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... More by Christopher Frizzelle
Dan Ruisi is my hero.
The rest of you, suck.
A major city shouldn’t come to a complete standstill for a week because of some snow.
Also, in case you haven’t noticed, the winters have been getting snowier and icier. I’ve lived here 8 years, and the number of icy/snowy days has increased a lot in the last few years. I don’t think they need to go out and buy a 100 new plows, but they do need to better allocate the resources they have and come up with a fucking plan for these emergencies.
And using a little salt on inclined surfaces 6 to 8 times a year isn’t going to destroy Puget Sound…last time I checked, the Sound consisted of salt water.
this guy is right…and you all know it.
holy crap! this many idiots are actually defending a city so ill equipped to deal with snow? would it have been this reactive, had the dude not mentioned “new york”?
it fucking SUCKS having to worry about some bus careening into the freeway (well its also kind of awesome….)
but heres the thing. the city isnt just inhabited by hard partying activist hipster youth. theres the handicapped, the elderly, people that have to get to the hospital on a moments notice. this really, actually, kind of sucks.
I’m standing up for this guy, too. I have to cancel a vacation because I can’t work enough, and need the vacation money to pay rent next month.
I can see one or two days of being shut down, but this is getting silly. I’m not moving back to Minneapolis, either. There’s a reason I left. But in Mpls, I’d have been able to work, ftr.
(I’m a delivery girl, and need to go buy myself some chains I suppose)
by the way, all you Ruisi haters-
you know that you are defending “the government”, right? a bunch of assholes that spend our money closing down music venues, that refuse to have viable mass transit, that allow assholes to tear down the block that the old cha cha used to inhabit so that a parking lot can go up?
the streets, as they have been these last few days, isnt something that you have proudly “accomplished”. its the direct result of the city being unprepared and stupid. how can you defend them?
Light rail and subways run better in the snow too!
Then I won’t have to be nearly as confused when I see the 49 running through east lake!
And really, I was sick of the snow in Seattle by Sunday night, WHEN I COULDN’T GET TO THE AIRPORT.
I still have no clue how I got on that flight after walking 16 blocks from the top of Capital Hill to Pine and 3rd to catch the bus to get to the airport and make a last minute flight (after my flight was canceled the night before) with 10 minutes to spare.
I mean that is BAAAAD. A major metropolitan area to come to a crawl like that? is BAAAD. Buy the snow equipment, get some light rail and thanks to Global warming, this might be more common.
@101: 8 years? Wow! You deserve a medal! What an accomplishment!
If you weren’t around for the 1996 snow, I don’t think you’re qualified to comment on Seattle snow. You’ve worn out your welcome; please go back to the midwest/east coast asap.
@102: Ambulances and fire trucks are running. Emergency services are functioning. There’s been what, one death due to the weather? Quit the histrionics.
@103: Please move back to Minneapolis if Seattle is such an inconvenience.
@104: It’s not a matter of being unprepared, it’s a matter of prioritizing. No one wants to pay for something that will get used every 12 years. I’d rather have, you know, a city budget without a deficit.
Yesterday I watched the City of Edmonds plow/sand truck make it almost halfway up my little culdesac before sliding back down. Twice. It was a thing of beauty.
If one doesn’t like it here, maybe one should move somewhere better.
@106: I think people like you are so shrill because your lives are inconsequential and empty and it bothers you that other people actually have places to be and things they have to do.
This is our third winter of living on the Sammamish plateau. This is the third winter that we’ve been snowed in for one or more days. This will be our third school year with extra days school to make up for snow cancellations due to the fact that the school buses can’t safely drive up and down Tiger Mountain and Cougar Mountain. This is my third winter of hearing idiots telling me, “We don’t need to invest in snow removal equipment because this only happens once a decade or so.” Some of you people are just plain full of shit.
harsh with a good point buried beneath the tantrum.
Though he doesn’t mention it, there is, as those few before have pointed out, more to a snow day than pretty snow and sledding memories.
