14, 10:19 a.m.

As a parent, I left Seattle to raise kids, not because they needed a yard, I happen to hate weeding, mowing etc, and I would rather my kids got to play on quality play equipment like one finds in any park, but rather because the schools sucked then, and still ...

Posted Tue, Jun 14, 9:03 a.m.

afreeman: Arriving guests, pick them up at Westlake. You can park in the Pacific Garage fairly cheaply for the 1/2 it will take you to park, walk down to the LINK level and back up with guests. This assumes of course that you have guests that are mobile, ie not ...

Posted Mon, Jun 13, 2:20 p.m.

"championed the rail-with-trail concept for the Eastside line" This bit of single track with a large number of un-gated crossings is not suitable for rapid transit on the Eastside. The track is rated at 25ph, which many days is faster than the auto traffic but those crossings are a huge ...

Posted Mon, Jun 13, 9:40 a.m.

McGinns' re-election or not also depends heavily on who runs against him. Tim Burgess seems to be gathering his forces, and yet he's not conservative enough for those tunnel boosters. So the anti McGinn vote may get a three way split with Burgess not making it to the final election. ...

Posted Mon, Jun 6, 4:10 p.m.

Oh, and lets keep looking for the source of mercury... couldn't be in the coal that we burn and let loose into the air, probably not in the gold mining processes... Nope nothing to see here folks, it's probably those nasty Douglas Fir and Hemlock Trees. You know those killer ...

Posted Mon, Jun 6, 4:04 p.m.

Got news for you, those flame retardants are in humans too. http://www.cbc.ca/news/health/story/2003/09/17/pollutants030917.html sucks to be on the top of the food chain.

Posted Mon, Jun 6, 10:52 a.m.

"Seattle remains an embarrassing laggard." Spoken like a true tunnel supporter. Making a waterfront into a high end theme park is fine if what you want is high end restaurants etc. But boating access for kayaks, rowboat rentals, a couple of fishing piers, a beach for walking is what makes ...

Posted Fri, Jun 3, 4:37 p.m.

Note that San Fransisco is increasing it's bicycling network: http://www.streetfilms.org/reconnecting-the-city-stephanies-story/ http://www.streetfilms.org/marin-countys-cal-park-tunnel-finally-opens-to-much-fanfare/ http://www.streetfilms.org/san-francisco-celebrates-bike-to-work-day-2010/ http://www.streetfilms.org/bay-area-street-portraits-sal/ http://www.streetfilms.org/bay-area-street-portraits-terri/ http://www.streetfilms.org/making-a-better-market-street-in-san-francisco/ and encouraging walking: http://www.streetfilms.org/san-francisco-walk-to-school/ changing priorities: http://www.streetfilms.org/san-francisco-carves-a-park-from-the-midst-of-its-pavement/ http://www.streetfilms.org/piazza-saint-francis-a-proposed-urban-park-in-san-francisco/ and tearing down their waterfront roadway: http://www.streetfilms.org/lessons-from-san-francisco/ Seattle... not so much.

Posted Wed, Jun 1, 3:27 p.m.

Street food is a low cost entry for workers. Given no curfews, it's an easy way to provide food to various parts of the city as it comes to life, ie Alki mid day, Belltown at night. Easy to set up on the periphery of street fairs. And easily removable ...

Posted Wed, Jun 1, 3:18 p.m.

"buy seasonal" That is one of the hardest things to do. Fresh Strawberries are in from California and Mexico, as the spring warms and goes North, one can eat Fresh Strawberries up until mid August. If you were to buy only locally grown ones you'd get to eat them for ...

Posted Wed, Jun 1, 3:09 p.m.

Hey Knute, nice article! It was interesting that the Seattle times called this vote a Yawner but didn't bother to investigate any of the claims of the anti tunnel crowd. Some independent newspaper eh? Where as "The Stranger" ran a list of all the things that could go wrong. "http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/what-could-possibly-go-wrong/Content?oid=4399657" ...

Posted Fri, May 27, 2:04 p.m.

"It's not the "widest tunnel ever dug" really? You must not bother to be paying any attention to this project. "Our TBM will cost around $80 million to build, and, at 56 feet in diameter, it will be the widest TBM ever constructed." http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/what-could-possibly-go-wrong/Content?oid=4399657 Which therefore makes everything else you ...

Posted Thu, May 26, 2:56 p.m.

"improve the hell out of transit, not fight the tunnel over and over." There isn't money for transit if it all ends up in a hole in the ground. That's why the fight. The state can't even come up with the last $2B for the 520 bridge. If you support ...

Posted Thu, May 26, 2:54 p.m.

Oh, on the what a refit would look like, so far we've only had an artist rendition which looks like the guy took illustrator and an image of an "I" beam and added the most number of "X" braces possible. No actual engineering drawings have been done because WSDOT has ...

Posted Thu, May 26, 2:51 p.m.

"Further, every option other than the deep bore is a wild card regarding cost." That's a crock too. We already know that a deep bore tunnel will run 30 to 50% over estimated cost. "minor elemements of the deep bore" Yeah like it being the widest ever tunnel dug, and ...

Posted Thu, May 26, 2:48 p.m.

"relevant?" My foot, the essence of the story is that marriage will fix the unhappiness of these individuals, hah! However it's the 5th time I've seen this musical and it's well done, even if the seats in the 5th Ave theater need replacing.

Posted Thu, May 26, 11:58 a.m.

Roger, there is nothing "Green" about the deep bore waterfront tunnel. It's hugely expensive in cash, and in CO2 emissions to just dig the thing. It's pure support for an auto centric transportation system. And it wasn't a "slam dunk" lawsuit win as evidenced by the loss. You can't claim ...

Posted Thu, May 26, 11:52 a.m.

The problem with the polls on replace the viaduct is that they don't articulate what the new viaduct would look like or be. Breakdown lanes, high barrier walls, etc. When people are told about that "minor" detail it stops being a favored option. I would agree, that most voters would ...

Posted Wed, May 25, 11:30 a.m.

Hey Mayor McGinn! How about bringing back the waterfront street car! It's a lousy million dollars for a maintenance shed. It would move commuters from the ferry to Pioneer Sq and it would bring cruise ship passengers there as well. If you had customers in PS, you'd have sales tax ...

Posted Wed, May 25, 11:26 a.m.

The one big failure of the sculpture park is that they took the mass transit station out of it! So if you want to go you have to walk to the far end of the waterfront or drive. You could bike, but it's not a nice ride. Of course had ...

Posted Wed, May 25, 11:19 a.m.

Oh by the way, Medicare cuts via vouchers is now "off the table." Social Security age raising is "off the table." And the world will not end.

Posted Wed, May 25, 9:33 a.m.

"We also need more citizens willing to step up for service in public office." I beg to differ, more numbers of random citizens stepping up isn't needed, we have plenty of duffers willing to take on the mantel of civic leadership. It's people who can see the future and help ...

Posted Wed, May 25, 9:27 a.m.

I'm sorry, but a 1 acre park on the city's waterfront isn't worth the cost overruns that will come from digging a tunnel. The state couldn't care less about a waterfront park. The city does, but the priorities of the majority of the voters isn't a new downtown park. And ...

Posted Wed, May 25, 9:23 a.m.

So let me get this straight, if something needs to be done, ie X, but it's not something the voters would want, then there is a leadership failure, because they are unable to explain why doing X is the right thing to do? Or is it that the voters wanted ...

Posted Tue, May 24, 3:09 p.m.

Looks to me like the Gates, or their building architech read "Peopleware" by DeMarco http://www.amazon.com/Peopleware-Productive-Projects-Teams-Second/dp/0932633439 One of the things in that book is that natural lighting is key to creative productivity. I haven't been inside those buildings but you can tell from their description that they have been designed to ...

Posted Mon, May 23, 1:23 p.m.

Sounds like a bait and switch plan. We'll build it for coal and wheat, if you ever get around to shipping any wheat here...

Posted Mon, May 23, 1:13 p.m.

As a bicycle commuter, I'm all for repairing the viaduct. When the big earthquake hits, we can tear down the viaduct. I'm betting that we'll get at least another 25 years from it, and by then, we'll have the infrastructure via a Light Rail line to West Seattle/Ballard built and ...

Posted Mon, May 23, 10:24 a.m.

Even if the text of the referendum is "meaningless", if a large majority of the voters reject the tunnel, the 5, count them, 5 city council members up for re-election in the fall will be hard pressed to keep supporting it. As for Tim Burgess taking the mayor's spot, I ...

Posted Tue, May 17, 3:40 p.m.

Neither man knows how to manage people. People don't do exactly what you tell them to do, unlike computers which will repeat endlessly any task given to them. Gates on World Health has done way more than the US Government. His relentless drive to develop vaccines and inoculate the world ...

Posted Tue, May 17, 1:30 p.m.

What is not mentioned in this article is that some people find that using Alcohol and Marijuana are easier to use and self medicate than the prescription drugs. There have been a lot of anecdotal evidence that these drugs while also can have severe side effects are the drug of ...

Posted Mon, May 16, 4:12 p.m.

Anti depressants can be a life saver but if you are thinking about going on them, ask your doctor about what it will take to go off them.... And if at all possible ask if talk therapy is an option. You might want to try it before going on the ...

Posted Mon, May 16, 4:02 p.m.

"Our armed forces are primarily a mercenary force and should be changed to a force that is represented by draft and by alternate service programs" I'd add to that, no deferments for sons of congressmen etc.... George Bush Jr., Dick Cheney et.al. come to mind as people who advocated other ...

Posted Fri, May 13, 3:06 p.m.

http://www.truth-out.org/appeals-court-cites-unchecked-incompetence-va/1305302437 looks like the 9th court of appalls strongly suggests that the VA get it's act together.

Posted Fri, May 13, 9:07 a.m.

I love a good bagel. Trouble is this place is hard for me to get to. What I truly hate is that Bruggers Bagels came in, built a zillion stores around the area, put every other bagel shop out of business and then went out of business themselves. Smith Brothers ...

Posted Thu, May 12, 1:45 p.m.

Next: Lets stop creating so many wounded vets in the first place. Get the heck out of Iraq, Afghanistan, and now Libya. After that: Medicare for all. Once we have universal health care there won't be a denial because you aren't covered.

Posted Wed, May 11, 1:35 p.m.

And Robert Reich weighs in on TVD debate about whether Medicare & Medicaid are the problem. http://robertreich.org/post/4559031328 So Ted, instead of just complaining about the deficit, how about some "serious" proposals? You the kind, the ones voters say they care about and if enacted the math actually works.

Posted Wed, May 11, 1:29 p.m.

On the capital gains tax loophole, Jim Hightower weighed in on this as well. http://www.jimhightower.com/node/7444

Posted Wed, May 11, 12:51 p.m.

Interesting. As 23,000 years isn't that long ago evolutionary speaking, we can figure that ancient people were almost if not smarter than we are about living in their environment. Building a dugout canoe isn't that hard, takes time, fire and a sharp stone. For a coastal people accustomed to living ...

Posted Wed, May 11, 12:47 p.m.

Oh yeah, lift the cap on Social Security taxes. Raise the level on capital gains taxes, impose an alternative corporate minimum tax same as individuals. Add an environmental and minimum wage tariff for good produced in countries which have neither. Of course the easiest thing is to do nothing and ...

Posted Wed, May 11, 11:01 a.m.

Nothing like lumping Social Security which is well funded into the group which is not, Medicaid and Medicare. It's been clear from day one, that to fix the two health care programs, cutbacks aren't the answer, as that just moves the cost from the Federal Government's books to the states. ...

Posted Tue, May 10, 4:12 p.m.

Oh yeah add this to Seattle Observer: You have a rich uncle living in your house but he pays less toward living expenses than your baby daughter. You have a business on the front porch that you regularly give money to, but keeps moving all the manufacturing out over seas. ...

Posted Tue, May 10, 1:41 p.m.

Ideally, the waterfront trolley and the First Hill Trolley should share maintenance sheds. It requires an upgrade to the power to the historic trolleys but all the rest of the things needed for a trolley are in place, stations, track, wire etc.

Posted Tue, May 10, 1:39 p.m.

"koch clones" ie folks who would roll back the entire new deal if they had a chance: http://thebluevoice.blogspot.com/2011/04/senate-gang-of-six-works-to-destroy.html http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/17/us/politics/17fiscal.html?_r=1

Posted Mon, May 9, 3:04 p.m.

Oh, the "bipartisan group of six" is nothing of the sort. They are all Koch clones and should be referenced as such. http://tallgrassactivist.wordpress.com/2011/04/18/paul-ryan-a-perfect-foil-for-the-gang-of-six/

Posted Mon, May 9, 12:23 p.m.

Time to declare "Victory" and leave. There is nothing in Pakistan, or Afghanistan that's worth dying for.

Posted Mon, May 9, 9:15 a.m.

The first time I saw Mike Daisy, was when he left Amazon.com and did his "21 dog years Doing Time @amazon.com" and trust me he nailed that company dead on. Now with his sights set on Apple Mike puts Jobs to the wall and nails him. Steve Jobs is currently ...

Posted Sat, May 7, 10:16 a.m.

Oh, and don't forget that mega projects like this tunnel are nearly always projected to cost 1/2 what they actually end up costing. So besides reducing the amount of traffic capacity, increasing the cost for those who use the tunnel, making traffic worse for those who are going to Seattle ...

Posted Fri, May 6, 1:06 p.m.

Tunnel supporters just lost one big supporter! The Port! http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2011/05/04/port-commissioner-seeks-to-divert-millions-from-from-tunnel-to-transit

Posted Thu, May 5, 2:36 p.m.

The law allows for a mere majority of the voters to raise taxes on themselves. But they get to do it directly and not by their representatives. Why isn't this done more often? Mostly because these budgets tend to have gifts to certain groups/cities etc that are unpopular with the ...

Posted Thu, May 5, 2:29 p.m.

"well" When a statement like this comes from the Syrian Government one can only hope for the best. Like our government, they have a tendency to beat confessions out of people they think are spies. Time for a high level phone call from say the Sec. State's office with a ...

Posted Thu, May 5, 11:22 a.m.

"Gasoline Price Spike temporary" Want to bet on that? http://money.cnn.com/2011/01/21/markets/gasoline_prices_rising/index.htm http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/jan/2/dramatic-spike-in-gas-prices-forecasted/ It's not just USA demand for the stuff that's driving the price, it's that #1 oil is sold in dollars and dollars are being devalued. #2 India and China have a growing middle class which is now driving. As ...

Posted Wed, May 4, 11:29 a.m.

The point of tunnel opponents is that any construction that creates years of gridlock is going to kill any business or force it to move. Therefore all the arguments about saving businesses are worthless. Therefore, since we are going to create a mess, lets build what we really need long ...

Posted Wed, May 4, 11:22 a.m.

Syria shoots it's own citizens for protesting mistreatment, then shoots the mourners at the funeral. The only hope she has is world wide condemnation and perhaps a visit from SEAL Team 6, I understand they are free at the moment.

Posted Wed, May 4, 9:50 a.m.

Since it's pretty clear that the future of flying is not electric, unlike cars and electric bicycles we are going to have to figure something else out. 1st we could stop wasting so much jet fuel flying military missions in the third world. We won, time to come home. 2nd, ...

