I'm up to my eyebrows in paperwork today. My own blogging will be light.
Use the comments to discuss anything on your mind.
Posted by Stefan Sharkansky at March 20, 2006 11:00 AM | Email ThisLast weekend proved one thing- the experts aren't so experts. Besides whining about one team or another that did or didn't deserve to be in it, or someone or the other shouldn't have been seeded as high as they were, it was sure good to see the underdogs win.
I pay $2/month or so on my cable bill to ESPN and the gaggle of "bracketologists". It just warmed my heart to see the results from last weekend.
The UW wasn't supposed to beat Utah State, much less Illinois.
Posted by: swatter on March 20, 2006 11:28 AMThe stand-in Bush was great.
I-932, the County Choice Initiative will set up rules to allow counties to merge OR to establish new counties (e.g. Cascade County from King County. Petitions are available for download, and more information is at www.countychoice.org
Hope to see you on Thurs!
Posted by: john on March 20, 2006 11:39 AMIs it just that changing county borders would even out the rich/poor counties.. Are their any other politics behind this?
Thanks
Posted by: Gerald on March 20, 2006 12:01 PMMy big thing is Rail Trails which are abandoned railroads where the rails and ties have been removed and the right of way has been converted to path for walking, bicyling, horsebacking riding, xc skiing, et al.
Burke Gilman from Gas Works to Kenmore is always talked about, but there are 63 rail trails in the state if you look at the above link.
The trails range from a path to a paved 20-30 ft wide asphalt road that is suitable for skinny tire bicyles.
Here in King County there are 12+ and Snohomish and Pierce have trails also.
Ron Sims wants to buy the BNSF route from Renton to Snohomish, but I feel the funds should be spent for acquring and mainting the rights of way we already have in King County. Plus the I-405 BNSF is still in operation and used by Boeing, the Dinner Train, and other short haul operations.
If Sound Transit ever gets their act together you could run passenger service down the I-405 corridor.
If the progressives were as smart as they think they are, they would have rail banked the interurbans from Tacoma, Everett, and Bellingham to relaunch once they were needed.
Now Sound Transit is trying to rebuild the interurbans and the cost and bureaucracy is just totally absurd.
The Iron Goat runs from Scenic on US-2 to Wellington and has been featured on PBS Channel 9
www.trailvolunteers.org
The Iron Horse/John Wayne/Milwaukee Road is suppose to go from Tacoma to the Idaho border if the State ever acquire all the remainings sections.
It is my understanding that Tim Hill, KCE prior to
Gary Locke, was instrumental in getting the abandoned railroads converted in King County.
The Seattle Times had a front page article on the Eastside Trail which is being dedicated on Tuesday. It unfortuneately was a repackaging of the same-o same-o. If the reporter really wanted to do a good article, she would have listed all the rail trails here in the Puget Sound, displayed a map, and listed the various volunteer groups who go out each week (sometimes twice) and reclaim the path from the underbrush and maintain these trails.
Posted by: Green Lake Mark on March 20, 2006 12:05 PMI-932 is in response to the old Cedar County effort, where the court said that you couldn't create a new county without rules-- and the legislature hasn't passed those rules in the 116 years they've been meeting-- so I-932 establishes rules governing the merging and splitting of counties.
There are currently 2-3 counties on the verge of bankruptcy in eastern WA who IF they could merge with each other or adjacent counties, could become financially solvent.
At the same time, there is a heavy groundswell of folks in rural King County who are tired of having their lives dictated by downtown Seattle bureaucrats who view the rural areas as places they don't want folks to live. As long as Seattle dominates the county, it's impossible for folks in Enumclaw, Duvall, or Snoqualmie to get much more than lipservice, so I-932 will give these citizens a chance to make their case to their fellow voters-- no automatic creation of counties, but the right to collect signatures and force it to a vote (vice allowing the Legs or COunty council to stall it...).
Email me at john@countychoice.org if you have other questions....
Thanks, John
Personally, I think the effort defrays from the main goal of retaking the suburbs, waging a political insurgency in Seattle and getting candidates who represent the best interests of the people of King County in office.
Posted by: Reporterward on March 20, 2006 01:08 PMDoes anyone know if there has been any study on the use of the carpool only ramps such as how many cars per day, ROI analysis, etc.?
I am getting totally fed up with these ramps built at the cost of millions of $ for only a select few users.
Anyone else feel the same way?
