Bellevue City Council Eastside LINK Hearing

I attended the Bellevue City Council Eastside LINK hearing this evening. Boy did it run long, about 3 hours long. The vast majority of the comment was on segment B which runs through south Bellevue. "Votes" ran 10:1 against the Bellevue Way corridor and in favor of the BNSF route. I spoke in favor of keeping trains on train tracks. The Mayor even jotted down a note when I said that so if I hear it in a campaign speech I'm going to pull up the tapes of the meeting and file a copyright suit ;-) An official representative of the Bellevue Convention Center spoke earlier in the meeting and addressed concerns with one of the tunnel routes. I also made the point that the Seattle Convention Center already has a direction connection to the airport and that going forward Bellevue may have as much economic interest in linking to the City of Seatac as the City of Seattle. I also made the push for rail on the eastside serve the eastside and not be Seattle-centric as the current extend out from the existing LINK line in the International District is. That had been brought up earlier and was "seconded" by one of the speakers that followed. Hopefully that helped make that point sink in.

Boy did my speech suck. I think what I said was OK but the presentation sucked and there were points I didn't make or didn't make effectively. My tone of voice was squeaky and jilted. It was like I was suffering from stage fright. I didn't have prepared remarks but extemporaneous speaking is what I do best. Speaking at the end of a large group it was important that I not rehash what had been said so writing something in advance (oratory) would not have been the right answer but I should have had a notepad and made an outline before I went to the mic. Live and learn. On the plus side I did (again) finish well within my time limit. The whiners that go on and on saying "in conclusion" only after their red light's been on for a minute and the Mayor has to "chastise" them lose points in my book.