Partial Project List:
Coal Creek Parkway:
Phase 3 and Phase 2 are proceeding even in the middle of this rainy winter holiday season. The May Creek Bridge support is half done.
Duvall Avenue:
Renton is calling for bids and work is supposed to begin very soon. It will join the Coal Creek Parkway project making a four/five lane anti-freeway as a bypass for I-405. Before it’s finished the pain will be excruciating.
Building Bellevue:
The Bellevue crane forest is giving way to the Bellevue hi rise forest. In the middle is the transit center where everyone is supposed to pass through in order to mitigate traffic on Bellevue streets.
Sound Transit Light Rail Link:
Right now they’ve about got the main structure installed from downtown Seattle to Sea-Tac Airport. The overhead electricity is being installed now as well as work on the stations.
South Lake Union Streetcar (SLUT):
Encountered heavy seas and ran aground. Or just about. An SUV ran a red light and hit one of the huge brightly colored units. And the other day the power interfered with some other power and sparks flew.
Downtown Seattle Bus Tunnel:
The bus tunnel, where Sound Transit will be running light rail, has been hit with a series of system failures. These are apparently caused by local news reporters who in turn blame the computers.
Alaska Way Viaduct:
An emergency replacement order was issued several years ago after an earthquake damaged the supports. Everyone promised immediate action, and then, as a man, fell asleep.
Evergreen Point Floating Bridge:
The state DOT predicts this will sink in approximately 1995 and we better get right to work replacing it. The snoring is growing louder.
The Sounder Commuter Train:
In a cooperative agreement with AMTRAK and BNSF we have a relatively fast passenger train that runs north and south carrying people to work and play. It takes about 12 cars off the freeways at any given time which helps reduce traffic. But whenever anything happens on the track they suspend service for 48 hours because they want to make sure its safe.
East Side Rail Corridor:
This one is complex. King County wants to trade their airport for the rail corridor and make it into a bike trail. The Port of Seattle is who they want to trade with. BNSF owns it right now so they’d have to sell it to King County? But Boeing uses it to bring airplane bodies to its Renton plant. And throughout Renton the track is being refurbished so that part is closed. Which means the airplane bodies are coming south from Snohomish. Mixed up Yet? Wait. The track runs across I-405 (another project) just south of downtown Bellevue. The WSDOT wants to work on I-405 and they would very much like to do it without having to keep the rail line open for trains. So they want the Renton refurb completed so the Boeing airplane bodies can use that route and the cross I-405 section can be torn out. But King County is very anxious to get hold of the line and build a trail. And part of that is a plan to remove the historic old trestle. Then, to keep things from getting too simple some other folks are proposing that we use the existing tracks for commuter rail. Why not? It’s carried freight and dinner trains for years so you don’t have to do much. They think it would only cost $40 million not counting trains and stations to get passenger service going. And I just love it.
Cedar River Bike Trail:
You can get on a bike on the shore of Lake Washington beside the Boeing plant in Renton and ride way out to Ravensdale. Along the way you pass several Renton parks where maintenance employees busily prevent anyone from playing ball or walking on their precious grass. Oh, and keeping the “No bikes allowed” signs polished. This isn’t part of the Greater Newcastle Transit Plan, but I don’t care for that kind of attitude so I mention it regularly.
I-405 Widening Project:
I-405, our venerable old I-5 bypass was built undersized in the 1950’s. They used money earmarked for the Alaska Way Viaduct supports. Since then the DOT has been continuously trying to make it bigger. So after 60 years we have three lanes instead of two. Nice work!
Downtown Newcastle Evolution:
Newcastle has determined that the core area should take on the Urban Village look with work, shopping, services, and residential all mingling. They are hoping to get a library and city hall built before long. The dream is to convince the Postal Service to build a post office and give Newcastle a zip code of its own. Right now Newcastle is served by its neighbors: Bellevue fire; Renton and Issaquah schools, King County police, Renton mail, and everywhere else for libraries. Its two biggest employers are grocery stores.
