Dear Seattle: You’re on notice.

It’s not that I don’t love you, Seattle, I do…You’re actually way more liberal than New York in many ways…it’s just I can’t live another four days like this. I had such a bad day today, trying to get around you. Six inches over four long, unproductive days. If the first three inches had been dealt with properly we wouldn’t be in the mess we are in today. By the way, it doesn’t help that your roads are laid out like spaghetti on a plate.

You are located much further north than New York or even Boston, and yet the only snow removal plan the city seems to have is “Let it melt.” Did anyone ever think about the possibility that the snow would not melt? I can understand Houston, New Orleans or Miami being surprised by snowfall, but Seattle, you knew this would eventually happen. Virginia goes years between snow storms and they are out there with their plows as soon as the first flake falls. Even though they don’t use it that often, they have the equipment and the plan. It’s usually some form of alternate side of the street parking. Can’t find a place to park? Too fucking bad. No one can. It’s a risk associated with owning a car and expecting to store it on city property. Seattle, you really do coddle your motorists. But that’s another story.

I know it’s not all your fault. You’re trying to work with a state that doesn’t have an income tax. Sales tax is nice, but very fickle.

Have you thought of the implications? I would guess sales tax receipts would suffer as a result the mass closures and advisories against leaving home. People know the snow on the road has nearly melted and refrozen several times already. Your icy roads are keeping people at home, when they need to be out spending money. Now you’ll have even less money to deal with the next snow storm and I’ll be using my trekking poles to get down Capitol Hill again.

Help me help you. I won’t be able to stick around much longer if you continue to act this way. Make no mistake about it, this is a an abject failure of your government and it makes me question how you will behave in the next earthquake.

And it lowers the quality of life dramatically.

Yours Affectionately,
Dan Ruisi

Christopher Frizzelle was The Stranger's print editor, and first joined the staff in 2003. He was the editor-in-chief from 2007 to 2016, and edited the story by Eli Sanders that won a 2012 Pulitzer...

159 replies on “Seattle: “This Is An Abject Failure of Your Government””

  1. The commenters in this thread are exactly right. This guy complains because he lived in Virginia, south of the Mason-Dixon line, and they were better prepared for snow than Seattle. Of course they were. They get snow up the wazoo in Virginia.

    I lived next door to Virginia — Washington, D.C. — for about 20 years and no winter passes without significant snow, meaning something like what Seattle’s having now. A few inches of accumulation coupled with days of sub-freezing temps.

    And every three or four years, there’s a whopping snowstorm, usually in spring when warm air full of moisture moving up from the south collides with an arctic blast from the north. Result: Snow in volumes that I doubt Seattle has ever seen. Sidestreets in Washington that may not get plowed for days. We’re talking the mid-Atlantic coast here. Not New York, New England, the Midwest, and, of course, all of eastern Canada, whose people and governments understand snow and deal with it as efficiently as possible.

    Think about it. We’ve had, what, once-in-a-decade snow volume coupled with very cold weather, at least for us. Yes, buses have had problems for a couple days and there was a snafu at Sea-Tac. Some Christmas travel plans got messed up. But there was no serious wind across the region so relatively few power outages. And, I believe, just one fatality.

    We also have a lot of people who will remember sledding the Counterbalance and Denny Way for many years.

    Sounds like you’re a Sun Belter at heart. Enjoy Arizona.

  2. Is it too soon to be thinking about a class-action lawsuit? The stranded citizens of Seattle vs. Seattle city government? You know, the ones who continually voted against buying any more snowplows or sanding trucks????

  3. Whatever. Only wimps and BITCHES use trekking poles in town when it snows. That’s right BITCHES!!! What’s the matter BITCH BOY DAN?!? Haven’t grown a pair?

  4. Hope you don’t have to walk to the hospital, M. And are you walking to the store to help your elderly or disable neighbor restock their pantry and fridge?

    Snow removal equipment isn’t that expensive. It fits on trucks that the city already owns and uses for other purposes. The only thing that might sit idle through a snowless winter is the plow attachment itself. The city is using the trucks for other things all year round.

    Patients and employees are still having a hard time getting to the hospitals. There is no bus service to First Hill right now, and there hasn’t been for a week. I was behind a fire truck that got stuck, lights and siren going, on a hill on a major arterial this morning because the road hadn’t been plowed at all in a week.

    Investing in snow removal equipment is cheap compared to the cost of lost sales to businesses, lost wages from having to take time off of work, the cost of overtime to essential services like hospitals that are already reeling from the faltering economy.

    But, hey, I’m glad you can walk everywhere you need to go. But just in case no one has ever told you, the world is just a little bit bigger than just you.

  7. Before we have a snow removal plan, first we would need a year or two to develop a timeline and plan to create a snow removal plan, solicit input and ideas from the community, study them for 6-7 years, convene stakeholders, narrow down the options to two or three plans, hold a series of public meetings and workshops and a non-binding vote, solicit further input from the neighborhoods, revise the options on the table, and then finally make a decision that doesn’t really resolve the problem and leaves everybody unhappy and disenchanted with the system.

