"There's not a Red America, or a Blue America, there's the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA." ---Barack Obama, 2004

Wednesday, November 5, 2008

A chessboard sweep in Seattle

Last night was a FANTASTIC night up here in Washington State and in the Seattle area.

The following took place:
  • Democratic Governor Chris Gregoire got reelected...and I think we dodged a HUGE BULLET on this one, as Dino Rossi would have been an utter nightmare, like another Bush. He's such an ass...it's the second straight election loss where the guy's refused to concede...and this time he got his ass handed to him. So then, Dino, GO AWAY.....
  • Prop. 1 passed, which extends the light rail lines to Bellevue and moves toward completing a light rail corridor that links Everett to Tacoma. This is a massive, massive, move in the right direction for the region to alleviate traffic congestion...we have some of the worst in the nation.
  • Initiative 195 failed...which would have made our traffic woes even worse...it was a citizen-based initiative driven by our local village idiot, Tim Eyman. Let's just say it's a long story on that scab that's not worth going into.
  • Washington passed a death with dignity law. It allows terminally ill patients to get prescriptions from their doctors to end their lives if they have less than six months to live (from a severe cancer diagnosis, etc.).
  • The House Rep race between Darcy Burner and Dave Reichert still hasn't been called...we'll keep our fingers crossed on that one. Go Darcy!
  • ...and last but not least...Barack Obama will be the 44th President of the United States of America!!! Woohoo!!!

What a glorious day today is. These sorts of victories don't happen very often...but last night was a massive, massive victory night!!!

Puget Sound residents have invested in their future, and invested wisely...now let's roll up our sleeves and get to work!

3 comments:

James Butler said...

Prop 1 is huge. Finally Washington State is seeing Tim Eiyman as the foul that he is. Congrats the Gov and Death with Dignity too.

Sweva said...

Yes...as a city planner, you can probably say I'm happy about Prop 1...FINALLY! The end of the tunnel's far off, but we can be ensured that there's progress ahead of us.

The significance of Prop 1 comes to mind every time I'm passing unending traffic going the other direction on the freeway, roads, and merges...and see METRO busses just SITTING there...going nowhere anytime soon.

Bring on the light rail infrastructure! Let's get this thing up and running ahead of schedule, and get the show on the road!!! (or the rail, hehe)

Sweva said...

A final thought on Prop 1. I was just in Portland, and rode the light rail there...totally reliable, awesome stuff.

Part of the issue up here is that many folks don't understand the significance of light rail and what it offers. The first segment between downtown and Sea-Tac opens in less than a year.

I think lots of folks will be totally blown away once they understand what it does and see it up and running...and they'll want to fund full linkage from Everett to Tacoma, and further expansion into more of the burbs.