Sound Transit receive second credit rating upgrade

Posted on by Brian Bundridge

November 02, 2007

For the second time in two weeks, Sound Transit was rewarded for its stellar financial performance with a credit rating upgrade from one of the nation’s three major independent municipal bond rating agencies.

Standard & Poor’s announced that they have upgraded Sound Transit’s subordinate lien bond rating to AAA, signaling strong investor confidence in Sound Transit’s financial health and outlook. Standard & Poor’s also affirmed the AAA rating for Sound Transit’s senior lien bonds, a rating that was upgraded to the S&P’s highest grade back in 2006.

“Two credit upgrades in less than a month is unassailable proof taxpayers can have total confidence in Sound Transit’s financial health,” said Sound Transit Board Chair and Pierce County Executive John Ladenburg. “Now we can get even more bang for the buck as we move forward with regional transit projects.”

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Light Rail for Me, But Not for Thee

Posted on by Frank Chiachiere

This post originally appeared on Orphan Road.

Dan Savage is fond of writing about the awesome airport rail links in the cities he visits. Now that the light rail is funded from the Stranger’s offices on Capitol Hill to SeaTac, it would seem that the paper is far more circumspect about endorsing light rail.

Consider this line about the proposed SeaTac-to-Tacoma light rail in The Stranger’s anti-Prop. 1 editorial:

The line itself (through a low-density area) may feed sprawl in South King County, instead of promoting dense urban development that will grow alongside light rail stations in North Seattle.

Josh Feit admits the paper “caught hell” for that, and rightly so.

Today, Feit is going back and forth with Will @ Horse’s Ass over this. Will says the stations along the line will lead to transit-oriented development, Feit says they’ll lead to more sprawl.

I’m with Will. Growth is going to come to South King County anyway. And while Feit is right to note that “light rail is not just a pour and stir fix,” it is an important part of the equation. If you get out in front of it with good growth management (which we have) and a light rail line (which we will have) then the kind of growth is much more likely to be centered around the rail stations than freeway exits. Once the growth happens, buying up right-of-ways for trains becomes much more expensive.

Parking Signs

Posted on by Frank Chiachiere

This post originally appeared on Orphan Road.

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How sweet are the new parking signs in South Lake Union? Simple, clear graphic design, with the important information very large. Parking times range from 2-10 hours, and it’s impossible not to know that with just a glance at the sign.

Seattle parking signs have gotten so complicated and wordy, this is a breath of fresh air. The transportation sector desperately needs better information design. More like this, please.

Jay Inslee on Prop. 1

Posted on by Andrew Smith

Rep. Jay “congressional expert on global warming” Inslee comes out for Prop. 1 in the P-I (yesterday? Wednesday? somehow I missed it). I think he basically says what I have been saying all along that Prop. 1 is mostly transit and HOV roads (75%) and if we are to achieve carbon-neutral transportation it will not be from eliminating lane-building but rather moving away from carbon fuels. A green automobile is certainly possible.

Certainly a better argument than “if developers support it, it must be bad!” Jesus Christ, Annie Wagner gets paid to write for a “newspaper”? Transit=Sprawl? I have lost any respect I had for the Stranger, though there wasn’t much serious respect there to begin with.