Local Politics
Nov. 6th, 2002 02:49 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
terryclothLocal politics are less depressing, although (once again) every initiative I voted for went down, while every one I voted against passed.
The story is, Seattle has a traffic problem. Now, several possibilities were floated about how to fix this problem. Should we add lanes to the (for the most part two lane) freeways? Encourage carpooling? Improve the busses? Build some light rail like NYC and Cleveland and everywhere else?
The city planners decided that adding lanes was a temporary solution, since it would just encourage people to use cars instead of giving up and spending the extra two hours a day using public transportation to commute. So they decided to build light rail, and put up an initiative, that said they could complete it in a decade at a horrendously huge cost, and it passed because traffic was really bad.
But it turned out that building a subway or a surface train was going to be way more expensive than their estimates. In fact, currently, it looks like after spending all the tens of billions of dollars their special taxes raised, they're going to have done nothing whatsoever, although maybe they'll have settled on a route. Maybe.
So, the voters decided that a monorail would be a much better solution, because you wouldn't have to tear down buildings and buy land and stuff, or at least not as much. So they passed *another* initiative authorizing and funding a big project to build a monorail system doing the same thing as the light rail was supposed to.
Of course, it's silly to build *both* light rail and a monorail doing essentially the same thing, but how do you kill the massive light rail project that's been building momentum (although not enough momentum to actually, you know, DO anything) for years? Certainly, the people who'd actually have to build the monorail aren't going to do it if light rail is still around.
That's when it gets stupid.
The voters and Tim Eynman in particular decide to repeal car tabs to try to force the government to stop funding light rail. But the government doesn't want to stop funding light rail, because they've decided a loophole in the original initiative allows them to keep collecting their special limited-time tax indefinately, until the light rail is finally built to its full, now-known-to-be-impractical promised extent.
EG, the rail is supposed to go down to Tacoma, which means it has to pass through Tukwila or Renton or something, but the city of Tukwila (or Renton or whatever) won't let it pass through their territory unless it has a stop at the local mall and 'center of commerce', which is about ten miles off the route.
So instead, to punish the voters, they decide to kill everything *else* to make up for the shortfall, and then put it back on the ballot as a special initiative to fund essential services. Like, you know, continued maintenance on freeways, new roads, signals to fix unsafe intersections, etc. Ambulances. Fire departments are probably next. }:)
And Tuesday, the voters said 'no'. And in addition, repealed more taxes.
Last I heard, the government said it would refuse not to collect the now-repealed taxes. What the hell?
But anyway, as long as the voters and the state legislature play chicken with each other, the monorail will never be built, the freeways will never be expanded, light rail will probably never get off the ground, and eventually the constant parking-lot traffic on the 520 bridge will cause it to sink into the lake and kill hundreds. Oh, and all non-traffic-related aspects of the government will get defunded to help support the battle against democracy.
Our only hope is that Mt. Rainier erupts and kills us all.
The story is, Seattle has a traffic problem. Now, several possibilities were floated about how to fix this problem. Should we add lanes to the (for the most part two lane) freeways? Encourage carpooling? Improve the busses? Build some light rail like NYC and Cleveland and everywhere else?
The city planners decided that adding lanes was a temporary solution, since it would just encourage people to use cars instead of giving up and spending the extra two hours a day using public transportation to commute. So they decided to build light rail, and put up an initiative, that said they could complete it in a decade at a horrendously huge cost, and it passed because traffic was really bad.
But it turned out that building a subway or a surface train was going to be way more expensive than their estimates. In fact, currently, it looks like after spending all the tens of billions of dollars their special taxes raised, they're going to have done nothing whatsoever, although maybe they'll have settled on a route. Maybe.
So, the voters decided that a monorail would be a much better solution, because you wouldn't have to tear down buildings and buy land and stuff, or at least not as much. So they passed *another* initiative authorizing and funding a big project to build a monorail system doing the same thing as the light rail was supposed to.
Of course, it's silly to build *both* light rail and a monorail doing essentially the same thing, but how do you kill the massive light rail project that's been building momentum (although not enough momentum to actually, you know, DO anything) for years? Certainly, the people who'd actually have to build the monorail aren't going to do it if light rail is still around.
That's when it gets stupid.
The voters and Tim Eynman in particular decide to repeal car tabs to try to force the government to stop funding light rail. But the government doesn't want to stop funding light rail, because they've decided a loophole in the original initiative allows them to keep collecting their special limited-time tax indefinately, until the light rail is finally built to its full, now-known-to-be-impractical promised extent.
EG, the rail is supposed to go down to Tacoma, which means it has to pass through Tukwila or Renton or something, but the city of Tukwila (or Renton or whatever) won't let it pass through their territory unless it has a stop at the local mall and 'center of commerce', which is about ten miles off the route.
So instead, to punish the voters, they decide to kill everything *else* to make up for the shortfall, and then put it back on the ballot as a special initiative to fund essential services. Like, you know, continued maintenance on freeways, new roads, signals to fix unsafe intersections, etc. Ambulances. Fire departments are probably next. }:)
And Tuesday, the voters said 'no'. And in addition, repealed more taxes.
Last I heard, the government said it would refuse not to collect the now-repealed taxes. What the hell?
But anyway, as long as the voters and the state legislature play chicken with each other, the monorail will never be built, the freeways will never be expanded, light rail will probably never get off the ground, and eventually the constant parking-lot traffic on the 520 bridge will cause it to sink into the lake and kill hundreds. Oh, and all non-traffic-related aspects of the government will get defunded to help support the battle against democracy.
Our only hope is that Mt. Rainier erupts and kills us all.
