One of the first official acts of Kristina Hill, the new never-elected chairwoman of the Seattle Monorail Project, was to suppress dissent:
the agency raised the eyebrows of even one its longtime supporters yesterday by kicking a member of a critical group out of Hill's news briefing. After spokesman Henry Aronson of the watchdog group On Track sat down among reporters to hear Hill's briefing he was hustled out of the conference room by a monorail media-relations employee and made to wait in a reception area. The conference-room blinds were then closed for the briefing.I blame the Patriot Act.
UPDATE: Watch this priceless KING5 news report where the Kristina Hill is calling for an "open and transparent public discussion" while Henry Aronson is being forced out of the room.
Posted by Stefan Sharkansky at July 06, 2005 09:39 AM | Email ThisPUBLIC HEARINGS ( on the monorail)
Today, 7 p.m., Seattle Monorail Project Community Room, The Securities Building, Fourth Avenue entrance, 1913 Fourth Ave.
Tomorrow, 6:30 p.m., West Seattle High School Auditorium
3000 California Ave. S.W.
Proud mover & shaker demo lawyer Aronson? Getting the bums rush?
Saints preserve us!
Posted by: alphabet soup on July 6, 2005 10:06 AMTruly unbelievable exhibition of shamelessness.
Posted by: C. Oh on July 6, 2005 10:40 AMPlease tell me that this is sarcasm. There is absolutely no deapth to which the libs can sink that I would find 'Truly unbelievable' in fact I would see it as inevitable.
Posted by: JDH on July 6, 2005 11:30 AMRight you bet.
This is all about George W Bush and has nothing whatsoever to do with the war in Iraq. You can be certain of one thing about Posner and his ilk. If he had any evidence whatsoever to support his silly contentions, he would expose it. This is all *get Bush stuff* that has nothing to do with policy and everything to do with partisanship. Democrats are committing intellectual suicide (albeit a contradiction in terms) and it is fun to watch.
However, there is something important to be said for fundamental interests, values and morality. The most fundamental interests, values, and morality involve national security, truth telling, and honest evaluation of facts, and effective leadership in order to protect America. Liberals require no proof or factual evidence of anything; just the same type of tedious circular sourcing that allows them to make things up as they go along. They care more about politically damaging Bush than they do about the safety and survival of their own communities. If they had their way (a la Kerry) Iraq would be in U.N. hands and we would be looking straight at another 9/11 attack. After enumerating NOTHING except a laundry list of accusations in substitution for supposed established facts, Posner’s reference to other’s moral compass is particularly humorous.
You can look forward to hearing more of this same inane baseless garbage from the trolls. After all if Teddy Kennedy says so it must be right.
Amazingly amusing.
Robert Mak, you are now on "ze list."
I am sure you know vat dat means.
That is another agency that needlessly wastes our tax dollars. The Port of Seattle is one of the few port authorities in the USA or Canada that is subsidized by local taxpayers.
King County property owners are paying $62.5 million in property taxes in 2005 to the Port of Seattle. This is a 76% increase over four years ago in 2001, when it was "only" $35.6 million (and when the three positions up this fall were last elected).
This is like paying six cents per gallon gasoline tax in King County. And while gas tax money may go to transportation projects of arguable value, the port property tax is a total waste, since the Port of Seattle should be self-supporting.
The only other port authority that receives significant local taxpayer subsidies in the USA is the Port of Tacoma, which is "only" a little under $10 million per year.
Most port authorities actually turn a PROFIT that gets used by local governments, in place of having to raise dollars through local taxes. The Port of Los Angeles/Long Beach makes at least $50 million per year for local governments down there. The Port of Vancouver, BC doesn't turn over profits, but does pay property taxes on its real estate to local governments up there -- over $70 million per year Canadian.
King County has the worst of both worlds. The Port of Seattle is exempt from paying any property taxes on its holdings, and instead extracts $62.5 million per year in property taxes from the rest of us.
Ironically enough, the Port of Seattle is making tremendous surpluses each year -- $201 million in 2004 and $292 million projected for 2005 -- far in excess of the property tax levy. It is bad enough to pay property tax to subsidize a commercial operation that is needlessly losing money. It is even worse to do so for a commercial operation that would otherwise still be turning a tremendous profit.
Posted by: Richard Pope on July 6, 2005 12:09 PMJuly 5, 2005
RE: Public Opinion Solicited:
We are soliciting comments for tonight's public meeting. Please follow the correct procedure regarding public comments.
Public comments will submitted in advance and be screened by the Central Committee. If the comments are ideological pure they will be allowed to be presented in the public meeting after appropriate editing.
Should the comment be unacceptable we will arrange for the re-education for the submitter of the comment.
Comments may be provided to the public that have been prepared by the Central Committee in the event insufficient comment with positive content have been approved.
We want to ensure a positive smooth public meeting. Disruptive elements may be removed prior to the meeting to ensure a positive experience.
Thank you for your efforts toward a positive public meeting.
Dean Logan must've fed Hill the "open and transparent" line. They seem to believe that if they just SAY it, then it doesn't matter if things AREN'T 'open and transparent'.
Posted by: Michele on July 6, 2005 12:38 PMI agree entirely but I'm glad you said that.
