Paul Krugman, Economist and New York Times columnist, has been writing a number of blog posts about rising fuel prices and what they mean to the average American. The opinion piece is great, and has nice tidbits like this:
Any serious reduction in American driving will require more than this — it will mean changing how and where many of us live.As they say, read the whole thing. This picture is from a post on his blog (via the Sydney Morning Herald).
To see what I’m talking about, consider where I am at the moment: in a pleasant, middle-class neighborhood consisting mainly of four- or five-story apartment buildings, with easy access to public transit and plenty of local shopping.
It’s the kind of neighborhood in which people don’t have to drive a lot, but it’s also a kind of neighborhood that barely exists in America, even in big metropolitan areas. Greater Atlanta has roughly the same population as Greater Berlin — but Berlin is a city of trains, buses and bikes, while Atlanta is a city of cars, cars and cars.
And in the face of rising oil prices, which have left many Americans stranded in suburbia — utterly dependent on their cars, yet having a hard time affording gas — it’s starting to look as if Berlin had the better idea.
Changing the geography of American metropolitan areas will be hard. For one thing, houses last a lot longer than cars. Long after today’s S.U.V.’s have become antique collectors’ items, millions of people will still be living in subdivisions built when gas was $1.50 or less a gallon.
Infrastructure is another problem. Public transit, in particular, faces a chicken-and-egg problem: it’s hard to justify transit systems unless there’s sufficient population density, yet it’s hard to persuade people to live in denser neighborhoods unless they come with the advantage of transit access.
Got this in a e-mail not that long ago, regarding Portland's TriMet MAX Light-Rail system:
During a bridge lift on the Steel Bridge this morning, a Union Pacific bridge tender raised the bridge too high, damaging TriMet's overhead electrical system that powers MAX. Three trains traveled through the span section and were damaged. Repair efforts are ongoing, with TriMet staff and contractors working to expedite the repairs.A friend of mine said it was one hell of a light show on the second train that crossed the bridge.
There is no MAX service along the Yellow Line or the Blue/Red lines between Rose Quarter Transit Center and PGE Park stations.
Buses are serving riders in these areas and riders should expect minor delays.
The shuttles will continue through rush hour this evening and possibly through the rest of the service today. There is also the potential that Tuesday's morning rush hour will be affected.
I think there's a killer argument here that's hard to refute, and hasn't come up yet, and in the interest of continuing this conversation, I'll just post it!
Our viaduct options are basically a) build something else, and b) tear down the failing structure and leave it torn down. I don't really consider the retrofit an option - WSDOT will probably shoot it down as unfeasible and unsafe.
So here's the 2000 pound elephant in the room. For the first several years of implementation, both of these options look exactly the same. The old structure has to be torn down, and even in the best case rebuild scenario, you still have complete closure for years.
Immediately, every viaduct user finds a solution to their commute problem. They get on I-5, or they take a bus, or they plan ahead and change jobs or move before the mess starts - they'll have plenty of lead time.
Two years later? They're still doing it. I-5 can only carry so much traffic - it'll worsen the most at first, but traffic will taper off after this time. Most people will have solved their problems, many more will be interested in transit and trying out the bus service we already have (and maybe 'Rapid Ride'). I don't know when this would be - maybe 2012, maybe 2014. Link Light Rail will be rocking our socks off. University Link will be mostly complete - everyone will be holding their breaths for subway stations. Maybe we'll even have passed Sound Transit 2 by then, and Northgate and Bellevue will be groundbreaking soon.
Another year. Gas will be $8/gallon, or $10/gallon. Maybe speculative bidding on oil futures will have dropped off, and it'll only be $6/gallon - this scenario doesn't require $10 gas. A lot more of the urban condo projects will be done. Developers will be continuing to build in the core, and the renewed demand from people previously commuting across downtown Seattle will help bolster that. Again, all this is regardless of what we choose. Few commuters will just grin and bear it.
One more - say 2016. Four years of closure - the minimum on any of the WSDOT construction alternatives I've seen. This is where our choice matters. In scenario a), we have a new freeway. U Link opens. Some people return to their cars. The waterfront is dead - construction kills some of the businesses, and with the viaduct another 20 feet closer, it's no longer pleasant. By this time, fewer are driving, and it looks like 5 won't be as congested because so many people can't afford to anymore. But we have a new freeway that we've already gotten used to not using.