Posted Wed, May 4, 9:44 a.m.

Oh, and folks, "free" roads are social engineering as well. It's all social engineering, every group decision that we make about our transportation options. What you need to look at is what things do you want to have when gasoline is $10/gal? When our regional population doubles, still want to ...

Posted Wed, May 4, 9:39 a.m.

WSDOT could have also suggested bicycling to work. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/01/opinion/01Straight.html?scp=1&sq;=x-husband%20bicycle%20work%20auto%20delivery&st;=cse And it's May! Time for Bike to Work Month! http://www.cbcef.org/btw/cc.html

Posted Mon, May 2, 9:40 a.m.

Matt Taibbi, Greg Palast Now there are a couple of journalists who bother to do the research and write like it matters. I too found this article to be totally lacking in facts. I think the problem is that all the major news sources have cut back by laying off ...

Posted Fri, Apr 29, 9:20 a.m.

"known natural gas reserves" Exactly. It's not growing because there is more being created every year, it's growing because it's more expensive, therefore worth looking for, and we are better at finding it. In addition, it's becoming more apparent that Fracking is wrecking our water supply. That's not sustainable. If ...

Posted Thu, Apr 28, 10:03 a.m.

"When the student is ready, the Master will appear" http://dilbert.com/dyn/str_strip/000000000/00000000/0000000/000000/00000/6000/400/6446/6446.strip.zoom.gif What's actually interesting that in the business world, even for things like engineering the amount of time a student spends doing a task while in school is less than 6 months of 40hr weeks of work. And for most other ...

Posted Thu, Apr 28, 8:58 a.m.

BlueLight has finally hit upon something! We need to impose passport restrictions on migrant Salmon! Yes those pesky Canadian Salmon from the Fraiser River valley that get lost and head up to Baker Lake or Lake Washington or up the Columbia must be stopped! The simple fact is that population ...

Posted Thu, Apr 28, 8:55 a.m.

Sorry but Natural Gas has nearly as many problems as oil does for burning in our automobile fleet. http://www.oilempire.us/naturalgas.html And Fracking the technique being used to extract that natural gas has a high likelyhood of wrecking the water supply.

Posted Thu, Apr 28, 8:22 a.m.

Had Seattle voted for "The Commons" The South Lake Union development mess would have been far better than it has become. We'd have a park running down Westlake instead of a trolley. Now Paul owning over 50% of the buildings had a second chance to just build out to near ...

Posted Wed, Apr 27, 9:14 a.m.

"His product does remove a lot of contaminants that go into a catch basin extremely well. We were interested in seeing how well these would work. Seattle, Bellevue and other cities sponsored two different research studies on these and other [filters], and found that they work really well for a ...

Posted Wed, Apr 27, 9:09 a.m.

Here's the link to the enviro-drain system. http://www.enviro-drain.com/

Posted Wed, Apr 27, 9:05 a.m.

One more point to add to Salmon Jim's comments. Storm water runoff is not an average flow rate problem. When summer & early fall rains after a period of dry conditions bring down pollutants, they bring down highly concentrated stuff. Then can impact juvenile salmon which have recently hatched. It's ...

Posted Tue, Apr 26, 2:07 p.m.

The short term solution would be for the Fed to stop printing money like there is no tomorrow. Oil is traded in dollars, the more dollars in circulation, the higher the cost. http://market-ticker.org/akcs-www?get_gallerynr=1543 The white line is dollars, the red/green Gasoline futures. Pretty clear trend. The long term solution is ...

Posted Tue, Apr 26, 8:50 a.m.

What the investors failed to foresee was the rise of Artificial Intelligent bots which write witty and inane comments about the topics. The current technology is limited as you can see by posting by the bot known as "RedLight" which keys to the word "taxes" and responds "Lower Taxes are ...

Posted Mon, Apr 25, 3:04 p.m.

Pullman, yep, there's a great place to study rain soaked soils... Or is it dry land wheat farming that you'll find out there? Not to dis the scientists at WSU, but really, this contract should have gone to the UW, at least researchers there could have ridden the bus over ...

Posted Mon, Apr 25, 3:02 p.m.

Oh, since Crosscut is moving to France, I hope it enjoys the looser rules for filing libel lawsuits as well has having to pay taxes to cover all it's employees with health care, and the maximum work week of 35 hours. No more unpaid overtime. Oh and layoffs? Think again, ...

Posted Mon, Apr 25, 2:56 p.m.

The answer of course is "tariffs." If Crosscut moves it's air polluting operation out to a country which has no controls on hot air dumping, the USA has to impose an import tariff equivalent to the cost of having a hot air recycling system here in the USA. Free trade ...

Posted Mon, Apr 25, 2:51 p.m.

What about installing more water loving plants like willows or blueberries? Seems like the SDOT failed to analyze the water absorption rate problem. Drains are one solution, but the reality is that a water loving plant, like a ceder tree is necessary to soak up the water... oh wait, where ...

Posted Mon, Apr 25, 2:46 p.m.

"brutalism" That's the right term for all this concrete being imposed on the city in the name of automobile mobility. Thing is, it doesn't actually help congestion in the long run. Running ugly highways through what is some of the best urban land in the country only forces people out ...

Posted Thu, Apr 21, 1:36 p.m.

All modes of transportation are subsidized in some way or another. Walking: We use low cost labor to make shoes in foreign lands. We use our navy to keep the shipping lanes open so that those shoes arrive safely. We use police & the courts to keep you from stealing ...

Posted Wed, Apr 20, 5:07 p.m.

The only thing that looks reasonable is to build some towers with berms to protect them. Almost anything else you don't have time to get out of the way of the water. And in the off chance that a Tsunami doesn't show up in the near term future, you could ...

Posted Wed, Apr 20, 5:04 p.m.

The point of trimming 6 minutes off the total time is that the goal is to get the train ride on par with driving. A few minutes here, a few there and then you've got a 1/2 hr saved. That said, I found the ride along the shore well worth ...

Posted Wed, Apr 20, 4:58 p.m.

"verdant growth of local plants" Mom used to call those plants "weeds". Dad called them Blackberries and either way they had to go. Sidewalks are nice, but there are plenty of places where they have been installed and are essentially abandoned because they are along incredibly busy streets. I'm not ...

Posted Tue, Apr 19, 4:51 p.m.

Trouble is newspapers, and especially on-line ones give their content away for "free". Who besides a nut case like myself would pay for what is given away free? As for journalistic integrity, I found the PI to be at least an attempt at it for local reporting. But truth be ...

Posted Mon, Apr 18, 8:34 p.m.

"no inflation taking place" Hmmm oil at over 100$ barrel. Been down to the gas station to buy a tank full lately? How about the grocery store? Seems like I pay more every time I go. No inflation if you don't count the things you actually need.

Posted Mon, Apr 18, 3:07 p.m.

AG McKenna having shown his party carrying colors over health care can kiss King County and the governorship good bye. Had he just sat back and let other states carry that lawsuit he could have run as a fiscally responsible moderate. Now he's been branded with full GOP nutty'ness and ...

Posted Mon, Apr 18, 2:56 p.m.

Right, tax revenues are down, so we are defunding higher education because of unionized over paid professors... uh huh. What a crock.

Posted Mon, Apr 18, 1 p.m.

Beaky: Re-districting has nothing to do with Governor's races which are state wide. While Vance is right about population likely being more GOP the further East from Seattle you go, he's wrong about it changing much of anything. It's highly unlikely that the democrats on the committee are going to ...

Posted Mon, Apr 18, 12:51 p.m.

PS Don't think someone is credit worthy? Don't loan them the money.

Posted Mon, Apr 18, 12:50 p.m.

This is clear abuse of the legal system. You can't use the criminal courts to collect on a debt, but you can trap an unwary debtor and then send him to jail. Then when courts were transferring bond payments to collection agencies the courts had become an agent of the ...

Posted Mon, Apr 18, 12:47 p.m.

Progressives didn't invade Iraq, deregulate the banks, pass tax cuts for the rich. Those were conservative initiatives. If you are going to point fingers at groups for our troubles, at least give the right groups the blame.

Posted Mon, Apr 18, 8:56 a.m.

If anyone would like a clear graph of why we are heading for the abyss, just look at this graph. http://market-ticker.org/akcs-www?get_gallerynr=962 This shows that the GDP has been rising only because of borrowing by the Fed. That's not sustainable. The "real" GDP, is negative because we are directing so much ...

Posted Sun, Apr 17, 5:07 p.m.

Two things could fix the debt problem: 1) let the Bush tax cuts expire. (Easy congress does nothing, which is what they do best) 2) Expand Medicare to cover everybody, thus reducing the health care costs of running Medicare for only the old and the really sick. ie, bring the ...

Posted Sun, Apr 17, 5:02 p.m.

Great! Get sick, fail to pay your bill, don't show up in court to contest the summons, get thrown in jail, loose your job. What a racket. Dicken's England anyone? Why not put people in work houses to pay off their debt. (kidding of course)

Posted Thu, Apr 14, 8:37 a.m.

Not having an industrial policy and supporting an existing business model are two very different things. The USA supports the Oil/Coal industry by fighting wars to keep the shipping lanes open for oil, and leasing mining rights for a fraction of the value of the minerals recovered. If oil was ...

Posted Wed, Apr 13, 3:59 p.m.

China has had a number of "5 year plans" that I would not care to replicate. Google "the great leap forward" to see what a misguided plan can do to a whole population... mass starvation among them. "Re-education" camps... wooo boy. Yep the key to success is government planning for ...

Posted Tue, Apr 12, 4:40 p.m.

"Designing a highway system" And therein lies the problem. If you only think of the tunnel as part of a "highway system" you've missed the big picture. We have to think about moving people and freight. That's an interconnected system of freight rail, personal transport, airplanes, monorails, light rail, trucks, ...

Posted Tue, Apr 12, 4:35 p.m.

Want Salmon to recover? Fix the habitat, reduce the total catch quotas for 8 to 12 years. Then when you re-open the fishery, limit the catch zones to near the mouth of the rivers where the salmon spawn. There is currently no problem with Pinks, but there is with Chinook, ...

Posted Tue, Apr 12, 9:05 a.m.

Nice article Roger! "we have to pick between sustainability and growing our economy" What a false argument! As if being self sustaining doesn't allow for growth. Cars, or vehicles which transport a single person or small group, are not going away. Perhaps the fuel will revert to horses and hay ...

Posted Mon, Apr 11, 7:59 a.m.

If corporations don't pay taxes in Washington the only group left is the workers. Hmmmm. Maybe Microsoft could threaten to move to Mississippi, but I doubt that they could come up the same group of software engineers. Remember Seattle competes with San Fransisco and San Jose, not South Carolina. When ...

Posted Mon, Apr 11, 7:35 a.m.

"fish harming it is" Not so fast. Large scale fish farming is like raising cattle in feed lots. The close packing of the fish helps spread diseases, the waste stream is too localized and pollutes the water, and the fish are fed a ground fish meal that is netted in ...

Posted Sat, Apr 9, 10:45 a.m.

Hey Cameron, Why is everything all or nothing, black or white with you? With river fishing, those who take all the fish will have none in 4 years. At least there is a direct correlation to taking of fish and future fish. With open water ocean fishing there is no ...

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

"willing to have Sound reclaim some of it's natural estuary" Sure, the Nisqually river delta was just recently restored and we are already seeing it being re-habitated by salmon.... salmon you know that cash crop we eat. It's not all loses when you restore rivers and river valleys.

Posted Thu, Apr 7, 6:30 p.m.

We could just as easily ask why she is not enforcing the laws against fraud and arresting bankers for selling Mortgage Backed Securities which in fact have no Mortgages assigned to them. We could ask why she isn't investigating the act of invasion of a foreign country without a declaration ...

Posted Thu, Apr 7, 6:25 p.m.

Well for sure we can't trust commentators (including myself) for unbiased complaints. But in this particular case we don't have the alleged non expert weighing in on this particular topic. We do have a number of agenda comments which could be implied to mean that regulations by themselves unwarranted. But ...

Posted Wed, Apr 6, 12:07 p.m.

either we hang together, or assuredly we'll hang separately. Ben Franklin. And that's still true today. Either we are a nation all pulling together, and we take care of each other in our times of need and we'll all succeed or as individuals we'll all fail. And to start with ...

Posted Wed, Apr 6, 12:01 p.m.

beaky there is a difference, but both parties have their foot firmly on the gas pedal and neither seems willing to get us out of the mess. However there's bad and then there's worse.

Posted Wed, Apr 6, 11:58 a.m.

We also have a serious threat from internal extremists, Timothy McVeigh anyone? Of course having one major party stirring the pot with random accusations against various groups tends to make people slightly off their kilter even more so.

Posted Wed, Apr 6, 9:45 a.m.

A second interesting statistic is that a huge number of prison inmates are functionally illiterate. (http://www.prisonpolicy.org/graphs/illiteracy.html) Since prison costs us 3x what schools cost us in warehouse costs alone, it would make sense to catch these kids when they are young. Of course one could infer from the Mortgage security ...

Posted Tue, Apr 5, 3:37 p.m.

Oh and BlueLight, the fundamental difference in our outlook is that you believe "Everything you earn, you earned on your own with no help from society. Hence any tax you pay which does not directly benefit you is a taking by the government" And I believe "That sharing the burden ...

Posted Tue, Apr 5, 3:30 p.m.

"Why do we subsidize parents?" Ok, I'll bite, its because when you are the most fertile you are at or near the lowest level of income producing that you'll ever get. Second, children are the future of the society, especially for those who wish to close the door to immigration. ...

Posted Tue, Apr 5, 12:49 p.m.

How about a tax gift to the families whose children commit suicide? (as long as they die without inflicting further costs on society.) Bluelight is right, people are a burden on society and the sooner they die the better... or was that from Scrooge in Dicken's novel. I keep getting ...

Posted Tue, Apr 5, 12:17 p.m.

There is a native American story that the sea gods were angry and tossed the canoes in the trees. That could easily have come from one of these Tsunamis. If you look at a map of the mouth of the Fraiser River: http://tinyurl.com/3dgetvo You can see the sediments deposited at ...

Posted Tue, Apr 5, 12:10 p.m.

Lets talk about "vouchers". You know what they are, a coupon for a service. If there was any way you could know the price of medical care it might make sense to have a coupon for X% off the total price. or $Y dollars toward a service. But: No layman ...

Posted Tue, Apr 5, 9:25 a.m.

Why does universal health care lower the costs? Fewer forms, no middle men between doctors who prescribe a cure and patients who get it. What benefit does the patient or the doctor get by having an insurance adjuster review the claim? None! As long as insurance is run as a ...

Posted Thu, Mar 31, 2:15 p.m.

It will be interesting to see how well turbines function in salt water. Every time I look at something man made that's been under the sea for any length of time, it's coated with sea life, ie barnacles, mussels etc. And sea water is high corrosive. So the amount of ...

Posted Thu, Mar 31, 9:19 a.m.

If they changed the sales tax to be that of the destination address that would fix this. No exemptions for on line sales. BTW, Amazon charges sales tax in WA state for deliveries in WA state. And all of those thousands of employees are busy paying other taxes by being ...

