Thrilled for six more weeks of winter. Michael Swensen / GETTY

Comments

2

I've been banging on about how vehicles turning right on red lights at pedestrian intersections is stupid and dangerous, for 20 years. Pedestrians think they have right of way, so they walk without looking. Drivers think they have right of way, because right turn on red is allowed. No one "proceeds with caution". Everyone just wants to get where they're going, as fast as possible. Banning right turns on red will save lives. But people will probably cling to their right to do it, like they cling to their right to own weapons of war :-(

3

right!
off (right on
red).

4

Environmental impacts overlooked: Ban right on red and you get more congestion from engines having to sit and idle spewing greenhouse gases that exacerbate climate change.

5

"[WA Senator Patty] … Murray [D] told the [ny] Times that the lawmakers 'often think of our families in our communities,' and that she sees 'the appropriations as an opportunity for women to really work on making sure their country is OK.'"

fuck. WHO will
think of the
WMD Ma-
kers?

"That said, the Russians have less sentimental reasons for a renewed push; longer-range bombs from the US and other weapons President Volodymyr Zelenskyy requested will arrive shortly."

one door Closes
Another one's
Blown far
far Away.

"[Prez Biden's son Hunter's] … lawyer
also wants Tucker Carlson [F-FOX]
to issue a retraction for spread-
ing false statements."

hmmm. that may
Take a While.
decades.

8

@1
it's worked
Exceedingly Well
so Far. perhaps if we
had a Mobile Po-po Unit
it could simply Follow them
around and when they Set their
beyond-Meager shit down it could
Hoover it up and drop-kick the Homeless
say nine or Ten blocks away. it Does sound
'better' than the Whack-a-Citizen* Game does.

*formerly Mole¯

9

our Citizenery as
Commodity
pillaging
Knows
NO
lim-
its.

Thirsty?

12

@skiddy* -- I do Hope
you've learned your Lesson.

*so That's where you
Earned your Monker
Curious we were.

13

@sirShitzalot
thank God they're not
Actual Human Beings eh?

14

When I quickly glanced at the home page today and saw the headline here, I originally read it as "Olympia considers banning red". As in the color.

The sad part is that for a second it made total sense that politicians would try and ban a color.

15

Thanks to those firefighters saving the dogs! Fast recovery to the injured!

16

Also, the Stranger writers all seem to love sending people to Twitter, which is confusing since they're so critical of Twitter's new owner (rightfully so). Why not post screen captures of the tweets instead? Unless you're just trying to drive traffic to your own profiles. But I'm sure you guys would never do something like that.

17

WSDOT does shit about encampments on their property. The ongoing village at the N end of the Ship Canal Bridge off 5th Ave. NE, at Jackson St., all along 5 south of downtown. Huge Sequioias at Lake City interchange that have been burned in Propane tank fires set by campers. The only place that seems to be under control is the on-ramp at Dearborn. Why that's been fenced off I have no clue - it was a small town at one point.

I do think Harrell needs to get Olympia on board. It's out of control and there has to be another way. WSDOT has to take some responsibility.

And arrest more fucking Taggers. Spray paint needs to be a controlled substance (it is in OR).

18

You know, if we restored the default zoning in Seattle to what it was in 1933 - 65 foot MFH everywhere, including ground floor retail, a lot of this would fix itself.

Build. Housing.

Also, Wallingford isn't historic and wasn't when I moved there in 1989, so they should be zoned up to 40 stories, just like the U District is.

Throw them an E-W light rail line to keep them happy, though.

20

@19 -- be On the Brakes
letchyur Foot Off if/when
the Coast is actually Clear

you may even leave
a little less Rubber
on the Road. but
keep that Finger
free for future
Fuck-ups.

23

I just don't trust anyone who is "not really a dog guy" or gal for that matter.

No right turn on red at the locations being considered is a good idea. A clear majority of motorists would comply with the law anyway even without effective enforcement...if some studies on voluntary compliance are to be believed.

