Seattle! How is it now? Are there jobs? Should I move there?

i think you're right, that once people see it working, and well, they'll (ahem) get on board. that's human nature, i get it, but it doesn't make me hate their lack of vision any less

I'm on a campaign right now to make the people I work with see riding the bus as hip and cool and smart and OMG THE BEST THING EVER. Public transit needs cheerleaders and bus mentors to take the "oooo ick scary and inconvenient" factor out of people's minds. I am bummed b/c I didn't get my address change in (from when we moved from Richland) and so couldn't vote (even absentee - Benton County knew I'd moved) yesterday.

someone also brought up a really good point. People got stung badly by the Monorail finance disaster so I think no one is going to vote for any big transit project here until they see a prototype or smaller version there already. As much as I don't see eye to eye with their sense of version, jergins, I can't blame them for being distrustful.

vision not version

vision not (version)

I know where Tim Eyman lives. Would buying some kerosene and matches be the correct thing to do?

Just don't burn down the rest of Mukilteo, especially Rane! I need to get my mixer fixed, I think.

I'm already over the election shittiness. That felt really bad for a while though. Fuck.

Hey, Seattle, I LOVE the bus bike racks, WTG dudes. I would like the bus a whole bunch more, though, without the OBVIOUSLY TWEAKING drug addicts everywhere trying to talk to you/each other by which I mean "yelling across three seats" and talking about who has the best "programs" or how hard it is to sit still when you've been riding the bus all day.

Thx, NYC out

Also the South/Latin American dude who felt up my knees on my way to the airport and then mocked me in Spanish when I objected, and who REEKED like a broken distillery...it would be cool if the driver hadn't let him on in the first place.

I mean it's less "inconvenient" than walking in the rain, that's for shure. ;)

haha Laurel there's been a fight about this on Slog the other day. Except someone there asked it in very bad wording "Would you ride the bus if you knew you didn't have to be next to someone homeless or smelly on the way to work?" Doh. Righteous bullshit maelstrom megastorm ensued.

But it does seem a LOT of people want to get rid of the Ride Free Zone. I see its advantages, but the disadvantages are really getting annoying now.

Sure, everyone needs transportation, even in NYC you can't kick someone off for being homeless. Like, dude, just give them some room, your life STILL wouldn't be as bad as his if your dog died and your heart broke on the same day your office was attacked by Godzilla. But there's a lot more TOTAL room on the train than there is on a bus so you can afford to maneuver around people. And the tweakers have just GOT to go.

the single lamest thing about Seattle is the lag in rail. I love it here, but it is a glaring downside to the city. Light rail is (knocking on wood) coming in 2009 between the airport and the city... that's not going to get rid of traffic forever obviously, and unfortunately people here are doubting thomases when it comes to funding public transit. But if it means they will get excited about more light rails later, then so be it. I wish Microsoft would just kick down a Microsoft light rail line between Seattle and Redmond, and not just for workers.

Still though, it's not hard to get around the city if you don't have a car. Seattle is maybe as big as Brooklyn? It's not a big city, and once you figure out the buses, you can get around most of the day. You can call for cabs, and they're not total rip-offs. I can't complain.

BIKES

I'll defer to the bikers here. I can't ride a bike without nearly killing myself. bad balance, too fat, whine whine.

There definitely are biker posses here, and they get mean when scorned.

dude if my office got attacked by Godzilla that would be an AWESOME day.

I should have taken more cabs there, actually -- I was v v v late for something which turned out to be a biiiig problem, because I couldn't find an ATM for cash for the bus, then couldn't find a bus stop for the right line, and then when it came it was only going part way, etc. But here I NEVER take cabs because it STARTS at $15 to go anywhere I'd be going. It WAS cool for the ride to the Comet to be like $6.

Godzilla has already invaded Seattle. It's a must see if you're into old video games:

http://www.boardgamenews.com/gamepreviews/pinkgodzilladevkit/large/godzilla.jpg

http://www.8bitjoystick.com/archives/photos/PinkGodzillagames.jpg

DON'T TAKE MY FREE RIDE ZONE AWAY!

I mean seriously all those freakin' cruise boat people need something to do for 3 freakin' hours, DO YOU WANT THEM ALL IN FRONT OF YOU TRYING TO FIND THEIR CHANGE?????

HAHA YOU LIVE DOWNTOWN

Maybe we should do what Vancouver did with their tweakers and ship them to the capitol. Olympia needs more tweaker rock anyway. *dodges facial hair*

Send them to Granite Falls. They'll be welcome there.

Cabs in Seattle: it really helps if you know where you're going and can help 'em out.

