The suburbs shine - and we read newspapers
David has a post today at HorsesAss taking a shot at the King County Journal editorial board for declaring the Eastside to be nicer than Seattle:
We certainly do read daily newspapers out here...we just prefer the Seattle Post-Intelligencer and the Seattle Times.
The only thing those of us at NPI liked about the Journal was its news coverage of happenings in Eastside cities. That's likely something the Journal's children, so to speak, will be able to continue doing:
The Journal never had much going for it. Its website was forgettable, it lacked the depth of its competitors (even newspapers of a more comparable size, like the Olympian, do a better job) and its editorials were awful - right wing, reactionary commentary. To give you a sense of how out of the mainstream they are - they were one of two newspapers in 2006 to endorse Initiative 933. (The other was the equally right wing Centralia Chronicle).
Finally, as for Seattle itself...I like the city a lot, with one exception...its roads and traffic lights. (I don't mind that there's often difficulty finding parking downtown. That I can live with and understand). But as someone who grew up driving on the Eastside, it is agonizing to sit at a red traffic light while the other direction has a green....but nobody's there.
It is equally frustrating to be bouncing up and down on roads that are filled with potholes and cracked pavement. It's not good on a car's suspension system. And on a bus, it's really awful, because the bus itself jolts as it starts, stops, or slows down. That's one of the reasons I'm looking forward to light rail. It'll be a much smoother ride on brand new track.
But unfortunately light rail can't extend into every neighborhood in Seattle. So until the city is done fixing its degraded roads and ancient traffic lights, the Eastside will have the edge in transportation infrastructure. Meanwhile, plenty of us in the suburbs need to start learning lessons about density and planning communities around people instead of automobiles.
I love irony.The Journal is indeed shutting down, but a surprising number of suburbanites (including this one) won't really be missing it. The King County Journal is considered by a lot of Eastside residents to be a lousy paper.
You know, like when a snotty suburban newspaper like the King County Journal runs a divisively arrogant editorial bashing the region’s urban core (”While suburbs shine, Seattle seems shabby“)...only to learn a few hours later that they're being shut down by their new corporate owners.
Talk about shabby. At least some of us city folk still read newspapers.
We certainly do read daily newspapers out here...we just prefer the Seattle Post-Intelligencer and the Seattle Times.
The only thing those of us at NPI liked about the Journal was its news coverage of happenings in Eastside cities. That's likely something the Journal's children, so to speak, will be able to continue doing:
Kendall also said six of Black's newly acquired papers that now publish twice a month — the Auburn Reporter, Kent Reporter, Renton Reporter, Covington/Maple Valley Reporter, Bellevue Reporter and Redmond Reporter — would start publishing twice a week in late January.One thing Black Press needs to improve on is subscriptions. Delivery of Horvitz's community papers has not been consistent or reliable. Many Eastsiders would love to get a twice weekly in their mailboxes and would gladly pay for it, too. Black Press needs to tap that market as well as making the papers freely available at various civic buildings like libraries or city halls.
The Journal never had much going for it. Its website was forgettable, it lacked the depth of its competitors (even newspapers of a more comparable size, like the Olympian, do a better job) and its editorials were awful - right wing, reactionary commentary. To give you a sense of how out of the mainstream they are - they were one of two newspapers in 2006 to endorse Initiative 933. (The other was the equally right wing Centralia Chronicle).
Finally, as for Seattle itself...I like the city a lot, with one exception...its roads and traffic lights. (I don't mind that there's often difficulty finding parking downtown. That I can live with and understand). But as someone who grew up driving on the Eastside, it is agonizing to sit at a red traffic light while the other direction has a green....but nobody's there.
It is equally frustrating to be bouncing up and down on roads that are filled with potholes and cracked pavement. It's not good on a car's suspension system. And on a bus, it's really awful, because the bus itself jolts as it starts, stops, or slows down. That's one of the reasons I'm looking forward to light rail. It'll be a much smoother ride on brand new track.
But unfortunately light rail can't extend into every neighborhood in Seattle. So until the city is done fixing its degraded roads and ancient traffic lights, the Eastside will have the edge in transportation infrastructure. Meanwhile, plenty of us in the suburbs need to start learning lessons about density and planning communities around people instead of automobiles.
