End of free parking in Fremont

It's the end of free parking in Fremont
Surprise notification greeted with outrage

By KATHY MULADY
P-I REPORTER

Fremont isn't so free anymore, at least not the parking.

The Seattle Department of Transportation announced Thursday that Fremont will be the next neighborhood to get paid parking stations, probably by February.

It will cost $1.50 per hour to park in one of the 115 paid parking stations in the central retail district from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday.

I guess now we'll have to call it Feemont.

4 out of 5 warmongers agree

4 out of 5 former Secretaries of State surveyed by the American Mental Association recommend Imperialism for their constituents who choose guns.

“I’m also very pleased to have the endorsement of four former Secretaries of State, State Kissinger, Baker, Eagleburger and Haig” — John Sidney McCain III, Oct. 19, 2008

Maron from the road

Here's the link at The Guardian where Marc Maron is blogging about their cross-country election road trip.

Lynn Forester de Rothschild's compadres

Marc Maron goes all English on us

I seem to recall Maron was going to do some HBO election year show with Ana Marie Cox, but it never went anywhere. Instead, Marc has hooked up with the folks at The Guardian:

GuardianFilms puts the rubber to the road

Comedian and Air America Media host Marc Maron joins the team that brought you the New Hampshire primary and Super Tuesday documentary series as we hit the highway for a new election road show, this one stretching from coast to coast.

We'll be travelling, in true American style, in two RVs. Packed inside, along with Marc Maron, will be veteran investigative journalist James Ridgeway, who'll be blogging from the road, and a team of film-makers and editors headed by Patrick Farrelly and Kate O'Callaghan, producing daily short videos from the cities and farms, truck stops and mega-churches, country clubs and soup kitchens of the United States. We'll be joined by Guardian correspondents, politicians, and assorted opinion-makers as we try to understand the forces shaping the US vote in 2008

From Los Angeles to Washington, DC - via the battleground states of Nevada, New Mexico, Colorado, Missouri, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Virginia - we'll be looking at the key issues and inviting ordinary citizens into our "Truth Booth" to tell us which candidate can snatch a divided and demoralised nation back from the jaws of disaster.

Source

Slick use of dehumanization

The Thursday deadline passed without action, and today the Nickelsville tent city is still there. Maybe Hizzoner decided it would be bad to express support for the homeless one day (see yesterday), and take away one of their places to live the next.

And notice how concerned the Mayor's Office is about the human dimension:

City crews placed more than a dozen no-trespassing signs in and around the camp, dubbed "Nickelsville" in defiance of Mayor Greg Nickels, about two hours before the deadline of a 72-hour eviction notice.

But the 5 p.m. deadline passed without incident at the site in an industrial area in the Highland Park neighborhood.

"We don't announce when the cleanup will happen," said Karin Zaugg Black, Nickels' spokeswoman. Source

"Cleanup." Cleanup is what you do to garbage. People get evicted.

Don't dehumanize the residents of Nickelsville, Ms. Black. Call the eviction what it is.

More: Mayor, Zaugg claim no shelter shortage, define controversy as "political"

The post with Dan Rather

Toddled over to the Westin today, to attend the Plymouth Housing Group annual luncheon. I love this group, it is unbelievably effective in planning, funding and constructing transitional and low income housing around downtown Seattle. And they also provide the medical and social support services people need to avoid becoming homeless again.

Anywho, the annual luncheon always features a celebrity draw. A couple years ago it was Malcolm Gladwell; last year was Martin Sheen. Today at least a thousand people turned out to hear journalist Dan Rather, who spoke in broad historical terms about the rise, neglect and potential fall of the social welfare system in the United States.

Rather is eloquent and cerebral -- which is easy to forget reporters can be, given the current state of the profession's blow-dried ratings leaders.

Also given a few minutes to speak were former mayor Norm Rice, and current mayor Greg "Seattle's Green Mayor" Nickels. Both spoke of the need to reduce homelessness; Nickels finished his free lunch, then slipped out when the lights went down for the video profiling several Plymouth residents.

Nickels' appearance, frankly, was a breathtaking display of chutzpah. I wonder if he'll feel the same way about the homeless tomorrow.

Nickels. He finished lunch and scooted.

The Other Thing:

The new website for the Sam Seder/Marc Maron online show can be seen at mvslive.com, give it a look and enjoy the videos.

