Disqus - Latest Comments for richjensen

Re: Game up!

richjensen — Tue, 22 Feb 2011 11:44:34 -0000

Now that's a comment! Write on!

Re: Reverb - Eric Grandy - Last Night: White Rainbow's R&B Side-Project Purple and Green Light Up a Dance Party at Cairo Gallery

richjensen — Mon, 14 Feb 2011 19:58:12 -0000

Ha!

Re: Facebook Status Update of the Day

richjensen — Fri, 04 Feb 2011 16:09:26 -0000

Nice 'Good news" story. Cool.

Re: AP: Gregoire, Kitzhaber Scrap Expensive Bridge Project

richjensen — Fri, 04 Feb 2011 15:54:54 -0000

Except that your inversion obscures the class-based reality of CARS RULE's point.

Re: AP: Gregoire, Kitzhaber Scrap Expensive Bridge Project

richjensen — Fri, 04 Feb 2011 15:44:37 -0000

"McLiar" and "noob", these we should regard as wit?

Re: AP: Gregoire, Kitzhaber Scrap Expensive Bridge Project

richjensen — Fri, 04 Feb 2011 15:36:17 -0000

Except that a) the 110,000 number you cite includes many tens of thousands of current commuter trips TO DOWNTOWN (where OMG! drivers DUMP THEMSELVES on CITY STREETS EVERYDAY!!) and b) with tolls, no downtown exit, etc., WSDOT's projection is that 20 years from now the tunnel will serve 60,000 trips. Since 110 - 60 = 50.... OMG!! The dumping!! The dumping!!

This is the madness the boosters keep repeating.

Re: Velo Bus Driver: Light Rail Isn’t Going to Flood Bellevue With “Undesirables”

richjensen — Thu, 20 Jan 2011 01:17:13 -0000

How do you know that?

Re: Contrary to What You Might Believe

richjensen — Tue, 18 Jan 2011 16:42:05 -0000

Hated by plutocrats, not a problem.

Re: Velo Bus Driver: Light Rail Isn’t Going to Flood Bellevue With “Undesirables”

richjensen — Tue, 18 Jan 2011 16:25:26 -0000

... didn't say that it was. Just sharing the context in which I first encountered that particular opinion. Kinda think it is more common than transit-supporters might suppose.

I also felt that my informants had the sense that their anxieties could be read as 'politically incorrect', ie segregationist, and so they were somewhat guarded about explaining their reasoning in detail. Again, I think this is a pretty common set of symptoms for our locale: ungrounded fear and loathing of 'others' covered by a polite veneer of pseudo open-mindedness.

Re: Velo Bus Driver: Light Rail Isn’t Going to Flood Bellevue With “Undesirables”

richjensen — Tue, 18 Jan 2011 01:22:01 -0000

Unfortunately, fear and logic don't have much in common.

Re: Velo Bus Driver: Light Rail Isn’t Going to Flood Bellevue With “Undesirables”

richjensen — Mon, 17 Jan 2011 19:03:42 -0000

This is a more commonly held opinion than many people might believe. I first heard it in reference to the monorail discussion a few years ago when a pleasant-seeming north-end couple explained how worried they were by reports that the future monorail stations would be magnets for crime and vandalism.

Re: Dreaming of A Universal Parking Impact Fee

richjensen — Thu, 14 Oct 2010 16:32:05 -0000

Building a revenue stream for more "good transportation stuff" is essential, and tying it to a tax on "bad transportation stuff" makes sense.

The most straightforward thing would be to have a fuel tax, ie tax and reduce the poisonous emissions that make the planet, and our region, sick. Unfortunately, a 1944 amendment to the Washington State Constitution (Amendment 18) requires that all state funds generated from fuel taxes be spent on highway and road improvements, not more efficient transportation or development modes.

A use fee on parking spaces might be the best way to quickly create strong market incentives to steer the region away from climate disaster.

That seems like the fair and prudent thing to do for today's kids and the families they might like to have later in the century.

