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Sunday, September 17, 2006

While I Was Gone

Posted by on September 17 at 16:08 PM

For the past few weeks, I’ve been traveling through Berlin, Munich and Prague. My Internet access was intermittent while I was gone, and so—despite my itchy keyboard fingers—I’ve only slogged once in all that time. Here’s some of the stuff I missed and/or wanted to weigh in on while I was gone.

1. The block housing the Bus Stop, the Cha-Cha, Bimbo’s and Kincora has been sold, virtually ensuring that the Pike-Pine corridor will soon be overrun by more ugly, soulless condos—just like Broadway. (For the record, I’m no fan of the cold, monumental glass-walled developments that are currently all the rage in Seattle; density, yes, but not density that will age poorly and discourage diverse, mixed-use neighborhood with thriving business districts. And, as Josh points out, that block is already dense.) If the Cha-Cha and the Bus Stop are on their way out, can Pike-Pine’s anchoring institution, Linda’s, be far behind?

2. The Transportation Choices Coalition announced that it will support the joint Sound Transit-Regional Transit Investment District (RTID) ballot measure, in a press release and an editorial titled “A Road Package Enviros Can Love.” As we reported , the TCC’s support for RTID is contingent on a list of criteria that would, in theory, mitigate the awful-ness of massive road expansion by funding transit and focusing on maintenance, not car capacity. As I’ve written, I have some major issues with the TCC’s accomodationist approach, which accepts capacity expansion as a trade-off for light rail. I don’t accept the premise that enviros have to make these kinds of compromises. If “more roads are OK” is your starting position, where do you end up? Cars are the problem (the vast majority of Washington State’s greenhouse gas emissions come from automobiles), and someone should be saying that. As long as the “lefty” position is “We like cars, we just want alternatives”—instead of “Traffic will never get better, no matter how many roads we build, and we have to accept that,” we’ll never get over our auto addiction. And we need to, now.

3. Nickels’ “Forever Tax” for transportation, as I originally dubbed it, was dramatically reduced to $365 million and nine years, from $1.6 billion and potentially infinite.

4. Former Texas Governor (and my hero) Ann Richards succumbed to esophagal cancer at 73. The recovered alcoholic rose through Texas’s frequently misogynistic political ranks from state treasurer, to keynote speaker at the 1988 Democratic National Convention, to Texas governor—only the second woman in state history to hold the office. Her pointed, often hilarious political speeches thrust her onto the national stage. Among her more famous quotes:

On George H.W. Bush, who Richards felt was out of touch with the needs of poor and working-class Americans: “Poor George, he can’t help it — he was born with a silver foot in his mouth.”

On women’s ability to equal men: “Ginger Rogers did everything Fred Astaire did. She just did it backwards and in high heels.”

On her decision to enter the private sector as a lobbyist: “Life is like a layer cake. You put one layer on top of the other, and whether you frost it or not is up to you. I’m looking forward now to a little frosting.

On my desk is a picture of Richards and me, taken in Seattle two years ago. She was a tiny woman with huge white hair and a personality that was equal parts honey and vinegar. The world needs more like her.

5. A Michigan state senator introduced legislation that would require every sixth-grade girl to receive the vaccine against two strains of HPV that cause 70% percent of all cervical cancers. The Centers for Disease Control has recommended that all girls age 11 and 12 receive the vaccine, which was approved by the FDA in July.

6. The Congress for the New Urbanism released a report that found (surprise!) flaws in the Washington State Department of Transportation’s analysis of the surface/transit Alaskan Way Viaduct replacement alternative, “including the use of exaggerated estimates of future downtown street traffic and misleading conclusions about the amount of truck traffic on the viaduct.” The study also found that WSDOT did not include accurate transit forecasts in its analysis. WSDOT, which is primarily a highway-building agency, assumes that traffic volumes will continue to increase indefinitely; but increased transit availability and ever-rising gas prices suggest that people will find alternatives to driving alone in the very near future, like it or not. And if that happens, there’s absolutely no reason we need a freeway on our waterfront.


