The right-wing bastards are winning this argument. By appealing to latent racism (mostly smelly "urban" people use transit, REAL people drive SUVs). Invoking anecdotal bullshit about how Metro wastes boatloads of money, the drivers get paid lavishly, all the buses are empty, and so on.

The bottom line? This country is fucked, a majority are just selfish, stingy, greedy narcissistic pricks.

Walt, I have a word for you to look up (it's not profane): sanctimony.

Speaking of transit, I took Sounder in from Kent to today's (horrific) Mariners' game. This is what I want...fast, regional transit. Angle Lake Station, when open in 2015, will be my new favorite place on Earth. But I'm not sure what, if anything, Prop 1 does for me as a low density, suburban advocate for fast inter-urb transit with a fondness for independently guided vehicles locally.

But still, what a joy to glide into The City on a quick train. And I got to spend time at Zeitgeist pre-game in what I consider the most elegant quarter of the Emerald City:

https://scontent-a-sea.xx.fbcdn.net/hpho…

I did note there were five charging stations outside King Street. Number of Teslas? Zed:

https://scontent-a-sea.xx.fbcdn.net/hpho…

Well, I think the language would appeal to Meinert, but he probably doesn't take the bus, and raising sales tax on his restaurant's meals and increasing his car tab fees would probably force him to double the price of his goose liver pate and lay off 10% of his staff, so he's not going to support it in spite of the appealing language.

I wandered over to the West Seattle Blog today, and was discouraged to note that WS has apparently become the poor man's Bellevue. Numerous tedious bores stating why they voted no - and for the usual simple-minded reasons.

@6 Thank you. I've been trying to come up with a name for what WS has turned into in the last 5 years and they were all too long and detailed.

@4, those are blink/ecotality charging stations. $114 million in federal stimulus funds to deploy 1200 chargers along the west coast. Makes Sounder trains look thrifty.

I want more profanity.

Hells yeah, Walt, tell those bitch-ass motherfuckers what's up.

If right wingers, or right of centers, libertarians, didn't ride the bus, a lot of people would be late for work. I voted yes, and I don't take the bus. And some of my liberal friends voted against it. It really isn't that much of a partisan debate.
Keeping traffic down is appealing to a lot of folks.

I approve of the swearing and I vote yes...

I'm ancient, I don't ride the bus, and I voted yes.

I like the Stranger's use of Anglo-Saxon vernacular.

Walt, I can confidently infer, is of an advanced age that puts him on the other side of a cultural divide that simply *cannot* be crossed by those of us on the younger side of it. It seems that at some point in the not-too-distant past, vulgar English language had some kind of impact or connotation or... well, you'd just have to ask Walt or one of his contemporaries about it!

I ride the bus daily and support Prop 1. But calling everyone who disagrees with you on just about any issue a "right-wing asshole" is counterproductive and, frankly, immature.

@6

Ugh, I hopped over there to see for myself. What a bunch of dour nincompoops. I rolled my eyes especially hard at "If the density advocates wants busses, make THEM pay for it." Like, what the fucking fuckedy fuck? Whoops, sorry, Walt.

How many of them ride the bus? Trick question. They all live in hip Capitol Hill and walk to work.

@12 and 17: Thank you for voting Yes on Prop 1. Really. But right wingers are still assholes. Right wingers who voted Yes did so for two of the same reasons I did: traffic in this city sucks and parking downtown is expensive. The difference, however, is they don't give a flying fuck about low income people who have no other choice than to take the bus, or the environmental impact of 30K more cars on the road. Right wingers who voted Yes only did so because it benefits them personally. God forbid they actually could think about anyone else. If it looks, walks and quacks like an asshole, then yes, it's an asshole.

@9 I get what you're saying. I ride a Honda Metropolitan and now have $40 tab fees with the likelihood of them going up to $60.

Guess how I voted?

"YES."

Why?

Because this shit isn't just about me. I have $7 a month insurance and burn about a gallon of gasoline a month. Less in the winter and more in the summer. So my vehicle costs me $11 a month. With tabs, $14.25; with a prospect of that going up to $15.75.

Big fucking deal.

