Possible New Pedestrian Crossing on Marine Drive
The Port Angeles City Council is considering a new pedestrian crossing at the intersection of Marine Drive and Tumwater Street. According to testimony, most pedestrians don't use the existing crosswalk, and just cross whenever there's an opening in the traffic. This new crossing would probably be an underpass or overpass.
posted by Tom Harper at 9:22 PM
29 Comments:
So a bunch of people are jaywalking and instead of giving them tickets we're giving them a pedestrian overpass instead? Wait, let's make it an underpass below sea level, brilliant! Who comes up with this shit?
Of all of the pedestrian crossings in the city that could be worthy of overpass/underpass consideration (think Race Street at Civic Field; Lauridsen near Peabody), the city picks this one?! The only people who cross Marine Drive at this location are marine tradesmen going to/from their parked cars at shift change time. Users of the waterfront trail all stay on the north side of Marine Drive. Ditto any cruise ship passengers heading for downtown (if we ever see a cruise ship docking in Port Angeles again). Patrons of the Plunkin Shack Cafe park on the same side of the street as the cafe. Considering an underpass so close to the harbor and next to (or in) a creek bed is ludicrous. Building an overpass at this location would be building a bridge to nowhere.
Have weatport do it if one is needed not my TAX dollers
I agree with previous posters that THIS IS RIDICULOUS. If you go down, you'll probably hit artifacts, and, if nothing else, will need a sump pump 24/7 to keep this (below sea level) from filling with water. If you go up, you'll have to go WAY, WAY up to have room for all the big trucks, RVs and boats that will need to go under.
You don't have to be a genius to see that this is a really, really STUPID idea. Yet four members of the City Council thought it was worthy of spending $20,000 of OUR TAX DOLLARS on - our very own overpass to nowhere.
I'm grateful that Max Mania and Sissi Bruch had the sense (fiscal and otherwise) to vote NO on this idiocy. Really? A huge overpass on the waterfront? And all we have to do to "study" this is spend $20,000
of TAX PAYERS MONEY? Great! I can hardly wait until the proposal to actually build the f***ing thing comes before the Council - with a million dollar price tag.
How soon can we vote these idiots out? Do we REALLY have to wait until next year???
And another thing...If this is all about how terrible and difficult street crossing conditions are for the workers at Westport, then how come there weren't any Westport reps at the City Council meeting to make their case? "Please, please - our workers know how to build giant yachts, but don't know how to cross the street. Please, please help us!" Why city staff is so hell-bent to do this is beyond me, but it's even less understandable why the City Council would go along with it. Maybe they aren't smart enough to cross the street either?
Another example of what a great place Port Angeles is. A city government that cares for its' pedestrians. Great minds, and great leadership, every time.
Another example of Cutler's cronies pocketing big bucks at public expense. An engineering firm from Olympia is getting the project money. Deja vu the hundreds of thousands of dollars going into consulting engineering for a pedestrian bridge over Dry Creek. What's wrong with council members that they can't put a stop to such waste and nonsense?
Too many people punching in two minutes late....fucking one percent. The city asks, "DUR, since you pay so much in taxes, what can we do to help your bottom line."
If you are supposed to show up at 7:00am and it's 7:02, drives owners crazy.
What ever, lets piss away more money on stupid shit.
It has been said many times before, here. The program is for city staff to come up with ways to spend taxpayers monies on really stupid ideas. Think of the Graving Dock, the Rayonier "Public Development Authority" aka HarborWorks, the "CSO" project, to name a few.
Staff comes up with the hare-brained rationale for spending millions of tax payers dollars, and the bobble-head city council approves staffs' projects with little question.
Over, and over.
Where is the so-called Mayor You've Got To Be Kidding in all this? Isn't the Mayor supposed to show some sort of leadership, rather than letting staff lead them around by the nose? Who sets these agendas? Who put this stupid, wasteful project on the consent agenda so it wouldn't have been discussed at all if it hadn't been pulled off by Mania and Bruch? Why is the Mayor helping city staff play hide the money? And how long do we have to put up with this BS? Does anyone even care at this point?
Saw the article about a rally in Port Angeles by people opposing the "Gay Marriage" proposition on the ballot. Interesting to see how many people that were at that rally were not from Port Angeles.
Wonder why these conservatives from Olympia and Tacoma came to Port Angeles to hold a rally?
Where is the so-called Mayor You've Got To Be Kidding in all this? Isn't the Mayor supposed to show some sort of leadership, rather than letting staff lead them around by the nose?
She is very talented, but she's in the wrong field. Maybe she lacks wisdom, wise people don't get into politics.
RE the anti-Gay-marriage rally: all civil rights issues are economic at the root. Everyone wants a piece of the pie. For instance, there is a lady near Seattle that has turned her herb farm into a place for MARIJUANA weddings. What's next, GAY MARIJUANA weddings? They see this as direct competition with the standard domestic beer/wine/cheeseball covered in nuts wedding. I know a local standard wedding venue has closed recently. And this movement has money to spend, sigs to gather, etc. So, Sequim's enlightened ones see PA as being economically behind Sequim and it's a safe spot. Plus, blue hair dye was on sale at the drugstore.
come on everyone, these are Westport workers, they are not the sharpest tools in the shed. they need our help
It's all part of a big racket, see? We all know city staff really run the show, right? City Councils come and go, but staff is there forever. They know all the tricks, and they know how to spin a story to get politicians to go along with whatever they want.