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As a footnote, it should be noted that Geroge H. W. Bush actually had a silver foot made and delivered to Ann Richards in the spirit of good will and fun. Source: Kitty Kelly's on the Bushes: 'The Family'

Why did you have to come back? Isn't germany more your style anyway?

That was rude.

...and here I always thought R Place was the anchor of Pike/Pine. But I'm just a dizzy queen.

"including the use of exaggerated estimates of future downtown street traffic and misleading conclusions about the amount of truck traffic on the viaduct."

I had the misfortune of driving through downtown on Friday at 5:00pm. No exaggeration, it took me about 1/2 hour to circle the block.

Damn the future, there is no capacity in downtown now.

What Sean said--try riding a bus home on 1st ave during the early evening of a Mariner home game. It runs slower than molasses in the traffic and adds about 30 to 45 minutes to my ride. Imagine it with the former viaduct traffic.

Those so-called transportation improvements better include mass transit w/ right of way if they're going to work, e.g., a monorail (gee whiz what did we do away with) or underground rail transit.

What Sean said--try riding a bus home on 1st ave during the early evening of a Mariner home game. It runs slower than molasses in the traffic and adds about 30 to 45 minutes to my ride. Imagine it with the former viaduct traffic.

I worked in SODO a while and, if there was a Mariners or Seahawks game, I would just bag the idea of catching a bus and walk all the way up 1st Avenue to my connecting bus.

It's not just games, but ANY stoppage. When the shooting happened at the Jewish Center, they shut down one stretch of one road during rush hour on Friday. The city backed up so badly that I caught the 10 at 2nd/Marion and 20 minutes later, we barely made the turn off 1st onto Pike. Traffic on Pike and several adjacent streets was impassable. The driver finally let some of us off and I wlaked up Pike, all the way to Broadway along the same route the 43 takes, which is also taken to some extent by the 49 and 10 and others. I did not see a single bus pass me between my disembarkment and when I crossed Bellevue at Pike.

Basically, the city's got some serious problems with the current grid. But people, much like those you cite, like to make oversimplistic, over optimistic blanket statements about things like street capacity to strengthen their point, and then from there, it's a matter of getting enough ignorant people to support said point sight unseen.

Also, cars are not the problem, but the symptom of a larger problem. Because if cars were the problem, one would conclude that we'd just ban cars and all our problems would go away. Ahem.

If you need to see how Seattle will become in the near future (and it will happen nothing will be saved) Look no further than Vancouver Canada. Now I know some like to think of Vancouver as cool and beautiful but all that was the soul and greatness of this city has been eliminated and developed. Everything now is chicks in low hip hugging jeans in a retro 80's look and guys that want to fuck them.
Since some news is being discussed.
In other news
Canada has lead a Nato forces in Afghanistan in Operation Medusa (the US under the command of Canada) and they had some successes in an area some would say the US should be instead of wasting Billions of $$ in Iraq.
Full story
http://www.cbc.ca/story/world/national/2006/09/17/afghanistan.html
And in week old news: for a second time the US bombed Canadian forces killing Canadians making it twice by the US and once by Israeli forces . Mmmm that good old "friendly Fire".
Other than that, ya Seattle is going to loose to Developers no matter how much you cry.
City hall + Developers = soulless city

ECB Wrote:
"...but increased transit availability and ever-rising gas prices suggest that people will find alternatives to driving alone in the very near future, like it or not..."

Really? Won't people demand more fuel efficient and alternative fuel cars? Won't the market demand for such vehicles increase? Won't manufacturers attempt to meet this new demand? Aren't manufacturers making efforts to do this now?

Like WSDOT's assumption that traffic volumes will increase indefinitely, I sense you assume the evolution of automobile technology will remain static.

---Jensen

"If you need to see how Seattle will become in the near future... look no further than Vancouver Canada."