Green era means we should rethink traffic priorities

Today in the Seattle Times:

Seattle is seeking possession of a popular boating-supply store along Mercer Street, even though the city remains $88 million short of the funds it needs to carry out a street reconstruction project there.

West Marine is to be condemned and torn down to make room for a 60- to 70-foot road widening along Mercer Street in an area commonly called the "Mercer Mess," according to the city's plan.

...private contributors won't commit money for the project until Seattle secures the right-of-way. Of the missing $88 million, the city is negotiating to get $36 million from nearby businesses that would benefit from the $201 million rebuild.

. . .

For two generations, commuters have complained about the Mercer Mess between Interstate 5 and Seattle Center. The city plans to add lanes for two-way travel on Mercer, which now goes eastbound to I-5. Valley Street, now an arterial, would be reduced to two lanes.

A study for the Seattle Department of Transportation predicts that drivers would save minutes leaving I-5, because they would gain a straight route on Mercer westbound, instead of navigating a curve to Valley. Overall, there would be little change in congestion, the study says; but bicycling and walking conditions would improve greatly, while landscaping would make the area more pleasant.

Source

Am I understanding this right? The city wants to spend $201 million on this 10-block stretch so drivers can save a few minutes? That's the sole benefit traffic-wise, because there would be no congestion reduction. Let's make a ledger.

Benefits	Costs ($201 million)
Cars: Drivers save a few minutes	Congestion continues at same level
Non-motorized: Improved walking, biking	generally $1 million per block, including curbs and drainage
Other: Nice landscaping	Businesses: Loss of strong retailer; $36 million

Anyone see anything wrong here? Try taking off your Car Culture Hat. How about now?

That's right: Although I'm mixing qualitative and quantitative, the costs for the automobile portion is the biggest, maybe $150-155 million, while returning the littlest benefit -- a few minutes per driver.

Want to reduce congestion? Want to make the transition away from the car culture? THEN STOP FACILITATING IT. Spend $10 million on non-motorized transportation on Mercer, and a few more million on landscaping and trees. Mandate Low Impact Development to protect Lake Union.

Road-diet what's there now, and maybe you'll get more people biking and taking Metro and the S.L.U.T. (and North Link whenever that's supposed to happen).

*Raise Hand* Question for Mr. Rossi?

Yes -- question at the back.

Thank you, Scott. Mr_Grant, Wiseline Institute Northwest. I wanted to ask Shadow Governor Rossi a question about economic policy.

Over the past months and weeks we've seen the American -- global, really -- financial crisis come to a head. IndyMac. Fannie Mae. Freddie Mac. Lehman Brothers. AIG. Huge swings in the Dow.

What's more, a growing number of commentators have traced the culpability of Republican neoconservative economic policy and corruption in this meltdown, as well as Enron and energy deregulation earlier in this decade. This linkage is typified by the roles of Phil "Mental Recession" Gramm.

The crisis is trickling down all right. At the state level, in Olympia a $3.2 billion deficit is being forecast.

Furthermore, this weekend sees announcements of a $500 billion federal bailout package, the biggest intervention since the Great Depression.

Do you have a question?

Yes. How can Shadow Governor Rossi keep running the "we're going to be fiscally conservative" campaign ad and identify himself as "GOP" with a straight face?

Why no bail out for Lehman Brothers?

Why was the Bush Administration willing to bail out Bear Stearns, and take over Fannie and Freddie, but drew the line at bailing out Lehman Brothers? How's this for a reason:

Investment bank Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., which filed for bankruptcy-court protection early Monday, has been the eighth-largest corporate giver to Sen. Obama's campaign this election cycle, with Lehman employees donating $361,000. Source

And what do you want to bet AIG doesn't get federal help either:

Trouble at several other companies could hurt fund raising for Sen. Obama and other Democrats. Employees of insurance giant American International Group Inc., for example, have given 66% of their $647,000 in total political donations to Democrats in the current election cycle, after favoring Republicans from the mid-1990s through early 2000s. (same source)

AIG -- too big to fail, I guess.

Tuesday Night Rhythm Society

TMBG- Don't Let's Start

Dan Rather to speak at Plymouth Housing Group event

That's right -- former CBS anchor and Texas Air National Guard truthteller Dan Rather has just been announced as the featured speaker for the annual Plymouth Housing Group "Key To Hope" event.

Rather is replacing original speaker John Edwards, who has withdrawn from public engagements for some reason.

The luncheon is Sept. 25 at Noon. Register at the Plymouth site ($150 suggested donation). See you there!

