…Where you can get your energy-saving TV, your energy-saving washing machine, and, soon, your energy-saving transport vehicle.

…just where Link light rail will take us starting next month, I found myself directed to a Google Maps page that still includes the Longacres horse racing track. Alas, Longacres disappeared in 1992, when the World Wide Web was little more than a glint in Tim Berners-Lee’s eyes.

By the way: The light rail’s initial southern terminus, the “Tukwila-International Boulevard Station,” is smack dab in the middle of nothing but Sea-Tac Airport’s outer sprawl. There will be a shuttle bus from there to the airport terminal until December, when Link’s own airport stop’s ready. I’ve found no official word on whether any other Metro routes will be revised to stop anywhere near the TIB. Right now, none do, except for a couple of commute-only express runs.

My longtime acquaintance and zine publishing veteran Wendi Dunlap has launched a crusade to bring back the Waterfront Streetcar.

(via Chuck Mathias):

So the big-wigs are getting the gazillion-dollar tunnel nobody else wants (Guys! I don’t care how temporarily cheap the depression’s made gas–cars are OVER! If you had the foresight of the average
rat sniffing a trap, you’d use the few dollars left before hyperinflation sets in to renovate the state’s railroads, including the TRACKS THAT ARE ALREADY UNDER THE VIADUCT!) Just another notch to add to their shootin’ arns, I guess, next to the monorail lots of other people wanted but didn’t get, and the baseball stadium lots of other people didn’t want, but got stuck with anyway. There are probably other examples, but I’m a Tacoman and not well-informed (sorry for the redundancy).I guess the question is: Are liberal oligarchs supposed to be better than the other kind?

Your site’s a treasure, by the way–about the only blog of a strictly local nature I never miss.

Chuck Mathias

“We need a new mayor.com.”

Greg Nickels has more than worn out his welcome.

He’s wrested a lot of administrative power away from the City Council, only to use it for little more than developer giveaways and meaningless granstanding measures. He let the Sonics go with little more than a wave goodbye. He might have not predicted the December snows, but he sure didn’t seem to have a clue how to act when they got here. His interpretation of “roads and transit” seems to be becoming “ROADS, with a hint of transit flavoring.”

Hell, if nobody else will run against him, I will.

I’ve got no money and no experience in elective office. All I’ve got are ideas (some of which are good) and a sense of judgment (which sometimes proves wise).

…here’s what’s happenin’:

• Remember in ’04, when the WashState GOP was all a-flutter over trumped-up allegations of ballot miscounts? Now they’ve gotta answer to the Huckabee campaign’s similar charges.
• Starbucks to give in to pressure from the indies and offer free WiFi, sort of, with a lot of conditions.
• The city council’s allocated a $350,000 fund to help limited-income tenants of apartment buildings that turn condo. Mayor Nickels isn’t spending a dime of it.
• Internet “server farms” don’t employ many people (except in construction, while they’re being built). But they could be worth millions in tax breaks for the companies that run ’em.
• Some in Seattle would really like more transit to the Eastside. Some Eastside politicians would rather just have more highway lanes.
• Bremerton woman mistakenly deposits meth in an ATM. Arrest-arity ensues.

• Congress passes BushCo’s economic stimulus. O, wouldst that we had an economy that didn’t so desperately require incessant stimulation. And yes, some commentators have already used the dirty-joke possibilities inherent within that.
• Are biofuels actually worse, emissions-wise, than petroleum products?
• On the other hand, it is possible to run an entire fringe theater production on human energy, including the lights.
• Some dude from the Natl. Assoc. of Realtors claims Seattle area housing prices may be “too low.”
• Sen. Clinton in Seattle: “…If we get our focus right in America there is no stopping us.”
• Sen. Obama in Seattle: Later today. (He’s just been endorsed by Gov. Gregoire.)
• Sen. McCain in Seattle: That’ll be $2,300 to get in.
• Gov. Gregoire: Our economy’s still fab.
• Gangs are setting up shop in the exurbs, AKA meth-lab country. Included in the linked story: “An all-white chapter of the Black Gangster Disciples is working the Bothell area.”
• Another day, another ferry out of service.
• A load of newly minted Canadian quarters got spilled in a truck accident. These days, that’s real money.

