Stuart backing off?

Looks like some furious backpedaling in the updated Columbian story regarding the idea of bicycle licensing fees:

Later Wednesday, Stuart said he wasn't sure whether a fee could be made mandatory, or how high it'd be.

"For my dogs, I think it's $16 a year," Stuart said. "I can't imagine even suggesting something higher than that. And I imagine something significantly lower."

…

"This was a page right out of the Republican playbook," he said. "And I work with two Republicans. Therefore I look at this as a possibility to get these paths built and get two votes."

Stuart wasn't sure if enforcement might work.

"Certainly, we're not going to be sending sheriff's deputies out there to check bicycle licenses," he said.

Indeed, user fees are part of the Republican mantra, the idea that those who benefit most must pay to use the commonwealth that they ALREADY PAID FOR (see National Parks).  It’s unclear why a Democrat has to adopt Republican framing.   If the electorate thought that Republicans had the best ideas, they’d be in charge nationally.  The reason why Democrats aren’t in the majority locally IS THAT THEY KEEP ADOPTING REPUBLICAN IDEAS. 

And then there’s this big lie:

One mile of new roadside bicycle lane costs $232,000 per mile for pavement alone, according to a 2008 county estimate.

“Roadside bicycle lane”.  Ponder that one for a moment.  We used to call those “shoulders”.  But now somehow it’s the bicycling community’s fault that we need striped lanes on the side of the road rather than traffic engineering standard.  The shoulder is required for automotive safety, yet bicyclists are on the hook for that financially.   Unreal.

The fact of the matter is, regular folks are not going to abandon their cars for the occasional commute-by-bicycle unless there are safe routes to and fro.  If bicyclists have to pay top dollar for “roadside bicycle lanes”, than provide the necessary non chip sealed facilities that bikes can use.  Otherwise, this is all just an exercise in “feel good” environmentalism.

If one pays property and sales taxes that go into the county transportation fund, is it an unreasonable expectation that roads will be multi-modal, whether automotive, bicycle or pedestrian?  This doing government on the cheap, thanks to Tim Eyman, is not working out so well for Washington State. 

In Stuart’s defense, county budgets are strained due to the I-747 property tax limitation, where government will never be able to keep up with inflation in providing services.  This all has the effect of putting reasonable people at each others throats as livability declines with state and local governments starved for revenue.  More novel “ideas” are then put on the table to make up for revenue shortfalls.  It’s a dangerous cycle.

That’s the ticket!   Bicyclist tolling will pay for the CRC!

County commission to “consider” bicycle tax

Andersen’s got the scoop:

Saying they're short on cash for new bike lanes and trails, Clark County's commissioners said Wednesday that they're willing to charge for licensing bicyclists outside city limits.

"As a bicyclist, I would pay a licensing fee if I had better trail access," Commissioner Steve Stuart said in a work session on bicycle and pedestrian routes in the county. "We license our dogs. You license your car. Why wouldn't you license your bikes?"

Commissioners Marc Boldt and Tom Mielke agreed, asking to set up a new work session on the issue.

"It's a good funding source," Boldt said.

Stuart’s analogies ring false here.  Dogs are licensed to prove that they are vaccinated against rabies, and to ease the process of returning a lost pet to their owner.  To obtain your car’s license, you need to have your emissions checked, which unless you overloaded on hotdogs at the local picnic, is not an issue when riding your bike.  He’s also failing to mention that he lives in the Vancouver city limits, so he wouldn’t be subject to the tax.  Must be nice.

As long as the county stops using chip and seal on their bicycle shoulders in the urban area, I have no problem here.  The sad truth here though is that the revenue collected will more than likely go straight into the county’s general fund to paper over the multi-year deficit accrued by the county’s developer services department.  Automobile culture has been a “free rider” for years, not paying anywhere near close its external costs. 

Otherwise, this is a tax on people who are:

1. Reducing our nation’s dependence on foreign oil;

2. Getting in shape, thus reducing their utilization of our overtaxed health care system;

3. Getting out of their single occupancy vehicle, thus reducing everyone else’s commute time.

In other words, this is the kind of behavior that should be publicly subsidized, not looked to as a new source of revenue.  What’s conveniently glossed over here is the cost of administering this program will far outweigh the revenues gained from bicyclists.  And really, do we want to tax Lil’ Timmy’s Christmas present at full freight?  I didn’t think so.  So you’ll have to come up with a complex tiered registration plan. 

I can’t wait until the deputy sheriff pulls me over for not having my “bike tags” as I speed down Lakeshore into the tax free confines of Vancouver’s city limits.  I’m sure the sheriff’s office has nothing better to do than enforce this.  How will this be enforced with people who live close to the Vancouver boundary?  Are we supposed to cover up our rear tail lights with our registration tags?  Sounds like a safety hazard issue.

