
Seattle to permanently close 20 miles of streets to traffic - daegloe
https://durkan.seattle.gov/2020/05/mayor-durkan-urges-residents-to-continue-to-stay-home-and-announces-stay-healthy-streets-pilot-will-become-permanent-bike-projects-will-be-expedited-in-2020/
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intopieces
I have previously described Seattle as "car hostile" and this is continuing
evidence that this descriptor is apt. Anyone who has been to Seattle recently
will probably attest to the serious quality of life improvements these moves
create.

Next step: soak the hell out of Amazon for public transit. Seriously. They
should go fucking nuts.

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avree
Any particular reason why you chose Amazon as the company that should be
paying for a public utility for some reason? What about Microsoft, Boeing,
University of Washington... what's the criteria by which a company becomes
responsible for public works in your mind?

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y2bd
One potential reason to prefer Amazon over Microsoft and Boeing here is that
Amazon is majority in Seattle proper, while the vast majority of Microsoft and
Boeing are outside of the city (e.g. Redmond, Bellevue).

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philwelch
And if the city tries to “soak” Amazon too much, they will move outside of the
city, too.

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intopieces
When has a tech company ever left a city due to taxes? As far as I can tell,
sky high taxes haven't impacted the Bay Area one bit.

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philwelch
I don’t think Amazon would leave the Seattle area entirely, just the city
limits. And not even SF has imposed the level of taxation Seattle’s local
socialist movement keeps trying to impose on Amazon. (NB: I’m not using
“socialist” as a slur; Seattle has an actual socialist movement with one
council member openly affiliating with the “Socialist Alternative Party”).

~~~
ironmagma
Sure, but Amazon can probably afford it seeing as how they pay $0 in federal
income tax unlike a lot of other companies including those in the Bay Area.

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philwelch
Amazon pays $0 in federal income tax because they reinvest all of their
profits into their own growth. Most of the tech industry does the same thing.

They "can afford" a lot of things, sure. But at some point it won't be cost-
effective for them anymore, and I suspect they will reach that point long
before the demagogues of Seattle's extreme left reach the limit of how much
they want to extract from Amazon's coffers.

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ironmagma
The fact that the Amazon executives are extraordinarily well paid seems to
contradict that claim. Besides, saying there is “some point” at which the tax
is too much is the same as saying “they don’t have infinite money.” Of course;
no company does. Amazon has a limit to what it can pay in taxes, but the point
is it’s nowhere near $0.

~~~
philwelch
> The fact that the Amazon executives are extraordinarily well paid seems to
> contradict that claim.

Tell you what: you go and do a better job than Amazon of growing a large scale
business year after year by paying executives less and maybe then your opinion
will be worth something.

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ironmagma
The funny thing about your comment is that it presumes we are talking about
opinion, when really it’s just a logical progression. Unless you can see a
valid counterargument besides one that employs a logical fallacy [1].

[1]
[https://www.logicallyfallacious.com/logicalfallacies/Appeal-...](https://www.logicallyfallacious.com/logicalfallacies/Appeal-
to-False-Authority)

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pdx_flyer
Portland is doing something similar:
[https://beta.portland.gov/eudaly/news/2020/4/28/transportati...](https://beta.portland.gov/eudaly/news/2020/4/28/transportation-
commissioner-chloe-eudaly-announces-new-slow-streetssafe)

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throwawaysea
The fact that Seattle would close these streets as a “temporary” measure due
to the coronavirus, and then change their mind to hastily make the changes
permanent, is not okay. This gives residents and constituents no chance to
understand the changes, evaluate the impacts, and voice their concerns. When
traffic returns to normal, the lack of side streets to travel through is going
to exacerbate traffic and worsen travel times on the already overloaded
arterials. Most people in Seattle drive, and this is another hostile “war on
cars” move that is really just “war on constituents” at this point. It is very
unfortunate that the city’s planning and governance is really driven by a loud
minority of urbanist activists, while most constituents suffer through these
changes.

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rdtwo
The article overstates the level of closure. These streets are still fully
open with grub hub and Uber eats drivers zooming through. They just have been
designed mixed use streets so now they see significant more pedestrian and
bike traffic. Since Seattle has few sidewalks and many areas it kind of makes
sense

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ajhurliman
I'm curious what happens to people who live on the affected streets; do they
now have to park a mile away from their house? Or if they were storing a boat
on the side of their house, is that boat going to be trapped at their house?

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crote
I do not know what Seattle is going to do, but usually they only close the
street for motorized through traffic.

If, say, you were to place bollards in the middle of a block, every home will
still be reachable by car. But as only residential traffic uses the road, the
volume is greatly reduced, making it possible to dedicate space for
pedestrians and cyclists. Additionally, the bollards will still allow these to
pass, so it can be a through road for cyclists.

So, if anything, it is a net positive for the residents.

