The stop light cameras at the junction of Pine and Broadway are keeping busy. They have been in place for a while but I’ve only noticed the flashes going off recently – maybe they’ve only just been activated.

They’ve been going off a lot. That means a lot of people cursing when the $124 tickets arrive in the mail.

I think the cameras are a great idea for 3 reasons:

1: If you don’t get the whole ‘red light means stop’ idea then you need an incentive to change.

2: I know a family that was badly T-boned in this intersection by a red light runner

and most importantly of all…

3: Tim Eyman is against them

On Friday Afternoon I saw one of the most disturbing things I’d seen in a while. Walking down 15th I see a woman come out of the bar Liberty and scatter a handful of something on the sidewalk, then go back in to the bar. As I walked past I saw that they were pennies – lots of pennies. OK… As I walked on a man and a woman came past me – possibly homeless, certainly not well off judging by the look of them. I heard something and turned and the two of them were on their knees scrambling to pick up the pennies. It was like a couple of pigeons pecking at breadcrumbs that someone had thrown out for them. But these were PEOPLE… PEOPLE on their KNEES picking up pennies that someone else threw away. What was the woman from Liberty doing? Was this some misguided attempt to help homeless people? Was this some creepy spectator sport laid on for their patrons? Do they do this all the time? I was too creeped out to go back and ask – anyone got any ideas?