Russ Zabel, the great reporter for the Queen Anne/Magnolia News, passed away April 12. In these days when major print media is "contracting" (that's what the economists call it, but most of it just call it going bankrupt), I've found the smaller neighborhood newspapers in Seattle to be more important than ever. Russ did a fantastic job truly covering the news important to Queen Anne and Magnolia. He understood the finer grain of coverage for the neighborhoods. You're as apt to read about Little League scores in the neighborhood paper as you are about Viaduct replacement conflict. He was also very able to pin down city councilmembers and other decisionmakers with pointed questions and suspicion. I was always happy to get to talk with Russ. He knew his stuff, he enjoyed a good conversation on complicated subjects, and he liked finding a wrong that could be righted.

Russ had what I consider to be a fantastic job serving the city with information and he made the most of it. As is often the case we learn so much about someone after they're gone. The Queen Anne/Magnolia News ran a great tribute to Russ detailing his achievements and his life as a traveler, calling his life "picaresque."

If you sneeze or cough, cover up. Wash your hands. If you're sick, stay home. And wash your hands. I'm on the Board of Health. That makes me almost a doctor. Go wash your hands.

If you want advice from people who went to school to learn how to keep us all from getting H1N1, check out Public Health Seattle-King County's great site.

Hello from the American Planning Association conference in Minneapolis!

I'm here as a presenter with the Seattle Planning Commission, Puget Sound Regional Council and Port of Seattle to talk about Seattle-area efforts to save blue collar jobs. The panel discussion was this morning. I think it went well. No one walked out mid-way.

Now I'm trolling the other panels. Neighborhood planning, neighborhood character, neighborhood health, neighborhoods for artists.... It's basically a big planning candy store here. I'm hoping to bring back great ideas.

You can take a look at the powerpoint presentation we gave here.

This has been a somewhat painful, but instructive few days with regard to the budget briefings by the Mayor's staff. I wasn't part of the small team in the meetings this past week, but I wasn't against the idea of doing advance, small-group discussions with the Mayor's staff about their initial ideas for cuts. That's not to say that I want to move aside the open meetings rules when convenient. As a former reporter, I'm a big fan of doing anything and everything in open session. It's fundamental to democracy that we see the "how" before we see the "what."

We have a whole month of public sessions coming up devoted to considering the budget gap. In those discussions I'm going to ask questions about the potential impact of certain cuts. I may want to put out a dumb idea just for the sake of argument. If the results didn't affect people's jobs and families, it would be easier. If I ask, "What would happen if we cut the entire Seattle Department of Transportation?" I alarm several hundred people who would lose their jobs. It's unlikely we would cut the entire Transportation department (despite the wishes of some of you), but merely asking the question raises the heart rate and blood pressure of people with kids, mortgages, aging parents, etc. That's the kind of question I'd like to ask first in the privacy of my office. I still will, probably, but it won't be with three other councilmembers and the Mayor's staff.

An odd thing about this whole ruckus is that in the end, the Council may not have any formal action to take after all the public input. The Mayor's staff will explain all the proposed cuts and councilmembers will weigh in with support, caution or downright opposition. However, when the Mayor underspends an appropriation (we approved and appropriated levels of money last fall), he doesn't need the Council to sign off. I think it's in the Mayor's best interests to be in agreement with the Council about these cuts (more than $40 million worth), but there's no formal legislation required for him to make the cuts in any way he wishes.

Here's a BIG problem that needs to be fixed before light rail starts running in July. At the City Council Transportation Committee meeting this week Metro staff said that if you pay cash for your trip on Metro your transfer won't be good when you get off the bus and step onto light rail. You will have to purchase another full trip again. Yikes! So, if I get on the 39 in the morning and pay $2, ride to Othello Station, get off to transfer to the downtown-bound train, I'll have to pay another $1.75 on the platform before boarding the sleek, swift, attractive light rail car I've been admiring for so long from a distance.

If you have an Orca Card by that time, you'll be fine. Sound Transit and Metro will even be handing out Orca Cards pre-loaded with $5 to entice you to ride. If after the $5 on the card runs down you go back to cash, beware. Five dollars will barely cover your trip to work if you take both bus and train. Why would I take light rail? I wouldn't - I'd stay on the bus which will now take longer to get me where I'm going because we're harvesting bus hours to operate light rail. This seems like a huge problem in the lowest income area of the city where I have to imagine fewer people have bus passes than in other parts of the city.

After the committee meeting we learned that Sound Transit was surprised by Metro's description of the cash-payer problem. I hope there's a fix to announce soon.