SEATTLE NEWS ARCHIVES & FEATURES

Why Dori is convinced government is exacting its 976 revenge

Nov 7, 2019, 1:07 PM | Updated: 6:01 pm

revenge...

Dori is convinced that the revenge from government for 976 has begun. (Dori Monson)

(Dori Monson)

The revenge for my 976 campaigning has begun. It is underway.

I saw early Thursday morning that the travel times to Seattle were in the triple digits. It seemed like rather than getting on I-5 right away, the better option was to take Bothell Way and Lake City Way all the way down to the I-5 entrance in Green Lake.

So I took that route, but the traffic was backed up miles. In my entire life, I had never seen the traffic backed up so far on Bothell Way. It normally just backs up a few blocks. I felt terrible because I was going to be late for a meeting.

Do you know why traffic was so gridlocked?

Dori: No way Aurora Bridge repairs weren’t a setup by WSDOT

There is a center median with greenery on Bothell Way just north of 145th Street. The City of Lake Forest Park closed one lane of Bothell Way in each direction so that they could trim the plants — in the middle of rush hour. I am not making this up. The Lake Forest Park City Council was also one of many city councils in the Puget Sound that voted last month to oppose 976.

The revenge has begun. Government is extracting its toll from us because we voted yes on 976 on Tuesday.

Then I finally got past it. Things cleared up. What is your natural inclination when you’ve been stuck in a traffic jam and you’re running late? You step on it, of course.

Well, for the first time in 25 years of driving this route, there was a Seattle motorcycle cop in a parking lot two blocks south of 145th Street. I didn’t get nabbed — I’ve never gotten a speeding ticket in Seattle — but another guy did. It could have been me.

I am convinced that this was government’s revenge.

Think of all the crimes we have in Seattle that cannot be investigated because we don’t have enough cops. And yet there are enough officers to have a guy on a motorcycle ready to trap drivers after the artificially-created gridlock just north of where he was.

Am I really supposed to believe this is all a coincidence? Yeah, it’s as much of a coincidence as the Aurora Bridge just happening to need repairs right before the election, and repairs miraculously finishing up early the day after the election.

The revenge is on. Consider this a PSA from me. We have hurt the government’s feelings by not wanting multi-hundred-dollar car tabs, and now they are taking it out on us.

An earlier version of this story misattributed the Washington State Department of Transportation as the government department behind the median work.

Listen to the Dori Monson Show weekday afternoons from 12-3 p.m. on KIRO Radio, 97.3 FM. Subscribe to the podcast here.

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Why Dori is convinced government is exacting its 976 revenge