Comments for PubliCola

Comment on The Killer App of 1900 by gitak

gitak — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 14:39:00 +0000

You got so many points here, that's why i love reading your blog. Thank you so much!

Comment on Bellevue Council Members Allege Open-Meetings Violations by realitybasedtransit

realitybasedtransit — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 13:42:13 +0000

Rob McKenna has consistently opposed light rail and is very protective of Kemper's folks and Republican elected officials in general. Don't let him fool you, he is very conservative and very partisan. He will not help on this issue.

The right thing is to build light rail for the next 100 years, not to avoid bothering anyone right now during construction.

Comment on Bellevue Council Members Allege Open-Meetings Violations by Joe Szilagyi

Joe Szilagyi — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 13:20:58 +0000

So who will do the right thing and ask McKenna to look into this?

Comment on Bellevue Council Votes for South Section of “Vision Line” by Joe Szilagyi

Joe Szilagyi — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 13:15:41 +0000

And I got confirmation in e-mail from some experts on this, too, in line with what you're saying. I'm boggled then that the entire local media operation from the Times to the PI to the Stranger to Publicola doesn't present it as what it is: Bellevue's Council or whatever they have over there can't stop the entire region, they can only complain short of filing lawsuits to stop Sound Transit from doing what's best for the overwhelming majority of citizens versus the extreme minority.

Or am I still not getting “it”?

Why don't they just present it as what it is? Busywork by the Bellevue council and wasted money stacking the Council. Lots of communities nation and worldwide have regionally or nationally beneficial projects in their areas that some NIMBYs may not like.

All the rest of this is just collective drama mongering for reads and hits by all parties by not just calling a spade a spade, and gives unearned (and based on the news today of them conducting meetings not in compliance with open government laws, undeserved) political authoritative clout to a few citizens over in Bellevue. Or in internet parlance: why are the Times, PI, Stranger and Publicola feeding the trolls?

Comment on After-Work Beers Don’t Get Much More Solid Than That by sarah68

sarah68 — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 11:09:21 +0000

Well, nothing new. Burgess as usually was professional and thoroughly scary, Tim Harris was in good form, Jon Scholes said the Downtown Seattle Association was a “neighborhood” organization and that most of the people living downtown were living in low-income units and renters, not wealthy, and Burgess capped it off by saying that the major downtown human services providers all support his ordinance, that Seattle spends more on homelessness than all the other cities in WA combined, and that Pioneer Square is worried that with street disorder, that neighborhood won't achieve its full potential. Whatever that depressing achievement would be.

Comment on Bellevue Council Votes for South Section of “Vision Line” by Jason_Mitchell

Jason_Mitchell — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 10:20:11 +0000

I don't have the link you probably want at my fingertips, but it's fairly common knowledge. Just look at the language used to discuss the process. From today's Times piece (my emphasis):

“After a contentious debate, the Bellevue City Council reversed a decision from last year about light rail in South Bellevue and voted Monday to _recommend_ a light-rail route that would run parallel to I-90 instead of running up Bellevue Way Southeast.”

From the Times article on the Bellevue council dropping the Mercer Slough option last week:

“The Sound Transit board, the final arbiter on light-rail routes, already has endorsed a Bellevue Way route, and has completed about 15 percent of the engineering.”

From the ST page discussing downtown routing options:

“The Sound Transit Board will use the report and public comments to determine if reconsidering the preferred alternative, the C4A At-Grade Couplet, is needed in downtown Bellevue. Sound Transit Board action is scheduled for Spring 2010.”

People are upset because it's never good to be at odds with the town through which you're running rail. Bellevue could theoretically slow the project with frivolous lawsuits and by dragging its feet on permitting—but it can't stop ST from building ST's preferred route.

Comment on Bellevue Council Votes for South Section of “Vision Line” by aw

aw — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 10:16:43 +0000

How much did Eastside residents contribute to the original construction of the DSTT? That came out of Metro's budget, didn't it?

Comment on Rossi Run Floated in National Press by PCsierra

PCsierra — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 10:01:15 +0000

Ruhn, Dihno, Ruhn. (Imagine with a Forest Gump affect.)

Comment on Bellevue Council Votes for South Section of “Vision Line” by bcrefugee

bcrefugee — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 09:52:30 +0000

Shocking, that in the middle of a massive recession, there has been no development around the brand new light rail system. Your expert analysis is flawless.

Comment on Inundated with Hundreds of Identical Emails from Microsoft by cad

cad — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 09:45:18 +0000

all of the microsofties I know work 12 hours days. Which afternoon shift would that be?

Comment on Held Hostage by the Senate by marymaryquitecontrary

marymaryquitecontrary — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 09:44:03 +0000

All women make our family lives work on a daily basis. We juggle our kids and our jobs and sometimes it's overwhelming but that's what it takes to get it done. I doubt Liu was really that naive when he got into this race. Basically, I don't buy the line and I'm curious what the real reasons were.