Christiana Figeueres was the Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, who led the COP 21 climate talks in Paris. She got better results on climate action from 195 world leaders than the state legislature has produced.
This is an open thread.
And what does president Trump Do in responce- we all know “America first”! MAGA! He doesn’t see the world perspective beyond the Fox News/ Info Wars echo chamber.
Based on performance to date, every single visible thing he does and says is a deliberate and deadly effective distraction from the real danger he poses. In every department of the Federal government, huge numbers of positions are open and left permanently empty.
With remaining ones filled by people whose only mission in their Cabinet position is to hand it over to the industries it was supposed to protect us from. Google up: “Contamination Hanford.” Employee private cars found contaminated. With Energy Department insisting they’re ok. For starters.
“Russian” category includes amount of money gained for unspecified hotel-requiring purposes, courtesy of the Russian mob, who make the Mafia look like a middle-school play about The Godfather. In other words, we’ve got the wrong prosecutor. Should be the Assistant DA from Passaic New Jersey.
From day one, every stink-bomb- what was the first one, insulting a dead Muslim war-hero’s mother?- carefully intended to draw the media like flies and maggots to the pile- many times more effective than FOX. One hundred percent effective.
The man’s a REALITY SHOW CREATOR! All the who’s in, who’s out in the White House. And absolutely every word one day paired with exact opposite next morning’s twitter. Most brilliant psychological warfare campaign in History. Ever notice how unbalanced so many ordinary people you know personally are now?
So best approach, don’t waste any time on anything he says. But get your sources for most boring matters in Government, and start figuring out how we reverse their demolition. “The Establishment” has already been destroyed. Rebels’ mission no longer to take out bureaucrats, but to become them.
Mark Dublin
I’ve been wondering what this greatness is, when will we reach it, and how will we know we’ve reached it? Then at the rally in Pennsylvania we go the answer. Trump said Rick Saccone can’t run on “Make America Great Again” because it’s already great: Trump made it great, so Sacoone will have to find a new slogan. So whatever it is has already happened. Gosh, I feel greater already.
Mike, do some reading about everyday life in the United States between 1945 and, say, 1970. You’ll at least get an idea not what campaign people know, since many weren’t even born when last generation with direct experience started dying.
But what they think that other Americans who weren’t here either think they know. About those days, when we had great influence in the world because the rest of it was in ruins. And America had millions of jobs that let someone walk out of school at sixteen and start a family with first paycheck.
Whose stated amount showed them benefits of union representation. And included a lot of public works. Whether anybody in that sector made a profit or not. Which really does show the way to an ordinary life so satisfying that “Great!” generally refers to an outfielder.
The Democrats have had at least forty years to work on that. Can’t blame at least some people if they let somebody else give it a try. If only to show that complacency has its price. While some others try really hard to repair at least one party or, start another two. It’s not so much rocket science as tech school and civil engineering.
MD
Trump got the Democrat-controlled State Legislature to kill the carbon tax. It was his doing. And that is how he Made America Great Again.
Trump was the one who said “Make American great again”, so the salient point is what he thinks great is. I guess it means bullying other countries, and an extraction-based economy (oil, coal, steel).
It’s surprising that a year after the campaign we even have to ask this question. If greatness was so lacking and we needed it so much, wouldn’t a politician say, “Greatmess is A, B, and C.” and everybody would go “Yeah!” But instead he leaves the term so vague as to be meaningless, and nobody ever stops to ask what this greatness is. Which suggests he means nothing by it at all; it’s just a slogan.
Heating and cooling is a huge contributor to carbon footprint and resulting global warming. Individually make a major contribution to combatting global warming. Go Green Between 13C/55F and 30C/85F – don’t heat if your interior space is warmer than 13C/55F, and don’t cool if your interior space is cooler than 30C/85F. It’s easy. Go about your life as normal, just dress warmer, dress cooler, or dress in layers as conditions warrant. It’s what much of the world has been doing all along. We are long past due for the rest of the world to do its part. Go GreenBetween!
What makes you choose those specific figures? My old landlord insisted we keep the heating at 62F or higher, for the pipes.
The numbers were chosen because they establish a reasonable temperature range that is “memorable” whether expressed in Fahrenheit or Centigrade. GreenBetween is a global goal, and global means some folks thinking in Centigrade, and some folks thinking in Fahrenheit. Generally the temperature range is more than adequate on the low side to prevent pipes from freezing. However, if the outside temperatures get down below freezing for an extended period of time, depending on the building construction (e.g. a water pipe run in an uninsulated exterior wall, or on the wrong (cold) side of the insulation in a insulated wall) bumping the temperature up a bit during the cold spell might be needed. Some parts of the world never need to be concerned about freezing pipes. Some parts of the world need to be concerned about freezing pipes for much of the year. Here in the Puget Sound region most of us need to be concerned about frozen pipes only a few days out of the year on average.
