Morning Fizz, News & Politics

Inundated with Hundreds of Identical Emails from Microsoft

By Morning Fizz, Thursday, February 25, 2010 at 7:32 AM
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1. As expected, Q13 (the local FOX affiliate) did a piece on Ann Corbitt’s affair with British soccer star Ashley Cole last night. The spot, which runs to nearly four minutes (an eternity in TV time) is pretty devastating, including: a description of Corbitt as a “curvy blonde” who nonetheless “isn’t the trashy bimbo you might think;” speculation about whether she’ll be fired; and on-camera interviews with and local “sex expert” Pepper Schwartz; Seattle Displacement Coalition leader John Fox (?).

2. County executive Dow Constantine was inundated with hundreds of identical emails from Microsoft employees yesterday, imploring him to “use your leadership to make sure the [520 bridge] project remains on track.”

The text of the emails was copied and pasted from Microsoft’s new “Let’s Move” web site, part of a pricey new campaign by the Redmond company to defeat a proposal by Mayor Mike McGinn and House Speaker Frank Chopp (D-43) to revisit the idea of putting light rail or bus-rapid  transit on the bridge.

3. City Council member Tim Burgess plans to announce a crackdown on panhandling near ATMs and parking meters at a meeting of the Downtown Seattle Association this morning. The Seattle Times has the story.

4. We’re still waiting for the state House to detail where the $857 million in new revenue is coming from in its new budget (sales tax? sin taxes? eliminating tax loopholes?), but the budget has already won praise from low-income advocates (in comparison to the Senate and governor’s budget.)

Liberals are cheering the House for including $100 million for the Housing Trust Fund (a state fund that builds low income housing) and for sparing General Assistance to the Unemployable (GAU), a program that provides money for people whose disabilities prevent them from getting work. The governor’s budget and the Senate budget fail on both counts.

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  • nwbedbuilder
    You can't rebuild that bridge big enough to alleviate congestion. You still have the I-5 f-show. I'd have to say that if it took 14 years to design what they've got than it's no longer applicable.

    I bet Seattle, UW, Microsoft, and Bellevue have all changed drasitcally in the last 14 years, but I haven't been here, so what do I know.

    So it's dumb. It's dumb to do nothing, but doing the wrong thing is drastically dumber.
  • 520 bridge as designed by Microsoft.

    Make the bridge as big and wide as people have money to pay for...make sure to fill it to more than capacity and then some so it will have to be upgraded or replaced in two years.

    520 bridge as designed by Apple.

    Call in Bauhaus architects from Switzerland, to create a bridge one lane wide, but 10 lanes tall. Have them all painted white and curve around like lightweight ribbons, but made of materials that weigh thousands of tons and have to be propped up with lots of girders.

    520 Bridge as designed by Linux.

    Create a new 24 hour workday and ask people to randomly take 2 hour shifts at all hours of the day and night. Insure that all times the most narrow bridge possible is optimally loaded. Instead of integrated design, build low level "bridge kernel" and attach car lanes, train and bus transit as needed from individual companies. If bridge breaks down or crashes, release 2.6.x bridge kernel, rebuild bridge.
  • digiguy
    To relieve the stress on the publicly funded transport network in Redmond perhaps Microsoft could offer financial incentives to their loyal worker bees to move to the area, after all it is a great place to work, why not expose the family to the same conditions? Failing that perhaps Microsoft could schedule more workers on the afternoon and night shifts to help the public transport network. That would save a great deal of money,time and environment.I am sure the worker bees won't mind helping the planet, after all they have the prestige of working for one of the world's richest companies. Perhaps we must wait a little longer to see Microsoft's true green credentials.
  • cad
    all of the microsofties I know work 12 hours days. Which afternoon shift would that be?
  • Let's go ahead and vote on approving the light rail funding right now. And then again in 5 years when that doesn't pass.

    Or, let's go ahead and vote on Rapid Ride bus service right now for the new bridge. Allow the transit only lane to be used as HOV during the time busses are failing to serve. As soon as mass transit appears it can have the lanes.

    Doing nothing is a distant third option.

    McGinn to do list, city council, Microsoft, who is the target in March?
  • Scott
    Why on earth would MS be against mass transit on 520? This could only be good for their employees and ultimately their business.
  • forevergreen
    Bear in mind that the great Satan of software is one of the poorer actors in terms of transportation in the region.

    They not only constructed the worlds largest underground parking facility at their campus, but they provide that parking at no cost to drivers (heavily subsidizing car commuters).

    They fought to keep the eight lane option alive, even after the analysis showed it would create more problems than it would solve.

    They want the public to keep subsidizing their decidedly non-location efficient campus with more roads and lanes.

    Finally, they're behind the bill that would let their vans weave in and out of transit lanes, disrupting public transit.