Shortest cab ride: 4 blocks. Driver driving on wrong side of road, eating fried chicken with two hands and congratulating/berating oncoming traffic for driving around him/ refusing to drive around him. Wheeee.

Yeah higgs OTM. I'm never drunk enough to elaborate on what specific corner of Fremont/Queen Anne I'm at.

Cabbies in Seattle listen to one of two things:

a) NPR, and then they vent to you about how fucked the U.S. is, you nod and assure them that you agree with (I usually do) and then we get into an awesome political conversation that I rarely have with my friends. (No offense guys)

b) KUBE "but i HATE KUBE!"
Me: "OK, but this song playing right now is pretty jammin'"
"Yeah, it's great. But it's the SAME FIFTEEN EXCELLENT JAMS REPEATED OVER AND OVER!"
Me: (um, change the station then?)

I am totally guilty of KUBE "but I HATE KUBE!".

I accidentally picked up a bhangra show coming in from Canada on, like, 93.1 or something. That made me happy.

Aha, it must have been this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CKYE-FM

Mackro, don't forget:

c) smooth jazz

Also, I voted against the transportation package 'cause I don't own a car, and yeah, show me some rail in a package without all that extra lane shit that the area can work around if it isn't there.

And Jaq is A-1 OTM on riding the bus as cool thing.

In Everett, riding the bus is a totally depressing experience, because no one who can afford not to does. I suspect this is due to the fact that the people who run Everett's buses are total choads who do everything within in their power to make said buses shitty, but I digress. Also, they clean them maybe once every three decades, so they smell like the filth of ages. I have never been on a bus outside of Everett with that particular dirt-devil scent.

GREAT LET'S WAIT TEN MORE FUCKING YEARS

the combo of roads and light rail in the same prop is retarded. I was bummed to hear that people think this is still the only way to make this happen. Um, guys, why not separate the initiatives for road and transit, and not politicize them as opposites, perhaps?

jergins, I love you man, but you're overreacting.

I mean, I'm impatient too, but it always takes forever to build anything in Seattle that isn't already flat. I'll wait for the 2009 rail and hope people really dig it.

jergins is not overreacting.

really the problem is that most people are not acting, never mind reacting, at all! that's why nothing ever happens.

I was just referring to the all caps thing against rickey, lxy. I totally agree with you and jergins on the issue.

Thing is, many people who wanted light rail voted against Prop 1 because they didn't like the other half. I've talked to many people who wanted light rail but voted against Prop 1 because they all said "oh this going to be like the Monorail again". I'm hoping the prop drafters learn a lesson from this, and will try to do this through legislative means.

WA has an aggressively centrist Democratic presence that follows along the same line as OR and CA: "we want stuff, but they should pay for it". It would be nice if there was a way to break that mentality, but how?

Import more east coasters and you'll get more transit-firendliness. Tho I remember I was all 'my bus had a bike on its front!' and my sister was all UH, yeah, welcome to Cascadia.

Alternate way to sea-tac - Gray Line airporter.

gabb, we have a lot of east coasters and folks from Europe and Australia and NZ moving here, but I don't think they're moving here to necessarily dedicate themselves to improving public transit... they're probably moving here in spite of that but to enjoy the other amenities of Cascadia or what have you.

And some good news if you can't stand Eyman (although it took long enough):

Eyman initiative ruled unconstitutional

The State Supreme Court today found Initiative 747, the tax-limiting measure passed by voters in 2001, unconstitutional.

In a narrow, 5-4 decision, the high court found voters were deceived when they voted on the measure sponsored by anti-tax activist Tim Eyman.

The ruling upholds a lower King County court decision last year in which Judge Mary Roberts found the initiative was unconstitutionally deceptive.

...

The measure, passed by voters in 2001, limited increases in state and local property-tax collections to 1 percent a year, unless voters approved more. When it was argued before the high court last May, the state estimated that in the six years since it passed, the measure blocked an estimated $1.6 billion in property-tax increases.

In tossing out the initiative, Roberts found that voters had been told they would be reducing the tax-increase cap to 1 percent from 2 percent, although the initiative actually was reducing the cap from 6 percent to 1 percent.

Okay I know everything's crappy w/r/t transit, but dudes! The symphony is doing a whole night of video game music on Jan 24. Tix go on sale 11/10 at 1 pm.

Kosher ham soda

Last year's seasonal pack was Thanksgiving-themed, with Green Pea, Sweet Potato, Dinner Roll, Turkey and Gravy, and Antacid sodas.

See, that read really funny at first, but then all those testosterone caffeine "energy" drinks all kinda taste like antacid, don't they?

I don't know, I've avoided one and never needed the other.

god, the cabbie stories I could go into here

start a cabbie stories thread!

if there isn't one already, i guess