Viva La Cola!

Founded in January 2009, PubliCola is a blog about Seattle written by journalists who are dedicated to non-partisan, original daily reporting that prioritizes a balanced approach to news. Started by longtime local editor and award-winning reporter Josh Feit, PubliCola is the first online-only news site in state history to get media credentials to cover the state capitol.

PubliCola was off and running. In June 2009, PubliCola hired another award-winning journalist, super-sourced Seattle city hall reporter Erica C. Barnett.

People were afraid that blogging would change journalism. Instead, we believe journalism can change blogging. Twenty-first century journalism may look and feel different, and yes Erica isn't afraid to get cranky, but we're committed to making sure online news still delivers independent, reliable, even-keeled coverage. And most of all, we're committed to making sure the coverage sparks honest civic debate.

Bringing you cola for the people, PubliCola is named after Publius Valerius PubliCola, the alias for the authors of the Federalist Papers—the original bloggers.

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The first online-only news site in state history to get media credentials to cover the state capitol and Seattle city hall, PubliCola has been called a “must-read” by the Seattle Post Intelligencer and a hot “New Media Mover and Shaker” by Seattle Magazine—which also cited our own Erica C. Barnett as the city's No. 1 news nerd.

Fully Prepared and Totally Ready

Morning Fizz   April 1, 2010 at 8:48 am Morning Fizz

1. Trash collection happened on its normal schedule this morning, after the Teamsters Local 174, which represents Waste Management garbage collectors, agreed to at least temporarily hold off a promised garbage strike. The Teamsters’ contract expired yesterday. The union is objecting to a clause in their contract that allows Waste Management to reduce union garbage collectors’ salaries—currently around $71,000, according to the Seattle Times—at any time.

2. Mayor Mike McGinn will release the results of his half of a consultants’ study on a new 520 bridge “sometime next week” (instead of today, as previously announced), according to McGinn spokesman Aaron Pickus.

That study looked into whether it would be possible to put light rail on the bridge and what sort of changes to the state’s preferred six-lane bridge option would be required. At a CityClub-sponsored forum yesterday, McGinn sounded upbeat about the report (portions of which city council members and the mayor have already seen), characterizing today’s release of the report as a plan “for how to accommodate light rail … on the bridge.”

In addition to suggesting that the city council push for higher occupancy minimums for HOV lanes and continue to work with the legislature for more transit on the bridge, the council’s report recommended that the state reduce the size of the Montlake Interchange on the Seattle side of the bridge; ditch a proposed seventh lane over Portage Bay, instead using bridge shoulders for merging and I-5 exiting; and working to reduce the impact of traffic on the environmentally sensitive Arboretum.

3. PubliCola’s Erica C. Barnett (who does  not own a car) will be moderating a panel on car-free living and the challenges and opportunities surrounding the city’s new “Walk, Bike, Ride” plan at this Saturday’s Climate Neutral Seattle Unconference at Mithun (1201 Alaskan Way, Suite 200).  Full agenda, including a lunch keynote on climate change by Mayor Mike McGinn, here.

4. PubliCola’s TechNerd Glenn Fleishman pointed out another apparent glitch with the ORCA transit payment card, which will eventually replace other passes on buses and light rail: The “auto-load” option, which automatically reloads a preset value onto the card, expires every six months, forcing riders to either call ORCA’s customer service line or go to a transit center in person to reload the card. An ORCA customer-service representative confirmed this, but had “no idea” why the option is set to expire every six months. Previous ORCA annoyances here, here, here, and here. UPDATE: Sound Transit spokesman Geoff Patrick says that to his knowledge, this is not ORCA policy, and that the rider may have had an expired credit card.

5. Gov. Chris Gregoire will hold a press conference at Swedish Hospital on Capitol Hill at 11:30 this morning to talk about what early action she’ll take to ready Washington for changes brought by Obama’s health care bill.

“There are significant portions of the health care reform that states have to implement,” said Gregoire spokesman Viet Shelton.  “She’s going to announce the steps she’s going to take to make sure Washington is fully prepared and totally ready to implement the reforms.”




  • Transient

    must everything be called orca?

    if you were a tourist or infrequent user and saw an orca card it wouldn't say “transit” to you. if you see a sign that says get your orca card here, it wouldn't mean transit to you. the little graphic of the orca is nice, it doesn't have jack all to do with transit.

    And even one regional card for all doesn't say….transit. All what? All long distance phone lines? Wifi?

    “farecard” “metrocard” “transitcard”…..these words work pretty well all over the world, but of course, they have the disadvantages of being simple and communicative, being cognates with the same words used all over the world ……not expressing “our essence”….and of course, not costing $200,000 for some p.r. firm to come up with.

