January 2007

Once upon a time, two-income families bought two cars and the second car was sometimes that original VW Beetle. Detroit automakers didn't realize that taste in cars was changing, so it took them time to catch up to the need for a basic second car without the chrome and frills that car owners once bragged about.

Well, I predict that another era of car manufacture is in the offing. Soon Baby Boomers will reach the age of arthritic pain and will need the car that we need now. And what is that?

We support the governor's position in going forward with the rebuild of the Alaskan Way Viaduct. Building a new elevated structure will save the citizens of the Seattle area $3 billion. We believe the majority of the Seattle citizens oppose any tunnel.

The two lane tunnel (Tunnel Lite) will not have the same capacity as the present viaduct.

Nickel's and Drago's "hybrid" tunnel-surface ballot language hustled off to King County Elections before Friday's deadline should be called the "High-Bread" option.

It is half-baked with no confidence in the $3.4 Billion cost they've cooked up. Washington State Department of Transportation says it will take three months to verify this recipe.

"High-Bread" because $3.4 billion is $1 billion more than a brand new elevated structure and $2 billion more than a retrofit.

I am deeply disappointed by the statement signed by Mayor Nickels and Councilmember Drago to Governor Gregoire in response to her determination that the State of Washington will not finance a tunnel replacement for Hwy 99 through downtown Seattle. Read it here: http://www.seattle.gov/news/detail.asp?ID=6942&Dept=40

After first denying the public a vote in the tunnel vs. raised roadbed options for the viaduct, Mayor Nickels now laments the option of a vote being snatched away by the governor.

Merchants from the Junction Association and representatives of West Seattle neighborhood organizations escorted Mayor Greg Nickels around the business district Saturday afternoon.

Starting at ArtsWest Gallery, about 20 people accompanied the mayor as he walked around the Junction.

The main attractions of the tour were the Junction's two new midblock crosswalks across California Avenue Southwest. Jessica Murphy from the Seattle Department of Transportation told the mayor they are the first elevated crosswalks in the city.

Former salesmen at Huling Bros. Auto Center, one of West Seattle's largest businesses, were charged last week with breaking into a customer's apartment last summer, stealing $70,000 in cash and laundering the money to cover up the crime.

Documents filed by the King County Prosecuting Attorney claim a 60-year-old Delridge man, wearing clothes stained with his own excrement, walked into Huling Bros. dealership last July 21 with $30,000 cash in a plastic bag.

For the next few weeks, the Seattle School District will try to convince voters to approve $887 million in school bonds and levies, of which, more than $125 million would fund projects in West Seattle.

Up for approval in a special election Feb. 6, a $490 million capital bond (Building Excellence III) that would pay for replacement and renovation of seven schools, including Denny Middle School and Chief Sealth High School.

West Seattleites will get a chance after all to vote on how best to replace the Alaskan Way Viaduct but no one knows whether state officials will heed the message.

Two questions will be on the March 13 ballot: Should the Alaskan Way Viaduct be replaced with a four-lane tunnel, yes or no?

Seattle-based Starbucks Coffee Co. announced it is donating $550,000 for a flurry of construction in June to make more use of White Center Heights Park.

The park is about 5.5 acres largely hidden on Seventh Avenue Southwest, south of 102nd Street. Its northern section is an open grassy playfield with a few scattered benches. Green's Pond, site of White Center's first sawmill, is at the southern end.

1. The victim of a car theft contacted Federal Way police to report that his vehicle had been stolen while parked outside the Red Robin restaurant at 2233 South 320th Street. The incident took place sometime around 12:15 a.m. on January 15. The victim's report states that he parked his blue 1994 Jeep outside the Red Robin and locked it, giving no one permission to enter or drive it. Upon returning to the vehicle, the victim discovered that an unknown person or persons had taken it. The man also reported that the had left his $1,200 Toshiba laptop and a military knapsack inside.