It's the racism and homophobia. I'm not white or straight enough to pass there and as a result, I've heard every terrible slur possible for LGBT, Hispanic, Mexican or Latino people directed at me. Plus it cuts both ways, trying to come out to gay people there was met with "bi is a lie" and "just put both feet out the closet and quit with this bi shit". Seattle's just Portland with the added "fuck you" of sales tax.
@BalooUriza I haven't noticed these problems in Seattle nearly as much, although they do exist especially on the Eastside. But Portland, I hear the most fucked up shit coming from there.
@BalooUriza Oh it definitely is fucking real. Non-transplant Seattle people don't want to talk to you. They don't want to be your friend. They flake constantly. It is fucking awful.
And it's like that professionally, too. Never was able to collect on like, three customers that never paid me for shipping when I was doing hotshot freight. I stopped taking loads from Seattle billing addresses after that, except by referral.
@BalooUriza Seattle is so fucked, I have seen people duck out of the hall when they see people are in it, so they don't have to interact with people. And this isn't just a thing in my building, I've heard several stories like this. This place is like, holy fuck what is wrong with these people? Did they just make a city of the most autistic people they could find?
Oh, expanding on this, watch local television if Seattle still has it, though there's been so many acquisitions and mergers i'm not entirely sure if it's still a thing. Though KING used to (or maybe still does?) lead into SNL on Saturdays with Almost Live!, a locally produced sketch show of a similar format to SNL, but pre-recorded.
If it's not still being made, the best sketches from it's surprisingly long run is still on youtube.
@BalooUriza Mind you, I am autistic myself, but Christ almighty I am not this maladjusted. Anywhere else, these people would be told to get help. Here, it's just normal.
@BalooUriza Yeahhhh like I love the place but the people are so standoffish. I have my friends but I really don't have a prayer of expanding my friend group lol.
Yeah, kind of the tradeoff between here and there. Here, you can make new friends but might get randomly killed in a hate crime. There, you can't really make new friends and you might get randomly killed because someone got the wrong Starbucks order.
I'm afraid I'm gonna get in a fight on the train by just minding my own business because some fent head thought I looked at them. Or because I ignored them. That's nearly happened. I witnessed a fight on the street car the other day, bad enough where mace got involved. My girlfriend and I were about to get up and do something because the driver wouldn't.
I've seen and even experienced random violence in Tulsa, but here it feels much more random.
I mean, I had my glasses punched through my ear by someone who suckerpunched me from behind on the Blue Line MAX just for holding hands with another man on the train. We weren't even talking, just vibing waiting for the train to leave the tunnel because it's flat out impossible to hear yourself think, much less hold a conversation, in a low floor train in a tunnel (zero room for soundproofing).
@BalooUriza Fucking Christ. Have never heard anything like that happening in Seattle. This explains a lot about my girlfriend who was raised in Portland.
@tk That might be why Seattle (and to a lesser extent, Portland) doesn't entirely click for me, the individualism narrative someplace that's so painfully, obviously codependent on literally everyone and everything around them is so diametrically opposed. When you put it that way, gives a real "I'm a unique snowflake, just like everyone else" vibe.
@tk @BalooUriza Seattle has some of the most dysfunctional politics I have ever seen. I can't believe it. How fucking long can it take to build a train network? Apparently 50 years if you're doing it in Seattle.
@tk Not really, Portland's usual "collapse the entire MAX network in bad dispatching and confusion" moment generally revolves around bridgelifts and Trimet's unwillingness or inability to remember they built track crossovers to continue service by terminating trains and turning them back on either side of the bridge while leaving travelers to wait to cross at Chinatown, Union Station or Rose Quarter.
@tk Though, as I posted yesterday, they're about to fuck over all their service for two months while they rebuild Gateway Transit Center to favor the interlining on the Banfield Mainline rather than just combining the Red and Green lines into a unified single Red Line and expecting people to change to/from the Blue Line to connect to/from points east and west...