Posted Thu, Mar 31, 8:56 a.m.

Not because Eric went to college and Cameron didn't. I suspect Cameron did, as he writes very fluently and is persuasive, even if in my opinion he's on the wrong side of the argument. But because Cameron dismissed his argument, not with facts, but with a personal slander based on ...

Posted Thu, Mar 31, 8:51 a.m.

Peak oil: http://www.forbes.com/2010/09/13/suncor-energy-oil-intelligent-investing-cenovus.html?feed=rss_home 5 to 10 years, if it hasn't already passed. I've seen references that make it look as if we passed peak oil in 2008. But "Peak Oil" is a terrible term to talk about, "Expensive Energy" is better because you can understand the implications. Oil isn't going ...

Posted Thu, Mar 31, 8:36 a.m.

Mr. Hays, If traffic is light why would you pay to go through a tunnel to get around it? It's $4 for 5 minutes less time at best. Makes no sense. Off hours the tunnel will get even less use. The only reason to pay the toll is to avoid ...

Posted Wed, Mar 30, 4:05 p.m.

NBBJ's building leans over the pedestrians on 4th Ave daring them to walk past the building. What a design that basically says "you people down there are small and powerless." It's the FU school of architecture that prevails around here. Buildings that for their owners are castles to their wealth. ...

Posted Wed, Mar 30, 3:53 p.m.

It's always interesting to build something new and try out some of these ivory tower ideas in the real world. Windows for every worker is a nice ideal but few building other than hotels manage to do it cost efficiently. I've been put into cubicles for years by employers who ...

Posted Wed, Mar 30, 3:34 p.m.

No MHays, you're ignoring WSDot's own data. The current viaduct carries 100K daily, the tunnel will carry 40K because of people avoiding the tolls and needing to exit to the city. The tunnel funding does not pay to mitigate these extra 60K cars that will be on the surface. As ...

Posted Wed, Mar 30, 3:27 p.m.

Lets get rid of FUD arguments: "1. Surface option that will choke downtown business as well as destroy capacity to move freight in and out of the port." The tunnel will dump 60K cars on the roadway. The port has only one container ship dock still in use down next ...

Posted Wed, Mar 30, 1:52 p.m.

The tunnel is a monument to old, cheap energy, style cities. It moves Cars, not transit and it moves them past the city. So now only 40K cars of the current 100K daily viaduct users will use it. Plus its initial costs are 3.3Billion thus eating all the money that ...

Posted Wed, Mar 30, 1:15 p.m.

The notion that individual Indians should hold title to land within their reservation was designed to break up the tribes hold on the land. The plan was to let each bankrupt person sell off their land to non members of the tribe, who would then sign leases for gas & ...

Posted Wed, Mar 30, 12:57 p.m.

What it figures that Eric a college educated person can see the future while old guys rant about it being better in the old days? Got news for you, the price of fuel is going up and it isn't coming down. Better to make the best use of the resources ...

Posted Wed, Mar 30, 12:52 p.m.

Oh and to all those King County and other non Seattle Residents. It will be a big F-U-2 from Seattle voters which have never cared for anyone else outside the city. They don't care how long it takes you to drive around the city. They don't care if it inconveniences ...

Posted Wed, Mar 30, 12:48 p.m.

Well my guess is that today's ploy by the city attorney to save the voters from themselves will fail the same way every pre vote Eymen initiative challenge failed. Then we'll have a full Seattle vote and the tunnel will fail. Because the same group, the youth, who made the ...

Posted Wed, Mar 30, 12:24 p.m.

I love those "Aloha" shirts. And the beauty of them are no two seem to be alike. At leastways no two in my closet are the same. And putting one on does say "Vacation!" Even when it's a backyard BBQ. And I agree, cotton makes the best ones. Silk doesn't ...

Posted Sun, Mar 27, 12:11 p.m.

"deforestation" Can happen a number of ways, you can cut down all the trees or you can warm the climate so that the trees can no longer live. Besides you can make paper from Industrial Hemp, a low to no pesticide high fiber plant requiring little fertilizer. Besides a paper ...

Posted Fri, Mar 25, 8:47 a.m.

I'm actually glad Mr. McKenna chose to support the Florida lawsuit. I used to think that as an independent minded person he would be a good governor. Now I see his true colors and will never vote for him again. And all while merely filing a brief on a lawsuit ...

Posted Fri, Mar 25, 8:39 a.m.

It's a good deal for Bellingham. It's a city trying to find it's niche and being extra green fits with the lifestyle, the college and the other businesses. The owner of Haggen grocery stores is throwing out a red herring. They already supply all of their stores with paper bags. ...

Posted Mon, Mar 21, 11:49 a.m.

My dentist is an Elk hunter for him the wolf equation is this: Once a day the pack eats an Elk, that's 360 less Elk for him to hunt. Ego: since he didn't get an Elk last year, it must be wolf predation that took "his" elk. Nice to see ...

Posted Thu, Mar 17, 12:54 p.m.

IKrappa government? Shirley you jest! Reminds me of this joke game to play at your nearest IKrappa. http://e-pipe.livejournal.com/48828.html As for being a viable city without massive growth, it's a tricky path to follow. Seattle as a deep water ice free port with fishing & Timber is rich in natural resources. ...

Posted Thu, Mar 17, 12:16 p.m.

If keeping the viaduct "viable" as long as possible were really the issue, then repairing the seawall could add years to it's life. If you look at the WSDOT video, the seawall fails first, then the pillars slide toward the sea as the land around them sluffs seaward. Then the ...

Posted Wed, Mar 16, 8:26 a.m.

If as before 70% of the voters reject the tunnel, the city council may very well sit up and take notice no matter what the legality of the ruling is. In that case, no tunnel may get built. What is much more interesting is whether the Mayor can get the ...

Posted Sun, Mar 13, 10 a.m.

Hi Loren, You just need to look for the light in life even when at it's darkest hour, there are signs of hope and light. For without a crisis there would be no need to change. Oil will "run out" but not all on a single day, or year. The ...

Posted Sat, Mar 12, 8:43 a.m.

Loren, truly you need do something to get more light in your life. Every generation or two has what it considers a crisis of epic proportion sure to doom all walks of life as we know it. Yet humans seem to adapt and change as necessary. I've recently been reading ...

Posted Sat, Mar 12, 8:28 a.m.

But Montgomery is a scientist, and winner of a MacArthur grant to boot! More likely you'll read: "Montgomery, winner of a Nobel prize for XXX, in his book warned the people of the world about the loss of topsoil and averted world wide famines as his techniques were adopted by ...

Posted Fri, Mar 11, 9:22 p.m.

I'm not nearly as pessimistic as Loren. The bankrupty of the current distribution of wealth and crumby transportation options are no different than it was 100 years ago. The difference is that the source of the alternative mode of transportation, autos are soon to be running on empty, fossil fuel ...

Posted Fri, Mar 11, 4:43 p.m.

Loren is probably also lamenting the Monorail fiasco as well. Had that project been a success, we would have a West Seattle Ballard rapid transit system up and we wouldn't need a deep tunnel for cars to replace the Viaduct. I suspect come April we may see more bicyclists cross ...

Posted Thu, Mar 10, 2:16 p.m.

Apparently some people want our next President to run things further into the ground. So any ex-governor who has experience doing that is a viable candidate. Last I looked the USA was still one of the richest countries in the world. It's just that the riches are unequally distributed and ...

Posted Thu, Mar 10, 2:13 p.m.

PJS, "Are you suggesting that all Washington state prosecutors, Democrat and Republican, are colluding to not charge these fraudsters? What about Democrat attorney generals in other states?" Sure looks that way to me. Although NY has charged some of them. Arizona has been passing laws that require full documentation before ...

Posted Thu, Mar 10, 2:09 p.m.

There is an interesting documentary on an organic farmer called "The truth about Farmer John". Netflix had it last time I looked, and I bet Amazon sells it. Shows the amount of labor and talks a lot about Organic farming. I also recently heard that farming is a negative energy ...

Posted Thu, Mar 10, 9:34 a.m.

Dirt, worth more than gold. The other book on the same subject is Jarrad's "Collapse" both books focus on civilizations that died because of overuse of their natural resources. Dirt is more optimistic because in addition to explaining what's wrong, it also gives us some ideas on how to fix ...

Posted Wed, Mar 9, 1:47 p.m.

http://www.atg.wa.gov/FinancialCrimes.aspx I'd say that failing to investigate the lack of title transfers and payment of fees is a crime against WA state. http://www.atg.wa.gov/SafeguardingConsumers.aspx I'd say that failing to have any actual mortgage titles in a MBS is fraud. And therefore a violation of the consumer protection acts of WA. Rob's ...

Posted Wed, Mar 9, 1:41 p.m.

PJS, Well then since WA Attorney Generals can't investigate crimes, what is the 50th state in this group? http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/realestate/2013164472_realinquiry17.html Seems Mr. McKenna can pick and choose which crimes to investigate. As for Mr. McKenna protecting the interests of WA residents, I think that the crimes committed by the banks and ...

Posted Wed, Mar 9, 12:05 p.m.

Rob, you aren't going to be governor of Washington with an attitude like this. You can whine all you want about the lack of constitutional mandate for buying health care, but it comes across as self serving of your Republican base when you also ignore the laws for Fraud in ...

Posted Wed, Mar 9, 11:56 a.m.

If a Democratic Populist steps forward, and oil continues to sell for $150/barrel President Obama could find himself losing Iowa and then New Hampshire. He'd be forced to drop out. Progressives, ie the Democratic base are not happy with him. Change is coming to the Empire and Huckabee, Jeb Bush, ...

Posted Tue, Mar 1, 12:17 p.m.

Let's also totally ignore the fact that ballet totally destroys the feet of young girls by forcing them to dance on top of their toes. Just look at the feet of any pro dancer to see what they give up for "art".

Posted Fri, Feb 25, 1:12 p.m.

Here's a link to the "bait & Switch" of Walker's plans. http://www.nationaljournal.com/is-scott-walker-s-budget-plan-a-bait-and-switch--20110223 Gov. Walkers own words on the plan to destroy the public unions: http://motherjones.com/mojo/2011/02/whats-happening-wisconsin-explained Gov. Walkers funding... The Koch brothers: http://motherjones.com/mojo/2011/02/wisconsin-scott-walker-koch-brothers Class it warfare brought to you by greedy billionaires, coming to a state near you.

Posted Fri, Feb 25, 12:44 p.m.

Selling renewable resources, like an education is one thing but when a country sells non renewable resources like copper, coal etc, it's a serious problem when it runs out. At first glance selling timber and wheat would come under the renewable resources and they would if we harvested them in ...

Posted Fri, Feb 25, 12:08 p.m.

Oh, and on the virtuous circle of government employee hiring, what fire fighters should we let go? Been up to Harborview lately? Try getting an appointment to get something fixed? You'll wait months if it's not life threatening. Doesn't look like we have too many doctors and nurses. How about ...

Posted Fri, Feb 25, 12:04 p.m.

Ok Taupe, if we get to vote on what we pay public employees, then we should get to vote on what tax breaks we give to what corporations. And it's a zero sum vote. The taxes imposed must equal or exceed the expenses. I'm not going to raise my property ...

Posted Fri, Feb 25, 11:12 a.m.

After looking closer at this whole issue, I've come to realize that it's just plain old class warfare. The wealthy are using the public/private union issue as a wedge issue to drive the two groups apart. When in fact, the state would not be in the pickle it's in if ...

Posted Fri, Feb 25, 11:01 a.m.

If a company can dump it's toxic wastes in the rivers and the air of a foreign country vs having to pay to keep it out of the environment in the USA, it's going to be cheaper to manufacture things in the foreign country. Pay the workers in a foreign ...

Posted Fri, Feb 25, 10:54 a.m.

Restoring the waterfront trolley is high on my wish list. But why do I keep finding myself thinking that this whole planning exercise in listening to "the people" is a farce? That the things that will get built will be decided by the people with the money, ie the land ...

Posted Fri, Feb 25, 9:01 a.m.

Languages I've heard while walking around Seattle: Japanese Mandarin German Spanish French And I'm not talking about all the street signs, but the tourist signs for how to ride the LINK Light Rail train. The tourist signs to the museums. And yes we gouge our tourists as well with motel/hotel/rental ...

Posted Wed, Feb 23, 8:44 p.m.

We don't have to spend millions of dollars to attract tourists from Japan, we have Ichro! If we would just be smart and put some foreign language signage up so that non English speaking tourists could find their around. That shouldn't cost us a fortune. And we could start with ...

Posted Wed, Feb 23, 9:40 a.m.

Constructive criticism generally has the best outcome, but if you want "honest feedback" one has only to read the comment sections of this rag. If I were an unpaid author writing for Crosscut I'd seriously wonder why. As for the paid hacks who write for their employer they can just ...

Posted Tue, Feb 22, 10:31 a.m.

"borrowing for unfunded highways" that's the real problem this article attempts to address. Besides tolls we could enact higher licensing fees on all vehicles that use those roads, ie MVET taxes. And yes the author confuses the issue of what gets built with how it's paid for. I tend to ...

Posted Mon, Feb 21, 8:41 a.m.

If you fixed the school districts, you wouldn't have parents leaving the city. The coming increase in energy costs will also put pressure on people to live closer to where they work. Whether that's in the suburbs or in the city. Densification is coming to the land near you.

Posted Mon, Feb 21, 8:38 a.m.

It's too bad that we are about put another 10,000 cars through Pioneer Sq via the tolled waterfront tunnel project. Of course Mr. Royer already knows this and so I find this article duplicitous at best. So much for a renovation of this area.

Posted Mon, Feb 14, 12:09 p.m.

I think we can sum up the Obama presidency with a similar style president "Millard Filmore." A caretaker president who does nothing to fix the coming crisis. What has been a great read for me is the biography of Theodore Roosevelt. The corruption of politics, the slant of the media ...

Posted Fri, Jan 28, 2:52 p.m.

The other problem with Pioneer Sq is the drunken fights and muggings that go on after dark. It's not that a city should shut it self down but there needs to be more foot police on Friday & Saturday nights. You can see the results of the problem in Harborview ...

Posted Fri, Jan 28, 2:49 p.m.

Bellingham is a lucky city to have a University downtown. It's given them a captive consumer to keep alive the funky and weird and interesting stores/restaurants. Plus ever since the Alaska ferry moved up to Bellingham, and Amtrak has run regular trains along some of the most spectacular waterfront track ...

Posted Fri, Jan 28, 8:59 a.m.

Wilbur, In Germany attending University is nearly free if you qualify. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Education_in_Germany Another mark of a socialist country. I have yet to see a 100% by wikipedia run socialistic country, but the basic tenets of socialism, that we are all in this together, and that we need to care for ...

Posted Thu, Jan 27, 12:28 p.m.

Wilbur, you might want to ask yourself why Norway has enormous oil wealth and the USA does not? And I can tell you it isn't because we didn't have oil. As for Germany, they have quite a socialist network. They have health insurance which while both state and privately run, ...

Posted Wed, Jan 26, 3:02 p.m.