Lake Boren Rapid Transit Center:
The current plan is to build a world class station overlooking the shore of Lake Boren where people from all over the area will congregate. We hope to have several lines converging in the Newcastle area with major transfer facilities in the station. Possibly including a library, city hall, post office, and auto body shop in one massive structure. It will be reminiscent of both old world cathedrals and Las Vegas casinos.
Glen, the Lake Boren Carp:
There are a lot of legends around the world such as Yeti, Sasquatch, Loch Ness monster, and the Beast of Busco. These are all backed by numerous eyewitness sightings, photos, footprints, and possibly one or two elected officials being actual beasts. Glen is one such legendary beast and I regularly converse with him. His main responsibility is to keep the level of Lake Boren even. But this doesn’t take much of his time so he take trips to many places and otherwise hangs out at the lake. He is only a danger to members of the Newcastle City Council. And he only insults them.
The purpose of this report is to keep you informed about these and more projects as the weeks go by. But most of all it’s to stay in touch. So I welcome replies, email, and other nonsense. Don’t be shy.
Al
Friday, December 28, 2007
Blogs and Nature:
Blogs and Nature:
The blog has a certain number of formatting requirements that don’t exactly fit the format of my regular notes. For example each sub headline will be a new post. And the paragraph, font, and other mechanical functions work differently. Over time I hope to get more comfortable formatting the entries the way I want, but right now it seems to have a mind of its own.
The other natural aspect of this blog is that I can post my own photos and add links to other web pages. This will come in handy if you want to see some of the stuff I talk about.
And it provides a sidebar where I can post information that doesn’t change much over time. As noted I’m learning more about it and I hope to get better as time goes on.
It also provides a thing called “Atom” which allows a person to subscribe to posts. That means (I guess) they get email whenever a new post hits the blog. That frees me from having to do it.
And that brings us to another question: Who wants to be removed from my email version distribution list? Email is text only but starting fairly soon it will be the same as the text on the blog. So you can choose not to receive the email version. Just let me know.
Al
The blog has a certain number of formatting requirements that don’t exactly fit the format of my regular notes. For example each sub headline will be a new post. And the paragraph, font, and other mechanical functions work differently. Over time I hope to get more comfortable formatting the entries the way I want, but right now it seems to have a mind of its own.
The other natural aspect of this blog is that I can post my own photos and add links to other web pages. This will come in handy if you want to see some of the stuff I talk about.
And it provides a sidebar where I can post information that doesn’t change much over time. As noted I’m learning more about it and I hope to get better as time goes on.
It also provides a thing called “Atom” which allows a person to subscribe to posts. That means (I guess) they get email whenever a new post hits the blog. That frees me from having to do it.
And that brings us to another question: Who wants to be removed from my email version distribution list? Email is text only but starting fairly soon it will be the same as the text on the blog. So you can choose not to receive the email version. Just let me know.
Al
Early Results:
Option 1 – “Blog and email you the text of each new post.”
This is probably going to win, along with Option 4. I started posting my blog and it still needs a few tweaks. For one thing each new topic will have to be a new post. But on the blog it’ll read about the same. The newest post is at the top and then as you read down each paragraph is an earlier post.
Option 2 – “Blog and email just announcements of new posts.”
This one discriminates against those who are using dialup and other “last century” technology so, even though it has some favor it’s not going to win.
Option 3 – “Forget the whole blog thing.”
This is an obvious red herring. Once you get the blog bug its here to stay and I just gave this one because technically it’s possible. But nobody voted for it anyway.
Option 4 – “Do whatever I feel like and let you know.”
As mentioned above I’ll be doing the blog and keeping everyone informed by email. In essence the whole thing becomes Option 5.
This is probably going to win, along with Option 4. I started posting my blog and it still needs a few tweaks. For one thing each new topic will have to be a new post. But on the blog it’ll read about the same. The newest post is at the top and then as you read down each paragraph is an earlier post.
Option 2 – “Blog and email just announcements of new posts.”
This one discriminates against those who are using dialup and other “last century” technology so, even though it has some favor it’s not going to win.
