State Rep. Sharon Nelson (D-34) had in op-ed in yesterday's Seattle Times complaining that "Suburban sprawl has spread and spread"
Sprawl is also the most expensive way to grow. It means extending roads and building new schools and fire stations where we used to have farms, forests and wetlands....we simply cannot afford the high costs of suburban sprawl.Nelson knows her sprawl. She lives on Maury Island. Prior to her appointment to the legislature in 2007 she worked for a King County Councilmember at the county courthouse in downtown Seattle, 23 miles from her home.
It's everybody else's sprawl that's the problem.
Posted by Stefan Sharkansky at February 06, 2009 08:02 AM | Email This@2: Sorry, but sprawl happens regardless of whether there is population growth or not.
Posted by: demo_kid on February 6, 2009 08:29 AMHow about all the folks representing Eastern Washington traveling to Olympia?
Oh, of course we westsiders are subsidizing their lifestyles from the get go.
Now for the part you are all going to feel really warm and fuzzy about - these parasites are provided with a U-Pass that is subsidized by a charge added to each and every students tuition bill - yes even if the student lives within walking distance of the school and has no need or want for the U-Pass. They "pay" their ferry fares with a U-Pass that students and their parents are coerced into footing the bill for and the justification is.....drum roll please - the U-Pass is part of the University's "Commute Trip Reduction" plan.
This is not at alll an isolated hypocrissy and furthermore I have pointed this out the the Pee Eye and Seattle times suggesting that they consider doing an investigative report on this scandal and disgrace.
Posted by: JDH on February 6, 2009 09:15 AM
So you agree. People are moving out to give their childern a better place. As I said TAXES!
Posted by: Medic/Vet on February 6, 2009 09:27 AMRep. Nelson opines:
"Next time you visit Portland, citizens of that city can tell you that when you're not dependent on cars and highways, your stress goes down, along with how much you pay at the pump and time wasted sitting in traffic. What goes up? The time you can spend with your family."
Yet strangely, Ms.Nelson hasn't chosen this utopian lifestyle for herself or her family
"Less sprawl also creates a sense of community. Where people walk instead of drive, neighbors know each other because they see each other every day at the train station, the corner grocery store, the coffee shop. You can build a community when everybody is not driving past each other in their cars.
Ms.Nelson should be let in on the news that leadership by example is the best example of leadership.
"I believe that sense of community is worth having, and that we simply cannot afford the high costs of suburban sprawl."
translation: Don't move out where I'm at and crowd my sprawling space.
Posted by: Rick D. on February 6, 2009 09:36 AMYes in fact, they are. How many island dwellers do you suppose lives and works on that island? Probably very few. So she's decrying sprawl, while she represents it. That's hypocrisy.
Ferries costs this state's taxpayers millions and millions of dollars every year, alot more than one road out to some suburbs costs to maintain.
Posted by: Palouse on February 6, 2009 09:56 AMIt's not that Richard Branson cares about pollution -- from his fleet of jets -- it's just that there are all this middle class "Commoners" filling up the roads trying to get to work.
Posted by: John Bailo on February 6, 2009 10:11 AMAs it turns out lifestyle has made a difference. Crime is lower, traffic is less a hassle (except in getting to and from my job), and I like the proximity to the trails and back roads of the Cascades.
And the folks here are less constrained by their political ideology. That's very nice - and quite conducive to more relaxed atmosphere when people gather (albeit less often) or when out shopping.
So Sharon, bring on the sprawl. And what's up with Maury Island sprawl? Didn't realize it was such a problem out there at Gold Beach (unless you count gravel pit sprawl).
Posted by: deadwood on February 6, 2009 10:17 AMToo true, for these libs.
Posted by: Michele on February 6, 2009 11:19 AMEveryone at the time wanted to be the very LAST person to move to suburban living, and immediately wanted laws passed to deny, to others, the move that they themselves had just made.
What GMA has done with its iron ring around the urbs, is to force the plebians and new immigrants into rabbit hutches inside the rings. That leaves the large parcels outside the rings undevelopable, therefore cheaper - and they furnish perfect country estates for the oh-so-environmentally-conscious planners and lawyers and urban politicians who wish (like most Americans, actually) to live away from the jammed, crime-ridden urban turbulance with its street protests and panhandlers.
Posted by: Insufficiently Sensitive on February 6, 2009 11:32 AMSo - tc, demon kid and other libs, for those fellow travellers of yours who do not pay their taxes (Daschle, Geithner and the lot) - NOW can we question their patriotism?