And, if you do have one of those spots where this is an issue, self regulating heat tape and pipe insulation is a less energy intensive way of dealing with it.
If you are a fossil fuel or energy company…before we evaluate above claim, can you tell us your current definition of “normal” before we air-breathers go along with your maintaining it?
MD
You wanna talk about optimism?
OK, sure I’ll bite.
Would it change anybody’s heart and mind if we had democracy vouchers for transit board elections?
Seriously, because I’ll change my ideological position a bit to get some of you more optimistic about having transit boards having more representation from folks like us.
Joe, am I right that you’re talking about Sound Transit being run by a directly elected board? Whose electorate will consist of the whole ST area at large, charged only with ST decisions? And will these people be elected at large, or directly by voters in their own city or county.
Starting a course of events that could result in an ST board answerable in so many directions that it can’t reach a decision on anything- the more technical, the worse. So should really ask: Can you name me one decision that you think would’ve come out better from a directly elected board?
Mark Dublin
“Whose electorate will consist of the whole ST area at large, charged only with ST decisions? And will these people be elected at large, or directly by voters in their own city or county.”
Nope, by districts drawn by population. Preferably staying within a subarea and combining urban & suburban if mathematically possible.
“Can you name me one decision that you think would’ve come out better from a directly elected board?”
I answered that below.
Just to second Mark’s question to Joe:
I am pretty sure that if we ad a directly elected board, every conversation and debate would start out with a discussion of whether a city even needs transit or not. That would be followed by some members questioning whether a few more buses would be a better solution than making “costly” improvements in rail. Then a discussion over whether the budget should be spent on more Park & Ride lots to buses. And so forth.
At least with the board we have now, we have a group educated on the subject at hand, who when they sit down, start out with a discussion of how this system will benefit the greatest number of people in their communities, what options those communities want, and the best way to get that done.
So I will also ask the same question. Can you name me one decision that you think would’ve come out better from a directly elected board?
I also think that one of the reasons to add transit to the rest of every board member’s other responsibilities is how many other things in Government require approval of more than one governing entity to implement anything affecting the rest.
However, at this stage of history we have to re-acquaint the public with something critical, after a lapse of many decades. So maybe we can directly-elect some members who will audit all the board’s discussions to stay current- and submit a non-binding vote on transit matters.
At large or by district? Flip a coin. Or take a few years to see what works. But really think main idea will give voters their fair say in transportation without conflicts due to “other business.”
Mark Dublin
“Can you name me one decision that you think would’ve come out better from a directly elected board?”
I can name more than one, if that board had a majority of transit advocates on it with our general STB consensus on most issues:
#1. Spur to Paine Field, not a diversion. Still a mystery the details why that spur died.
#2. Rainier Valley being raised above grade in ST3. Most of us here agree the Rainier Valley should NOT be at-grade, especially since it connects Downtown Seattle (and not soon enough Ballard) with Sea-Tac and (not soon enough) Tacoma.
#3. ST2 light rail cars with cabs on the end. I think we all want open-gangway cars like the Mark III SkyTrain in Vancouver has if at all possible. NOT the Siemens S70s slightly modified for Sound Transit incoming later this year into the 2020s.
#4. Requesting the legislature allow subareas to be able to opt out of taxes & projects. That’s debatable, but something that should have been discussed. [language] On my watch, we’d have the discussion BEFORE any ST4 discussion. Believe me!
#5. Sound Transit Pro Shop. What a no brainer to have Sound Transit sell merchandise like model trains – both die-cast & paper, lights, lanyards that hold an ORCA card, apparel, action figures, squeeze balls, limited edition Sound Transit Boardmember bobblehead dolls, posters, and books on transit. For starters!
“at this stage of history we have to re-acquaint the public with something critical, after a lapse of many decades.”
How is it possible that any public or politicians anywhere would think that a mixed-traffic streetcar is a transportation solution? Only one that has decimated its transit for two generations and has forgotten what’s possible.
