Politics Propaganda Emissions
posted by on April 23 at 16:51 PM
Earlier this month, the local chapter of the Sierra Club sent a letter to Pierce County Executive John Ladenburg explaining why the Puget Sound-area environmental community was going to come out against RTID.
High on the club’s list of complaints was Pierce County’s SR 704 (the Cross Base Highway), which the Sierra Club included on its list of “Bad Projects: Viewed as ‘Poison Pills.’” The group said the project violated all the Sierra Club’s criteria: consider multimodal uses; reduce greenhouse gas emissions; and preserve dollars for transit and pedestrian projects.
Ladenburg, a big RTID and SR 704 supporter, responded.
I’ve linked Ladenburg’s response—in which he misspells the word environmentally—after the jump.
For starters, though, he hauls out a road-expansion argument that’s getting really tiresome: Expanding roads will allow cars to move faster, and so, without cars idling in gridlock, there will be less CO2 emissions.
He writes:
The highway will reduce greenhouse gases by shortening thousands of trips that currently are forced to travel north to HY 512 before they can go south on I-5. Taking that traffic off of 512 will also speed up traffic on that route and reduce emmission there also.
Stop it already. Adding more lanes ultimately adds more cars. More cars = more C02. Furthermore, cars don’t emit less emissions at 65 mph. Going about 45 mph is actually best to reduce emissions.
Anyway, read his letter yourself.
I suggest you remove this from your criteria:
"Tangible reduction in GHG emissions, other environmental effects, and improvement in human health and safety; Better integrated regional transportation and land use planning, and transportation investments that support smart land use and minimize or prevent additional sprawl;"
as you obviously ignored them in your analysis.
The Cross Base Highway, SR 704 fits very neatly into these requirements and you simply coninue to ignore that fact. The highway has the most eviromentally senstive design of any project on the list. Among the over $10 million in environmenal mitigation is the fact that it will create 500 acres of protected habitat.
The highway will reduce greenhouse gases by shortening thousands of trips that currently are forced to travel north to HY 512 before they can go south on I-5. Taking that traffic off of 512 will also speed up traffic on that route and reduce emmission there also. Further, since the entire residential area east of the end of 704 is already built out, it cannot lead to sprawl. (see photograph). AS for land use, the Cross Base will allow businesses to locate at the Fredickson Industrial area, which is the largest UNUSED industrial area in the four county region.
I have been working hard for years to preserve farmland in Pierce County.
Last night Pierce County was awarded a Vision 2020 award by the Regional Council of Governments for our work trying to preserve farmland. The biggest challenge has been preventing zoning changes, particularly by cities and towns, that change farmland into industrial and warehouses. The pressure on those cities and towns comes from business that have very clearly expressed to us that they will not locate at Fredrickson unless it has better transportation access. If we build that highway, Fredrickson can absorb industrial growth for decades, and we can preserve our farmland. If we continue to use narrow thinking and not County-wide thinking of our land use and transportation, we will continue to see farms become warehouses. This last year, we lost the Sterino Farms in Fife, and the VanLierop Bulb farm in Puyallup. Neither of these farms would be lost if we had built
the Cross Base highway four years ago. The Sierra Club's knee-jerk
oppostion to this highway is unforunate and is helping destroy farmland in Pierce County.
John W. Ladenburg
Pierce County Executiv
Of course idling = 0 mpg, which isn't good by anyones math, but cars actually burn the most fuel at highway passing speed, which of course is encouraged when there is less congestion... until the highway reaches capacity in a few years and becomes gridlocked again.
I don't have the answer, but this sounds like a wash. Or worse.
"until the highway reaches capacity in a few years and becomes gridlocked again."
Exactly, people will take more trips, or live farther away, if it is faster to do so until everything just evens out. There is a maximum willing commuting time for most people, and they will choose to live where they want to within that time. So they will just go farther if it is faster, or just take more trips if it is the same speed until capacity is all eaten up and you are in the same predicament as before.
As someone who use to live in that part of Pierce County, let me say that transit out there is a rumor, and not even in the worldview of options that people consider.
That may change one day, but if you want their votes this fall for ST2, we have to keep the log rolling.
Without Seattle's votes, RTID is dead.
All the rest is commentary.
Ladenburg also misspells "emmission." Oh well.
Of course, he's wrong when he argues the cross-base highway will reduce emissions. We all know just the opposite will happen. And I wouldn't be surprised if his very reason for wanting the cross-base highway belies his own argument. Perhaps someone can corroborate this, but I wouldn't be surprised if there's some developer scratching Ladenburg's back who desperately wants the cross-base highway for its development potential. I have to make clear that I am only speculating; I'm not stating this as fact.
