- Conservative columnist David Brooks thinks the recent study showing that Denver, San Diego, Seattle, Orlando and Tampa as the cities most would prefer to live in shows that American cities should be come something like Amsterdam. Or something. Urbanist Joe details the difference in the way cities and suburbs are built there (the Netherlands) compared to here in the States.
- The heads of the transit agenciesin Snohomish, Pierce and King Counties had an editorial in yesterday’s Seattle Times. They describe how transit stimulus makes jobs, and mention some of the projects they want funded: the D-to-M portion of the Pt. Defiance Bypass, traffic signals on Pacific Avenue in Tacoma, improvements to Mountlake Terrace transit center, 23 double-decker buses for Community Transit, new buses for Everett Transit and King County Metro.
- From the Seattle Times, here’s a different take on the HB 1490 that we’ve discussed here. The article doesn’t mention HB 1490’s density rule only applies to a few, already-designated growth centers.
- Here’s more about the dire funding straits most transit agencies are in.
- Recovery.gov, which tracks the stimulus spending, is now live after Obama signed the bill into law.
Sims says bus service could be cut by 20 percent
Not that this is anything new, but that number is a bit staggering.
No wonder he wanted out!
I hope they cut the lowest ridership exurban routes rather than the already crowded city and suburb routes.
Agreed.
I’d rather see them hack away at frequency before span and instead of cutting routes altogether, but it looks like all of the above will happen and exurbs will have to take the hit the hardest.
As someone who lives in the suburbs, and has no other choice but to rely on public transit no matter what happens, I would really hate to see some areas get cut off but again there doesn’t seem to be much of a choice.
What’s wrong with the traffic signals on Pacific Ave? I grew up down there and if you drove 2mph under the speed limit you could travel the whole stretch without stopping for a red. I’m sure there’s needs that have come up over the last 30 years but “way back” that was a shining example of how to synchronize lights. Something Redmond still hasn’t figured out.
Double Decker buses?
Kudos to the Obama administration for recovery.gov
Oops, my bad. I was thinking of S. Tacoma Way. Pacific north of I-5 could probably stand for a redo.
I thought I was acquainted with all Snohomish County transit happenings but there is a new project! What is this Mid Town Transit Center? I assumer it is in Everett. Downtown Everett is served by the Everett Station. North Everett has the center near EvCC. Everett Mall has the Mall Station.
Re: David Brooks: I found his second-to-last paragraph pretty amusing.
“The folks at Pew asked one other interesting question: Would you rather live in a community with a McDonald’s or a Starbucks? McDonald’s won, of course, but by a surprisingly small margin: 43 percent to 35 percent. And that, too, captures the incorrigible nature of American culture, a culture slowly refining itself through espresso but still in love with the drive-thru.”
Apparently he’s never seen the drive-through Starbucks at Rainier and MLK. Which, for what it’s worth, should never have been built right across the street from a light rail station.
I go to this starbucks about once a week, and it’s not a drive-through. It might look like it from the raod, with the single-lane, one-way roadway behind the building, but it’s simply an access route, not a drive-through. I don’t know if they had originaly planned it as such (the store layout would support that theory), but with the station overlay in place that will never happen; only existing drive-throughs are grandfathered in – no new ones are allowed.
There are Starbuck’s with drive-thrus though. Yes you can have both your espresso and your drive-thru.
How is David Brooks a conservative?
i dont want to get into a conversation about what a conservative is, but most people say brooks is one: for the iraq war and for john mccain.
That’s a republican, not a conservative…
@Erick-Is that supposed to be a serious question? I’m not accusing you of anything, but Brooks is pretty well-known as one of the self-identified, so-called “intellectual conservative” opinionists in America. Sort of like a George Will with dark eyebrows.
@Andrew–Thanks for the link to Joe Urban. Very interesting page. If the anti-HB1490 folks were being intellectually honest about their opposition, they would do well to have a look there, among other places.
I am not sure the principles I should use to identify Brooks as conservative. I have a hard time calling Brooks conservative using the principles of “small-government”, “fiscal-conservatism” and “non-interventionism”.
By that definition most republicans aren’t conservatives. That’s the common usage of the word rather than the most traditionally accurate.
I agree with you that few Republicans are conservative. Most advocate borrow-and-spend, pro-war fascism. Cheney is the best example.
I meant to say few elected Republicans. I have no idea about Republicans in general.
In David Brooks column, fourth to last paragraph, last line, states: “They are not, except for Seattle, especially ideological, blue or red.”
They being Denver, San Diego, Orlando and Tampa.
What excatly does than mean? Seattle, ideological?
He’s trying to say that Denver, San Diego, Orlando and Tampa aren’t especially liberal or conservative but that Seattle is especially liberal for America
How so? Is Seattle really that liberal from the rest of America? It sometimes seems resistant to new ideas with its incessant indecisiveness.
Before you get too choked up on how we need to model our development after Holland consider that Washington State is less than 1/10 the density of the Netherlands and that 20% of the land area of the Netherlands has been reclaimed from the North Sea.
The Dutch have learn much from past mistakes and we can learn from them but Seattle is not Amsterdam. It’s not even San Francisco. Sure I’d like to see better bike options but we’ve simply got much larger distances to cover. That’s not a problem; it’s a blessing.