For sure. I know you’re not the author. I’m stating that again in case there’s confusion for anyone else.

Man it used to piss me off when people would throw stones from outside. Like be involved, sure. That’s great.

But we’re in here with budgets and stakeholders tryna find a path forward that works that isn’t kicking the can and instead makes real decisions about the future of the city and when the fuckin answer is the same old tired ass conservative shit, man it’ll drive you crazy. You start dismissing them out of hand but that sucks because they’re your citizens too.

At least the libs had interesting positions. It was questions of fairness and justice and stuff like that.

It was always either No from conservatives because of money or kicking the can cause they want to say no but can’t for some reason.

My brothers and sisters in Christ when we get fuckin consent decreed and the feds break their whole foot off in our ass I promise the cost will be worse

Sorry. Trauma dumping.

What is it with posting haters of the West Seattle rail project?

I would encourage readers, as I would for anyone reading anything, to do a quick background check on the author. He will show you who he is very quickly.

I worked in government and I think voices from across the spectrum is only a good thing when we sit down to figure out how to proceed. However, I don’t have to take that shit seriously once they retire and roll over to their think tank and shit all over process because they checked responsibility for outcomes at the door. I worked at public works and I rarely comment on the actual deliberations happening today cause it’s really hard to do when you’re there but really easy to shit on from the outside, like the author is.

But hey, conservative think tanks always paid the best for trashing the process. I wish I could have just sat my integrity aside to cash their checks. Libs don’t pay shit for it.

As for the author, my question is what in your piece went unexamined that would support a rail link and why did you choose to leave that part out? What is the strongest argument for the rail? What’s the second strongest? There have been many big rail projects that were called out for expense but ended up defining regions and positively transforming them. Would you have argued against those too?

Lived long enough to see themselves become the villain.

All those taxes we pay to antifa and what do we have to show for it smh

I subscribe to this community by RSS feed. I saw the headline and ran over to this thread as fast as I could.

The light rail is going to come with displacement. My kids go to Mode Music, which will be displaced. We love the Skylark and hang out there regularly, which will also get the axe.

It’s a super bummer because we love those places, but a gondola is fuckin crazy talk.

Ain’t. Fuckin. Happenin.

Dense residential is the future and the Delridge neighborhood is primed to do it. It’s affordable by Seattle standards and there’s a ton of ground ready to build to the sky.

Outlets like them never stay the same. They either get better or get worse. I sure hope they get better.

I send em a fiver every month.

I voted for someone else, but it was the toughest choice I had on this ballot. I think your platform is great and you’re heroic as fuck for doing what you’re doing. This game takes guts and I admire you for yours.

If you get thru the primary my family will absolutely throw in with you.

The best of luck.

Idaho is invading.

I love that you felt the need to point that out.

And he’s such a clown that they found a way to shit on Saka.

Alright center libs, you won. Let’s see what you can do.

…

Welp

I’ve been in enough organizations to know that what the people running the organization want and what’s best for everyone are often different things. I read what you wrote elsewhere in the thread and I think you’re right, it needs to be addressed.

-but-

I think we can be creative enough to have the groceries and market goods find their ways to cars while also finding a way to stop having tourists accidentally turn into the market and almost run people over because seriously, all of us have seen a kid dart or a tourist not pay attention and that shit happens ALL THE DAMN TIME.

And I think 5 out of 61 vendors being against it means we should probably have already been looking for alternate solutions and the people that are just saying no should know when it’s a losing cause and start coming up with ideas that get them what they need to succeed.

The Urbanist had a story on this that was linked by Publicola and it looks pretty straight forward to me.

https://www.theurbanist.org/2023/10/12/most-vendors-dont-oppose-pedestrianizing-pike-place-market-survey-shows/

“Out of the 61 individual vendors and businesses that they were able to interview, only a handful — around five — were fully against the idea of moving the Market in a more pedestrian-oriented direction. “In this group of vendors, we found that they think the street works well, and they didn’t see any conflicts between pedestrians and private vehicles, believing the cars add to the market’s character and are needed for business purposes and bulk loads,” the pair wrote in a summary of their research.”

And I don’t anyone is arguing against cars for business purposes or bulk loads… so that’s kind of a red herring.

Also, cars adding to the market’s character? Really? I mean bullshit all you want, but maybe be a teensy bit less shameless about it. Literally nobody thinks that.

““The idea (of a car-less Pike Place) was finally implemented a decade or more ago by the Market landlord for one month during high summer season,” King wrote. “The results were a disaster for merchants in the four floors of retail below street level, known collectively as Down Under…. And so quietly the results of the ‘car free’ experiment in the Pike Place Market were shelved. It turned out that cars on Pike Place served as people distributors, forcing pedestrians to take a variety of routes to wind their way through the Market.””

Honestly, if that’s an argument being made, then there’s no argument at all for not closing it. Seriously. “Cars push pedestrians into corners because their driving conflicts so much with walking traffic that it pushes pedestrians off the main street” is fucking INSANE to say out loud as if it was a great point.

Like, let’s get creative about advertising the lower levels (and going there ourselves!) and close the fuckin street so lost tourists aren’t driving inches away from megatons of pedestrians.