March 26

New light rail taxes and Councilwoman Juarez

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6  comments

Update: Seattle Transit Blog has an overview here.

Speaking of transit; two things:

1) Sound Transit this week released preliminary proposals for a $50 billion expansion that would cost homeowners an average of $400 annually – apparently forever.

From The Seattle Times:

This fall’s Sound Transit 3 ballot measure would deliver light rail to Ballard as late as 22 years from now, while Everett would wait 25 years, under a draft the agency’s governing board issued Thursday.

Or Publicola:

The Sound Transit board stressed yesterday that there are some “early wins” to address immediate transportation needs (and presumably to get voters excited about something that’s happening sooner than your grandson’s bris) such as improvements on the Rapid Ride lines.

2) Meanwhile, Debora Juarez, the Seattle city councilwoman who represents almost all of Maple Leaf, criticized the proposal because it doesn’t prioritize a light rail station at Northeast 130th Street. (This is one of her top three priorities.)

The draft Sound Transit 3 proposal designates the potential boon of a NE 130th Street Station as a “provisional” project. This means that no funding is currently included in the package, and that the Sound Transit board would need to secure funding to make this station a reality. This is unacceptable.

Her full post is here.

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Sara W

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  1. Wefty, this is not a neverending tax, Sound Transit is proposing a 25 year program to complete its major construction goals. The average resident will only pay $17 more per month.
    Lisa, I’m sorry you’ve seen a service decline. On the east side of Maple Leaf I’ve seen more service. Perhaps you should make your voice heard to Metro to fight for better neighborhood service.
    The intent for light rail isn’t to get around the neighborhood, though…it’s regional mass transit intended to move large numbers of people to major areas. Buses transport people to those hubs, but light rail is the backbone of the system, which is why there are only 5 stops from Northgate to downtown (Northgate-Roosevelt-Brooklyn-Husky Stadium-Capitol Hill-Westlake). BTW, Convention Place will not be a light rail stop. It will be demolished and become part of a new expanded convention center.
    Sound Transit is delivering under budget and ahead of schedule on nearly all of its projects. Seattle is just now getting light rail, we need to keep it going to expand the system so it covers all of the Puget Sound, and west to Ballard and West Seattle. Stopping now would be a worse mistake than electing Trump president. Ok, maybe I’m overstating that. Nothing would be worse than electing Trump president.

    MLL: We haven’t slogged through the ST3 budget docs, but from The Seattle Times:
    “There would be no sunset date on the taxes, as long as they go to build and operate voter-approved service.”

    And from Sound Transit itself:
    ST3 Cost – Estimated Tax Burden Per Typical Household:

    -Sales & Use 0.5% – $151 / Household ($423 with Sound Move & ST2)

    -MVET 0.8% – $151 / Household ($208 with Sound Move & ST2)

    –Property Tax – $0.25 / $1,000 Assessed Value – $90 / Household

  2. By the time they get to Northgate, there will be five stops including downtown – Convention Place, Capital Hill, Husky Stadium, Roosevelt, and Northgate Transit Center.

    I don’t see any ST buses replacing the 68, and I don’t see any departing the tunnel to Maple Leaf.

    I have voted yes on every single ST and Metro bill there is and have seen my service consistently decline. I also saw a row of businesses (Northgate Station) I frequented knocked out, never to return to Seattle (hello, bakery outlet?” I’m not going to vote yes anymore until they can attend to what’s going on in the neighborhoods.

  3. This is for Sound Transit, people, not Metro. You realize ST actually added service in Maple Leaf, along Lake City Way, right? If you don’t like what Metro has done, complain to them, not Sound Transit. Do you want to complete light rail expansion throughout the region, or stop light rail at Lynnwood? What a joke about autonomous cars…the roads will still be clogged with those. Lisa, did you know there are 15 stops, not just 5. Vote yes on ST3!

  4. Yep, I’m voting NO on this transit issue for the same reason stated above by Wadical Weft. Our buses have been drastically cut, the Monday commute was already significantly worse, and no one will respond to any of my inquiries. The special election bill was for buses. The cuts in our neighborhood alone have me seething and I know I’m not the only one. Please, keep hammering at the agencies responsible, because we need to make it clear this is unacceptable. A multi-billion dollar light rail with FIVE stops is ridiculous. At this point, I feel as if they put it in to get Amazon workers downtown and Sounders fans to their games from Capitol Hill. The U District station is a complete joke for transfers and disabled people, too, BTW.

  5. Vote no on ST3. We voted for “more buses” and got some taken away and transfers substituted instead. Why believe anything the Pseudo-Transportation-Union-Developer-Industrial Complex (aka Sound Transit) says.

    Autonomous cars are less than 10 years away!

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