November 2008

The Seattle City Council on Monday voted to increase parking meter rates in Ballard by 50-cents, bringing the hourly rate to $2.

The Council also increased rates downtown by $1, increasing the hourly rate to $2.50.

This increase is said to help balance the city's 2009-2010 budget.

The news has come as an unwelcome surprise to many Ballard business owners and residents.

The Ballard Chamber of Commerce and some businesses worry that the rate will keep people from wanting to shop in downtown Ballard, pushed away to free parking in malls a

Robinson Newspapers

Amid a record number of people using Metro Transit, the King County Council voted on Monday to increase bus fare under a two-step schedule.

Executive Ron Sims proposed a 50 cent fare increase as part of his 2009 budget proposal on Oct. 13. The fare ordinance adopted by the council calls for fares for adults and those using the Access van service to increase 25 cents on Feb. 1, 2009. A second 25 cent increase in adult fares will be implemented on Jan.

"Change" is the key word in today's world - a word that rallied Americans to vote and cheer with new hope as people around the world joined in the celebration.

The question is-- change to what? More wireless communication, more time working than with family, less time to laugh, hug our kids and be thankful? Maybe so--yet people are re-evaluating priorities.

Do you suppose there's a way to change current lifestyles to encompass values from a simpler life of less anger and strife?

If you are my dad's age, you remember where you were they announced that Pearl Harbor had been bombed.

If you are over the age of say 50, you know exactly where you were when you heard that President Kennedy had been shot. Me, I remember quite well where I was when a radio announcer told us that John Lennon was shot. These are watershed moments that marked our childhoods.

Then there are the highs, too. I was working at KIRO Radio in my twenties when Baby Jessica fell down the well in Texas.

After more than two decades of controversy and construction, the third runway at Sea-Tac International Airport is set to open for commercial airline flights on Thursday, Nov. 20.

With the delays, costs for the 150-ft-wide, 17-inch thick, 8,500-foot runway ballooned to $1.2 billion.

U.S. Secretary of Transportation Mary Peters and acting Federal Aviation Administration administrator Robert Sturgell are scheduled to fly in to join Gov. Chris Gregoire and other dignitaries for an invitation-only ceremony around 3 p.m. Nov.

So after all these years, the third runway at Sea-Tac International Airport is opening for commercial flights this week.

When deciding whom to ask to comment on the past controversies and the current realities, I instinctively reached out to some of the people I would instantly telephone for comments after a new development popped up.

They are an interesting bunch.

Stuart Creighton and Brett Fish remain true skeptics of the Port and the project.

The Highline area will receive three new light rail stations, funds for Burien's transit center, a rebuilt Tukwila commuter station and expanded express bus service as a result of the passage of Sound Transit's Proposition One on the Nov. 4 ballet.

"This is a vote of generosity for the next generation," declared King County Chairwoman Julia Patterson.

Patterson noted that a similar mass transit proposition was turned down by voters in 1968.

The mother and younger brother of slain King County Sheriff's Deputy Steve Cox are offering a scholarship in his name to a Highline district high school student interesting in pursuing a career in law enforcement or criminal justice.

JoAn Cox and Ron Cox offered the scholarship last year to Evergreen High students, but this year are extending the offer to students in any Highline district high school.

(Editor's Note: Al Sneed was the owner of the Highline Times from 1955 until Jerry Robinson bought it from him in 1974. He is now retired, living in Enumclaw and is collaborating with Jerry in a book on the history of this newspaper. From time to time we will bring you tidbits of the early years.)

There were four business leaders, in Burien, for whom I had the utmost respect. They were Joe Jaffe, Leo Thomas, Vin Menella, and Merrill Bell. Of these four, I was most in awe of Merrill Bell.

King County Sheriff's Detective Joe Gagliardi told participants in a Burien gang awareness seminar on Nov. 13 that the gang problem in King County is growing, but something can still be done.

"We are not Los Angeles," he said.