Option 3 – “Forget the whole blog thing.”
This is an obvious red herring. Once you get the blog bug its here to stay and I just gave this one because technically it’s possible. But nobody voted for it anyway.
Option 4 – “Do whatever I feel like and let you know.”
As mentioned above I’ll be doing the blog and keeping everyone informed by email. In essence the whole thing becomes Option 5.
Thursday, December 27, 2007
TRYing it OUT, SVP
This is my new attempt at a second post. The first one was the "Options" note. Here's a little update.
As noted in my options note I will close voting on January 2 unless somebody decides to vote later. But the big winner is Option 4 by default. The votes received so far are for Options 1, 2, and 4. And an exceedingly polite version or two implying Option 4 without really saying so.
In other words: do whatever I want and let you know. Well if you're reading this you can guess what I chose to do.
One item I had not anticipated is something called RSS. Now I have to look up something new. It might be the same as Option 1 - both blog and email. But Option 1 is also required due to the fact that we are still dealing with Winders 98 and aol.
That means I need to continue my email for those folks. But that's easy; I do my writing on another unnamed product that needs no introduction. The word is out. So it's easy to just ship it as email, which is why I haven't gotten around to the blog format before this.
OK, the point is the voting is not done but I'm going for a combination of options anyway. It's one of the benefits of being the author - I get to choose.
Oddly, this post won't go to the email group. I'll explain it to them in another note. Which will also become a post. This might be even more obnoxious than the email version, but since I allow feedback you can let me know.
Al
As noted in my options note I will close voting on January 2 unless somebody decides to vote later. But the big winner is Option 4 by default. The votes received so far are for Options 1, 2, and 4. And an exceedingly polite version or two implying Option 4 without really saying so.
In other words: do whatever I want and let you know. Well if you're reading this you can guess what I chose to do.
One item I had not anticipated is something called RSS. Now I have to look up something new. It might be the same as Option 1 - both blog and email. But Option 1 is also required due to the fact that we are still dealing with Winders 98 and aol.
That means I need to continue my email for those folks. But that's easy; I do my writing on another unnamed product that needs no introduction. The word is out. So it's easy to just ship it as email, which is why I haven't gotten around to the blog format before this.
OK, the point is the voting is not done but I'm going for a combination of options anyway. It's one of the benefits of being the author - I get to choose.
Oddly, this post won't go to the email group. I'll explain it to them in another note. Which will also become a post. This might be even more obnoxious than the email version, but since I allow feedback you can let me know.
Al
Options for Report
Polling My Readers:
The World Wide Web or Internet as we call it has a very interesting component that I have not yet exploited. It’s called the “blog.” I read blogs because they’re interesting to me. The interest comes from the fact that I want to know what’s going on with the people who write them.
So my question to you, my reader, is whether you would like to see the Lake Boren Rapid Transit Report in a blog. And I’ll get to that question after a few more words:
First of all: once when you publish a blog it can get to more readers than the writer knows about. So people who actually live in Newcastle may read it and wonder how I could be so wrong.
My three rules are:
1. Accuracy – optional.
2. Plagiarism – I’m not above it.
3. Frequency – whenever I’m not busy with other time wasting junk.
One or two of these rules might offend some people. And I’m kind of sensitive so I’d be annoyed if I got flamed because of some fun I poke. If I publish a blog I’d need to have a small section near the top that states the rules and the essential point of the blog.
My essential point is that Newcastle is a pretend city, created secretly by Bellevue, as a buffer from Renton. And as a pretend city Newcastle has this grandiose pretend plan for a major Puget Sound Area Transit Center on the shores of Lake Boren. Lake Boren is a pretend lake that would be classified as a pond in most places. But the people who live in Newcastle probably think it’s the best lake west of the Pecos.
In fact Newcastle and Lake Boren do exist and the people who live there probably take themselves seriously. So my words might annoy them. My hope is nobody gets too annoyed. Or I might apply rule number one to them. Pusillanimous Prevaricators!