In scenario b), the waterfront is still dead from construction, but now it has the chance to come back. Seattle has rebuilt the waterfront streetcar line, and four new mixed use buildings are on the way in the old shadow. The same pressures exist to build high capacity transit - the city is ripe for a new western corridor ballot measure. U Link opens, Bellevue is 50% complete, and Northgate is 70% complete. Sound Transit is ready to go to ballot with ST3, where North King money won't quite cover Ballard-West Seattle, but will cover Ballard-Downtown, including a tunnel under 2nd Avenue. The city puts another measure on the ballot to build the other half. With new city residents clamoring for transit, Sounder ridership at 20,000 a day and climbing, and ST3 Link expansion promising Tacoma, Redmond, and most of the way to Everett, both pass.
I have a different take on Jim Veseley's Sunday article than Ben Schiendelman did. In case you didn't read the article, Mr Veseley's argument is essentially that Americans have been adjusting their expectations downward on a number of issues, and the viaduct is the one foremost in Mr Veseley's thoughts. Veseley says he's "ready for a retrofit" of the viaduct, rather than a tunnel, elevated replacement, or surface option. This "lowered expectations" argument is a perspective I hadn't thought of or heard, and it certainly is thought provoking. I think Mr Veseley gets bull's eyes on a few big points, but I think he misses the mark on some of the details.
David M. Lampton, a much-honored China scholar and head of faculty at the vaunted School of Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University, pointed out last week that China now has 68 subway projects under way — and the U.S. has none.
He cited the decaying Interstate Highway System that spans America, but was built in the 1950s and '60s. A trip on Interstate 5 bears him out. If not for the patches, we'd be looking at rebar.
...
I don't see a weakening of our hopes and values, but a realization that some of them belong back in the 1990s. One of our most intensely popular television series, "Lost," comes at a perfect time.
We see that in the calls for a pause in the funding of transportation projects. Megaprojects are on hold everywhere. A Sound Transit vote for the fall has as many supporters as it has people saying give it a rest, come back to us the following year, or maybe later.
While not official from SDOT/Metro Transit, the SLU Streetcar ridership has climbed from 960 riders a day to 1325 riders a day. With the start of the Summer tourist season, new buildings in Downtown Seattle opening, and the recently opened Lake Union Park contributing to the increase.
Per the operator of Sunday's run, weekdays between 6am to 8am and 4:30pm to 6:30pm are the busiest, being near crush load (130-145)
Average ridership appears to be gaining as construction eases however some trips are still only 2-6 passengers.
He did mention that the City is trying to improve the signal timing and add priority queue to the Streetcar, giving the operator the ability to change the light or leave the light green an extra 15-30 seconds. By doing this, would shave the run to dramatically but SDOT is studying if this would benefit the system or not. (duh)
The Commerce Department reported Friday that housing construction rose by 8.2 percent in April to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.03 million units. While apartment construction rose by 36 percent, building in the much larger single-family sector of the market fell by 1.7 percent, the 12th consecutive monthly decline, pushing single-family activity down to a 16-year low.This is another data point showing that a home in the "country" and a huge yard aren't irreducible demands by Americans, but just another taste that is responsive to economic incentives.
It's been a couple of months, so I'll make this request again:
Please select a nickname and type it in under the "nickname" box on our comments page. Going through a comments thread with "Anonymous" is tedious and confusing. I can distinctly recognize at least two regular commenters using the Anonymous tab, and it's annoying.
It doesn't require getting an account or anything. Just type in a name, like SLOG.
Example above, with the correct box indicated in red. For whatever reason, Blogger doesn't allow you to turn off "anonymous" without doing the same for "Nickname".
Thanks!
Jim Vesely, one of the editors of the Seattle Times, commutes to work in the I-90 express lanes and on the Viaduct. On the Mercer Island to Seattle stretch, he doesn't even have to be HOV, because Mercer Island residents are apparently worth two plebians. He has likely never ridden a bus or a train. He is one of the last remnants of a school of thought that can no longer add knowledge to their understanding of traffic - he can't grasp that adding more lanes causes more congestion than it could ever relieve, or that congestion can never be reduced through promotion of alternatives, but only through a limitation of capacity.