BikePortland has more details on the story, and an upcoming meeting time for those impacted:

If you live/ride/work in Clark County and want to keep tabs on how/if this idea progresses, consider showing up to next week’s Bike Advisory Committee meeting:

Clark County Bicycle Advisory Committee Meeting
7/21, at 6:00 p.m.
Conference Room 433 (Fourth Floor) at the Public Service Center (1300 Franklin Street, Vancouver, WA).

The county commission of course isn’t bound by the Bicycle Advisory Committee, so some public testimony ahead of time at the county’s usual Tuesday morning meeting time is probably in order.

Green shoots and leisure suits

The state of California is issuing IOU's to pay its obligations. Seedy operators on Craigslist will pay you pennies on the dollar for the IOU since the major banks (JP Morgan Chase, B of A, Wells Fargo) are refusing to honor the IOUs. What was all the TARP money for again?

 

The federal stimulus plan, which is too small and whose effects are spread well into next year gets to bounce into a state and local government fiscal situation that is truly dire. With the region's unemployment rate in the 14-15% range, voters are going to be looking for someone to blame:

Just a thought: Do you want to be a senator or congressman running for office next year with unemployment nearing 11% (my estimate), with all of the problems mentioned above, and with a record of having voted for the largest unfunded deficits in history? It is going to be a very interesting election cycle.

It would be ideal if we could get beyond the "bump in the road" rhetoric so willfully on display by our local media outlets and get down to the brass tacks. And it sure feels like the political class has run the numbers already, and determined that unemployed folks don't vote anyway. Instead of a vibrant debate, what we're given is mind-numbing stories fixating on candidates' apparel choices. It's amazing what the downtown Vancouver business community tends to focus on, but there you have it. 

Me?  I’m waiting for the candidate with the style sense to take the leisure suit off the hanger and return us to 1970’s unemployment rates. 

Local Latino leaders set to endorse Leavitt

I get things in my in-box:

Vancouver Councilman Tim Leavitt Attracts The Latino Vote

Latinos in Vancouver are moving to demonstrate that their vote is not one to be alienated. With the assistance of National Latina civil rights leader, Maria Rodriguez-Salazar of Vancouver, WA, they are determined to make their vote count.

After years of being ignored and the success of President Obama’s election, Latinos locally are sensing that they finally count in the political discourse of this country.

The demographics of Vancouver are changing. Latinos are the largest and fastest growing ethnic group in Vancouver and in our country. In this year’s political season every vote will count but most importantly who in the future will be leading Vancouver’s government and be inclusive when it comes to Latino Affairs. So what will it take to win the hearts and votes of Latinos in Vancouver? Ask Vancouver Latino Leaders.

Event: Vancouver Latino Leaders Press Conference - Vancouver’s Latino Vote

When: Monday July 13th, 2009

Time: 10:00am

Where: The Steps of Vancouver City Hall, Vancouver, WA

That’s quite the coup by Team Leavitt after wrapping up the city employees’ labor endorsement. 

Salazar makes a good point, that after years of being ignored, especially in Clark County, Latinos are stepping forward to hold candidates responsible for inclusiveness. 

The immediate effect here is an endorsement in an upcoming mayoral election.  The longer term impact is a growing portion of the electorate dedicated to social justice issues and not being denied access to public health resources, and that can only be interpreted as a net positive.

SW Washington Legislators Condemn Vandalism

SW Washington's Democratic legislative delegation takes a stand, as indicated by this press release from Rep. Jim Moeller’s (D-49) office:

As for this recent and revolting graffiti itself, Moeller and other southwestern Washington legislators – state Reps. Deb Wallace, D-Vancouver; Jim Jacks, D-Vancouver, and Tim Probst, D-Vancouver, and state Sen. Craig Pridemore, D-Vancouver – all strongly condemned the vandalism.

It’s unclear as to why area legislators from the Republican side of the aisle were unable to sign on to this statement.  Racially motivated vandalism isn’t a partisan issue.  Let’s hope it’s just a matter of being unavailable as we roll into the 4th of July weekend.

Moeller makes the point that closing the Human Rights Commission office in Vancouver was not a good idea:

Clark County is one of the fastest-growing regions in the country, and this growth comes with a price. The population explosion brings an increase in the number of hate crimes – as well as a surge in allegations of injustice and inequity addressed by the commission.

Today’s closing of Vancouver’s part-time HRC office means that people must travel to Olympia to meet personally with a commission investigator.