@tk Which is seriously, stupidly obnoxious considering that Skidmore Fountain and Chinatown were built as sister stations to handle this EXACT situation a forethough in the original 1978 design, along with the original Rose Quarter (blue line side) on the eastside. The newer yellow line side and adding light rail to Union Station was ALL for this operational need to keep going during a bridge lift, because of the huge, weather protected space made by the bridge above or station hall
@tk @BalooUriza Oh my God the way Sound Transit does track maintenance is criminal. I rely on them to get around and this is fucking terrible. Especially with what's about to happen in a few days for a month where they're basically taking downtown effectively out of service. I live in the ID and this is fucking terrible.
I had to google that to realize you meant Chinatown...
Both ST and Trimet, despite having long overnight dead periods, struggles to do trackwork at night for some reason. I think the most intense trackwork I saw them undertake during the overnight hours was rail grinding in the fall and winter (which doubled as leaf removal).
All the switch maintenance appears to be on an "as it fails completely" basis.
@BalooUriza @tk They've put off this maintenance since 2019, when bus service ended in the DSTT (as mad as it made people, ending joint service was really the right move). Buses ran over the bond boxes and trashed them. They are only replacing them now because they basically have to.
They also have to replace the rail at the University St corner, the sharpest corner in the system and one which should never have had light rail run on it, but the people who designed the tunnel were frankly incompetent (look up the saga of the previous never-used rails that were in there that had to be ripped out).
Then there was the time a clock was inappropriately bonded to the ceiling of Westlake Station and the city allowed them to dig 6' when the station was 3' below. That was fun.
The tunnel has had so many issues, it's a miracle it ever stays open at all.
I mean, it's kinda that way everywhere. Little Mongolia in Portland is the couple blocks just outside the Chinatown gate but everybody just calls it Chinatown or Old Town.
I'm pretty sure the Seattle Bus Tunnel was designed for PCC streetcars (which can't quite accelerate or brake as fast as a bus, but can turn almost as tight as my pickup owing to having a wheelbase barely longer than my pickup), which were still in use (albeit not for long) when the bus tunnel was designed. They thought the tunnel would kickstart a new generation of streetcars.
Actually come to think of it, last time I used the bus tunnel was around the time that Seattle started adding yellow beacon flashers and having warning announcements when buses were approaching because people kept getting concussed or killed by bus side view mirrors extending over the platforms striking people in the face or back of the head.
Which isn't even something that has to be said in, say, the New York Subway or the SEPTA tunnels. The piston effect is enough to get people to stand back. I swear us northwest natives were born without a sense of self preservation or something.
@BalooUriza @tk The tunnels have signage now that tell you when a train approaches, sometimes even a reasonable ETA if it feels like working that day, obnoxious announcements telling you what doesn't work today, and SOUND TRANSIT DOES NOT TOLERATE HARASSMENT. PLEASE REPORT ANY HARASSMENT TO SECURITY OR A TRANSIT EMPLOYEE.
(who will do nothing about it... though sexual assault and drug use is a huge problem here on the train)
@tk I'm bummed we'll probably never see another transit vehicle like the PCC streetcar. It, and the trolleybus, are like the two vehicles best suited for high frequency surface lines on existing streets.
No, the Seattle Process (known further south as the Clark Process or Vancouver Process) is just petulant children (eg, conservatives from the mainstream of the Democrats through to the childfucking Libertarians) generally trying to sabotage and NIMBY everything constantly. The difference between Washington and Oklahoma politically is if they're allowed to gerrymander and disenfranchise enough to pick their voters.
I still remember how hard the rich people in southern Bellevue on the Eastside fought the construction of the line near their properties. They made Sound Transit put the tracks through a lidded trench for a single building!
@BalooUriza That said, the racism here is not better. Holy shit, it is so fucking not better. Seattle is racist as fuck, white as fuck, what they're doing to the CD is a tragedy, it all fucking sucks so much and makes me so mad.
Baloo Uriza
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Baloo Uriza
in reply to Baloo Uriza • • •Oh, expanding on this, watch local television if Seattle still has it, though there's been so many acquisitions and mergers i'm not entirely sure if it's still a thing. Though KING used to (or maybe still does?) lead into SNL on Saturdays with Almost Live!, a locally produced sketch show of a similar format to SNL, but pre-recorded.
