As you all likely know, Sound Transit’s board votes Thursday for a November ballot measure.
With that vote will come the beginning of a campaign we must win. The stakes are higher this year: A loss could well be the end of Sound Transit, the board replaced with new elected officials who would almost definitely shift transit money to roads. University Link could be cannibalized to replace 520. The team that’s been put together – today chomping at the bit to build when we say go, desks covered in designs and plans – would be lost to other cities. We would have to start over.
A win will offer a real alternative to highway expansion, giving us the tool we need to prevent sprawl. A win will keep Sound Transit delivering projects, and put the agency in a safe position from which to strike out with acceleration or expansion in a few years. A win will show the younger generation there is a better way.
Opposition will be fierce this year. The Seattle Times will attack every week. The Van Dyks and Kemper Freemans will say highways and vanpools are all we need. We know better, we know how to make our arguments, and this is the time to start going on the offensive.
Friday, let’s meet. The Columbia City Ale House, 7 pm. We’ll bring maps and talking points, everyone bring your brain and your ideas. We’ll make sure to have someone from the campaign, there may be volunteer opportunities, and I’m sure we can organize some action of our own.
“A loss could well be the end of Sound Transit, the board replaced with new elected officials who would almost definitely shift transit money to roads. ”
Who says there’s no good news? About time these “visionaries” were put out to pasture or into the hard-core unemployed group.
(I’m not sure how dissolving Sound Transit would do any of that – these are our mayors, county executives, and city council members. We voted for every board member save Paula Hammond. Perhaps you need to better understand these issues before making inflammatory comments? -Ben)
Yeah! Who needs leaders, when we could get by with no-action corrupt politicians like those that lead the Port.
I say we get rid of the damn librarians too. Bunch of low-life book-reading freeloaders.
The current ST board are all current elected officials, such as mayors and city & county council members.
I just went through the Crosscut piece and decided to send an email to every ST board member who was voting no or was on the fence. This is the only response I’ve gotten:
“Thank you for your e-mail. I can assure you I am giving this package a great deal of thought, and am working hard to make it a package I can support. I feel the immediate needs of the bus service needed now in light of the economy are not yet as strong as they should be. Please know that I am a strong supporter of transit, and hope to find a solution that meets the growing needs we have in the Puget Sound.
Paula Hammond”
Not surprising, but sad nonetheless.
I would encourage others to do the same, especially those transit supporters in outlying areas whose representatives are against or on the fence. It can’t hurt to advocate.
I sent emails to Ron Sims, Paul Roberts, Paula Hammond, Pete von Reichbauer and John Ladenburg. Anyone I missed?
Sound Transit Board
Paula Hammond and other fence-sitters need reminding that rail is a long-range solution, and buses are a short-range response.
It’s penny wise and pound foolish to sacrifice the long-range solution because it doesn’t contain enough short-term action.
If more short-term response is needed (i.e. more buses) that’s a function for the local transit agencies who do nothing but buses.
At its heart, Sound Transit’s mission is rail transit and it shouldn’t be diverted from that focus.
Indeed, and this year a bit more of the ST plan does address immediate needs, adding bus service across the board and hopefully increasing the length of Sounder trains and the number of runs.
I think Ladenburg and von Reichbauer are onboard. We can probably safely leave Roberts to Reardon – I doubt Reardon and Dawson want Snohomish to appear split, and I think Reardon will ensure Roberts’ vote.
Hammond and Sims aren’t going to change their minds. Hammond is on orders from Gregoire, and Sims has just gone insane – which is why we’re going to replace him with Larry Phillips next year.
Have you invited the following people:
-Bus Chick
-Erica Barnett
-Joni Earl
-Mayor Nickels
-Local newspaper staff
Mmes. ECB and Earl would probably be keen on showing up if there was a distinct plan involved. The newspaper staff would probably be good, too.
As we’re not the campaign, I don’t really want to invite newspaper staff, Barnett, etc. I’m sure Joni Earl will show up eventually, but let’s take some action first to make ourselves visible! Bus Chick knows we meet, and I’d love it if she showed up, that’s a great idea.
“I say we get rid of the damn librarians too. Bunch of low-life book-reading freeloaders.”
You are wrong about librarians. They are not freeloaders. Without Seattle’s librarians who would make sure that our homeless took regular bathroom breaks? Without librarians, you’d have to hire a legion of homeless nannies.
(You’re right, without librarians, you’d never have people like me mucking up your self-interested plans to try to drown government in a bathtub. I’d never have gotten interested in improving this region’s transportation if I hadn’t had access to the fantastic collections of the Seattle Public Library, and their incredibly knowledgeable staff. The SPL is how I learned this city was built on a mass transit system. I’m sure you’d love it if we all just stuck to our own little lives and didn’t try to change anything! -Ben)
They don’t use the libraries for that purpose, they use Metro bus stops.
Sorry [vander], I thought we were doing senseless anti-government rants.
“Who says there’s no good news? About time these “visionaries” were put out to pasture or into the hard-core unemployed group.”
I am not exactly sure what the term “visionaries” is supposed to represent in the phrase above? It almost seems like it attacks the notion to have progressive ideas about expanding rail transit throughout our region, which is the primary focus of ST. Or is it supposed to mean that those ST board members who don’t vote for this measure ought to be put out to pasture? I am just not sure.
At any rate, we really can’t afford to let ST dissolve or be replaced with officials who will shift resources and funds to roads over transit.
I really hope this package passes in the fall.