More important than my $1.50 a month is a reliable metro system. More important is customers being able to make it in to my shop. More important is my employees being able to get to work on time and home at a reasonable hour. And this isn't just those who ride the bus; people driving will be caught in worse traffic for longer periods of time. Burning more gas while idling.

Don't be so selfish. You're already saving money on your vehicles other costs of ownership.

I don't mind the crass vernacular but it has seemed at times that the stranger/slog community can dish it but not take it.

@9, apparently you haven't read what we're voting for, meaning that you don't realize that part of this money is going to roads. You know, the roads that people ride their motorcycles on. I know some of those motorcycle owners and their rides cost more than my Corolla, so don't talk as though they're always a cheap ride.

@14, are you sure you're not me? Or maybe I'm you.

@20. I must say that the flying f**k part in your argument is groundless, you have no datum to support that conclusion.

@1 Yeah that's why we got President Romeny...oops

And more class argument giving it seems, rather than race.

Middle-aged bicycle commuter who voted yes. I would take the bus more often if it reliably, frequently went where I needed to go. I don't mind The Stranger language but mourn the loss of impact when a curse word is used too often.

@24

The flying fuck is a figure of speech employed for effect and as such cannot technically be backed up. Most readers would understand meaning and intent. However, if @20 needed to be literal for the literal minded, you might translate the statement as saying that rightwingers "don't care about low income people who have no other choice than to take the bus, or the environmental impact of 30K more cars on the road." A half-hearted search on the world wide web would produce ample support.

I have to agree with Walt. I don't have a problem with so-called profanity so much as:

1. Use it effectively. You guys are the equivalent of the buzz word bingo guys at software companies who use words like "pivot" or "disrupt". The words lose their meaning/power when they are sprinkled everywhere for no apparent reason.

2. Telling another group to go fuck themselves is never much of a reason to vote for something. If that's the best you can do I can see why people would vote against it.

@20 lol at the thought of an asshole quacking. What a sound that would be!

Voting no, $60 per year per car is BS no matter how you cut it, and %40 of that is not going to road improvements "Forty percent of revenues, net of administrative costs, would be allocated by population to cities for transportation improvements and to the county for unincorporated area road purposes." So after admin costs and transportation improvements I bet that leaves less than %20 for roads that are not even in Seattle? From my experience the unincorporated areas of King County are not having the issues with roads, all you need to do to see this is cross 145th up north or Renton Way down south, as soon as you get out of Seattle the roads are great, in Seattle there still fucked as telling a right winger to go fuck themselves. That is not a sell people out of the city that have no need for buses are going to buy. You really think that an average family that lives in North Bend, Fall City or Enumclaw should have to drop an extra $120 a year on Metro when they most likely come into Seattle once a year if that? Not to mention have there sales tax increase? Packaging buses & roads is not gonna fly with most of the voters that do not use Metro. I'm not paying an extra $120 a year for car tabs on buses I never ride, if the tab increase was less than $20 I could get behind that but $60 is crazy. And dont think that right wing rich white folks are the ones against this. There are a ton of struggling young dems that do not have any use for metro that are going to be hurt by this increase (although 99% of them probably are not going to vote) Just because this helps transit doesn't mean its the solution.

@1 this doesnt have shit to do with latent racism, this has everything to do with a majority of people living check to check that dont ride metro being asked to dish out an extra $60+ a year for a service they dont use.

@33 you aren't dishing out an extra $60. The total cost for a tab would increase to $60.

Maybe you could get yourself out of that poopy job you have to drive to if you'd take a second to improve your reading comprehension.

@34 I drive/bike to work, no way I could bus and it be quicker based on where I live (Shoreline) and where I work (Totem Lake), thanks for the clarification but your point still does not counter the fact that Prop 1 is asking all of King County to pay for Metro routes that a small percentage of the total King Co population uses. I just dont see it flying but good luck.

@33, You may not think you use Metro, but you do. All of us do. If all the people on mass transit started driving a single occupant vehicle, you would see your commute grind to a screeching halt that never gets better. Everyone benefits when more people use mass transit.

Also, yes the SECB is vulgar, offensive, impaired. Please keep up the good work.

@36 Prop 1 isnt doing away with Metro so your point is mute, I see it as a poor way to pay for continuing the routes in question, also as I stated this is a extremely tough sell to make for the rest of King Co not having the need for Metro.