Here's the real interesting part to me, though. The City Council has two lengthy, kinda angry discussions about the overpass to nowhere, right? In open session. With Paul Gottlieb sitting right there. Just the kind of juicy, pissy political story he loves, right?
Only so far as I can see, the PDN hasn't printed word one about it. Nothing.
KONP got the story. Obviously Tom got the story here. And a lot of people in town were at that meeting, and are talking about the overpass to nowhere. Yet from the PDN, nothing.
Why's that, I wonder? Could it be because Paul still thinks of Glenn Cutler as his Daddy, and Daddy didn't come off so well at that meeting? Or could it be that any story that even sort of told what happened would paint Mania and Bruch in a positive light? I mean, they took this sucker by the horns, right? Called it like it is: Complete bullshit. Wanted to save the people's money. What's not to like, right?
Well, except that if doesn't fit with the staff agenda, which means it doesn't fit with Gottlieb's agenda, which means nothing will get printed. The city adopts some sort of idiot food policy? Now there's a story! The city conspires to waste twenty grand of taxpayer money, with more to come? Zzzzzzz...
Think about it. It's a racket, like I said. And a key part of that racket is having a newspaper that's in on the fix.
Wow, Dave Purvis! You really got THAT right!! Gottlieb's primary interests are in polishing Cutler's turds and smearing those who dare to point out that BS is BS.
And, you read in todays' paper that the city is going to raise the tax rates for city residents, most for that crazy "CSO" project that City Staff promoted.
But, nobody cares.
As Anon. 9:15 says, with the local paper functioning as the city/staff propaganda mouthpiece, the public hears what the city staff wants them to hear, and know.
But, who cares.
Then when you read the comments on the PDN website, responding to the partial truths they chose to print, you see how the public opinion side of it gets massaged.
Pour some kerosene.
Strike a match and drop it.
Fan the flames.
And use the smoke produced to cover up whatever it is that's REALLY going on, the thing you DON'T want people to know about or focus on.
Max Mania has an "ethics problem"! The city council bought new chairs! The city council has a wacky food policy! Never mind that the out of control spending and corruption continue rolling merrily along. No, no - look at these OTHER stories instead!
Fuck the Peninsula Daily News. What a piece of shit.
"And, you read in todays' paper that the city is going to raise the tax rates for city residents, most for that crazy "CSO" project that City Staff promoted."
Just to follow up on this: Did anyone get, from reading the PDN article, WHY the rates are being raised? As of a few weeks ago, the rates were considerably lower. Many previous articles informed Port Angeles residents what they would have to pay for their new "CSO" project. Now, after the "$42 million dollar" project gets council approvals, the rates residents will have to pay are dramatically increased. Why?
Like we don't already know.
Hee Hee Hee. You naive dummies took the bait and believe that the Port and City are spending this money because they care about pedestrian safety. No. This is actually a ruse to begin planning for an elevated roadway along the waterfront.
Surprise --- the just-hired out-of-town engineers will report that it isn't feasible to dig out a pedestrian underpass, because it is - duh - below sea level. Instead, they will recommend that workers cross Marine Drive at the same place they do now --- but underneath a new overpass built to carry vehicle traffic.
Wow. What a great idea! Build a mini-version of the Alaskan Way Viaduct right here in Port Angeles! Build it so that log trucks and chip trucks and whatever other vehicles may be headed to/from Ediz Hook won't even have to stop at Marine Drive & Tumwater any more. They can just cruise over that pesky bottleneck on a vehicle overpass, while pedestrians pass safely underneath.
Cool idea, Follow The Money!
Why didn't the city and port just say right up front that a vehicle overpass is what they want?
Let's face it: The people who really run this city - the ones who control useful idiots like Glenn Cutler and Cherie Kidd - will do anything to line their pockets. They don't care about "the community." They don't care about "the environment. "They don't care about "good government." They don't care about "breaking the law." They just want to line their own pockets. And whatever brings a little cash their way, they will do. No questions asked - just get it done.
And, when they are done, cash in well-lined pocket, they will just leave town for greener pastures, leaving behind non-longer useful idiots like Cherie Kidd to say, "What happened? What happened to my town? Who ruined it? Where did all the people go? Where did all the jobs go? What happened?"
The legacy of Mayor You've Got to Be Kidding will be a town saddled with debt, with a degraded environment, few jobs, and, as is the local tradition, totally hapless city government. Hapless lapdogs for their invisible betters.
"And, when they are done, cash in well-lined pocket, they will just leave town for greener pastures.."
They don't all leave town. Alot of the "Good ole Boys" families that have run this town for so long, just keep doing their same old thing. They hold onto their views, their ways, and the town never moves forward.
And I note there's still nothing about this in the PDN...
And still nothing in the PDN. God, Gottlieb is such an obvious hack.
And finally, here we are, a full TWO WEEKS after the meeting at which this was discussed, and the PDN has FINALLY seen fit to publish a story about it. Of course, the story has now taken a new turn, given that (seemingly sensible) city manager Dan McKeen has taken the position that , gee, maybe the city DOESN'T need to be spending money on this stupid, stupid "study." In other words, he's urging the council to let him veto their "yes" vote on this. Score one for common sense, fiscal restraint and for Bruch and Mania!
Blogger comments ROCK! Good going, people, for recognizing this boondoogle and shaming city officials into re-thinking their lame-brained decision. Mania & Bruch were looking out for common sense in voting "no" on this, while the rest of their council colleagues meekly capitulated to the bridge-to-nowhere nonsense proposed by Cutler & cronies.
Paying attention and calling BS actually can make a difference sometimes!
Can't wait for Max to be mayor next year!
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