Transportation

Public transportation in Seattle is behind the time.  In many majior cities accross our nation there is a good public transportation system in place.  Large cities like New York have the elevated rail systems and subways.  Chicago has elevated rails.  There are also light rails.  What do we have?  Yes, we all have buses, and taxi cabs.  There are bike lanes.  Our city recently got a new elevated rail running from Seatac to the train station, and we do have a few trains like AmTrac going up and down the coast connecting us to other big cities.  Has anyone seen the news lately about the trains?  Lets just say mudslide.  With all of the rain in this area we get a lot of flooding and mudslides.  Some of these mudslides block the path for the train or take out the tracks.  This has left a lot of people stranded or very late to where they are going.  But, lets get back to around the city.  It is easy enough to get around the city on a bus.  I should know, I take them a lot.  The thing about buses though, is that they are still traffic bound and with our city having so many hills it has great drawbacks to when it snows/ices over.  If the road freezes the bus can't go its normal route which causes a lot of suffering for the public commuter.  I could only imagine having a train that connected all of the parts of the city.  No traffic, just going over all of that stuff.  How much traffic would lighten up would be amazing.  Not to meantion the cause of less pollution in the air.  I thought I was in a hippie green state here.  Where are all the elevated trains or subways for that matter (if you wanted to keep the butification factor)?  I think this is one more form of rust as it applies to our public transit system.  I think it's about time to work on some elevated trains or subways instead of roadways with my cigarette taxes.  Anyone else?

Living?

In 1931-1941 during the great depression, there were a lot of people down on there luck due to society.  They had lost there jobs or had one but it wasn't enough to cover the rent.  So these people created a communtiy of thier own.  We know it as Hooverville.  It was named after the current president at that time Mr. Herbert Hoover, and they did so suggesting that it was his fault they were forced to live in such a community*.


This is a time when our community was very rusty and was in great need of a polish.  In 1940's we had WWII which was the beggining of the recovery of our Nation.  Up until recently the Seattle area had been doing pretty good for its self.  We now find ourselves in a hard time ounce again.  Within the past 8 years there has been an increase in unemployment and increases in rent.  What does this mean?  This means homless people riseing.  There is now a community much like Hooverville in our city called "Nicklesville" (aka Tent City), named after Greg Nicckles, a former Mayor of Seattle**.

Where are we now in society?  Are we rusty again?  What is going to be the new revolution to take place to bring our nation back to the flurishing economy it was?  I don't have the answers.  I don't think anyone does.  We could all speculat on how to shine up this rust.  I think Tent City is a great awakening for many cities and something business owners should consider very deeply.  When all of the people who support your life by business no longer have the means to do so who then becomes homless?  Guess what, you'll be in the ranks with the rest of us heating a can of beans on an open fire.  ***

* http://depts.washington.edu/depress/hooverville.shtml
** http://www.mrsc.org/subjects/housing/tentcity/tentcity.aspx
*** http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2lIxpiK2lWY

"Hooverville is the abode of the forgotten man."  Jesse Jackson, "The Story of Seattle's Hooverville," in Calvin F. Schmid, Social Trends in Seattle (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1944), 286-93

Cigarette tax

So, I have outlined the idea of the society becoming rusty in a few forms.  In this post I will talk about one of them.  Cigarette tax.  I am a smoker.  Washington State has the second highest cigarette tax following Rhode Island.  Currently at the rate of $3.025 per a single pack of 20 cigarettes.  Of that $3.025, $.51.6 is used for a State education fund.  The rest ($2.509) is used for general State funding which supports most of the State Services.  In fiscal year 2009 cigarette taxes generated $392.4 million dollars and that was before the $1 increase in May of 2010.  So if looking at our comunity right now with unemployment rates and poor paying jobs that are tough to find (a rusty comunity), where would that leave us without our smokers.  I get harassed and put down by people on the street corners now.  As if not smoking indoors wasn't good enough for them.  What would happen if my fellow smokers and I all quit at once.  State funding takes an over 4 million dollar hit.  Where would they tax it then?  Food, alcohol, or maybe a "fat tax"?  I think without the smokers and there outrageous taxation without representation Washington State would rust through until someone else got taxed heavy.  Basically the State would shut down like Minnisota did.  So next time you see a smoker you may want to say thanks for your tax contribution to the State instead of imposing on thier rights.

http://dor.wa.gov/Docs/Pubs/CigarTax/CigaretteTax.pdf

About me

So to tell a little about myself.  I am J. Conrad Nivens.  I'm from Green Bay, WI but I've been living in West Seattle for a few years now and I have made it my home.  I'm currenly attending South Seattle for my Asst in Business.  I don't have a full path carved out but I am going in the direction I like and I plan to be self employed in a few years.  Right now I'm testing the water and looking at possible opprotunities.  I hope this blog may assist me in any efforts I may make to better our area. 

Rusty comunity

Iron Oxide (Fe2O3):  In June of 1776 Thomas Jefferson Drafted one of the most known and followed documents of today’s age.  We know it as the Declaration of Independence*.  When this was created we became a free nation, or as I would put it, a fresh iron structure.  On all iron structures there must be a protecting layer or oxidation will take place.  So to protect our nation and its way of life we have created The Constitution, Bill of Rights, and many laws.  This would be like putting WD-40 on our bicycle chain to keep it strong, shiny, and operable.  In King County, the unemployment rate is reported at 8.5% (about 94,050 people)**.  That is unreal to me.  I’ve tried getting a new job in the past few years and it’s tough to get.  In the past 2 years Washington State has seem a 13% tax increase***.  Do you smoke?  The cost of tax on a pack of cigarettes is more than the actual pack!  These are just a few of the things I see as the oxidation, creating rust in our community.  I can’t identify any steps made lately to grease the chain.  Did anyone see what happened with Federal taxes?  I heard they gave the “Rich” a tax break.  I feel as if though our community is getting rusty and if it continues there will be a point when the rust will turn into scrap, and tossed away. 

*http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/declaration.html

** http://www.workforceexplorer.com/cgi/databrowsing/localAreaProfileQSMoreResult.asp?viewAll=yes&viewAllUS=&currentPage=&currentPageUS=&sortUp=&sortDown=&criteria=Unemployment+Rate&categoryType=employment&geogArea=5301000000&timeseries=&more=More+Areas&menuChoice=localAreaPro&printerFriendly=&BackHistory=-1&goTOPageText=&ID=45531 

*** http://dor.wa.gov/Content/Home/Default.aspx 

Rust

The world is here at our fingertips.  It moves but yet it is still beneath our feet.  There is something more to the simple dirt that moves from place to place as my soles scrape the ground.  A sliver of light catches my eye as I hold it.  Placed back in it's dusty tomb I would not revisit for time.  Old days pass when I reunite but something is amiss.  Not a single sliver of light.  To my suprise age has welcomed pupa like evolution.  A new face looks me in the eye.  Warpped, discolored, and frail I set it to sail.