Examples of places where Communism is working fine: Vietnam Cuba (compare it to it's neighbors, Haiti, Dominican Republic, Jamaica ) Examples of places where Socialism is working fine: Sweden, Norway, Finland, Denmark, Germany ... America, after all we have socialized retirement (Social Security) socialized fire, police, libraries, heathcare for the ...

Posted Wed, Jan 26, 11:15 a.m.

I just read that piece of drivel from the state treasurer. What he neglected to say is that the state is using Bank of America, refereed to in the article as the "concentration bank" which should be in default because it's liabilities greatly it's assents. When this BOA's house of ...

Posted Wed, Jan 26, 9:11 a.m.

If anyone thinks we are in a "Recovery" you have only to do the numbers, For instance if we have 340,000+ people out of work, and we add 2,300 jobs per month (note December often has seasonal hires who last 1 month) it will take 140 months, or 12 years ...

Posted Tue, Jan 25, 11:13 a.m.

The constitution has no specific text which prohibits the health care law. It's in fact silent on the issue, and instead the law relies on the interstate commerce clause, which does give pretty wide latitude for such regulations. However it does have a clear statement about illegal search and seizure, ...

Posted Tue, Jan 25, 8:49 a.m.

Obama is not a "sure thing" He faces his Lyndon Johnson moments in New Hampshire and Iowa. Progressives are not happy with him. If a progressive candidate steps up, he's going to have a hard time holding the Democrats together.

Posted Tue, Jan 25, 8:47 a.m.

The other danger is that by preaching one thing and doing another he looks like a corporate tool, or sell out of the progressive values he spouted during his campaign. That's been the case, and no perfect State of the Union Speech is going to fix the fact that his ...

Posted Tue, Jan 25, 8:44 a.m.

Until the Republicans drop the right to life group, the fundamental Christians, the corporate sponsorships, ie representing big banks, and insurance Jesus Christ could be the leader of the WA GOP and it wouldn't make a difference. Rob McKenna has showed his true colors by opposing the Health Care bill. ...

Posted Fri, Jan 21, 3:20 p.m.

Blue light, it's off topic. A bill to make Friday after Thanksgiving a state holiday known as "Native American Heritage Day" gets under your skin? And just what does that have to do with having an open inquest proceeding? Nothing.

Posted Fri, Jan 21, 3:14 p.m.

I'm going to refrain from this historical argument over who did what to who, but those interested might enjoy reading "The Oregon Trail: Sketches of Prairie and Rocky-Mountain Life" by Parkman and "The Journey Of Crazy Horse: A Lakota History" by Joseph M. Marshall III In the incident I blame ...

Posted Thu, Jan 20, 5:49 p.m.

south-downtown hasn't been to South Lake Union in a while. It's the natural extension of the core from the retail region and the high rises of Belltown. It's a great alternative to the corporate campus that Microsoft built in Redmond. Amazon is locating down there, and with Fred Hutch there ...

Posted Thu, Jan 20, 5:40 p.m.

Weyerhaeuser? Give me a break. That company is dedicated to cutting down it's forest and coverting the land via it's Quadrant house building company into suburban sprawl. What the heck would they haul for the next twenty years on this line? Nothing. Thousands of dump trucks? Going from where to ...

Posted Thu, Jan 20, 5:33 p.m.

The Seattle City Light running the power system avoided the WPSS bond default because the citizen who had a say in how the power company was run didn't want anything to do with nuclear power, something that Puget Power Rate payers are probably still paying off. The citizens of Bellevue ...

Posted Thu, Jan 20, 8:57 a.m.

This article fails to mention that historically these local rail spur companies have been straw dogs for the adjacent property owners who fear bicycle traffic would imped their business. The Salmon Bay Gravel company and the line next to them come to mind, as well as the line abandoned along ...

Posted Wed, Jan 19, 2:13 p.m.

MHays, let me help you out a bit here. What's wrong with Lincoln's thesis that fuel economy for VMT of autos vs Buses & Light rail is that it ignores that cars spend most of their life parked. That parking takes up valuable real-estate. Owners of autos except in cities ...

Posted Wed, Jan 19, 10:47 a.m.

"TQMS" I remember that era well. It translated for McDonald Douglas employees to "Time to Quit and Move to Seattle"... little did they know that it wouldn't matter.

Posted Wed, Jan 19, 10:45 a.m.

Want to see the old Boeing in action? Look no further than Ford Motor Company. Alan Mulally took with him the culture of "bet the company and win" with him to Ford. The new Boeing is like New Coke, a failure. They obviously aren't going back 100% to the old ...

Posted Wed, Jan 19, 9:57 a.m.

"Mercer is the man for whom the island in Lake Washington is named, the Seattle pioneer who hatched the bizarre plan to deliver a shipload of Eastern women to man-heavy Seattle, thereby marking himself as a panderer of epic proportion" The correct term might be "pimp". But then there was ...

Posted Wed, Jan 19, 8:46 a.m.

There is nothing wrong with Washington's voter initiatives. They only require a majority vote after two years to repeal and a super majority can toss one earlier if necessary. They still have to conform to the state constitution. And unlike California they can't amend the constitution. And they provide a ...

Posted Tue, Jan 18, 5:09 p.m.

Mr. Hays, if that is your real name.. calling someone out on their handle doesn't change the strength of their arguments. We all know that paid lobbyists hang out on public forums to try and create the usual FUD. "Lincoln" may be a lobbyist for autos but when you try ...

Posted Tue, Jan 18, 1:32 p.m.

Mhays, here's the link to Sound Transit's 3rd Quarter data: http://www.soundtransit.org/Documents/pdf/newsroom/Ridership_Q3_2010.pdf Notice that on page 2, LINK boardings average apprx 88 people. That's less than one bus load given that everyone who ever gets on stays on until the bus is full. That's a pretty poor investment given that we ...

Posted Tue, Jan 18, 1:17 p.m.

"District level: The city of Bellevue devoted over four years to plan a new vision for the Bel-Red corridor, resulting in the most comprehensive station area planning to date in the State of Washington. The sub-area plan, which includes two future light rail station areas, emphasizes bicycle and pedestrian connectivity, ...

Posted Tue, Jan 18, 12:04 p.m.

Mhays, I'm not anti transit. I'm anti Mass transit, pro Rapid Transit. Just because a lot of people use it doesn't make it good, it needs to be fast, that requires a dedicated right-of-way. But I recognize the need for local transit that feeds Rapid Transit. I'm also a fiscal ...

Posted Tue, Jan 18, 9:27 a.m.

Oh and by the way, please explain why the states are not suing the banks for the return of their pension money invested in fraudulent mortgage bonds. And yes California and Illinois can't afford the pension plans they have promised to their public employees. Washington may not either but I ...

Posted Tue, Jan 18, 9:23 a.m.

"Nationwide, the Great Recession is over. Economic output is expanding, modest job growth has begun, and housing prices are stabilizing." What? Foreclosure-gate is just beginning, the banks are dumping houses on the market and prices are estimated to decline by 20%. Job "growth" is a figment of the Bureau of ...

Posted Tue, Jan 18, 8:54 a.m.

"Some rush hours you can hardly board it's so full." Well when I board my 550 bus to the Eastside sometimes I can't get on. However while waiting for my bus at the International Station I get to watch the LINK trains go by. I have yet to see one ...

Posted Tue, Jan 18, 8:43 a.m.

I think the NYTimes got this right. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/16/opinion/16moore.html?_r=1&scp;=1&sq;=Huck%20finn&st;=cse It's time to move Huck Finn to College where the reading & education level of students would allow them to appreciate it and drop it from the High School curriculum. It's not that kids today don't hear the "n" word, but that ...

Posted Mon, Jan 17, 3:39 p.m.

One of the most environmentally friendly vehicles already exists, and you probably already have one in your garage: A bicycle. Near zero emissions. (It's not 0% because the manufacture of the bicycle itself, the tires, chain, oil for the chain, rubber tubes, batteries for lights etc all use fossil fuels.) ...

Posted Mon, Jan 17, 9:49 a.m.

One of the reasons that Cascade Bicycle Club is suing is that the PRSC plan ignores the cost benefit analysis of improving the ability to use bicycles as transportation. The PRSC has historically been a tool of the highway lobby, the mantra is more concrete all the time for everybody. ...

Posted Fri, Jan 14, 3:54 p.m.

http://tinyurl.com/66hdmze Look for yourself, forest to the West, a river bed to the East, no central city services nearby, one major road, Novelty Hill. Planned sprawl is still sprawl.

Posted Fri, Jan 14, 3:49 p.m.

"Two versions, one black and one white" Since when is paint color a "version"? "Will there be an iPhone 5 announced in 2011" What does the pope do in the woods? "Apple vs. the Google Android operating system — neither company can afford to fall behind in the race for ...

Posted Fri, Jan 14, 12:13 p.m.

".but why shouldn't a property owner have a right to predictability and certainty with regard to the zoning conditions applicable to his land?" So turn this question on it's end. If I buy a stock in a company, why shouldn't the conditions which make that company valuable remain fixed for ...

Posted Fri, Jan 14, 11:04 a.m.

No doubt one of the problems I bet is that Horizon Bank packaged the debt as bonds, "transferred the title to MERS", and shredded the paperwork. Then the bonds were sold. But I'm betting the title was never transferred to the bond holders. Thus when Washington Federal got the assets ...

Posted Thu, Jan 6, 3:44 p.m.

The link to the color-coded-chart is non-functioning. http://www.nature.org/multimedia/features/art32320.html

Posted Thu, Jan 6, 10:32 a.m.

Oh yeah, if we taught critical thinking in high school, voters wouldn't be so easily manipulated. Clearly corporate America doesn't want that.

Posted Thu, Jan 6, 10:31 a.m.

key is this: "For example, Shanghai, as Barboza reports, is not representative of China" That's because if your parents move from the countryside to Shanghai, you cannot attend those schools. Your school is back in the sticks where education still sucks. You are considered a rural peasant and as such ...

Posted Mon, Jan 3, 12:43 p.m.

The future may just be city states again where economic centers via for position and power. Seattle with plenty of fresh water, hydro power, wind power and soon tidal power, and close agricultural regions from Eastern Washington, and direct access to Idaho & Montana with a fantastic deep water port ...

Posted Tue, Dec 21, 4:22 p.m.

So lets tear down all "historic" buildings and let modern business have them for free, or low cost.. Fortunately the space needle is privately owned, but the rest of our history.. tear it down, it's not that old anyway. I love big box stores so I hope more are built ...

Posted Tue, Dec 21, 12:26 p.m.

Ok, for instance, I happen to know that 50% of the "dividends" handed out by REI are never cashed. And that REI manages to that 10% dividend, knowing that it won't have to cover all those uncashed checks. This article fails to mention that she was COO in 2000, that ...

Posted Tue, Dec 21, 12:17 p.m.

On the surface it seems dumb to bail out a town more than twice from flooding. Third time, move or else. I don't mind if farmers want to farm flood plains, that's part of what makes soil rich, but building houses in it not on stilts is plain dumb.

Posted Tue, Dec 21, 8:54 a.m.

For "flash mobs" & Christmas this bit was very well done by a small group. http://improveverywhere.com/2010/11/29/handbell-choir-surprise/

Posted Mon, Dec 20, 4:55 p.m.

Seem's a bit of a REI PR piece. Did anyone bother to interview any REI employees for this bit of dreck? Sally may be god's gift to outdoor co-ops, but the lack of verification in this article strikes one as ridiculous.

Posted Mon, Dec 20, 4:52 p.m.

What is totally ridiculous is that "Christmas Trees" are a Druid tradition that was taken over by modern Christians. It's the holiday of light for f's sake. It's dark out, the harvest is over in the Northern Hemisphere, it's time for a party to drive away the dark and the ...

Posted Mon, Dec 20, 4:45 p.m.

What's really great about the first gate, is that to the North of it is "Joe's" a dive bar if I ever saw one. One imagines that if you needed a loose skipper for a drug run, that you'd find one sloshed here at 9am. And to the South, is ...

Posted Mon, Dec 20, 10:19 a.m.

Of course, owning a slingbox would imply that watching TV is worth anything. Having just canceled my cable subscription after not watching anything for the last 3 months I can't see how owning a device to send more of this dreck to my other devices in any way improves my ...

Posted Thu, Dec 16, 5:39 p.m.

"that dressing up was a gesture of respect for the people around you and the places you visited" or lack of a sense of frugality. But seriously Canlis and the Rainier Club were the two places for old Seattle to make a deal. Now not so much. As for the ...

Posted Wed, Dec 15, 1:03 p.m.

The other side of the coin is that China holds trillions of US Treasury debt which means we should be selling something to them in exchange for getting those dollars back. However selling coal is to be a colony vs a renewable product is to be a partner in trade.

Posted Tue, Dec 14, 1:32 p.m.

Looks like we are heading back to the future, the future of 1920's where the rich were really rich and the poor really poor. Too bad we didn't learn from that... soon to head to the 1930's.

Posted Tue, Dec 14, 10:16 a.m.

The other problem is that the district was told by local UW professors that the math program "Discovery" was terrible and that they should use the "Singapore" method. So to have some rogue teachers apply for permission to go against the grain, then prove the board wrong, is not exactly ...

Posted Tue, Dec 14, 9:57 a.m.

Oh, BTW, my neighbors who are white middle class suburbanites are near the tipping point of insurrection. If the political leaders of this country don't find a way to deal with the very real problems facing this country, the Fraud in the banking industry, the lies that got us into ...

Posted Tue, Dec 14, 9:52 a.m.

Once again, TVD ignores the observation that the Republicans and the Democrats are both tools of the rich and the corporations which give them campaign money. Until that changes I don't expect any legislation which addresses the needs of the rest of us.

Posted Tue, Dec 14, 8:51 a.m.

I like "Dicks" for their employee policies, but I've eaten better hamburgers, "In & Out Burgers in California" come to mind. "P Terry's" in Texas, "Sonic Drive-In" in New Mexico. Dick's fries are great but the meat? ugh.

Posted Mon, Dec 13, 11:38 a.m.

"why 1300 people per day are flying to Portland and paying $200 rt. " When you look at these numbers remember that many folks fly to Portland on a ticket that is going somewhere else. ie, Portland is the layover stop on a flight to Atlanta, or Phoenix or L.A. ...

Posted Wed, Dec 8, 3:37 p.m.

The risks of leaving the toxins in the mud are mainly to the bottom dwelling fish, English Sole, Sand Dabs and immobile bi-valves like clams. Crabs can leave, and it's not clear there have been any studies showing concentrations in crabs caught near the mouth of the river. Salmon migrate ...

Posted Wed, Dec 8, 9:34 a.m.

Also note: the information being presented to farmers is that monoculture coupled with plowing has long term environmental issues. What none of the articles address is that a dependency on crops which are highly susceptible to pests, both weeds and bugs, may require a switch to crops which are more ...

Posted Wed, Dec 8, 9:24 a.m.

Anyone who like to learn more so that they can express an informed opinion might like to read "Dirt: The Erosion of Civilizations" by David Montgomery (Phd teaches at the UW and won a MacArthur Grant.) If you'd like to read a depressing analysis but covers the same basic material ...

Posted Wed, Dec 8, 9:15 a.m.