The mayor of Bogota understands these things. The mayor of New York understands these things. The mayor of Seattle understands these things. Urban planners and transportation engineers know that while you can smooth intersections, you cannot reduce congestion by adding capacity, because every minute of congestion you reduce on the highway you expand, you add twice or more to every roadway it connects to - because you create an inbound and an outbound trip elsewhere for every new trip on the highway itself.
This makes sense to everyone, doesn't it? It's not rocket science. But Jim Vesely and his ilk just don't get it. They cling to the ancient idea that if you add a lane to SR-520, you'll somehow separate people from each other - but you don't. You just make room for more people.
Now for the contrary - and this is what terrifies people like Mr. Vesely. If you narrow a highway, you will, indeed, reduce congestion. Not on the highway itself - but on all the roads around it. We've heard plenty of times that light rail will only carry a small percentage of traffic (a ridiculous argument anyway) - but so do our highways. The streets surrounding them carry far more trips.
So when I hear Mr. Vesely champion retrofitting the Viaduct, I can only regard it as the sad selfishness of someone completely out of touch. We have an opportunity here to change our urban landscape, to erase a horrible mistake made many years ago. Why would we accept as sound advice the opinion of someone who has been so wrong on so many issues - someone who has always come out in favor of things that benefit him personally, and damn the rest of us? It's obvious that this man supports retrofit because it is the one thing that will delay major closure of the viaduct until after he has retired.
Don't let those with prehistoric ideas plan our future.
We know better than that.
Matt the Engineer questions running light rail through the Rainier Valley because Matt thinks it's slower to the airport than a bus and the train isn't building communities by going through existing neighborhoods.
I think Matt is wrong about a couple of things. Sure, the line may be slower to the airport than the 194, but the 194 is much slower to the airport than Link will be from Beacon Hill, the Rainier Valley, and also Capitol Hill and the University District when U-Link gets built. That's an important thing to think about, Central Link was not built to be the only line, and U-Link construction is ready to start.
I'm sure Martin, who lives in the Rainer Valley, can comment on the level of development taking place on MLK due to link, including bike trails people will actually use, some 1,500 homes by now (the line doesn't open for a full year) and massive revitalization in general. The line would have gotten a fair ridership without that TOD, but the ridership with it will be massive. As the city shows, car ridership in the Valley is the lowest (pdf link) in the entire city.
I think it's a great routing. Better than the industrial areas by a fair amount, better than Rainier Ave by a fair amount, and a lot cheaper than West Seattle. We will definitely need a route through West Seattle some day (ST3?!?), but, for now, I think they've made a great decision.
Lance Dickie, who I'm not very familiar with, has written a pretty convincing op-ed piece arguing for Sound Transit to wait until 2010 to go to the ballot. Here's a choice quote:
Sound Transit first got traction in 1996, another presidential-election year. Turnout matters. After voters slapped down a package of roads and transit this past fall, there is a strong pull to try again, sans roads with a transit-friendly cohort.
The other view — one I tend to share — counsels a pause until 2010. By then, mobs with pitchforks and torches will be demanding more transit. Gas prices will resemble those in Europe, without Europe's plentiful alternatives to a car. Taking the bus or riding Sounder commuter rail will move from being mocked as a personal virtue to unvarnished economic necessity.
Most important, the 16-mile line from downtown Seattle to Sea-Tac International Airport is scheduled to open in 2009. After years of talking about how great it is going to be, light rail finally will be a visible, tangible and popular reality.
The next big suburban land rush will be aboard light rail. The cliché about driving till you qualify for a home loan will be updated. Homes in Arlington will sell to young families whose daily car commute is to a park-and-ride lot and transfer to the light-rail station in Everett.
Want a sure bet in public transit? The Seattle streetcar extension from South Lake Union to the University District. An absolute no-brainer. The future is at Westlake Avenue and Denny Way. An urban neighborhood is blossoming. The employment base is already an extension of the University of Washington, so a line north via Eastlake makes perfect sense. As Portland discovered, investment flourishes along streetcar rails planted in the ground.
One man said officials built two additional stories on the Xinjian school even though it had failed a safety inspection two years ago — allegations that could not be verified.There are two problems here. One is the obvious - two additional stories on a structure that failed a safety inspection? The other problem is far more insidious - you can't even check. The result? Hundreds of kids crushed to death.
