Scene in Edmonds: A visit from the mayor

Nadine with Edmonds Mayor Mike Nelson. (Photo courtesy Edmonds Landing)

Edmonds Landing Marketing Director Jennifer Angell shared this photo of Edmonds Mayor Mike Nelson having lunch with resident Nadine at the retirement and assisted living facility. According to Angell, Nadine had written a letter to the mayor regarding the challenge of addressing train track blockages along the Edmonds waterfront. She starting it with: “Dear Mike, Greetings from an old lady at Edmonds Landing.”

She wrote: “It has already been a few years since, after much support and engineering expense, we voted down the BNSF overpass from Sunset to Brackett’s Landing.” “The problem still exists.”

In her letter, Nadine proposed that the new Port of Edmonds building that is under construction house an urgent care facility on its premises, allowing seniors and others in Edmonds to seek medical attention. “Add a heliport with blocked tracks that Swedish and Harborview would be able to access,” she said, then added: “I’ve been wondering if you’d like to visit down here for lunch someday.”

Edmonds Landing thanked the mayor for taking the time to meet with Nadine and to read her letter. “It most definitely made her day and ours,” Angell said.

  1. It would be simpler and less costly to make a pedestrian ramp over the tracks and have on the waterfront side a shed that house emergency equipment such as a couple of gurney’s, oxygen, defibrillators, etc. that the EMT’s, Parks, Police, and Ferry crews could access to allow moving medical evacuation people over a stalled train.

    Of course we could also implement my Distributed Drive Freight Train system which would result in the tracks being gone from the waterfront. Ask me more if curious.

  2. Ed– Having been a member (as well as Mike Nelson, BTW) of the original ‘Waterfront Access Study Group’ referred to by Ms. Angell in the above article I would be ‘curious’ to not only know more of your ‘Distributed Drive Freight System’, but in particular, whether or not you’ve had any contact and/or feedback on same from BNSFRR

    1. Thank you for asking. DDFS converts the locomotive to a kerosene turbine generator with computer power controls that sends DC electric power to all the freight cars which have an electric motor in them, and a “smallish” battery that would enable about 15 minutes of independent power. The locomotive would not need to be heavy any more. The motors would be regenerative during braking. The entire train could change velocity in unison. So there would be no “bump” as there is now when starting and stopping. In urban areas cut and cover tunnels would be made in the right of ways to eliminate congestion and safety issues. The tunnel machines would be largely robotic as would the trains themselves. When in the tunnels, the trains would be on the grid with the turbine shut off. For Puget Sound, the route at Monroe would turn south and go through the eastside to Renton. This would be a nationwide infrastructure program. Freight rail would go faster, be more flexible and safer. This would reduce heavy road truck traffic and result in great savings of carbon emissions, road wear and accidents.

  3. I remember hearing discussions about setting up an Emergency Medical First Responder Satellite station, during the Connector fiasco. Why has nothing been done to correct this deficiency, if it’s a serious problem? Only the current Mayor can answer, Why have you not addressed this ?

    It’s nice that the Mayor has finally left his office, making time for a resident, while he is campaigning (wink). The Mayor has not been a visible presence and active participant in our community until campaign season?

  4. This is priceless Edmonds politics as usual. M.N. was all for the Connector before he jumped in front of the public protest parade to be against it. Thereby getting himself elected Mayor. Looks like he’s now trying to promote and jump in front of another parade to be for some sort of access fix because it apparently plays well with more fearmongering about some potential catastrophe” that is right around the corner” at the waterfront. Once again; two signs, one at Main and one at Dayton, warning of the waterfront being an area of possible lengthy blockage by trains, so enter at your own risk. Medical Evacuation Helicopters work just fine for emergency situations on our highways and in our mountains and they can well cover anything of any significance on our waterfront. BNSF and WSDOT own control of our waterfront and that is not going to change without a change in Federal law and State law. Get over it, already.

    1. So where is there space for a medivac copter to safely land on our waterfront at high tide?

  5. The grassy part of the dog park could quickly and easily be cleared for such a purpose. There would be space available in the Port parking lots much of the time. Railroad avenue temporarily blocked off even. It would be a good and relatively cheap idea to mark an emergency spot for this purpose at the publicly owned dog park or along the road with a no parking zone and a big red X perhaps. It’s a silly waste of time to keep making a mountain out of this mole hill for someone’s political ambitions to be enhanced.

  6. And how long would it take to clear the dog park of people when the police are all on the other side of the tracks? And what about the wind? There are too many structures for any port parking lot on the west side of the tracks. Have you asked a helicopter pilot? Building a pedestrian ramp across the tracks just south of the ferry dock would be simple and offer far more certainty of quick response. I don’t see how this is political, it is just infrastructure.

  7. Do you really think people at the dog park wouldn’t automatically scatter if they saw a Medivac trying to land? Drivers routinely pull over for police and fire don’t they? Are dog owners too dumb to do the same thing? I don’t think so. If there is no political aspect to this issue, what is the up for re-election Mayor doing in the picture with the article? Spending money wisely, or not, on infrastructure is always a political issue as is self serving fear mongering by politicians to somehow get or retain power. You can’t insure against every possible adverse event that might occur and no politician is going to save us or the world, even though they want us to think that they can and will. Mother nature is always in charge and that will never change.

    1. Clinton, I was as puzzled as you appear to be about the dog park thing. Many, if not most Medivac emergencies involve picking the patients up in irregular places (car crashes, fires, building collapses, industrial accidents, etc.) whereas it is mainly the receiving hospital/medical facility that has the dedicated landing zone. One of my brothers was for years a combat helicopter pilot in the RCAF, and they had to land in all sorts of places to pick injured people up – while getting shot at. This is not a problem that some people want to make it out to be.
      As for our Mayor having lunch with Nadine, I thought that was very nice of him. She sent him an invitation to have lunch and discuss things, and he graciously obliged. Good for him, timing be darned.

      1. The dog park is usually occupied by dogs and people. If there are no police or Firefighters to clear and secure the landing space because the stuck train blocks vehicle access; no medivac helicopter pilot would take risks like that and retain their job. Mayor having lunch with Nadine doesn’t worry me a bit.

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