“The personal, face-to-face interaction is so very important in these kinds of cases,” Moeller said. “Sadly, requiring folks to drive two hours up the freeway will create a hardship. It will convince a good many people to drop their issue before it’s even addressed – and before an attempt is even made to correct the problem.”

The good news is that the Scotts’ driveway is fixed.  I want to think each and every one of those who donated to the fundraiser.  A check  was made out directly to the YWCA’s Social Change program, which will cover the costs of cleanup and assist in the Y’s formation of their “rapid response” program.  If you haven’t donated yet, please consider so today:

https://payments.auctionpay.com/ver3/?id=W025012

Just indicate “Social Change Program” when making your donation.

Community rallies against hate

The Columbian reports:

It comes in many forms. Starting as name-calling, it escalates to violence. Or it shows up on a car door, on a street sign or in a driveway.

It’s hate, pure and simple. And a recent rash of graffiti in the Truman neighborhood just outside the city has drawn a chorus of condemnations from community leaders.

…

Meanwhile, last weekend’s racist graffiti have also spurred a flurry of public outcry. Several outraged community members plan to spearhead a cleanup effort to remove graffiti left in the Truman neighborhood.

On June 20, graffiti were found on cars, driveways and garbage cans at five residences in the neighborhood. They included a racist slur on Northeast 44th Avenue that named a 16-year-old black Fort Vancouver High School student, Shamarica Scott, specifically.

And the YWCA’s Jay Atwood observes:

Hate incidents are more common in Clark County than most people realize, said Jay Atwood, the YWCA’s social change program director. A recent YWCA study, which interviewed members of various minority groups, found racism ranging from subtle stereotypes to name-calling. The worst was violence.

"A lot of people in Clark County don’t report them," Atwood said. "They vary and are prevalent in all minority groups you see here in Clark County. They go from things in the mall to things on the street to things in the workplace."

To get a baseline of where we’re at as a community, I spoke with the Washington State Human Rights Commission to obtain the number of complaints in Clark County, broken down by Employment, Housing and Public Accommodations discrimination for the decade:

Year	Employment	Housing	Public Accommodations
2000	59	13	4
2001	56	6	2
2002	43	12	4
2003	38	5	3
2004	36	1	1
2005	45	9	2
2006	41	13	6
2007 (first nine months)	24	9	6
Totals:	342	68	28
source: Washington State Human Rights Commission

At a glance, it would appear that we hit a trough of complaints in 2003-2004, only to see the numbers edge up as the housing bubble in Clark County continued apace from 2005-2007.  What's not in here are the number of graffiti, intimidation, or other hate crimes, as that doesn’t fall under the Human Rights Commission's jurisdiction.

The immediate need is repairing the damage done by the graffiti.  The longer term need of course is to keep having an honest discussion of problems in the community. To paraphrase Martin Luther King, there is no separate path here, we are truly “bound together in a single garment of destiny”.

Russell to challenge Baird

Somebody has to be the sacrificial lamb:

WASHOUGAL, WA- Jon Russell, City Councilman & co-owner of Columbia Gorge Medical Center announces that he will seek the Republican nomination for U.S. Congress.

“This is a day that has taken a lifetime of preparation and months of planning. I look forward to meeting voters on the campaign trail and making the case for new representation for Southwest Washington. I represent a new generation of reformers who are fed up with career politicians in Congress because they suffer from a lack of vision and the will to do the right thing for the people. I am running for congress to represent the ideas and hard work of everyday people; I believe we can balance the federal budget….

<snip>

Blah blah blah, young angry TeaBagger (that’s him at a recent TeaBag party) files for Congress. Someone please find an editor for this guy. While Michael Delavar was perhaps not the greatest candidate, he kept things succinct.

And all you really need to know is here:

Jon is also the former Executive Director of Faith & Freedom Network.

Cook Political Report has the 3rd Congressional District at dead even. As long as Baird stops the “I hate my base” strategy, he’s locked in.

UPDATE: Some other guy from Olympia is running too:

CASTILLO ANNOUNCES KEY ENDORSEMENTS

Olympia, WA – Congressional candidate David Castillo announced key endorsements as he seeks to unseat Brian Baird in Washington’s 3rd Congressional District:

Rep. Richard DeBolt, House Minority Leader, 20th Legislative District
Senator Dan Swecker, 20th Legislative District
Rep. Gary Alexander, 20th Legislative District
Rep. Ed Orcutt, 18th Legislative District
Rep. Skip Priest, 30th Legislative District

I'd provide a link to Castillo's web site, but Google search results are warning that the site has computer viruses. What's curious here is Ed Orcutt's endorsement for Castillo and not for fellow 18th LD'er Russell. What, no love for Faith & Freedom Network from Orcutt?