Monthly Archives: October 2010

Announcements

Pick Your Favorite Way(s) to Follow The SunBreak

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It’s time once again to amaze you with the ease with which you can read blog posts on the internet. Specifically, our posts. 

Take a deep breath. Okay, let it out. Now keep working that general sequence and you should be fine. Now, to read The SunBreak most conveniently, you have these options:

  • bookmark us
  • read us via RSS
  • skim a daily email digest
  • find us in your Facebook news stream
  • follow us on Twitter
  • add our app to your iPhone
  • all of the above

You can recommend posts you like to Facebook, or share the link, by clicking on the FB icons up top of each post page. You can leave comments via your FB login, too, though we’ve carefully hidden that login option on this page, rather than in the comments section.

Finally, if you want to support us and don’t have a reason to buy an ad, you can buy a one- or two-year subscription (see PayPal button in the sidebar). If you read enough TSB that you’d miss it if we vanished, you can stave off that vanishing with a subscription. I don’t want to boast, but more than one person already has.

Anything else? Let us know in the comments.

Weather

Next Week’s Chance of Monsoon Calls for Flood Prep

Typhoon Chaba on Oct. 29 at 02:10 UTC (Photo: NASA Goddard MODIS Rapid Response Team)

Keeping life on the West coast interesting, Typhoon Chaba will be dressing up as a midlatitude cyclone for Halloween and will then “amplify into an extraordinarily deep low pressure center,” says the UW’s Cliff Mass. The result, for our purposes, is that we’re going for a ride on the pineapple express. Says Mass:

I am sure the National Weather Service will be putting out some statements on potential flooding of rivers coming off the Olympics and N. Cascades. At this point it does not look like a situation that would produce urban flooding over the Puget Sound population areas.

We’ll better know in a day or two how much rain Seattle will get, so keep an eye on UW’s Probcast. And while you’re doing that, it’s a good time to announce that you can pick up your storm-drain “Fall Clean” supplies for free at Seattle Public Untility‘s warehouse (3633 East Marginal Way South) this Saturday, October 30, 9 a.m. to noon. That includes such goodies as: rakes, bags, gloves, shovels, brooms, and dustpans!

Politics

King Street Station Renovation Wins $18 Million from Feds

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Seattle’s King Street Station restoration is one of 54 projects getting federal funding as part of a $2.4 billion push for high speed rail. U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood announced the allocations yesterday, with King Street Station pulling in almost $18.3 million, a decision met with instantaneous, rapturous praise from every politician in earshot.

“In a tough economic environment, this grant allows us to continue critical King Street Station work and also add needed local jobs,” said Mayor Mike McGinn. “It underscores the station’s importance to northwest rail passengers and its significant place in Seattle’s history. My thanks to Congressman Jim McDermott and Senator Patty Murray for helping secure these vital funds.”

The City Council’s Richard Conlin also chimed in: “Seattle is honored to have King Street Station selected as one of the four Washington projects awarded this funding.  This grant will allow the Seattle Department of Transportation to continue retrofitting work at the King Street Station to restore the building to its original dignity, adding security features and ease-of-use enhancements.”

So just what do we get for $18 million? For one thing, we get to finish up the construction that’s ongoing, rather than run out of funds before it’s all finished up. $11 million has already been spent on restoration and improvements, says SDOT, and they provide this bullet list of things-left-to-do items:

  •     Complete essential seismic and structural upgrades to the station and its clock tower by 2012
  •     Enhance Amtrak’s operations through new ticketing, baggage and administrative space
  •     Double local jobs created by the project from 60 to 116 and better support nearby private development estimated to add at least 1600 jobs
  •     Restore dilapidated historic finishes and architectural detailing to their original grandeur
  •     Improve the station’s energy efficiency with a minimum goal of LEED Silver certification