Kitsap county has a web page about non-point source pollution. http://www.naturallandscapes.org/content/protecting_water/protectingwater.htm Pouring clean dirt and gravel on top of the mud in the Duwamish without addressing the upstream sources of pollution is a waste of money. The PCP's are embedded in the mud and should be left there. Digging them ...

Posted Tue, Dec 7, 5:10 p.m.

Oh, and "factory farmed" there's factory farmed and then there's factory farmed. Farming is hard work that no one really wants to do. A factory allows folks to share in the labor, scale the problem so that things are efficient. The problem is when you get an accountant running a ...

Posted Tue, Dec 7, 4:48 p.m.

Re: Food: I'm not a radical about it but when I can tell where the food comes from, and am not being scammed, I buy non-factory farmed stuff. I can vote with my pocketbook and I do. I just don't understand why anyone would want to eat fish that is ...

Posted Tue, Dec 7, 3:42 p.m.

As for living the good life, some folks just don't get the chance. Who knows if the industrial pollutants in the Duwamish contributed to their shortend life but cancer took them early. http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/seattletimes/obituary.aspx?n=cindy-lee-brovald&pid;=146915049 http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/seattletimes/obituary.aspx?n=karen-frances-lilly&pid;=146915090 gotta love that factory farm food. yum yum. http://willblogforfood.typepad.com/will_blog_for_food/2009/07/pig-shit-threatens-environment.html

Posted Tue, Dec 7, 3:20 p.m.

Sorry, but in the city I want to live in, I would like to be able to eat the fish I catch. The Duwamish needs to be cleaned up, but as I mentioned in the first posting, there is no point in cleaning up the lower section if we don't ...

Posted Tue, Dec 7, 1:57 p.m.

Actually dense housing allows for local food production because all the land isn't in use for roads to drive from your living space to your work place and back. Walking & bicycling, the new healthier transit mode. These new urban planners are actually thinking alike.

Posted Tue, Dec 7, 1:54 p.m.

Nope, no food here... just keep driving to your local grocery store where the magic food fairy drives up a truck load of stuff for you to buy. http://juneautek.wordpress.com/2010/11/07/puget-sound-chum-fishery/

Posted Tue, Dec 7, 1:24 p.m.

Crosscut writers might want to read the articles in crosscut before posting this sort of nonsense. http://crosscut.com/2010/12/07/arts/20430/Financially-strapped-Seattle-Center-is-owed-more-than-$1.5-million-in-rent/ Oh, and I agree with Bluelight the misuse of 501(c)(3) non profits is obscene and should be stopped.

Posted Tue, Dec 7, 1:21 p.m.

"It is ridiculous to entertain the notion of Seattle producing its own food" If you pave over the most productive soil in the nation to build warehouses (Kent Green River Valley), poison the rivers (Duwamish), over fish the sound, cut all the timber on the slopes of the cascades, block ...

Posted Tue, Dec 7, 9:25 a.m.

If the state doesn't fix the upstream contaminated dirt/water problem, there is very little point in fixing the downstream sediments, as new contaminates will just overlay the cleaned up river. I also suspect that if the EPA bothered to look, it would find that runoff from streets from cars & ...

Posted Mon, Dec 6, 4:03 p.m.

"star80" You may be inspired by this video as well. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQNRdnkoO8E hang tough.

Posted Mon, Dec 6, 3:51 p.m.

Of course nothing is really new under the sun, but anyone thinking about letting their kids become "regular people" and slide through high school skipping college would do well to watch this Phd in Education explain life choices in a fairly straight forward way. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-1t9dg5dzQo

Posted Mon, Dec 6, 3:39 p.m.

"star80" sorry for personal slam, but as you now know, the movie was horrific and so is the association. It's like the dueling banjos of "Deliverance." Once you've heard the music you won't forget it. As for teaching high school students English I do not envy your job. Although you ...

Posted Mon, Dec 6, 1:54 p.m.

Of course one of the things we should teach our kids is how to read charts. http://www.bls.gov/oes/2009/may/chartbook_occupation_focus.htm#figure8 Given this wonderful data, how many would choose to go into the skilled labor pool? vs say Healthcare which requires at least an AA degree to be a nurses aide. We do a ...

Posted Mon, Dec 6, 12:27 p.m.

On Teaching Mathematics in High School: The upper most level of mathematics taught in high school, calculus was known at the time of Leibniz and Newton, or roughly the middle of the 1700's. It's now 2010, one would think that after 300 years of teaching math, what works and what ...

Posted Mon, Dec 6, 11:57 a.m.

"star80" one does have to wonder about a person who chooses an online handle associated with a movie about a small time hustler who murders his girlfriend. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0086355/ "faux grass roots" odors start to waft about the room.

Posted Mon, Dec 6, 11:52 a.m.

"Why not return some of the taxes paid by the rich, religious and uber-achievers so they can pursue other educational avenues" Because it defunds the current public schools. The current situation is that public schools must accept everyone who walks, rolls, crawls through their doors. They cannot spend extra time/money ...

Posted Mon, Dec 6, 11:43 a.m.

"Teaching literacy analysis to students who would be better off in technical training" Trouble is you are confusing the "either / or" capabilities of students. The logic being: not able to master math therefore science, thus unable to go to college, therefore should not be taught pre-college level English. Which ...

Posted Mon, Dec 6, 9:53 a.m.

"One such track might focus on academic training that leads to a largely government funded university education, and another track might focus on equipping students with the skills that lead to good jobs" Of course it might be nice if some of those non college requiring jobs were in the ...

Posted Mon, Dec 6, 9:49 a.m.

'Some kind of voucher system may be the best way to do that." When I first heard the term, I too thought that this was a good way to go. Then I looked into it and renamed "voucher" to "coupon'. And instantly I realized that this was a way to ...

Posted Mon, Dec 6, 9:37 a.m.

For a completely different view point, you can read Paul Craig Roberts take on WikiLeaks here: http://www.counterpunch.org/roberts12062010.html Paul like Ted was also a Washington DC insider, but he appears to not have lost his moral compass from the stint.

Posted Sun, Dec 5, 8:26 p.m.

While WikiLeaks is dripping with examples of US incompetence, what is totally galling is how the assessments of Latin America have been so wrong. The USA acts like a bully using the IMF and the World bank to force countries to adhere to our agenda, no matter if it's good ...

Posted Fri, Dec 3, 8:35 a.m.

This is where the Left and Right totally agree. No, No and NO! "A city would sell bonds, build roads, drainage, parks, and other infrastructure in an otherwise undeveloped area" "undeveloped areas" .... like Potholes? Just what land is "undeveloped". Or did you mean farm land, or forests?

Posted Thu, Dec 2, 1:39 p.m.

Goforaride says: "But the DREAM act allows someone who came here 1 day short of turning 16 to become legal at age 20, his/her parents having been legally responsible and tax paying for as little as just over 2-years." The article on the economist debunks this as totally wrong. Lets ...

Posted Thu, Dec 2, 1:25 p.m.

Anyone interested in another article on the DREAM act, the Economist did a piece on it here: http://www.economist.com/blogs/democracyinamerica/2010/11/humane_stop-gap

Posted Thu, Dec 2, 1:09 p.m.

Mickymse, you know as well as I do, that it wasn't just the MVET on the monorail that killed that project. It was the lack of expertise in building the dang thing and a Mayor who wanted it gone due to his political contributions from large building owners downtown who ...

Posted Thu, Dec 2, 1:06 p.m.

". 'I will love you faithfully as long as we both shall live.' To make that promise, to make that vow, is serious business." Lets get serious here. Marriages fail for all kinds of reasons, financial, straying, abuse, etc. You can't be serious to ask someone to continue the marriage ...

Posted Thu, Dec 2, 10:02 a.m.

Hi Crossrip! Bonds! smonds! Show me a bond that isn't a US Treasury bond that pays 1%. We are talking nearly free money and since the agency issues 30 year bonds, we are not talking pocket change. And a State Bank Loan is like getting the state to guarantee the ...

Posted Thu, Dec 2, 9:55 a.m.

"targets" Well if all auto drivers act like this and can't learn to share, then it won't be sharrows, it will be road diets, and bike boulevards. The age of the automobile is ending. More and more cities are recognizing that by building to accommodate autos, that the city has ...

Posted Thu, Dec 2, 9:14 a.m.

"fast tracking citizenship for foreigners who serve in the military. All we need to do is create a visa, obtainable at a US consulate, that allows someone to enter the US and go straight to boot camp." Yep the empire needs soldiers, and god forbid that any middle class or ...

Posted Thu, Dec 2, 9:08 a.m.

Hey Crossrip, You missed one more big thing that a state could do to reduce the cost of these systems to the taxpayers... Open a state bank. Then borrow money from the federal reserve at 1%, using tax revenue as "assests", and then loan the transit agency the money at ...

Posted Wed, Dec 1, 9:14 p.m.

"regular citizens".. or did you mean illegal aliens that stole the land, and declared themselves to be legal aliens? Really BlueLight you seem to have issues with any group of people getting something that you don't. Native Americans who live on those wonderful tracts of land, NOT, but have tribal ...

Posted Wed, Dec 1, 1:59 p.m.

BlueLight, in the world I live in, all of the energy saving things that I have done to my house have paid for themselves. Obviously there are snake oil salesmen in all fields, and "Green Life" is as full of them as the banking industry.

Posted Wed, Dec 1, 1:56 p.m.

Oh BlueLight, you might want to watch this video by an oil industry analyst and then think about what we should be doing given that there is not enough oil for the third world to motorize all their citizens. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PjOFCegjoik My personal choice is that we should encourage development of ...

Posted Wed, Dec 1, 1:46 p.m.

"They get a disproportionate amount of transportation funding" Actually they don't in Seattle. The city Walk/Ride initiative at 30M is about 3% of the total budget. It's spot on. Places like Bellevue, Renton etc, now there the bicyclists get less. When you denigrate the "Puget Sound Cycling Community" you are ...

Posted Wed, Dec 1, 1:03 p.m.

"Energy saving that haven't been realized." Better tell my building manager to remove all those compact florescent bulbs they installed. And I guess I'll just rip out the insulation in my attic, I'm sure that it isn't paying for itself in lower heating bills. Oh my high mileage Toyota, yep, ...

Posted Wed, Dec 1, 12:57 p.m.

BlueLight & Animalal do you guys live on busy streets? http://www.streetfilms.org/revisiting-donald-appleyards-livable-streets/#more-48630 You seem to have a lot of anger against people who don't chose to live the same way as you do.

Posted Wed, Dec 1, 12:46 p.m.

"here's what I'd like.... A giant water-filled pothole in front of every bike" Talk about anger issues. Last I saw, cyclists are only 3% of the commuters, hardly a problem for your average attentive driver. As for "sharrows" ruining roads.. it's paint. Does the fog line also ruin roads? As ...

Posted Wed, Dec 1, 12:38 p.m.

"start teaching them how to be bloodthirsty mobsters and corrupt politicians" Yep there is such a place. "School of the Americas" it's where we teach dictators and thugs how to torture socialist priests and peasants under the guise of government.

Posted Wed, Dec 1, 9:35 a.m.

If the state wants to get out of the business of selling liquor, then the state should SELL the business, not give it away.

Posted Wed, Dec 1, 8:49 a.m.

"6,000 BC. Those were the good old days."... yep no formal boundaries except those your tribe could enforce. The point is that "immigration" is concept that only recently came into being. Prior to that tribes raided each other for women and possessions and as a rite of passage for the ...

Posted Tue, Nov 30, 10:39 a.m.

All people born to parents who came here after 6,000BC should be deported. You people are all living on stolen land. Just because your great great great grandfather stole it doesn't make it legal for you to possess it even if you had nothing to do with the original theft. ...

Posted Tue, Nov 30, 10:33 a.m.

OMG! I just had a great idea! Let's bring the tourists from the Cruise ships to Pioneer Sq. Only lets use something that would be cool to ride. An antique trolley maybe? If only we had some old trolleys and some tracks, and stations already in place, we could like ...

Posted Tue, Nov 30, 8:39 a.m.

Here's a link to riding at 90 years old. http://bicyclepaper.com/articles/2010/11/cycling_for_life_%E2%80%94_90_at_90

Posted Mon, Nov 29, 3:49 p.m.

You can also lubricate your bicycle chain with paraffin, or "White Lightning dry lube" and that will also reduce the amount of dirt & grease on your leg. Or get a bicycle with a toothed gear drive.

Posted Mon, Nov 29, 12:16 p.m.

My dad is 80+ and still rides his bike. Did you know that compression exercise helps strengthen bones? Here's a couple of links to other Octogenarians who still ride. http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2003572725_dawsonobit15m.html http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/?date=20030712&slug;=stp12m

Posted Mon, Nov 29, 10:34 a.m.

If you are old, out of shape, have a heavy load, yet still want to ride a bicycle, you need an electric assist motor. "Stoke Monkey" may be just the ticket for you. http://clevercycles.com/products/stokemonkey/

Posted Fri, Nov 26, 2:43 p.m.

"one photo of a student napping under a tree in the spring might be enough to bring the whole program down." Then why are high schools still open? We see photos of kids at high schools out playing sports in the field, napping etc. just google "high school students napping ...

Posted Fri, Nov 26, 8:46 a.m.

This is a variation of the "school voucher" idea. It should really be called "school coupons." You know all about coupons right? They give you a discount on an item you want to buy, in this case a college education. So here, instead of subsidizing students at the UofW, the ...

Posted Wed, Nov 17, 2:24 p.m.

Trouble is the wsj is another Murdock publication, ie paper version of Fox. The cr*p about bad loans being forced on the banks is hogwash. The banks made a ton of money once they realized they weren't on the hook for bad loans. Greed & Fraud, pure and simple.

Posted Wed, Nov 17, 9:01 a.m.

"BlueLight" "lenders were pushed in that direction by a federal government seeking social equity for those who couldn't really afford it" Nope: that's the Fox "news" spin on it. The truth is that the lenders made a ton of money in fees. Packaged and sold the loans so that the ...

Posted Mon, Nov 15, 11:02 a.m.

I think everybody whose parents linage was not on this continent in the year 6,000BC is an illegal immigrant and should be deported somewhere else immediately. After all why should anyone whose great grandparents came here and stole the land from those who were here first be allowed to stay? ...

Posted Fri, Nov 12, 9:05 a.m.

Watch the video here: http://vimeo.com/6597349 just disgusting.

Posted Fri, Nov 12, 9:03 a.m.

I worry about the road itself. Rt 12 was not designed for these heavy loads. The state will be on the hook if the bridges are degraded or fail. Environmentalists shouldn't care about the Snake River Dams and this bit of trucking, it's the tar sands oil extraction which is ...

Posted Fri, Nov 12, 8:52 a.m.

The 7th district is drawn that way to ensure that no Democrats leak into the 8th district. The 9th, is a center /left district, and depending on where you draw the lines could easily flip to safe Democrat, or safe Republican. The 8th though if it were to pick up ...

Posted Thu, Nov 11, 5:56 p.m.

Afghanistan is the death of empires.. We should declare victory and leave. The only thing we should be sending there is schools.

Posted Thu, Nov 11, 5:48 p.m.