I love a good snow day. I don’t drive. I have a comfortable, well-paying, flexible, understanding working environment. I can miss a few days of work and be perfectly okay. I have no emergencies so I can afford to be patient.
Everyone is not in the same boat as I am.
Those of you who claim that this is all okay don’t seem to realize that.
Latitude has nothing to do with it. The British Isles are even further north and they have a similar climate–moderate temperatures, little snow, lots of rain. There’s a reason why Ireland is the Emerald Isle and Londoners are rarely seen without an umbrella. I’m no expert, but it has something to do with proximity to an ocean.
And Seattle laid out like a bowl of spaghetti? Clearly this guy has never been to Boston.
Maybe the city will learn from this week on how to be better prepared for the next one (and with climate change there will be a next one), but this really is a WTF?! event that happens rarely.
That said, he does have a point about our state relying too much on our astronomical and regressive sales tax, but I shouldn’t open up that can of worms…
@108, my life is inconsequential and empty enough to not freak the fuck out over a once-a-decade weather event. Inconsequential and empty enough to enjoy the snow, spend some time with friends and family, and not piss my pants because Seattle isn’t as prepared as New York/Boston/Chicago/Buffalo/Denver, etc.
Listen very carefully: Seattle is none of these cities. Don’t like it? After the ice melts you are free to leave, and the city will be a better place for it.
109 gets no sympathy. Sammammish is for yuppie assholes.
Don’t like my city?
Get the fuck out.
@113: What is wrong with changing something to make it better? That seems to be the crux of these arguments — “Seattle is fine the way it is and always has been” versus “The climate might be changing and maybe we should try to be prepared for it.”
@109:
You know it wasn’t all that many years ago (roughly 12) that most of the Sammamish Plateau consisted of grazing and pasture land, and small, family-run farms that didn’t require hundreds of millions of dollars worth of snow removal equipment, because the relative handful of folks living up there didn’t NEED to drive to Redmond or Tukwila for their livelihoods. Too bad you’all couldn’t have bought a townhouse closer to your job, so you could get their conveniently when the weather isn’t to your liking, instead of opting for the bland anonymity of rural-encroaching suburban sprawl out in the middle-of-nowhere.
As for the rest of you whiners – if your job is so indispensable that Western Civilization As We Know It will come crashing down without you (first-responders, City Light crews, and medical personnel exempted), and you can’t walk or make use of the limited bus service, then by all means get in your crappy, chainless rear-wheel drive cars and make the attempt; if you’re lucky, you’ll get to work without killing yourself or anyone else, or running off into a ditch, or taking out two or three of your neighbor’s cars in the process, because you are SO IMPORTANT.
Otherwise, STFU and deal.
Shorter version of this comment thread: “If you don’t like it, make a suggestion to make it better” vs. “If you don’t like it, get the fuck out of my city”.
@106, 107, 113
who the FUCK are you DEFENDING?? whats going on? is this a contest of whos lived here longest? i was born here and i’m pushing 40, and i think you guys, who actually smack of bainbridge and bellevue transplants from your over-defensiveness of this city, are being ridiculous!
the commentors that you are angrily railing against are talking about facets of this city that locals KNOW are problems. i’m all for getting to know your neighbors in a snow storm. i’m all for keeping streets open and baring cars from them time to time.
BUT THE POINT WE ARE MAKING IS THAT THIS CITY HAS SHUT DOWN BECAUSE OF A FEW INCHES OF SNOW.
that is retarded.
its also fun, revolutionary, enviro-friendly, awesome, and beautiful. but you know what else is? actually having a functioning government that listens to its people, who clearly have voiced a desire for less cars, and more public space.
THIS, however, is not an example of that. and its pathetic that you choose these last few days of the city turning to shambles as a point to defend it. no-one is saying they arent strong enough for snow, and no-one is saying “seattle sucks”. we are saying that this is another instance in a long history of instances of the city not giving a flying fuck about us.
@115-
whatever, Wilford Brimley
Why do I get the impression that many of these people griping that they absolutely MUST get to work or their boss will FIRE them, spend most of their time AT work fantasizing about the various ways they’d like to KILL their bosses?
yeah, seriously. the things assholes choose to freak out about.
