This is an open thread.

65 Replies to “News Roundup: Hotbed”

  1. I love to see that a transit agency has actually created a Customer Experience Department with staff! Heads up, Sound Transit and Metro!

    1. Or for voters doing exactly what the polls all along said they would do in rejecting I-732. There is a majority for carbon pricing but not for revenue-neutral or revenue-negative carbon pricing.

      Of course, because the polling for I-732 was so bad, many pleaded with CarbonWA to not go to the ballot with a sure loser. They went ahead anyway. I agree that Democrats in the legislature shouldn’t use I-732 as an excuse. But the fault doesn’t lie with those who argued I-732 was flawed and should never have placed on the ballot at all.

      1. Don’t blame the people who went around for years saying that I-732 was bad and evil and Not Good Enough for people voting against I-732? OK then.

    2. “There is a majority for carbon pricing but not for revenue-neutral or revenue-negative carbon pricing.”

      That leaves revenue-positive. That’s not what the legislators were talking about. They weren’t suggesting a carbon tax to raise money foe education or any other purpose: they were arguing the opposite. They were saying that the public is so opposed to any kind of carbon tax that it’s a non-starter, implying that it’s as toxic as an income tax, That contradicts Robert’s statement that there’s a majority for carbon pricing. It’s not surprising that different people have different interpretations of the election results; that happens all the time. But that’s the typical multiple interpretations of any election. The problem is that the majority of legislators seem to believe the negative view: all Republicans some Democrats.

      And no, skipping the vote wouldn’t have helped. You’d see the same people opposing it saying, “The public doesn’t want a carbon tax (or cap-and-trade).” They would have no evidence to point to, just the assertion that their constituents elected them to oppose such measures. Now they have this vote as evidence, but what it’s evidence of is subject to interpretation.They can’t blow away the whole idea of carbon pricing — marijuana legalization and gay marriage had several initiative failures before they succeeded — but they may be able to nix it from this year’s education funding plan.

      1. Yeah. Revenue-positive carbon taxes are deader than revenue-neutral ones. The only shot this has if the Legislature decides they dislike it less than a property tax increase or some alternative McCleary tax. Even that isn’t looking good. I’m not holding my breath waiting for the professional enviro lobby to admit to their screwup.

      2. I’ve lived in Washington over forty years now, and I still can’t figure out why the people of this state are so adamantly against a progressive income tax? It seems to me that’s the fairest kind.

        Mark

      3. There is a majority of voters in Washington State who delusionally believe that they will be the next Bill Gates or Jeff Bezos, so they want no income tax.

        Basically that’s it. States where people are more *realistic* are better at passing progressive income taxes.

      4. The reason people are against income taxes comes from the mindset that you tax things you want to discourage or regulate, like taxing carbon emissions to regulate or discourage it. From that mindset, taxing your income equates to being punished for working & making money, and the more they earn the more they get punished. If you really want to get an income tax passed, you first have to make some serious headway convincing them that a) it isn’t just another form of regulation/a punishment, that ) it will be spent wisely & worth it. No one actually likes taxes, they only tolerate them when they feel those criteria are met. Not saying it’s right or wrong, but that’s the mindset behind the deep dislike of income taxes

    3. The problem with I-732 is that it has to pass statewide, not just Seattle. Nearly half the state is Republican, and has been thoroughly indoctrinated in the belief that global warming is a left-wing conspiracy, which means it can’t pass unless the liberal voters vote “yes” nearly unanimously. And because different people have different opinions about revenue neutral vs. revenue positive, it’s not going to pass with wide enough margins in the progressive parts of the state to overcome the sea of red in the rest of the state.

      I still think it’s worth trying again, if nothing else, because Trump in the White House makes it all that much clearer that the climate isn’t going to get any help at the federal level. But, I still wouldn’t count on it actually passing.

      1. The point of a revenue-neutral (or in this case slightly revenue-negative) measure is to get the people outside of Seattle to vote for it: by shifting taxes around but not raising them, you do what Republicans always say they want to see instead of “more expansion of government!” Apparently, they didn’t actually want it that much, though.