Also, bombs don't have a range, unless down to the ground is a range. Now, artillery and missiles...

25

when behind the Wheel
expect the Unexpected
specially from the
Clueless who're
Prone to do
the idiotic

kids dogs deer
distracted humans
Seldom see your Auto.

26

@18: no, it wouldn't, because dense housing takes a long time to deliver, and affordable housing takes even longer.

look how long it's taken to deliver the LIHI tiny house village at Magnusson Park. years, and when it's done? 22 units. a band aid on a sucking chest wound.

the crisis is NOW. we need something more like FEMA camps to address immediate needs of 10,000 people sleeping and shitting on the streets. but looking to the Feds for ANYTHING to address this crisis is a fool's errand. easier to blame the cities being impacted.

27

nyt:
A Gay U.S.
Ambassador Finds a
Hostile Reception in Hungary

David Pressman, a human rights lawyer, has been accused in Hungary’s media of undermining traditional values and violating diplomatic conventions.

one commenter on the Article:

It is the same strategy of gas lighting the public
used in Hungary and in the US by the far right.

It is an authoritarian tool used over and over
throughout history. Pick on the margins
to make your majority political base
feel special and powerful.

Then incite that group
to hold you up as a type of deity,
giving you more power. Sound familiar?
--Market, California

it's trumpfsterism
cum Fascism
in a Nutshell*
& it Works
for Tons
of shit.

*where it
Belongs

29

@19 skidmark and @20 kristofarian: Oof. And people wonder why my beloved VW and I prefer the road(s) less traveled any day over bumper-to-bumper gridlock at busy intersections and avoid I-5 altogether. It's largely for the reasons you said. Also, trucks are getting too fucking BIG, too fucking LONG, and too fucking WIDE. How much longer before the "average" semi making a wide left turn takes out an entire city block, causing multi-car collisions and traffic pileups?
I, for one, am okay with the end of the free right on red. I always look both ways, even with impatient drivers behind me. You never know what people are going to do. My question is, how many crazed idiots are still out there illegally driving through intersections on red lights?
Methinks the Seattle building boom of the last ten years has brought in an unsurmountable septic tidal wave of the world's worst, most clueless drivers.

30

@25 kristofarian: Agreed.

31

I’m trying to understand the logic of the Legislature’s consideration of essentially legalizing non-payment of car tabs/renewals that help fund all sorts of needed public good (Sound Transit) but then expecting enforcement of “illegal” right turns.

32

@23 The bombs under discussion are boosted downrange by a rocket/missile. Once the rocket burns out, the bomb guides itself to the target.

34

@4
Environmental impacts overlooked:
Right turn on red means fewer pedestrians and bicyclists breathing air and taking up valuable planetary resources.

35

@23- not sure a majority would comply. In my neighborhood a large majority blow right through the stop signs on the “safe walking” street.

38

I am not a fan of animals being used for entertainment value. I know there’s a shitload of tradition involved, and I can’t speak to how well those groundhogs are treated the rest of the year. My favorite Groundhog Day ceremony happened a few years ago when the then Punxsutawney Phil took a plug out of his handlers hand. There was blood everywhere, and many stitches were involved.

The Bible teaches (somewhere) that mankind has dominion over other animals. Many Christians take that to mean that we have a God-given right to blow the brains out of anything and then eat it…or not. If I were of that faith, I would interpret it to mean that since we are the ones with a semblance of intelligence, we must protect and maintain a good environment for the Kingdom of Animals, and provide safety for them when they are unable to do so for themselves. Cheers to all who helped save those dogs. It’s up to us. That’s all I’m sayin’.

Just read an article about the shit our ambassador to Hungary is having to deal with. State-run media there is sending out daily poison about Ambassador Pressman because he is gay, married with two kids. A raft on the Danube in front of the Embassy greeted him on his arrival last year with a sign that read with skull and crossbones, "Mr. Pressman, don’t colonize Hungary with your cult of death.” He is often referred to as Madame Ambassador. Despite Hungary being in NATO and the EU, Orban is a Putin guy. Pretty sick, in my opinion. Very mid-Twentieth Century. But ultimately so sad because Hungary, post-Warsaw Pact, was one of the shining stars of the new democracies. Will people never learn?

