Car Tabs

Today I received my car tab renewal in the mail. Here is the ugly part:

$245.00 for a monorail that will not be built. What a rip off - I find this very upsetting.

I should not have to pay any further taxes because the monorail has official fallen apart and will not be built.

The bigger joke - the tax may continue for up to 2 years because the SMP needs money to pay off its operating expenses. I don't think this will go over well with voters....I wonder who will get the downfall? This is a clear example of what can occur when we govern through referendums.

Enough on the monorial. Done. I hope it's over for good - but I doubt we have heard the last of the sleeping giant.

Monorail...

Ahhhh...The mighty monorail....Where to begin!

First, congrats to our Mayor, Greg Nickels, for revoking the city permits required to complete the project. I have always been a HUGE fan of the monorail, that is, until the committee revealed the "updated" financing plan.

The monorail committee should pack up their office, hold their heads up high and accept defeat. In my mind, the monorail failed for the following reasons:

1. A group of cronies

The first person who took us for a ride was Joel Horn. To his credit, he did an excellent job raising supoprt for the project. However, he clearly did not poses the experience to direct a multi-million dollar public works project. Additionally, once appointed as the executive director, he received a salary of $184,000. That's a lot of car tabs just to pay his salary!

The average salary at the SMP has been quoted at over 80K. I have no problem with 80K salaries, but at the minimum, I would expect employees to have experience with a similar caliber transit project not just experience working to put the project to vote. Looking back, we should have hired on a big shot consulting from Day 1.

2. Financing

The information provided to voters was never accurate. The SMP has provided a number of iterations on financing and this blog will concentrate on the final plan.

The SMP's revenue revolves around a car tab tax. If you live in Seattle you should be very familiar with the additional tax required to register your car. The final plan rested on the value of cars appreciating by 5% over inflation for the next 20 years. If this were true, all investment bankers would be directing us to purchase cars in place of stocks/bonds.

Moreover, isn't the goal of the monorail to reduce the number of cars in Seattle? Thus, reducing the tax base for the SMP. The total cost of the project, 2.1B, would end up costing with interest between 7-12 billion and financed for 50 years. Would the monorail still be running in 50 years?

2b. Break even operations by 2020 - operation runs on cash flow from rider fares.

No other major American transit system has succeeded without subsides. Why would we be the first?

In summary, thank you Mayor N. for pulling the plug. I hope the SMP starts mailing refund checks soon, I could use the money for the holiday season.

Here are a few links to interesting articles from a web search:
seattle pi
seattle times
seattle weekly

Changing of the guard

I have decided to create a more progressive blog and shift my focus to important social, economic, political and scientific matters that effect our society. I refuse to let this become just another rambling blog.

My first entry deals with football. I think this topic will provide a smooth transition to the new format.

After the Seahawks loss, I am giving up football. The NFL has become a modern day pageant scripted to waste everyone's time. Watching football on TV is comparable to watching reality TV or the WWF. Last Monday night was the last straw...How many times can I bear to see a close-up of Patrick Kearney violently shaking his head like he has just ran out of the Amazon after being shot by a blow gun in the inner thigh. I dread the production that has overtaken the sport.

On the flip side, I don't understand why everyone chugs beer, sits slumped on a couch and watches a bunch of crazy TV induced people running around. Over the past few years players have started to act very strange in front of the camera. What happened to "Hi Mom"? Now viewers receive a throat slashing death enticing chant from players.

In the long run, the players get the short end of the stick. A number of scientific studies are investigating the rumor of a shorter life span (54 years) associated with NFL players. Hats off to UNC group for conducting this study. This link provides further information about when most players end up on the injured reserves - after they retire - a very interesting angle.

My response to opening weekend of the NFL was to move our TV back into storage. I encourage my committed readers to do the same. I forgot to mention P. Kearney tutored my wife in calculus at UVA.

Continued...

After reading the last entry I realized I side-stepped the point I wanted to get across. Point blank, Ballard Ave resturants are overcrowded. It's nearly impossible to get a table at Matador, Volterra, Oaxaca, Dandelion (not on the Ave, but superb food), Madam K's and others. I just wish it was possible to walk in and grab a good meal....

Where did all of the people come from?