Soft launch for Maron v. Seder show

Tune in at Noon PT on Monday-Thursday this week for previews of Marc Maron and Sam Seder's new Air America online video show. The link is samsedershow.com/YKCam. Marc promises it "won’t look anything like this one."

An Alaskan opines on Palin

From the site Faithful Democrats:

Welcome to the Matanuska Valley GOP Women's Club!

Lots of friends and relatives have been asking me (as an Alaskan) what I think of Sarah Palin, our Governor, and new choice for McCain as a VP candidate.

This pick floored me. Sarah Palin is a nice person. I've met her. I've even talked to her for a few minutes at a principal's conference a couple of years ago. She has lots going for her superficially. She speaks from the heart, like a spitfire mother; she can even be sort of funny sometimes. She is quite beautiful, athletic and has that radiant glow of someone who actually spends time doing things outside. Unlike many politicians, she has lived a "real life" and done things that few living and working in DC could ever do....like dipnettin' fish, shootin' stuff and eating it out on the tundra, and havin' 5 kids.

Personally, I'd never vote for her. She has an extremely simple view of the world. I don't even think she has ever been abroad.

More

Hold on a minute

Didn't the Resmuglicans attack Obama for saying he would go after terrorists in Pakistan?

So where's the right wing criticism of yesterday's U.S. strike in South Waziristan? Have they called Obama and said, "sorry Barack, we decided that was a good idea you had there"?

McSame Sans Flag

Look who's left the house without his Flag Pin -- why does McCain't hate America? And notice how he's checking out Gov. Palin's rack. I bet Cindy can hear the footsteps.


Has anyone ever seen Palin and Michele Bachmann together at the same time?

What's the deal with Resmuglican women and the Karen Walker look anyway?

Preview - France photos

At Viropop (accompanying post)

Stay tuned; a lot more where these came from (1-and-a-half gigs worth... yeesh).

Update: The whole dang Flickr set is here.

Your security services at work

(8:46 am) Why did a caravan of Homeland Security cops (a sedan and two SUVs) need to go racing up Third Avenue, full lights and sirens, at the end of this morning's rush hour?

Bloody Leader

How did I miss this one?

Maron at Bumbershoot!

Marc Maron, the funniest person fired twice by Air America, will be at the Seattle's Bumbershoot music/arts festival over Labor Day weekend. According to story today on CBS Marketwatch, Maron --along with "satiristas" Janeane Garofalo, Tom Rhodes and Rep. Richard (Dick) Martin will appear on the Comedy Stage South aka the Charlotte Martin Theatre.

Sonics aftermath - can we move on yet?

Now that the Sonics are loading their stuff into Clay Bennett's stretch Escalade (one guesses) for the long drive to OKC, is it too soon to raise the issue of what happens to the future city revenue no longer dedicated to paying off the Key Arena remodel?

For years, the City has used the excuse "there just isn't enough money for that" for everything not involving Paul Allen. Well the Sonics settlement means $25 million has been freed up.

I hereby step to the counter and take a numbered ticket in the name of sidewalks for all of Greenwood. Everybody else: the line forms behind me.

What activist judiciary?

I have received word that a state appeals court has struck down King County's "65/10 rule," requiring property owners retain 65% of forest and limiting impervious surface to 10%. This rule is critical to the issue of reducing stormwater runoff, which is a major source of pollutants that enter Puget Sound.

The rule is meant to comply with the Growth Management Hearings Board policies, but my source has told me the appeals court has held the rule to be an illegal fee.

More as it develops.

Update (1518 PDT): The Post-Intelligencer has the first media report.

More at This Week in Precipitation.

Maron in for Hartmann

Marc Maron brings the Funny to Air America again, filling in for Thom Hartmann tomorrow and Wednesday, July 2. Tune in to KPTK am 1090, 9-Noon Pacific, or stream on the Death Star.

Will overvaluing appraisals be on the agenda?

I can't believe this commercial for a business conference is running on Seattle radio, without a hint of irony in the announcer's voice:

AM1090 proudly presents the WaMu Breakfast Series… Big Ideas For Small Businesses… How to be a Northwest Business Gone Big, Thu June 19th at the WaMu Theatre. Networking starts at 7am, the panel starts at 7:45am and it will be finished by 9am. Join us for a morning of networking and panel discussion and insight into how to take your Northwest Small Business and make it big...