@115-i wanna see you justifying a freezing tsunami, talking about “if you dont have a crab-fishing level survival suit and a mini submarine then FUCK OFF back to YUPPIE-VILLE asshole! us locals LOVE this shit. WE EAT PAIN! SEMPER FI!!!!”
@117: Bainbridge and Bellevue transplants?! How DARE you, sir!
If you want to make it a contest of who’s lived here the longest, I’ll play: I’m older than you, I was born here, my parents were born here, and my *grandparents* were born here. My great-great-something-uncle-somebody delivered newspapers to Arthur Effing Denny’s house, probably in the snow.
So neener neener.
Dan Ruisi was the one who brought up leaving the city because he just can’t take it anymore. I merely suggested that it sounds like a good plan for him and he should follow through.
@ 121.
WOW you’re a douche. turn off the computer now.
BTW, the fact that the DOT is “encouraging snow-pack” makes it quite clear that they have no idea what they’re doing. Snow-pack turns into ice! Wet snow like this (and in 2006) turns into ice in a 65 lb. kids footprint, much less a car or any other vehicle. There’s a reason people like to ski on fresh snow.
@122: Devastating comeback! I’ll have to jot that one down.
@124:
ok.
you are spending time celebrating your lineage in an effort to fluff up your already over-inflated sense of entitlement. and it has nothing to do with anything. therefore, you seem douche-like.
better?
now stop trying to interact with faceless bloggers and go make snow angels with your great grandchildren, mister Seattle.
If you don’t like it, go live in France, pussy you faggots!!
@125: You seem to have a lot of rage. You started the More-Local-Than-Thou contest, not me, and I didn’t say any of the things you accused me of while you were insulting me @117.
Now I’m done.
I live in the Madison Valley. We are trapped. I’ve lived in Michigan/Pennsylvannia/Illinois/New York. They use salt.. a lot, and I don’t see where the Great Lakes etc. are suffering from it. The Great Lakes are getting cleaner actually. With that tidbit aside, with the infrequent snowfalls here, using salt a couple times a year cannot be that big of a deal. Also, I’ve noticed that the people who plow need a lesson in plowing. Get the blade on the pavement, instead of skimming. It just packs down, and turns to ice. I just walked from 29th to Broadway and the sidewalks are ice, the roads are a mess. These are major roads and they do not appear in places to have been plowed at all. I could see using my hiking poles if my hands were full and I had a heavy backpack on with groceries.
If we had light rail, we would not be impacted at all by this weather. These behemoth busses need to go. And how about those street cars? They are shut down too.
I also wonder if there is a fire, and because the roads are such a mess, can the trucks get to you in a timely fashion? Well we know the answer is no.
A certain Mayor in Chicago a few years back did not handle a winter’s snow removal well, and they attributed her not getting re-elected to the past winter’s problems. People always remember the worst. Good bye Mr. Mayor, you screwed up big time on your snow removal contigency plan, or lack of.
If we had light rail, we would indeed be impacted by this weather. Only those who lived near the Central Link and wanted to go somewhere else near the Central Link would be unaffected.
A light rail system depends on feeder bus routes, #128, and for all your worldliness — so many snowy cities in which you’ve lived! — you don’t know much about transit systems.
No, it’s just simply unacceptable for a so-called “city” the size of Seattle to be caught unawares when the snow falls. The snow does fall, and it’s going to fall more often in the coming years if climate models are to be believed — and it is Unacceptable that the city’s response is to close streets and tell everyone to ‘stay home’. The people who work in the hospitals, like myself, can’t just stay home. It’s not that simple.
I look forward to the day when Seattle will truly be a world-class city, but as time goes on, I doubt more and more that I’ll be here then.
@130, you are why I’m glad Seattle isn’t “world-class.” The more world-class we are, the more we attract douchebags who move from city to city every five years. Transitory idiots have no business telling me what’s good for my city in the long run.
