Seattle’s 2008 snow storm took the city by surprise. Well, the city council president and the mayor, anyway, who were both out of town at the time at the time the snow hit. The ensuing chaos, in which the city’s department of transportation failed to plow and salt major arterials, led to the election downfall of then-Mayor Greg Nickels. Nickels was oft quoted by the press and his critics as having given the slovenly DOT a B grade for their snow response effort, when everyone felt the DOT failed miserably.
The 2010 snow storm, on the other hand, couldn’t be termed a surprise by anyone. Except maybe the Washington State Department of Transportation, which posted their entire road crew on snow plow duty and left not a single person available to open the northbound express lanes on I-5 on Monday night. This led to the single worst traffic commute in modern Seattle history.
The state DOT gave one excuse for why this “happened.” Apparently, the express lanes and their entrance ramps rank at the bottom of the snow plow list of priorities. But, hey, at 3 pm, they could have devoted one snow plow, or one truck of sand, or one salt sprayer, or even just one guy to open the damn gates and let us take our chances! Instead, people sat for hours in a parking lot on northbound I-5 literally inching their way home. The bus I rode from downtown to the NE 45th Street exit in the University District took over two hours. Unforgiveable. Especially when you’re seeing only two to three inches of snow.
And, just like in 2008, Metro Transit gets a barely passing grade. Again. At least this time, Metro chained up buses in preparation for the snow. But did they train drivers how to navigate slippery streets and find alternative, less hilly routes? No. Did they make it easy to find information on their websites on bus reroutes? No. In fact, the website offers a place for you to sign up for email or a twitter feed of storm-related updates about “your bus routes.” Which completely ignores the fact that many impoverished and elderly Metro riders don’t carry a cell phone that can receive text messages. Also, who’s going to stand around in 20 degree weather with a cell phone in their mitten-less hands? It also shows how clueless Metro officials are about how people use the bus system. No one rides only one route, okay? How hard is it to post updates on a blog right on the home page of their website?
Fortunately, this snow storm came in the week leading up to the Thanksgiving Holiday, which means many people decided to take an early holiday and stay home for a couple of days. The weather forecasters tell us we could be in for more snow. Hopefully, the state DOT and Metro will have implemented a few changes before that happens.
Saturday, November 27, 2010
Saturday, November 13, 2010
Local News: Williams Shooting and Sticking It to Seattle
This week’s local news brought one surprise and one not-so-surprising announcement:
1. The surprise: a person involved in the investigation of the police shooting of native American wood carver John T. Williams told the press this week that the carving knife found with Williams’ body was in a closed position.
In the initial reports of the shooting, the folding knife was cited as the reason why Officer Birk pulled his car over, jumped out, pursued Williams, and eventually shot him. A witness at the scene, however, told the Seattle P-I that he didn’t see Williams holding a knife at the time of the shooting.
The Seattle Police Department is now, finally, asking witnesses to come forward and speak to the homicide unit (206-684-5550), which means they may file charges against Birk—especially since many of the things Birk said immediately after the killing have been proved to be lies.
2. And now for the not-so-surprising announcement: a state lawmaker has said Seattle will definitely be on the hook for cost overruns on the downtown traffic tunnel being built to replace the viaduct.
Democrat Larry Seaquist of the 26th District that covers parts of Tacoma and Gig Harbor said he’ll make sure that Seattle residents pay for cost overruns on the tunnel, and not stick state residents with the bill. Seaquist said that his constituents had to agree to pay tolls to use the new bridge over the Tacoma Narrows, so Seattle residents should have to pay for the tunnel. If necessary, he’ll make sure that happens.
Gov. Gregoire has threatened to veto any bill that forces Seattle to pay for tunnel overruns, but a veto is not always the final say. If two-thirds of the Legislature support such a bill, they can override her veto. And sticking it to the big city is a very popular stance in state legislatures right now.
1. The surprise: a person involved in the investigation of the police shooting of native American wood carver John T. Williams told the press this week that the carving knife found with Williams’ body was in a closed position.
In the initial reports of the shooting, the folding knife was cited as the reason why Officer Birk pulled his car over, jumped out, pursued Williams, and eventually shot him. A witness at the scene, however, told the Seattle P-I that he didn’t see Williams holding a knife at the time of the shooting.
The Seattle Police Department is now, finally, asking witnesses to come forward and speak to the homicide unit (206-684-5550), which means they may file charges against Birk—especially since many of the things Birk said immediately after the killing have been proved to be lies.