I hope you can help. :)
The campaign this year is going to need all the support it can get.
Let’s clarify a couple things:
First, the disillusion of sound transit does not in any way affect the employment status of anyone on the Sound Transit Board of Directors. Each of them is an elected official that will continue to be an elected official until they are voted out of office by their direct constituents.
A more legitimate concern is the Sound Transit staff, who would be out of a job if the agency were to dissolve. This is the same staff that convinced the board to cut out the First Hill Link stop.
Second, a failure of this measure does not necessarily mean the disillusion of Sound Transit. Though a failure might make such an eventuality more likely, it would take an act of the legislature to dissolve the agency.
Third, the failure of this measure, or even the disillusion of sound transit does not necessarily mean that the money will be spent on roads. Sound Transit is asking the voters to approve new taxes. If the measure fails, the money will be left in the hands of the tax payers, not in some transportation account that road warriors can tap. Now it is possible that the state will authorize the creation of a new regional road building agency and transfer sound transit’s taxing authority to it, but the legislature would almost certainly require that the public approve the creation of such an entity at the ballot box, so we’d have plenty of opportunity to campaign against it then.
If this measure fails, any number of things could happen, and one of those things is that a new better transit plan will be proposed. Recall that everyone on this blog warned that if Proposition 1 failed that we would never get another chance to build light rail in this region again. Of course, another possibility is that we will shift spending to road construction. It could go either way.
I am not saying I’m opposed to this plan, nor am I saying I’m for it, but the scare tactics only undermine our credibility.
So, pointing out the Governor appointing a commission of anti-transit folks to recommend dissolving ST and replacing it with an elected agency… is a scare tactic? Um, yeah. It’s pretty common knowledge that (some of) the legislature wants Sound Transit’s banked East Link money to help replace 520.
“A more legitimate concern is the Sound Transit staff, who would be out of a job if the agency were to dissolve. This is the same staff that convinced the board to cut out the First Hill Link stop.”
Tony, those people are called engineers. They are like doctors or scientists. You may not always like what they have to say – but using the George W Bush approach, and writing off the advice of professionals…that’s not a smart thing to do. ST took the lessons they learned in a very difficult geotech environment under Beacon Hill, and they applied it to an even more challenging situation with an even deeper First Hill station. Apparently, learning from experience is now a bad thing?
“Now it is possible that the state will authorize the creation of a new regional road building agency and transfer sound transit’s taxing authority to it, but the legislature would almost certainly require that the public approve the creation of such an entity at the ballot box, so we’d have plenty of opportunity to campaign against it then.”
Tony, continually fighting against bad roads-oriented measures (the inevitable result of the Stanton / Discovery Institute regional governance “reform” effort) doesn’t move us forward. Not an inch. They didn’t build the excellent multi-modal systems in Vancouver and Portland by fighting off bad things…
One step forward and two steps backwards does not equal progress.
Speaking of Ron Sims, the Seattle Times just posted two op-ed pieces on ST Expansion, one by Greg Nickels and one by Sims.
Guess where Sims thinks the ST money would be better spent?
Sims advocating reducing the number of local stops and very slightly increasing capacity? Imagine that.
With Light Rail + Feeder service, you get all your local stops AND a rapid dedicated collector service. That’s getting your cake and eating it, too.
When’s the next KC Executive election? November?
Next November. Larry Phillips will hopefully run against him.
Mayor Nickels even gives this blog a shoutout!
Thanks! I just saw it and wrote a post.
I really want to come to this meetup, but unfortunately it’s at the same time as the Capitol Hill Block Party! It sounds like it should be an interesting discussion though, so I’ll look for a post about it and any related volunteer opportunities the next day.
STB meetups are always weekends I’m out of town…
I’d definitely like to help. I’m admittedly not as well-versed in transit as some… which leads me to an idea:
I think a Seattle Transit Wiki might be a useful resource. Specifically, STB readers and other interested parties would construct a living document that outlines Seattle transportation projects, issues, players, history, etc, ideally in a neutral point-of-view ala Wikipedia (I said ideally).
All the projects both past and present, funded and failed, with a different acronym for each, start to run together in my head. Think of how the average voter must approach this stuff. This would be a good resource for voters who are going to have a lot of questions about the pros-and-cons of the transit proposals they are voting on this fall.
Also, I think you’re more likely to get general internet linkage and google cred for a general resource wiki. There will be a time and place for “rail is awesome” sites, but I think the wiki could be a great start.
I love the idea of a wiki and would gladly contribute to it as much as I can. Also, in lieu of an Seattle Transit Wiki we can go improve the ones on Wikipedia and then link to the STW for more detailed information.
I’m coming to the meetup this Friday. I’ll try to come up with some ideas but I won’t be surprised at all if any of you have already figured out the same thing. At least I’ll be the cheerleader.
Tony, dropping the First Hill station was a sound engineering decision to avoid unneeded risk that could put the whole project in jeopardy. Please, get over it!
Hell yes. It was a $350 million station that would have lost us a $750 million grant – we saved $1.1 billion and lost only 5,000 daily boardings. U Link will get us 70,000 daily boardings in 2020 without it!
I don’t know if we should bash on Tony, he sounds like a good guy who knows his stuff.
I think with the First Hill Connector, ST is keeping its word to serve that community as well as connect thousands more around the streetcar project to the Light Rail stops in both Chinatown/ID and Capitol Hill. It would have been better if we knew this when approving Sound Move, but this agency is different and better than the one in 1996. We won’t see the same issues crop up when ST2 passes.
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