      2. @BenW Revenue neutral bought zero votes.

        Time to run a revenue positive measure and see how honest we libs are about supporting that.

  3. I doubt the petition on Mercer Island will get much traction, as it honestly feels too little too late in my opinion. Had this happened in earlier stages of planning something may of been done to address said concerns. And looking through said comments for why they are signing it, while some points are valid. Others I have no sympathy for. You know what you were getting into moving to Mercer Island for almost a decade now. You knew this was going to be built and that HOV lane would be closed for constructing said light rail line.

    1. Suggestion. In whole I-90 discussion, in every place-name mention, substitute “Ballard” for “Mercer Island” and compare results.

      Mark Dublin

  4. It should be noted that the TriMet fare enforcement thing started with various county district attorney offices, which changed their policies after a Portland State University study found African Americans were being excluded for fare evasion at a much higher rates.

    http://koin.com/2017/01/03/non-chronic-trimet-fare-evaders-wont-face-charges/

    http://www.pamplinmedia.com/ht/117-hillsboro-tribune-news/339487-219619-justice-system-to-ease-up-on-trimet-fare-evaders

    http://www.oregonlive.com/commuting/index.ssf/2016/12/black_max_riders_more_likely_t.html

      1. Actually, the interesting thing about that 3rd article is that TriMet enforcement isn’t too bad, but when local police are involved the ratio changes.

      2. Glenn that’s because this is just one more small but important example of police abusing their power. What’s sad is how this will be spinned and interpreted by all kinds of reactionaries.

      3. I’d like to have some police officers. Seattle and King County, wade in on how they like being taken off duty protecting the public from robbers and killers, and going after infractions carrying a $124 penalty instead?

        Also, doing work teachers and fifth grade girl hall monitors used to handle in schools, handcuffing six year olds for talking back, and taking high school kids to jail.

        (Though in Second Grade, I was a lot more scared of Evelyn, who was ten. Rules said she could torture people.)

        Especially now, when the whole State Legislature is in willful contempt of court for violating the State Constitution for not funding schools. I

        f anybody but poor children ever had this happen to them, bet me their parents’ attorney wouldn’t get compulsory attendance nullified with one crack of the gavel.

        Meantime. would like to see some case history how many people are getting fined their $124 for mistake in number of times they tap their card- while if they’re carrying a full monthly pass.

        Understand that something like $4.00 go to transit, and the rest for court costs- the smallest fine the court can lawfully enforce. Just to send a signal that a few cents’ interagency accounting is a crime. Also…conflict of interest, isn’t it?

        This after original regional transit project promised us a SEAMLESS regionwide fare system, what, a quarter century ago?

        Since long before ORCA, I’ve been buying monthly passes. Before ORCA, my pass was visual proof I’d already paid for every ride I took. Then, and now, not a penny back if I took no rides at all.

        Right now, every chance I get I buy a paper ticket first LINK boarding, and tape it to my ORCA card. I call it non-fire and theft insurance.

        It’s bad enough having to get my ID photographed in front of a whole trainload of people. Including real fare evaders who get away. So I would really like to know what my chance is of actually being fined.

        So I can have my attorney prepped, and also TV coverage. I’ve gotten overflowing bellyfull of being called a thief by an agency that’s already got my money in their pocket. Which makes “Fare Evasion” charge a lie on its face.

        Bet a monthly pass that old the pre-ORCA understanding will come back faster than my ID can get clicked.

        Mark Dublin

      4. It’s good that the punishment is becoming more appropriate. But if it took a disproportionate-impact-on-minorities argument to do that, it raises the question of, what if TriMet had been equal in prosecuting all races? Would it have continued forever?

      5. Good place to start US racial discussion is definition of “White.” Google the word “Reivers”. The Wall to keep the Scots out didn’t work, and no surprise they couldn’t get the Scots to pay for it.

        Ages of red-haired, freckled, tattooed Brits and Scots all thought identical clan next door was a subhuman inferior race. “Well he’s the color of a bloody Campbell!” Or Elliot! Or Musgrave! (They really had a rep.) Don’t let any children with freckles or tattoos see the video.