    Oh, and we’ll need money, too, but don’t really need to take that into serious consideration until a final decision has been made.

  8. Oh the weather outside is frightful,
    But the fire is so delightful,
    To Hell with The Incredible Hulk
    Let It Sulk! Let It Sulk! Let It Sulk!

    It doesn’t show signs of pausing,
    And I’ve bought some corn for popping,
    Dan Ruisi is a whiny little jerk
    Let It Sulk! Let It Sulk! Let It Sulk!

    When we finally kiss goodnight,
    How I’ll hate going out in the storm!
    But if you’ll really hold me tight,
    All the way home I’ll be warm.

    The fire is slowly dying,
    And, my dear, we’re still good-bying,
    To Hell with The Incredible Hulk
    Let It Sulk! Let It Sulk! Let It Sulk!

    And no, I don’t feel like letting it go.

  10. Dear Dan Ruisi: You are a smug, condescending pussy.

    I had one hell of a commute yesterday, but I’ve still been getting where I need to go and spending all the money I intended to spend. Maybe it’s because I didn’t waste my time writing bitchy passive-aggressive letters as a cry for attention.

    Affectionately Yours,
    Ian Hernandez

  11. Dear Dan Ruisi: You are a smug, condescending pussy.

    I had one hell of a commute yesterday, but I’ve still been getting where I need to go and spending all the money I intended to spend. Maybe it’s because I didn’t waste my time writing bitchy passive-aggressive letters as a cry for attention.

    Affectionately Yours,
    Ian Hernandez

  12. Seattle did invest in snow removal equipment after the “big snow of ’96”. We have way more plows and whatnot than we did then.
    Boohoo, no one can rack up more debt on their credit. Oh, except for the people that walk around their neighborhoods and shop locally, that is.
    No one will miss you if you go back home and let us go back to enjoying our snow days.

  13. Dear Dan Ruisi: you are a smug, condescending pussy.

    I had a hell of a commute yesterday, but I still managed to get where I needed to go and spend all the money I intended to spend. Maybe it’s because I didn’t waste my time writing bitchy passive-aggressive letters as a cry for attention.

    Affectionately Yours,
    Hernandez

  17. Here in Seattle, us Northwesterners take the snow closures as an opportunity to get to know those close to us even better. If we would sacrifice this wonderful opportunity for SALT, which erodes the roads, your car, kills the soil, and poisons the sound then we would be the same as other parts of the country and the culture that develops here would be different. Let me also remind you, you silly motherfucker, that you live on a hill. A nice steep fucking hill. It is the last place anyone, even a plow, wants to drive on ice. Consider this before you speak.

  18. Yes, Metro should have a plan for dire emergencies and not just ordinary ones. But Metro can’t clear the streets. Since Metro drives buses up and down hills this is probably going to be a problem for a week or so every 12 to 20 years. On the bright side, when light rail opens beneath Capitol Hill there will be direct access from Broadway/John to the UW, Downtown, SODO, Beacon Hill, the Rainier Valley, and Sea-Tac. This is just another reason why an all-bus system is a bad idea. On the other hand, I don’t really understand what all the hysteria from drivers is about. I have an ordinary front-wheel-drive car, and live on a hill, and have been able to drive just fine every day since it began snowing.

  19. It’s sure easy for fatass, useless-to-society SLOG commenters to laugh at the idea of needing to be anywhere, or at the idea that some people are actually needed at work.

  20. The city doesn’t need to spend a lot of money on anything, they just need to have better planning for snow storms, especially with global warming stoking the convection engine more and more in the future.
    Designate emergency snow routes, declare an emergency, clear the routes of all parked cars and plow. Tow stuck cars quickly from those routes. Fine anyone causing an accident for reckless driving, which is what it is if you are not able to control your vehicle and are driving it anyways. Confine metro to routes it can drive safely and where possible set aside a lane for metro, emergency vehicles and tow trucks.
    So there’s all sorts of thing the city could do that would cost a lot less than investing in new equipment.

  21. Chicago – Chicago – da da da da – DA!
    Business as usual today with ANOTHER 4 inches coming down as I write this. Fuck you snow pussies!

  22. Chicago – Chicago – da da da da – DA!
    Business as usual today with ANOTHER 4 inches coming down as I write this. Fuck you snow pussies!

  26. I agree completely. Another letter for the “I was going to write that but someone else beat me to it (and said it better)” pile. Thanks Dan.

  27. Wheee. I got 12 inches over that same amount of time. Have him give me a call when New York – Boston gets a few more hills.

    That’s a pretty big oversimplification that the State of Virginia only gets snow once a year. The WSDOT plows and trucks work just fine, it’s the City that doesn;t have them to clear all the hills.

    The main point is that most snow storms melt in a few days – so why waste the money and personnel.

    Please leave the area if this is so traumatic to you.

  28. Yes because it’s the government’s job to make sure you can drive on the roads every second of every day on every single road. Get over yourself, we have far bigger problems in this world then a few inches of snow on the ground, if you can’t stand it you’re more than welcome to leave. I’ve lived here all my life and I LOVE days like this.

