Saturday, December 3, 2011

2011 Stumbling to a Close


As a public service I’m going to provide a list of New Year’s Resolutions.  Later.  As a preview: get a riding mower (unless you already have one) and join a racing team.
First let’s review the year.   Local municipal construction took a break.  They finally broke loose and began the Newcastle Library and the Lake Boren Condos. 
Everyone in Bellevue fought the light rail plans.  Some are against it because it gets too close to their house.  Some are against it because it’s too far from their house.  Some don’t like it because they think cars are a much better way to get big spenders into Bellevue Square.  Others are against it because they just don’t like Bellevue.  And everyone thinks it costs too much.  So last month the plan was unanimously approved.  Pretty logical.
 The Brightwater Sewage Treatment project is wrapping up.  Except they now think there is too much capacity.  Kind of a funny thing to say.  Anyway, the point of the new plant was to provide sewage service to the urban expansion in the north King and south Snohomish county interior.  Most of the Greater Newcastle Metropolitan area near water has a pipe that takes care of stuff.  Unlike Costa Rica where you can’t flush toilet paper because it makes the sewer back up.  Thus the project to take care of the huge future sewage problem is in question because the future has not yet arrived.  More logic.
Lake Boren Park requires all pets to be on a leash.  It’s part of the Newcastle leash law.  The City Council has been discussing a location for an official off-leash area for a long time.  They (my understanding anyway) chose a section of the new sports park down by May Creek.  It’s a big undeveloped area where they intend to build several ball fields and an ice rink or something.  However, many pet owners use Lake Boren Park to toss tennis balls to their unleashed pets.  Many.  Every time I go there I see dogs chasing tennis balls or squirrels.  It’s not a priority for enforcement.  What I don’t get is why the Council spends so much time talking about it when the citizens have already made their choice.  More logic.
The Alaska Way Viaduct is scheduled to be replaced by a tunnel.  The tunnel will connect the existing SR 99 near the stadiums and the existing tunnel up north.  One expects the project to bore into the soft underbelly of Seattle and make a smoother commute.  However, it seems that digging a tunnel requires lots of closures of the existing viaduct.  It’s above ground and normally tunnels go underground.  Oh, it turns out they need a huge space for the construction stuff.  (Not the same “stuff” that goes to Brightwater.)  So in order to get the big staging area they need to remove the southern mile of the existing viaduct and make a bypass.  Just a few weeks disruption.  But it trains drivers for what to expect when the viaduct finally closes for good.  Clear?
On another front the SR 520 Floating Bridge is getting tolls.  They need to replace the bridge since they think this one will sink in the next earthquake or an 80 MPH wind.  Apparently it’s fragile.  To afford the new one they need to collect money from people who use it.  Starting last spring.  Except the company they hired to put the tolling system in place was suddenly swamped with contracts from several other projects around the country.  They had to rapidly expand in order to handle all the work and the newbies were not up to speed.  They think it’s all ready to go now and tolling will start before the end of the year.  So here’s the plan: make people using the fragile old bridge pay a toll to sink it.  One imagines that if you happen to be on the bridge when it sinks you’ll get a refund.  It’s the logic I like.
The Museum of Flight near Boeing Field is building a large hanger for the Space Shuttle full fuselage trainer.  NASA has decided to give away the current fleet to museums around the country.  Seattle gets the trainer.  It’s the same size as a regular shuttle except it doesn’t have wings and it never flew into space.  Regular shuttles can fly on the back of a 747.  NASA is taking it apart and hopes to ship it to Seattle in the “Super Guppy” cargo plane.  That means NASA is shipping plywood from Texas to Seattle where one of the main industries is lumber.
New Year’s Resolutions:
·         Don’t sell your car yet because it’ll be another decade before Bellevue gets light rail.
·         Go ahead and flush because we have enough sewage treatment capacity to handle it for years to come.  We might even take some of Costa Rica’s.
·         Throw tennis balls to Fido as much as you want.  He’ll enjoy it.
·         Keep away from SR 99 and SR 520 for the next 15 years.
·         Visit the Museum of Flight often because it’s so big you won’t be able to see it all in one visit.  Resolution for next year: visit again and see the full fuselage trainer.
·         And, of course, get a riding mower and soup it up for racing.  Replace the blade with a discus because when you flip it over you don’t want to hurt anyone.
Prediction: When the new SR 520 Floating Bridge opens they’ll have a parade of riding mowers first over.  You’ll be right there with your 420 HP racer.
 Al

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