The city also needs to invest in upgrading the power lines to houses if the plan for us to all drive electric cars is really what they want. I see that climate change deniers are alive and kicking, but it's already happening. It's like gravity, it doesn't matter whether you ...

Posted Thu, Nov 11, 3:46 p.m.

"World War I .... which, with its unfinished business, became an even more brutal World War II involving totalitarian ideologies and wholesale murder of non-combatants." Ah, there is a lot more to this story. In part the peace treaty of Versailles bankrupted Germany which led to the rise of the ...

Posted Thu, Nov 11, 3:37 p.m.

Readers of this piece may also find this article inspiring. http://www.gregpalast.com/the-family-jewelsa-veteran%E2%80%99s-story/

Posted Thu, Nov 11, 1:44 p.m.

The question regional businesses should be asking is, "If the big banks like Bank of American" are placed into receivership can I still make payroll and pay my creditors." ie. Do I have a backup plan in place, or letter of credit from a local credit union to cover my ...

Posted Wed, Nov 10, 4:19 p.m.

Vance wrote an obit for the Republican party in Washington State in the comments section on his analysis of the election. Dino and his ilk will never win a statewide election due to the radical nature of the base which eliminates moderates at the primary, and the demographics of the ...

Posted Wed, Nov 10, 3:43 p.m.

Another viewpoint of Obama's dilemma. http://www.alternet.org/news/148582/lawrence_goodwyn%3A_the_great_predicament_facing_obama

Posted Wed, Nov 10, 3:31 p.m.

If the man doesn't grow a spine and learn to use the bully pulpit, he's going to be a one term president with a historical note equivalent to Millard Filmore. "Served just before the second Great Depression." He has it in him. Question is will he use it? We saw ...

Posted Mon, Nov 8, 2:04 p.m.

"But if they can't win the votes of rich white suburbanites they have no chance." That historically has not been the demographic of the Republican party. After the civil war with Lincoln running as a Republican, they used to pull the Negro vote. Since "rich" is defined by a subset ...

Posted Mon, Nov 8, 12:25 p.m.

Mr Vance, The CNN exit polls show that it's not just affluent white voters who vote overwhelmingly Democratic but people of color as well. http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2010/results/polls/#val=USH00p1 Which again dooms the current Republican Party on the Eastside, as many immigrants aren't voters but their kids will be. Ten years and it's toast.

Posted Mon, Nov 8, 11:20 a.m.

BTW, The NYCity Health commissioner gets the link between health and transportation: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/07/nyregion/07farley.html?scp=1&sq;=health%20commisoner&st;=cse Saving money in health care in part is keeping people healthy. And our car culture is not doing that.

Posted Mon, Nov 8, 10:57 a.m.

"Any Republican who would appeal to a significant number of Seattle voters would never make it to the November ballot." Well Mr. Vance doesn't that mean no Republican will ever be Governor or Senator in Washington as long as the Democrats don't fragment their party and bother to vote?

Posted Mon, Nov 8, 9:37 a.m.

Sorry: "Governor has the weaker hold"

Posted Mon, Nov 8, 9:36 a.m.

GOP Rising Stars: I fully expect to see our state Attorney General Rob McKenna run for either Senate or Governor in 2012. If either seat becomes an open one, I'd suspect that he'd prefer that race. If both incumbents try for another term, it would appear to me that the ...

Posted Mon, Nov 8, 9:16 a.m.

Bike lanes cost vs spending on health care? Not really a fair debate. In order to have any tax revenue at all, we need a transportation system. Some way to move people and goods from home to work to the rest of the country. In some other article I'll debate ...

Posted Mon, Nov 8, 8:52 a.m.

Long term the Bellevue area is becoming more Democratic than Republican due to the influx of traditionally Democratic demographic voters. Many of these folks are not yet voters, but their kids will be. 10 years from now, this will not likely be represented by a party which is not inclusive ...

Posted Sat, Nov 6, 10:58 a.m.

On "feeding the poor". Being on a bicycle I get to talk to the street people at the intersections. We are on a "handle" if not a first name basis. What they tell me is that food isn't the problem. They all seem to be able to get a free ...

Posted Sat, Nov 6, 10:51 a.m.

I'm a 50+old guy who has lived in the region for 30+ years. I've been commuting by bicycle for most of that time. Although there were years when I didn't ride all 5 days a week due to personal issues. And yeah, I don't ride when it freezes. You can ...

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

"It's pretty foolish to spend much tax revenue on infrastructure for a hobby, which will inevitably wane in popularity, and which is basically only a good-weather hobby even at the height of its popularity." So by this measure we should close all the local municipal golf courses, tennis courts, outdoor ...

Posted Fri, Nov 5, 3:02 p.m.

"“Some of our long-distance commuter service is standing room only,” DeRock reports. “We have people riding 50 to 65 miles wondering if they can get a seat." The other issue here is, should we be encouraging people to live 50 to 65 miles away from where they work? This doesn't ...

Posted Fri, Nov 5, 2:45 p.m.

California could stop going bankrupt, if they #1 replaced prop 13 with a property tax that taxed all land at the same best use value, and not limited by the tax rate growth. Which has currently kept taxes artificially low on property which has not changed hands. #2 legalize marijuana ...

Posted Fri, Nov 5, 2:40 p.m.

Oh, and if I understand the graphs correctly even if we are to transition off of fossil fuel, it's going to take a lot of investment in delivery systems. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PjOFCegjoik Bicycling can help us transition. Cascade's advocacy for better bike access on roads is very far sighted.

Posted Fri, Nov 5, 2:24 p.m.

Bicycling could be a primary source of transportation for many more people if the roads were safe enough. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-AbPav5E5M Oh, and those crazy Danes ride in the snow as well. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZMv3OB6XHvQ And Portland which has a 7% commuters, and basically the same weather as Seattle. http://www.streetfilms.org/portland-bike-rush-hour-on-the-hawthorne-bridge/ BTW, I rode to ...

Posted Thu, Nov 4, 5:23 p.m.

Orzag's piece misses the elephant in the room. The processing of the bills. The current health care bill leaves all those insurance companies in the position of evaluating coverage, and whether or not a doctor can perform it or not. Plus it leaves the high paying CEO's jobs in place. ...

Posted Thu, Nov 4, 5:16 p.m.

"repudiation of the current crop of Democrats and their return to the New Deal" Actually it was the blue dog Democrats that got trashed. With over 1/2 of them losing their seats. The progressives lost 3 seats, one of which was Fiengold. Which makes total sense, why vote for a ...

Posted Thu, Nov 4, 4 p.m.

I agree with Bella, it's too early to predict the demise of the Progressives in 2012, or even the Democrats. Once the new House is seated, and the "investigations" designed to embarrass President Obama start, we'll know. If he grows a spine and stands up the bullying there is a ...

Posted Thu, Nov 4, 1:30 p.m.

"electing judges is a bad thing." Well appointing judges hasn't turned out so great either. We have Thomas on the supreme Court bench for life even though there are plenty of good reasons for his removal, and never having got there in the first place. Roberts has also done the ...

Posted Thu, Nov 4, 1:23 p.m.

Crossrip, as much as I hate the governing structure of Sound Transit, in fact the majority of the people in the region like the results of the work that is going on via that agency. Otherwise they never would have supported Phase 2 taxes. And yes I totally agree with ...

Posted Thu, Nov 4, 1:14 p.m.

On health care: Ted, what did the compromises that the Democrats did give them in the end? No votes by the Republicans at all. They might as well have created a system that would reduce costs by going to a single payer system for all the good the compromises did. ...

Posted Thu, Nov 4, 12:21 p.m.

The 2/3rd's majority requirement isn't required by the vote of the voters. A simple majority can raise taxes. It's just that the majority has to come not from the legislature, but from those who pay those taxes. Many of us look at the legislature as beholden to the corporate interests ...

Posted Thu, Nov 4, 12:16 p.m.

"it was doing things to benefit the American people that it believed the people themselves were too benighted or stupid to recognize as in their interest." Now how about talking about the AIG payoff of 100% on the dollar the CDC's owed to Goldman Sach's? Ted, to do you really ...

Posted Thu, Nov 4, 10:52 a.m.

"money grows on trees" Actually it does! Apples! Cherries! Peaches! The tree's themselves! Some folks seem to forget what actually drives an economy.

Posted Thu, Nov 4, 10:50 a.m.

Tim Eyman win doesn't mean no new taxes, it means that the legislature has to ask the people who pay those taxes if they want the thing the tax is being raised for. Look at Sound Transit, voters were asked did they want to tax themselves for a Light Rail ...

Posted Thu, Nov 4, 10:45 a.m.

"The president, however, will have no option but to seek consensus, bipartisan solutions to national problems from this point forward." On this forget it. The only thing Obama is going to be doing is fending off investigations by the House designed to make him look bad. We are finally going ...

Posted Thu, Nov 4, 10:34 a.m.

If Obama goes this route, he's done for. You can see it in how badly the blue dog Democrats fared. If democrats wanted a Republican they'd have voted Republican. As a Lefty I'm disgusted with the democrats. They held all the reins of power and voted in Republican laws. As ...

Posted Wed, Nov 3, 12:42 p.m.

Oh, in case anyone wonders what I think should be done. First add a zillion bits of steel to bind the roadway to the pillars so in the event of an earthquake, it doesn't pancake on the cars on the roadway. Second, fix the dam seawall so that in the ...

Posted Wed, Nov 3, 12:34 p.m.

"here is little to indicate that those on the left are, as a class, more intellectual" No but there are plenty of observations that those on the right, have gathered in their tent the group that believes God created the earth about 6,000 years ago. Which according to science is ...

Posted Wed, Nov 3, 11:06 a.m.

I'm with Ivan, if the democrats want to find some inspiration from past leaders, looking to Republicans is a loosing game. Huey Long and FDR had principles worth articulating. The current crop of Dem's & Rep's are beholden to the money that brings them to the election. Until that changes ...

Posted Wed, Nov 3, 9:13 a.m.

Why talk about the DDT and Peak Oil? http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8157560573983231771# One of the things that happens when demand exceeds supply is that price increases. Unfortunately it doesn't rise slowly but rather in large price jumps. Since we can see this future coming, it's important to build infrastructure now that we would ...

Posted Tue, Nov 2, 12:26 p.m.

Actually, there is no guarantee that auto traffic has a "right of way" through Seattle. It's currently granted as a lesser of several options, but it's not the only way to move people around the area. The real question is post fossil fuel economy, what sort of infrastructure will make ...

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

Both parties appear to be in the pocket of corporations. The GOP win in the house will continue to serve their banking masters. The economy is going back into a recession, nothing will be done about global warming, workplace hazards, fixing the oversight of off shore oil drilling, the wars ...

Posted Tue, Nov 2, 9:18 a.m.

"a good many green groups pushing for it" Lets name some names here please. Because the tunnel is not green. It won't reduce the C02 footprint, the cost of construction will have to come out the state budget which is already short of funds to do actual green things like ...

Posted Tue, Nov 2, 8:47 a.m.

I love how by reading the voter response in Wisconsin senate race will tell us how the senate race in Washington goes. Only on the Fox news reality vote counting show is this a real correlation. Presidential elections, maybe.. but individual races are decided by the actual people running in ...

Posted Mon, Nov 1, 8:29 p.m.

Yeah the PPP called my house Sunday. I lied.... nothing like screwing up the polls I always say. If the parties want to know how I voted, they can wait until Nov 2.

Posted Mon, Nov 1, 12:47 p.m.

Readers might also be interested in this interview with Lawrence Goodwyn, a historian with what appears to be a progressive viewpoint. http://www.alternet.org/news/148582/lawrence_goodwyn%3A_the_great_predicament_facing_obama The general overview is that the Republicans will win this election but that by 2012 nothing will have been fixed and Obama will get his grove back and ...

Posted Mon, Nov 1, 9:16 a.m.

"Democrats hungering for a change" Yah, that would be the left democrats, who wanted an end to both wars, shut down of Gitmo, prosecution of the bankers who committed Fraud with the MBS, and foreclosures, a single payer health plan, or at the bare minimum a public option, an end ...

Posted Fri, Oct 29, 8:54 a.m.

Anyone interested in the Washington state shoreline might like this aerial view map. http://apps.ecy.wa.gov/shorephotos/

Posted Fri, Oct 29, 8:46 a.m.

Too bad Washington sold most of the tide lands! And get this, because the land is "unbuildable" it's not counted for property tax! Only two states have done this, Washington and Massachusetts. Everywhere else, when the tide is out, you can legally walk the shore. Here, you have to be ...

Posted Fri, Oct 29, 8:22 a.m.

Bella, sport fisherman pay the state for a license to fish for salmon. Supposedly this is to help cover the cost of counting fish at the locks and catches at the docks, and run the hatcheries. In practice I think that the Tribes count the fish at the locks. Commercial ...

Posted Thu, Oct 28, 10:44 a.m.

If anyone is interested in more information, a UW Professor wrote a very readable book on it. http://www.amazon.com/King-Fish-Thousand-Year-Run-Salmon/dp/0813342996 "King Fish A Thousand Year Run" By David Montgomery As I understand it before the Montlake cut there were NO Sockeye in Lake Washington. Maybe they came up the Black River but ...

Posted Wed, Oct 27, 8:44 a.m.

Washington vs Oregon, The real tragedy for Washington State is that we sold most of the tide lands. Yet if you own them, you pay no tax on them because they are "unbuildable". Nice gift eh? Washington and Massachusetts are the only two states to have done this. Everywhere else ...

Posted Tue, Oct 26, 3:49 p.m.

"pays absolutely nothing" Except all the current taxes that don't go away. No one is getting a free ride in this state. It's been one of the things I like about the state, it's hard to avoid all the hidden taxes. Even street people pay tax on the liquor & ...

Posted Tue, Oct 26, 1:54 p.m.

"tax rate inequity" How come I only see rich guys pushing this? Why should billionaires pay the same rate as poor people? A progressive rate which rises as your income rises has always seemed fair to me. Obviously at some rate there is no incentive to work harder but the ...

Posted Tue, Oct 26, 9:36 a.m.

On Texas, The "Tex-mex" food is way better than here. But that's not enough of a reason to move there. The BBQ.. well I still like the local stuff at "Hole in the Wall" and "Cave man" better than the stuff that got pawned off as BBQ on me in ...

Posted Tue, Oct 26, 9:35 a.m.

"taxes squandered" Is mis-information. Most of the state money collected by taxes is turned right around and spent on infrastructure like roads, schools, welfare & health care for the poor. A small percentage, and it's still big dollars, is mis-spent. Think the Citrus class of ferries we bought that were ...

Posted Mon, Oct 25, 11:51 a.m.

I've seen people riding up Yesler on bicycles to Harborview! It can be done, although they were going pretty slow. Also note that one of the bicycle messenger services is also up that same hill. (ABC-Legal @ 633 Yesler Way)

Posted Mon, Oct 25, 11:44 a.m.

What's not to like about R-52? The state borrows some money, pledges to pay it back, the schools use the money to save money over time. If the savings exceeds the rate of borrowing, it's a net win for the citizens of the state. Since the Fed is loaning money ...

Posted Fri, Oct 22, 10:26 a.m.

