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Apr 22, 2014 at 8:27 pm
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800 Maynard Ave S, Suite 200, Seattle, WA 98134
800 Maynard Ave S, Suite 200, Seattle, WA 98134
I have no fucking idea where that leadership will come from, but until we stop accepting that this is the way it has to be nothing will change.
This was a band-aid on a gaping Olympia-sized wound, but it was the option we had available.
As a car commuter by necessity, the additional car tab fee would have been MORE THAN WORTH the time I will lose sitting in traffic once the cuts go into effect.
How long until Metro announces they won't be making cuts except to a few underused lines? A week? Maybe two?
And this will encourage the poor to do more commuting by bicycle, too. So it's not all bad, right?
Fail and die Prop 1
Maybe then some heads will roll
different agencies have different budgets. Just like how you don't get to take your neighbors money to pay your rent. I have to disagree. Its pretty bad. I guess its down to plan C, a Seattle only measure.
@14
the hole is way bigger than that. I wish you were right, but I know you aren't.
Over 2,000 King County employees make six figures; is that why they want a tax increase?
http://mynorthwest.com/76/2492060/Over-2…
Whoosh?
Funding for Seattle Streetcar was approved in 2008. It's operated by King County Metro, but funded by the city. KCM doesn't get to make funding decisions for it. The Amazombies and Cap Hill crack buyers won't be affected by this election result.
Are you seriously surprised by this? That in the whole of the government of this county, 2k people make 6 figures? Did you know that there are some jobs that people do, that if you want good applicants, you have to pay 6 figures?
I dont really want a government that nickle and dimes the DA staff, or the public defender staff, or pays linemen a pittance(insane danger+massive public necessity). And electrical/transportation/civil/network/computer engineers, they come super cheap right?
Sorry. You were being positive. I thought it was snark. You know how it works. Oops!
#23
This is what I call building your own prison.
You pay people higher and higher salaries.
You then tax people more and more.
The people with the higher salaries drive up the costs of everything to the point that anyone who is not them can no longer afford it.
Then they ask for more taxes!
Right, because engineers and software professionals and attorneys and actuaries and epidemiologists and architects and so on never, ever make over $100k, nor do they ever work for the government.
In John Bailo's perfect world, we all suffer from career stagnation and stew in our shitty Kent apartments, voting out of spite toward those who have achieved more.
450 people in a municipal government that serves 2 million people is not a lot. And even if you were to bust those 450 people down to minimum wage, it wouldn't come close to making up the Metro funding gap. You are embarrassing yourself.
If you think it is the county gov that sets the standard of pay for the IT people they have to hire, uh.... sure....
And what does your third line even mean? Are you saying that a couple hundred people making between 100k-250k are driving up the cost of everything? You cant seriously believe that.
450 six figure workers... at Amazon they call that this month's new batch!
You guys make my arguments for me! I love it.
If there are that many people making that much money in Seattle, then those are the ones who should be paying more to have a bus roll by their Queen Anne condo at 11:30 at night...not a bunch of poor people in Kent paying more sales tax!
Put a property tax on Seattle or add an asset income tax like the NIIT.
#30
Wait a minute...isn't that the argument you and your analogs in San Francisco have been making night and day? Protests in front of Google buses? Why doesn't it apply here?!?!
Dude, one day, maybe one day soon, you might just have to support something that is actually on the rather than the thing that isnt on the ballot at all.
Your "solution" is not a solution, since you havent done nearly enough to bring it into reality. Saying you won't support buses right now because the mechanism isn't perfect is just saying that you won't support buses.
And (excuse me mods) what the hell are you talking with this income tax crap? Id love it, you'd love it, my mom would love it, ITS UNCONSTITUTIONAL IN THIS STATE! Youre like those crazy revolutionaries who are happy everytime the workers get screwed cause they think it brings the revolution closer. This does not bring us closer to your utopia John. It just means that those "poor people in Kent" will sit longer in traffic every day.
Forget it, Jake. This is Washington.
You know, just like every other day in Seattle.
Well, Washingtown, actually. It wasn't a state-wide initiative, amirite?
