This morning, I can see the snow-capped Olympic Mountains clearly from the windows of Bauhaus coffee shop just a few blocks from my apartment. There’s barely a cloud in the pale blue sky.
The weather today is not, however, representative of the past 15 days. According to the local papers, this is the wettest November in recorded Seattle history, and we only need four more inches in the next 15 days to reach the record in December 1993 (11.64 inches currently, 15.33 is the record). With another major storm due to roll in this Sunday, the chances seem good.
Last night, I experienced the worst traffic I have ever seen, all due to the storm–the 520 bridge, a floating bridge, was almost closed due to the waves crashing over the four-lane span. I left the office at around 6 p.m. only to watch an express bus take ten minutes to move 30 feet along the on ramp to 520. I turned around and went back to the office. I left again at 7:30 p.m. with Jay, my boss, and he drove along a series of backroads that parallel 520 until the last stretch before the bridge.
I think Seattle may be perfectly representative of the problems faced by America: we can not adjust to changing circumstances. Like Los Angeles, there is no more room to build more freeway lanes. Unlike Los Angeles, however, Seattle can not swallow the concept. Where Los Angeles has stopped expanding freeways, instead making huge investments to build rail lines in highway medians and create effective HOV lanes, Seattle can not accept that traffic patterns can no longer be improved. Rail is considered a waste of money, and no one has the political will to make traffic worse solely to improve the effectiveness of HOV lanes.
Seattle must be broken of its addiction to single-passenger cars, but how much worse will the traffic have to be for Seattle to admit it has a problem?
If I stay here for the rest of my life, I don’t see how I can not get involved in local politics.