19 Replies to "Mayor's snowstorm open house tonight (and recaps of first 2)"

• D January 15, 2009 (8:49 am)

  Are any representatives from Metro Transit going to be there or is this truly just City of Seattle people? Hopefully I can get off work early enough to make it there.

• Greg Nickels January 15, 2009 (9:17 am)

  WSB —

  Thank you for helping to get the word out. I encourage folks to come and share their stories and frustrations with me and the various department staff who will be there — it will help us do a better job should something like this happen again.

  Best wishes —

• sandra January 15, 2009 (11:06 am)

  Lost worktime: My husband and I had to use scarce hours of leave from work because we were unable to drive safely to and from work. My husband used 5 days of leave and I used even more. We’re concerned this may happen again soon because the winter has not ended yet!

  Impassible streets: Yes, inclement weather can result in lost work days, but this is not funny. The small residential streets were not plowed, so we were unable to reach 35th Ave SW in W Seattle, even though our house is only blocks away from 35th. We saw plow trucks parked and motionless on 35th and wondered why the City was not paying staff overtime (or hiring additional staff) to “put those trucks to work” as much as possible.

  Funding: If there is no funding to purchase additional plow trucks, then the least you can do is to actually USE the trucks you have — not waste precious hours letting them sit parked on the side of the road! Put a bit more money into staff hours, for heaven’s sake.

  Won’t happen again?: Well, I expect more volatile, unpredictable weather — not less — with all of this global climate change that’s been happening for awhile now. It’s best to be as prepared for it as possible.

  I hope we learn from this experience and make significant improvements in the future..

• Diane January 15, 2009 (11:39 am)

  I was planning to attend tonight; but I need to work, to try and make up for the full week of income lost during the snow/ice storms when buses never showed up due to impassable city streets; the city, sdot, and metro totally failed me in all of my attempts to get to work; I hiked through snow/ice, waited 5 hrs in 20 degrees for busses, all of which never showed; after several days of missed work, I literally resorted to standing out on Admiral and hitchhiking to get downtown, and then begging a client in Magnolia with 4 wheel drive to pick me up at 4th & Pike (which only 4wd could navigate, barely)
  ~
  many of us who could not get to our jobs do not have the luxury of paid leave, paid holidays, paid sick time, or any other paid time off; so the failures of sdot and metro severely impacted people already struggling to get by month to month, with no reserves to pay rent/bills after losing a week of work
  ~
  communications were nonexistent and/or incorrect; extremely unreliable; while waiting for 3 hrs at 1 bus stop, I called the metro number 100 times; never got through the busy signal; I tried to ask bus drivers; many were grumpy and waved me away; even the nice ones said they knew nothing and had no internal way to contact metro for info; that is absurd; at a minimum, metro should have enough phone lines so riders who are waiting in freezing cold can get beyond a busy beep beep beep
  ~
  I asked nearly everyone also waiting at 3rd Ave bus stop in they had web access device; nope; a few were calling friends at work/home to ask them to access internet for them; I did same by calling Tracy/editor wsblog, who kindly used all her resources to search for info re my bus, but she could not find anything
  ~
  prior to heading out into storms, at home trying to plan bus trips, gambling each day on which bus do I think today might actually be accurate according to metro, mybus.org, adverse weather bus routes; it was a total crap shoot and I lost everyday; so far beyond frustrating; I broke down in tears several times
  ~
  xmas day I had a dinner invite; I searched routes on metro, and adverse routes page, was looking forward to a lovely meal; then woke up xmas morning to discover the bus was cancelled, even though it was still listed on trip planner; very bad communications; and I was stuck alone with no food on xmas
  ~
  my car was buried on an unplowed street for 15 days; I called the # we were given to request plowing, several times; they never came
  ~
  I am irked at the rebates for late trash pick up (yes my garbage also overflowed for more than 3 weeks) when those of us who lost very much needed income have not been offered any compensation; I don’t give a damn about the garbage; I need to pay the rent and buy food; and many small businesses are being forced to shut down due to vital revenue lost during snow storms because people (customers & employees) could not get through unplowed streets and busses were not available
  ~
  now realizing, it may be better for me to just write to all the folks who should have been leading, doing something far more effective during the storms; this is stirring up all my rage again
  ~
  to the mayor; I was deeply offended at your tv appearances that lacked any genuine concern for the citizens who voted for you; the B grade is a joke; a smidge of humility and admission of errors/inaction would have been far more endearing/confidence building; the message I got is that you don’t care at all about me or anyone else in the community; but that you only care about trying to save your image; the lack of trust engendered during this crucial time could be a reason why folks are not showing up for these open houses; just a thought
  ~
  btw, I know this is the Mayor’s open house; but metro, sdot, wdot, kcroads, city council, kc council, emergency services; it’s all such a mixed bag, and really need to find ways to work better and work together
  ~
  more to come when I write up even more of my experiences/suggestions for the mayor, city council, metro, kc council, and especially sdot

• Eddie January 15, 2009 (11:43 am)

  Mayor Nickels – thanks for joining in on these discussions.

  Would you relate to us (via WSB) your personal experienced during the “great snowstorm of 2008”?