UPDATE: Correction Below.
Sound Transit's Quarterly Ridership Report is up, and it's good news. It's brief, so go have a look. Weekday boardings are up 15% from the same time last year, which is pretty impressive given the relatively small amount of service added in that time. Some interesting nuggets:
to a DC Metro Station. The underground architecture, while composed mainly of concrete, is roomy and appealing. Interestingly, as far as I can tell, exactly 0.0% of the capital expenditure was devoted to public art. If it were up to me, I'd encourage all transit systems to build intrinsic beauty into their architecture, rather than add some art of controversial value to each station.That's the question Sound Transit and Puyallup are asking themselves. The Puyallup station has 680 spots between four lots near there, but the spots are nearly always full. The News Tribune likes the idea of having the drivers park at satellite lots and take buses to the train station.
One remedy would be a healthy-sized parking garage at the station. A garage would have been built had voters approved the Roads and Transit package last November; now the project awaits possible approval of a scaled-down package.
Sound Transit has already been pursuing a more elegant solution: satellite parking, a decentralized form of park-and-ride. The idea is to let workers park their cars outside the core and take a bus to the station. The bus gets the commuters to the train quickly and on time. There’s already a satellite parking center on South Hill and another in Bonney Lake (which takes people to Sumner Station).
Assuming the bus connection is fast and reliable, this works for everyone. Downtowns don’t get buried in parked cars, and commuters can leave their cars closer to home and not panic about finding a spot near the station before the train leaves.
If satellite parking lots are extended to the suburbs, train service will become more accessible and the reach of mass transit will be extended.
As one of the first small cities to get big-time transit service, Puyallup is a laboratory for other Puget Sound communities. Its parking solutions are probably going to be the region’s parking solutions.
Take a look, it's awesome. I hope to be able to ride this someday.
H/T to Frank.
I finally got a response back from SDOT:
Dear Mr. Bundridge:
Thank you for contacting Mayor Greg Nickels regarding the Waterfront Streetcar. I was asked to address your concerns on the Mayor’s behalf.
As you mention in your letter, restoration of the waterfront trolley is connected to the final solution for replacing the Alaskan Way Viaduct. It is prudent to have a full understanding of the details of the viaduct replacement, what the impacts of construction will be and how the waterfront will function after construction is complete to ensure there will be no conflicts with the streetcar. A final recommendation on how we replace the viaduct along the central waterfront will be made by December 2008
The city of Seattle believes that unique opportunities exist for Seattle to expand its streetcar network. Currently, analysis is underway on which additional lines should be pursued for early implementation as part of an overall streetcar network. Part of that analysis will also include looking at the best north-south lines and whether a waterfront line or a line on First Avenue would provide the best opportunities for moving people in Seattle. We just delivered a draft of the report to the Seattle City Council, and you may access it online at http://www.seattlestreetcar
Finally, you wrote that you have heard that the Waterfront Streetcar facilities would be removed, beginning this summer. There is currently no plan for removal of the Waterfront Streetcar facilities.
Thank you again for contacting the City of Seattle on this issue. Should you require additional information, please visit our website at http://www.seattle.gov/transpo
Sincerely,
Grace Crunican, Director
Seattle Department of Transportation
Mukilteo sounder station opens at the end of the month, and Sound Transit is having a free return trip for north bound Sounder riders for the mariners game May 31st.
Join us as we celebrate this new station and train service Saturday, May 31. In honor of Mukilteo Station’s opening day, Sounder Home Run Service will be free from Everett, Mukilteo and Edmonds stations.
Project info:
Mukilteo Station includes a platform on the north side of the tracks for passengers, 68 parking stalls, and public art by Whidbey Island artist Linda Beaumont. The second phase of the project will include a south platform, pedestrian bridge and additional parking spaces.
Schedule of events:
10:00a.m. --- Grand Slam Family Fun Celebration Start
10:30a.m. --- Speaking Program and Station Dedication
11:26a.m. --- Inaugural Train leaves Mukilteo Station for a Free Ride to Safeco Field.