@131 ….
uhm wow … just wow
What’s sad about Snowpocalypse and how the city/county handles it, is that it’s so indicative of what’s wrong with Seattle…it’s all hyperbole and indecisiveness and bad planning and poor use of resources.
It doesn’t take a brain surgeon to see that the winters HAVE been getting worse the last few years; it could be due to global warming or it could just be nature or it could be both. Weather IS cyclical and we could be going into a period of colder, wetter, icier winters. If that is the case, the Powers That Be WILL have to deal with it, and they need to start planning for it by buying a few more plows, researching plausible de-icers, and most of all, come up with an intelligent plan to keep major streets, and most importantly, the bus routes, functioning during severe winter weather. Their idiotic snow pack plan is beyond moronic; we could end up with icy roads for weeks following that plan.
Sorry to rain on your snow day, sledding and skiing hippies, slackers, hipsters and yuppies but the rest of us like to walk down the street without fear of breaking our legs. We also have real jobs and real bills and many of us don’t have paid vacation so we can take days off at a time to sled around town and get drunk at Smith.
You need to spend time in a city that has to deal with cold, shitty, icy weather for months at a time. Grow up.
Hey 131 – If it wasn’t a few days before Christmas, I’d be saying “Fuck You.” I’ve lived in this city since 1986 and I came here from Anchorage Alaska — Does that qualify me to have an opinion? If this town has pretensions of one day being a big grown-up city like all the other big grown-up cities in America, then it MUST have a plan to remain functional during adverse weather. So far, I haven’t seen it. If the powers-that-be had pulled their collective thumb out of their collective ass YEARS AGO and funded rapid transit as they should have, this disaster would be somewhat mitigated. And disaster is exactly what we have on our hands here. All the area hospitals are on disaster alert, everyone is going the extra mile (sometimes literally) just to make it in to work — and not only is the environment hostile, but our “city” is busy wringing its hands and fretting about how “we don’t get snow that often.” Tough cookies. It’s the City’s responsibility to keep this place running during bad weather, a responsibility they have so far abdicated. Metro is doing the best it can but it can’t run its buses on unsafe streets.
So, um, joykiller (wow what an appropriate name).. Maybe you could hold off on slinging your bile until you realize what your true target is. It’s not me, a long-term Seattlite hospital worker. Why don’t you aim that rage at, oh, say… Mayor Gridlock.. if you really want it to do some good.
And I’ll say it again: CLASS ACTION LAWSUIT
With names like “joykiller” and “pox” I think we need to expect a certain amount of trollishness.
Dear Fellow Seattle Citizens,
Lets all encourage city gov’t to spend millions of dollars on equipment that we will use once every decade so that Mr. Ruisi doesn’t forsake us.
Affectionately yours,
Jan Mascall
Dear 129, I lived in Chicago for 3 years, and we did not rely on feeder systems to use the light rail.
Perhaps the commuters who took the regular trains did. Most people that lived in the city, took the L into the city, went to work, and took the L back home.
The snow did not affect the L trains or the regular trains in Chicago.
I am in total agreement with #133.
I’m a little amazed as the usage of foul language, and the tone of many blogs. Can you people not debate issues in a civilized logical manner? For those of you who can’t, just take off your flannel shirts, and flip flops, pretend its Saturday and wash your hair, and look in the mirror, click your heels three times and say; “I am a decent human being, I am a decent human being.”
133- Amen.
“We also have real jobs and real bills and many of us don’t have paid vacation so we can take days off at a time to sled around town and get drunk at Smith.”
Au contraire, if it doesn’t offer paid vacation and/or telecommuting, I don’t consider it a “real” job–I consider it a “real” pain in the ass. Fight, fuck or kill your way into a better job, please. Otherwise learn to accept: it sucks to be poor.
But, hey! I’m fine with another hundred bucks a year for these contingencies (as long as everyone else’s property taxes also go up), because I know that the same people complaining about the lack of snow plows and salt this year will be complaining about having to move their cars off public streets for the snow plows once we get them, and will then complain the first year we have no snow but that money isn’t refunded.
