Politics from the Palouse to Puget Sound

Friday, January 13, 2006

Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter Begins


Last November, we awakened from Judy Krueger's Nightmare on Main Street.

I guess it is fitting then that today, Friday the 13th, begins the final chapter in our long drawn-out battle with PARD over Pullman's future.

If at all possible, go to the appeal hearing today at Gladish Auditorium and show your support. The hearing starts at 10:30 AM.

8 comments:

WSUStretch said...

Any initial updates? Locked in here at work today.

April E. Coggins said...

It's pretty much an open mike. The transcripts should provide lots of entertainment. The only new information revealed is that the cemetery study by EWU has concluded that it is highly unlikely that anyone is buried outside of the boundaries. My guess is that supporters out numbered the anti's. At the 2:00 p.m. recess, PARD was running out of speakers and they were re-running themselves.

WSUStretch said...

Thanks April - fortunately the guidelines were pretty clear from the Hearing Examiner that the issues are SEPA and Site Plan. Time for us to take a deep breath and let the process run its course and not get hassled by off topic rhetoric.

Ray Lindquist said...

I was able to make to the hearings from the open to just before the lunch brake at 2pm. The few "official" presenters that PARD had where a real joke. The one I found the most knee slapping was the one PHD lady from U of I Criminal Science department and she told us that the main cause of crime comes from 18 to 24 year old people, now that is earth shaking news. That after the bars close these people always come to 'hang-out' at Wal-Mart. They will cause "extra" crime in the well lit parking lot (so well lit as per another retired Prof from WSU presenter that it will cause us all to lose sleep due the high level of light at night.) Now this "Extra" crime is due the gathering of these 18 to 24 year old people. So it looks to me unless we have some way to stop this behavior we are doomed. Don't we have 2 large groups of these age people in the area [HINT: WSU & U of I] so if we don't shutdown these areas where all these people gather we are in for some serious crime wave with amazing breadth & scope. This was just a couple of the fun & games that we had today. I would guess that at the start we had maybe 100 to 150 people present, but by lunch break it had dropped off to maybe 100 if you stretched it. I also did some sign waving before the big balloon went up but I will save that for a post all to itself. Hope to hear below what you all thought of today's proceedings.

April E. Coggins said...

Ray,
It's all running together for me now but wasn't that the same PARD "sworn expert" who testified that because of Wal-Mart's low prices, they attracted low income people and it's been proven time and again that low income people are usually the criminals? A number of people walked out at that remark.

Ray Lindquist said...

April, I think you are right and now that you mention it, the crowd did sort of thin to some degree.

Scotty said...

The whole idea that students will go to WalMart when the bars close is the stupidest thing I have heard in my life. If that was even partially true, we would see them gathering now in Safeway's huge parking, or the old-Safeway buildings parking lot, or even Shopkos parking lot. Fact is that the students, at 2am don't stop drinking, they go to their apartment and continue...

April E. Coggins said...

She also testified that Wal-Mart allows rv's to park over night in their lot. It was her contention that when rv's get together, drinking is the result.
So let's string together her testimony and John Kruegers testimony that Wal-Mart lights will shine into every window in Pullman. Rv's are going to park overnight under lights so bright that they will shine into every window in Pullman? Now I understand why they will be drinking. They certainly won't be sleeping.