…is over, and the party races are just as muddled as before. In other nooze:

• Seattle transportation planners have a desire named streetcar.
• We say goodbye today to Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, TM founder, mantra seller, and guru to everyone from John Lennon to David Lynch; to Barry Morse, costar of the original The Fugitive and Space: 1999; and to Dr. Ernesto Illy, purveyor of canned espresso beans and a promoter of better coffee back when Howard Schultz was still playing college football.
• Starting this June: Nonstop flights from Sea-Tac to Beijing.
• Wall St. goes kablooey, recession’s probably already here.
• Meanwhile, the housing slump’s shut down 18 sawmills in the state.
• Issaquah bans panhandling, car washes, not cookie sales.
• Guy pretends to be a member of rock vets Queensryche, as part of a plan to steal people’s IDs.
• “Boy hit in the face with water bottle thrown from car.”
• A judge rules against BushCo, says the Navy still has to protect orcas from sonar.
• One more reason to visit my ol’ hometown: A museum full of vintage telephone gear.
• Tornados in the South kill at least 48. Could climate change be one reason for the storms’ severity?

(My apologies if that word-wraps weirdly in your browser.) As we await the potential end of at least one party race, knowing we’ve got our own state caucuses this Saturday, here’s some other nooze:

• Bush’s budget has good news for Sound Transit, bad news for education and health care.
• The Legislature’s working on relief for tenants of condo-converted apartments, just as that trend seems to be reversing.
• Oregon had gay marriages, then it didn’t. Now it’s got “domestic partnerships.”
• Georgetown: Potential haven for live theater groups displaced by gentrification elsewhere.
• Tully’s Coffee, which has turned a profit in exactly one of its 16 years, might be for sale.

…a new month, and largely the same ol’ nooze:

• Ron Paul, in town for two quick speeches, brought forth some more of his right-fringe, anti-gov’t. talk. Then he and his aides drove off in a minivan to Spokane, presumably hoping the WSDOT crews had gotten the passes reopened.
• Microsoft offers a whoppin’ $45 billion in an unsolicited bid to take over Yahoo! (which, in turn, owns Flickr, HotJobs, GeoCities, and a bunch of other stuff).Of course, I remember when its name was a “backronym” for “Yet Another Hierarchical Officious Oracle,” and its chief service was a categorized directory of other Web sites. For a couple of years, my daily morning routine included a quick glance through the “What’s New On Yahoo!” page, which told me everything that was new n’ exciting on that rapidly-growin’ World Wide Web. In time, as you can imagine, that became a too-cumbersome way to look for stuff online. Yahoo! expanded into other Web-based businesses—a lot of other Web-based businesses.

  Now, MS wants Y!’s search sites, and will pay big bucks to get ’em. What would happen to the rest of Yahoo!’s sprawling network of sites? MS would likely keep (and rebrand) some, fold others into its existing MSN, and close or sell the rest.

• The former Harvey’s Tavern in “Freelard” (Leary Way, between Fremont and Ballard) is yet another ex-dive bar going upscale.
• Remember when Kroger/QFC wanted to take over the Metropolitan Market site on Upper Queen Anne (nee Queen Anne Thriftway), as part of a huge condo project? Now it’ll be a smaller apartment project, and the developers have invited Metropolitan Market back when it’s done.
• Joe Isuzu calls it quits, at least in the U.S. market. No more “millions of standard features.”
• Mayor Nickels hearts Obama.
• A former Bartell Drugs pharmacy technician pleaded guilty to filing fraudulant prescriptions on his own behalf.
• New border rules bring no big delays, at least in terms getting south from There to Here.
• Freak accident of the day: A truck, being towed by a crane, gets loose, rolls downhill, and runs into two bicyclists.
• Sound Transit might suspend plans to extend its still-under-construction light rail line all the way to Tacoma. Don’t stop now! Channel your inner Little Engine That Could!