I have lived in Seattle for 3 years. Actually, now that I think about it, I moved to Seattle about 3 years ago to the day. The entire time I have resided in Seattle I have lived in Freemont or Ballard. I have noticed during this summer that Ballard, especially Ballard Ave NW, has been packed with people. I don’t know when Ballard became popular, but now it’s nearly impossible to get table for dinner the best restaurants.

I am willing to admit that I am part of the overcrowding problem – I am not a native and I frequent many business establishments. Last night I enjoyed dinner at the “new gem” Volterra (http://www.volterrarestaurant.com/). The restaurant opened this summer and has enjoyed a constant stream of people seeking their delicious cuisine. The eatery has been featured in all of the local newspapers and even in the NY Times. Benefiting from the inherent capabilities within my blog I can now write my own review.

The atmosphere and service were great. However, with all of the acclaim in the press I expected more pazzow with the food. The best dish we had was homemade lamb ravioli with a creamy and mildly spicy tomato sauce – it was delicious. Also, we started the meal splitting a warm mild mushroom salad that was excellent. The other two dishes, halibut and muscles, were average. The flavor was good, but not memorable. In the end I would recommend the restaurant, but maybe order a few different selections. The one problem, Volterra is slammed every night (even on Monday), so good luck getting a table. I guess that’s the point of this blog – Ballard restaurants have become packed and it’s often hard to get a reservation.

Blogging Weekend

I think it might be beneficial to describe myself and why I have created a blog.

I am currently 28 years old, married, and live in Seattle. I work in the software industry for a startup company based in Bellevue. We have a great company and I find enjoyment working for the organization. With the advent of recent news articles discussing people getting fired for blogging about work – I will now limit my employment conversation. If the suspense is driving you crazy feel free to AskMe via email where I work.

I enjoy living in Seattle and own a house in Ballard which is an old fishing/Nordic town. Check out the link on the right. Ballard is a hip place to live and the neighborhood has a number of bars and a great view of the Olympics towering over Puget Sound.

On the recreation side I enjoy: whitewater kayaking, skiing/snowboarding, mountain biking, camping, and climbing. I only climb indoors – Ballard has a great gym: http://www.stonegardens.com. It’s a funny place – lots of nice people but it turns into a meat market on weeknights. It gets packed with gals running around in spandex and sport-bras and guys not wearing shirts and flexing their muscles. Overall it’s one of the best weeknight activities in Seattle. I would encourage everyone to try sport climbing once.

I mentioned earlier that I am married – my wife, Charlotte Quesada, is forbidding me to discuss her in the blog. She finds it’s disturbing that I created a blog – conversation over. I am not sure why I created the blog or who will read the material. I will use the blog to document my current thoughts and life experiences. Please feel free to shoot over any comments.

Today is only the third weekend I have spent in Seattle this summer – I have been traveling a ton. I we be spending the weekend completing all of the house work I planned to accomplish this summer. That said, my introduction needs to wind down because I need to get back to touching up the paint in the kitchen.

Vacation

Here is a short letter to the editor I planned on sending to the NY Times. I wrote the letter before Katrina, so please keep that in mind. The day after I wrote the letter MAUREEN DOWD posted similar editoral. She is an interesting writer mainly because she rarely calls our President "President Bush" - just "W". More power to her.

Here is my take:

Dear Editor,

I have enjoyed reading a number of articles and columns describing the nature of our Presidents vacation. It has been very interesting hearing the perspectives alluding to bicycle rides and peace activists camps.

My one question, why does the person with, arguably, the most important job in our county get 5 weeks of paid vacation for the summer? How many other Americans receive 5 weeks of paid vacation for the whole year? I, unfortunately, am not in this lucky group. I can only think of one other section of society, teachers, who are one of the most important fabrics in our society.

This summer will shape Bush’s presidency: 2 wars, Carl Rove, a Supreme Court nomination, an extremely low approval rating and a desperate mother encroaching on his Texan turf. I have a job with minimal influence on our GDP, trade deficit, sluggish economy, and global war on terror but I still need to work 40+ hours a week to increase my productivity in the global business world. As a member of the American public we need to ask ourselves how the Presidents 5 weeks of bicycling, golfing, and other recreational activities are helping our nation increase its global productivity.

1st post

This is my new blog - I hope to post information and frustrations weekly. The purpose of the blog is push random views out to the world and to provide a form for creative writing.

More to come....