September 2005

A few days ago, all of my fellow Seattle public school students and I were forced back into the brilliant federal machine, better known as school. I see multitudes of my friends for the first time in months, wave to a couple people whose names I pretend to have remembered, and wade through the sea of high school students in the counseling office in the hopes of proving my schedule's grievances worthy of their attention.

It's hard enough to lose your house, your car, your furniture and your pets.

Those are the big things.

How about all the little things that you were used to. Your favorite pillow. The clock that used to wake you. Not only your coffee pot, but your favorite coffee cup - all gone.

The store where the small merchant remembered your name. Gone.

The guy at the neighborhood hardware who answered your questions about how to get rid of moss or moles or mice.

I guess hizzoner thinks he's Richard J. Daley of Chicago (Mayor: no gas tax, no viaduct, Sept. 7).

First he tells us that 99 is important to the region because of all the commerce that uses it. The county and region should kick in lots of money to build 'Big Dig 2' to keep that commerce rolling. Then he lectures the Legislature in Olympia, telling them 99 is an important state arterial and so they should kick in a couple of billion to put in the tunnel.

On Sept. 6, just in time for rush-hour, the Alaskan Way Viaduct was closed south-bound. Commutes that should have been 20 minutes stretched past two hours as downtown became gridlocked.

Following the earthquake, when the Viaduct was closed in both directions, it was even worse, with commutes out of West Seattle sometimes spanning three hours. Now imagine this happening every day!

(Mayor Greg) Nickels says the Viaduct may not be replaced?

Well, Mayor Nickels certainly helped me make up my mind on the gas tax by saying, "no gas tax, no viaduct." No gas tax it is.

(Last) week Seattle experienced two major traffic tie-ups that have made traffic a real mess.

First, on Tuesday, we had a dump truck turn over on southbound 99 that closed the viaduct for several hours. This forced all the thousands of cars that use the viaduct to the surface streets in downtown Seattle. Imagine what traffic would have been if there had been a baseball, football or basketball game in town.

This week we reveled in the opening of a renewed and expanded Madison Middle School. Roughly $38 Million was invested to provide a comfortable learning environment for children of our community, mine included.

In the Aug. 31 edition of the West Seattle Herald, readers were asked to consider the Southwest Airlines proposal to move its operations to Boeing Field. Alaska Airlines and Horizon Air also announced their intent to seek equal access to the airport if Southwest moves. I am an employee of Alaska Airlines and a resident of West Seattle, and would like to offer my perspective on the Southwest proposal.

On the surface, the Southwest offer is cheap tickets, a close and convenient airport, a free airport terminal for the county, and more jobs for Boeing workers.

King County Transit is looking beyond asphalt for transportation options in the coming years.

Harkening back to the days of the Mosquito Fleet, when hundreds of boats carried people as well as mail, merchandise and supplies around Puget Sound, King County Transit recently completed a study of the future potential for water taxis, passenger-only ferries and other vessels to help move people around.

Planners are quick to point out that waterborne transit could never replace cars, trucks, buses or van pools.

A financial adviser hired to recommend new ways to pay for the monorail presented a plan to cut costs from $11 billion paid over 50 years to $7 billion that could be paid off in 39 years.

Kevin Phelps predicts revenue from Seattle's motor vehicle excise tax - the monorail's only financial source - will grow in the future, not shrink as forecasted in a previous economic study. Phelps is credited with straightening out the financial woes of Sound Transit's light rail project.