Sammamish Forum
October 22, 2008
By Administrator
What happened to decency?
Do we, in Sammamish, have a policy of “No election signs in neighborhoods?” I’ve had my Obama yard sign taken — it’s gone — no sign of the sign.
I’ve also had a Hedgehog sprinkler for my garden hose taken off my front porch and a potted plant taken from a stump by my driveway just before Mother’s Day. I’ve had yard waste, grass clippings and bush trimmings, dumped on my property and limbs of trees cut off and piled on the path to Pine Lake that is on my property … not to mention my access to the lake reduced by an augmented stray dock.
I’ve heard people say they aren’t going to buy pumpkins to put outside for decoration this year because kids just throw them around or smash them and make a mess.
What has happened to respect for private property? Who is teaching “If you want it take it” and “If you want to do it to someone else’s property that’s okay?” What’s happened to common decency?
Zandra Walker
Sammamish
Nightmare’s price is scary
I saw with dismay the advertisement for the Nightmare at Beaver Lake. My frights came prematurely as I saw the increased price for admission.
I was horrified to see the cost of up to $15 on Friday and Saturdays and $12 regular price. Even the family hour frights have increased.
In these difficult economic times, this admission price increase may be a burden to some people’s wallets.
I thought this was a fundraiser run by student volunteers earning community service hours not a greedy money grubbing enterprise.
Vanessa Windsor
Sammamish
Vote no on Prop 1
Here we go again! If you notice in your mail this week, you got a flyer for Sound Transit’s latest multi-billion transit plan.
Although, this one we might call Sound Transit Lite, as it only costs $17 billion dollars.
Yes, I saw you blink and gulp hard. Sound Transit is on the ballot looking to help us with our commute, yet this is a boondoggle once again.
The train only runs from Bellevue to Seattle. As a high growth area, we will never see a train down I-90 for the life of this project (it would start in 2009 and extend until 2038).
I still maintain that it is a travesty that Sound Transit believes the essential train route comes across I-90 and then makes a dogleg through Bellevue at Bellevue Way up to 148th Street near Sears.
There are seven stops in Bellevue between Bellevue Way and I-90. So, for your tax dollars you can’t even get on the train in Eastgate.
I wonder if any of these transit engineers ever commuted on the East Side.
They seem to understand the north-south problem on I-5 but have no clue as to the Eastside commute.
For the next 30 years, we get bus service. Send Sound Transit a message, vote ‘No’ on Mass Transit. Maybe someday they will realize that the train needs to come all the way to Issaquah in a straight line so that the citizens of the Eastside can jump on the train from Issaquah, Eastgate and ride into the city and then to the airport.
John Burg
Sammamish
Vote for Goodman
I am proud to say that Roger Goodman represents me in the state legislature, and at this critical time for education in Washington State, I know that he will stand up for my kids’ and your kids’ schools.
This year, the state legislature will revamp an outdated, 30-year-old education funding formula that doesn’t even include money for telephones in the classrooms.
I can see the effects of this underfunding in my own kids’ schools: parent volunteers attending to injured kids instead of a school nurse, library books piled up on the floor because there isn’t money to buy new shelving, and school buses with kids three to a seat because the transportation budget is so tight.
Roger Goodman has been a leader in public education in the legislature.
In fact, the League of Education Voters named him a “Champion of Public Education” this year, and since he has been in office, he has consistently voted to support our teachers and students.
This winter, when the legislature updates its outdated school funding formula I know that Roger Goodman will be on our side, working to give our kids the great education that all children in Washington deserve.
Kathleen Reynolds
Redmond, WA
In reply to John Burg’s letter on Obama’s economics, (Sept. 17, Obama’s economics don’t work) I’d like to voice my opinion.
I’m not a financial expert (and I don’t know if Burg is or not), but what I do know is that the mess this country is in financially, on many fronts, can be laid largely at the feet of the Bush administration. The terribly expensive Iraq war, the deregulation of the banking system, which allowed the current mortgage mess, tax breaks for the wealthy — these and many more of Bush’s policies — which McCain largely supports — are among the reasons were in the mess we have today.
Obama’s plan is a viable alternative—this country cannot keep increasing it’s debt. Every financial advisor would tell a struggling family to get their debt under control, but our country’s debt is staggering — and getting worse. So, if the current Republican economic policy got us into this mess, let’s see if the Democrats, under Obama’s leadership, can start to get us out.
Burg sites the old problems of the 1970’s and 1980’s, which I remember, but I also remember Clinton’s increased taxes and the fear it struck in the hearts of Republicans — but which resulted not in disaster, as many claimed it would, but in increased prosperity across the nation.
The economic problems we face today are hard to understand, even for the “experts,” let alone most of us living in Sammamish. I, for one, trust Obama’s ideas for our economy, as well as his overall plan for our country. I encourage all you Democrats, Republicans and swing voters to look at these issues deeply and see what both sides offer for solutions. Then get to the polls on election day.
Jim Wolfe
Sammamish
Disastrous Economic Times
John Burg, whose letter appeared in the Sept. 17 Sammamish Review, apparently believes he has a handle on the very complex economic issues facing the country. In reality leading economists have no good answers. John also tried to sway voters from Barack Obama; however Obama’s plans differ from John’s portrayal — www.barackobama.com.
The unfortunate problem facing the new president is to see whether he can enact measures that help working families, such as health care reform now that we are forced to pay the enormous costs, $600 billion for Iraq and $580 billion for the financial failure, to date. The latter was facilitated by deregulation — allowing “backbone” financial institutions to make far riskier gambles than if they had bet the hundreds of billions in Vegas. An educational example exists in the Savings and Loan crisis of the late 20th century, which found John McCain foolishly joining the rest of the Keating Five in lobbying regulators on behalf of another gambler who lost the bank by playing Russian roulette with investor’s money — http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keating_Five.
It is painfully clear that “Trickle Down Economics” which Berg, Bush and McCain support benefits corporations and their executives — not working families. If you would like to understand how badly the American worker has suffered during the Bush administration, read the report at http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2008/08/pdf/bushonomics.pdf . Our nation was formed by and for “We the people” – working families. I encourage you to study the issues and vote in November. You can make a difference.
Michael J. O’Connell
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John Burg doesn’t like light rail because phase 2 doesn’t serve him? (the classic Republican approach)
Sounds like he’s a closet supporter, mad he won’t get what he wants this go-round.
Here’s the key thing for naysayers on the plateau: no phase 2 means no phase three for our neck of the woods. You can’t do it all at once: and the Microsoft-Bellevue-Seattle corridor is much more robust in terms of transit demand.