Slog

News & Arts

Line Out

Music & the City
at Night

« City Transportation Study Emphasize… | One of the Things I Hate About Mode… »

Tuesday, May 10, 2011

City Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood: Jaywalkers and Other Traffic Sinners Brought to Justice, Dennis Kucinich Invades the CD, and Great Pet-spectations

Posted by Unpaid Intern on Tue, May 10, 2011 at 1:02 PM

Posted by news intern Megan Burbank

Fremont Universe reports that on April 28, Seattle Police instigated crackdowns on jaywalkers and right-of-way skirters that brought justice, peace, and civility to the corner of North 41st Street and Stone Way North, as well as Airport Way South. The officers showed no mercy, issuing 40 tickets to driving anarchists who hurry past waiting pedestrians, seemingly undetected! Mad with the power of safety, they didn't stop there—they also issued one ticket for failure to wear a bicycle helmet and a jaywalking citation. The message here is clear: if you're going to jaywalk, at least wear a helmet.

Meanwhile, Central District News cheerfully hosted a special guest of honor at their annual May Day Parade: noted loose cannon and Ohio redistricting victim Dennis Kucinich. I don't think he's running for office for office or anything though, he's just super into Pagan holidays (who isn't?!) and fighting repression. The jury's still out on how many people who are not Dennis Kucinich showed up for the event—a follow-up post helpfully puts the crowd estimate in the hundreds or thousands.

Finally, it is with a heavy heart that I point you towards the Dickensian travails of several area pets. West Seattle Blog announced the disappearance of August the Weimeraner on May 9, PhinneyWood reports that Pepper the husky mix has been missing for a week, and over at Magnolia View, Bonnie the tortoiseshell cat needs a home. But there is hope, too! Beacon Hill Blog tells the heartwarming story of Coco the cape-sporting tuxedo cat, who went missing on May 3 and is now safely home.

Comments (11) RSS

Oldest First Unregistered On Registered On Add a comment

What about all the pedestrian-killing cars that blow thru stop signs and ignore pedestrians?

Posted by Will in Seattle

on May 10, 2011 at 1:19 PM

I don't believe these were tickets issued to jaywalkers. It's non-controlled intersection with a marked crosswalk. It would be practically impossible for a pedestrian to cross there illegally. My Wallingford says they were Pedestrian Right of Way tickets, i.e. ticekts issued to drivers who fail to yield to pedestrians.

Posted by kinaidos on May 10, 2011 at 1:28 PM

@2, quite so. Those are issued to drivers who fail to stop.

I liked the further note that at the Airport Way S crossing officers saw 11 violations in just 50 minutes. That's a pretty remarkable score.

Posted by Fnarf

on May 10, 2011 at 1:47 PM

@2 and 3 -- thanks for point this out. Just fixed it.

Posted by Unpaid Intern on May 10, 2011 at 2:05 PM

Unlike our intrepied Unpaid Intern, @2 apparently read the story, which nowhere mentions jaywalking and loses any credibility at all when one realizes it's about PROTECTING pedestrians, not ticketing them.

Nice job, Megan!

Posted by bigyaz on May 10, 2011 at 2:08 PM

*pointing. Pointing. Doublefail and thanks again, @2 and 3.

Posted by Unpaid Intern on May 10, 2011 at 2:11 PM

damn, but I wish the HTML6 coding for the polite tag was live and we were using the IPv6 spec we doc'd out in the early 90's already ...

Posted by Will in Seattle

on May 10, 2011 at 2:41 PM

5$ says those "lack of helmet" tickets were issued to cyclists. Some random anonymous poster say "OMG they gave a pedestrian a no helmet ticket!!" doesnt make it true.

Posted by Kinison

on May 10, 2011 at 3:13 PM

Kucinich isn't (yet) a redistricting victim ... nothing's settled in Ohio on the district-boundaries front. Also, CW has it that the to-be-screwed Democrat is Betty Sutton (OH-13), not Kucinich.

Which is very unfortunate. She, in sharp contrast to Kucinich, is an effective legislator. The Republicans do have an iota of intelligence in this matter ... they would vastly prefer to have the clownish Kucinich across the aisle than the dedicated, respected Sutton.

Posted by N in Seattle

on May 10, 2011 at 3:34 PM

the Seattle police have been told to write 14 tickets a day per shift. we need the money people! watch it out there! any little thing can mean kerching kerching!!! $$$

Posted by kylembelltown on May 10, 2011 at 5:13 PM

@1 that is precisely what they were doing. It is incredibly important for public safety to do stings like this. Most of the time, a plainclothes cop will step into a marked crosswalk, and if he's nearly ran over, they chase the offender down. The crosswalk chosen is usually one that has been a problem (usually a site of an injury accident). Drivers who space out and blow through crosswalks need to be woken up by these stings. WATCH OUT, slow down, yield to pedestrians.

Posted by razorclammer on May 10, 2011 at 7:51 PM