Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels announced last month that he would hire more police. Except that he won't because he can't find the money to pay for them.
Maybe we can help.
The City Clowncil is on the verge of approving $11 million for a (largely unneeded) garage for the Woodland Park Zoo. Those $11 million would pay for a few officers.
The $1 million blown on the mostly pointless Viaduct advisory vote would have paid for 8 officers for a year. Oh, well. Opportunity lost.
Mayor Nickels' chauffeur-driven limousine? Let the Mayor drive himself like the rest of us shnooks and have his policeman-driver do some real work.
And speaking of law enforcement priorities, the Mayor and Clowncil are contemplating strict new laws concerning residential trash. Will they somehow find the money to pay for trash inspectors?
Posted by Stefan Sharkansky at April 17, 2007 11:06 AM | Email ThisThat area is becoming more dense and the parking garage could help alleviate the future parking problem when the density takes over the once quiet neighborhood.
Cato's comment is a case in point.
Seattle increases density around the zoo, but don't require that the units put in reasonable numbers of parking stalls. Why not? Well, they don't want you to use cars.
Sooo, people use cars and need to park, so now what? You got it!! Build more parking stalls that they have required to developer to do.
Posted by: swatter on April 17, 2007 11:43 AMIts illegal to park blocking someone's driveway. If someone parks illegally, they should be cited and towed.
What I suspect is happening is that people are parking on the street (which is legal), and the local residents don't like it so they're claiming they're parking in front of driveways (which might actually happen, but only occasionally, by the exceptionally thoughtless driver).
The bottom line is that the mayor's job is to properly prioritize. There is no way in hell that anybody with half a brain is going to claim that a parking garage for the zoo takes priority over adequately staffing the police force.
Posted by: thecomputerguy on April 17, 2007 11:54 AMb) how about an inititive campaign requiring elected officials to use publis transportation for all trips within city limits?
c) go sonics
Posted by: Morisseau on April 17, 2007 12:08 PMIt's a win-win for the carnal relationship bewteen the city and developers.
Posted by: noah parkin on April 17, 2007 12:12 PMAlso... no idea why they need a garage at the zoo. I take junior there on a faily regular basis and have never had a problem finding free parking within 2 blocks or an enterance.
Posted by: AndrewsDad on April 17, 2007 12:19 PMPeople have abandoned cars in front of my driveway, do you know how hard it is to actually get someone to tow it away? Last time I tried it took me 8 calls and five hours to finally get someone to look at it to say it was blocking. Why? Because the non-emergency Dept. of Seattle PD was closed, tow company will not come unless the police say it's blocked. Police have more important things to do that verify driveways are blocked.
They aways have budget space for Apts. for drunks, more staff, more entitlements. But Public safety, it always is sucking hind teet.
I spent a lot of time work on the Fire Dept. I always vote no on FD levys. Fire and Police (Public Safety) should be funded as the number one priority, not art work in the transfer station.
Posted by: JCM on April 17, 2007 12:31 PMBut the Art work doesn't get sick, miss work, have an injury on the job, require a pension, and generally lasts longer than the firefighter/cop who will likely just transfer to another city when they can't afford to live here anymore. Meanwhile the art stays there and no one complains.
Seattle needs to get off its high horse and become another interconnected suburb with the rest of the grid, LA style.
One man. One vote.
Not sure if you live near the zoo or not, but surely you are aware that most (note I did not say ALL) of the opposition to the parking garage is from those who live near the zoo! I know this because my girlfriend lives in a condo very near the zoo. A moonbat leftie in her building is always putting up flyers and organizing opposition to the garage. When I go over to her place in the summer is it sometimes hard to find parking? yes. Have I ever NOT found parking? No.
The REAL reason they want the garage is MONEY. People currently park for free on the streets nearby (As AndrewsDad noted above) instead of paying to park in the zoo lot. SO, the zoo is building a garage AND the city is changing the zoning around in the nearby neighborhood to residential "zoned" parking. So AndrewsDad will not be able to park on the streets (unless it is a very short visit) they will HAVE to park in the garage! I am all for capitalism, but not using my tax dollars to do it! Oh and did I mention that residents will be allowed to BUY zone parking stickers? And that someone like me, who is visiting the neighborhood but not going to the zoo will be screwed as well?
Believe me, I do not agree on much with my gf's goofy neighbor and it pains me to say it, but she is right on this one!
Posted by: Just a Guy on April 17, 2007 01:35 PMOh you mean those ones that cost $20 for two years of street parking? I used to have one of those when I lived in a more populous neighborhood.
and that someone like me, who is visiting the neighborhood but not going to the zoo will be screwed as well?
Actually when you buy a zone permit you get a guest pass. One per household. So your girlfriend or her moonbat lefty neighbor should be able to loan you theirs.
The zoo lot sounds like a good idea especially when they have the Zoo Tunes series.
as for parking, i see both sides. i dont like people/visitors hogging the spaces in front of my home. i had to deal with this back east in a very congested neighborhood. residents were screwed by weekend partygoers, although one could argue it's a price of lining there.
i usually pay for parking at zoo. guess it's the price of attending, so i support a garage. and--nearby zoo residents should not pay for a resident pass--they should get them free--after all, they are paying high property taxes. why not respect their properties?
let a private company build/admin. the garage. but-i think the zoo is technically a city/govt org., thus the funding.
Posted by: jimmie-howya-doin on April 17, 2007 02:18 PMSo what you're saying is that people come to the Zoo to abandon cars?
Posted by: thecomputerguy on April 17, 2007 02:41 PMThey abandon their cars only to return at a later time. Doesn't help the property owner much since the car is still blocking their driveway, it may as well be abandoned. =)
Can't get a cop for my driveway, because no cops
True story: Resident recently called SPD because car was blocking driveway. Two uniformed officers responded. They went door-to-door in neighborhood. Said they were "Looking for driver so they could ask driver to move car rather than ticket/tow it." Eventually they ticketed car. Driver arrived before tow truck.
In that case there were more than enough officers. Their police tactics were deficient. Guess that's The Seattle Way of policing.
as for the car, maybe they are waiting for a "WTO moment" or for our team(s) to win a pennant. let the party begin!
Posted by: jimmie-howya-doin on April 19, 2007 05:54 AM