Posted by: Amused by traitors on July 6, 2005 02:03 PMHow about starting the monorail with commuter business traffic lines? That means from Tacoma, North of Seattle, and the East side lines being built first. A line going from Seattle directly to Sea-Tac airport will cover the out of town traffic coming into Seattle but should be of secondary priority to the before mentioned lines. The inner city lines should be built with the money generated through those first lines.
Business traffice should be defined as from 5 AM through 3 in the morning. Accomodate the greatest number of those working in the city: restaurant workers, entertainers, programmers, security workers, janitors, teachers and students. There are more of those than 9-5ers.
Let the bus lines handle the inner city traffic to begin with. It's okay for within the city. Have monthly and weekly passes that can be used on the monorail and buses.
Once the lines are SUCCESSFUL(Paying for themselves), parking can prices can be raised and used to fund the inner city lines to be built.
But that's only the thoughts of many transplants who are familiar with getting around in international cities. They Prefer taking trains and subways over driving or using the bus from outside of cities. It's usually cost and time effective. But who would want to be relaxed, have a cup of coffee and read the newspaper while going to work, over the road rage developed from people who love to drive in blind spots, have no idea on how to give safe lane changing distances, are in love with passing on right, stay to the left driving slowly, emergencies crews who don't get putting the siren AND lights at a reasonable distance to let drivers pull to the right rather than when right behind them, drivers that practically have to be run over to pull to left, and drivers that have no idea what it means when other cars have their turn signal on. Oh and when the lanes are being resticted, GET INTO THE OTHER LANE ASAP, not when your on top of the sign. Has anyone heard of alternating when letting other cars in?
In conclusion, I respectfully support getting the monorail system online and working within the next year or so, not the next decade or so, not the next century or so.
Posted by: Northeast Transplant on July 6, 2005 02:12 PMBuild light rail from Seattle to the airport.
Build Monorail from West Seattle to Seattle to Ballard.
To make this really work, the King County Council should pass an ordinance to ban businesses from setting up shop outside of Seattle. It should then confiscate all single family housing in Fremont, Ballard, West Seattle and other neighborhoods along the rail lines and convert them into high density "worker" housing.
With business forced to be in downtown and the people moved closer to the transportation lines, these forms of transportation might actually make more sense.
The evacuated portions of King County would then be allowed to return to a natural state and everyone will be happy for ever after.
Posted by: SouthernRoots on July 6, 2005 02:47 PMIf the monorail is such a narvana, why do you need people who choose not to join you there pay for you to be there? "parking car prices can be raised and used to fund the inner city lines to be built" And why should people who drive in from non-serviced areas pay for the toy because they drive in?
The money generated by taxpayers will be far greater than that generated by riders, especially if you reduce the price even more by having monthly passes.
I have lived in many cities, both domestically and internationally and have found that people like to take their cars, but the cities are so badly designed that it is not practical. We do not need to design the Puget Sound to be car unfriendly, do we?
I agree with your complaints about drivers. You would think that the government would ensure that people KNOW the highway code, that law enforcement would be more concerned with left drivers, especially ones that are being passed on the right, than with people going 61 in a 60 zone. But that is probably another form of government social engineering us into making driving a pain, and expensive if you are making traffic flow. This, though, has nothing to do with a very expensive fixed public transportation system.
Posted by: fred on July 6, 2005 02:54 PMIt depends on who the 'we' you are refferring to is.
This is exactly what Tacoma has been systematically and deliberately doing.
They are implementing 'traffic calming' measures and angle parking on collector and arterial streets supposedly in response to the demands of residents who live along them and business owners with businesses along them respectively.
It now takes longer to get across Tacoma by staying on the collector and arterial network than by cutting through neighborhoods on residential streets, if you know the right residential streets to use. (And more and more people are finding the 'right' residential streets to use)
The planners in City Government with hopes that they can, once the transportation network has been ruined, step in and ‘save the day’ with public transportation options that ‘people are demanding,’ have deliberately vandalized Tacoma’s transportation network.
It is easy to see what is going on once you are aware of their motives and intentions.
I'm not joking. I wish HE had been!
Posted by: Michele on July 6, 2005 05:23 PMHill is going to be following Joel Horn shortly.
Posted by: Jeff B. on July 6, 2005 06:09 PMThank you to a Great American!
Posted by: alphabet soup on July 6, 2005 06:13 PMWho has the authority to fire her caboose?
Posted by: BrianD on July 6, 2005 08:45 PMThat's why the Tim Eymans of this world come out of the woodwork and do what they do here. So, if you'd like to see Tim Eyman go away, resist temptation of these tax extraction schemes (there's 2 big ones now) - it is probably too late - talking to you; Seattle. This was due alot because voters don't pay attention to fine print.
That's why I changed my mind over the last 10 years to never live in Seattle again.
I've been reading about the French Revolution recently (mass purges for any hint of "incorrect" thought before even Lenin's and Stalin's time)and I'm wondering where Kristina Hill is hiding her tricolor hat. This is the People's Monorail! Any words to the contrary are counter-revolutionary!
Posted by: Shannon K on July 6, 2005 11:34 PM