        Some say our own land’s racist curse began in about same time period, when wealthy landowners put down more than one rebellion my their multiracial subjects by setting their British Isles-descended subjects against their African ones.

        Part of business plan for the new slavery industry. Ever since? Why mess with success? In the 1950’s, though, Chicago really illustrated truth of skin-color dominance.

        Equally blonde Europeans didn’t dare be caught in their old country blonde enemies’ neighborhoods. But the African-descended ones wouldn’t walk out of any neighborhood beside theirs alive.

        Final evidence: New movie called “Loving”. Married name of a white man and a black woman who got lawfully arrested for getting married in Virginia. In friggin’ 1967!

        Worst thing that would happen to a Polish kid in Chicago was if her also-blonde brothers caught him the wrong side of (insert your own ethnicity’s street sign!) (Or, if the girl’s name was Bridget, her two brothers with badges and night-sticks.)

        Mark

    2. It always bothered me that fare evaders were not being charged with fare evasion (a class C misdemeanor) but with the much more serious charge (Class A misdemeanor) of interfering with public transportation. The justification for that charge was that the train couldn’t move and was being impeded because of the time it took for the fare inspector to get the perpetrator off the train. Thus the charge was the same as if someone had overtly stepped in front of the train to keep them from running. That really turned me against anything that TriMet wanted to do, simply in their dishonesty in how they chose to charge these people.

  5. ORCA customer service is a disaster. I’ve got a demagnetized card with 24 dollars on it I’ve been trying to get transferred to my functional card. Several inquiries to customer service have been for naught–they seem to either misunderstand my very clearly stated request or deny that I have two cards registered (my latest reply included a screenshot of my orca card account with both cards listed, in an attempt to prevent that claim from being repeated. The average time for a response has been around 4 days; the last query took a week to get an unhelpful response. If I were a less stubborn person I’d have probably given up by now.

    Am I have a run of bad luck or is ORCA customer service bad all around.

    2. The folks staffing the customer service desk in the Westlake tunnel are generally excellent in my experience, if you can make it down during such limited hours of operation.

      1. Indeed, I have had any problems ( perhaps 3 in nearly 9 years) solved in onky a few minutes at either Westlake or 2nd & Jackson.

      2. I’ve had minor issues (balance didn’t go from the web transaction onto the card) solved by the Kitsap Transit staff at the Bremerton Ferry / Transit Center.

    3. Are they charging a $5 fee? Last I heard they would only transfer it to a new card (with the fee), not to an existing card.

      1. That’s completely outrageous. I’ve already paid the (ridiculous) $5 fee twice, once for a defective card and once for a new one. I bought the latter because I needed a functional card in less time than dealing with their glacial customer service would require.That said, the last unhelpful response seemed to imply they’d transfer the value if they could be convinced I am the owner of both cards. (Which shouldn’t be difficult, since they’re both registered to the same account, but…)

    4. DJW,

      This seems pretty frustrating but I’d like to offer some help. If you could, open https://kingcounty-metro.force.com/customers/cs_app#/cs/general and submit your comment along with any contact info, including both ORCA card numbers (eight digit number on the left). Once you submit the form, someone from King County Metro ORCA Customer Support will contact you within 24-48hrs to provide some options. If the form doesn’t work for you…feel free to send an email to BusinessOperations.ORCA@kingcounty.gov.

      Hope this helps.

    5. I’ve got a bad card with $16. I had the same problems last summer and gave up trying to get my money transferred.

    6. Yeah well, I got news for ORCA and I’m on the Skagit Transit Community Advisory Committee so read real carefully:

      a) Until such time as Mass Transit Now Campaign Chairwoman Abigail Doerr and the Chairperson of the ORCA Oversight Board jointly issue a public apology to the people of the State of Washington – preferably at a Sound Transit Board Meeting for Abigaileak, I will not be supporting any Skagit Transit involvement with ORCA. In fact, I will do everything humanly and legally possible to stop it as ORCA violated civil liberties and right of privacy. Period.

