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Seattle has a relatively mild climate. Not Los Angeles mild, but milder than most places. It didn't snow this this past winter; our winter weather was 5-10 day stretches of daily rain, which is the norm, but this year was dryer. We probably had 5-10 days below freezing, and not far below. In any year there are less than ten days where the temperature is over ninety. Most the summer is in the sixties and seventies. The temperature is relatively constant.
Thus, our roads should be fairly easy to maintain. Right? Indeed, I don't recall ever seeing a pot hole. In contrast, I recall that in Salt Lake pot holes were common place; big gaping sores opened up in the roadways and you had to memorize them or else pay the price. I got a flat tire hitting one hard once. Construction crews scrambled around trying to keep up, and I'm sure there were budgetary constraints.
Nevertheless, I have never lived in a city with anywhere near so much road construction as Seattle. Everywhere you go the roads are choked by it. In the past two years my entire six mile commute has been completely torn up and replaced. (The construction slowed my communte, and to add insult to injury they took one lane on each side of the double three lane thoroughfare that is the longest part of my commute and dedicated it to bicyclists and busses. There are very few bicyclers and buses on this road, as there is actually a parallel paved bike path a quarter mile away; the added conjestion has added five minutes to my commute. This development captures what's vexing about Seattle City government.)
I have no idea what this construction is ever about. They just seem to be tearing up perfectly fine roads, replacing and repainting them. Sometimes they remove and replace some pipes for good measure. But I never hear of sewer or water lines broken.
I have just about convinced myself that this is a big socialist conspiracy. I can imagine an unwritten rule in the mayor's office that construction crews need to be deployed tearing up roads and replacing them all the time, to stimulate the economy and keep the road construction labor force fully employed. We have yawning deficits like everyone else, and I'd think that some of these road construction projects could be back burnered, but it's not happening, even though logically you'd expect this could be a place where money could be saved. But I'm less concerned about the expense--in a city the size of Seattle this may not add too much to my property taxes--than the inconvenience.
Could all this road construction be a scam? Am I nuts? Is this Seattle's "Chinatown"? I bet road maintenance is a huge political cesspool with lots of money involved.
Thus, our roads should be fairly easy to maintain. Right? Indeed, I don't recall ever seeing a pot hole. In contrast, I recall that in Salt Lake pot holes were common place; big gaping sores opened up in the roadways and you had to memorize them or else pay the price. I got a flat tire hitting one hard once. Construction crews scrambled around trying to keep up, and I'm sure there were budgetary constraints.
Nevertheless, I have never lived in a city with anywhere near so much road construction as Seattle. Everywhere you go the roads are choked by it. In the past two years my entire six mile commute has been completely torn up and replaced. (The construction slowed my communte, and to add insult to injury they took one lane on each side of the double three lane thoroughfare that is the longest part of my commute and dedicated it to bicyclists and busses. There are very few bicyclers and buses on this road, as there is actually a parallel paved bike path a quarter mile away; the added conjestion has added five minutes to my commute. This development captures what's vexing about Seattle City government.)
I have no idea what this construction is ever about. They just seem to be tearing up perfectly fine roads, replacing and repainting them. Sometimes they remove and replace some pipes for good measure. But I never hear of sewer or water lines broken.
I have just about convinced myself that this is a big socialist conspiracy. I can imagine an unwritten rule in the mayor's office that construction crews need to be deployed tearing up roads and replacing them all the time, to stimulate the economy and keep the road construction labor force fully employed. We have yawning deficits like everyone else, and I'd think that some of these road construction projects could be back burnered, but it's not happening, even though logically you'd expect this could be a place where money could be saved. But I'm less concerned about the expense--in a city the size of Seattle this may not add too much to my property taxes--than the inconvenience.
Could all this road construction be a scam? Am I nuts? Is this Seattle's "Chinatown"? I bet road maintenance is a huge political cesspool with lots of money involved.
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