OMG! Seattle INCREASES public transportation!?

This I've got to see in person. Here is the main site and here is the route:


Call me crazy but I'm not sure that route is going to help too much. You're cutting right through a section of Seattle that doesn't have a lot of people living in it. The whole North half of the route is not a very populated/popular area. Plus, the housing there is fairly expensive and I'm pretty sure the bulk of public transportation (PT) riders, for now, are not the ones who left their C-class Mercedes at home (congrats to you if you do, though; PT should have nothing to do with socioeconomic status).

Other then the kind of goofy route, the fare is low ($1.50) and the website says it does connect the other PT systems which is a start:

The Seattle Streetcar's South Lake Union line has eleven stops conveniently located a short walk from other transportation hubs connecting the entire the region's transportation options, including: Metro buses and Sound Transit buses, trains and light rail; Ferry service; Taxi; Flexcar; Park and Ride; and Monorail.

The big upside is that the South Lake Union Trolley has a great acronym. Part of me wonders if someone was smart enough to "accidentally" give it such a funny name to possibly get it into people's minds.

Someone: "Wanna drive there or ride the SLUT?"
Someone else: "Is that a serious question? SLUT, of course!"
The first someone: "Alright, let's go SLUT it up!"

That was fun but I digress... So they have a great nickname, the fare is low, they connect other modes of transportation, and they look pretty neat:


All this is fine and dandy but there's a big problem in the mind of those who would like to see a massive increase in PT options like this one (especially in Seattle). The Seattle PI says that this could lead to new networks of PT: "We now want to talk about a network that connects neighborhoods to downtown." But those are talks, not plans. There is now this fancy, new trolley system covering areas where the ridership is, naturally, going to be pretty low. These are not congested areas, they are not huge urban centers (in terms of living spaces), and they probably didn't need this route to begin with. I suspect that they will see much less people riding the trolley as they anticipated and will use it as a reason to avoid future PT plans. The purse-string controllers will go "see, you silly Seattlites, we told you PT was stupid... look, no one is riding the one we gave you $52 million to build."

Seattle is a beautiful city caught up in a lot of goofy crap. It has two of the most amazing sports stadiums in the country and two disappointing sports teams with a pretty weak (in terms of numbers and overall fanaticism) fan base (come see the maniac Charger fans and you'll see what I mean). PT gets cut and cut and cut and people wonder why no one rides the buses and monorails (the monorail goes from the friggen Science Center to the Westlake Mall... not useful). Ineffective leadership, poor money management, and almost zero cultural diversity, Seattle simply needs a huge injection of something other than heroin.

So what to do? Why not make Seattle the shining example of a green city? Lots of rain to use, it already looks great, and the whole place could use an identity. I mean, it's already called the Emerald City. Make an environment for architects that fosters green design, legislate strict LEED enforcement, add a greentech museum... none of this is hard and none of it is all that expensive. Tax breaks for adding EV charging stations, same for alternative fuel stations.


*sigh* complaining about Seattle makes me miss it a little bit... coming home soon.

A bit out of my typical scope...

... but AMAZING and from my hometown.



This, if I may be so bold, is a small step towards my idea of utopia. In my utopia, cities still exist and prosper but they co-exist, intertwined, with natural processes. Small EVs everywhere, lots of quiet, clean public transportation, and flora coating everything. In this mindset, I present to you the "Off-Grid Vertical Farm," a small slice of my own personal heaven.

Fully self-sufficient building: in energy and water.
-> 31,000 sq ft rooftop water rainwater collection
-> Recycling of gray water (including an ability to handle some of the surrounding area's waste water up to "20 times its own discharge potential")
-> 34,000+ sq ft of solar PV cells with hydrogen gas backup

Agricultural features include
->Fields for growing veggies and grains, greenhouses, rooftop gardens and even a chicken farm.
->Local produced food is critical for changing energy patterns as "40 percent of an individual's ecological footprint is generated by the embodied energy in food."

318 apartments (studio, 1 & 2 bedroom units)

Restaurant & Cafe (The "Greenhouse" using building grown food.

"Off-grid" means you are fully energy self-sufficient. This building creates its own energy through the solar cells attached to it.

Keep in mind that, while it is doubtful you will see this erected in downtown Seattle (pleasepleaseplease), this is not pie-in-the-sky Jetsons stuff, this is real. This building can be built right now. There are no technological barriers, the materials are not from another planet, and it would not cost the US defense budget to construct. Besides the obvious aesthetic benefits, the plants would do well in a high-CO2 environment like the center of a city. Environmental concerns addressed through solar cells, CO2 processing and water collection, living space addressed by real estate incorporated into the structure, economic benefits bolstered by job created in the farm and retail space... what is not to like?

More info here.