Climate Change roundtable

Last minute announcement:

YOUR HOUSE, YOUR CAR, OUR CLIMATE: STATE DEPT. OF TRANSPORTATION DEPUTY SECRETARY TO DISCUSS HOW LAND USE IN WASHINGTON AFFECTS CLIMATE CHANGE

WHAT: At this evening discussion roundtable, two influential state and community leaders will discuss the core issues that are key to Washington’s ability to tackle climate change: the connection between land use and transportation.

WHO: David Dye, Deputy Secretary of the Washington Department of Transportation, will discuss how the Department is responding to the challenge of reducing emissions from transportation in Washington.

Rod Brown, senior partner at Cascadia Law Group, will discuss what changes we may see based on the actions taken during the 2008 Washington legislative session relating to growth management and climate change.

WHEN: Monday, June 9, 2008, 6-8 p.m.

WHERE: REI Flagship Store, 222 Yale Avenue North, 2nd floor meeting room.

COST: Admission is free. Refreshments provided.

This event is organized by the Washington Foundation for the Environment, and co-sponsored by People For Puget Sound and CH2M Hill.

Maron gets another tryout

Marc Maron is back on Air America again for the Noon-3 pm PDT slot, today through Friday. Once again, Seattlites must listen on the Death Star, or hope for a weekend replay on KPTK.

Bremerton Chamber official - vets' group not honorable

The Bremerton Chamber of Commerce won't let the local Vets For Peace chapter appear in Saturday's Armed Forces Day Parade. Parade committee chairman Cris Larsen apparently doesn't think a bunch of actual veterans are honorable enough to participate in the event:

"I think it's silly for this to become an issue and for them to hijack an honorable day"

Larsen's excuse?

The parade is meant to honor all who are serving or have served in the armed forces, Larsen said. It's not a political outlet.

‘Silly vets, you're just not warry enough! Peace is just political!’

Oddly, Cris Larsen is a comedian. Crap, I wonder what his shows are like. Ya ever notice how those peace advocates are always advocating for peace? What’s the deal with THAT? etc.

I assume this is him:

It’s a camouflage hat — hiding his brain from view, one supposes.

Maron can go home again, apparently

The Maron brings the Funny back to Air America Radio, with a guest host stint May 6-8. Randi's old time slot, Noon-3 Pacific.

Seattlites: listen online at the Death Star.

Greenwood redevelopment

Coming to you today from Green My Ride, at the Phinney Neighborhood Center.

The new retail/condo project behind the Greenwood Bartell Drugs has been given a name: Piper Village --for Piper's Creek, presumably. Ironically, the site (and everything else within a block or more) sits on the paved-over, drying-out bog that serves as the creek's headwaters.

BIAW's Musser has joke detector switched to OFF position

I always try to write my little news-satire pieces with a veneer of reality, but then add that Little Something Extra that pushes it over the line separating libel from Constitutionally Protected Parody.

Usually when someone still doesn't get that it's a joke, or asks "Is this from The Onion?", I take it as a compliment. However, for the first time that I can recall I've gotten a comment from the actual butt subject of one of my gags:

This is Mark Musser. I am not sure where you get your information from, but not one quotation of mine that you have placed in your blospot [sic] is accurate, and most of them are in fact made up by someone (you?). You have placed all kinds of words in my mouth which I have never said.

If you are so inclined, you may read our newsletter at www.biaw.com and find my article inside the Building Insight newsletter, not the Daily Construction Worker.

Sincerely,
Mark Musser

My policy is that I don't explain comedic premises, because it plays into the hands of our country's all-too-pervasive sense of humor deficit.

Either you get it or you don't. But in this case, the fact that this particular someone doesn't get it is LMAO hilarious.

Check it out in the Comments at Wiseline Institute NW presents Mr_Blog's Left Turn.

Wonder where that bureaucratic inertia comes from

SDOT Fun Facts #1

The Seattle Department of Transportation's phone number is 684-ROAD.

Not 684-BIKE. Or 684-WALK. 684-ROAD.

Maron in Seattle this weekend

Erstwhile Air America host Marc Maron says he will be recording his third CD ("and maybe last") at Giggles comedy club, April 4 and 5, 8pm and 10pm shows.


Update: Marc on Conan O'Brien--




Link: Seattle radio interview in advance of the Giggles gig.

Bicycle safety PSA

This video contains a power-of-suggestion trick that actually worked on me.