      I support ST3, I appreciate Ms. Doerr’s work & continued involvement as well but I have to protect my people and our values up here in the North by Northwest. I’m not going to hold my breath for that apology. But I would welcome it.

      b) Considering how bad ORCA Customer Service is and the sheer cost of the infrastructure, it is highly unlikely I could ever recommend ORCA migrate north. I mean how much does it cost to put ORCA machines up? Probably a lot more money than the money that would be collected from a fare. Currently Skagit Transit gross fare revenue is over $900,000 a year. Over $900,000 annually is nothing to sneeze at.

      1. “Sound Transit officials later acknowledged the improper release of emails, and the agency emailed an apology to affected ORCA cardholders. Brown also asked the campaign to delete the emails from its files. A Mass Transit Now spokesman has said the campaign did so.”
        – Source

      2. David;

        I know this. It’s not good enough. Where is Ms. Doerr’s apology? Let’s start there – it was 100% INAPPROPRIATE for a political campaign to use the government to do its data-mining for it. Nobody who gave their information to Sound Transit did so knowningly to Mass Transit Now (and although I gave my info, the optics here stink).

        Furthermore there is some legit doubt if the e-mails were ever deleted. I kept my mouth shut like a good soldier during the campaign but now that it’s over, I feel I gotta wage my own campaign.

        Joe

      3. “Furthermore there is some legit doubt if the e-mails were ever deleted.”

        Unless you have some reason to back that statement up, you might wish to withdraw it. There’s no reason to believe the campaign did anything other than what they said.

        Second, the disclosure error was internal to Sound Transit and, as you well know, entirely accidental. The campaign made a request for public email lists, not ORCA lists. If I ask to be put on an email list about transit stuff, why should I worry that I get other emails about transit.

        It’s also a public record, subject to disclosure under law. I can see an argument that maybe lists shouldn’t be subject to disclosure (though I personally don’t care that my email was properly disclosed). You can take that up with the Open Government peeps as you see fit. But either campaign could have asked for the emails. No reason for the campaign to apologize that it followed the law.

      4. Dan;

        I just think the whole thing was improper – and inappropriate for any political campaign to data-mine a mailing list that was supposed to be between a public agency & the citizens; not necessarily illegal. Leaves a yucky taste in my mouth. I am also hearing from my right wing friends their doubts.

        Respectfully;

        Joe

    2. TriMet is using BikeLink. Maybe ST could buy the one TriMet has at Park Avenue, since it doesn’t seem to get any use right now?

    3. Ah yes, privatization, which will increase the price, but either keep service at current levels or less. Of course, Sound Transit could just subsidize the for-profit company to convince them to expand service without taking a hit to their bottom line.

    4. I’ve always wondered how much of a deterrent a simple camera or two (that can be reviewed after the fact) with appropriate signage would deter bike theft at stations. They would obviously not end bike theft, but it would be a cheap way to deter a percentage of opportunity theft.

      1. Apartment buildings and office parking garages have cameras, and signage indicating the cameras are there, and they get plenty of nice pictures of people they can’t identify stealing bikes.

  7. “When we looked at the bridge, it didn’t make much sense. You have a slope coming down and a bridge that would have to go a long way with going up and over and back down while using elevators and stairs, so a pedestrian might just take the quickest route across the street rather than navigate that.”

    Director Wolters, check your weather channel for next time Kent is due for high wind and freezing rain, and ride the Rapid Ride A-line to Angle Lake Station. If the City has a wheelchair you can borrow, take that along. Be sure you wait for the light. Wish I’d had time for lunch at the restaurant by the stop. Salvadoran food is great for hypothermia.

    The law says bathrooms. Health Department, clean ones. Lucky the Sheriff’s Department is busy with fare evaders and smart-mouthed kids. But here’s something I saw work at a train station in Spain fifty years ago. Staff all restrooms with an elderly lady in a black dress, collecting coins and handing out towels. Not a dot of graffiti! Here, she’d payback into Social Security too.

    Question for STB. Is this on agenda for ST Capital Committee meeting tomorrow afternoon?

