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The coming wealth flight from Wash State

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  • PostGameOrangeSlices
    PostGameOrangeSlices Member Posts: 27,754

    the light rail actually gets used a lot. I used to use it to get to the airport when I lived in Seattle and it was always busy.

    The problem is lack of fare enforcement and security presence. They are finally enforcing the fares, imagine such a crazy concept.

    And on education, this take was assuming responsible spending by the right people. In theory it should work.

    I know Mississippi tried some new stuff and went from 50 to mid 20s in literacy, good for them

  • HHusky
    HHusky Member Posts: 24,419

    I've long said that we actually know what it takes to teach children to read, but it's hard work and not much fun so some don't do it.

    My children respond, "Okay, boomer."

    But I'm right.

  • WestlinnDuck
    WestlinnDuck Member Posts: 17,962 Standard Supporter

    They have light rail from downtown Portland to the Airport on the eastside of town. Took it once. Pretty sure less than 10% of the passengers actually paid. Was a total freak show. No way that I would take it again. Nothing says success like a dem public transportation project. When the grift to dem construction company donors and bus/train manufacturers and dem consultants and employees are the intended beneficiaries instead of the public you have a problem. $200 million (old dollars) put into the public burn ban for 2.2 miles of track and zero revenue. At least no tariff money was involved.

    https://pjmedia.com/catherinesalgado/2025/06/03/guess-how-much-dc-dems-spent-on-streetcars-theyre-now-ditching-n4940399

    Guess How Much D.C. Dems Wasted on Streetcars They’re Now Ditching?

    Catherine Salgado 

    The streetcar left much to be desired. The Democrat-run city of Washington, D.C., is derailing its $200 million boondoggle streetcar system only 10 years after the streetcars began to operate. Oh well, $200 million of our hard-earned taxpayer funds down the drain — on to the next expensive wasteful project! 

    The costly D.C. streetcar system, only 2.2 miles long, is going into the trash heap 15 years after the track was first laid and only a decade into operations. The streetcars were justified originally as being more “environmentally friendly” — Dems love to shove in the climate hoax everywhere — and more accessible. They were also meant to be more “aesthetically pleasing.” Instead, the streetcar system was a cash-draining catastrophe and will soon be replaced again with buses.

    D.C. mayor and professional incompetent Muriel Bowser desperately tried to obscure the failure of the streetcar line by asserting that the electric bus replacement is a “next generation streetcar,” National Pulse noted

    Expect more disasters — electric vehicles are expensive, inefficient, and the batteries die faster and are very toxic to manufacture and dispose of. Not to mention our already strained grid can’t really handle increases in electric vehicles. If D.C. is bent on electric buses, the city transit system is only continuing to careen toward crisis.

    The electric bus that will replace the H Street streetcar will utilize the existing overhead power cables, meaning it will still suffer from some of the existing drawbacks that the failed street-level rail system did. Notably, the existing rail line lacks a barrier separating it from the street, which has resulted in the streetcar being unable to proceed forward when a car is double-parked and blocking its track. While the electric bus will not be confined to a track in the same manner as the streetcar, the overhead cables will still limit its maneuverability.

    Never learn from your mistakes — that’s the Democrat motto. Fortunately, city leadership can afford luxurious private transport, so they can continue to ruin ordinary citizens’ lives without experiencing the consequences themselves.

    The National Pulse emphasized the failure of the streetcar system:

    In over one decade of operation, the D.C. streetcar has never once generated a single dollar of revenue. It operates on a $10 million taxpayer subsidy per year.

    The D.C. Democrats are determined to continue implementing an inefficient, unreliable, and very expensive “green” public transit system, despite facing serious budget issues. The definition of insanity is Democrats doubling down on idiocy over and over again and demanding you believe the lie that this time, there will be different results.

  • HHusky
    HHusky Member Posts: 24,419

    I definitely use light rail to and from the airport. I also used to be what was once called a "reverse commuter"; I would have been happy to use it to go to and from the Eastside. I used public transport during that time.

  • RaceBannon
    RaceBannon Member, Moderator, Swaye's Wigwam Posts: 115,753 Founders Club

    Well you're poor so…

  • RaceBannon
    RaceBannon Member, Moderator, Swaye's Wigwam Posts: 115,753 Founders Club
  • Fire_Marshall_Bill
    Fire_Marshall_Bill Member Posts: 26,196 Standard Supporter

    I sometimes ride it from Sea-Tac when I visit, which is two or three times per year. I took it to Huskie Stadium once for the Boise CC game. It was really crowded.

  • UW_Doog_Bot
    UW_Doog_Bot Member, Swaye's Wigwam Posts: 18,587 Founders Club

    My dad used to take the red car by himself when he was a kid from LB to Downtown to meet his dad and go to Dodger games.

    I used to take the blue line in my 20's to events. It was rough, but better than the 90's.

    I would never take it now. No one else that can afford not to will either.

  • haie
    haie Member, Swaye's Wigwam Posts: 24,569 Founders Club

    I took the light rail from the U-District to Husky Stadium once.

    The experience was gay and I was clearly retarded.

    Never again.

  • thechatch
    thechatch Member Posts: 7,509 Standard Supporter

    lol at spending more on education.


    1 dollar in 10 flows through to students.

    We’re closing elementary schools in Bellevue because of lack of head count…yet property taxes go up up up.

    I wonder why that is.