Also, Seattle, I demand city-wide air conditioning on the 7 to 10 really *really* hot days in the summer, or I’m leaving your failure of a city.
And please do something about the rain.
Dear #137: Link is not the L. Link is a single route covering a small portion of the county. Please move back to Chicago at your earliest convenience. I hear they have snow removal equipment there.
@134, apparently area hospitals aren’t so busy that area hospital workers don’t have time to post on Slog. Anchorage is a better starting point than that of most current Seattleites, I’ll grant you that. But when did you get the idea that we have “big city pretensions”?
Seattle–it’s metronatural. Love it or leave it, bitches!
Reality: Seattle has snow and are dealing with it poorly and extremely dangerously.
Fantasy: This problem is trivial, once a decade, and if you can’t accept 5 days of lost income, then OBVIOUSLY you are douche and do not deserve to live in Seattle.
Seriously, nothing about the bitter ass frozen week leading up to the snow storm makes me think that the snow is going to melt anytime soon. And thanks to global warming, this actually might become more common. I don’t think Seattle needs the plow fleet of Buffalo, but fuck … they really have to do better than this.
I don’t think the issue is Seattle needing to buy more snow plows that would sit unused 99.99 % of the time, but actually using the few plows they do have in a focused and effective way. Has anybody actually ever seen the city snow plows in action? When? I haven’t seen any evidence they’d run downtown at at all on 2nd, 4th, 5th or 6th. One or two plows running all day Sunday probably could have cleaned those streets . . .
Just ventured out by car for the first time since Thursday (to the grocery store). I live in Madison Valley near 28th. We’ve been totally without transit since last Thursday. Even though I grew up in Eastern WA and learned to drive in the snow, hills + no studded tires + no plows + no salt = me not driving. I’ve walked a few places, but slid the entire way there and back. I fortunately have a sensible employer that’s been closed (with pay, no vacation time subtracted) since last week.
I’m pretty appalled by what I saw this evening on my trip from Madison Valley to Capitol Hill and back. From what I can see, basically nothing’s been done. It was like four-wheeling in the backwoods – Madison, 23rd, John, 15th are all in bad shape, and these are important arterials in our part of Seattle. There are lots of people in our neighborhood that have been stuck for days because there is ZERO transit, people can’t drive or are afraid to drive (rightly so), and taxis won’t come.
Day one was fun, day two was fun, day three okay… Day six this is really getting fucking old and tiresome. But I guess that’s the typical Seattle response… do nothing until it’s no longer an issue.
City of Seattle, Grade F-.
THIS
FUCKING
SUCKS
A+ for snowbound, I live in Mad park, too and no bus service has really fucked over my Christmas, have you ever shopped those Madison park stores?
I can’t afford shit there! I think the original writer should move, but I also believe this is another sign of how fucked up the city planning is done in this town. I don’t want a laid back chilled out emergency response team in my city, but hey, that’s PNW for ya.
christmas ruined because of this crap.
stuck in highland park, west seattle (no subaru, not a yuppie, totally into sledding down the street on cardboard while loaded….so slow your roll, haters!)
but i’ve been snowed in, and my job prevented me from preparing for christmas with my girl (measly deco, simple gifts…CHRISTMAS DINNER) before a week ago…which is usually plenty of time…but then the storm hit, and each day since then ive assumed the streets would be clear by TODAY at least….
this really sucks. and yes, we’re having a great, touchingly close time, but she’s in bed on the phone in tears talking to her family in tacoma who we were unable to see today since we cant even get out of the god damn neighborhood in my old toyota, and i’m on this lame blog, if that gives you some idea of how our christmas is going.
dont know whos to blame, but this is amature hour.
and to be clear…i read the comments before mine. i am not a yuppie, not a big city guy complaining and needing to “go back to where i came from”, not a car addict…
i’m poor, in a shitty band, ride a bike, and am from here, and love it here.
but this shit ruined christmas for me and my loved one. we need to not let this ever happen again. theres no defense or excuse for it. and if you think otherwise you are completely out of your mind.
So happy I escaped from Seattle this Christmas, and I mean just BARELY escaped.