The Seattle dailies are reporting that a group of protesters picketed a Sound Transit construction site yesterday demanding more jobs and contracts for African-Americans. The Times: "No black contracts — no light rail".
My first reaction was "is that a threat or a promise?". But seriously, what this action mainly does is reinforce the fact that Sound Transit is nothing if not a welfare program. Sound Transit makes no economic sense as a transportation solution. The agency's only real purpose is to take money from the many and redistribute it as welfare to the few: Welfare for construction contractors, welfare for equipment manufacturers, welfare for lawyers, welfare for P.R. firms and advertising agencies. It's understandable that other groups will line up to demand their fair share too.
Posted by Stefan Sharkansky at April 28, 2006 10:28 AM | Email ThisDon't act like it was not pointed out to you that this is what would happen:
"What I did not expect was the mismanagement that has occurred and Ron Sims Lack of Commitment to a Best Practices"
Hold on tight baby, you are in for a wild ride now that the Tacoma/Pierce County ‘mafia’ has consolidated their power over the agency and is firmly in charge. They have already transferred 100% of the price of admission on the Tacoma Link Light Rail to the taxpayers (Purchasers of vehicle licenses) so that a certain cabal within the Tacoma/Pierce machine, their family members and close business associates can advertise that purchaser’s of their condos get FREE public transportation. There is a cadre of Tacoma/Pierce politicians that view their offices as admission to a 'private investment' club.
Posted by: JDH on April 28, 2006 01:35 PM
3 What I did not expect was the mismangement that has occurred and Ron Sims Lack of Commitment to
a Best Practices
b Hiring the Best and the Brightest
Mark, my father-in-law is a European (a retired builder). In 1996 he asked me how I would vote and I told him I would vote no. He said he was voting yes and lectured me about the superiority and cost effectiveness of European mass transit.
I listened politely, then said, "Suppose everything you said about transit is true. Do you trust Ron Sims to do it correctly, on time and on budget?"
He just shook his head. He had all the experience with King County Building Dept he could tolerate.
Posted by: South County on April 28, 2006 02:40 PMA Tacoma city clerk once told me that the Tacoma/PC "mafia" made millions off of properties they purchased for low prices due to their locations near the garbage dump. The mafiosos then carted away millions of excess dollars by claiming the garbage dump damaged the value of their properties. Coincidentally, most of these properties were originally owned by Ken Miller's family before a large portion was condemned, ostensibly to build Mt. Tahoma high school.
Mr. Miller talked to government officials and others about the ridiculousness of some of these developers' claims and the city's payouts. Now, by chance, the Millers have had to spend over $150,000 keeping government officials from condemning their home (by the DOT) and their business property (by ST). The Washington Supreme court outrageously ruled in favor of ST even though ST will probably never use the Millers' property (it's on the wrong side of the tracks). The Ladenburgs and their equally corrupt friends have the public's gold and so they make the rules to enrich themselves and to harass honest citizens.
Posted by: BW on April 28, 2006 04:35 PMCity council members trying to conduct business with protesting thugs stnading over them! If it were your average concerned citizen...trying to launch a complaint about a city policy - they would have been arrested! Why weren't these black thugs arrested?
The council is so Politically correct - it would allow itself - and it's citizens to be hijacked by any special interest! Heck! What would they do if terrorists took over their meeting?
I'm getting really sick of reverse discrimination in this state! I thought the idea was to become "equal"....not "prefered".... Illegal immigrants from Mexico take our tax money in illegal social services, Black construction companies want all the choice government jobs, Indian Tribes can ignore our state laws and smoking bans....White people are just becoming the cash cow for it all.......
Posted by: Deborah on April 28, 2006 10:04 PMThe extension to Husky Stadium's EIGHT YEARS of construction sounds like a set up beyond the 'necessary' extension from there to Northgate. I've always said BRT north would be more than adequate and build a broader transit ridership corridor along I-5. Light rail to UW serves that exclusive market.
Posted by: Wells on April 30, 2006 08:29 AMGreen Lake Mark and others voted in the monster. Don't complain if you get mauled be it.
