Last Friday, as part of the Annapurna business mitigation contest, Sound Transit invited media to tag along on their U-Link walking tour. We were given the rare opportunity to walk the entire 3 miles underground, departing from UW Station around 2pm and emerging a couple blocks east of Westlake just after 4pm.
U-Link is now 85% complete and still on track for an early 2016 opening. UW Station is about 95% complete, and Capitol Hill station just over 50% complete. About a third of the track and electrical is finished, and no OCS (overhead catenary) is yet installed.
The current King County Council. Picture by King County.
Since Proposition 1 failed in April, Metro and its riders have assumed that the King County Council would pass an ordinance implementing the four-part series of cuts Metro planning staff devised. On Tuesday, Councilmember Rod Dembowski threw a wrench into that plan. He and the three suburban members of the Council’s Transportation, Economy, and Environment (TrEE) Committee, over the objections of the committee’s three other Seattle members, approved an ordinance which would implement only most of the first (September 2014) round of cuts, canceling other cuts altogether for the moment. Councilmember Dembowski would not implement or propose any funding to pay for the restoration of service. (Our Frank Chiachiere spoke with Councilmember Dembowski about his proposed ordinance last week.)
The other four Seattle councilmembers, in response, proposed a compromise ordinance which would implement all four rounds of cuts, but give the County Executive flexibility to cancel or reduce the June 2015 and September 2015 cuts and to undo part or all of the February 2015 cuts if new funding is found. This response put the Council in the odd position of having “Democrats” propose cuts while “Republicans” (and Councilmember Dembowski) seek to delay them (yes, the Council is technically nonpartisan). But there is method to the Democrats’ seeming madness, and I strongly support their compromise proposal.
I’m usually a big fan of Councilmember Dembowski, who is my councilmember, and who has done top-notch work on many issues in a short time on the Council. But I think this proposal of his is misguided, even with an admirable goal. I argue that his proposal’s effect would not be to avoid cuts, but to undermine Metro’s newly professionalized planning process and its Service Guidelines, while cuts go forward. That would be a profoundly bad outcome for Metro, the county, and us riders, so I hope to see Councilmember Dembowski’s proposed ordinance defeated at today’s 1:30 p.m. Council meeting. Full argument below the jump.
Campbell Live, a well-known TV newsmagazine in New Zealand, recently filed an extended report on attempts to manage growth and housing affordability in Seattle, as Auckland is starting to face some of the same problems. Although I think it glosses over the city’s failures, it’s also a reminder that it could be worse. We at least pay lip service to density, and most efforts, however halting, are usually in the right direction.
This week a King County Council majority of Democrat Rod Dembowski and four Republicans* backed a plan to not enact any of the Executive’s proposed cuts except for the September 2014 round (see the breakdown of what disappears when here). PubliCola reports that yesterday
Republican county council member Kathy Lambert… proposed (and passed, with support from Dembowski and the council’s other three Republicans) an an amendment that would preserve a half-dozen Dial-a-Ride Transit (DART)** routes in unincorporated King County that were deemed, under Metro’s service guidelines (which consider factors like ridership, cost, economic justice, and social equity), to be “low-performing.”
The DART service is operated by Hopelink, a nonprofit that serves seniors and people with disabilities. Lambert is on Hopelink’s board of directors.
Meanwhile, the other four Democrats presented their own “compromise” plan (with legal text) that technically enacts all four rounds of cuts. However, only the first two would be certain to happen. The Executive would have until November 30, 2014 to inform the Council that it had identified additional revenue (through new revenue projections, a Seattle tax package, or some other “efficiencies”). It would then have to submit by January 7th a “plan consistent with the Metro Transit Service Guidelines recommending restoring some routes and service included in the February 2015, June 2015 and September 2015 service changes.”
Rob Johnson, Executive Director of Transportation Choices Coalition and friend of the blog, said that on Monday his organization would back the Democratic proposal because the Dembowski/Republican plan “is a bad idea” and the County must “face reality” that some cuts will be unavoidable.