It's not the topography it's the culture. I offer you this Google maps photo of the bike rack out side of Harborview Hospital. If you'll notice, it's at the top of a very steep hill, and yet the rack has a large number of bicycles in it. http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source;=s_q&hl;=en&q;=harborview+hospital,&sll;=47.603467,-122.322673&sspn;=0.001212,0.002897&ie;=UTF8&t;=h&radius;=0.08&split;=1&rq;=1&ev;=zo&hq;=harborview+hospital,&hnear;=≪=47.603939,-122.323274&spn;=0.001204,0.002897&z;=19&layer;=c&cbll;=47.604027,-122.323355&panoid;=ylHsVLWJ2QRMxA9x7AZvyw&cbp;=12,239.34,,0,5.92 Unfortunately it's ...

Posted Wed, Oct 20, 9:10 a.m.

Well at least we should not sell the parking meter revenue like Chicago did. That was a major financial disaster. http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/17390/222206?RS_show_page=0

Posted Tue, Oct 19, 1:29 p.m.

Also pollsters discount things like this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SeOHPfsCtFo Which get passed around the internet, so that even women who might not bother to vote get motivated. How that impacts either party is still up for grabs, but historically women tend to vote Democratic.

Posted Mon, Oct 18, 2:37 p.m.

WiMax being an "open" standard will be interesting to see if any other company, like Google, does anything with it. Proprietary standards can be better if the company that owns it, licenses it for a reasonable fee. With an open standard some companies try to extend and things often get ...

Posted Wed, Oct 13, 4:17 p.m.

BlueLight, the problem is that some children didn't die, they just became horribly damaged. Since as a society we are unwilling to kill live children because their parents made a mistake, we instead have national health care which will care for them at great expense until they die a "natural" ...

Posted Wed, Oct 13, 4:07 p.m.

Taupe, you fail to realize that we have free enterprise because we have good government. It's the functions of government which is not corrupt which allows profit to be kept by individuals and corporations. We count on government to create the necessary environment for jobs. Those functions takes workers. Hence, ...

Posted Wed, Oct 13, 4 p.m.

After watching to "To Kill a Mockingbird" I realized that there was more than one American myth for a man to aspire to. Prior to that I had only John Wayne, and Woody Allen. We would all do better to follow the guiding principles of Atticus Finch. I'm sorry I ...

Posted Wed, Oct 13, 12:01 p.m.

"life has risks" and "regulating it away"... well lets ask ourselves about regulations which in fact do serve the public good. For instance crib bar spacing. Prior to regulation, any old spacing would do. But for a new parent, whose child's head gets caught in the crib rails, I'd never ...

Posted Wed, Oct 13, 11:09 a.m.

What was interesting about native folklore was that there is a story of the gods being angry and tossing the canoes into the trees. This story of course was dis-guarded by the white folks who moved here... until geologists dug up the coast and noticed that every 300 to 600 ...

Posted Wed, Oct 13, 8:55 a.m.

Some people appear to have no idea how "Government creates jobs." When "government" mandates schooling, and then collects taxes as a pooled resource to hire teachers, build schools. We get first the jobs that all that labor entails. And yes the cost is at the expense of the private sector. ...

Posted Tue, Oct 12, 1:04 p.m.

Oh the horrors! An unfairly applied tax. Welcome to Washington State where we tax "sin", ie gasoline, alcohol, tobacco, expensive cars & homes. I fail to see where even if some percentage of the population stops buying soda that the sky will fall. And bottled water don't get me started. ...

Posted Mon, Oct 11, 2:19 p.m.

Hey Andy! You just answered my question as to why Austin TX must be thriving with small businesses and Seattle is stuck. In Austin there are tons of these no parking anywhere in sight places to shop, buy groceries, beer, coffee & antiques. And the city was hoping with pedestrians ...

Posted Mon, Oct 11, 2:13 p.m.

Sorry, but I am 100% against licensing bicycles and bicyclists. As for using traffic cameras to catch red light running bicyclists, and cars for that matter, I'm 100% against them too. You can beat any of those "tickets" merely by showing up in court and challenging the "evidence". (the photos ...

Posted Fri, Oct 8, 4:48 p.m.

of 'course there are those crazy danes...no cars just a bicycle. http://www.streetfilms.org/copenhagen-cargo-bikes/#more-48273

Posted Fri, Oct 8, 4:43 p.m.

Oh, in Portland you can call 35 of your buddies to help you move! http://www.streetfilms.org/bike-move/ With the right bike you can carry a lot! http://www.youtube.com/watch#!v=AQQP86ts9T8 http://www.youtube.com/watch#!v=dKF8-RyQn94 Bikes... they aren't just for fun anymore.

Posted Fri, Oct 8, 4:39 p.m.

Craig, "Mobility" is not the same as "auto mobility". I'm as fast on my bicycle commuting to the park and ride from downtown as the bus. From there, my car beats the bicycle but I'm healthier by skipping the drive. And on my bicycle I take up far less space ...

Posted Fri, Oct 8, 8:56 a.m.

I guess there are also idiots writing for this online "rag." A retired Dean of the Public Affairs at the UW? Figures, if you have ever dealt with the UW, they are arrogant in public relations with the city and their neighbors. As for wishful look back at Detroit? Good ...

Posted Fri, Oct 1, 1:58 p.m.

The beach and hand launching facilities are nice but I'd also like a small dock to tie my rowboat to so my crew can use the bathroom. And so that we can stop and picnic here.

Posted Mon, Sep 20, 11:12 a.m.

Also to add further confusion to this whole Sockeye return question, there were again plenty returning to Mt. Baker lake, and up the Columbia so that there was a fishery in Lake Wennatchee. Yet this year, Lake Washington had a really cr*ppy return. http://www.wdfw.wa.gov/fishing/counts/sockeye/ You'd think that if it was ...

Posted Fri, Sep 17, 2:21 p.m.

I'm don't begrudge your choice in coffee machines, but an article which proports to help the home espresso drinker get the best cup of java, misses the boat when they ignore the low cost yet extremely tasty alternative and pushes a machine which has all the defects of being a ...

Posted Fri, Sep 17, 2:13 p.m.

Oh, one more bit of commentary. The open primary saved the Republicans in this state from being hijacked by the Tea Party. By allowing cross over votes, the independents who are also conservative leaning kept the Republican Tea Party from having a majority. Maybe you guys (party leaders) should rethink ...

Posted Fri, Sep 17, 12:20 p.m.

They should just extend this train to run from Tacoma to Mt. Rainier. http://www.gsrj.com/mrsr.html It would draw tourists just to ride the thing.

Posted Fri, Sep 17, 9:55 a.m.

You know in a depression which the economy is in, articles like this are just well depressing. Why not write one about how you can make decent espresso with an in expensive stove top espresso maker? And that if you buy your coffee from Costco at 1/2 the cost of ...

Posted Fri, Sep 17, 9:50 a.m.

What about mice & rats? Pioneer Sq is full of them and I understand that people eat them in India. We could easily raise cages of rats and fry them up. Or wrap one in dough and sell them at the fair.. rat dogs! (No wonder some people are vegetarians...) ...

Posted Fri, Sep 17, 9:07 a.m.

Dear Mr. Vance, Another week another poll: http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/elections/election_2010/election_2010_senate_elections/washington/election_2010_washington_senate This one also shows Senator Murray again ahead. Why do you think so many potential voters switched sides in one week?

Posted Tue, Sep 14, 9:40 a.m.

Dear Mr. Vance, Another day, another poll. http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/politicsnorthwest/2012888259_new_elway_poll_has_murray_with.html This one shows Senator Murray ahead by 5% points. I suspect that it's all in how the questions are asked. But as you say, it's shaping up to be a closer vote than first thought last spring. On the "Top Two" I ...

Posted Mon, Sep 13, 4:41 p.m.

Oh and "president speaks with forked tongue." applies here, but that should be no surprise to a writer who follows Native American issues.

Posted Mon, Sep 13, 4:36 p.m.

"Sustainable Economy" How about stop being the worlds aggressor, ie through preditory loans via the world bank, stop invading countries which do not threaten us. (Iraq), and run a police action in Afghanistan instead of a war. (ie just enough troops to keep the Taliban busy.)

Posted Mon, Sep 13, 4:06 p.m.

Sorry I'm not brand loyal anymore. I'm a late boomer but the brands have treated my loyalty like dirt. #1 They cut the quality and didn't think I'd notice. (Levis etc.) #2 They off shored the manufacturing to some poor third worlder instead of keeping the jobs here. Sometimes at ...

Posted Mon, Sep 13, 9:40 a.m.

Heathrow is about to come on line with a PRT to service the parking garages and terminals. So within a year we'll know whether this technology is just a gimmick or worth building anywhere else. As has been mentioned the small tracks can be an issue if the cars are ...

Posted Fri, Sep 10, 3:05 p.m.

This initiative is an end run around the state constitution prohibiting an income tax. That's why I'm going to oppose it. If the state is going to amend the constitution they should do it openly. Next complaint it won't collect as much money as the proponents are saying, because they ...

Posted Fri, Sep 10, 2:51 p.m.

That's hiliarious, but totally misses the point. Some people who also happen to be muslims want to kill us because: 1) We take their oil and support corrupt governments who repress their people, see Saudia Arabia (where most of the 9/11 guys came from.) 2) We invade their country and ...

Posted Fri, Sep 10, 9:17 a.m.

"What can the less fortunate do?" These folks are going to be in a world of hurt. However the sooner they recognize this the sooner they can do something about it. Owning a house that is in the exhurbs is going to bankrupt them. So sell earlier, or change jobs, ...

Posted Fri, Sep 10, 9:12 a.m.

Quinn, Mosques don't have food service in them. It's against their religious law. This community center is no more a mosque than the local YMCA is a church. As for the funding.. why not follow the money? It's a humorous view of the whole made up story but Jon Stewart ...

Posted Thu, Sep 9, 1:57 p.m.

On the context of this article, Knute you should try thinking about this battle from the perspective of the Sioux. A tribe which had an advanced culture that was being decimated by an invading force. For them it was a great victory. They planned and executed the trap and Custer ...

Posted Thu, Sep 9, 1:49 p.m.

It's not a MOSQUE! It's a community center and it's two blocks away in an old Burlington Coat factory building. The only worry is about point guards missing shots at the basketball court. This community center is just a distraction designed to keep you from noticing that the Banksters ripped ...

Posted Thu, Sep 9, 1:45 p.m.

"vastly overbuilt our stock of single family dwellings" Can't be true if we have homeless among us. That would imply that everyone who wants a home has one. It's not the number of dwellings that are the issue, it's the cost of them, their location (exhurbs), and the financing that ...

Posted Thu, Sep 9, 12:28 p.m.

Seattle's overall electricity and water use has been flat for the last 10 years. That's no mean feat either. However the coming tough oil crisis is not about keeping current rates of consumption but active decreases. That's going to be transformational. In order to sustain our cities, we need to ...

Posted Wed, Sep 8, 3:19 p.m.

Hi Mr. Vance, No I didn't claim to believe any of those numbers. But I find it beneficial to see all sources of data. That way I can adjust for the bias. And yes the Democrats are in a heap of hurt. And it's not like they don't deserve it. ...

Posted Wed, Sep 8, 2:59 p.m.

Key is to build infrastructure that will serve us in the 21st century and not rebuild that which we needed only in the 20th century. The 21st century is the beginning of the tough, or expensive oil economy. Time to start build for that future is long past but we ...

Posted Wed, Sep 8, 2:16 p.m.

Oh, and King 5 has a vested interest in a close campaign because it means more money spent on advertising for both candidates. So perhaps their numbers are not just numbers either, eh?

Posted Wed, Sep 8, 2:14 p.m.

Mr Vance, I do appreciate your candor, but I object to you citing sources as unbiased when they clearly are and then claiming that numbers are the numbers. The King 5 commissioned poll is the one that appears the least biased but it has an error of 4% which is ...

Posted Wed, Sep 8, 1:52 p.m.

Oh, and since this article is full of Republican poll results, lets see what the Democrats are saying about the Murray race. "A new internal poll conducted for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee found Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), who faces her stiffest challenge yet in a difficult election cycle, ahead ...

Posted Wed, Sep 8, 1:48 p.m.

Mr Vance, Care to comment on the funding of the Republican/Tea Party by the Koch brothers?

Posted Wed, Sep 8, 10:39 a.m.

"numbers say what they say" You are citing a known conservative biased polling company, the Rasmussen Reports, Fox news, among others. You as well as I know that the answers one gets are dependent on how the question is framed. ie: "Are you happy with the Democrats running the Senate" ...

Posted Wed, Sep 8, 9:34 a.m.

I don't think you can reliable take national polls on the rising "republican tide" and apply them to Washington State voters. WA, has notoriously fickle voters and when it comes down to election time, have rarely followed national trends. As for Rossi picking up the Senate seat, highly unlikely. One ...

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

Baseball sucks as role models for kids. Better to take them to the Storm, or the Sounders games. At least they don't seem to have the same problem with doping.

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

"meat" vs "vegetables" vs "oil" on human power. The key is that the energy consumed by the rider is not sequestered carbon energy, ie no fossil fuels. So that the carbon that bicycle rider consumes via food was only recently removed from the atmosphere. Now obviously our current food production ...

Posted Wed, Sep 1, 9 a.m.

"The most efficient way to move people is in electric cars" Nope: bicycles are more efficient, and electric bicycles are second best. Think about it, a car weighs in at 2,000lbs a bicycle at 20lbs that's 100x more mass to accelerate and stop. An electric bicycle with decent Li batteries ...

Posted Tue, Aug 31, 10:07 a.m.

google maps has the hill at about 180ft, I am in my 50's and regularly ride a 400ft hill. So I suspect that if Mr. McDonald rode regularly, he'd find the hill steep but manageable. And yes the bike lanes vs car lanes on this route is all smoke and ...

Posted Mon, Aug 30, 10:31 a.m.

Who cares about the "race to the top?" Federal funding for schools is a tiny fraction of the total costs. Schools are run by local boards with state funding. If you don't like how that works, run for the school board. Trying to lump all students together by standardized testing ...

Posted Mon, Aug 30, 10:25 a.m.

In the long run, I'd expect the Lummi nation to buy back the island and shut down the ferry. As it is there are issues with water permits forcing residents to shuttle water to the island for drinking.

Posted Fri, Aug 27, 4:12 p.m.

Oh if you want those young people to stay in the city and raise a family, fix the schools. That doesn't mean new computers, or fancy white boards. It means teachers who care, are treated with respect and class sizes small enough for the teacher to give attention to those ...

Posted Fri, Aug 27, 10:49 a.m.

Yep, we do NOT need another plan. Mayor McGinn represents the way forward, being frugal with money, and spending it on things that give the city the biggest bang for the buck. What attracts these young people to the city? Reasonable cost housing, a night life, an interesting job, public ...

Posted Thu, Aug 26, 5:32 p.m.

Let's see, Seattle sports which are losers...are owned by rich guys who can't hire decent management...because ALL Seattle metropolitan citizens can't make decisions... except maybe the 4 women who own a winning basketball team who manage it's ownership by conscious...which is the "Seattle Way" being thrashed by this article. Or ...