Leaders in Tacoma and Seattle have been playing with other folk's property for four decades that I am aware of. What else is new?
Posted by: Snuffy on April 30, 2006 08:15 PMFurther, I checked out the link Stefan provided to CETA, and it is hopelessly outdated; also, most of the facts they present are simply wrong. It looks like this is where Stefan gets most of his anti-transit information. No wonder he hates Sound Transit and light rail so much.
CLAIMS from CETA website with my comments below:
LIGHT RAIL WON'T HELP CONGESTION
Nothing helps congestion, especially when freeways are involved. The effect of 'latent demand' in even medium-density regions is as much of a reality as gravity. If you open up new space on the freeway, because tens of thousands of former drivers are taking light rail, somebody else will fill that space because traffic fills the freeway like water in a hose. With new real-time traffic information available to many, this effect will only be more pronounced in the coming years. Same thing works for expanding freeway lanes.
CURRENT LIGHT RAIL PLAN IS NOT WHAT WE VOTED FOR IN 1996
With a second federal grant, 19 of the original 21 miles will be achieved - with no new local taxes. Considering the track record of every other large project in the region in recent decades, that's pretty darn good.
DOESN'T GIVE US NEW OPTIONS OR NEW CAPACITY
If light rail isn't a "new" option to this region (we seem to be the last major city in N. America) I don't know what is. CETA seems to be pushing more bus service under this subheading, but facts show buses attract very few new transit riders - in other words, buses attract people who don't own cars. Light rail, on the other hand, has turned this statistic on its head. Which is why "the evil policians" like it so much. New stats show that 40% of riders on Minneapolis' Hiawatha line are "new" riders - in that, they've never taken transit before. That's about as close to providing "congestion relief" as you can get. Take people off the roads. Conservatives should welcome the concept, especially since you won't catch a conservative on a bus.
As far as new capacity - they selected light rail decades ago BECAUSE of the high capacity it provides. If you want to mimic light rail capacity with buses, you are talking about clogging our roads with a lot of buses, folks.
NOT REGIONAL
I don't get this criticism. This light rail line is the starter line, paid for primarily by Seattle voters. When future suburban lines are built, they will be paid for by those communities.
CETA claims five stations were promised outside Seattle and Sound Transit is only providing one. From all the reading I've done, not only is this claim outdated (there are two stations being built outside Seattle) but that's all that was ever promised (maybe S. 200th was part of the original plan?)
OVERPRICED
The CETA claim is that light rail costs more here than it does anywhere else in the country. It depends, of course, which part of the line you are comparing. Of course, the 1 mile tunnel under Beacon Hill is going to cost more than a Portland Max line built on old railroad right of way. But the Portland Max tunnel under the zoo was very expensive - and they ran into all kinds of problems there. We have lots of hills and water here, which affects ALL transportation projects. The eastside anti-transit crowd has been pushing for the most expensive projects so far: 405 and 520. Nobody seems to complain about those projects on this board.
Nobody at CETA or SP seems to want to acknowledge that I-90 from Bellevue - through Mercer Island - was the most expensive stretch of highway in US history when constructed. And something tells me it wasn't "tax and spend liberals" who demanded all those expensive lids. Light rail will be a cakewalk compared to those freeway projects - and, in some cases - will probably carry as many riders during peak hours.
DISRUPTS NEIGHBORHOODS
Take a drive down MLK, folks. Sure, construction is tearing up the street. But you already have massive new housing developments along the route (both public and private) and I've already seen $450k townhomes being marketed because of their proximity to light rail. Once the project is done, the "strip malls" (oops, I meant neighborhoods) along MLK will be completely revitalized. It's funny CETA would complain about two, tiny trolley wires running down the street, when Sound Transit and the city are completely undergrounding all the massive & ugly power, phone, and cable lines for the project. 'Before and after' pictures, I'm sure, will show just how petty most of CETA's complaintes are. I think much of this bad information must have come from CETA's association with 'Save our Valley' and other wild-eyed "environmental justice" groups that opposed light rail in favor of monorail for the Rainier Valley. George Curtis, as I recall, was one of the early CETA members who literally screamed his way into every public meeting on the subject.