(For SnoCo and other North end residents: 35 Minutes AFTER the Mariners games ends - Free return train leaves King Street Station for Edmonds, Mukilteo and Everett Station)
Ross Anderson, a sixty-something retired journalist has the most insulting anti-rail screed I've read yet at Crosscut. While Ted Van Dyk embarrassingly admits that "governance" is about killing light rail in its cradle and generally comes off as obsessed, Mr Anderson manages to interview and complement nearly every anti-rail activist in our area. Not surprising from a man who used to work on transportation for the Discovery Institute, a group who thinks deep-bore highways are the solution to Seattle's transportation problems.
First Mr Anderson sets out to belittle trains and those who like them, first with the title "Seattle goes gah-gah over choo-choos". Who says "choo-choo"? Mr Anderson must actually want transit supporters to appear juvenile.
We have seen the future of Seattle mass transit, and it looks suspiciously like the past. It is shiny and red and goes clackity-clack between South Lake Union and Westlake. It travels at a maximum speed of 20 mph and costs about $40 million per mile to build.
Seattle, it seems, has gone downright gah-gah over choo-choos. Whatever the price in dollars and aggravation, the city is determined to take the A-Train. We haven't yet completed that $2.7 billion-dollar rail lines to Sea-Tac, but Sound Transit is desperately seeking more billions to extend that line to Northgate. We have the new South Lake Union Streetcar. And this week, planners unveiled their sketchy visions for streetcar lines in neighborhoods like Capitol Hill and the University District.
All this stokes the ongoing debate: How do we best relieve traffic, or at least provide an alternative way to get around? More roads? Or buses? Or rails? If the rail buffs have their way, we'll soon be looking at and living in a cityscape reminiscent of another century — the 19th.
Rail critics see their own conspiracy. Randal O'Toole is an Oregon economist and self-styled libertarian who argues that Seattle is about to join dozens of cities that have got little or no benefits from the billions spent on light rail. Trolleys and streetcars are 19th century technology that is too slow, too dangerous and too expensive, he says. "Light rail is simply one more way to take money from the pockets of ordinary taxpayers and put it in the pockets of wealthy businesses."
John Niles, a transportation consultant and critic of light rail, is a little kinder toward streetcars. They are probably a mistake, he says, "but the scale of the error is so much smaller than with light rail."By "consultant" Anderson means John Niles is on Kemper Freeman's payroll. Niles is about sixty, and grew up during the auto boom in 1950's when 10% of the GDP went toward building highways. In his way cars and buses are the only way anyone should want to get around.
One of the things I learned on the lunch bus from Roger Pence is that the contractor who built light rail in the valley helped build Chief Sealth Bike Trail
For years, SDOT has heard requests for this trail from southeast Seattle neighborhoods as part of the planning for the City's non-motorized transportation and neighborhood plans, and light rail on MLK. In early 2004, RCI/Herzog offered to build the trail as a method of recycling excavated soils and concrete from the Link Light Rail project along MLK. The City welcomed this innovative construction approach as it resulted in a major savings of taxpayer dollars and it provides the City with a new trail within a reduced timeframe—at least two years earlier than was originally envisioned. Over the summer of 2004, SDOT worked hard to design and acquire all required permits for the trail and with Sound Transit, completed the environmental analysis. In May 2007, RCI/Herzog and SDOT completed the trail along the Seattle City Light right of way.
Making Mercer a two-way Boulevard for just one half a mile from SR-99 to I-5 will cost $192.9 million dollars and the widening of the Spokane Street Viaduct from Marginal Way to 6th Avenue (about half a mile) will cost $168.5 million.
According to the Daily Journal of Commerce, Central Link from Seattle to Tukwila may be as much as "$150 million cheaper than expected," though the airport extension is over budget.
With 90 percent of construction complete, Fazel estimates the final price tag will be $2.294 billion, down from $2.437 billion.
...
The 1.7-mile light-rail extension to the airport, unlike the Seattle-to-Tukwila segment, is over budget.
Work in the Beacon Hill tunnel, which has already eaten up most of the cushion in the light-rail project's construction schedule, is still challenging, Fazel told the board. Originally that cushion was six months, but now it has shrunk to nine days.
“We're honestly a little bit edgy about it but (the 9-day cushion) has held now for several months,” said CEO Joni Earl.
...
Work in the Beacon Hill tunnel is on the critical path of the entire project.
With so many tall buildings under construction around Seattle, finding workers to install the high-speed elevators at the Beacon Hill station will also be a challenge.
“They're highly skilled and very much in demand,” said agency spokesperson Bruce Gray.