Come on boys!
Majority to transit riders: we don't understand how externalities work.
FTFY
We all know what's going to happen tomorrow.
The remnants of the Gregoire administration will be up all night hard at work copying up 50,000 votes to dump in the postal bags tomorrow.
The excuse...oh, late voting "professionals" from Seattle having a sudden transit lust.
People are crying over this because its a bad thing. A very bad thing that will actually hurt actual people in their actual lives.
they did in February, maybe just bad turnout today.
The world's most enviable public transportation systems were conceived, funded, and built by municipalities. Not by counties, nor regions, and certainly not by "greater metro areas." By city governments.
If anything, our problem is that Seattle's transit system is controlled by a county, and an unusually large county, at that.
Not having a polling place nixed one yes vote as far as me. And I would imagine the grand throngs of supporters that used to gin up excitement for the elections out front would have helped as well. As it is, fingers crossed. In my hood, 26 and 28 are so indispensable for so many.
BTW, I warned Slog several years ago (most of you current commentators weren't around back then) that the influx of recently implanted voters into the Seattle area would possibly pull the area to the right. You've got the bone headed libertarian mindset of the MicroZon employees coupled with an entrenched Democratic establishment that has lost any ability to inspire the base and what do you end up with? A cluster fuck mess. And it's going to start with slashed bus service in a few months, and just delightful traffic.
The worse part? it's going to get far far worse gang...far far worse.
We're sick and tired of regressive taxation being the band-aid for everything while big business gets massive tax cuts less than six months earlier. And, when the same progressive leadership pushes to keep wages low and also pushes for unions to neuter themselves.
True progressives are sick of this shit, and we're not willing to support the bleeding anymore.
By the way, true progressives don't vote for accelerationism. They actually understand the consequences of that. It's easy to claim "oh the left isn't voting for this because it's regressive" when you don't have to actually support a real alternative, you lazy, spineless sack of shit.
Our progressive members of the legislature went to bat to oust the Eyman initiatives. But, they never went to bat for anything progressive to give us more options.
Oh, and before you ask, I voted for the income tax when it came around. Next time, though, we should get a better initiative that also reduces sales tax and increases income tax.
no, go fuck yourself instead. Maybe you should pony up on paying more bus fare asshole.
Huge fail getting our voters out. Huge fail.
http://metro.kingcounty.gov/am/future/pr…
65 routes will be eliminated and it breaks down like this.
25 of them are Seattle only buses (Ballard to DT, First Hill to U-Dist, etc)
25 of them are City to Seattle Commuter buses which operate M-F in the morning and afternoon (Kent to DT, Federal Way to DT, etc)
15 of them are non-Seattle bus routes (one in Kent, one in Federal way, etc)
This is one of the reasons why prop1 is failing. When you ask the entire county to pay for buses that mostly benefit Seattle, then it becomes a hard sell to voters who dont live or work in Seattle. Making threats of increased traffic seem hollow since its mostly Seattle that will suffer. Maybe if prop1 revived the dozen Eastside routes that were elimianted 3 years ago, you might have more Kirkland, Bellevue and Redmond citizens voting yes on prop1. If the majority of routes to be eliminated were outside of Seattle, then you can bet most citizens in Seattle would vote no on it.
Other reasons why this failed.
1) Bad timing. Just weeks after IRS tax deadline. If you owed the IRS, then your brain might automatically vote no on this.
2) Everyone was promoting the loss of bus routes, but not the money that would be used for road maintenance. Even still, what sort of maintenance would this include beyond pot holes? There was no specifics on that and when that happens, people imagination will run wild (ie; bike lanes!!). It would have been easier to pass if they simply dropped the road maintenance aspect from prop1 and said "This vote is to retain the current increase that was passed 2 years ago".
3) Metro indeed has problems managing the routes. They could easily combine a few to make them far more efficient. Example, combine routes 44, 43 & 32. Ballard, Wallingford, U-Dist, Montlake, Capitol Hill, Downtown Seattle, then back to Ballard, make it one big loop around the city. We actually used to have a route like this 15 years ago, (route 42?) but Metro decided to break it up into 2-3 different routes. When citizens complain that the SPD has very few officers that live in Seattle, one can easily say the same thing for Metro (how many of them actually take the bus).