2. And now for the not-so-surprising announcement: a state lawmaker has said Seattle will definitely be on the hook for cost overruns on the downtown traffic tunnel being built to replace the viaduct.
Democrat Larry Seaquist of the 26th District that covers parts of Tacoma and Gig Harbor said he’ll make sure that Seattle residents pay for cost overruns on the tunnel, and not stick state residents with the bill. Seaquist said that his constituents had to agree to pay tolls to use the new bridge over the Tacoma Narrows, so Seattle residents should have to pay for the tunnel. If necessary, he’ll make sure that happens.
Gov. Gregoire has threatened to veto any bill that forces Seattle to pay for tunnel overruns, but a veto is not always the final say. If two-thirds of the Legislature support such a bill, they can override her veto. And sticking it to the big city is a very popular stance in state legislatures right now.
Saturday, November 6, 2010
This Week's Roundup: the Elections, Metro, Patenting Genes & QE2
The following are my notes from this morning’s radio show, Eat The Airwaves, which you can find on KEXP 90.3 FM in Seattle, every Saturday morning. It’s also available online at KEXP.org as the last half hour of Mind Over Matters.
1) A general analysis of the elections – you can find my notes written up as an article entitled “The Real Reasons the Republicans Won,” on the Eat The State! website at www.EatTheState.org
2) Dino Rossi vs. Patty Murray for U.S. Senate
Rossi was the second biggest recipient in the U.S. of money from 501(c)(4) organizations which aren’t required to disclose their donors. He received a total of $5.4 million from them, and the largest chunk came from Karl Rove’s group Crossroads GPS ($3.6 million total). Rossi’s total haul from outside the state: $11 million; yet, he still couldn’t defeat Democratic incumbent Patty Murray, who received $8 million in funds from outside the state, and less than a million from 501(c)(4) groups. This is probably Rossi’s last hurrah. I can’t imagine the national Republican Party would be willing to waste any more money on him.
3) Voters defeated any initiative to increase taxes, but also stopped privatization initiatives in their tracks
It’s no surprise that voters didn’t want to tax themselves during a recession, and even voted down Initiative 1098 to impose an income tax on the wealthy. But the shocker was watching the two liquor privatization initiatives 1100 and 1105 and the initiative to privatize the state’s workers’ compensation program go down in flames. How can we explain this?
More conservative voters come to the polls during midterm elections and, while they tend to support conservative goals like privatizing government services, this time they clearly bought into the negative advertising that privatizing liquor sales would make hard alcohol more available to underage drinkers. They also mistrusted evil insurance companies to handle the state’s workers’ comp system—proving that conservatives can also have a healthy dose of common sense.
4) Regional Transit Task Force
The 28-member Regional Transit Task Force issued its report on the state of the Metro Transit bus system. The taskforce was formed 8 months ago by the King County Council to find ways to retain bus services with dwindling tax revenue.
Their biggest recommendation: ditch the 40/40/20 rule for new bus service. That rule was formed as a compromise to get rural council members to support taxes for transit service. It specifies that any new bus services be allocated 40% to East King County, 40% to South King County, and 20% to the City of Seattle. Unfortunately, most of the ridership—hence, most of the demand for new or increased service—is in Seattle.
Also, they recommended getting rid of the 60/20/20 rule for service cutbacks. Because cuts are spread evenly throughout the system and most of the routes are in Seattle, the cutbacks tend to be as follows: 60% in Seattle and 20% each in East and South King County.
Instead, the taskforce recommends that the county council and Metro draft a new, transparent policy for service changes based on population densities, job concentration, geographic coverage, and integration with other transit agencies. Hmm. It took them 8 months to figure that out?
5) Good news for Metro
Metro Transit received two grants from the Federal Transit Administration. The first is $4.7 million to test a prototype electric-battery powered bus. Currently, Metro has an aging fleet of electric trolley buses that run on overhead wires, and are due for replacement. The electric-battery powered buses would not need overhead wires, which are expensive to maintain; they would plug into charging stations. They’re popular in other countries around the world, especially in Europe, but are brand new in the U.S., and Metro was lucky enough to get a grant to test them here.
The second grant is for $6 million to buy hybrid diesel-electric buses to replace old diesel-only buses. This is another step forward in eliminating greenhouse gas emissions from the heavy vehicle transportation system, which is the fastest growing source of emissions in the U.S. Hurray for Metro!
6) Stop patenting my genes!