So today I have a low tolerance for enemies. Xi Jinping seems hell-bent on pushing China on everything and everybody. China is not a happy place. Not a place to admire or immulate. I don't know what else we can do with a guy like that other than be at the ready.

BTW, I have lived lo these many years and am unsure whether or not I ever knew that Punxsutawney Phil’s “home” is called Gobbler’s Knob. Sounds like what I’d call the favorite part of my boyfriend’s dick.

39

‘… an encampment under the Ship Canal Bridge on WSDOT property. The neighbors are upset, and they're this close to getting it: "Residents speculate that the encampment grew in part after the city's removal of the longtime Woodland Park encampment." Hmmmmmm! It's as if sweeping homeless people simply uses the state's monopoly on violence to aimlessly push people up and down streets...’

When the City finally returned use of Woodland Park to all residents, not just the ones who had illegally occupied and trashed said park, at least one of the campers was found to have left stable, secure housing In Bellevue to camp in Seattle’s Woodland Park. Although the City had spent some time on outreach to the campers, on the day of the encampment removal, this camper still refused referrals, and instead asked for permission to keep camping in the park (without obtaining a permit or paying rent, of course). Therefore, it comes as no surprise if any campers swept from Woodland Park would try to camp nearby. (Now, if only the Stranger had relied on something other than speculation for this evidence, it might actually have something to say on this “story”.)

As for Seattle retaining its monopoly on violence, yes, that is true; it has. To the loud dismay of the Stranger, voters rejected NTK for City Attorney. Her campaign promise, to not prosecute misdemeanors, including domestic violence crimes, would indeed have ended the City’s monopoly on violence to resolve disputes. Rather than extend legal violence to all family members across the city, Seattle’s voters instead chose to elect a Republican, and the Stranger took it rather poorly.

40

@19 & @20: And WTF is wrong with all the lame-brained, careless idiots zooming around parking lots and around street corners, roaring up and tailgating, if not rear-ending or colliding with other drivers backing out of parking spaces and / or merging into traffic?? WTF is the attraction to lowered, souped up street rods with eardrum rupturing boomboxes that roar and whose engines loudly spew out a string of pops and backfires?
While affordable housing is needed in our region, I'm all for first getting rid of all the bad drivers choking the flow of traffic on our streets and public highways, methheads and their dealers, fly-by-night opportunists, profiteering "growth is great" single-family unit killing developers (as if we need MORE luxury condos at $5 million a pop?!), and other lowlife hinderances to the livability here in Washington State. Let's ship 'em back to wherever they came from---most likely some unfunded RepubliKKKan misgoverned neofascist red state of confusion like Texas or Florida. Too many people have flooded here in droves, and we're paying too high a price now with unaddressed infrastructural problems. I'm for slowing things down before we lose the last of our open spaces and abundant natural resources, before we lose everything that has made Washington such a desirable place to live altogether.
I don't remember who said it first, in a previous SLOG comment thread---dvs99? PrincessAngeline#2?---but I fully agree: If we offer free housing, those of us who were here first will lose out to every opportunistic freeloader from out of state, ecstatically whistling and waving on their friends and kinfolk to suddenly move here in droves. And then good luck with livability, availability of healthcare and needed public services for those of us who really need them, accountability, smooth flows of traffic, clean air and sufficient water supplies, and reduced crime.
We have already seen what has happened to our hospital capacities since the COVID lockdowns, and those unfortunate to have to turn to blue states like Washington for safe, legal abortions.

41

@34 dvs99 and @35 pat L: Agreed. We live in similar neighborhoods.

