5 hours since the meeting and still fumin'

It’s going on 5 hours since the meeting in Bellevue ended and I’m still angry. Not really boiling over, just simmering with disgust with the spectacle of arrogance and, in my opinion, criminally misplaced priorities exhibited by the people doing this study, and the legislators who are promoting it.

I have to say though that in the face of this arrogance the folks from Van Zandt, Acme and other parts of the South Fork Valley really stole the show by packing their bus to the hearing and unpacking their hearts and thoughts once they got to there. If and when the Commerce Corridor idea goes down in the flames it deserves to it’ll be hard to forget these people for standing up soonest and pushing back hardest. Keep it up and Sen. Dan Schwecker, who told the crowd he’s been thinking about the possibility of building this truck route for years, will be mulling the idea of airlifting freight from the Canadian border to Arlington International Airport before long.

I didn’t take a headcount but roughly 125 people were in attendance. Citizens, lobbyists, people of all political stripes and all pin stripes. The contrast between the first panel of the consultants doing this study and the second panel of transportation professionals from several of the counties who are actually dealing with the problem of congestion was stark, stark, and stark. Night and day, black and white. I don’t know whose idea the second panel was, but if it was somebody promoting the corridor their either kicking themselves or getting kicked for inviting the second panel. The promoters of the plan clearly think w’ere too stupid to tell straight talk from local transportation planners from a high-priced snow job from a bunch of hired gun attorneys and economists.

More to come shortly.

Comments

[Don Shank]

My vote for the most jaw dropping moment was when the lawyer from Wilbur Smith Associates, seeking an example of how growth brings progress, said that without the Owens River Aquaduct Los Angeles would still be a sleepy little pueblo. He considers this a selling point? The Owens river valley suffered a social and environmental disaster as a result of the aquaduct, inspiring an armed rebellion and acts of sabotage, in return for which they got the rampant corruption and land speculation that spread the L.A. city limits like a malignant cancer. Anybody out there got a spare copy of Mark Reisner's "Caddilac Desert" they can send that guy? We kind of like our sleepy little pueblos along the Nooksack.