Maybe it's a different "Dino Rossi"

"Rossi worried Gregoire could abuse loophole"

For the second year running, the Legislature has provided Gov. Chris Gregoire with potentially powerful leverage to raise money for her re-election campaign -- a loophole that allows her to accept donations during the 20-day period when she signs bills and the state budget into law.

Though Gregoire has vowed not to seek contributions until after she signs all the bills, her campaign is still accepting donations.

Dino Rossi, her Republican challenger, is critical of Gregoire because she could take advantage of the situation. He said she should have implemented a self-imposed freeze on fundraising.

...

"(Gregoire) shouldn't really be doing anything that gives the appearance of doing something underhanded or shady," Rossi said...

Is this the same Dino Rossi who ran the Backward Washington Foundation as an extension of his 2004 campaign, and de facto fundraising arm for a 2008 campaign that didn't exist yet? Naw, can't be the same one, that would be hypocritical.

"Unintended Consequences"

The current issue of Newsweek relates the following about expansion of the scope of Patriot Act snooping, and how it caught Eliot Spitzer:

The Patriot Act gave the FBI new powers to snoop on suspected terrorists. In the fine print were provisions that gave the Treasury Department authority to demand more information from banks about their customers' financial transactions. Congress wanted to help the Feds identify terrorist money launderers. But Treasury went further. It issued stringent new regulations that required banks themselves to look for unusual transactions (such as odd patterns of cash withdrawals or wire transfers) and submit SARs—Suspicious Activity Reports—to the government. Facing potentially stiff penalties if they didn't comply, banks and other financial institutions installed sophisticated software to detect anomalies among millions of daily transactions. They began ranking the risk levels of their customers—on a scale of zero to 100—based on complex formulas that included the credit rating, assets and profession of the account holder.

Another element of the formulas: whether an account holder was a "politically exposed person." At first focused on potentially crooked foreign officials, the PEP lists expanded to include many U.S. politicians and public officials who were conceivably vulnerable to corruption.

The new scrutiny resulted in an explosion of SARs, from 204,915 in 2001 to 1.23 million last year. More

Spitzer, for all his faults, has not been accused of any corruption, has he? The Patriot Act has become the Puritan Act -- and a big Opposition Research drift net.

Maron and Seder to fill in for Malloy

Marc and Sam are going to be subbing for Mike Malloy next month on his Nova M show (9-midnight weekdays, KPTK). They mentioned the news near the end of yesterday's Seder vs. Maron vodcast.

Sam will be taking April 7, while Maron will be hosting the April 8, 9 and 10 editions.

Maron said he won't do Air America anymore, because they won't pay him.

The size of the problem

Sometimes people ask me why we need to add innovative technologies such as Personal Rapid Transit (PRT) to our urban transit networks.

The usual argument goes something like, transit ridership is up! If we just add more buses and build more light rail, we'll be able to solve our transportation problem.

In particular, the hackles tend to go up over cost -- PRT is expensive, so it will take resources away from transit. As though PRT would not be transit.

Next year will be my 20th since first learning about PRT. My motivation for supporting it then, as now, remains the same: The transportation problem is too big to continue relying solely on traditional, conventional transit technologies. The magnitude of the problem calls for real innovation, not tinkering around the edges.

A look at what is currently considered transit 'success' actually serves to give the problem its proper context.

Recently the Puget Sound region's leading transit agencies announced ridership was significantly up in 2007. Metro (King County) reported a 7% increase, while Sound Transit (a commuter-oriented agency serving parts of three counties) reported a 12.5% increase.¹ The Washington Public Interest Research Group, a fundraising and policy advocacy group, released impressive statistics on how transit usage translates to fuel saved, fuel costs saved, and tons of CO2 not emitted.²

But can annual marginal increases in transit usage get to the kind of ridership we need to reduce numbers of car trips, car miles traveled, and emissions? Interestingly, the recent trumpeting of transit gains made no mention of two important, context-providing numbers: total daily motorized travel, and transit's share of that travel (called transit "mode share," or "mode split").

Oddly, these numbers are not aggregated in one location, despite transportation having been a major preoccupation of the Puget Sound region for years. However, I have what might be called glacial patience, and I have rounded up data from a number of agencies.

Annual transit ridership for 2007

These numbers are mostly available from transit agencies or news sources.

