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Nov 17, 2011 at 8:42 pm
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800 Maynard Ave S, Suite 200, Seattle, WA 98134
800 Maynard Ave S, Suite 200, Seattle, WA 98134
And you all know it.
Whiners.
Personally, I wasn't impacted, but I don't think I would've cared all that much. But I also don't hemmorage over Critical Mass, plus I live in West Seattle and deal with bridge issues all the time especially while the Spokane Street viaduct project is ongoing. It was a worthy cause, and definitely more worthy than pleasure boats.
With that said, while I agree with the cause, I think it's stupid to get in the way of people who are commuting. As others have pointed out, it's the 99% that you're impacting here (and at rush hour no less) and it's not in a positive way. That doesn't make a lot of sense to me.
Also, a point about this stupid "but rich people float by in their yachts and nobody complains about it!" thing...First off, I'm guessing that a lot of the time, the boats coming through the cut are related to businesses of one kind or another, and are not populated with evil millionaires. I see commercial ships of various kinds moving through all the time. And of course, they never raise the bridge during rush hour.
And finally, one can be incensed about a yacht making everyone wait AND incensed about a bunch of well-meaning but profoundly misguided protesters causing unnecessary delays. It's not an either/or proposition.
So please, just stop. Admit that last night was a problematic--and possibly disastrous--display of idealism over pragmatism, otherwise known as The Curse of Liberalism (and I'm a liberal, by the way).
Huh? The SPD are unable to stop a group from taking over a bridge? If that's the case, then the SPD needs serious training. Guess what, the SPD can stop all sorts of things. The allowed and assisted the occupying of the bridge.
"half-hearted effort"? Whatever. here's an example of a UW alert sent to employees:
"The University of Washington Police Department is expecting a large Occupy Seattle protest tomorrow afternoon beginning at about 3:30pm at Montlake Blvd NE and NE Pacific Street.The protesters will have speakers at this rally presenting on how the economy has impacted them.They are then planning to move from the sidewalks to the street and march onto Montlake Bridge at 4:30pm, blocking bridge access until forced off by police.
This could potentially have severe impacts on patient/visitor access, ambulance, Metro and commuter traffic.Law enforcement are actively planning to mitigate the impact of this event and maintain traffic access. Alternative commuter routes to the North and West are not expected to be affected, including access to I-5 via 45th Street.Metro and DOT have been notified, as well as Seattle Children’s other potentially affected entities.Please notify your staff, clinic patients and other interested parties as needed."
(As previously mentioned organizers worked with police and it was decided to go to the Univ bridge instead of the Montlake bridge.)
You people are fucking pathetic.
Rest assured, EMTs and ambulances and all ER vehicles were WELL AWARE of the need to find another route last night. They were, what do you call it... informed!! You might try it sometime, it's really fun!!
Baconcat @56 FTW, big-time.
"Last night was a problematic--and possibly disastrous--display of idealism over pragmatism, otherwise known as The Curse of Liberalism."
Well said.
The "curse of Liberalism" is what liberalism, both classical and contemporary, is all about. The curse includes a plurality of opinion, a free and open society, a right and responsibility for civic-minded citizens to assemble and advocate on their own behalf, and a robust defense of the democratic/republican system of government from corruption and cronyism. You call it a curse because it doesn't appeal to a bunch of right-wing douchebags and "angry white men," but instead asks that we demand more from our government.
(eagerly awaits glib remark or restatement of the obvious)
A fundamental lack of empathy really makes consensus building difficult.
And for all you know, maybe I was made late to relieve the home healthcare worker to care for my ailing father with stage 4 Alzheimers (she gets paid a bundle + overtime, that I can barely afford). Or late for my second job, which is hourly pay, and I got docked and yelled at by my boss, because I thought this was all going to happen on Montlake, so I took the University Bridge instead to get to work (oops). Or perhaps it was my turn to host my bi-weekly Marxist-Leninist reading group (we're currently working through a series of white papers and articles by Stathis Kouvelakis on Marxist interpretation of events in the EU and the response of contemporary leftist trends). My group was left waiting outside in the cold and I couldn't get my vegan lentil bake in the oven on time. Having a bunch of cold, hungry communists in my living room did not make for a productive discussion or planning session for our participation in next week's actions (we debated joining the bridge action but consensed that it was misguided, and we'd rather focus our efforts on leaflets and strategizing for the Olympia actions). Or, sitcoms. Maybe it's all just about sitcoms.
Assuming that this action did decrease support for the Occupy movement, I'm not sure that matters to the people who took part in, or were in favor of, this action. I suspect they feel that people shouldn't have been pissed off at being inconvenienced, so they don't care if people were pissed off.
As far as the bridges being closed to traffic when boats go through, I find that as annoying as I'm sure most people do, but as the Seattle DOT website points out: "Federal law gives marine traffic the right-of-way over vehicular traffic." and the website also notes that "to keep roadway traffic moving during peak driving times [7:00 to 9:00 a.m. and 4:00 to 6:00 p.m], bridge openings are restricted" so at least the yachties don't get to inconvenience others during rush hours.