…anxiously awaits the long-threatened but still nonexistent Snowstorm ’08, here’s what else has been going on:

• That plan to restore the boarded-up, aluminum-clad windows at the King County Courthouse? Not gonna happen.
• That plan to channel state money for a Husky Stadium remodel? Not dead yet.
• Seattle’s finally getting a new strip club; sure enough, it’s situated right alongside the unofficially-named South Lake Union Trolley.
• The many human services groups based at First United Methodist Church are packin’ up and movin’ out. The last church service at the classic sanctuary: Easter, 3/23. That building’s being saved for commercial use, but the ’50s-era annex building’s going away.
• There’s good news for music lovers: Capitol Music, the city’s top vendor of orchestral instruments and sheet music for more than 90 years, has reopened in Roosevelt, a year after development consumed its last downtown location.
• Caucus or primary? Wash. state’s got both.

…if any of you find these morning headline thangs useful. I find them useful, at least. So without further ado:

• There’ll be another Sound Transit referendum. We just don’t know when or for how much.
• But there won’t be legislation to provide state funding for a Husky Stadium rebuild.
• There’s a heartwarming human interest story about several local radio vets and legends who’ve put together an online radio station with the aid of Seattle Community Colleges, streaming the sounds of Seattle airwaves’ past.
• More Port of Seattle shenanigans were recently unearthed, including a sweetheart deal to cover up cost overruns on the Sea-Tac third runway.
• Seattle’s homeless population is up 15 percent from the last “one night count.”

…And in the nooze:

• The local biz world would be a less poppin’ place if out-of-staters take over WaMu.
• Affordable-health-care advocates have picked their current local target business—not some big-box retailer but the venerable 13 Coins restaurants.
• The Wash. State Legislature— America’s second gayest.
• Metro’s got more riders than ever. Don’t worry; the Eymans and Reicherts will keep insisting on car-only transportation solutions, no matter what.
• Coyotes are so 2007. The new feral menace in Seattle: Exotic cats.

…to the 27 people who attended my li’l book event at the Form/Space Atelier gallery. If I’d known I’d have had a mike and a stage and a desk, I’d have scripted something.

IN SATURDAY’S NOOZE:

• Declared too damaged to be preserved, the City’s allowed developer David Sabey to demolish the Stock House at theold Georgetown brewery complex on Airport Way, the pre-Prohibition home of Rainier Beer.
• A marriage made in heck: Wife runs a street ministry to drug addicts in Tacoma, hubby sells crack in Seattle.
• Sonic Boom Records is leaving Fremont, in another instance of the arty and funky disappearing from neighborhoods that have been sold to home buyers on the basis of their artiness and funkiness.
• BankAmericrap is bailing out Countrywide Financial, onetime big blowers of the housing bubble.
• Wash. state challenges the Bushies on draconian anti-privacy regulations.
• The ferry system doesn’t know where to put all its out-of-commission boats.
• What? You mean to tell me old pier pilings are bad for the water?
• Pat Cashman has a 30-year-old son, who won some online joke-telling contest. In other passage-of-time news, Madonna will be eligible to join AARP this year.
• And in case you haven’t heard, the Seahawks play an extremely important playoff game this afternoon.

• Clark County’s been experimenting with biodeisel transit buses. Biggest glitch so far: The eco-fuel jells in cold weather.
• Some folks apparently got a little carried away on New Year’s, shooting guns into the air and engaging in questionable driving.
• Oh-Seven’s weather? Crazy, man.
• Seattle’s last homicide of the old year, the slaying of a Sierra Club organizer outside a Capitol Hill condo, might have been the work of a stalker.