{"id":171519,"date":"2010-01-12T14:11:29","date_gmt":"2010-01-12T19:11:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/seattletimes.nwsource.com\/html\/northwestvoices\/2010772774_privateparknrideanono.html?syndication=rss"},"modified":"2010-01-12T14:11:29","modified_gmt":"2010-01-12T19:11:29","slug":"private-park-n-ride-a-no-no","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/171519","title":{"rendered":"Private park ‘n’ ride a no-no"},"content":{"rendered":"

Decision makes no sense<\/strong><\/p>\n

In his column, Danny Westneat hit the nail on the head [\u201cCity won\u2019t let you park to ride\u201d NWSunday, Jan. 10]. I find it incredible that while we taxpayers are paying to have so many park-and- <\/span>ride lots built along the freeways to encourage people to use mass transit, the city of Seattle won\u2019t allow private citizens to do the same thing along the new light-rail line.<\/p>\n

Like so many other decisions made with regard to transportation in Seattle, it makes no sense. My office is in Renton and late last year I \u2014 along with most of my office \u2014 had to attend a function downtown. We carpooled over to the light-rail station in Tukwila and took light rail to downtown and back. I was pleasantly surprised and noticed, as did Westneat, that the parking lot was practically full.<\/p>\n

If people are going to use light rail, they have to have a way to get to the station. If bus service isn\u2019t practical, then they need to be able to drive their car to the station. Only in Seattle is this an issue.<\/p>\n

By the way, I\u2019d love to hear what our new mayor has to say on this issue.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Frank Lippman, Seattle<\/em><\/p>\n

Let the private industry work<\/strong><\/p>\n

It never ceases to amaze me how ignorant government at all levels can be. I don\u2019t think they realize that they are not a business. They are supposed to facilitate good governance, not run every facet of our lives.<\/p>\n

Why not let Safeway and others rent out unused parking spaces for light-rail commuters? There would be fewer vehicles clogging the streets, more taxable revenue from Safeway and Diamond Parking and easy access to well-lit parking for users, making light rail attractive \u2014 for a change.<\/p>\n

But, no, \u201cbig government\u201d and Seattle wants to use taxpayer money to build park-and-ride lots \u2014 hence all citizens\u2019 money is used to support the needs of the few \u2014 all at a cost greater than what the private sector could achieve. As usual, unbelievable government stupidity.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s simple: Let the private industry work. There will be no cost to government and increases in tax revenue.<\/p>\n

OK, Mayor [Mike] McGinn, let\u2019s see what you can do about government stupidity and saving our taxpayer dollars.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Pauline Cornelius, Olalla<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Decision makes no sense In his column, Danny Westneat hit the nail on the head [\u201cCity won\u2019t let you park to ride\u201d NWSunday, Jan. 10]. I find it incredible that while we taxpayers are paying to have so many park-and- ride lots built along the freeways to encourage people to use mass transit, the city […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-171519","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/171519","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=171519"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/171519\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=171519"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=171519"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=171519"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}