    Mark Dublin

  8. The Federal Way School District has sent out letters and emails to all FW parents urging them to fight for a link tunnel for Mark Twain Elementary School. Apparently an elevated train will be too much of a distraction. Mark Twain is just south of the 272nd (Star Lake) station.

    I hope this link works http://www.fwps.org/site/default.aspx?PageType=3&DomainID=4&ModuleInstanceID=9&ViewID=047E6BE3-6D87-4130-8424-D8E4E9ED6C2A&RenderLoc=0&FlexDataID=43974&PageID=1

    There is a facebook site as well with a link to a petition https://www.facebook.com/ProtectMarkTwainElementary/

    1. Well, in Bellevue I’ll be staring out the window watching the trains go by rather than working, so…

      “The elevated option would run through the back end of the playfield at Mark Twain Elementary, generating constant train noise and vibration. This would create an adverse impact on the learning environment of our students, distracting them and disrupting their studies.”
      Definitely sounds like we should ban roads from being near schools. Noise, vibrations, and air pollution to boot.

    2. Too much of a distraction from the 10 lane highway running right next to the school?

      Why does this school even exist at its current location?

      Parents should be more concerned that pretty much every study has shown a direct link between vehicle emissions and health issues including asthma, bronchitis, heart disease, and we are now seeing more evidence linking diesel emissions to lung cancer. Children are most at risk to the conditions listed as well as developmental issues associated to carbon monoxide so putting a school next to a highway seems absurd.

      As a parent I can’t imagine sending a child there.

      1. To be fair, I have visited this school before and I never realized how close it is to the freeway. The row of trees provide a pretty good buffer. But you have a good point, this is a very low income school with many students with Engish as a second language. Those parents are not going to get the same political push as a freeway built next to a Mercer Island school. I can’t see a lawsuit coming from the Mark Twain community. The school district does have lawyers though….

        Maybe a privacy screen could be built along the elevated track similiar to the one protecting the hotels between the airport and Angle Lake.

    3. To all Parties Concerned With School Right of Way Problem:

      Being from Chicago in the early 1950’s, I can’t be impartial. Every kid ought to have an elevated train where they can see out it out the window at school. Because it’s a mistake to think that the trains will be a distraction from learning.

      More likely is that the kids will start demanding to learn the calculus, geometry, and machine skills they’ll need to design and build the rest of the line to Tacoma. And also get deeply into transit politics to see to it ST-2 gets finished in their lifetimes.

      I really saw, personally, a whole class full of eighth grade art students riding LINK to a Picasso exhibit at Seattle Art Museum each carrying their own class assignment, a painting in the style of the great painter.
      It called to mind the couple of years of Saturdays when I’d ride the”L” down to the magnificent Seattle Art Museum for charcoal drawing lessons. And to see the mummy by the cafeteria.

      But mainly to ride the train. Same ride, parents on another outing told me that lately their kids had begun a hundred percent of the time to like their train ride better than whatever it was they were going to do when they got off. And also that one-year-olds in strollers would start pointing and demanding when they heard train bells downstairs at stations.

      So my word to Sound Transit is to only build your elevated line over the school if there’s a station- with both an elevated ramp into the school and especially enough bathroom space for women of all ages. Unlike theaters. Well, the law says! And also coin operated glass jar peanut machines for pigeons. Overdue at International Boulevard too!

      Otherwise, do what’s doubtless least expensive and disruptive: put the pillars down SR99 where they belong. From conversations I’ve had with small business people I trust, give them all possible cooperation. Done right, you’ll bring them business and they’ll return favor with ridership.

      Other larger and more powerful interests who can afford lawyers- isn’t that what eminent domain is for?

      Now to thank you for your patience, I have included some video footage to stress the value of properly placed elevated rail in general, civic, technical, and cultural:

      1. Excellent portrayal of elevated rail as the background and experience that nurtured America’s own most authentic type of music. Note the famous composer sitting pensively by the window. Proof that the “L” started jazz.

