West Seattle, Washington
23 Monday
Looks like the big news further into the report is the latest on how long construction would take. Ouch.
Got home from another tough commute to find out we’re inching closer to Decision Time regarding the (cue ominous music) Future of the Viaduct. Another thick new report has appeared, the Supplemental Draft Environmental Impact Statement. (All 8 chapters available here.) Wait, wait, don’t fall asleep yet … this is important stuff. Haven’t seen any impartial analyses yet (guess the reporters are still reading those 8 chapters) but among many other things, this report reminds us the official “deciders” (to borrow the President’s term) are only really considering two options: the tunnel and the replacement. Nothing more, nothing less. Wish they’d quit calling the tunnel “cut-and-cover”; sounds too much to my ears like the dread old phrase “duck-and-cover,” which is what I keep fearing we’ll have to do on the Viaduct sometime anyway.
So now the question remains: When will City Councilmembers decide if they have the you-know-whats to make a decision themselves, or if they’ll just “let” us decide — till somebody starts trying to force a re-vote till they get the results they want?
PIRATES! In a double dose … the Seafair Pirates and the Caribbean Pirates (no relation to Cap’n Jack & company), both in tomorrow’s parade. Viewing tip: The east side of the street starts in shade. Just save us a spot over near Petco.
**unrelated vent**
Unrelated but I gotta say it … ONE HOUR to get through downtown en route home tonight, before I could get onto the Viaduct. ONE HOUR IN 96-DEGREE AIR, NO AIR CONDITIONING IN THE MODEST WSB-MOBILE. Once I finally got onto the Elevated Freeway of Doom and past the Mariners backup in the left lane, it didn’t even take 10 minutes to get home. I’m sure somebody out there went through something similar, so I’m mentioning it here for virtual commiseration. MY, the air coming off the bay felt great … once the jammed traffic was past …
Well, you knew someplace in Hizzoner’s home turf would make the Dirty Dozen list.
I still say Fauntleroy between California and Alaska is worse.
A few more details in today’s P-I re: Ron Sims’ “lots o’buses, no waiting” plan. Our neck of the woods is in line for part of it (somebody had to earmark West Seattle for SOMETHING, given the fact the monorail is toast and light rail is nowhere nearby) … but the part about “approve the tax, THEN we’ll decide the details” is just a bit disturbing. Isn’t that where the monorail went wrong — voters said yes (repeatedly), THEN a revolt brewed when some of the details (like the Financing Plan From Hell) appeared?
Just back from Father’s Day lunch on Alki … and the parking-spot-search backups were intense. We went to Duke’s and had to park up near Alki Community Center. Driving back toward this side of town, we saw a huge jam of folks trying to get into the Salty’s lot. At least one person gave up, dropped off someone near the Salty’s entrance, and then went off in search of somewhere to leave the car — we last saw them evaluating whether they’d get away with parking near the Harbor Avenue 7-11.
I mention all this not to say “gee, don’t drive to Alki,” because I am aware we were part of “the problem” by doing that very thing. I mention it because the eateries just keep opening and you have to wonder where the cars will go. For example, compared to the 100-plus capacity for the future Cactus, how many cars does that little underground garage really fit?
BTW, on the Salty’s end of things, Alki Fish and Chips has a flyer up saying they’re adding an “outdoor patio with beer and wine.”
This story contains an interesting description of Beach Drive, apparently courtesy of our own WS-based city poobah, Hizzoner. Which section do you suppose he’s referring to? The long straight section with the speed bumplets got repaved several years back. So I’d vote for the section from Lincoln Park Way northward … although I still don’t think that’s as rutted as certain busy stretches of Fauntleroy Way. Anyway, your nominations are welcomed by Hizzoner’s office, and the “winners” supposedly get repaved. (Guess my street is out of the running; we’ve already gotten a postcard about impending chip-seal replenishment.)
Got our first post-monorail car-license renewal notice today. Wow, that really was a chunk of change. Maybe we can lay claim to a brick when the “Former Monorail Station Site Park” takes shape over on the Fauntleroy Auto Repair lot.
You’ve laughed your way through the video we now know WE actually paid for!
You’ve bitten your nails while driving its scenic topside and muttering under your breath “just let me get to the other side before the Big One hits!”.
Now … just a week and a half to register for your annual chance to actually WALK on the viaduct. Hope to see you there.
Surprise — the sun’s out. Forecast still insists it won’t be for long, but I have faith I can at least get out and pull weeds for a while. If you’d rather do something else environmentally friendly that also happens to get you out on the water, Cami from ever-trusty AlkiNews.com tells us Alki Kayak Tours over at Seacrest Boathouse is offering demos on Eddyline Kayaks till 3 pm today. (I personally think West Seattle needs a few more businesses with “Tours” in their name — why not show off our beauty? — so I don’t mind the occasional plug!)
OK, I have to mention this here because I haven’t seen anyone else point it out yet.
Two little factual/timeline inaccuracies in the mayor’s viaduct/tunnel spoof video …
Narration says “The Blob” came down in the ’80s and the Kingdome in the ’90s.
Actually, “The Blob” was demolished in 1997, and The Dome in 2000.
OK, I feel better now.
Downtown was so murderously jammed this afternoon, I couldn’t even get NEAR the viaduct before the Columbia on-ramp … took me 1 hour and 44 minutes to get from the north end of downtown to the south end of West Seattle. I’ll blame the Mariners (afternoon game) … I highly doubt all that traffic was for SIFF.
P.S. One more word on the mayor’s viaduct video … didn’t know till I Googled him that “Matt Smith” is a real person. Who actually DID have a small recurring part on “Almost Live” — so Cami’s observation that the video was “Almost Live”-esque was right on the mark.