A excellent point given that Vancouver (remarkably) doesn't have *any* highways running through it. Instead, the traffic clogs the arterial streets and stinks up the entire city. What a disaster.

1. Buses on the same street as cars is not rapid transit. Even with the new light rail we won't have rapid transit (and who wants to go to Tukwila anyways... it doesn't even stop at the mall)
2. Alaska Way Viaduct- I say make the tunnel wide and deep.
3. 520: Same. Wide and deep. Like I give a crap about Misty and Buck in Medina. Cap the thing in Montlake but widen. Maybe even for eventual rapid transit. Move the Microsofties faster.
4. Train System. Plow up Qwest field's N Parking lot, create a true "Central Station" and run traks to the burbs, starting with the south first. Plan on a second station (lets say the industrial part N of Denny along Aurora or something like that and do the same for the N Suburbs. Have trains run every 20 mins, on time. I'm sure none of ECB's German trains were late.
5. Restrict "process" and elect people who will get stuff done instead of whining about it. Some process is fine, but Seattle is the poster child of process run amok. Richard Conlin should have his office moved to Omak.

Thank GOD someone is finally calling Vancouver on what a butt-ugly, souless city it is. At least our tacky new buildings will be a little less ugly than their 70's-era socialist cement nightmares.

Yeah, Seattle will doubtless get ugly too, but as Kansas always says "Nothing lasts forever but the earth and sky"

HA! Hope I just planted "Dust in the Wind" in your mind for the rest of the day!

I'm in the camp that thinks Vancouver isn't all that bad. At least some moves are being made to actually rejuvenate parts of the city. Here, we just push poor people out of areas in the name of progess and send them to Kent... which is the definition of soulless and ugly on a variety of levels.

Vancouver has a Little Italy, where you can get real espresso in a room full of real Italians watching Serie A, which is more than you can get in this city. They also have a massive Indian presence, which means you can get fantastic, cheap Indian food, unlike here. It's not all glass towers; it's not all hipster jeans; it's not all downtown.

WSDOT DID include accurate transit forecasts in their analysis. Imaginary transit systems, which are the only kind Seattle really has, do not carry passengers. Sound Transit is not going to have a significant impact on CBD traffic. We DON'T HAVE real transit, remember? The "alternatives" ARE NOT THERE.

Re Fnarf's "imaginary transit systems", that's certainly what we have for suburb-to-suburb transport. Yes, Metro can get me from home (Redmond) to work (Kirkland) - it just takes me TWICE the time and TWICE the money than driving.

Twice the time I expect, but twice the money? Yes, I get 40 MPG and have low maintenance bills with my 2002 Prius, but still, that's lame.

Where was Ann Richards on the death penalty?

Only twice the time? You're lucky. Most suburb-to-suburb transit trips (which are the majority of all trips) take 4-10 times as long, especially if you count waiting. Twice as long is actually pretty good anywhere in the city, even on a downtown run. Try going east-west from anywhere to anywhere on a bus sometime.

seme:
I think you might have read what I did this morning. 49 executions, including two juveniles, and two mentally disabled prisoners.

thanks counterpunch! timely information...

ann richards. as the counterpunch article is titled: the original texacutioner...

No Erin, I did not. I was just curious, because I think I read ECB's excellent articles on the death penalty she did in Austin.

I dont think Richards would have gotten elected if she was anti death penalty in Texas. I have lots of friends in Houston and in McAllen Texas. Its weird that a huge number of my fellow Latinos and from what I hear, African Americans support the death penalty. Despite Huntsville being full of our peeps waiting execution.

Texas is a funny place.