The Beacon Hill station will have four elevators with a 165-foot drop between the surface and the station platform. It will take 20 seconds to travel from the surface to the station.
The Daily Journal of Commerce has the scoop on proposed changes for South-End neighborhoods the City is considering when light rail opens. SDOT wants want your comments:
The Seattle Department of Transportation wants public comments on transportation improvements it is planning for southeast Seattle when light-rail service begins next year.
SDOT wants to make it safer and more pleasant to get around in these growing neighborhoods, and to improve access to light-rail stations.
Between Rainier Beach and Columbia City, SDOT recommends that Rainier Avenue South be converted to three lanes from four lanes.
On Beacon Hill, SDOT wants to extend the median on Beacon Avenue South through the business district and add pedestrian crosswalks. It also wants to build a public plaza between the Beacon Hill Station and El Centro de la Raza.
...
In Rainier Beach, SDOT recommends providing a safe bicycle route from the Othello light-rail station to Renton Avenue South. SDOT also wants to make the Rainier Beach business district more pedestrian-friendly.
In Mount Baker, SDOT recommends improving two high-collision intersections and reconfiguring the intersection at Rainier Avenue South and Martin Luther King Jr. Way South.
In Columbia City, it wants to improve South Alaska Street to the light-rail station. SDOT also would make three pedestrian crossings on Rainier Avenue South safer.
SDOT would also add bike routes at both ends of Rainier Valley and connect the Chief Sealth Trail across Interstate 5.
To read the plan and to make comments ... Comments must be received at SDOT by May 31 at 5 p.m ... can also be emailed to Tony.Mazzella@Seattle.gov.
I just watched the silliest "special report" on Komo news (no link, sorry) about speeding buses and how dangerous they are. It was embarassing. Sure, I can see it could be a problem if buses are running red lights or breezing through stop signs, but is a bus going 37 in a 35 zone really news worthy? I really bet most drivers even would rather buses go faster. Why does Komo want buses to go slow?
The Seattle Times ran a modified version of this New York Times article about transit use rising nationwide. The New York Times piece identifies rising gas prices as a primary reason for the rise in use.
The sudden jump in ridership comes after several years of steady, gradual growth. Americans took 10.3 billion trips on public transportation last year, up 2.1 percent from 2006.
Transit managers are predicting growth of 5 percent or more this year, the largest increase in at least a decade.
"If we are in a recession or economic downturn, we should be seeing a stagnation or decrease in ridership, but we are not," said Daniel Grabauskas, general manager of the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, which serves the Boston area. "Fuel prices are without question the single most important factor that is driving people to public transportation."
Sound Transit ridership grew 12.3 percent in 2007, according to the agency.
In 2007, nearly 14 million riders boarded Sounder commuter rail, ST Express buses and Tacoma Link light-rail trains, according to the agency.
The biggest ridership increase among Sound Transit's three modes was on the Sounder commuter rail, with a 27.4 percent increase in 2007, according to the agency, the fourth-biggest commuter-rail ridership increase in the nation for 2007.
In Seattle, Metro ridership has grown 18 percent in the past three years, spokeswoman Linda Thielke said. She said that in the first three months this year, ridership was up 6 percent from the same time last year.
But meeting the greater demand for mass transit is proving difficult. The cost of fuel and power for public transportation is about three times that of four years ago, and the slowing economy means local sales tax receipts are down, so there is less money available for transit services. Higher steel prices are making planned expansions more expensive.
Typically, mass transit systems rely on fares to cover about a third of their costs, so they depend on sales taxes and other government funding. Few states use gas tax revenue for mass transit.
"Nobody believed that people would actually give up their cars to ride public transportation," said executive director Joseph Giulietti, executive director of the authority.
"But in the last year, and last several months in particular, we have seen exactly that."
On the same note, we had a great meet-up Friday. A good, 15-20 people showed, including Frank from Orphan Road, Will formerly from Horse's Ass, and all our permanent bloggers except Brian, plus a ton of commenters like djstroky, phil, nickb, and more. I always learn a lot from the people who show up, and this was no exception. Djstroky talked about a Viaduct meeting he went to, and Nickb mentioned the lack of pedestrian access from Beacon Hill down to the Dearborn site I blogged about Friday. We'll do another in about a month, I hope you can make it!