Recently I reviewed the differences between American and European train terminology, and the US is the only country to distinguish between light rail and streetcars. (German has the word Strassenbahn, from which streetcar came, but I realized I can’t think of any city that still has one. They are all Stadtbahn nowadays: an exclusive surface track increasingly with a downtown tunnel.) The American word streetcar lives on partly because of history, but partly because some cities have both light rail and streetcars simultaneously and need to distinguish them. Which would make sense if they were legacy streetcars. But in Portland’s and Seattle’s case they’re new. The last time I saw the “Go By Streetcar” sign in Portland I wanted to throw something at it because it feels like hoodwinking people. “It looks like a train… but it’s stuck in traffic and stops at all the lights.” Can’t we think bigger?
Way back in 2000 I attended an SDOT open house in Roosevelt on what the next generation of city transit should be, and they asked, “Should we focus on light rail, streetcars, or buses?” I said either light rail or buses because light rail is fast and buses are inexpensive, but streetcars are the worst of both worlds (expensive, and you don’t get faster transportation for your money).
I brought up democracy vouchers yesterday as a trial balloon on an open thread. Timing couldn’t be better – see #2 of C is for Crank today. https://thecisforcrank.com/2018/03/12/3637/ . Reading through the report Erica cited, the voucher program seemed to have kept a lid on campaign spending. Which I grudgingly agree is important, especially for part-time positions – otherwise, if I listened to the cynics we could have a bunch of Amazonians and Microsofties and Sound Transit employees buy their spouse a part-time board seat job.
I’m posting this comment on the way back from a snowshoe trip near Stevens Pass. Can’t help but wondering what havoc the usual traffic jams around Gold Bar must be wrecking on CT 271. Is it time to just pull the plug, and abandon service to Gold Bar, at least on weekends, in order to improve frequency and reliability for the rest of the route?
How about hourly DMU service from Everett to Stevens pass, or even to Wenatchee? So everything on SR2 can do whatever it wants?
MD
That’s one of BNSF’s main east-west lines; I think they’d charge an arm and a leg for that.
Good idea, though, if it’s affordable.
The summit tunnel is only good for a train every half hour unless it gets electrification again. Too much diesel exhaust.
Might be able to use something like Alstom’s hydrogen fuel cell MU if the FRA will approve its operation here.
@Glenn, that raises an interesting point: since the DMU won’t be going across the summit, maybe BNSF will let us have the slots between their half-hourly trains at a discount? Maybe?
(But those half-hourly trains are probably going a lot slower than we’d want to run the DMU, unfortunately.)
First – as long as BNSF owns the tracks, it’s *not* affordable. The only reason Amtrak is able to run its one train a day through there (which doesn’t actually stop anywhere between Everett and Leavenworth) is because of special laws that require the freight railroad companies to accommodate Amtrak.
Second – Even ignoring that issue, nearly the entire Everett->Leavenworth section is single-track (with occasional pullouts), so without building additional track, hourly service would be physically impossible, without trains traveling opposite directions crashing into each other.
Third – while highway 2 has undergone a lot of investment and straightening over the years, the train tracks are largely the same old switchbacky routing they’ve always been. If you’ve ever ridden the Amtrak across the Cascades, it is much slower and windier around the Skykomish/Index/Baring area than the highway.
Well, the switchbacks aren’t noticeable till Index, and I’m assuming this DMU would stop at Gold Bar like the current bus. That’s only 27 miles from Everett Station, with a pullout in the middle at Monroe, so it’s probably doable even on single track.
On the other hand, it’d be tricky to schedule around freights, at least without some more pullouts. And as you say, the whole thing’s an unaffordable pipe dream without some foundational change.
Probably un-doable with modern freights, but miss the days of “mixed trains”. So couple a coach or two at the end of every train. For fact that freight can’t make passenger stops, couple on as many coaches as there are stations.
Then, give the engineer a mechanism to release one car at every station. And station crew with mechanism to hold the car there until a downbound freight comes through. As train passes through, set passenger coach rolling downgrade to hook onto last car.
Since Leavenworth is actually a little-recognized Austrian name from some really wolf-heavy village in the (real) Alps, we can take our ad from a traditional custom. Every time we do either release or pickup from a freight, have the loudspeaker come on and announce there are some things that mankind was never meant to know.
Or wish we didn’t.
MD
Joe. The late Monorail project not only had a directly elected board, but ballot language demanding same letter for letter obedience as the folder Charlton Heston brought down the mountain.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=06dKRdhDT78 How many ordinary elected citizens could make it through one public comment period? Commenters I’m thinking of…we don’t really how many meetings they’ve really been at, do we?
Mark
Meh.