This past week, the U.S. Department of Justice filed a friend of the court brief that said genes should not be eligible for patents unless they are significantly altered. This is a major change in U.S. government policy: the Patent and Trade Office has issued thousands of patents on genes, including about 20% of human genes.
The brief was filed in a case brought by the ACLU, The Public Patent Foundation, and various medical researchers and groups against Myriad Genetics and the University of Utah Research Foundation, who hold two patents on genes implicated in breast cancer: BRCA1 and BRCA2. In March, Judge Robert W. Sweet of U.S. District Court in Manhattan ruled in favor of the plaintiffs, saying that merely isolating a gene doesn’t change its nature and make it eligible to be patented. Myriad and the University of Utah are appealing.
7) QE2 has arrived
This week, the Federal Reserve announced a second round of quantitative easing, nicknamed “QE2” in the European press. Quantitative easing refers to a process whereby the Fed prints more money and uses it to by longer term government bonds in an attempt to lower long-term government interest rates. Long-term government interest rates determine mortgage rates and the rates for many corporate bonds.
The idea is that lower long-term rates will make it easier for more people to refinance their mortgages (of course, that won’t help anyone going through foreclosure). It’s also supposed to raise stock prices (investors will get out of bonds and buy stocks, which have a better rate of return, thereby increasing stock prices). This is supposed to increase the value of people’s portfolios and make them more willing to spend money, which will stimulate the economy (consumer spending makes up about 2/3 of all economic activity).
However, the Fed hasn’t taken into account a few important lessons from the recent recession:
First, not enough Americans hold stock to make this an effective spur for consumption. With record levels of income disparity and a shrinking middle class, the whole stock ownership thing has bypassed most Americans.
Second, stock prices have fallen dramatically and have a long ways to go to make up for the losses of the last two years. It’s going to take a while for even folks with substantial portfolios to feel like spending again.
And finally, Most Americans who do own stocks own them in a retirement fund, which makes up only a small portion of their “wealth”…with the biggest portion being the value of their home. Until house prices recover, consumer confidence will continue to sag.
8) QE2 is pissing off the whole world.
Printing more U.S. dollars means a greater supply of them, which weakens the value of the dollar relative to other currencies in the world. Other nations’ goods become more expensive for U.S. consumers to buy.
Americans are the world’s main consumers—except for China’s enormous population, and their consumption is limited by their limited buying power. (China keeps the value of its currency low so that the whole world can continue to afford its products, but that also limits what Chinese people can buy.)
By printing more U.S. dollars, the Federal Reserve is creating inflation on an international scale, which is pissing off some of our major allies. They look at us and say, “Why can’t you be more fiscally responsible? Why can’t your government cut military spending, manage healthcare costs, and do more stimulus spending to create jobs? That’s what you need. Instead, you’re printing more money? What’s wrong with you?”
I have to agree.
1) A general analysis of the elections – you can find my notes written up as an article entitled “The Real Reasons the Republicans Won,” on the Eat The State! website at www.EatTheState.org
2) Dino Rossi vs. Patty Murray for U.S. Senate
Rossi was the second biggest recipient in the U.S. of money from 501(c)(4) organizations which aren’t required to disclose their donors. He received a total of $5.4 million from them, and the largest chunk came from Karl Rove’s group Crossroads GPS ($3.6 million total). Rossi’s total haul from outside the state: $11 million; yet, he still couldn’t defeat Democratic incumbent Patty Murray, who received $8 million in funds from outside the state, and less than a million from 501(c)(4) groups. This is probably Rossi’s last hurrah. I can’t imagine the national Republican Party would be willing to waste any more money on him.
3) Voters defeated any initiative to increase taxes, but also stopped privatization initiatives in their tracks
It’s no surprise that voters didn’t want to tax themselves during a recession, and even voted down Initiative 1098 to impose an income tax on the wealthy. But the shocker was watching the two liquor privatization initiatives 1100 and 1105 and the initiative to privatize the state’s workers’ compensation program go down in flames. How can we explain this?
More conservative voters come to the polls during midterm elections and, while they tend to support conservative goals like privatizing government services, this time they clearly bought into the negative advertising that privatizing liquor sales would make hard alcohol more available to underage drinkers. They also mistrusted evil insurance companies to handle the state’s workers’ comp system—proving that conservatives can also have a healthy dose of common sense.
4) Regional Transit Task Force
The 28-member Regional Transit Task Force issued its report on the state of the Metro Transit bus system. The taskforce was formed 8 months ago by the King County Council to find ways to retain bus services with dwindling tax revenue.
