The Stranger gets stranger

I like Stranger writer Charles Mudede. He’s normally a frustratingly good writer, which is why I was perplexed after reading his piece posted today.

The article is entitled “Sound Transit Keeps Breaking Records but the Social IQ of Westlake Station Remains Very Low.”

The second paragraph makes clear that Sound Transit’s Link ridership is growing. Mudede laments the fact that construction on a new station is not happening anytime soon. I get that. Ok.

But, and Jason and I spent some time trying to figure this out, it’s the first paragraph that has left me baffled.

“Go to the Capitol Hill Station or University of Washington Station at any time, and you will find urban minds that are really with it. But Westlake Station has nothing like the geist of these stations, save in the morning, when people are heading to work. By 11 a.m., a powerful denseness falls on the station like a thick fog on a forest. Couples display their flat and vapid feelings of love by holding hands, side-by-side, on the escalator; luggage is accorded the same status as a person or a lover; and there are just a bunch of individuals bouncing around and not making much progress.”

WHAT DOES THIS MEAN?

Luggage is valued equally with people?

Holding hands is bad or something?

Not making what kind of progress?

It reads like it was written during a fever dream. I asked Charles about it.

What are you saying in the first paragraph? What exactly is wrong with the people at Westlake? It reads like a fever dream.

— Zak Burns (@ZakBurnsKIROFM) July 11, 2017

Then leave it a fevered dream. Not a bad thing sometimes.

— Charles Mudede (@mudede) July 11, 2017