If it's not still being made, the best sketches from it's surprisingly long run is still on youtube.
Neil E. Hodges likes this.
Neil E. Hodges
in reply to Baloo Uriza • •Baloo Uriza
in reply to Neil E. Hodges • • •@tk Meanwhile I swear I remember you saying you learned to drive in Ballard, which immediately made me think of https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KBgIvH0tu6Y
@Elizafox
Ballard Driving Academy - Almost Live
YouTubecat(fox) :therian:
in reply to cat(fox) :therian: • • •Baloo Uriza
in reply to cat(fox) :therian: • • •cat(fox) :therian:
in reply to Baloo Uriza • • •Baloo Uriza
in reply to cat(fox) :therian: • • •cat(fox) :therian:
in reply to Baloo Uriza • • •@BalooUriza This is pretty much exactly it. lol
I'm afraid I'm gonna get in a fight on the train by just minding my own business because some fent head thought I looked at them. Or because I ignored them. That's nearly happened. I witnessed a fight on the street car the other day, bad enough where mace got involved. My girlfriend and I were about to get up and do something because the driver wouldn't.
I've seen and even experienced random violence in Tulsa, but here it feels much more random.
Baloo Uriza
in reply to cat(fox) :therian: • • •cat(fox) :therian:
in reply to Baloo Uriza • • •Baloo Uriza
in reply to cat(fox) :therian: • • •Neil E. Hodges
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Baloo Uriza
in reply to Neil E. Hodges • • •@tk That might be why Seattle (and to a lesser extent, Portland) doesn't entirely click for me, the individualism narrative someplace that's so painfully, obviously codependent on literally everyone and everything around them is so diametrically opposed. When you put it that way, gives a real "I'm a unique snowflake, just like everyone else" vibe.
@Elizafox
Neil E. Hodges likes this.
Neil E. Hodges
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Baloo Uriza
in reply to Neil E. Hodges • • •@tk Not really, Portland's usual "collapse the entire MAX network in bad dispatching and confusion" moment generally revolves around bridgelifts and Trimet's unwillingness or inability to remember they built track crossovers to continue service by terminating trains and turning them back on either side of the bridge while leaving travelers to wait to cross at Chinatown, Union Station or Rose Quarter.
@Elizafox
like this
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Baloo Uriza
in reply to Baloo Uriza • • •@tk Though, as I posted yesterday, they're about to fuck over all their service for two months while they rebuild Gateway Transit Center to favor the interlining on the Banfield Mainline rather than just combining the Red and Green lines into a unified single Red Line and expecting people to change to/from the Blue Line to connect to/from points east and west...
@Elizafox
like this
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Baloo Uriza
in reply to Baloo Uriza • • •@tk Which is seriously, stupidly obnoxious considering that Skidmore Fountain and Chinatown were built as sister stations to handle this EXACT situation a forethough in the original 1978 design, along with the original Rose Quarter (blue line side) on the eastside. The newer yellow line side and adding light rail to Union Station was ALL for this operational need to keep going during a bridge lift, because of the huge, weather protected space made by the bridge above or station hall
@Elizafox
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cat(fox) :therian:
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Baloo Uriza
in reply to cat(fox) :therian: • • •I had to google that to realize you meant Chinatown...
Both ST and Trimet, despite having long overnight dead periods, struggles to do trackwork at night for some reason. I think the most intense trackwork I saw them undertake during the overnight hours was rail grinding in the fall and winter (which doubled as leaf removal).
All the switch maintenance appears to be on an "as it fails completely" basis.
@tk
Neil E. Hodges likes this.
cat(fox) :therian:
in reply to Baloo Uriza • • •@BalooUriza @tk They've put off this maintenance since 2019, when bus service ended in the DSTT (as mad as it made people, ending joint service was really the right move). Buses ran over the bond boxes and trashed them. They are only replacing them now because they basically have to.
They also have to replace the rail at the University St corner, the sharpest corner in the system and one which should never have had light rail run on it, but the people who designed the tunnel were frankly incompetent (look up the saga of the previous never-used rails that were in there that had to be ripped out).
