JuLY 2007

Newspaper blogs are always singling out councilmembers for "constructive advice," right? OK, here's some constructive advice for a reporter.

Erica, please stop riding on Rainier Ave. S. I was behind you for a bit one evening last week and it made me scared. You're a fine, confident rider, don't get me wrong. It's the other cars, trucks and buses in lanes with zero shoulders that make me crazy. I've been biking to work out of the greater Columbia City area off and on for almost 10 years and I can't see riding on Rainier when there are other more pleasant and safer alternatives. I know, I know, we should TAKE BACK THE STREET. Rainier is for everyone, we need it to be a complete street, bicyclists are people, too, etc. Someday it will be all those things. Until then, please consider these alternatives:

1. Up Columbian to Beacon Ave. S. -- Yes, up Columbian from Martin Luther King Jr. Way S. is a climb, but then you can ride Beacon Ave. S. north the whole length of the hill, zip down the north side of the hill past PacMed/Amazon, and through the International District to reach 12th Ave. S. (assuming you're trying to get to the Stranger's offices). I like this route because you can make a coffee and newspaper stop at either Galaxie or Java Love.

2. 31st Ave. S. -- From Columbia City stay on the east side of Rainier and tick tack in back of Darigold and through lower Mount Baker until you can cross McClellan and then climb 31st Ave. S. Yes, it's another climb, but it flattens out before you get to That's Amore. Just past Judkins, cut over to 30th Ave. S. so you avoid the really big hill on 31st Ave. S. up to Jackson. Once you're on Jackson, you can go all the way down to 14th and turn north or you can tick tack north from Jackson starting at Pratt. It's a little more residential and you can connect over to East Union.

3. Lake Washington Blvd. and the I-90 Trail -- Cut down to Lake Washington Blvd. and then watch for the small, almost non-existent and therefore unhelpful sign for the spur up through Colman Park. You'll be going into the parking lot just past Baker Beach and then turning left up a quick, steep incline. Shift! Keep going up through Colman Park and make your way to the I-90 overlook. That's where you can get into the bike tunnel and then you're on the trail. This will take you close to Rainier and Dearborn. You can satisfy your craving to ride on Rainier for a few blocks and then dash up 14th. I just did this route for the first time last weekend and I like it a lot.

Those are my alternatives. I know there are others. Anyone have other great routes?

I found a dog on my way to work this morning. It's been approximately six months since I found the last one, so I'm right about on schedule. I was driving down Lake Washington Blvd. to stop by the dry cleaners when I came upon a little black and white Border Colllie mix standing in the middle of traffic just north of Baker Beach. I pulled over, got out and called the dog over. He came running and wagging to me. This time my find at least had a collar and a tag with phone numbers. Bravo hopped up into the back of my car with little hesitation and sat quietly while I rubbed his ears and left messages on all three phone numbers. I turned the car around and drove him back to my house and received a call back from one of his owners pretty quickly. I nice woman named Barbara came to pick up Bravo. She's had him for three months. She said they've had problems with him digging out of his pen when he's bored. This morning he didn't get a walk, so Border Collie boredom must have set in.

At least this time my find had tags and good phone numbers.

Councilmember Jan Drago and I toured the Beacon Hill light rail station last Friday - 160 feet below the surface. Seeing the amazing amount of work that has happened down there is very cool. Both station areas have been dug out and they are pumping and pouring concrete around an enormous cylindrical mold to form the final station walls. In order to see that, though, you start with a primer up top about what happens "if something goes wrong down there." You receive the standard issue orange vest, goggles and hard hat. Then they run you through how to use the emergency personal oxygen tanks. (I missed the part about who would hand me my personal oxygen tank if something did go wrong while we were down there. I hope the oxygen fairy would have appeared.) After that they hand you two brass tags with identifying numbers and letters imprinted. Before climbing into the cage so the crane can lower you into the hole, you put one tag in your pocket and you hang one tag on a weathered plywood board up top. "If something goes wrong," the people up top count the tags on the board to figure out how many people are down there. At this point, getting in or out means climbing into the yellow cage. When the station is finished next year, the regular way in and out will be via four high-speed elevators. In an emergency, there's a second shaft with a staircase. For now, kudos to the men and women who go up and down in the yellow cage every day to build the station.

The vegetarians are weighing in on Zero Waste and it isn't pretty. We approved the Zero Waste concept for city waste and recycling. The major goals are to stop the increase in waste being hauled to landfill and reach the target of recycling 72 percent of our waste by 2025. One strategy is to increase participation in compost/yardwaste service.

From my email today: "Please consider the thousands of Seattleites who are semi-vegetarians or total vegetarians and compost our vegetarian food scraps. We have little, if any, meat food trash We should be exempted from paying for a service we don't use. For years the City has encouraged us to compost and has provided compost and worm bins at low cost. Why should we have to pay the same for a food trash collection service that we will seldom, if ever, use? I cook an organic turkey once a year for my family for Thanksgiving. For Christmas I make teriyaki salmon. My husband and I eat seafood at restaurants, but at home I cook only vegetarian."

OK, OK. Keep in mind that the goal is to price waste collection, compost/yeardwaste and recycling in such a way that you pay for the services you use and you pay relatively less if you recycle more. That's a hard balance to strike through the rates, but that's the goal!