Comments on: 32 Days

By: Mickymse

Mickymse — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 22:06:08 +0000

They have to cover it because it’s a news event… but that coverage could be positive or negative. Overall, that was a nice fluff piece highlighting the Beacon Hill station and public outreach to the community.

Are you expecting local media to run pro-transit pieces in the way The Stranger used to show its clear bias for the monorail?

As I’ve said before, if you’ve got a bone to pick with Mike, try giving him a call. Or invite him to your next blog meet-up. Or you might try inviting Nicole Brodeur or Danny Westneat to a blog meet-up to cover pro-light rail enthusiasts.

If you want to influence the media, you’re going to have to work on it…

By: Ben Schiendelman

Ben Schiendelman — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 20:32:09 +0000

I’m annoyed by his characterizations and what he chooses to point out. They’ll cover light rail no matter what, I don’t have to be excited about that.

By: Mickymse

Mickymse — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 17:33:35 +0000

*SIGH* The fact that you are all annoyed by Mike’s Seattle Times article, rather than excited that the Times put a story on light rail on the front page with great photos, is a great example of the echo chamber that STB lives in some times…

By: Ben Schiendelman

Ben Schiendelman — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 17:28:38 +0000

And as we put neighborhood lines underground, it just gets harder for that to happen. :)

By: ST Guy

ST Guy — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 16:13:19 +0000

ST Link is powered by multiple City Light substations. Outage of one breaker or even one substation can be coped with. It would take an area-wide power outage to stop the system.

By: AJ

AJ — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 15:46:40 +0000

Wait until the post-summer/pre-holiday advertising sales period ramps up in September. How many commitments do they have, I wonder? Last I heard, the Toy Book, if published, would bypass local papers and go door to door. Savvy work on the part of Toys ‘R Us, but bad for newspapers since it’s a big ticket item.

By: Lloyd

Lloyd — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 15:32:43 +0000

And sadly, the Stranger’s comments are seldom any more informed or well though out.

By: Lloyd

Lloyd — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 15:30:42 +0000

You’re right – all they’d have to do to stop that nonsense is flip a switch. The Blethens are desperate…

By: Barman

Barman — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 09:03:18 +0000

The thing is, more disturbingly, these aren’t crazy idiots. They’re run of the mill working class citizens of King County.

Just another example of the surprisingly prolific libertarian movement that seems to be gaining so much ground in Western WA. These people will be against anything that breathes if it costs them a penny in property taxes. They exploded in misinformed rage when Victoria Clipper needed to request termination of service to a ‘GOVERNMENT COMMITEE!!!!!!!!!! OH NOES!!!!!!’ (Never mind it’s a safety and regulatory group for all passenger boat service in Elliot Bay. Something about the Titanic being short on lifeboats and all that)

By: Oran

Oran — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 08:43:42 +0000

The Internet gives the crazies and the idiots a platform for expressing their views like they never had before. Which is not always a bad thing. Just let them have at it and read them make a fool of themselves. The P-I and other major media outlets are no better than the Times. They seem to lack a degree of moderation.

By: Ben Schiendelman

Ben Schiendelman — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 08:43:09 +0000

I think the Times hosts those forums *because* they degenerate into hate mongering.

By: Mark

Mark — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 07:20:41 +0000

As far as Mike Lindblom’s articles go, I thought it was one of his less offensive. His thought process is still amusingly transparent… “make a neutral or semi positive statement so that I appear un-biased, now launch into a list of ‘but critics say….’ “

Ah well. Far more concerning is the forum. I know you’re supposed to ignore crazy Internet forums, but the degree of venom and vitriol towards transit, cities, and governments in general is really shocking.

Why does the Seattle Times host those forums if they always degenerate into such hate mongering? Even an article about a bicyclist dying in a collision, within the hour all the crazies have come out of the woodwork. Is there a positive way to combat this, or is this an “ignore it and it will go away” thing?

By: jcdk

jcdk — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 06:09:28 +0000

I didn’t think the article was all that bad… people who I spoke to that read it expressed excitement about the Beacon Hill station of which they knew very little before.

It was also informative. I had no idea about the plans for the adjoining road: “Steps from the station entrance, the city is building a decorative, low-speed side street, similar to a European woonerf, for “kiss-and-ride” passenger drop-offs, bicycles, disabled-access vans and pedestrians. Bollards can be raised to block the road for a farmers market”.

Side note:
The power outage that occurred on Beacon Hill today got me thinking: how vulnerable is Link to power failures?

By: Mad Park

Mad Park — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 05:42:35 +0000

Barely still in business, but, yes, the Blethens are still with us in too many ways. Kind of like Kemper, only worse – wait, not, not worse, just as bad.

By: Andy

Andy — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 04:58:33 +0000

Why couldn’t he just remember that the entire Link project is under budget and there’s actually beautiful art in what could have been a dark and dreary tunnel? Looking at the pictures of the tunnel makes me glad that i’m paying 0.5% more in sales tax to fund light rail expansion.

The tunnel looks so freakin’ awesome!!!!!!!

By: Colenel Blethen

Colenel Blethen — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 03:53:51 +0000

The Times is still in business????

Pity….

By: Ben Schiendelman

Ben Schiendelman — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 03:08:31 +0000

Man, the article was bad. He bent over backwards to come up with things like the cost of the artwork, the fact that the guy died, etc etc…

By: Matt

Matt — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 02:06:11 +0000

32 is also the number of times Mike Lindblom made a dig at light rail in the Seattle Times today.

So I went and read that article, which seemed okay, and then read its comments. Ugh – what was I thinking?

By: poncho

poncho — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 00:30:25 +0000

re: portland rail

its passed by a wide margin in either the late 80s or early 90s… this is what funded the westside max line. the north-south line in the mid 90s passed in multnomah and clackamas counties (both in oregon) but lost in clark county (in washington). it had to pass in all three counties to be built. an oregon only line from the columbia river south thru portland to milwaukie to clackamas lost since the measure went before state voters and obviously people outside the portland metro arent going to vote for it. most of this has been built or is in planning (interstate/yellow line max, milwaukie max, future columbia river crossing/clark county yellow line extension), plus some other lines have also been built (airport max & i-205 max)