Comments on: Editorial: Bad Alignments are not Armageddon

By: Cindy

Cindy — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 01:49:37 +0000

That is your opinion, I don’t happen to agree.

By: Cindy

Cindy — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 01:49:07 +0000

Anyone who wants more information about The Vision Line that Kevin Wallace is proposing should contact him. You can find his phone number and email address by googling Wallace Real Estate Bellevue.

By: Martin H. Duke

Martin H. Duke — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 00:29:24 +0000

Ben, it’s easy to make this mistake, but I’m pretty sure it follows B7, but B7 then remains west of I-405 through downtown. So it wouldn’t be behind whole foods.

By: Ben Schiendelman

Ben Schiendelman — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 00:02:46 +0000

Yeah, Bernie, the Council presented their funding options. Now it’s time for them to determine which ones they can leverage.

By: Ben Schiendelman

Ben Schiendelman — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 00:02:09 +0000

Cindy, Kevin Wallace is trying to do something bad to the city of Bellevue. Transit needs to go through city cores in order for it to be cost effective or useful. A line that connects Seattle with auto row isn’t either.

Wallace is part of the problem. We’re part of the solution. If you really think otherwise, you’re clearly not interested in a transit system.

By: Ben Schiendelman

Ben Schiendelman — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 23:58:12 +0000

The station with B7 would be behind the Whole Foods, essentially. If I’m understanding what you’re saying right.

By: Ben Schiendelman

Ben Schiendelman — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 23:56:56 +0000

Did you just say “covered people movers”? The “Vision Line”? The time to bring this up was a year ago (or more) during all those East Link alignment meetings, not after alignment selection.

By: Chris Stefan

Chris Stefan — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 23:11:06 +0000

See the comment by Zed above.

By: Cindy

Cindy — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 22:38:11 +0000

It is pretty easy to sit back and take pot shots at someone like Kevin Wallace but the reality is that you all are just whining and complaining about this issue. Kevin is trying to do something in a meaningful way. If you aren’t part of the solution you are part of the problem.

By: Cindy

Cindy — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 22:35:13 +0000

The Vision Line provides for a large station at 6th and 112th in downtown Bellevue with covered people movers to the transit station. If that isn’t convenient I don’t know what is.

By: Bernie

Bernie — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 18:19:40 +0000

Why would we wait when the city council can fund a tunnel now?

Still waiting to hear you’re financial plan Ben.

By: Bernie

Bernie — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 18:16:40 +0000

And what does that have to do with the price of tea in China?

By: Chris Stefan

Chris Stefan — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 23:19:26 +0000

I think C9T may end up being much less than $500 million over the cost of C4A.

By: Chris Stefan

Chris Stefan — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 23:00:04 +0000

Bellevue never “decided to become a major regional center”. Show me the vote on that!

That would be any number of Bellevue City Council votes on comprehensive plans, zoning, land use, requests to host major regional amenities, etc. Bellevue did very much decide to become a regional center even if it was a matter of a bunch of little decisions over the course of 40 years.

By: Chris Stefan

Chris Stefan — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 22:53:37 +0000

Well that and no impacts along Main. Apparently the Surrey Downs folks don’t want any of the houses along the South side of Main taken out, even though almost every single one is now being used as a commercial property.

Of course we hear one of the typical NIMBY arguments which is “I support X, I just don’t think any location near me is an appropriate place for X”.

By: Martin H. Duke

Martin H. Duke — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 22:47:51 +0000

Well that depends on how robust the Bellevue capital budget is. The population ratio implies it’s more like the equivalent of $2.5 billion Seattle dollars, which is a lot, but then again I believe the per capita income is higher in Bellevue than Seattle.

That’s not to say that it isn’t a lot of money.

By: Zed

Zed — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 22:44:03 +0000

LID, MVET, employee tax, parking tax, federal grants, state grants, hotel tax, restaurant tax, developer impact fees, property tax… There’s a long list of sources Bellevue could utilize to create a funding package. It’s not like Bellevue’s the first city that’s had to finance a large infrastructure project.

Seattle easily came up with $50 million for the SLUT without imposing any long term taxes and Bellevue funded their $100 million city hall without raising taxes, surely there’s a way to raise enough revenue for the bonding capacity required for the tunnel.

I know $500 million is the cost that’s been bounced around, but I seriously doubt that a tunnel through Bellevue is going to cost an additional $500 million over the cost of the surface alignment. The 1.3 mile Beacon Hill tunnel cost $300 million and the 2 mile long tunnel from Capitol Hill to Husky Stadium is costing $310 million. I bet when the C9T cost estimate comes out at the end of this month it is no more than $200 million over the cost of the 108th – 110th couplet.

By: Bernie

Bernie — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 22:14:51 +0000

Let’s put this in perspective. Seattle has $234 million in it’s 2009 capital improvements budget for transportation; Bellevue has $20 million. Trying to raise a half billion dollars in Bellevue would be like Seattle being asked to come up with $5 billion dollars. A billion here, a billion there, pretty soon it adds up to real money!

By: barman

barman — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 22:10:58 +0000

All of that is moot when the city counsil, and likely the public at large, is ademately against raising taxes. There will be no additional source of revenue to built a tunnel. If there is I’ll eat my hat.

By: Chris Stefan

Chris Stefan — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 22:04:32 +0000

Ben,
I’m aware the budget didn’t allow for serving Southcenter. I was simply saying an alignment swinging through Southcenter on the way to Seatac would have been technically feasible. I also agree the money would have been better spent on deferred stations or extending further South.