The Seattle Post-Intelligencer, one Seattle’s dailies, has endorsed Proposition 1. Prop. 1, as you probably know, adds 36 miles of light rail, increases bus service immediately in 2009, and expands Sounder by 65%. The P-I endorsement focuses exclusively on job creation — perhaps a good selling point for the Yes campaign — to focus on now that the economy has turned south.
All things being equal, we’d support the expansion of Sound Transit for many reasons. This metropolitan area is underserved by buses, trains and other alternatives to the car with a single driver. We could make the case on transportation grounds, the environment or even pocketbook issues such as the cost of filling a gas tank.
But all things are not equal. Not now. Those were arguments for ordinary times; we are entering a period of extraordinary economic uncertainty. The first priority in this economy must be the creation of good-paying jobs and voting yes on Proposition 1 will do just that.
[…]
Rail, unlike bus systems, opens up all sorts of additional development opportunities (that’s another way of saying, “Yes, even more jobs”). Portland’s experience is that $6 billion in development occurred within walking distance of MAX light rail stations since 1980. There are similar findings in Dallas and San Diego, where property values around the light rail stations jumped by double-digits.
Sound Transit is a critical public works project. A one-half cent boost in the sales tax seems a reasonable price to pay for so many new jobs
Read the full endorsement online. It’s unclear when this will appear in print — perhaps Sunday since I doubt they’d publish their endorsement on a Saturday.
I love that they say that they could endorse it for so many other reasons, too!
More buses, more trains, cheaper than more oil money, everything!
Yep, this is a full-throated endorsement which is great to hear.
Everyone: be sure to leave your thoughts in the P-I’s comments since they tend to get filled with anti-transit zealots.
Yeah, let’s show our support and drop the PI some thanks in the comment section.
Thanks for your comment! I’m over there yelling at the idiots.
This is very good to hear indeed, and the P-I is right about job creation, but they miss the boat a bit when it comes to seeing the true big picture on this.
Some of the critics claim that this is a bad time to go forward with this because of the economic downturn, but in reality the converse is true: this is the best time to do this precisely BECAUSE of the economic downturn. Not only do you create at least some local jobs when you need them most (during the downturn), but because of the downturn you get more bidders and lower material costs – resulting in lower bids and better contract value for the taxpayers.
The PI gets the job part of the above correct, but they miss the fact that the taxpayers also get better value for their tax dollar due to the slow economy and increased competition.
Time to move forward – I’ll be voting “yes” on Prop 1.
Those are great points, and all true. This could be even cheaper. :)
I am always so perplexed as to why transit issues are so hotly debated by other people (sound off comments sections). I feel like building transit infrastructure should be welcomed by people since it serves the people, but so many are just adamantly against it..
I get that people don’t want to give their money away and hate taxes, but this would cost the average person maybe $70 per year. Seems nominal.
I really hope this measure passes. Do we know how it is polling right now?
polls have been generally positive but the recent economic disaster has certainly made some people nervous, so we have to keep the campaign going!
I should point out that all tax measures are affected – not just prop 1
There are lots of opportunities to volunteer this weekend, check masstransitnow.org for details!
Well, today there was a fatality accident around 5:45 PM on I-5 going northbound. I was driving southbound and passed it. However, I decided to count the number of buses stuck in the backup which stretched almost all the way to the U-District.
I counted 46 buses stuck in the same traffic as everyone else. Most of which were Community Transit Buses.With light Rail to Lynnwood, all of those people would almost already be to their destination instead of stuck in traffic or would be cruising past the accident smoothly.