Last week’s ULink restructure posts brought in a record-breaking 1,070 comments over 5 posts. For the rest of March, it’s time that you take that same enthusiasm to upcoming open houses. Blog comments are great, but if you want influence in the process you are better served by showing up to open houses, taking Metro’s official survey, or both. So whether you want to (gently!) vent your anger, lavish them with praise, or likely something in between, Metro’s planners want to hear from you.
 Capitol Hill/Central District Open House
- When:Â Thursday, March 19, 6:00-8:00pm
- Where: Seattle University Administration Building #307
- Getting There: Metro routes 2, 9, 12, 60, or a short walk from 3, 4, 10, 11, and 49
Eastside Open House
- When:Â Wednesday, March 25, 6:00-8:00pm
- Where: Bellevue City Hall
- Getting There: Metro routes 226, 240, 232, 234, 235, 237, 241, 246, 249, 271, Sound Transit Routes 535, 550, 560, 566
Northeast Seattle Open House
- When:Â Thursday, March 26, 6:00-8:00pm
- Where:Â University Heights Center Room 209, 5031 University Way NE
- Getting There: Metro Routes 30, 71, 72, 73, 48, 49, 70, or a short walk from routes 44, 66, and 67
Why don’t you have the Eastside meeting on the community events calendar?
Fixed
Thanks again to Metro and ST for working together on this restructure process, and for putting together the Sounding Board to have the community’s best and brightest (I’m looking at Zach) pre-examine Metro’s/ST’s proposals. 1000+ comments later, I still see Alt 1 as the best proposal that has been put forth, knowing that Seattle Prop 1 money can tide some negatively-impacted neighborhoods over with additional service until Northgate Link opens.
But the discussion on having route 11 (a pre-cursor to Madison BRT?) serve the entire length of Madison has me wondering how much the City has bought into this process. Is the City at all interested in extending Madison BRT beyond 23rd Ave?
Has the City been involved in the Sounding Board process from the inside?
Thanks also to everyone who stepped forward to serve on the Sounding Board, and to Oran for the awesome maps, and to David for piecing together the posts explaining the proposals, in that group process that consumed a lot more time than simply writing posts.
Oh, and thanks to Frank for the Community Events Calendar!
The city and Metro have been planning independently of each other and reaching different goals, and Madison is the clearest example of the divergence. The city is headed toward an all-Madison route (at least to 23rd or 28th), while Metro is headed toward Madison-Broadway and Madison-Union. The streetcar lines are other examples: Metro would have put them elsewhere and probably used trolleybuses. But two plans is not a dead end; it’s a starting point. Now that the city has figured out what it wants and Metro is about to update its long-term plan, it’s time integrate them. That will halt the divergence and cross-purposes.
For instance, the TMP has “priority bus corridors” on Rainier-23rd (Rainier Beach to U-District), Beacon-Broadway (Othello to U-District), Jackson-Rainier (downtown to Mt Baker), 45th (Ballard to Laurelhurst). Are these to become routes or just street improvements? Is Rainier-23rd really better, or is an all-Rainier route essential to keep (likely yes)? So far Metro hasn’t responded to the TMP’s suggestions, but it should at some point, probably when the long-range plan is updated.