I'm hanging this off of Tom's post, but it's sort of a longish reply to a number of them...
[email protected] (Steve McDonald) wrote in message
news:<
[email protected]>...
> The resistance of the mansion-dwellers to bikes near their homes is due to simple, primitive
> thinking. They feel that if people on lowly, cheap vehicles can pass nearby, then their most
> substantial display of conspicuous consumption will be degraded.
Actually, generally speaking, you can't see these people's houses. The steep slope and number of
trees between the road and the where the houses sit on the lake or up on the hill means that they
are hidden.
> Don't bother confronting or trying to reason with them, but find ways to ignore or bypass
> them.
The real audience is the City Council. But if the City Council does not want discord when the
recommendation is presented to them – that would be unseemly. They want all the yelling to happen
before that time. If we can't compromise, nothing will be done. The road will continue to
deteriorate; unsafe conditions will only worsen for everyone.
[email protected] (Trudi Marrapodi) wrote in message
news:<
[email protected]>...
> I think what Claire has run into is your typical people who think, now that they're wealthy (or
> maybe because they've always been wealthy), they can throw money at anything they personally don't
> like, for whatever reason, and make it go away.
>
> Sounds like the spoiled brats need to learn a lesson.
Which is why, when we won in Redmond, the mayor of the City of Woodinville wrote a letter in
congratulations to the Redmond City Council, for standing up to the wealthy lakeside homeowners. I'm
don't know if our council has similar balls.
When I asked a parkway resident what alternative the cars should take, rather than the parkway, the
answer was 164th Avenue, ie, mostly a neighborhood of these little 1950s starter home ramblers that
probably have the lowest housing values in our city. I was sorely tempted to ask why people who live
right on a road (rather than having major set-backs with a big curtain of trees) should have all the
cars whizzing by, but again, this was my time to listen, not argue.
Patrick Lamb <
[email protected]> wrote in message news:<
[email protected]>...
> Just out of curiosity, has anyone surveyed the area for the density of Asperger's
> Syndrome-afflicted residents? It sounds to me as though this should be a support group, instead of
> a city-sponsored barbecue. (If AS support group isn't already an oxymoron!)
Y'know, I have some AS members of my immediate and extended family, and I'd much rather deal with
Aspies than deal with this crowd. My experience with Aspies is that they have no hidden agenda –
what you see is what you get – and ones I know are terribly concerned with fairness. I could work
with Aspies.
> (I should guess that there's probably a high proportion of residents, if it is a MS suburb, that's
> getting to middle age and finding it difficult to keep up with the endless 20-hour work days,
> enormous pressure, and unrealistic deadlines. And if they've been there long enough to buy the
> multi-million houses with the proceeds of stock options, they probably don't know or don't
> remember that sane work places exist. Or that it's possible to work AND have a life...)
I will just note that I believe that people who live along the lake are generally not Microsofties,
nor do Microsofties live along the lake. Rather, it is the Microsoft employees who are targeted here
as the Evil Ones who speed along the parkway, desperate to make it into the enslavement camp in a
timely fashion.
In fact, you'd find a number of current and former MS employees among the cyclists who will be
fighting for these facilities, as the parkway is a major bike-commuting route. Thinking of the
Redmond effort, I'm now realizing that nearly all of the people who fought for the bicycle and
pedestrian improvements were either existing or former MS employees, or married to one, or both.
Rather, the people who I met at the barbecue were older (50s and 60s) boating types. If I were to
guess their PRIZM demographic group, I'd say Pools and Patios (
http://houseandhome.msn.com/pickapla-
ce/demographicdetail.aspx?id=4&NHName=Bellevue+(98008)&Zip=98008&County=King&State=WA&sRegion=p%3a7-
600&src=nf or if you prefer:
http://tinyurl.com/cf3c)
[email protected] (Chalo) wrote in message
news:<
[email protected]>...
> The Eastside is lost, Claire. There really isn't anything there worth trying to improve. That area
> suffers the characteristic blight of many suburbs; it's an anti-community of people who chose
> their place of residence based on what they were trying to avoid, rather than on an environment
> they wanted to be a part of. It's a living testament to how fear, greed, arrogance and hate are
> antithetical to right action.
>
> Move into town; you'll recognize a lot more rational human beings around you.
Someone from a bicycling organization deigned to come to the Eastside (first time that's happened
that I've noticed) and attended the barbecue. Someone else from the bike-ped advisory group and I
talked with him for a bit, and rather than him having anything constructive to say, he spent 90% of
his air time with us putting down the Eastside.
Chalo, I know you meant only the best when you wrote unpleasant things about where I grew up and
where I've lived about three-quarters of my life, because you invited me to leave it and go to some
place that you consider to be more enlightened. However, believe it or not, I like my house and my
little neighborhood, and unlike your stereotypes, not all people around me are full of all the nasty
attributes you listed. You may not believe that there is anything to improve – maybe I should leave
it as that I beg to differ.
[email protected] (Tom Keats) speculated in message news:<
[email protected]>...
> I wonder if there are any Native land claims on this area.
Archeology shows that natives lived along the lake as early as 6,000 years ago, with a major
settlement at the Redmond end of the lake around 1000 BCE. In the 1850s, the Sammamish clan of the
Duwamish tribe numbered about one hundred. The usual hostilities ensued between white settlers and
the natives, and they were eventually either killed or disbursed. The remnants of this band
currently live with the Tulalips near Everett.
Warm Regards,
Claire Petersky (
[email protected]) Home of the meditative cyclist:
http://home.earthlink.net/~cpetersky/Welcome.htm Singing with you at:
http://www.tiferet.net/ Books
just wanna be FREE! See what I mean at:
http://bookcrossing.com/friend/Cpetersky
