Pay for Your Own Commute
Fall is in the air, and it's time again for the local foot ferry to demonstrate its infeasibility. For some reason, people who live in the north end of my county and work in Seattle don't want to drive to a ferry that will deliver them to downtown or drive to it from where the northern (Kingston) ferry drops off north of the city. Last year these freeloaders got their wish and yet another nonviable passenger only ferry went into business.
I received my local free weekly today and the top headline bemoans the woes of the SoundRunner ferry. The subhead proclaims that the ferry must double its ridership by December or face going out of business. Doubling usage sounds like a daunting task, but this particular ferry only needs to add five new riders per month between now and Christmas to reach the goal. It turns out that the loud clamoring for this service was actually done by the 26 people who routinely use it. The problem, of course, is that a couple dozen people cannot afford to operate a private ferry. The port district is currently subsidizing these people's commute to the tune of $75,000 per month. The money allotted to support the boat for four years will be used up within the first year. To top things off, the manager of the system just resigned. She joins the ranks of the other two managers who have given up on the project in less than a year.
We clamor frequently for more local government and less national. Sad thing is, though, local government can be just as asinine and wasteful as national when given a tax base to abuse.
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Jul '11
Re: Pay for Your Own Commute
Interesting story, but I can't say I'm surprised. I used to live in King and Thurston counties so the activist versions of the local governments is old news. But your ending paragraph gets to one of my major complaints about Rick Perry. I'd much rather have a market-oriented conservative, one who appreciates its efficiency and its potential to genuinely "promote of the general welfare", as opposed to a federalist who seems happy to coerce taxpayers into all sorts of boondoggles, as long as they don't come from Washington. Too bad no one like that is running (although Cain makes the right noises)
Dec '10
Re: Pay for Your Own Commute
We often get so focused on the excesses of the federal government that we forget that government at any level is capable of atrocities. If you lived here you fully understand how vividly and frequently on display local government stupidity is.
Jul '11
Re: Pay for Your Own Commute
Indeed. Washington state is a microcosm of the entire country: the coastal elite know how to best use the wealth generated by the uncouth outlanders. The folks in King County and Olympia always impressed me with their disdain for what they viewed as the parochial concerns of the rest of the state. Beautiful scenery though ...
Edited on Oct 2, 2011 at 3:38pmMay '10
Re: Pay for Your Own Commute
This is all going to come to a screeching halt very soon as everyone's ability to borrow money ends.
Sep '10
Re: Pay for Your Own Commute
And yet...Costa Mesa, CA is working to outsource almost all it's city services to avoid the pension and budget trap that so many cities are in. Galveston, TX opted out of Social Security many years ago, and seems to be doing just fine. Sandy Springs, GA also massively outsourced, and is doing well.
Dec '10
Re: Pay for Your Own Commute
The thing about local government, though, is that they run out of money much sooner than the state or the feds when they're being wasteful, so they don't do quite as much damage.
Feb '11
Re: Pay for Your Own Commute
I totally agree that local gov't can be as wasteful and moronic as the Feds. But one of the points in the favor of federalism is that local experiments can serve as examples, for good or bad, to others. And freedom of movement means that eventually localities with destructive policies will lose productive people and localities with benign policies will gain them. Deciding stuff at the federal level makes it impossible to see different experiments work out and doesn't give anyone a choice to move somewhere with a better policy (without leaving the country).
Or to put it more succinctly: Yes the subsidized ferry is foolish. But if Washington was paying there would be no escaping the foolishness.
Dec '10
Re: Pay for Your Own Commute
Perhaps I forgot to mention it, but you're also paying to subsidize the commute of these 26 people. So much for this just being a local bone job.
Feb '11
Re: Pay for Your Own Commute
Oh, swell. What a "wise" "investment" in our "infrastructure".
By the way, "bone job" made me giggle. Thanks!
Aug '10
Re: Pay for Your Own Commute
Why don't they just take the names of the 26 people who use the ferry, and offer them $2885/mo to go away? I'll bet the loser slackers would take it in a caffeine-accelerated heartbeat.
Sep '11
Re: Pay for Your Own Commute
Austin is very much the same. You'd think Rick Perry would have noticed and learned from it.
Apr '11
Re: Pay for Your Own Commute
I used to live in Portland, OR, and found things similar. There, the city actually plans for traffic congestion so it can hopefully force commuters to use its beloved light rail system. Like Seattle, this system requires federal dollars as the cost of running is much greater than ticket sales.
Apr '11
Re: Pay for Your Own Commute
From your keyboard to God's flat screen. We have a similar situation with a bus system in my county. We have 8 buses. None ever have more than 3 passengers - the windows are darkened to prevent me seeing this. The buses will give rides to a shopping center out of the county while the local merchants get to subsidize this practice. A $2 million dollar garage was built to warehouse these buses. All of the drivers have a retirement guaranteed by the Oregon public employee retirement system. You can't tell me that it wouldn't be cheaper for the county to directly pay a taxi service to shuttle these people around. It drives me nuts.