    (And let's not forget that they benefit from huge tax loopholes their lobbyists engineered, while at the same time the state can't afford to maintain healthcare for poor children or homecare for the indigent elderly and disabled.)
  • Some Dude
    You're right, it would be much better if Microsoft just left the area. That way they wouldn't be stinking up the place with their dirty "employees" who buy houses, cars, and other goods that props up the local economy. They should just take their vanpools and their talented employees and just get the hell out of here.
  • I'm sorry...how many high paying jobs have you created? Would you also deride Boeing for having campuses that are a bit out of the way, and have free parking for their employees, and one with a freeway that basically serves one purpose - getting commuters to and from the campus?
  • Hmm, yes, where the fuck were they supposed to build their company facility, and where the hell was the mass transit to support all those commuters?

    This is gonna sound crazy, but companies choose to solve their own problems using reliable actions at a reasonable cost. Mass transit has been, and is neither.

    If everybody could stop pretending that there are train cars packed with people qued up waiting for track, that would be awesome.

    As bus service gets cut, and there has been very little indication that voters will vote for and pay for more trains (walk the Walk, Mike) there is no plan to implement a solution. Plans have resources, and schedules. What Mayor McSandbag has is a want and a goal.

    Let's have a town hall, WTF is that guy smoking?
  • kurisu
    Every single poll I've seen shows overwhelming support for more transit. Not sure what you're reading.
  • Tangent
    When the word "transit" is undefined and comes with no specifics or price tags, of course people are going to vote for it. Not sure what context you take it in.
  • gloomy gus
    They're not against it at all. They agree with the state that you have to design light rail on both ends before laying track on the bridge. They suspect the "lay rail first" movement of hypocrisy, of gladly misleading the public into supporting poor rail design simply to win the delay that is their true goal.
  • pco37
    I commend Publicola for its fair and non-sensational reporting on the Corbitt-Cole story.
  • There are condos in Kent selling for $90,000. That's a $400 a month mortgage. How much more affordable can you get?
  • Harry
    The majority of people the Housing Trust Fund helps - at 30% and below of the Area Median Income - would not qualify for a mortgage in Kent, Algona or Puyallup.

    If those same folks get stable housing and access to services like job training, education and life skills then some of those folks will be able to participate in the home market.

    On the commute question: Location of affordable housing along transit corridors rather than out and away from job centers is a common-sense approach; why create a situation in which poor people have to own and maintain a car and insurance which severely limits what they have available to spend on their own housing needs?
  • You realize the absurdity of it all.

    In order to get more money -- 30% of average -- the "poor" have to be in a high income area where the housing costs a lot, so therefore, they have to have "low income" housing.

    As opposed to just getting a cheap house in a low cost area, because they they wouldn't qualify for high median area income!

    And they say it's not The System!

    Your question on Transit Corridors: I agree! I believe that we should create "linear cities" along high speed rail lines. This way people can have many stops to live along, and not one super pricey exclusive "hub" like Seattle that costs a lot to get in and out of.

    With high speed rail ( 200 mph ) you could live up to 200 miles away and still have a relatively reasonable commute on a nice train! At that range, there would be plenty of cheap housing.

    And with linear cities, not everyone would be cramming into the same hubs. You could have a Linear City that stretches from Seattle to Spokane, with little spurs cross hatching it all the way. Maybe there's a high paying job in Pasco, but you want to live in Moses Lake. So what? At 200 mph, go for it!
  • kurisu
    If you have to drive a 50 mile roundtrip every day to work, that's not very affordable.
  • morning fizzy
    Kent to Seattle 32 miles -
  • Kent to Seattle 16 miles. 32 round trip.

    By Sounder 23 minutes.
  • Stacy
    Nice big money astroturf campaign Microsoft; please return to the smoky back-rooms now.
  • Harry
    The House has again stepped up to maintain its committment to affordable housing, and now the Senate and the Governor need to follow through and ensure this mini-stimulus (HTF dollars go right back into the general economy as wages,fees,land and materials purchases and taxes)is in the final budget they adopt and sign.

    Seattle residents have a particular stake in the HTF - our Housing Levy is specifically designed to leverage this type of funding source and without the HTF it will be very difficult to fulfill the voter's mandate from last November.
  • matthewsbeachmikek
    I saw the report on the affair after American Idol. I was not surprised that the 'news' gave such an inordinate amount of time to a story like this. If they would spend that much time on real issues, we might actually be able to call it the news. This is the 'news' team that brought us other hard hitting stories, such as the one about the local Idol contestant who had to withdraw for reasons that now escape me. I've long since abandoned the local tv 'news', but have watched more than my share lately, since starting to watch American Idol with my daughter. I haven't been hitting the off button fast enough, I guess.
  • morning fizzy
    "I haven't been hitting the off button fast enough, I guess."

    Yeah like a hour before the news comes on.
  • matthewsbeachmikek
    Actually, Idol was 2 hours last night, so I hit it 2 hours late ;)
  • morning fizzy
    Sorry that I'm not up on Idol run time -;)
  • sempervirens
    John Fox?! No surprise he was the only one the crew could find to talk at City Hall. Cute, btw: Fox on Fox -- how Seussian. And oh, Pepper, such nuance -- no wonder you're the nationally renowned sexpert (sheesh)!
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