Their biggest recommendation: ditch the 40/40/20 rule for new bus service. That rule was formed as a compromise to get rural council members to support taxes for transit service. It specifies that any new bus services be allocated 40% to East King County, 40% to South King County, and 20% to the City of Seattle. Unfortunately, most of the ridership—hence, most of the demand for new or increased service—is in Seattle.
Also, they recommended getting rid of the 60/20/20 rule for service cutbacks. Because cuts are spread evenly throughout the system and most of the routes are in Seattle, the cutbacks tend to be as follows: 60% in Seattle and 20% each in East and South King County.
Instead, the taskforce recommends that the county council and Metro draft a new, transparent policy for service changes based on population densities, job concentration, geographic coverage, and integration with other transit agencies. Hmm. It took them 8 months to figure that out?
5) Good news for Metro
Metro Transit received two grants from the Federal Transit Administration. The first is $4.7 million to test a prototype electric-battery powered bus. Currently, Metro has an aging fleet of electric trolley buses that run on overhead wires, and are due for replacement. The electric-battery powered buses would not need overhead wires, which are expensive to maintain; they would plug into charging stations. They’re popular in other countries around the world, especially in Europe, but are brand new in the U.S., and Metro was lucky enough to get a grant to test them here.
The second grant is for $6 million to buy hybrid diesel-electric buses to replace old diesel-only buses. This is another step forward in eliminating greenhouse gas emissions from the heavy vehicle transportation system, which is the fastest growing source of emissions in the U.S. Hurray for Metro!
6) Stop patenting my genes!
This past week, the U.S. Department of Justice filed a friend of the court brief that said genes should not be eligible for patents unless they are significantly altered. This is a major change in U.S. government policy: the Patent and Trade Office has issued thousands of patents on genes, including about 20% of human genes.
The brief was filed in a case brought by the ACLU, The Public Patent Foundation, and various medical researchers and groups against Myriad Genetics and the University of Utah Research Foundation, who hold two patents on genes implicated in breast cancer: BRCA1 and BRCA2. In March, Judge Robert W. Sweet of U.S. District Court in Manhattan ruled in favor of the plaintiffs, saying that merely isolating a gene doesn’t change its nature and make it eligible to be patented. Myriad and the University of Utah are appealing.
7) QE2 has arrived
This week, the Federal Reserve announced a second round of quantitative easing, nicknamed “QE2” in the European press. Quantitative easing refers to a process whereby the Fed prints more money and uses it to by longer term government bonds in an attempt to lower long-term government interest rates. Long-term government interest rates determine mortgage rates and the rates for many corporate bonds.
The idea is that lower long-term rates will make it easier for more people to refinance their mortgages (of course, that won’t help anyone going through foreclosure). It’s also supposed to raise stock prices (investors will get out of bonds and buy stocks, which have a better rate of return, thereby increasing stock prices). This is supposed to increase the value of people’s portfolios and make them more willing to spend money, which will stimulate the economy (consumer spending makes up about 2/3 of all economic activity).
However, the Fed hasn’t taken into account a few important lessons from the recent recession:
First, not enough Americans hold stock to make this an effective spur for consumption. With record levels of income disparity and a shrinking middle class, the whole stock ownership thing has bypassed most Americans.
Second, stock prices have fallen dramatically and have a long ways to go to make up for the losses of the last two years. It’s going to take a while for even folks with substantial portfolios to feel like spending again.
And finally, Most Americans who do own stocks own them in a retirement fund, which makes up only a small portion of their “wealth”…with the biggest portion being the value of their home. Until house prices recover, consumer confidence will continue to sag.
8) QE2 is pissing off the whole world.
Printing more U.S. dollars means a greater supply of them, which weakens the value of the dollar relative to other currencies in the world. Other nations’ goods become more expensive for U.S. consumers to buy.
Americans are the world’s main consumers—except for China’s enormous population, and their consumption is limited by their limited buying power. (China keeps the value of its currency low so that the whole world can continue to afford its products, but that also limits what Chinese people can buy.)
By printing more U.S. dollars, the Federal Reserve is creating inflation on an international scale, which is pissing off some of our major allies. They look at us and say, “Why can’t you be more fiscally responsible? Why can’t your government cut military spending, manage healthcare costs, and do more stimulus spending to create jobs? That’s what you need. Instead, you’re printing more money? What’s wrong with you?”
I have to agree.
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