Agency	Annual riders	Notes
Sound Transit	13,500,000	based on 1.5 million being a 12.5% increase
Metro Transit	110,000,0003
Community Transit (Snohomish County)	10,400,000	Based on a midyear report that ridership was trending 5.4% higher than 9.9 million trips in 2006.4
Pierce Transit	16,900,0005
Skagit Transit	450,000
Intercity Transit (Olympia)	4,300,000
Kitsap Transit	4,000,000	I had to estimate this as one-third of Sound Transit's ridership. The only good data on KT is that they serve 15,000 per weekday, a little more than a third of Sound Transit's 44,000 per weekday.6
TOTAL	158,050,000	This is about 433,000 a day on average

Annual total trips

For all modes (cars, trucks, transit, etc.) this is about 10 million a day, or 3.7 billion per year.⁷ I've also read recent claims of 12 million a day, growing to 16 million a day by 2030, but I'll be statistically conservative and keep it at 10.

The size of the problem

Transit's annual mode split in the region is therefore about 4.3%.⁸ The percentage would of course be lower if a higher number is used for total trips .

It is useful to keep two other things in mind. 1) The length of the average person's "journey to work" varies 10-14 miles depending on household income.⁹ 2) Washington's new law on climate change, recently signed by Governor Gregoire, includes goals to reduce annual vehicle miles traveled 18% by 2020, 30% by 2035, and 50% by 2050. The starting point is 75 billion annual miles, so you can do the math.

These numbers impart a sense of scale. How do you impact that many people, traveling that many times, for that many miles?

In short, 12.5% annual increases are hardly going to make a dent in the problem. Even if we were able to increase daily transit ridership to 1 million (a 230% increase) with more trains and buses, that is a transit mode split of only 9.9%.

Why not innovate?

No one is saying transit is going to do it alone. There is going to be travel demand management (e.g. tolls, congestion pricing), as well as individual lifestyle changes. But the latter is an aggregate of the millions (probably billions) of microeconomic decisions each of us makes about housing, work, shopping, school, recreation, etc. Those are millions/billions of things that have to go mostly right in order to make this dream called Sustainability come true. There are going to be a lot of innovations along the way.

In the face of these challenges, WHY NOT innovate transit too? Current versions of Personal Rapid Transit, an automated peoplemover concept that combines the speed of a train with the flexibility of a bus, convenience of a taxi, and greenness of an electric car, have been researched in Europe during the past decade.¹⁰ PRT is basically the 'horizontal elevator' idea you might have heard about in years past.

Potential niches include getting people quickly to and from train stations without driving, circulation transit, and rapid transit service to districts where large footprint rail technology can't fit or isn't economically justified.

The first one is being built now at Heathrow Airport; physical tests have demonstrated greater capacity than any light rail system operating in the UK.¹¹ We should be telling our transit agencies to start planning PRT networks now.



-----------------

1. Pulkkinen, L., "Sound Transit ridership rose 12.5% in 2007." Seattle P-I, Mar. 10, 2008
2. Lange, L., "Transit benefits: new study, new campaign." Seattle P-I, Mar. 6, 2008
3. Lindblom, M. and Gilmore, S., "Riders pack buses in record numbers." Seattle Times, Jan. 24, 2008
4. Community Transit, "Community Transit News." June 28, 2007
5. Austin, A., "Ridership up regionally, a tipping point for transit?" Morning News Tribune, Jan. 31, 2008
6. Sound Transit, "Dump the Pump Day June 21." June 12, 2007
7. Sound Transit, "2005 RTPO Plan Review." April 2005
8. 158,050,000 ÷ 3.7 bil
9. Puget Sound Regional Council, "Regional View Newsletter." Dec. 2007
10. Ironically, based on groundbreaking work done by the old Urban Mass Transit Administration in the 1970s
11. Virginia Dept. of Rail and Public Transportation, House Document 11: "Viability of PRT in Virginia." Jan. 11, 2008, Sec. IV(C)

Gullibility Experiment

What will people believe about Barack Obama? Mo Rocca found out:

Ma(ro)n on the street interview

So 27 minutes ago I'm listening to KPTK, and an AP Radio report about Eliot Spitzer comes on. They sought out a "man on the street" for a reaction, and guess who it was: Marc Maron, erstwhile Air America morning guy! But is that how the newsreader described him? No. How about "comedian," "genius humorist," or "Marc Maron of the internet's Seder v. Maron Hours"? Nope, nope and nope. AP described Maron as "New York resident Marc Mara"!

Q: ...New York resident Marc Mara says Spitzer should resign.

Maron: Yeah, based on this, on his, his career, and now come to find out he's tricked everybody. He's not the high moral standing fella he's portrayed himself as."

Next time Marc, spell it out for the reporter!

