We’ve spent the last week or so agonizing over how to get the $1.2 billion in 2006 dollars to extend light rail to Northgate by 2018. We’ve spilled many electrons trying to figure out what taxing district is optimal, how the legal arrangements work out, etc.
Well, the King County Council just raised taxes without a public vote yesterday, and if you multiply the projected yearly income by the 10 years it would take to get to Northgate, you get no less than $1.1 billion. That’s a back-of-the-envelope calculation, ignoring inflation (although tax receipts inflate too), but also ignoring the fact that we could pay it off over a longer period of time, and the likelihood that the Federal government would chip in.
Remember this when we’re told there’s no money to get to Northgate (or repair crumbling bridges).
Ron Sims’ swing from champion for transportation to head of the mass transit enemies list is truly startling. Could a Republican County Exec be any worse?
Good point. I just read about that vote today. The money is certainly there; the political umph isn’t. Sims will get behind parks and libraries and other things Seattle folk like, but I’ve never seen him lead on an issue where there’s a chance to lose political capital. This is guy who wants to move up, after all, and doesn’t want to make enemies. As far as his future political career goes, he’s been making the right calls.
If he wants to keep my respect he’d better come out swinging on mass transit pretty darn quick.
-Kevin
He should be taken out of office in my opinion. I see him as a loose cannon who can’t really stand for anything. I think when when politics gets in the way of making a decision that is benefiting many people then your job as a leader fails severely. I don’t see him as a leader, he lacks many things. It isn’t often I quote people, but I think this a good time, “You can please some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can’t please all of the people all of the time. I believe (correct me if I am wrong) that was by President Lincoln. I am slightly tender as of the last election with Ron. So my opinion is biased. I was in San Franciso when the news broke, and I was flipping back and forth between this blog and the times. I know one thing, if I ever am in a position where I have to vote for him, it will be NO.
He got burned when he faced Gregoire in the gubernatorial primary and actually stood for something controversial for the first time in his life.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/transportation/339476_aferry14.html
I was wrong, we didn’t get to vote on that. You’re right, nick, he shou-ld be taken out of office.
It’s mind boggling. Light rail to Northgate (and elsewhere) is sooooo crazy and expensive, yet shuttling a couple hundred people a day across [insert body of water here] seems perfectly sane. Ugh.
You know, maybe if we already had rapid transit, and a non-tax weary populous, it would be a nice alternative. Unfortunately, neither of those two conditions have been met.
Please, please, ST, start digging the University Link, before that gets scrapped for, I dunno, a Des Moines to Seattle passenger ferry. Oh, wait, that’s already planned. (yes, I know these are different funding sources, but there’s only so much money to go around, I guess)
Speaking of the proposed (and idiotic) Des Moines to Seattle passenger ferry… I would guess that I could ride my bike from just about anywhere in that town to the Airport Link Station, get on the train (in 2009, of course) and be in Seattle before the diesel belching boat.
Kevin/Anonymous,
Are you nuts? Ron Sims afraid to lose political capital? Do you have any idea of the kind of risk he took when he decided to fight Prop 1?
Though Ron Sims is primarily responsible, Reagan Dunn was the only councilmember not to vote for this boondoggle.
So there’s plenty of blame to go around.
This question is sort of related, in that Ron Sims was out in front (more accurately, he responded to public concerns/demands) of the Waterfront Streetcar vs. sculpture park debacle… but, according to the press release [http://transit.metrokc.gov/tops/wfsc
/wsc_newhome.html]
the streetcar deal was supposed to be done – does anyone know its status?
Anonymous,
No, I don’t know what kind of risk he thought he was taking.
If anything, Sims was prescient.
In the end what has he lost, other than the respect of a few die-hard rail fans?
I do have a softspot in my heart for the foot ferries:
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2004012833_ferry14m.html
Just because we are all pissed off about losing our best chance for 50 miles of light rail doesn’t mean passenger ferries don’t make sense.
The Sea Bus in Vancouver carries 5 million people a year and has stimulated development around Lonsdale Quay that now houses over 100,000 people. There are over twenty new routes being planned in the Bay Area. And passenger ferries in New York like the Staten Island Ferry carry over twenty million a year.
We have lots of water in this region. The right of way is free. This idea makes sense
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