This morning, on the last day for the House transportation committee to hear bills and vote them out of committee for this legislative session, the Democrats refused to allow a vote on Rep. Dan Kristiansen's three U.S. 2 safety bills, HB 2614, HB 2615, and HB 2616.
All of the Republicans on the committee walked out in protest.
Will the Democrats do anything at all to keep people from dying on U.S. 2?
Posted by pudge at February 08, 2008 12:49 PM | Email ThisIs it dangerous because people are driving too fast and run off the road, or drive head-on into oncoming traffic?
Posted by: Smoley on February 8, 2008 01:39 PMHowever, the volume of people going over the pass has tripled while the narrow roads and narrow bridges have remained the same.
To this day, I am pleased I make it alive because I see cars coming the opposite direction go over the lines (kind of scary when they are so narrow) all the time on bends and along stretches the driver is not familiar with.
Then, there have been many accidents of old people slightly falling asleep barely crossing over the lanes as they come down from Canada.
Then, there are always young drivers not experienced enough that go off the road or cross the yellow lines.
In the old days and when I was learning there were fewer numbers of cars, so when I crossed the lines there was very little likelihood of meeting and greeting another car.
So, in an upshot, increased traffic on the narrow and curvey road has increased the potential for accidents.
Posted by: swatter on February 8, 2008 01:52 PMIf so, have Dan and Kirk tried to get these gents into the picture? Have they got Chelan's backing? Or were they doing this because of Walser running against them?
Posted by: swatter on February 8, 2008 01:55 PMAnd yes, as you can see from the links, they got co-sponsorship on all three bills from Condotta (R) in the 12th, which covers Chelan (along with Ericks (D-1)).
And no, they were not doing this because of Walser, who is not running against either of them. This is one of a long line of attempts to get U.S. 2 safety funding.
Posted by: pudge on February 8, 2008 02:12 PMWhen the feds made I-90 the coast to coast interstate, the feds lost interest in Highway 2. So did the State.
I would think that with all the I-90 closures, the legislature and the WDOT realize how important it is to have two major highways linking east and west.
Posted by: swatter on February 8, 2008 02:28 PM
i'm the tax maaaaaan---ohhhhh baby I'm the taxman!
I know. You think you are Snohomish County and you follow the Looks Like a Duck, Quacks Like a Duck, so you are a Duck scenario, but you are really a King County resident. Go after it.
Posted by: swatter on February 8, 2008 04:51 PMThe road needs to be made safer and expanded in parts. It'll take a billion bucks to do it right. Obviously Rep. Kristiansen isn't very effective on this subject.
Maybe it is time to elect someone who can actually get the job done, not just posture with hero bills. The guy has been missing in action.
Posted by: redflag on February 8, 2008 05:06 PMFalse. You have not been paying attention. For example, in the 2006 session, he worked on getting funding for the U.S. 2 Safety Coalition to do the study that told us what needed to be fixed. He's been working on this for several years.
Please be more careful about making such unfair and incorrect assertions. Either you don't know what you are talking about, or you are uninterested in facts, and just looking for a chance to deceptively smear someone you don't like. Which is it?
Actually, I know it is the latter. You were already directly told of the fact that our 39th District electeds have been working on this for years. So that you repeat this false allegation means you're intending to be deceptive.
Posted by: pudge on February 8, 2008 05:28 PMIf so, why cannot survivors mount a class-action suit to force change? I am sure that more than Republicans have died on US 2.
Posted by: Bart Norton on February 8, 2008 05:38 PMRight.
Posted by: Michele on February 8, 2008 05:44 PMAll of Kristiansen's obstructionist votes on other bills are coming back to haunt him now. Why the hell should anyone in Olympia do *him* any favors? His chickens are coming home to roost. He, and not the Democrats, played politics with people's lives in Highway 2 -- and so did his supporters -- that means you Pudge.
Replace him and the money will flow. Too bad if you R's don't like that, but that's the way you played it when you had the majority, so quit your whining.
Wow, ivan. I don't know if I could have proved you stupider than you prove yourself. You say the Democrats didn't play politics with people's lives right after you claim that saving lives on U.S. 2 would be doing a "favor" for Kristiansen, and that Kristiansen voting his opinion and conscience is the reason why Democrats are allowing people to die.
You contradict yourself completely within that single paragraph.
ivan, please, stop being so stupid. For your own sake.
You are making the argument that Democrats are intentionally allowing people to die for partisan reasons, and that this is somehow the fault of the Republicans, and that in order to save lives, we should therefore give in to the Democrats' blackmail.
No one is fooled by your evil and irrational claim.
Posted by: pudge on February 9, 2008 07:57 AMLet's compare: Kristiansen: all talk, no action, stunts. Others: delivering the funding necessary to get the job done.
Where's Kristiansen been? He sounded surprised in the newspaper this morning that other legislators were making progress on US 2 while he was playing around.
If you really want action on US 2 and ferries, the obvious only choice is to re-elect Mary Margaret Haugen. She's using her Chairmanship of Transportation to make a real difference. And everybody knows that if she is not re-elected, a guy from Spokane will take her place. The only priority for Spokane is a freeway that runs north of Spokane - Spokane could care less about US 2 or ferries.
Posted by: redflag on February 9, 2008 08:27 AMIn fact, what you describe as "delivering the funding necessary to get the job done" is merely one in another long line of unfulfilled promises by the Democrats. Maybe something will get done, but none of us have any reason to believe it. And if it does happen, it will be in large part because Kristiansen has been forcing the issue, whether his legislation is enacted or not.