Same as the old Wiseline Speakeasy

The Who!

Why are bus fares going up?

Shortly after King County Metro announced bus fares would be going up by a quarter on March 1 (one-zone fares: $1.50 off-peak, $1.75 peak), my colleagues engaged in some casual speculation about what benefits we'll experience as transit riders. Would service improve? Would there be new routes?

Nope, so sorry. The reason can be found in this County background paper, which mentions:

Metro's revenues have not kept pace with inflation... The fare increase would raise $11.7 million in additional revenues annually, and allow Metro to maintain and improve the reliability, dependability and predictability of its system.

...

A 25-cent increase in fares also would enable Metro to move closer to the county’s target of recovering 25 percent of transit costs from the farebox to achieve greater financial stability, and to match neighboring transit agencies’ fares -- which is important as the region continues moving toward a single regional transit pass system.

In other words, fares are going up so the agency can tread water performance-wise, the bottom line will be better, and because it's what other agencies are charging.

I think Metro is under the misapprehension that transit is a profitmaking business.

But Metro is not a business. It has a monopoly in its service area, there is no need to see other agencies' price moves as market-leader signals.

Public transit is public precisely because its characteristics mean it cannot be delivered privately. Transit could be funded solely from the County's operating budget and operated fare-free -- and should be.

New Product Corner

So I'm riding home yesterday from Pioneer Square, northbound on the Myrtle Edwards/Interbay route. You know where you have to make that left turn at Dravus and Elliott Avenue to get onto the Ballard Bridge? Well I'm making this turn, in the left lane, when I glance about 18 inches to my left to discover two fatasses in a newish white Infiniti next to me. Clearly they had misunderstood the expression "share the road."

At that moment I wished that my keys weren't at the bottom of my pannier. Then I had an idea. Here's the concept -- what if I had a stack of thin key-shaped refrigerator magnets, bearing the slogan "YOU'VE BEEN KEYED," and the section in RCW46 about bicyclists having the same rights and duties as a motor vehicle driver.

Whenever I get cutoff or otherwise endangered, I'd throw a "YOU'VE BEEN KEYED" magnet on the offender's car.

Much more civil than screaming "Fucktard" at them -- and educational to boot!

"Get them to print you a t-shirt with 'Fascist' on it"

Same Old Wiseline

Same Old Scene - Roxy Music

I have a job for this guy

Bush can't find Osama, but Brian Ascher can find the owner of a lost camera.

"Nick & Nora" solve camera mystery

By BRIAN BERGSTEIN

The Associated Press

PREV of NEXT

KATHY WILLENS / AP

Brian Ascher and his fiancée, Erika Gunderson, stand in a New York bar that was the last piece in a puzzle to track down the owner of a Canon digital camera Gunderson found in a New York taxi on New Year's Eve.

At dusk on New Year's Eve, Erika Gunderson got into a taxi in New York City and entered a digital-age mystery.

Sitting on the back seat was a nice Canon digital camera. Gunderson asked the driver which previous passenger might have left it, but the cabbie didn't seem to care. So Gunderson brought it home and showed it to her fiancé, Brian Ascher. They decided that the only right thing to do was to find the owner.

But how? The only clues were the pictures on the camera: typical tourist snapshots, complete with a visit to the Statue of Liberty. How could they find a stranger among the huddled masses?

Gunderson is busy in finance at Bear Stearns, so the detective quest fell to Ascher, a 26-year-old law student at New York University. He was on winter break and eager to put off writing a paper about climate-change treaties.

No reports

He checked whether anyone had reported a matching missing camera to the city's Taxi and Limousine Commission. No dice. He placed ads in lost-and-found sections of Craigslist but got just one response — from a couple in Brazil who had lost a camera in a cab on Oct. 12, not Dec. 31.

"I guess they thought their camera had been riding around in a taxi for two months," Ascher recalls now, chuckling at the notion that such a thing would be possible in New York.

The 350 pictures and two videos on the camera showed several adults, an older woman and three children. Half put them at New York sites like the Empire State Building. The other half had the group enjoying warm weather and frolicking at kid-friendly theme parks.

Ascher easily pinpointed Florida. The group had stood in front of a sign indicating Clearwater, Fla., and posed at Bob Heilman's Beachcomber Restaurant there.

They also took a pirate-themed boat ride where the kids got mustaches painted on their faces. Ascher zoomed in on the group to see name tags on their shirts. He spotted an Alan, an Eileen, a male Noel and a female Noelle, plus a Ciarnan. Under their names was written "IRE."