Although the differences between these proposals are largely technical, there is one significant advantage of the Democratic plan. Rather than preserving existing service patterns, it would subject a larger portion of current service to the Metro Service Guidelines, the path to a more rational, ridership-maximizing bus network. This is partly because it enacts all the cuts and then restores the service hours according to the guidelines, and also because it avoids this grubby bit of pork-barrel DART spending.
The Council will consider both proposals Monday at 1:30pm in Council Chambers. As always, public comment is welcome.
* The Council is officially nonpartisan, but all members either previously ran with party affiliation or proudly declare their allegiance.
This Sunday will kick off the 20th Columbia City Beatwalk season. After the success of last year a similar format will be used, second Sunday of the month June-October from 6-10pm. All shows will be FREE. The location of downtown Columbia City is a short walk east from the Columbia City link station.
Each Sunday event will have its own theme and unique lineup. June 8th will be funk oriented:
Get ready to dance the evening away to the fabulous sounds of Thaddilac, Mctuff, Jeff Fielder, Eli Rossenblat, Swamp Soul Band, DJ MCG5000, The Entertainment Quintet, Honeysuckle Rose and much more! It is all free and very conveniently located at all of your favorite Columbia City venues, including The Hummingbird, The Royal Room, Columbia City Theater, Tuttabell and Island Soul.
As we noted on Tuesday, King County Councilmember Rod Dembowski passed a motion out of his committee to delay the transit cuts that are scheduled to go into effect in 2015. Since the motion was supported mainly by the Republicans on the council, it raised a few eyebrows here on the STB staff.
I sat down with Dembowski to learn more about the motion and his thinking behind it. As readers no doubt recall, the cuts are scheduled to be phased in over the next two years, with the lowest-priority cuts happening this year and more aggressively painful cuts happening through September 2015. He agrees that the 2014 cuts probably need to happen, but wants to delay the more aggressive cuts scheduled for next year.
Tuesday night SDOT held an open house for the proposed Northgate Station pedestrian bridge. It showcased three design alternatives and provided a brief funding update. The bridge itself will be 15-20 feet wide and have an overall length of 1800-2200 feet depending on the alignment. The trek from the station to College Way would be about 1/4 mile; the current trip is about 1.2 miles via either the north on Northgate Way or via the south on 92nd. 7,000 daily crossings are expected once Lynnwood Link comes online. The student population of North Seattle Community College is 14,000 plus about 400 staff. The bus stops in front of NSCC see about 600 daily riders today.
Connections
The bridge will connect at three points: ground level on the west side of I-5, ground level on the east side and at the mezzanine level of Northgate Station. For the west side there are two options: at the end of 103rd at College Way (W1) and at 100th (W2). For the east side: 1st and 103rd (E1), 1st and 100th (E3) or half way between the two (E2).
The bridge deck will be about 40 feet off the ground and the western approach would gently slope down. The east approach will cloverleaf and touch down on the west side of 1st. A cycle track is to be constructed running on the west side of 1st between 103rd and 92nd. A multi-use path is being constructed on the east side of 1st from 103rd to Northgate Way. There is a planned, unfunded greenway along 100th between College Way and Fremont Ave.
The Seattle City Council pass the highest minimum wage in the US. I think Sally Clark said it best, “No city or state has gone this far. We go into uncharted territory.”
Washington Sate is required to cut CO2 emission by 72% according to the recently released EPA plan, the largest of any state, primarily because we emit so little CO2 to start with compared to other states. Seattle City Light is already 100% carbon neutral.
Is Seattle too hilly for a bike share system? My bikeability analysis from over four years ago completely concurs with PSBS Executive Director Holly Houser’s answer.
Part of Broad Street closes permanently. I for one will not miss its horrible 4ft sidewalks.
Details of the waterfront stair-climb along Union Street released. This has long been my favorite connection because of the amazing views of Puget Sound, despite the 2nd rate pedestrian realm. More seating please!
Sounds like Bellevue will pass on trying to save its Metro bus service.
