Results tagged “portofseattle”

Royal Caribbean, which offers offers seven-day cruises that depart Terminal 91 for Alaska every week, got a D in sewage treatment and an F in air pollution reduction. Slate estimates that your carbon footprint doubles each day you're on a cruise. You might as well idle your car for a week instead.

• Three kids are injured after a parent lost control of her car and crashed through the wall of a child daycare center in Redmond, at 156th Ave Northeast near Microsoft. Kinda gives a whole new meaning to show and tell.
• The Port of Seattle can handle 'em big or small, or so they say, as the port greeted its largest container ship to date.

The Seattle Times has broken a story about a Port of Seattle construction oopsie that has cost $200,000 and may eventually cost $1 million. Puts that $40,000 bonus for Carrasco for doing things right in a new light, doesn't it? "Clearly the contractor should've built the trench at 2.52 inches and it's 2.5," said newish Port Commission President Bill Bryant, proving that it doesn't make much difference who you vote for for Port Commissioner, you're still going to be faced with someone saying really weird things after things go awry. The Port requested a trench's width to the hundredths of an inch? We're of the mind that anything wider than the cable would have been fine. (PS to Bob Young: Is Tay Yoshitani on vacation? Why no statement from the Port CEO?)

Whoever keeps flashing their laser lights into the cockpits of airplanes approaching SeaTac, will you please STOP ALREADY? Another pilot reported seeing the mesmerizing green lights last night. They estimate the laser show started around 10:15 p.m., coming from four miles north of Husky Stadium. Port of Seattle police and federal agencies have been investigating, and to date, nearly 30 planes have been lit up with laaazer beams.

The tourists are coming, the tourists are coming(!!), we knew it was going to happen sooner or later, as today marks the opening day of the cruise ship season. This year is a Champagne bottle-breaking moment, for the Port of Seattle as the first ship pulled into the $72 million new Smith Cove terminal on Pier 91 this morning. With an expected 801,000 passengers to filter through Seattle, the new terminal will provide a swanky on-land introduction for over 200 ships. Most importantly, the new terminal will finally stop the hot-mess of traffic congestion in front of the old cruise ship docks at Pier 30.

• The Central District's Police scanner solidifies Seattle's recent ranking as 26th in the list of cities with the highest car theft rates. Watch out if you own a 1992 Honda Accord.
• Georgetown is hoping for cleaner air and quieter truck traffic, as the Port of Seattle considers giving $7 million in rent breaks to companies that hop on the green truck bandwagon.
• Publicola shares the final four names thrown into the nominee hat for Interim King County Executive.

That would be Tay Yoshitani, director of the Port of Seattle.

The B-Town Blog has an ominous Port of Seattle bulletin regarding Sea-Tac operations: "Airport is open--two runways are operational. There are many airline-initiated cancellations. Backlog of stranded passengers awaiting rebooking. Travelers are advised to contact their airline for flight status and to attempt to rebook from home." We're having trouble pulling up the flight status link, and we heard via Twitter earlier this morning that Alaska Air's phone wait was 149 minutes. As you might expect, there's no room at the inn, and many travelers are sleeping in airport. It gets worse: airport stores haven't been getting deliveries, so supplies are scarce.

Larry McFadden and John Rothnie, managers at the Port of Seattle, have resigned from their positions after a special investigation into the Port's activities found ten provable instances of fraud. According to the P-I's sources, Port CEO Tay Yoshitani had planned to fire the two men as part of his disciplinary response to the investigation's findings, but they chose to leave under their own will before Yoshitani could announce his intentions.

Were you as shocked as we were when you heard that there's corruption afoot at the Port of Seattle? Shocked! A $1.3 million investigation into the state of affairs over at the Port of Seattle offices has dredged up ten specific times when employees committed civil fraud. It's not new information, but the investigation does confirm and provide evidence for each case. One guy even used his connections to get his daughter an internship, which is one of those unfair but all-too-commonplace occurrences in this broken, broken world.

The other day—which is Seattlest-speak for "about two weeks ago"—the Port of Seattle offered the third in their series of Port 101 tours. This one sailed from Pier 66 down the Duwamish Waterway. The , of course, is that lower portion of the Duwamish River that has been straightened, channelized, and dredged into a human-made representation of its former self. But evidence of the past remains. If you take a close look at the street plat of the Georgetown area, you'll see swaths where, illogically it seems, there are no streets. This is where the river flowed.

At the Port of Seattle's "Ship Canal 101" tour last week (the tour so nice we're posting it twice) they handed out a little quiz that you were supposed to be able to complete by the time the boat returned to the dock. Questions like "What was the name of the woman who founded one of the featured companies over 115 years ago? (Hint: She was the inspiration for the movie Tug Boat Annie)" only scratched at the surface, though. The candid and all-knowing salts narrating the tour actually revealed so much more. Here's what we took away:

Hot on the heels of Seattlest MvB's thorough inspection and vetting of Sea-Tac's shiny new runway, we ourselves took the second of the Port of Seattle's Port 101 public tours. The Canal 101 tour had us board an Argosy vessel and steam toward Gasworks and then the Locks whilst we examined and heard about the various activity and industry along this extremely busy waterfront.

           

Yesterday the Port of Seattle invited a rag-tag crew of media, runway protesters, environmental activists, local residents, and assorted schmoozers on a tour of Sea-Tac's third runway, a project about 20 years in the making, and set to open on November 20, 2008, pending final FAA certification.

The Washington state Supreme Court says you can. They agreed with Chris Clifford, who argued that Port of Seattle commissioner Pat Davis committed malfeasance when she, as commission president, signed an agreement with outgoing Port CEO Mic Dinsmore to pay his salary a year after his retirement. In fact, the Court agreed 9-0 that Davis "intentionally acted outside the scope of [her] duties by signing an agreement with Dinsmore." Clifford now needs to collect 150,000 signatures to get the recall on the ballot; he says the petition will show up on his Recall Pat Davis website. Davis, for her part, says she won't stand for re-election. We wouldn't stand for it, either.

Quick news: last year, it was the Port of Seattle police exchanging dirty e-mails at work. This weekend, eight members of an aviation survey crew at the Port (including two managers) were fired for doing exactly the same thing, and seven more employees involved in the smutty email trades have been suspended without pay. So classy! Come on, guys. Didn't you learn better in anti-harassment training?

Here come the hordes ascending from the sea. The first of 211 cruise ships that will visit Seattle this season will dock tomorrow at Pier 66. The Celebrity Mercury will be the first ship to usher in an estimated 800,000 visitors to Seattle this season.

Welcome back to the Port of Seattle Roast, already in progress. Yesterday the Port released its response to a hilariously detailed audit commissioned by State Auditor Brian Sonntag, which "agrees with 37 of the audit's 49 recommendations," reports the Seattle Times.

For instance, the Port will immediately cease informal ways of resolving disagreements with contractors, known as "tummy rubs."

Continue reading "New Port Of Seattle Rule: No More Tummy Rubs"

Last week federal subpoenas were flying around downtown, irking the hell out of anyone who did business with the Mic Dinsmore-era Port of Seattle and was told its practices were just "unconventional."

"Shipping cranes" by Murray plays guitar