  30. The “not doing anything about the roads” runs counterpoint to the “coddle the motorists” aspect. Oh no- Seattle is not New York! This argument also loses any credibility when this douche admits to being the guy with trekking poles.

  31. I have to admit, I kind of agree with him. Because when you live in a place where it DOES snow and the cities are PREPARED for snow with plow’s going around, you look at Seattle and kind of see it as this little pathetic place. I walked to where I needed to go yesterday, and I didn’t bitch about it cuz i needed the exercise…. and by any means if this were more prolonged I’d be getting kinda pissed. But I see it as an opportunity to relax and get some stuff done at home…. I still don’t see why they can’t put dirt on the roads. That helps a little and wouldn’t be bad for the environment. But in these times, people are reminded how addicted they are to their cars. I’m not that affected because I don’t drive my car that much. So stop whining and get out of your car!!

  34. What is up with people like this?!? Could it be more obvious he’s from somewhere else?

    Didn’t you notice that all the natives stocked up at the first sign of snow and are now comfortably riding this out with soup on the stove, a cup of hot chocolate and a book in hand? Perhaps they knew something you didn’t, eh, Transplant?

    Take your over-active-type-A ass back to the East Coast loser. We never wanted you here. Real Seattleites know how to chill the fuck out and enjoy what life brings instead of blindly bucking against everything — including the very weather itself!

    When nature hits “pause”… shut up and listen!

  36. we can barely afford to invest in things we’d use everyday (fixing streets, more transit, etc). how the hell are we supposed to find the money and will to shore up our snow clearing arsenal, which would only get used once or twice a year?

  37. At #6
    Like those $500,000 porta potties?
    I do think the city of Seattle should have better plans in place for freakish events like this.
    $500,000 could have bought quite a few attachable snow shovels.

  39. @69: I am at work, asshole. I’ve managed to get to work in West Seattle from Capitol Hill, on a bus, for the past three work days. So yeah, I am laughing at this idiot for not being able to handle it.

  42. OK Geo-geniuses. Virginia is a big state. There are parts of it that are many hundreds of miles away from the shore, have alpine climates and get massive amounts of snow. There are other parts that are close to DC and get snow fairly often, but not not all that much. There are yet other areas that are basically contiguous with the Outer Banks and get snow very infrequently. All of these areas are going to have different sorts of strategies for dealing with snow. If it snows in SE Virginia, near Norfolk, it is probably going to throw everyone for a loop like in Seattle. In Southwest Virginia, in areas where elevation gets over 5000 feet, most residents own chains for their vehicles.

    It is pretty asinine and meaningless to try to use “Virginia” as a counterexample to Seattle when Virginia is one of the more climactically diverse states in the country.

  45. I’m in the minority here…I think the guy has a point. Granted, the “I’m leaving!!” histrionics are off-putting, but the cost of, say, 50 new plow blades is way less than the accumulated costs of closing the university, lost revenue to businesses, etc.

    As always, Cliff Mass has useful things to say on the subject, as well as some suggestions for Metro (why the hell didn’t they reassign the buses from the canceled routes to supplement the routes that were still running?):

    http://cliffmass.blogspot.com/2008/12/up…

  46. Not everyone has the luxury of just “relaxing” or “taking it easy.” Some people have to be at work or they will be fired. With half of the bus lines closed, that doesn’t leave many options other than trying to drive, no matter how ill-fated the attempt may be.

  47. It’s ridiculous — everyone keeps talking about how this is a freak event and snow is totally rare and that’s why we’re not prepared. If it really is such a once a lifetime event — is the salt we use now really going to have a major impact?

    I doubt it.

    45th is like the surface of the moon. The plows aren’t being used effectively. I have never seen such an epic failure.

  48. Additionally: I don’t wish ill on anyone, but I’d love to hear how your attitude changes the the second one of you has a fire or medical emergency or some other event where you really need to get somewhere in a hurry. Is wanting doctors and nurses to be able to get to hospitals, some sort of Type A, East Coast bullsh-t?

    Being unprepared and ineffectual isn’t a virtue.

    I’ve never met so many people proud to be pussies. Christ.

  49. Hey Dan,

    Nice to see your name in print again! Bummer ’bout all these comments, but you saw it coming, right? Right? B and Trixie miss you and wonder why you don’t call. It’d make a wonderful Hannukhah present for them…

    -C

  50. dear whiney bitch,

    you must have such an important job and extraordinary life, that you can’t slow down and deal with the apparent stress that the snow is causing you. i’m terribly sorry that the city of seattle is not operating up to your standards, but the good news is, you can get great deals on airfare to iraq these days.

    you pretty much have three options here:
    1- reprioritize your life so that you won’t be so stressed with your yuppie ‘trekking poles’ in a few inches of snow. and in the meantime, shut the fuck up.
    2- the sdot is happy to take your donation for more plows and road salt. feel free to call them @ 206-684-ROAD to make your generous donation.
    3- grab that discount ticket to iraq @ http://www.goarmy.com.

    and finally please do your best not to compliment the state of virginia. trust me, THIS place sucks. i’d rather feast on that bowl of ‘spaghetti roads’ any day.

    sincerely,
    I. Sweat Butter

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