You’d think that living in the neighborhood of a major fault line in constant earthquake-tsunami fear & denial [msnbc] would make Pugetopolis residents want to try to hold it together for good measure. Instead, it seems like the culture of breaking up is contagious.

First, the eastern part of the state wants to call it quits. Now the Eastsiders want out of King County. While arguing that the issue should be brought to the people for a vote, Scott Hamilton raises questions about the implications of a split in a P-I commentary:

If Cascade County is formed, will Sammamish, Issaquah, North Bend and points in between and north and south of Seattle lose the Metro bus service? Will there be enough revenue without the Seattle tax base to provide the health-and-safety and social services needed? Will our tax collections be better off because what we raise here will be spent here instead of being sent to Seattle, or will we have a revenue-to-services shortfall? [p-i]

For some of us, the Eastside has always been something of a magical undiscovered country, the “seattle area” where republicans fly in to fundraise, but we had no idea that they wanted out so badly. So much for the cliché about opposites attracting.