About this blog

My name is Bill Hirt and I'm a candidate to be a Representative from the 48th district in the Washington State legislature. My candidacy stems from concern the legislature is not properly overseeing the WSDOT and Sound Transit East Link light rail program. I believe East Link will be a disaster for the entire eastside. ST will spend 5-6 billion on a transportation project that will increase, not decrease cross-lake congestion, violates federal environmental laws, devastates a beautiful part of residential Bellevue, creates havoc in Bellevue's central business district, and does absolutely nothing to alleviate congestion on 1-90 and 405. The only winners with East Link are the Associated Builders and Contractors of Western Washington and their labor unions.

This blog is an attempt to get more public awareness of these concerns. Many of the articles are from 3 years of failed efforts to persuade the Bellevue City Council, King County Council, east side legislators, media, and other organizations to stop this debacle. I have no illusions about being elected. My hope is voters from throughout the east side will read of my candidacy and visit this Web site. If they don't find them persuasive I know at least I tried.

Saturday, June 4, 2022

U.S. Senate Voters' Pamphlet Statement

Bill Hirt

 

(425) 747-4185

wjhirt2014@gmail.com

http://stopeastlinknow.blogspot.com

Elected Experience

Elected as president of class of twenty-five 1957 Armstrong Iowa High School graduates

Other Professional Experience
Boeing Engineer 1962 to 1998

Education
BS in 1961 and MS in 1962 in Aerospace Engineering from Iowa State Engineering 

Community Service
No Information Submitted

Statement

This year's candidacy marks a decade of not trying to win but to use the Voters' Pamphlet to attract viewers to the posts on my blog http://stopeastlinknnow.blogspot.com. It began in response to the Seattle Times failure to recognize Sound Transit had a board of elected officials and a CEO that didn't understand the basics of public transportation.


That 4-car light rail trains don't have the capacity to reduce peak-hour congestion on multi-lane freeways and cost too much to operate during off-peak commute. That the billions already spent on Prop 1 extensions will do nothing to reduce freeway congestion.  They're only a down payment on ST3 "voter approved" extensions whose costs have increased from the $54B voters approved in 2016 to $135B in 2922; yet don't increase capacity but add to operating cost.


The Times has abided Sound Transit no longer releasing quarterly service reports that would have shown Northgate Link ridership was ~8000, a fraction of the 42,000-49,000 the paper had heralded as "Transit Transformed". Portending even worse debacles for the "voter approved" ST3 extensions; my goal to expose.


This year it will also allow state residents to vote for someone who doesn't believe the country is systemically racist, believes teaching CRT doesn't benefit students, and that sex education should be age appropriate.  That Gov. Inslee should explain the benefits of EVs whose batteries are charged by fossil fueled generators and whose owners don't pay gas taxes to fund roads.  Who questions its efficacy with a 2019 NAS paper conclusion:


CO2 warming effect decreases with concentration. CO2 has less and less effect with increased concentration.  CO2 can go to 1000 to 2000 to 5000ppm and it won't warm the earth

 

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