11 Replies to “Podcast #65: Post-apocalyptic soup”

  1. Frank, you need to turn up your volume; you are consistently much quieter than Martin. It’s very hard to hear you without Martin being very loud.

    2. Oh hey yeah haha, I was considering commenting the same thing. It’s especially noticeable when I’m listening on the bus, in fact — more background noise means it’s harder to hit that balance between “It sounds like Frank’s mumbling and trailing off” and “It sounds like Martin’s yelling in my ear”.

      It might be a compression thing, a difference between your mics? On some episodes I’ve noticed Frank’s volume seems to vary more with the tone of his voice, while Mark’s volume stays relatively constant
      even when I think he’s speaking louder (like it should in podcast audio, I think?).

  2. Portland is densifying much like Seattle. You may not consider it a “major city” though.

  3. Upzoning the Burbs
    The article never touched on the fact the Construction worker unemployment rate is at historic lows.
    https://data.bls.gov/timeseries/LNU04032231 3.4% Which means you really could n’tbuild more if you wanted too. The industry is going a full steam and were literally building as mush as possible.

    1. You might not be able to build more today, but if this low unemployment rate persists I would expect the pool of construction workers to grow in the near future. Some experienced workers would move here from places with less demand for their skills, and other people might start to train into these jobs at a higher rate than before.

      Of course construction does tend to be very cyclical. For every boom there is a bust. Construction workers of all types would do well to sock some money away during these good times, for they won’t last forever.

    2. In the last recession the UW accelerated its dorm-building program to take advantage of low construction costs.We shouldn’t use a ceiling of construction workers as an excuse not to build things: we can still plan them and set an intention to build them, and when workers become available we can fulfill it. The biggest problem is the political adversity to densifying, and if we don’t do it now, when will we?

  4. Before I hear one more word about fare levels, I want to know my own personal step one for simply making my pre-paid monthly ORCA card proof of payment. And also bullet-PROOF protection against a criminal charge over “tapping on”, as is posted, without “tapping off”. A penalty not mentioned anywhere but enforced wherever ORCA cards are inspected.

    Fastest, easiest, fairest, and most effective way to make our system easier on those who need it most: an income-adjusted card whose possession is kevlar-clad proof against a theft charge. By an agency with passengers’ money ripping holes its pockets. “Separate agencies”? That’s what Sound Transit was formed to get out of transit’s way, and its staff hired to make happen.

    Stuck to Sound Transit’s walls like the building material cows give home-builders in Africa. Something so abusive it draws flies is stuck onto the wall of 35 years of my work. In same olfactory category as Senators O’ban’s, and Hasegawa’s approach to car tabs.

    Whatever my voting district in the Galaxy, I wouldn’t vote for either Senator, anymore than I would for anybody supporting that fare policy. But my involuntary change of voting address a few years ago puts me an increasingly voluntary twenty minute walk from both of their offices. Getting Multicultural…every culture on Earth since it cooled, makes my self-made enemy’s worst enemies my own best friends.

    Mark Dublin

    1. Pocket-book, Mark.

      I reduced my monthly pass to the $2.75 level, costing ST and Metro $18 a month. They don’t want to honor my full pass? Fine, I’m not getting one any more. I’m also riding Link less when there are options, so Metro gets more of the money.

      When you buy the paper pass, ST gets to keep more of the money. You are rewarding ST’s bad behavior when you do that.

  5. Collectively, reducing driving avoids making our poor air quality worse, but at the same time, driving reduces each person’s individual exposure to bad air, by eliminating the time outside walking to the bus and waiting at the bus stop. In addition, given that the air inside a vehicle is only marginally cleaner than the air outside (if at all), less time in route means less exposure to bad air – which again, favors driving.

    I wonder how many people who normally commute by walking, biking, or transit, switched to private cars or Lyft/Uber today? I was one of them. A 40% promotion helped. (I considered working from home, but decided that, since the air filtration was considerably better in the office than at home, it was better to just come to the office).

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