The summer roadwork seasons will be especially busy this year.
Ballard to 15th Ave Race: Who will win; bike, bus, cab, rideshare, carshare or the private car? I can think of a few things that would radically change this outcome.
As far as I can tell, there’s no video, as the Seattle Channel’s appetite for zoning meetings is lower than mine. Nevertheless, I got this report from Planning, Land Use, and Sustainability (PLUS) Committee Chair Mike O’Brien on yesterday’s meeting:
It passed out of committee today intact. The parcels just south of the station were left unchanged as there is a lot going on there right now and it wasn’t clear if taking an action now would help or hurt that work. I left it open to come back in the future (possibly near future) to consider a change to those parcels…
The bill will come to full council on June 23.
The good news in this report is that the Harrell amendment dropping a 125′ parcel down to 85′ failed. Crosscut reports that Mr. Harrell also offered an amendment deferring the upzone indefinitely, which also failed. Now it’s up to the Council to finally give the Rainier Valley what it has needed for so long. Thanks to Councilmembers O’Brien, Clark, Licata, and Burgess for approving the legislation.
In other news from the same meeting, PubliCola reports the committee punted a set of regulations that would effectively deter construction of affordable microhousing to a stakeholder committee. The rules are basically bad, so whatever delays them is probably good.
Since the defeat of Prop 1 in April, many assumed that it was merely a formality for the County Council to adopt and implement the cuts to Metro service. But in a surprising and somewhat messy development, the King County Council’s Transportation, Economy, and Environment Committee, led by Chair Rod Dembowski, passed an ordinance yesterday that would implement only the September 2014 cuts, with service levels in “2015 and later…determined in a manner consistent with adopted policies and the King County budget for those years.” Citing the rising economy and the ability to further raise fares, Dembowski’s ordinance reads in part:
“An opportunity exists for the council and executive to work collaboratively with each other, stakeholders and cities throughout the county to identify alternative cost savings, efficiencies and updated estimates of revenue and expenditures that could reduce Metro’s annual budget gap, thereby decreasing the number of transit service hours required to be reduced in 2015.”
The ordinance split the Committee and passed 4-3, Dembowski being joined by suburban Republicans Hague, Lambert, and von Reichbauer. Phillips, Upthegrove, and McDermott opposed, and Dunn and Gossett were absent. If Dunn joins those four councilmembers when the ordinance goes to the full Council next week, and assuming Gossett opposes (neither of which are certain), that would mean a potential 5-4 vote to delay the bulk of the cuts. It would then be subject to a possible veto by Executive Constantine, who has said that the integrity of the public process and the Prop 1 vote requires that service be cut until new revenue materializes.
At first blush, Dembowski’s move seems like a risky punt. His plan seems to be to implement the cuts that cannot be staved off (September), try to further squeeze cash from Metro’s capital programs, defer plans to replenish Metro’s cash reserves, raise fares, and wait for a tax windfall or a generous Seattle electorate. To the extent that the tax windfall, increased fare revenues, or city buybacks fail to materialize, it’s not clear what cuts will happen and when, or what the Council will have gained by not simply executing the cuts as proposed by the executive.
In general, I (and other STB authors) are favorable to anything that improves Metro’s cost and revenue structures in a realistic and sustainable way, and to the extent that Dembowski’s ordinance can achieve that, I am cautiously in favor. I am, however, highly resistant to delaying inevitable pain by spending down more reserves, or looting what’s left of Metro’s capital funds: that is a continuance of the pathological pain-avoidance “leadership” style which the Council has applied to Metro since the beginning of the recession. This has given us an agency that is managed by crisis, where all service planning and public outreach must take place against a background of increasingly precipitous, but uncertain, cuts. It seems to me that the sensible, good government way to approach this problem is to pass a modified cuts plan but allow Metro to add back service (according to their Service Guidelines) every service change if revenue exceeds projections.
We are reaching out to Councilmember Dembowski for further details on his thinking and will have an update in the coming days.