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S65lJGs7YC8

      2. A persuasive example of the elevated structure that you’ll be forced to construct down the center of SR99 if legal delays exacerbate project schedule:

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zWy9mLvZlA8

      3. Testament to a forthright young Romanian American Chicagoan finally exercising her right to justice. Note also that even though it’s cast iron over a hundred years old, the elevated structure remains undamaged. And the work ethic of the musicians as they stress the need to get to work on-time despite an unplanned delay.

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Vl1byi6wXE

      Michael Douglas and Demi Moore got to ride into Pioneer Square Station on a route that either didn’t exist or at least not in the Tunnel. Any bets on when LINK gets its big break? The helicopter flying into the Channel Tunnel to stop the villains on the bullet train- been done.

      But would be worth at least one camera-store drone to take out those pink plastic jets demolishing each other at Capitol Hill. Somebody’s got to finish the job.

      Mark

    4. The EIS was just finished. They should have registered their complaints a year or more ago, then they could have gotten ST to evaluate the impact on the school.

  9. As of 3pm today, there are sandwich boards up at Angle Lake parking garage stating the garage is full. So that should answer any concerns about the garage not filling up…

    1. Good to hear. I was recently attempting to quash open time in late November and do some SeaTac watching from there. Sound Transit Security politely but professionally asked me to take my plane watching elsewhere.

      The top level had some open stalls then – good to hear the garage is full and professionally patrolled. I mean that.

  10. “Mercer Island” is not circulating a petition for special access. Some NIMBY’s on Mercer Island who represent only themselves are circulating a petition to deliver to their City Council.

    1. The error is not surprising, this blog has a long history of distain for Mercer Island. Your comment is spot on.

      1. A Husky and a Coug agreeing on something? Maybe America is, in fact, great again!

        But seriously, having worked on Mercer Island about a decade ago, I observed that not all MI residents are the zany, self-centered people that would generate a petition like this, but the number was rapidly increasing, especially since all saner people that could afford to buy property there in the 80s or before are getting priced out and the wealthier people, who tend to generate these zany ideas, are pretty much the only people can afford to move there.

        So yes, the headline should have read “Mercer Island RESIDENTS circulating a petition…”, but I would bet if this petition went to the voters, it would probably pass in a landslide.

  12. Last night, SE Portland got around a foot of snow. The buses are on such bizarre snow routes that Inwound up taking MAX one stop to get between them.

    It struck me how amazingly quiet the trains are with a bit of snow on the track. Of course, it’s a lot more apparent with auto traffic being next to zilch, but it would be really nice to emulate something like that.

    1. Thanks for reminding me, Glenn. I owe the operators a letter for giving mes o much information on the aerial tramway in the middle of the night a month or so back when, along with everything on rubber tires, the Route 8 up to the Hospital was also off duty.

      Reason I’m behind schedule on what I want to write on tramways is that I’m trying to find a sensible route that we could actually build. Capitol Hill Station to Seattle Center would definitely elevate the Route 8 as necessary. But those are a lot of very high poles in a couple of crowded neighborhoods.

      Also keep thinking Harborview Hospital to City Hall Park- thereby helping to make up for the missing First Hill Station near Swedish. Portland Tramway cars are about the size and capacity of a small bus.

      Wonder if they still make Airstream trailers, to build us some Route 8 buses that could run street route to cable way station one side of I-5, get quickly hooked to the cable to continue surface route on other side.
      Any ideas? Tramway men tell me their “cars” were hand-built, and cost a fortune. But could be only alternative to a subway.

      Mark

      1. There’s a place near here that sells airstreams, so they do make them.

        You could probably get the cars cheaper if you ordered something that someone already has in production. Say, add a few cars to the gondola order Berlin has or something.

  13. As a former MI resident, if I were to move back (from Vancouver), having a bus turnaround and a light rail station sound like great amenities. What do you mean MI isn’t getting anything? God forbid people get off busses and actually want to spend time and money at the businesses there.

    1. Easy. We haven’t been “vetted” yet. Which any male dog will tell you is not a very good thing to have happen.

      Mark

Comments are closed.