Then there was the time a clock was inappropriately bonded to the ceiling of Westlake Station and the city allowed them to dig 6' when the station was 3' below. That was fun.
The tunnel has had so many issues, it's a miracle it ever stays open at all.
Neil E. Hodges likes this.
cat(fox) :therian:
in reply to cat(fox) :therian: • • •Baloo Uriza
in reply to cat(fox) :therian: • • •I mean, it's kinda that way everywhere. Little Mongolia in Portland is the couple blocks just outside the Chinatown gate but everybody just calls it Chinatown or Old Town.
@tk
Baloo Uriza
in reply to cat(fox) :therian: • • •I'm pretty sure the Seattle Bus Tunnel was designed for PCC streetcars (which can't quite accelerate or brake as fast as a bus, but can turn almost as tight as my pickup owing to having a wheelbase barely longer than my pickup), which were still in use (albeit not for long) when the bus tunnel was designed. They thought the tunnel would kickstart a new generation of streetcars.
@tk
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Baloo Uriza
in reply to Baloo Uriza • • •Actually come to think of it, last time I used the bus tunnel was around the time that Seattle started adding yellow beacon flashers and having warning announcements when buses were approaching because people kept getting concussed or killed by bus side view mirrors extending over the platforms striking people in the face or back of the head.
@tk
Neil E. Hodges likes this.
cat(fox) :therian:
in reply to Baloo Uriza • • •cat(fox) :therian:
in reply to cat(fox) :therian: • • •Baloo Uriza
in reply to cat(fox) :therian: • • •Which isn't even something that has to be said in, say, the New York Subway or the SEPTA tunnels. The piston effect is enough to get people to stand back. I swear us northwest natives were born without a sense of self preservation or something.
@tk
Neil E. Hodges likes this.
cat(fox) :therian:
in reply to Baloo Uriza • • •Neil E. Hodges
in reply to Baloo Uriza • •Baloo Uriza
in reply to cat(fox) :therian: • • •They were brand fucking new when I was in the tunnel last!
@tk
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cat(fox) :therian:
in reply to Baloo Uriza • • •@BalooUriza @tk The tunnels have signage now that tell you when a train approaches, sometimes even a reasonable ETA if it feels like working that day, obnoxious announcements telling you what doesn't work today, and SOUND TRANSIT DOES NOT TOLERATE HARASSMENT. PLEASE REPORT ANY HARASSMENT TO SECURITY OR A TRANSIT EMPLOYEE.
(who will do nothing about it... though sexual assault and drug use is a huge problem here on the train)
Neil E. Hodges likes this.
Baloo Uriza
in reply to cat(fox) :therian: • • •Same as it ever was.
@tk
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Neil E. Hodges
in reply to Baloo Uriza • •Baloo Uriza
in reply to Neil E. Hodges • • •@tk These days? The beacons started going in 25 years ago, old man! ;)
@Elizafox
cat(fox) :therian:
in reply to Baloo Uriza • • •Neil E. Hodges
in reply to Baloo Uriza • •Baloo Uriza
in reply to Neil E. Hodges • • •@tk I'm bummed we'll probably never see another transit vehicle like the PCC streetcar. It, and the trolleybus, are like the two vehicles best suited for high frequency surface lines on existing streets.
@Elizafox
like this
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Baloo Uriza
in reply to Neil E. Hodges • • •No, the Seattle Process (known further south as the Clark Process or Vancouver Process) is just petulant children (eg, conservatives from the mainstream of the Democrats through to the childfucking Libertarians) generally trying to sabotage and NIMBY everything constantly. The difference between Washington and Oklahoma politically is if they're allowed to gerrymander and disenfranchise enough to pick their voters.
@Elizafox
like this
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Neil E. Hodges
in reply to Baloo Uriza • •cat(fox) :therian:
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Baloo Uriza
in reply to cat(fox) :therian: • • •Neil E. Hodges
in reply to Baloo Uriza • •Baloo Uriza
in reply to Neil E. Hodges • • •@tk When did y'all stop calling it "city center" like every other city in the region?
@Elizafox
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