Yesterday, King County Executive Dow Constantine appointed former *State Senator Joe McDermott to the Sound Transit Board, replacing outgoing county councilmember Jan Drago. McDermott was elected to the King County council’s 8th District seat in November, beating out Diane Toledo.
From a King County press release:
“It is critically important that we continue to have strong south King County representation on the Sound Transit Board, and Councilmember McDermott’s extensive legislative experience will serve all of our customers well,” said Executive Constantine. “The 8th District includes the cities of Burien, SeaTac and Tukwila, and these are all emerging residential and job centers for our region that need good transportation alternatives.”
“We need to connect communities within south King County to each other, recognizing that people live, work and play outside downtown Seattle,” said Councilmember McDermott. “Working together and thinking creatively, we can produce a transit system that meets the needs of the entire region. I am honored to be a South County representative on the Board.”
McDermott’s appointment still has to be confirmed by the county council. We congratulate him and look forward to seeing him on the ST Board.
*McDermott can only be appointed to the ST Board as an elected official in King County, not in state office. [Update 10:37pm: At any rate, Joe is on longer a State Senator, as his replacement, Sharon Nelson, has already been sworn in.]
Good deal! I think you can figure out why I would want him on the board.
actually, yesterday Sharon Nelson was also sworn in as Senator for the 34th, so McDermott is no longer a state senator.
The City of Seattle sure has lost their clout on the ST Board. Only two left (Conlin and McGinn), and we all know how tight they are. Phillips is beholden to NW Seattle and McDermott to W.Seattle, but as Council members, have a more regional view on things. Everyone else is pretty sub-urban.
I wouldn’t be surprised if more regional bus/brt type service is replaced for rail as the budget gap continues to grow, after certain commitments are lived up to like rail to Northgate and Microsoft.
Council Member Phillips has been pushing to roll back the 15th Ave NW BAT lanes into mere 1-passenger HOV lanes, complaining about how empty those lanes are. A friend of BRT he has not been, so far.
Council Member McDermott’s first test (as a KC Council member, not ST Board member) may be to take over negotiations over parking along the Line C route. The Triangle neighborhood is squawking at the removal of on-street parking. The businesses along that route need some sort of parking mitigation so that they will go along with losing the on-street parking around Line C bus stops, which is already a retreat on the notion of RapidRide.
Metro resists having buses pull out from general traffic for a reason. BRT should be especially immune from having to pull in and out of general traffic. Unfortunately, some in West Seattle have been unprepared for the reality that in order to bring true BRT, the parking along the bus line has to go away, and the buses need lanes outside of general traffic wherever the public right-of-way exists to make it possible. Even on this blog, the idea of removing parking to create those lanes came as a little bit of a shock.
But, we voted for RapidRide. We expect those RapidRide lines to have all possible aspects of BRT, including dedicated right-of-way. (BRT-over-rail supporters, are you involved in this debate?)
Mitigation to replace some of the parking with more parking nearby may cost money, but may be a necessary compromise in order to save the C Line as a BRT line. Plus, parking replacement is a one-time cost. Increasing travel time on a frequent bus line is a permanent cost increase.
What’s the highest and best use of 12′ of asphalt on the shoulders of most urban arterials?
Move people or a storage spot for 3,000 lbs of steel and plastic.
Well, there I go again. I gave away the right answer. Dang.