I have to agree that the bus is not the solution. I rode the buses daily for four years and it was often hell. One hiccup or Mariners game and a trip from Downtown to West Seattle takes two hours. Swimming would be faster.
Ever tried commuting from West Seattle to Capitol Hill? Try an hour and a half each way on a good day including waiting for the &%*#*! bus to show up(21 to downtown, 10 or 43 to 15th E). By car, it usually takes 25 minutes each way in rush hour traffic.
Now that the monorail is dead, we only need to look south to see the future. It's called Los Angeles, and we can all look forward to spending two hours to go eight miles whether by bus or car 'cause we'll all be sucking exhaust fumes on the same damn streets.
See you in traffic...

Having just moved here from the Upper East Side for a software job, I've got to say Seattle can get tons more development. Tear down Cha Cha. That place would last a week in Manhattan. It's cheap and tacky. I hope they build a twenty story condo tower on that block. Then this place could be more like Manhattan.

I'm all about a high-fashion lifestyle so I am happy to see that block go away. I hope there is a Starbucks and a fun casual restaurant like a Cheescake Factory or a TGIF because those reflect my lifestyle.

Monorail being gone = big mistake. No rapid transit involving First Hill, one of the most densely populated areas of the city = big mistake. Or Belltown where Condos reign. The free bus zone is a joke (I usually walk anyways cause its faster, even in inclement weather) and rapid transit should have started downtown and evolved from there like a spoke.

Brian, I used to live in Vancouver, and I just went back to spend Easter Weekend on vacation there.

I failed to see the ugly stuff you mentioned. I found lots of fun restaurants and cafes. Sure, a few more chains, but it's been 17 years.

If that's our future, I'm all for it.

It was fun!

Regarding Anne Richards: She was pro-death penalty politically (like above poster said, you gotta be in Texas) but kept very quiet about her personal views. She's famous at home for saying, "I will uphold the laws of the State of Texas." The reporter then asked, "But what would you do if the Legislature passed a bill repealing the death penalty?" to which she replied, "I would faint."
Texas governors do not have the power to overrule the death penalty. They can only ask for more time on a prisoner's behalf for further investigation, so it's not like she had the ability to prevent any death penalty punishments from being carried out.

Thx Texasgirl, and I agree, she was incredibly witty, but... Didn't she have the ability to give out pardons? What was her record on that?

In Texas, it's more complicated. The governor can only grant reprieves or commutation to life (instead of death penalty) with a recommendation from the Board of Pardons and Paroles. [The law reads, "In capital cases, the Board considers petitions for commutation of sentence to life in prison and for a reprieve of execution. If the Board recommends clemency in a death penalty case, the governor may grant commutation or reprieve. The governor can also grant a one-time thirty-day reprieve of execution in these cases."]
The Board tends to be less sympathetic to the inclinations of the general public, probably because they are appointed and not elected.

They ( Board of Pardons) are appointed by the governor. Youre right, I dug up some stuff and Texas took away that right from the governor in 1936, when voters amended the state constitution.

Whichever way, I think if she had been anti death penalty she never gets elected, according tot he AP , 73 percent of Texans support capital punishment.

Ann was awesome. Does anyone remember that commercial she did with Mario Cuomo? They both lost that year (1994). Wasn't it a Fritos commercial? I don't really like Fritos products, but anyways. Oh and Vancouver, BC and Vancouver, WA are both on the bland looking side. One's great for a short visit, the other, you just drive through it to get to Portland. And have you tried drinking in Vancouver, BC? Really expensive, weak drinks and the places I went to were a bore. Yes, even more boring than Seattle. I don't mind coughing up a few bucks for a drink, but it's gotta have a detectable amount of alcohol. Don't worry folks, some, if not all of these bars will find a new location. I know the Bus Stop will. Yeah, it won't be the same, but this is not the biggest loss. Oh, and as a former New Yorker, Manhattan Transplant has a point, places come and go all the time in New York City. Remember Williamsburg in 2000? It aint even the same and oh well. I'm not comparing the two and suggesting they're the same, but cities change and you either adapt or make a break for it. I think Portland is still wide open for whiny hipsters.

Digital ID World is going to be the next hippest bar in Seattle.

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