    And that means loss of campaign donations, duh!

    oh wait, never mind, the orca is the essence of seattle. actually, chijully is the essence of seattle put him on the orca, standing at a microphone to give public input, because that's the essence of seattle. everything should express the essence of seattle and our values.

    coming next: rebranding city light as city light as city orcachihulysalmonmetronaturalsaywa — that's our essence!

  • morning fizzy

    Tourists and business people have to buy an ORCA card in order to ride Link from the airport, no way, really?

  • TJ

    @Transient

    London has the Oyster card. So why shouldn't Seattle have an ORCA card? Don't be such a naysayer.

  • bkl

    Maybe she could afford a car if you stopped paying her with wheat thins and back massages Josh!

  • elaineinballard

    Erica, congrats on being one of 12 women on the agenda (out of a total of 48 people listed) at the Climate Neutral Unconference. Looks like the cast is overwhelmingly white and male, again.

  • http://www.google.com/profiles/Communicate.with.Mike Mr. Baker

    I think the name should both communicate a local identity and that itis about transit. I suggest, “We're Screwed”. The We're Crewed card, don't wait for your second transfer within a 2 mile radius without it.

  • http://twitter.com/fattailed fattailed

    Re: the garbage workers, if you're going to quote the Seattle Times on a labor relations story — a dodgy bet in the best of times — you might as well at least quote the second half of the he-said/she-said on wages:

    “Waste Management had said it was offering union workers almost $71,000 in annual salary plus pension and medical benefits for a compensation package of $104,000 per year.

    But union officials say that pay is based on six hours per week of mandatory overtime and that straight-time pay would come to about $58,000 under the offer.”

    http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews…

    So even by the companies' own calculations, that $71,000 is only vaguely accurate. Which sounds a bit less luxurious.

  • http://twitter.com/fattailed fattailed

    And for the record, the union's calculation is completely accurate. I know you guys aren't math whizzes, but the algebra works out to $27.86/hour, which calculates back out to $57,948 at 2080 hours a year (standard full-time). 6 hours of OT at time and a half = $13,038 additional dollars in overtime pay, for a total of $70,986 due to rounding error.

    So both sides agree on the math and the issues. $58,000 for straight time. Additional mandatory OT of 6 hours/week adds up to $71,000 total. The union wants to get rid of the mandatory OT. The employers want to keep it and then complain about it. And have the right to cut wages at any point.

    But you for some reason only quoted the $71,000 figure. Jeez.

  • tpn

    Employers always take the rosy sounding figures, and pump that up as the “norm”. Anti-union editors at the Times never fact check the math. For example, of that 58,000, how much goes to uncle sam and other deductions? How much is tossed into a 401k, since less and less employers will provde a pension? And of health care— no one receives that as cash, and it is insurance– people who never or rarely go to the doctor don't reap the benefits of the insurance. Likewise, it would be just as inaccurate to say that someone with heart surgery or a cancer patient makes their wage plus the actual costs of the medical procedures it takes to keep them alive. But it's these kinds of details that are left out by employers, and are so easily lapped up by lazy writers. maybe 58,000, less deductions is a lot, for a single person with no kids and a crappy apt on Capitol Hill, but it isn't much for a single income family of four who are trying to make mortage payments or even rent on an adequate living arrangement. Amazing though, that so many are willing to cheerlead others on the race to the bottom…

  • Dwayne

    Visitors and tourists can buy one way or round trip (day pass) tickets in the Ticket Vending Machines. These don't work as transfer to other transit (like Metro) – which would be the reason for an Orcas Card.

  • Guest

    I think it's great that the union decided not to walk off the job thereby forcing the company to continue paying for the scabs they brought in from out of state but without getting any work out of them.

  • phil

    They should be just give the average hourly rate. When I hear someone say “compensation package” I know you can't trust their figures.

  • chrisvandyk

    Before you comment on the pay, work a shift, and see if you come back for another. If anybody earns their wages, these folks do.

  • TomK

    While I don't see the need to rename the card, they could put small versions of the international transit symbols for train, bus, ferry, etc., in the upper left hand corner, to better indicate what the card is for.

  • shanana

    In addition to London's Oyster card, Hong Kong has the Octopus card. Montreal has the Opus card. Rio has the RioCard. NY/NJ has SmartLink. Oslo has Flexus. PATCO (PA & NJ) has Freedom Card.

    I agree there's no reason to have a non-transit related name, but it's not like this is some uniquely WA or Seattle form of stupidity.

  • Mike

    Neither would “Oyster” in London- but folks get it.

    “Charlie Card” in Boston does, however, ring a faint cultural bell.