42

I mean, I won't argue against the idea that the US's motives for protecting Taiwan are self-serving, but also wars of aggression are terrible. China invading Taiwan is no different than Russia invading Ukraine. And both of those are difficult situations because war hurts everybody and strewing weapons around the world does not increase security, but isolationism isn't helpful either. If people are just invading each other and occupying their territory, that has an impact on us, even if they are not currently attacking us. We should be opposing Israel's war of aggression for the same reason (just to be crystal clear, my issue is with the people who are in control of the government and military of the State of Israel, which is a very small group of people).

Also, housing is a human right.

@38 Yeah, our goal should be to live in symbiosis with animals, not to dominate them (which also includes other humans because, lest we forget, we are also animals).

43

@39 Bauhaus I: I remember that one particular Groundhog Day, February 2, 2015, too! The mayor of Sun Prairie, Wisconsin got an ear bitten by Jimmy the Groundhog (apparently Punxsutawney Phil was unavailable for comment). Gobbler's Knob is a supper club in Stockbridge, Wisconsin. It is indeed, an interesting name for an eatery. I have to wonder if they have bratwurst eating competitions there, especially during Oktoberfest.
Six more weeks of winter---isn't that what's predicted every year? No surprise there.
The 1993 Bill Murray / Julia Louis-Dreyfus film, Groundhog Day, was actually filmed on location in Woodstock, Illinois.

44

@13, @37: The entire point is that inhabitants of encampments are human beings, and should not be allowed to wallow in filthy, disease-prone encampments. In this comment (https://www.thestranger.com/slog-am/2023/02/01/78842004/slog-am-judge-says-amazon-busted-unions-prisoners-could-exchange-organs-for-reduced-sentence-tom-brady-retires-again/comments/50), I explain how encampments are the worst possible environments for persons struggling with mental disorders and/or drug addictions. Seattle does homeless persons no favors when it allows encampments.

Therefore, Seattle should relentlessly sweep every encampment, every time, until they are all gone. Inhabitants can either accept Seattle’s offers of aid, or decline and leave town. Either way, their suffering will no longer be Seattle’s fault.

The Orwellian redefinition of “compassion”to mean “tolerating encampments” was the cruelest thing the Stranger ever did.

45

Opposing sweeps doesn't mean you think encampments are wonderful paradises. But having people come in and force you away from the only place you've been able to find doesn't exactly help either. We need to address the housing crises, not attack the victims of it.

46

@22 I have a brand new Jeep that comes equipped with the idle off feature, but 1) my engine only shuts off about 30% of the time, depending on what I have running in my car at the time 2) I have a lovely little button that gives me the ability to turn the feature off and 3) not everyone can afford a new vehicle/a vehicle that has the feature included as standard.

We treat pedestrians in this country as some sort of god to be placed upon a pedestal. Meanwhile in literally any other country, you better keep your head on a swivel at all times and be prepared to run through a crosswalk.

47

@46
"We treat pedestrians
in this country as some sort
of god to be placed upon a pedestal."

but not too High of one
that'd make it too Difficult
to Run Over their sorry Asses

and yeah who hasn't chased
the odd Pedestrian down
a sidewalk* or two?

*Overseas!

48

not to say you were
Suggesting that
far from it

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ZupwFOhjl4&ab_channel=AmazingNewLife

and Hardly
any horns

49

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3y_NiOvvALc&ab_channel=OurHumanPlanet

50

@45: “But having people come in and force you away from the only place you've been able to find doesn't exactly help either.”

Who says homeless encampments in Seattle are the only place their inhabitants have been able to find? Travis Berge and Lisa Vach camped together in a tent, in Cal Anderson Park. His mother had repeatedly asked him to come live with her, at her house in Texas; Lisa Vach’s friend had co-signed with her for an apartment in Tacoma. Neither one accepted these offers of safe, stable housing. They remained in their tent until Berge savagely beat Vach, and left her there to die. Shortly thereafter, he died whilst police pursued him for through the park. If Seattle had rousted them from their tents in Cal Anderson Park, each of them might have accepted their offers of housing, and might still be alive.


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