Um, am I the only one who does not know what "Precambrian" means?

Hey, look at it this way: at least we have a 100% reliable source of grump in our lives -- and right at our fingertips. Back in the old days, you'd have to spend half an hour riding a streetcar to your grandfather's house.

You know, they're right -- streetcars are ass. Slow, at grade, stuck in traffic, completely unsegregated and thus dangerous.

It's also a bit mystifying how we had such overwhelming civic anguish over the monorail, voting on it FIVE TIMES, yet are now proceeding with streetcar plans with no voting at all, and seemingly no public discussion or interest. They're just doing it.

Ross also covers the history of clusterfucking and missed opportunities well, and offers (gasp!) conflicting viewpoints.

What we're doing is making absolutely sure we get the worst possible combinations of systems for the maximum possible cost. The correct analogy isn't a Mercedes, as in the article, but a car with square wheels.

No, StrangerDanger -- Erica doesn't either.

PreCambrian: "Back in the PreCambrian Era, one could only go down to Oxford, there was no good alternative, by jove, don't you konw?"

Sorry, PC -- the noun or adjectival form for Cambridge is Cantabrigian, not Cambrian.

I had to laugh at that "19th century" crack, Erica, considering you could buy a car in 1865. And Fnarf, it's funny isn't it, it's totally useless technology and yet you see it everywhere you travel. When will people learn!

Nowhere in Erica's piece do I see "19th Century". Nor is it true in any meaningful sense that you could buy a car in 1865. Realistic car production -- models you could widely purchase, not novelties -- began in the early 1900s.

I want mass transit as much as the next career pedestrian, but this Ross fellow is right, you know. The S.L.U.T. is definitely not the solution to our transportation problem.

Councilmember Nick Licata and Peter Sherwin on one side and Councilmember Jan Drago and James Kelly on the other - of opposing positions on the Streetcar Network Proposal:

http://www.seattlechannel.org/CityInsideOut/

In other news, apparently there is an obscure blog called Crosscut on the internet.

Shorter Slog: Horse and buggy may clog the streets with manure, but at least it's not the bus. Plus, the Sierra Club is backing it.

Crosscut?

Is that like the "paper" for Skid Row inhabitants?

Hey ECB! You forgot to mention that this particular idiot doesn't even live in Seattle. I'm sure that day-to-day life in Port Townsend has given him a special lens on what we need.

And his crack about trolley's not working on water? Now I understand why he gets the privilege to knock-elbows with good 'ol Knute.

a streetcar network is dumb. 70 years after having torn the city's previous streetcar network, we're going to rebuild it?

how's that again?

It's all about Fremont.

Ross Anderson, washed up Seattle Times columnist, Discovery Institute fellow, and Port Townsend resident doesn't like trains.

I wonder when he proposes replacing the state ferry system with hundreds of small Intelligently Designed private foot ferries?

Dinosaurs are not extinct - they're on life support.

We are supposed to get new bus service in King County from "Transit Now." We voted for higher sales taxes in 2006. When's the "transit" and the "now" part of Transit Now scheduled to begin?

We should use the example of Third Avenue as a model for other bus system tweaks.