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800 Maynard Ave S, Suite 200, Seattle, WA 98134
800 Maynard Ave S, Suite 200, Seattle, WA 98134
Segmentation.
It's how you build things.
If ST sticks to that and gets MSFT support they'll be fine.
I get the impression Freeman owns not just B-Square Mall, but a lot of the parking lots & garages in the vicinity (commentors, please feel free to correct me if I'm wrong on this). If true, then obviously he has a vested interest in keeping Bellevue car-centric, since a mass-transit line would negatively impact his income from those particular properties.
In addition, while LR would make it relatively easier for people to get INTO Bellevue without having to drive (and thus reduce their need to park in Mr. Freeman's garages & lots), the opposite is also true: people from Bellevue & the surrounding suburbs would have a much easier time getting OUT of town & into Seattle, which, frankly, has a lot more to offer in the way of amenities, as anyone who's ever been to downtown Bellevue can easily attest.
From my perspective, those center lanes were funded by the federal money only -- indeed the project never would've happened but for the commitment to ultimately convert the center roadway to exclusive transit use. If Kemper et al didn't like that promise, then why didn't they sue in 1976 when the commitment was made?
What Kemper et al are arguing is that the state contribution amounts to a Poison Pill -- no matter how small the amount of state funds that can be imputed to the center roadway, the entire facility is forever restricted to motor vehicles only.
Hogwash.
He'll figure out a way to sue on some new basis if the itch gets too bad again, and we'll take him down then, too.
Think of him as a not particularly helpful pest, just part of the ecosystem.
Sound Transit policy will be to shut down trains on the bridge for anything other than a 1-year storm. So once or twice a year on a bad year service might be interrupted. Note that in really bad weather 520 has been closed to car traffic, so this is not unusual for a floating bridge on Lake Washington.
http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/partners/erp/con…
could be. hard to see inside his head.
I gotta say, though, even though it's out of style, that's a real nice looking suit he's got on there. And tie. I'll bet he spends $20,000 a year at Brooks Brothers.
Just thinking about it gives me the willies...where it going to run...on the side? Train overboard!!
Why do you care?
On KUOW, they are having a debate. The topic is "Should the tuition for an English degree be less than that of an engineering degree?"
With all apologies to those who love it, or call it home, Bellevue is just West Omaha with better stores. I'm certain there are some charming waterfront lots, and surely some gracious homes with lovely people, but the business district is really quite banal.
The owner of the condo above the Freemans is Donald Kline, president of Murray Franklyn, the developer that flattened the lot the Bus Stop and Cha Cha used to call home.
Mr. Kline and his wife rent out their condo, and maintain a fancy listing website that gives some sense of Mr. Freeman's neighborhood in the sky...
http://4004onelincolntower.com/
(I'm guessing it's beyond made-to-measure, though.)
"I don’t see how I or others would survive the construction," [Freeman] said.
I grew up in a place that built a 16 mile East/West light rail system that cut from downtown to the U (of Utah). For most of this, I worked downtown and lived near the U. The construction sucked balls. It ruined crosswalks, cut fiber lines, made a bunch of left-turn messes, and generally shat on my car-life on a day to day basis for about 18 months.
Then it was finished and it opened and it was fucking amazing. It's over doubled in size over the last decade and is about to enter the triple/quadruple numbers as they keep steadily expanding the lines. It's literally the only thing I envy about my home town.
So yeah, the construction totally sucks, but if you do it right, the pay-off is much greater than trying to build everything to accommodate cars -- which has seen limited success even in Bellevue. Try to get a quick lunch at Nibbana downtown at 12:30PM M-F and you'll probably end up paying $12 to park. Lame.
Ever see the people in Westlake and Southcenter? Not exactly Bellevue Square material. I respectfully disagree with Kemper in light rail, however he should force the Bellevue station in install turnstiles to catch scofflaws, the kinds who make Westlake so unbearable.
Hey Kemper, why don't you study Denver? We built light rail through our downtown - right through the fucking heart of downtown, at surface - in the early 90s. I think some smaller businesses in the poor part finally had to call it a day, but not anyone with deep pockets. You'll live.
For what it's worth, the only place I've ever had anything stolen from me was Bellevue Square. It's a dreadful place.
OK. So buses already regularly travel from the Downtown Bus Tunnel outside Westlake Center to the Bellevue Transit Center just blocks away from Bellevue Square.
So what's stopping the purported riffraff that you perceive to inundate Bellevue Square now?
Your mind = Blown.
@18: The suit is nice, but that necktie is horrible. And WTF is up with his hair? He looks like a refugee from a Brilcream ad.
Kemper thinks it's still 1968, and in many ways it still is at Bellevue Square. But that's not gping to last, light rail or not. He's foolish to hang onto the vestiges of a dead era.
Not that I at all agree with Freeman. But there is a real difference between the malls.
I fear Kemper suffers under the same delusion that my Auntie Agnes Vel-DuRay suffers from: She lives in Phoenix, Maryland, and her right-wing tool of a boyfriend has her convinced that the Baltimore light rail has allowed "the blacks" to come to the suburbs to rob white people. (she's a dear otherwise, and even at her age could do much better, but you know how people are. If her late husband hadn't been called home to Jesus at an untimely age, she wouldn't even think that)
This is a summary of why he is rich:
- Grandad's newspaper drummed up hatred of Japanese people and was instrumental in getting them barred from citizenship prior to Pearl Harbor, and tossed in camps afterwards.
- Grandad buys up strawberry fields previously owned by said Japanese.
- Grandad gives Kemper's dad the land and Kemper Sr. builds Bellevue Square and other properties on top of them. Kemper Jr. inherits all this and porobably considers himself a brilliant businessman.
Kemper hates non-whites and doesn't want them in his shiny, lilly-white mall. It's really not much more complicated than that. Do NOT shop at Bellevue Square. Ever.