FWIW, our port has yours beat cold.

As to Spokane, we aren’t that far out of second…

The arguement about homeless sleeping under the tracks is specious – consider for example the ST proposed pedestrian underpass at ‘A’ street. This underpass to nowhere provides great access to a freeway onramp – historically the area of a very large encampment.

Most of the ’spurred’ growth in the area is the UW-T, students parking in the garage and ‘commuting’ into the campus.

Pylons have a greater engineering cost then beams, especially with the weight of heavy rail, it was the judgment of folks more knowledgable than I to proceed with the post and beam approach.

Cost estimates of the two options are questionable – what once was a 20 million upgrade is now down to 500k, and likely will be less at the end of the day due the greater need for ‘unplanned’ utility relocation cost overruns.

The alternative design that has been put together was led by the likely next Mayor, Architect Jim Merritt, and is nothing but constructive. Sound Transit and it’s prima donna staff and prima donna supporters like Scheindelman.

Despite the name, this blog’s scope is the greater Seattle area, which includes Tacoma. While we don’t always succeed, our intent is to take a regional perspective. Although Ben was somewhat more inflammatory than he need have been (and apologized for it in his next post), his concern is for people using Sounder and Amtrak, particularly, in this case, people living in Lakewood.

And there’s no support for your claim that the post began with “Seattle versus Tacoma.” The only reference to Seattle at all was that Central Link was built in the time this argument has been going on.

Both designs have their downsides, the post-and-beam is far from a perfect solution either. But unfortunately the design that wins will probably be the result of who can scream the loudest instead of what design actually works best for all the parties involved.

And the zoning in downtown is already quite permissive– including the warehouse district which have heights of 100 feet and lots of FAR.

Also during the boom years- there was a lot of downtown development in Tacoma- much of it townhousing as well as multifamily housing on the waterfront.

Why condemn them as do nothings so they deserve a poorly designed transit alignment??! Its obnoxious to claim that this neighborhood sucks – as a transit advocate , and pro-smart growth why would you want to negatively impact the center of their downtown where we are all hoping lots of people will choose to live?

Color me surprised.

“Or else they’ll take their rails and trains and go home to Seattle.”

“Anyone who has ridden the Seattle LINK segments can see how much was spent to make those neighborhoods better. Seattle politicians also assured that millions more were spent on nontransit economic and social programs to buy off opposition in the Rainier Valley. But when Tacoma residents ask for a design that won’t damage the Dome District, they’re told to take a hike.”

I don’t know how old you are, but if you’d look at what service was available in Pierce County before ST you’d be amazed at how much better it is today. I used to have to travel from Tacoma to Bellevue by bus in the early 90’s. If I had to make the trip at any time other than rush hour I would have to take a local bus from Tacoma to Federal Way, transfer to another local bus to Seattle, and then another local bus to Bellevue. The entire trip would take the better part of a day.

As far as your commute to Microsoft, I’m not sure what the trip planner is telling you or what time you go to work, but for example you can catch the 8:00 Sounder in Tacoma, transfer to the 564 at Kent Station at 8:44 and be at Overlake at 9:30. Or if you go earlier you can catch the 6:00 Sounder and be at Overlake by 7:30. I think thats about as competitive with the car as transit will get, until this region gets much denser.

Here is the 564/565 schedule: http://tinyurl.com/lxcq8a

and the Sounder schedule: http://tinyurl.com/nhj972