Where's Kristiansen been? He sounded surprised in the newspaper this morning that other legislators were making progress on US 2 while he was playing around.
Plesse stop lying. There is no evidence of any progress. And he didn't sound surprised at all: he stated the fact that there is no plan, no details, no progress of any kind.
If you really want action on US 2 and ferries, the obvious only choice is to re-elect Mary Margaret Haugen
Riiiiiiiight. In order to save lives on U.S. 2, people should re-elect the woman who stated explicitly that she was allowing people to die on U.S. 2 to punish 39th District voters.
You have it entirely backward: if Haugen wants to be re-elected, she should take action on U.S. 2. It is absolutely incredible that you would sit here and claim that Haugen's NOT fixing U.S. 2 is a reason to re-elect her so that she WILL fix U.S. 2.
You are not fooling anyone.
Posted by: pudge on February 9, 2008 08:52 AMMary Margaret has already taken more action on US 2 than Stevens or Kristiansen. Look for even more. The highway actually extends to the Keystone ferry, which is carrying cars again today largely through the clout of Mary Margaret Haugen. She was also the prime mover in the study that identified how best to improve the highway over Stevens Pass.
We'd be crazy to lose that clout to Spokane over partisan politics, absolutely nuts.
Posted by: redflag on February 9, 2008 09:25 AMRedflag: anonymous only works when no one knows who you are. Your M.O. was the giveaway.
Posted by: Stewart_Street on February 9, 2008 09:38 AMSeriously: stop lying. Kristiansen got $700,000 for the U.S. 2 study more than two years ago.
His strategy was obviously ineffective because he couldn't persuade the rest of his committee to see things his way.
Except that he put the spotlight on the issue and forced them to promise to do something about U.S. 2 in the transportation budget.
He's been there long enough for us to expect far more.
He can only do so much, if Democrats are unwilling to even have a vote, let alone fix the problem. Haugen has been there a lot longer, and U.S. 2 safety still, to this day, is not a priority for her.
We'd be crazy to lose that clout to Spokane over partisan politics, absolutely nuts.
Not as nuts as when Haugen said she was allowing people to die over partisan politics.
Posted by: pudge on February 9, 2008 09:53 AMReally? Name one piece of legislation - one - or one transportation project - one - that dealt with road safety that was killed by the Republicans because the legislator/s who backed it were Democrats. Just one.
You won't and you can't. Rep. Fisher(D-27) and Rep. Schmidt (R-23) got along famously when crafting transpo issues and didn't allow partisan politics to supercede public safety.
Too bad that's not the case now, and too bad your post proved people like you are willing to place taxpayers lives on the line simply to take partisan shots.
You should be ashamed, but you have no shame.
Posted by: jimg on February 9, 2008 09:53 AMScott's campaign slogan in the past was "progress, not partisanship". Unfortunately, Scott didn't follow his own advice and lost to Dan Kristiansen in the 39th. Dan is working his rear-end off in Olympia and it's sad that trolls like Scott try to blame him for the democratic stone-walling.
Posted by: gk360 on February 9, 2008 10:32 AMCourt commissioner halts issuance of 50 taxi licenses
By Keith Ervin
Seattle Times staff reporter
King County Court Commissioner Carlos Velategui temporarily stopped county officials Friday from giving 50 taxicab licenses to a group that included contributors to County Executive Ron Sims' 2005 re-election campaign.
The 14-day restraining order, sought by cabdrivers who said they weren't given a fair chance to compete for the valuable licenses, is the latest development in a controversy that has pitted one group of drivers against another.
"As they say in Eastern Washington, 'taint fair, 'taint right," attorney Douglas Titus said of the process for deciding who would get licenses to operate 45 hybrid gas-electric taxis and five vans for disabled passengers. Titus represents Seattle Washington Taxi Association, which is suing over the licenses....
....The County Council in 2005 authorized the program, which was touted as a way to better the lives of cabdrivers, mostly immigrants, who have no employee benefits and often struggle to afford the high cost of buying or leasing licenses.
When the county was studying the issue and Tekeba was president of the American Taxi Association, members of that group gave $14,600 to Sims' campaign, $5,000 to then-County Councilmember Dwight Pelz's Seattle City Council campaign and $4,750 to County Councilmember Pete von Reichbauer's re-election campaign.
The Seattle Ethics and Elections Commission later investigated the contributions to Pelz -- who is now chairman of the state Democratic Party -- and concluded the taxi association had skirted contribution limits by reimbursing members for their political contributions. The association agreed to pay a $4,550 fine.
The city's ethics commission didn't investigate the contributions to Sims and von Reichbauer because they were running for county office.
At least seven of the 23 people on a list of Green Cab drivers gave to Sims' campaign.
Green Cab attorney Eric Lansverk said in court Friday the association has already bought and repainted 50 vehicles based on the county's decision last fall to award the licenses. To delay issuance of the licenses, he said, would create a hardship for drivers who have invested their savings and taken out second mortgages to fund the new enterprise.
Lawyers challenging the test-license program say it would hurt other drivers, who pay $100,000 or more for existing, transferable licenses. The new licenses, which are free, cannot be transferred from one person to another.
Gurminder Kahlon, an Indian immigrant opposing the Green Cab licenses, said he used equity from his home and works seven days a week, without vacations, to pay the $140,000 cost of his dual city-county license...."
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2004173287_taxis09m.html
I don't care what your party is, if you are corrupt and are not serving the public interest, you need to be gone.