My biggest issue right now is that everyone who gets these random reports seems to enjoy them (or they are exceedingly polite) and I don’t want to take that away. If I switch to a blog format it means readers may have to go to the blog URL to read the reports.
Option: I could put up a blog but still email the text reports to you. Which would give you the option of reading the email or the blog.
Other option: Send an email to you each time I post a blog update so you can go to the URL to read it.
Other other option: Forget the whole blog thing.
The key primary advantage of a blog (at least the kind I would use) is that I could include links to pertinent web sites, photos (my own, of course), and more corroborating information. In other words I could provide more proof that I’m not making this stuff up. Well not all of it anyway.
So I’d like you to tell me what to do:
Option 1 – Blog and email you the text of each new post.
Option 2 – Blog and email just announcements of new posts.
Option 3 – Forget the whole blog thing.
Option 4 – Do whatever I feel like and let you know.
Voting will close shortly after January 2 when everyone gets back to normal. But don’t worry, I’ll probably count votes that come in after that. My main concern is that I’d really like to know what you want.
I’m not going to stop the Lake Boren Rapid Transit Report. I just want to improve the distribution. So please let me know your thoughts. Maybe there’s an Option 5 that I haven’t thought of. Really, there’s something I may not have thought of. Amazing.
Hoping to hear from you,
Al
The World Wide Web or Internet as we call it has a very interesting component that I have not yet exploited. It’s called the “blog.” I read blogs because they’re interesting to me. The interest comes from the fact that I want to know what’s going on with the people who write them.
So my question to you, my reader, is whether you would like to see the Lake Boren Rapid Transit Report in a blog. And I’ll get to that question after a few more words:
First of all: once when you publish a blog it can get to more readers than the writer knows about. So people who actually live in Newcastle may read it and wonder how I could be so wrong.
My three rules are:
1. Accuracy – optional.
2. Plagiarism – I’m not above it.
3. Frequency – whenever I’m not busy with other time wasting junk.
One or two of these rules might offend some people. And I’m kind of sensitive so I’d be annoyed if I got flamed because of some fun I poke. If I publish a blog I’d need to have a small section near the top that states the rules and the essential point of the blog.
My essential point is that Newcastle is a pretend city, created secretly by Bellevue, as a buffer from Renton. And as a pretend city Newcastle has this grandiose pretend plan for a major Puget Sound Area Transit Center on the shores of Lake Boren. Lake Boren is a pretend lake that would be classified as a pond in most places. But the people who live in Newcastle probably think it’s the best lake west of the Pecos.
In fact Newcastle and Lake Boren do exist and the people who live there probably take themselves seriously. So my words might annoy them. My hope is nobody gets too annoyed. Or I might apply rule number one to them. Pusillanimous Prevaricators!
My biggest issue right now is that everyone who gets these random reports seems to enjoy them (or they are exceedingly polite) and I don’t want to take that away. If I switch to a blog format it means readers may have to go to the blog URL to read the reports.
Option: I could put up a blog but still email the text reports to you. Which would give you the option of reading the email or the blog.
Other option: Send an email to you each time I post a blog update so you can go to the URL to read it.
Other other option: Forget the whole blog thing.
The key primary advantage of a blog (at least the kind I would use) is that I could include links to pertinent web sites, photos (my own, of course), and more corroborating information. In other words I could provide more proof that I’m not making this stuff up. Well not all of it anyway.
So I’d like you to tell me what to do:
Option 1 – Blog and email you the text of each new post.
Option 2 – Blog and email just announcements of new posts.
Option 3 – Forget the whole blog thing.
Option 4 – Do whatever I feel like and let you know.
Voting will close shortly after January 2 when everyone gets back to normal. But don’t worry, I’ll probably count votes that come in after that. My main concern is that I’d really like to know what you want.
I’m not going to stop the Lake Boren Rapid Transit Report. I just want to improve the distribution. So please let me know your thoughts. Maybe there’s an Option 5 that I haven’t thought of. Really, there’s something I may not have thought of. Amazing.
Hoping to hear from you,
Al
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