When Ascher checked the videos, he saw nothing telling, just the children dancing and swimming. But in the background, he heard Irish accents.

OK, Ascher figured, the camera's owner is from Ireland.

Ascher called Canon's Ireland division to see if anyone had registered the camera's serial number. No such luck. He posted ads on Irish Web sites. Nothing.

He checked the date stamp on the photos from Bob Heilman's and called to inquire whether anyone remembered serving a big Irish group that day. Without the diners' last names, there was no way to check. It's a nice thing you're trying, the manager told Ascher, but you probably just found yourself a new camera.

Family help

Enter some fresh eyes. Ascher's mother, Nancy, and sister, Emily Rann, scoured the pictures for clues he might have missed. Nancy was particularly confident, having reunited people with their lost belongings before. She once found a California woman's wallet in a cab in Florence, Italy, and spent all day on her trail before making a handover at an American Express office.

"I thought, with all this data in the camera, there's no way we're not going to get it back to them," Nancy Ascher says now. "I was hoping it wasn't going to take a trip to Ireland, flashing their pictures everywhere."

Ascher's mother and his sister noticed one of the pictures showed a doorman helping someone into a New York taxi. Zooming tight on the doorman's uniform, they made out the logo of the Radisson Hotel.

After several phone calls and a visit to the hotel to show the pictures around, Nancy Ascher persuaded an employee to search the Radisson's guest records by first name and country of residence. Indeed, a Noel from Ireland had stayed there on the date stamped on the photo. Nancy Ascher charmed the hotel employee into sharing the guest's e-mail address.

Wonderful.

Except that when Noel responded to Brian Ascher, he said he hadn't lost a camera.

One more look

By now, school was resuming. Ascher was ready to give the camera to his mom so she could take over. She had figured out the name of the Florida pirate-boat cruise and was trying to reach its operator.

But first Ascher took a final look at the photographs.

He pored over some from Dec. 30 that didn't include the children. The photos showed signs for bars in Manhattan's East Village: The Thirsty Scholar, Telephone Bar, Burp Castle. There also were multiple interior shots of a tavern, but they didn't seem to fit with what Ascher knew of those other three bars.

Then he stopped on another picture, showing two people outside an apartment building. Seemingly accidentally included in the picture was something Ascher had missed the first time: an awning in the background that read "Standings." Aha! Standings is a bar next to Burp Castle. Ascher checked its Web site, and the interior matched the pictures on the camera.

Ascher found Standings' owner, who reached the bartender who had worked Dec. 30. Yes, he recalled an Irish group. Especially because one of the women was a big tipper and said she worked at another New York City bar, Playwrights. The Standings bartender called Playwrights to ask which employees had been in his bar.

Ascher soon got an e-mail from a woman named Sarah Casey, whose sister Jeanette works at Playwrights. Suddenly everything Ascher had seen on the camera came to life.

Mystery solved

The Caseys recently had hosted relatives and friends from Ireland. The group included their friend Alan Murphy, who had journeyed to Florida with family before heading to New York, where the clan stayed at the Radisson. (Their Noel was not the Noel whom Ascher e-mailed.)

Murphy ended the trip kicking himself for leaving his camera in a cab in the twilight on New Year's Eve.

Sarah Casey agreed to send it to him. It didn't go to Ireland but to Sydney, Australia, where Murphy lives now.

Murphy, an insurance underwriter, had been devastated to lose the pictures from a trip he had planned for years. It was Jan. 10 — his 34th birthday — when he heard he would be getting the photos back. "I was over the moon," he says now. "Best present ever."

"I owe you one," he wrote to Ascher. "It's good to know there are some honest people left in the world."

Bruce Babbitt to give Seattle talk

Former Congressman, presidential candidate and Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt has accepted an invitation from People For Puget Sound to give a talk on the environmental topics of his choice. The Seattle green NGO has signed up Babbitt, who is hilarious, to be the star of its third annual A New Day For Puget Sound event on May 8.

It's a pre-work breakfast time event, which means EARLY. It's also a fundraiser. But Babbitt is, as noted, hilarious, so it's well worth the money and rising at the crack of dawn.

Contact Nancy at (206)382-7007 for details.

Give meals during lunch

Why waste time surfing the Web during your lunchbreak, when you could play FreeRice.com's vocabulary game? The more points you rack up, the more rice is donated through the UN.