OMG, this is just too rich.
But you know, it does reveal that somebody in Hizzoner’s office has become mighty PR-savvy. This is going to get one orca of a lot of attention, vastly more than yet another dry Power Point presentation.
(For the record, my favorite option, the “just-tear-it-down” option, would not go over with the “Committee to Save Big Ugly Things” any better than the money-hole tunnel. And another side note … don’t know who the guy in the video is, but he looks something like the actor who played Christopher Henderson in the just-concluded season of “24.)
So now I know why a guy in a suit was standing up on the Fauntleroy pedestrian overpass (aka home to “HAPPY 1/2 CENTURY, LYLE” and “WILL YOU MARRY ME, MARINA”) when it’s not an election day.
Well, actually, this did have something to do with an election. The city transportation department was leading tours of sites slated to get some of your money and mine if we vote for the latest of 3,478 (give or take a few) transportation/money measures proposed for the local ballot this fall, “Bridging the Gap,” unveiled today by Hizzoner.
The handy-dandy map of “Bridging the Gap” projects contains a big dot right around the site of “HAPPY 1/2 CENTURY, LYLE,” so that explains the guy in the suit, the guy in the shirt, and the guy in the hard hat and big bright city-issue orange/yellow vest, peering down on us hapless drivers fleeing back into West Seattle, apparently right over pavement likely to dissolve into chalk-dust at any moment.
Please forgive me for being grumpy. I’m usually a good self-taxing citizen. I voted for the Monorail. I voted against $30 car-tab taxes. Yup, you can blame me. But now I’m going over the falls. I fully expect to eventually see the “Replace Stop Signs Knocked Down by Idiot Drivers Initiative,” the “So You Want to See Burned-Out Bulbs Replaced in Your Local Traffic Signals Initiative,” and the “Your Local Politicians Are Taking the Summer Off Because We Ran Out of Money for Our Salaries Initiative,” at this rate. The Ron Sims Bus Tax sounded goofy enough … wait … noooo … help, I’m starting to sound like Dori Monson.
Some weeks back, as we walked past the front of Aaron’s Bicycle Repair in Morgan Junction, we saw a hand-lettered sign on the store door that said “Gypsie was hit by a car.” We’ve often stopped to look through the window at the store’s resident cats, so we quickly made the assumption that “Gypsie” was one of them.
How wrong we were. This article says “Gypsie” is one of the shop owners, who’s battling back from quite an ordeal.
(Though my bike’s been in the basement for years, I’ve long felt fondness toward Aaron’s, because even at the height of anti-monorail mania, they were among the few who proudly and prominently displayed pro-monorail posters.)
Sorry I didn’t know about this meeting ahead of time; sounds like a chorus in which I could easily have sung — I’m also in the “tunnel schmunnel” section, although, as I’ve mentioned, I’m more a fan of the “third option” at the moment. Not that I’ve done any scientific studies or anything, it just seems like something we can get done quicker and cheaper.
(Side note with calendar relevance: The only time each year I actually feel warm and fuzzy about the viaduct is when I get to walk on it. The WSB team always signs up for that event — WSB Spouse and I are both “adult orphans” whose moms died of cancer, and it’s become our way of paying tribute to them each summer.)
Here’s the story in today’s P-I. I wouldn’t exactly call the pub move “a block” … details, details. As for possible names, Monorail Memorial Park really rings my bell. Perhaps some folks on the non-o-rail board can rustle around in the storeroom and find some decorations from items bought but unreturnable …
Interesting story this morning with some West Seattle stats — a city scheme to allow more development with less parking. Very nice of them to do that after our big chance at rapid non-bus transit died a miserable death.
What no one seems to ever realize about all this is that it’s not a matter of people being lazy — it’s a matter of time. Workdays now run way past 8 hours. Kids’ activities are now intensely scheduled. We all spend time hurtling frantically between all the places we “have to be,” trying to make the times we “have to” be there.
The world HQ of WSB, for example, is in a pure residential neighborhood without a single business within a mile in ANY direction. I enjoy walking to some of those businesses — WHEN THERE’S TIME. When there’s not, the closest bus runs on a very inconvenient schedule, never more than once every half-hour. All this means — gotta use the car whether I really WANT to walk, or not. Do these new policies mean I’m supposed to sell the house and move into a business-close condo? Or that I have to tell my bosses I CAN’T work a 10-hour day, I need those two extra hours to walk back and forth to the store? Or will Ron Sims’ “buses every 10 minutes everywhere” plan really come to MY neighborhood?
What’s your take on all this?
If you feel that way about gas, be sure you keep an eye on this site. Maybe you can even send in a tip about your favorite stop. They seem to be a little short on WS respondents.
Don’t have a link yet but I hear the Seattle City Council is going to take a grudging look at whether the third option — tear down the viaduct and do NOT build a new one OR a tunnel — might fly.
… free ride … as that ’70s band once sang … You all know what water taxi nuts we are. Postcard just came today from Councilguy Dow — the big season-starting celebration is Sunday 5/7, with FREE RIDES ALL DAY!
The Elliott Bay Water Taxi home page now links to the full array of info for this year’s sailing season, which starts a week from Monday. Can’t wait. But we notice at least one change … note the line “The Water Taxi does not issue [Metro] transfers.” In previous years, a crew member has gone around during the trip and offered transfers, which sometimes meant a cheaper ride back, if you were only going downtown for an hour or so — maybe that was the problem.
For some far more pointed/informative views about the (sad) state o’ Seattle transportation, check out this chasBlog post.
| 2 COMMENTS