Nonetheless, it's one thing to be righteous; it's another thing to get things done. Even with the cross-base highway in the RTID, a joint ST2/RTID ballot would be a much, much bigger win for transit than for freeways. I'd prefer to pick my battle over making sure that real tolling, rather than lame-ass HOT lanes, are part of the 520 solution.
MHD:
Cross-Base is not a political asset, it's a political liability for the rest of the joint roads & transit package. Any yes votes from SE Pierce County for a RTID with Cross-Base included are more than outweighed by all the No votes that will come from the rest of the 3 county region because of Cross-Base. SE Pierce residents are among the least likely to vote for any tax increase (especially one this big). In every poll testing regional road projects, Cross-Base has fared the worst of any of the projects tested. And, Cross-Base is the only project that has attracted an organized opposition. Environmentalists in all three counties are opposed. And, in Pierce County, a coalition of wealthy horse owners (the highway would take out a major equestrian facility), anti-sprawl environmentalists and anti-tax conservatives have formed to oppose the project. Most of the RTID members and potential campaign funders in King and Snohomish counties just want Cross-Base to go away because it drags down the whole proposal. But, Ladenburg continues to insist that it stay in.
As I said, without Seattle, RTID dies.
Everyone who ever counts votes knows that.
cressona:
"Perhaps someone can corroborate this, but I wouldn't be surprised if there's some developer scratching Ladenburg's back who desperately wants the cross-base highway for its development potential. I have to make clear that I am only speculating; I'm not stating this as fact."
The developer is Patrick Kuo and the development is Cascadia. He has deep pockets and his development is a huge "Planned Community" on the Orting Plateau on what used to be a Weyerhaeuser tree farm. Plays golf with John Ladenburg regularly.
cressona:
"Perhaps someone can corroborate this, but I wouldn't be surprised if there's some developer scratching Ladenburg's back who desperately wants the cross-base highway for its development potential. I have to make clear that I am only speculating; I'm not stating this as fact."
The developer is Patrick Kuo and the development is Cascadia. He has deep pockets and his development is a huge "Planned Community" on the Orting Plateau on what used to be a Weyerhaeuser tree farm. Plays golf with John Ladenburg regularly.
So the Regional Council of Governments (chaired by Ladenburg) awarded the "Vision 20/20" award to Pierce County (chaired by Ladenburg)? Fabuloso! Yes- ol' John would like to run for state office next (Atty Gen'l?)... and will need some deep pockets (developers may apply) to pull it off. The Pierce County commissioners have already decided that they will be at the center of the NEXT regional housing boom. Hell, they'd probably like to get the Army out of Ft. Lewis, and build up the only oak prairie worthy of the name left in the State... and maybe, if the gov't closes McChord AFB then the Port of Tacoma has its very own air freight outlet- to combine with the proximity of the Port-owned "industrial park" that's the East terminus of the first stage of the "cross-base highway" (and those big housing developments are just east of that industrial Eden...) How pink do you want this pork? ^..^
It is funny to read Ladenburg's reply to the Sierra Club, as it is similar (if not more professional) than the reply that I recieved from him this January when I wrote to him after seeing his treatment of Cross Base protesters at an RTID meeting. His email is quoted below:
"I suggest you get the facts before spewing such hate. The EIS on the Cross Base Highway indicates that since it cuts travel time for people from Eastern Pierce County who wish to travel south on I-5, it actually CUTS polution. Likewise it will save gas for those same trips. It cannot create sprawl since it only goes across the bases, and no homes can be built there. It does not cut accross poor peoples yards, in fact, we spend hundreds of thousands re-designing the highway so that it would have minimum impact on American Lake gardens. I have spend over five years examining every aspect of this project, while you have obviously formed your opinion from falsehoods given to you by people from Seattle who have never even been in Pierce County. I suggest you come to the next meeting of the Spanaway Action Network, a neighborhood group (from a poor section) of Pierce County who have been pushing for
years to get this highway built so they can get to work without spending a fortune on gas. (They cannot afford to live in Seattle like you). Maybe you can explain to them why it is OK for Seattle to get $4 BILLION
to build a tunnel so you can see your waterfront, but it is not OK to get $200 million for a highway for poorer parts of our county.
John W. Ladenburg
Pierce County Executive
930 Tacoma Ave S.
Tacoma, WA 98402
253-798-6602"
Granted my letter may not have been as professionally written as Sierra Club's, but that doesn't sound like regional thinking to me.
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