4) Tax revenue for Metro is improving, so these cuts in service will slowly be restored over the next few years, just as it did back in 1999 when we saw similar cuts to service. Sound Transit was supposed to cut a bunch of routes as well, but canceled them due to increased tax revenue.
It was maddening.
You should post your name, address and phone number so those who won't have access to transit to make it to work can contact you to give them a ride. All of your cars are handicap accessible right?
How can you call yourself a progressive when you shit on the poor?
We already pay for their rides, they're called "buses".
Or maybe they can try Uber?
There are polling places for those who wish to vote in person, though it sounds like you'd find some excuse not to go.
Bailo is still the stupidest person in the world, followed not too far behind by TheMisanthrope. The only "prison" here is the prison of Bailo's way-too-tight hat cutting off the blood to his brain. And, my god, I wish fucking dipshit "progressives" would learn that there is no better option over the hill; this IS the only progressive option that has a chance at votes. Fucking Naderites is what you are, hurting the rest of us to feed your hippie fantasy dreams.
Cutting bus service doesn't just hurt people who ride the bus; it hurts people who never ride it as well. Every one of those buses that's being cut is 10-50 people who will either move into single-occupancy cars, clogging your roads -- EVEN IN ISSAQUAH -- and and taking your parking places, or they'll stay home, and the economy will slide further.
All for the sake of your moronic car tab whinnying. Good job, morons. We live on a carefully balanced turd, and it's falling over.
What a cluster.
You can always count on the youth vote.
I voted yes on Prop. 1 even though I'm the furthest thing from a Metro fan that someone who calls oneself a transit supporter could be. Operating buses at any sort of useful frequency is an enormously expensive undertaking. Buses never come close to recovering their operating expenses at the farebox, and they do little in the way of promoting the kind of transit-oriented development that builds a critical mass of transit riders. The simple fact that we are so reliant on a bus system for our metropolitan transit needs is an indication that we are already in that vicious cycle. It's water under the bridge now, but if this region had gotten going on real mass transit sooner--if we hadn't been so cheap to begin with--we'd be getting a heck of a lot more bang for the buck now from our transit system and not be in a situation where we're constantly scrambling to make up lost revenue. Sometimes ya gotta spend money to save money.
Of course, an equal original sin is how we, as voters and elected officials, chopped the legs out from under the MVET. Vehicle-value-based taxes aren't the perfect tax, but they're a lot less imperfect than most other taxes out there. I'll be interested to see how some of the smarter progressives in Olympia, like Farrell and Frockt, respond to this.
Except it won't. King County's economy is growing, unemployment is far lower than national average. Time to change your profile photo dipshit.
" an equal original sin is how we, as voters and elected officials, chopped the legs out from under the MVET"
Why do urbanists hate democracy?
The #8 bus route is in no danger of being eliminated. In fact the list of routes to be eliminated was posted last November.
http://metro.kingcounty.gov/am/future/pr…
I voted no on this, in part because none of the bus route eliminations will affect me. Neat huh? 2 1/2 years ago they eliminated 13 eastside routes (which nobody in Seattle screamed foul), voting for prop1 wouldn't bring those routes back at all, so I voted no.
I think it is particularly effective because even cars going about the speed limit pass on the left slowing down all the traffic in the far left lane. This causes aggressive drivers to start passing on the right, which causes those lanes to start to gum up.
Because it doesn't and we know that argument is horse shit. If instead of having 10 buses run a route instead of 15, people will simply adjust their schedules. I will bet a testicle that:
1. Metro will not make 90% of these cuts. It was a bullshit threat meant to scare voters that failed.
2. Cuts will be made to underutilized routes and routes that duplicate with Link or other buses. Routes that should be cut. Late night buses will also be reduced with zero impact on traffic. Again, people will simply adjust their schedules.
3. The bus driver's union will get their asses handed to them at the next contract talks.
4. There will be no affect on traffic.
So that's win, win, win, win for taxpayers.