  I’d be interested in knowing how or if you were able to accomplish your commute, stick to your schedule, get your Christmas shopping and family obligations accomplished, if you attempted to use Metro transit (in fact I’d be interested to know if you’ve ever taken Metro from West Seattle to Downtown), etc.

  Thanks again for joining in on the community.

• JoB January 15, 2009 (12:47 pm)

  i believe the mayor when he give the rank and file city employees a B ….

  however, his supervisors and our elected officials clearly flunked… or the valient effort by employees would have given better results…

• Michael January 15, 2009 (12:55 pm)

  Yes, the City should spend lots of time and money getting this right so that for that one week 10 years from now we can all drive around and take whatever buses we want.
  .
  Here’s a hint: no matter what the City says – and more importantly, no matter what it DOES – if you live on a hill or need to go up/down one to get around, you will face the same problems.

• Jen V. January 15, 2009 (1:14 pm)

  Not a big fan of speaking in public, so I won’t be attending tonight…but this begs the question – if Hizzoner is really reading the blog – he KNOWS GOOD GODDAMN WELL what people’s complaints are. Right? But no, it’s easier to gather everyone up and pretend like you give a rats ass about the people in your city rather than actually DO anything about it.

• Jen V. January 15, 2009 (1:15 pm)

  Eddie, the mayor spent the whole storm holed up in a swanky hotel downtown…not much of a story there. Grade F.

• JenV January 15, 2009 (1:23 pm)

  well, apparently my comments toward Hizzoner were pulled – so sorry to offend. My point was, if he really reads this blog he already knows what people’s complaints are. To pretend to care now is disingenuous.

• WSB January 15, 2009 (1:36 pm)

  nothing was pulled. I have been offline for a bit between Design Commission and next stop and there were five comments in the queue including yours, on various stories, all of which have now been approved. Any and all comments may wind up in the moderation queue at any time – there are general conditions for moderation (as detailed on the About page), and then on occasion we have to put the site on full moderation (all comments held till we pass them through, which sometimes means a lag) for reasons including stepped-up spam attacks.

• Jen V. January 15, 2009 (1:40 pm)

  sorry – I wavered against my use of language and decided to go with it anyway – that is what I figured got pulled. ;)

• WSB January 15, 2009 (1:46 pm)

  By the way, in case anyone’s unclear, no one has to speak in public or speak at all at this meeting (or any other we’ve ever covered). If nobody shows up, then our pictures are going to look like the ones in the coverage I linked to, and that can be used by somebody somewhere to say “well, look, everybody’s happy now, we offered them the chance to hear our side of it and nobody showed up.” If that’s the truth of it, that’s the truth of it, case closed, the city wraps up its reviews and everyone’s happy.
  But it truly can be one of those cases in which a picture is worth a thousand words. Certainly we have thousands of words of comments here and on other sites, but once in a while it’s important for the people behind the words to be seen. And even though you know that we will have complete coverage here, I am always the first to say that it’s not a substitute for hearing for yourself what is said, if it’s something you care about. If it’s not something you care about, that’s fine too. End of ramble. Whoever goes – we’ll see you there.

• WSB January 15, 2009 (1:48 pm)

  One more note before I shut up and go back to the rest of the news – Obviously there’s no way to prove that the mayor himself left that comment, but I *can* tell you it was from the City of Seattle’s IP address. And to Diane’s point – I am remiss in not having mentioned this again (we have mentioned it before) – Metro reps are supposed to be there too, along with reps of many other city departments, as mentioned in the links to the coverage of the first 2 events.

• KT January 15, 2009 (3:19 pm)

  The Mayor’s posting here today confirms what I suspected…..this is a crass political ploy on his part in an election year and I will make my statement with my vote.

• Steph January 15, 2009 (3:55 pm)

  I will be busy part of the night but I think I will try my hardest to make it to the end of the meeting and hopefully still be able to voice my opinion. More people they see showing up, the more they see we are not happy with them.

• Save Our Streets Seattle January 15, 2009 (6:51 pm)

  Even I’m not going to any of these meetings. I have emailed every member of the Seattle City Council. I spoke publicly at the City Council meeting. I have emailed reporters. I called the mayor’s office. I’ve sent public comments to SPU and SDOT. And, I have emailed Alex Wiggins, Grace Crunican, and Richard Sheridan about Wiggins and Crunican lying to the Seattle Times and/or the Seattle City Council. And, frankly, no one does care. I’m just sick about the pathetic city response, but I’m exhausted from beating my head against the solid rock wall of the City. NO ONE CARES!

• Save Our Streets Seattle January 15, 2009 (7:06 pm)

  I would like to say, though, that Council President Richard Conlin and Councilman Richard McIver were the ONLY City officials who actually responded to my thousands of attempts to contact the City. They each took the time to address my issue and not just send a BS form letter reply. Conlin’s email was almost inspirational. When you fight tirelessly for weeks and are completely ignored by every single person in a position of authority, one email can mean a lot.

• MrJT January 15, 2009 (7:26 pm)

  Good idea SOSS, it was pretty much a contest to see what department had the “Best use of Visio”. The mayor was there taking comments, with his wife standing right next to him. I really can’t wait to work on his opppsitions campaign.

Sorry, comment time is over.