UNSAFE
I've read the EIS as it pertains to this subject. The prediction is that accident rates in the Rainier Valley will actually decrease. The pedestrian environment is terrible now. New sidewalks will make it much better.
And once this new community is built along the light rail line - with less traffic accidents - people around the city and region will want the same thing near them.
This is the real reason - in my view - why conservatives oppose this particular light rail project so much.
Go take a walk in Portland's Pearl District. It's a pedestrian friendly yuppy playland, enjoyed by people of all political stripes.
It's also the anti-government libertarian's worst nightmare: government working with the private sector to create public infrastructure to transform a community that isn't based on polluting cars.
The horrors.
Posted by: WeNeedRoadsAndTransit on May 3, 2006 11:26 AM"3 What I did not expect was the mismangement that has occurred and Ron Sims Lack of Commitment to
a Best Practices
b Hiring the Best and the Brightest"
What mismanagement are you speaking of that "best practices" could solve? And as far as "best and brightest" it would appear the agency is on track, under budget - thanks to the person Ron Sims chose to run Sound Transit.
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"4 Light rail will destroy the Rainier Avenue neighborhood by having a train split the community in half"
It's very clear you never went to the Rainier Valley before the project was envisioned, Green Lake Mark - and it's also clear you haven't seen all the brand new housing being built along the light rail route. In fact, it's pretty clear the only information you've looked at regarding this subject came from some wild-eyed leftist "environmental justice" activists. Which would seem strange, since you appear to be a Republican.
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"5 If you do a search of the Puget Sound Business Journal, you'll see that ST is the "deadbeat dad of government agencies" since they do not comply w/ the state and federal laws that payments must be made w/ in 30 days of receipt of goods and services"
You finally hit on something specific. In fact, here's the article:
http://seattle.bizjournals.com/seattle/stories/2000/10/23/story4.html
Besides the fact it's six years old, and besides the fact that I can't find a single other citation or legal action associated with one Central Area businessman's claims about being paid - I can't see how this one obscure issue would play any kind of factor at all. I do see that the person who made the complaint was also a Republican gadfly political candidate at one time - who got only a tiny percentage of the vote. Maybe that's is why you mentioned this non-issue, Green Lake Mark?
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"6 NJ Transit, BART, Metro (DC), and Denver are places that have good rail transportation systems"
Funny you should mention DC's Metro, Green Lake Mark - because that was the most expensive subway ever built at the time. Same with BART. But those systems were built ONLY because of a huge federal subsidy. Back in the day, the feds actually spent money on infrastructure that benefitted cities and suburbs alike. Now, thanks to the current Administration's priorities and the devolvement of the federal government, systems that you seem to like would be impossible to build...period. Even highway funding took a dive when the GOP was looking for a way to partially "pay" for massive tax cuts a couple years ago.
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"7 Why is Seattle and Puget Sound like Eirre Indiana"
Well, for one - we have a bunch of grumpy "Lesser Seattle" liberals who tend to team up on occasion with anti-government Republicans, Libertarians and Conservatives (who all seem to like hanging out here) - and the result tends to be what I call "Kingdome Planning."
Build it on the cheap - and complain about it a decade or two later. In fact, you can even blame the government when the bond payments outlast the useful life of the project!
Why do you think the region rejected light rail 30 years ago - when the feds would have paid 80%, and the region could have built it for PENNIES on today's dollar. It was the same band of backwards looking hacks and Republicans who said "just put more buses on the road, we don't need rail!"
Those same voices have now re-named buses stuck in traffic "Bus Rapid Transit." Cheap, yes - and nobody rides it. Kinda like the same way nobody liked sitting in the Kindgdome for more than two hours.
So, to answer your last question in short, Green Lake Mark: partially because of people you associate with.
Posted by: WeNeedRoadsAndTransit on May 3, 2006 12:13 PM