Posted by: C. Oh on March 20, 2006 01:35 PMAbsolutely! But you (and I) don't matter. I don't know what it'll take (short of a complete regime change), and I'll never get used to the flagrant waste of resources.
To the moonbats, to even bring it up equates to "whinging" (sic).
Posted by: alphabet soup on March 20, 2006 01:52 PMBut I can comment on a related issue, the safety of HOV Lanes. Studies in Texas and Maryland showed that there were much higher rates of accidents in those lanes, and the adjoining lanes. The basic problem is simple; it is dangerous to have adjacent lanes with the cars going at very different speeds.
Here's my post from last year on the problem.
Posted by: Jim Miller on March 20, 2006 03:07 PMNever elect anyone into office who is named after money
Greg Nickels wants your nickels.
Sounds like a democrap's economic theory. Spend $23M instead of receiving $5M to achieve the same result.
Oops, I'm sorry, I forgot. It's Bush's fault.
More on roads - SR 169 SE 272nd on north thru Maple Valley, the road condition is horrible. Where is the tax money going????
Posted by: Sparkey on March 20, 2006 05:19 PMThat tells me that HOV lanes are underused, but WSDOT doesn't want to admit that.
Posted by: South County on March 20, 2006 08:25 PMFinally, NE 35th....just getting done being retrofitted with some water collection tanks....takes 8 months...the road is to narrow to begin with for Buses and cars....do they widen it at all....no. What morons!
While we are talking initiatives, may I also take the opportunity to plug I-933, The Property Fairness Act. Get the whole story (and download petitions) at:
http://www.propertyfairness.com/
Full disclosure: I have more than a little vested interest in I-933: I was one of many Farm Bureau activists who worked on the text. There was a lot of discussion along the way, but we the Farm Bureau came out united, and committed to getting this on the ballot and passed in November. Of course the socialists REALLY hate this one...
Posted by: Methow Ken on March 20, 2006 11:36 PMThe Hawks did the right thing. Guards are just not worth that kind of money. And now they were able to sign Julian Peterson, who will have more impact on the defensive side of the ball.
Posted by: Palouse on March 21, 2006 09:12 AMI have 3 points on traffic I'd like to see addressed:
#1. Metro buses running empty during rush hours.
Every day I see at least one metro bus on the way to work, and on the way home going to "Transit base", or "Eastside Base". I can't help but wonder why Metro schedules their buses to run empty, polluting the enviroment and clogging "prime traffic" times. If I'm seeing one a day, they must be running dozens of buses like this every day.
I could see moving buses around for the sake of efficiency - but I don't understand why that means that when traffic is heavy that the buses couldn't be doing something more productive than running empty.
#2. Government worker hours.
Anybody who has commuted during a "government holiday" knows that traffic is significantly better. What this means is that you have government workers commuting to work during "prime traffic hours" who are essentially doing nothing more than getting in our way. Are we stupid? Can somebody explain to me why exactly we pay government workers to do this?
The fix? Require all government offices to adopt "off hours". You want to work for the government? Good - you start at 1:30 PM, and get off at 10:00 PM. I don't know about anybody else, but whenever I have dealings with the government, I always have to leave work to do it. Why do we tolerate this? They are supposed t o serve us - they should not be inconvieniencing us - either by getting in our way, or by closing at 5:00 PM so they can get in our way on the way home.
#3. The Viaduct.
3 Billion Dollars. ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR MIND?!?
If we have 3 Billion Dollars laying around to build a tunnel, is there anyplace better we could use it?
I know lots of people use the viaduct, but would there be any better way to spend the money that might alleviate traffic more effectively? Seems to me like 3 Billion Dollars would probably be more than enough money to build a bypass for I-5 through downtown Seattle... Maybe a nice bypass for I-405 through Bellevue, and with the change, start in on replacing I-520.
What kind of idiots immediately go for the most expensive and least effective solution?
Posted by: thecomputerguy on March 21, 2006 10:53 AMI think unions in general have outlived their usefullness -- they are obsolete, redundant, ineffective, corrupt, and damaging to our economy. And yet I am being forced to support them finacially. The taxes I pay to the state are used to pay state workers wages, who are forced to pay dues to the unions, which in turn use it to pay off their liberal lackeys in congress so they can perpetuate this whole scam.
Besides the poor people who lost their jobs because they refused to join this racket -- what about us poor tax payers that have to watch our hard earned money getting siphoned off into these scumbags' pockets?? Grrrr. Why isn't this illegal?
Posted by: starboardhelm on March 22, 2006 05:19 PM