Posted Tue, Aug 24, 12:06 p.m.

Note: Not all New Yorker's are thrilled with these "urban terrorists" on two wheels. http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/city_must_end_this_cycle_of_violence_ZADtUmzPM7M9Oo6BwxpqsK?CMP=OTC-rss&FEEDNAME;= People hate change, even if it's good for them.

Posted Tue, Aug 24, 10:26 a.m.

The biggest issue is that this is a referendum. That means ANY part of it can be changed by a simple majority of the legislature after two years. I'd like to tax the "rich" but in fact there aren't enough of them to fix the budget hole in Washington's State ...

Posted Tue, Aug 24, 8:43 a.m.

Street Films has done a number of interesting videos on bicycles, sharrows, NYC, Portland and Seattle. Well worth your time to watch if you'd like to be better informed about what other cities are up to. Heck Minneapolis has a dedicated bike commuting community and their winters are clearly worse ...

Posted Mon, Aug 23, 10:04 a.m.

I'm a daily commuter from the EastSide to Seattle. (off and on for the last 30 years depending on where I am working/living) So far all sharrows have given me are more honking cars as they try to push me farther into the "door zone." The cycle track on Broadway ...

Posted Thu, Aug 19, 3:17 p.m.

We, the Waterfront tunnel opponents have forgotten none of the lessons of digging tunnels in glacial til, below sea level. And thus refuse to be swayed by the siren songs of those who would dig to gain personal and corporate wealth and not fix transportation. Notice that the train tunnel ...

Posted Thu, Aug 19, 3:07 p.m.

I don't see any bicycle advocates clamoring for bike lanes on 125th. Stone Way yes, Nickerson Yes, but this bit of street nope. Red light cameras and $1,000 fines and you'd see the top speed come way down. Singapore does it that way and there is very little speeding. Finland ...

Posted Thu, Aug 19, 9:55 a.m.

I used to bicycle commute the section of Rainier from Renton Airport to Seward Park Ave. Both before the road diet and after. At no time was traffic backed up in either direction anywhere along this section of the road either before or after dieting. However it is a much ...

Posted Thu, Aug 19, 8:43 a.m.

yep, the tide is going out for the Republicans. Alienating the latino vote by talk of revising the 14th ammendment, supporting the police state tactics of "papers please!" in AZ. By 2012 Texas will have gone Democratic and Republicans will have lost any chance at the Whitehouse.

Posted Thu, Aug 19, 8:36 a.m.

Dreck is right. Mossburger wants the left to stop being the left and become the center? WTF? Obama: Promised to: *) close Gitmo... nope *) get us out of Iraq ... nope 50,000 "advisors in mil uniforms still there." *) clean up financial houses... nope used tax payer money to ...

Posted Wed, Aug 18, 9:53 a.m.

-fgruben : You might like to know that the fare box recovery on Seattle waterfront street car used to cover it's operating costs! That of course was due to the number of tourist rides. That it is gone is due to Mimi Gates who needed the land the maintenance building ...

Posted Wed, Aug 18, 9:21 a.m.

Third parties have come and gone through out the history of this nation. The current Republican party is in serious trouble because it's picking on one of the groups that is growing in numbers, Latin American immigrants. Within a decade Texas politics will be dominated by that voting block and ...

Posted Wed, Aug 18, 9:04 a.m.

I also want to note that it is important to shippers of wheat, cherries, apples, hay, and asparagus, that their product not sit on the docks waiting to be loaded as they deteriorate over time. And for the rest of us who live here, we don't want our highways clogged ...

Posted Tue, Aug 17, 2:58 p.m.

The problem with a passenger only ferry is that it's not cost effective to move small numbers of people on water. Ferries are fuel in-efficient and time wise slow. The other problem is that state law forbids competition with public ferries, so that there are no private water taxis for ...

Posted Tue, Aug 17, 2:53 p.m.

Of course freight mobility is a patchwork process. Every city/state is in competition with every other city/state for revenue. So as a national plan it's total grid lock. Never mind that rail corridors were gifts to private corporations by the national government. And that freight mobility is a two way ...

Posted Mon, Aug 16, 9:18 a.m.

Spending 3 Billion to move some cars underground for a mile and half improves bicycling? That's nuts. If you wanted to improve bicycling in the city, you can do that for a lot less than 3 Billion dollars. Alaska Way is not a major bicycle route to anywhere. The surface ...

Posted Fri, Aug 13, 9:57 a.m.

I probably wouldn't ride to work either if I had a $50 cr*p bicycle, unless the distance was less than a mile. I ride to work nearly every day 28 miles round trip. I can to it because of a couple of key things: #1 I have a safe place ...

Posted Wed, Aug 4, 11:02 a.m.

The tunnel is not a "compromise". Fixing the sea wall first, building Light Rail to West Seattle and a Trolley to Ballard is the compromise. It tackles the three most important things about transportation. First, it's the failure of the seawall during an earthquake that brings the Viaduct down. Just ...

Posted Fri, Jul 30, 11:56 a.m.

The problem with the tunnel vote isn't that it's decisive, it's that the tunnel is a bad idea. The toll effectively kills 1/2 the traffic that might use it. And the money it's going to suck up could be used to much better uses to move people not cars. All ...

Posted Thu, Jul 29, 4:01 p.m.

Fix the seawall first. If you watch the DOT disaster video, you'll notice that the seawall fails first, allowing the land to sluff away from the viaduct supports, then it falls. Second, build the Trolley line to Ballard and the Light Rail line to West Seattle, move people not cars. ...

Posted Fri, Jul 2, 11:06 a.m.

Seems like even with the bonus given to NOAA by Oregon, the already owned government site would have been cheaper. In addition there were issues that the Newport site was in the 100 year flood plain. Seems like the report glossed over that little bit because it's illegal to locate ...

Posted Fri, Jul 2, 9:32 a.m.

Compelling reasons to bring back the waterfront street car: - It made money. Other than the monorail, no transit system in the area collects enough fare revenue to cover operational costs, never mind the capital costs. - Tourists and residents like to ride it.. see point #1 - The tracks ...

Posted Thu, Jul 1, 2:13 p.m.

The street car is gone because Mimi Gates et.al. wanted the property that the street car maintenance barn was sitting on for the sculpture Art Park. That it wasn't moved to somewhere in Pioneer Sq, is because Mayor Nickles wanted a street car on First Ave, and having one on ...

Posted Wed, Jun 30, 3:45 p.m.

"tax reform" has always in this state been a euphemism for "income tax" which the wealthy don't pay either (see no income tax on trusts...) Washington is less broken than Oregon which as no sales tax and an income tax. All the states are hurting except North Dakota.. mostly because ...

Posted Mon, Jun 28, 10:20 a.m.

It sure looked like a "kick back" deal to move to OR. The site there is full of problems, flood plain, difficulty in exiting the harbor in a storm etc. So seeing that the investigation was done by the same people who chose the site, then finding "nothing amiss" is ...

Posted Wed, Jun 23, 5:21 p.m.

Actually the candidate which best taps in the real populism that is going on among the electorate has the best change. http://www.alternet.org/story/147277/time_to_take_on_sarah_palin Unfortunately for the Republicans, they seem to be aligning with the corporate masters of the media, big oil, the war machine, etc. It's unlikely people will want more ...

Posted Tue, Jun 22, 5:07 p.m.

I have a student at WWU and they tell me that the bus system is great. It's a series of loops and runs continuously and with the bus pass there is no need to drive anywhere that at student is likely to go. Bicycling suffers because the campus is on ...

Posted Tue, Jun 22, 5:02 p.m.

Re: Tide pools A great concept, but I saw the one built at Port Townsend. It was full of debris! The narrow opening allowed storm and high tides to wash in jetsam and flotsam and kept it there. A site that then became a filled with guck and not to ...

Posted Fri, Jun 18, 2:55 p.m.

A great example of McGinn's leadership is his decoupling the waterfront tunnel/viaduct/surface route from the sea wall project. Get that funded first, it's key in keeping the existing city waterfront structures including the viaduct from falling down in case of an earthquake. His next chip at the edges is the ...

Posted Fri, Jun 18, 2:45 p.m.

"deep pockets" here is an oxymoron. The U-Haul company just passed on those costs to all other renters of their equipment. And really, was U-Haul at fault for renting a trailer without a cover tarp? Anyone who pays for insurance now is being "taxed" for that service. It's just that ...

Posted Fri, Jun 18, 11:12 a.m.

"Abel's remaining mission was to make sure Federici would have enough money to pay for the medical care she will need in the future." Which says volumes why we need a single payer government run insurance pool. If such care existed, then Abel wouldn't sue U-Haul, the government would. Why? ...

Posted Tue, Jun 8, 9:14 a.m.

Replacing the seawall in front of Tacoma, Everett and Seattle won't fix the Salmon problem in these areas. The streams are long gone, or decked over. Fixing the culverts on the streams that do empty into the sound would help. The tribes sued the state and won and yet it's ...

Posted Mon, Jun 7, 1:31 p.m.

"Indian Gillnetters" is truly a red herring. The treaties signed granted the whites to 50% of the fish, not the other way around. You have own a resource to grant rights to it, and the native people had those rights. Key to any discussion is that historically railroads gouged farmers ...

Posted Wed, Jun 2, 9:59 a.m.

My take on the health care bill is that it dooms the private insurance companies. The mathematics says that the current system is still unstable and unsustainable and it end up being a ward of the government in bankruptcy, and thus a single payer system will emerge. My forecast is ...

Posted Wed, Jun 2, 9:54 a.m.

It's not just Utopians vs Pragmatists.. We also attract the "music men" from elsewhere who seek their fortune in selling Seattle a vision. Often that vision has been sold to other cities so those of us with some actual vision can see the results. It's also the oil burning past ...

Posted Sat, May 29, 11:56 a.m.

The labor unions are being idiots for wanting to dig the waterfront tunnel. Seattle needs another tunnel, but the one we need is for a second light rail track going from Ballard to West Seattle. It's not that we shouldn't spend a billion dollars building something, but that we should ...

Posted Fri, May 28, 5:29 a.m.

Rossi is a 2 time loser, and this will make it 3. The old white guys will come out and vote Republican as usual. But the demographics have shifted and the independents and the latino voters remember the Bush years all too well and are not likely to vote for ...

Posted Mon, May 24, 10:19 a.m.

Real Change is also a refreshing breath of different air from the corporate blather that the Seattle Times puts out. Speaking about the pan handling law, it was Real Change that identified the source of the data. And that in fact the people counting aggressive pan handlers came up with ...

Posted Fri, May 21, 10:42 a.m.

The author forgot: "Forget your pride, just walk!" I mean really, who cares if you walk or ride to the top? On my old regular commute, I used to ride the first 1/4, then walk some, ride some, walk some until I got to the top. By the second month ...

Posted Thu, May 20, 11:21 a.m.

Having the native guides misdirect the explorers does make total sense. Looking at google maps going North to go West would have been the faster route. But given that these guys were supposed to map uncharted land, perhaps going West first to the Snake and mapping that area and not ...

Posted Wed, May 19, 9:39 a.m.

Wait! I have a better idea! Let make journalists an bloggers take a test before they print blather! That's right Glenn Beck will no longer be able to claim there is no such thing as climate change unless he's able to make a scientific paper passed by Climatologists and printed ...

Posted Mon, May 3, 5:13 p.m.

The issue with property taxes being regressive is hardly touched at all in this initiative. Most of my property tax is not going to the state but to my local city. This initiative is going nowhere. And now that I realize that it won't amend the state's constitution, its probably ...

Posted Mon, May 3, 9:25 a.m.

Well I can tell you that I-1077 does not apply to income earned by Trusts. Those are the tax havens of the rich. Besides none of these articles mention the cost of collecting a new tax. The new bureaucrats necessary to validate that indeed you make less than the minimum. ...

Posted Fri, Apr 23, 7:43 a.m.

No chance in Hades will this pass. It's a classic camel's nose scheme and it's doomed in this state. What is interesting was that there was a study done to show the cost of collecting this new tax and enforcement ate most of the gains if the tax was only ...

Posted Wed, Apr 21, 1:05 p.m.

Logging "fallen timber" has been a euphemism for logging alpine regions that otherwise are out of bounds. We've seen how well that worked with the flooding in Chehalis. Most Washingtonians don't want offshore oil spills that come with offshore oil drilling. http://www.denverpost.com/business/ci_10015770 Most Washingtonians want to breath clean air and ...

Posted Wed, Apr 21, 9:48 a.m.

-Ammons mentions a critical factor in the races in Washington. We saw the first fallout in the Mayor's race with the incumbent normally able to secure the primary instead losing. It's much more likely that an interesting candidate in a strong republican or democratic district will unseat the incumbent. Unfortunately ...

Posted Tue, Apr 20, 4:16 p.m.

What about the rise oil prices of 1978->80? Does anyone here really think that there is more oil in the world now than there was 30 years ago? With 520, we need to look at moving people not cars. A wider road moves cars, a Heavy/Light Rail track and a ...

Posted Fri, Apr 16, 1:38 p.m.

You also forgot the tribes won that lawsuit to make the storm pipes that block salmon access to creeks need to be fixed. This project could have helped avoid the state being back in court over that as well. (and helped a local fishery by providing more habitat.

Posted Tue, Apr 13, 3:08 p.m.

The AWV tunnel is a design for the past. Peak Oil is already past. Julian Phillips at Goldforecaster.com writes that Saudi Arabia, the major oil exporter, "exported more oil to China than to the United States last year." If this trend continues, the cost of oil could easily double. When ...

Posted Thu, Mar 11, 9:33 a.m.

If some multi-millionaire now has a house/storage locker full of Chiluly glass and now wants to store it where other folks can some see it for a price, that fine with me. But putting the building in the city park, is not fine. Find some parking lot in the area, ...

Posted Thu, Mar 11, 9:24 a.m.

A landmark that doesn't look like a landmark, can be demolished...we'll never miss it, as if we keep it, we'll never notice it being a landmark! As to why we need a squat 4 story building in the middle of a dense city that doesn't look like anything is poor ...

Posted Thu, Mar 4, 9:04 a.m.

Running Light Rail on 520 as far as Sound Transit is concerned is difficult because once across the lake, where does it go? And who pays for the track? North Seattle Sub equity area is tapped out for building North to Lynnwood. If McGinn gets a 2011 ballot that funds ...

Posted Tue, Mar 2, 9:09 a.m.

Bellevue should bite the bullet and put in the downtown tunnel. It's the right place for the LINK station, it serves the greatest number of downtown workers. Crossing the Slough is another environmental disaster. The I-90 bridge through there is already dumping oil and latex and gasoline residue into the ...

Posted Fri, Jan 15, 8:43 a.m.

Well for fish habitat, it's currently a mixed blessing. We have squid coming in every winter to mate under the lights down by pier 55. We have octopi living under the aquarium. Eel grass is what is needed for fish and it's notoriously hard to seed and plant. I'd vote ...

Posted Mon, Apr 13, 12:43 p.m.

There are only 3 actors in this production. They did a great job with the material, and I liked the show. The hard part is that this is a depressing story of madness and poverty. What is interesting is that you could have pulled the basics of this story from ...