Re: A Pretty Classy Move

richjensen — Wed, 13 Oct 2010 09:44:59 -0000

So like, you are going around posting to various blogs (this one and Real Change) in town to make sure readers know you think Ms. Remmu has poor journalistic standards?

Weird, ugly hobby.

Re: Maps Show Racial Makeup of Major Cities, Including Seattle

richjensen — Sat, 25 Sep 2010 03:37:10 -0000

You're talking about a lot of my friends and neighbors. The idea that they don't exist is absurd. I don't get your point.

Re: Maps Show Racial Makeup of Major Cities, Including Seattle

richjensen — Fri, 24 Sep 2010 18:49:00 -0000

Whatever the pigmentation of participants on this thread, the blue dots in the map (skewed toward Central and Southeast Seattle) represent residents of African descent, about 47,000 of them*.

If you don't see them, that says something about the value of your observations and the comments you derive from them.

http://www.ofm.wa.gov/pop/c...

Re: Breaking: In End Run Around McGinn, Conlin Moves Tunnel Forward

richjensen — Fri, 24 Sep 2010 10:10:02 -0000

Are the 16 SDOT positions related to this project? Or was that just a further indication of the degree that vindictive pettiness trumps the public interest when it comes to implementing transportation policy in this community?

Re: Maps Show Racial Makeup of Major Cities, Including Seattle

richjensen — Thu, 23 Sep 2010 16:41:24 -0000

No Black people in Seattle, huh?

Reeeeeaaaaalllllyyyyy?

Re: http://poplifereadings.tumblr.com/post/628760774

richjensen — Thu, 16 Sep 2010 12:25:34 -0000

Sweet tip Josh! Thanks.

By the way, look for POP LIFE 2.0 in Jan 2011.

Bigger, badder and more inhabit-y...

Re: Hey Demographer Nerds!

richjensen — Thu, 09 Sep 2010 14:01:12 -0000

Sexy data dump!

Re: Why Does McGinn’s Potential Rail Plan Look So… Familiar?

richjensen — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 12:54:17 -0000

Yes, the monorail authority spent and lost money. I was wrong about there being a surplus.

But I was correct that the monorail made money off the land sales. The proceeds were applied to operating debts and reduced the duration of the car tab tax.

"With all but one parcel sold or under contract, the monorail project now stands to receive $68 million, $11 million more than it paid for the parcels two years ago."

http://www.seattlepi.com/tr...

May 22, 2006

This whole Seattle transportation war, since Forward Thrust really, is just... sad. Penny smart, pound foolish, again and again and again.

Re: Why Does McGinn’s Potential Rail Plan Look So… Familiar?

richjensen — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 10:42:27 -0000

You make a solid point about the public entity that purchased the land and then made a handsome profit off the resales. It was the monorail authority and not the City of Seattle. Although, weren't those proceeds transferred to city accounts upon the liquidation of the Elevated Transit Authority?

Please don't blame the masses (ie, "you people") for my oversight.

My point was that the public agencies didn't "waste taxes" on those deals.

Re: Why Does McGinn’s Potential Rail Plan Look So… Familiar?

richjensen — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 03:58:15 -0000

I was disappointed when the city immediately dumped all the monorail land.

However, because of fortuitous timing, the city made a tidy profit off those transactions.

The market has since become depressed. Perhaps the real estate can be bought back even cheaper than before?

What is certain though, is that you like to spout your anti-public jibber-jabber without the slightest consideration of available facts.

i suggest you wait until you have some info before you pretend to offer info, Mr. (or Ms.) TheInfo.

Re: Why Does McGinn’s Potential Rail Plan Look So… Familiar?

richjensen — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 03:42:20 -0000

You are suggesting football and baseball stadia for every neighborhood?

Re: Why Does McGinn’s Potential Rail Plan Look So… Familiar?

richjensen — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 03:39:51 -0000

Losing population? False.

Re: Duh of the Day: Density Means Less Driving

richjensen — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 12:39:17 -0000

No more car-dependent diktats. Thank you.