Posted by: pbj on February 6, 2009 01:33 PMCase in point: David Goldstein campaigned endlessly to keep the Graham Hill school open for his daughter. He put in many hours as an involved parent, and in general behaved very much like a conservative, when it was his own daughter's education on the line. Then, when he didn't get his way fast enough, he punted and sent his daughter to school from his ex-wife's home on Mercer Island. Meanwhile, out in public he is a staunch advocate of the kind of progressivism that removes individual responsibility from the public school system and empowers the bureaucracy to focus on anything and everything but education, and all at a much, much higher cost than a typical private school. The same useless bureaucracy that could not figure out that his highly involved community deserved their school is the one he votes for more of every year. As I say, to be on the left is to be a hypocrite. And a fool too.
The left had their tantrums and media backing to gain power. Now that they have control of everything, they have to run everything, and they have to conform to the real world. It's not going to work as they promised because in the real world, value means value.
Sharon Nelson should be forced to live in the urban setting as should all government employees. If you are part of the bureaucracy mandating dense urban housing, massive subsidy for rail transit, etc. then you ought to be supporting it through use. Because if those who are spending all of our money coming up with the statist growth are not proving its worth, then nothing will.
Eyman ought to do an initiative forcing all government employees to use mass transit. That would solve the traffic problems overnight, and justify building out more transit, which they should love.
Ever notice how light the traffic is on government holidays when only the truly productive are still working?
Maybe Rep. Hypo ought to keep her fingers off the keyboard or at least run this type of garbage past Frank before she blows her own foot off.
Posted by: Hinton on February 6, 2009 02:33 PMYou're OK with the folks in Eastern Washington commuting to Olympia, but you're not OK with anyone representing the outer reaches of their County?
This means that Skykomish, or Marblemount, or Eatonville should never have a resident County Commissioner? How about Forks? It's a long way to Port Angeles.
This is a dumb premise to begin with, and has brought out a rhetorical flourish from everyone but little thoughfulness.
We're seeing whole subdivisions abandoned nationwide as the housing market constricts. It will be interesting to see if the affect of this crash impacts the outer edges of Puget Sound or the central cities more.
Liberal or Conservative - no difference at all when it comes to development - everyone's opposed if it's next door.
So that you can accuse me - I live on one of the islands.
My office is 15 minutes and four stop signs from my house. My communities schools are better than yours, which means the housing prices are higher than yours. And yes, there is Section 8 housing as well as community funded low-income housing here.
Want to stop sprawl. Defund WSDOT for a while - Eyman has been arguably the greatest force toward curbing sprawl in our region than anyone.
Posted by: BA on February 6, 2009 05:57 PMI'll answer. Yes, people on Maury and Vashon Islands should have representation. The issue is that for years BEFORE she was a representative, Sharon Nelson commuted DAILY to downtown Seattle. She was an exurbanite COMMUTING DAILY.
And now she decries the VERY THING she WILLINGLY DID for YEARS.
It's like the guy who smokes 4 packs a day, then demands that no one smokes at all, because it's bad for the environment.
It gets back to my line: Hypocrisy, thy name is DEMOCRAT.
Posted by: Shanghai Dan on February 6, 2009 06:20 PMNow I'm all for pointing up the hypocracy of those who oppose development.
Intermission for a famous joke among economists:
How do you tell the difference between an environmentalist and a developer?
The developer wants to build a cabin in the woods. The environmentalist already owns a cabin in the woods.
But if a Council member hires people from her district to work for her (and we want the Council member to live in her district, and yet has to commute to work) then I don't think that's a hypocritical act.
Posted by: Cicero on February 6, 2009 08:15 PMNot at all. WSDOT seized the ferry companies from their private owners, and made commuters dependent on the State and its oh-so-mandated salaries and benefits for ferry workers.
Perhaps a few years of Obama socialism will wake some folks up to the economic realities of it - that is, it costs more and produces less. It's a conspiracy of the governors against the governed.
So, sell the ferries with their infrastructure back to private enterprise (preferably at least two separate companies). Island-hopping will then cost what it really costs, and the rest of us can quit subsidizing it. Watch all that picturesque real estate reach an affordable price, now that the whole state isn't plundered to subsidize the island life style.
Posted by: Insufficiently Sensitive on February 7, 2009 05:01 PMWhere did I ask for anything?
Posted by: BA on February 7, 2009 08:44 PM