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This is an open thread.

69 Replies to “News roundup: a mystery”

  1. If you read the fine print, the proposed high speed rail from Los Angeles to Las Vegas will not actually go to Los Angeles. It will only go to Victorville, or, maybe, Palmdale. Victorville is already about 90 miles northeast of Los Angeles, with an estimated drive time of about an hour an a half.

    Considering that Los Angeles is very spread out, any kind of shared ride shuttle service would likely take far longer than 90 minutes. Best case would probably be a nonstop shuttle bus to downtown LA, connecting to the LA Metro service. But, even then, you’d still be looking at a good 2 hours travel time if you are lucky enough to live along the Metro line and 3+ hours travel time if you don’t.

    On the contrary, Los Angeles has several airports scattered around the city – Burbank, LAX, Long Beach, Santa Ana – all of which have nonstop service to Las Vegas for around $100, round trip. For someone who doesn’t have a car, I would expect it to be both cheaper and quicker to Uber/Lyft to the nearest airport and fly to Vegas – especially those with TSA PreCheck – rather than to ride a shuttle to Victorville and take the train to Vegas.

    Of course, for those with cars, the train station in Victorville will likely offer much cheaper parking than at the airports. But, once you’ve driven all the way to Victorville, you’re already 1/3 of the way to Vegas and completely through the stressful part of the drive (fighting LA traffic to get out of the city). The rest is just 80 mph+ open highway through the desert, so you may as well just keep on driving, and have the car with you when you arrive.

    That’s not to say the train won’t be attractive for anybody. There are people willing to drive 1.5 hours each way, but not 4 hours. And, there are also people who live in the eastern suburbs of LA, for whom driving out of the city towards the train station might involve considerably less traffic – and stress – than driving into the city to get to an airport.

    But, the demand for such a service is likely to be extremely car-oriented and extremely suburban. For most of the urban population, it will still be quicker, easier, and cheaper to Uber/Lyft to the nearest airport, put up with the security lines, and fly – especially those without cars, for whom the cost of parking means absolutely nothing.

    This is what happens when high speed rail only runs through the desert, and doesn’t reach the population centers. In order for the rail to be truly useful, it has to somehow get into the actual city – even if that part of the ride isn’t high speed. A quick glance at the map shows that tracks into the city used by Amtrak and MetroLink exist. The HSR line could share the tracks, even stop at some of the stations. Even if the train doesn’t become actually “high speed” until it reaches the desert, it would still be faster than congested Los Angeles-area freeways.

    1. “Victorville is already about 90 miles northeast of Los Angeles, with an estimated drive time of about an hour an a half…. The rest is just 80 mph+ open highway through the desert,”

      Who ever heard of a drive to the airport that was further than the flight?

      “there are also people who live in the eastern suburbs of LA”

      So we’re left with a rail line for these eastern suburbs. Are they so numerous or do they go to Las Vegas often?

      1. The drive to the airport isn’t longer in distance but it’s longer in duration than actual flight time for the vast majority of LA residents. When you look at drive time on both ends that would be true for most people flying between Portland and Seattle.

      2. The populations of just San Bernardino and Riverside Counties is 4.7 million people. That’s as populous as the Seattle Metro Area. Sure there are far flung populations in those huge counties, but LA County cities like Palmdale and Pomona aren’t really that far.

        It’s a busy, tedious drive from Victorville, which is the transportation pinch point, just north of the Cajon Pass in San Gabriel Mountains. Express buses can spread out and connect this across to most of Southern California. The region is covered with freeway HOV lanes that those buses can use.

        Finally and most importantly, it’s probably going to be a party train to Vegas and a “sober up” train to Victorville. It will also have slots at the Vegas station. It’s going to be more than transportation; it will be an experience!

    2. Google says 1:14/78 miles from Anaheim; 1:22 87 miles from the LA convention center. So an hour and a half is realistic and for a large number of east LA burbs it will be an hour or less. That’s probably comparable to driving to their nearest airport. It’s another 2:45 and 188 miles to Vegas so figure a good 3 hours with a pit stop. A four+ hour drive each way vs a one+ hour drive is pretty significant when you’re talking about a one or two day vacation. I’m also “betting” there will be activities on the train that get the party rolling and you have time to decompress on the way home.

      Amtrak and LA Metro benefit from this by having a popular destination on their existing line. In the morning the commuter train can take workers into DT and gamblers on the return trip to Victorville.

      Company officials said Virgin Trains will keep building the rail and add stops closer into the Los Angeles area. The process would take years of research and additional federal approval.

      This portion of the line represents the low hanging fruit. If Virgin’s ridership estimates are “on track” they’ll have a profitable venture up and running long before anything could be planned, permitted and ROW acquired for a line closer to DT LA. I’d also note they are looking a an average speed of only slightly over 100mph (180mi/1.5hr=120mph). That seems to be the sweet spot since a 180mph train would cost many times more and only save 30 minutes.

      While flights from LAX (and maybe John Wayne are cheaper) the train would be cheaper and sometimes faster than options from Santa Barbara, San Bernardino, Palm Springs etc.

      I can’t help but note how similar this route is in distance and cost vs flying to Portland/Seattle. Get that trip ~90minutes through incremental improvements and you’ve got a winner. Of course the big difference is neither Seattle or Portland is the type of short vacation draw of Lost Wages. OTOH, there is a lot more business traffic and trips should tend to be more evenly weighted in each direction.

      1. It’s only faster if you have a car to drive to Victorville, or happen to live near a bus stop with limited stop service to there AND the traffic is less driving to Victorville than driving to the airport. From San Bernardino, it’s probably a win. From Santa Monica, not so much, as LAX is a much shorter drive, and traffic will be bad either way.

        If you have a car, the train will offer the advantage of cheaper parking than at the airport. But, if you don’t, it’s reversed. The Lyft/Uber fare will be far cheaper going to the airport.

        I don’t know if any commuter trains or Amtrak trains go out to Victorville. If they do, it could work in theory *if* the schedules line up for a quick transfer. If they don’t, and you’re stuck waiting in Victorville for 2+ hours between trains, you’re probably better off flying. If the commuter trains are peak period, peak direction only, you would have to arrive in Vegas around 9 PM and leave Vegas around 5 AM in order for it to work. Outbound, it looks doable. But, the return trip would be quite rough.

      2. Virgin is looking at the market for their product. This is LA and most people have cars. But really most people tend to go with someone else so only one person in the group needs a car. Obviously they aren’t looking to the tiny market share than only rides public transportation and/or Uber, Lyft. Although the rideshare option would likely be a good choice for a group of friends; especially if you plan to party hardy while in Sin City. For that matter, I can see a lot of folks hiring a limo. The market isn’t aimed at commuters or business travel. Although, there are people that have their family home in places like Salt Lake City and “commute” for the week to LA. If LA continues to become more and more of a hell hole this will become more common.

        As is pointed out in the link, Virgin built to a point that could be done quickly and cheaply. A government HS rail project would spend the next decade trying to be all things to all people and end up spending a fortune on “planning” that goes nowhere.

        There’s some public money involved (when isn’t there) but there’s also a lot of private equity with skin in the game. Starting from nothing they plan to have this open in the same time frame as East Link. Sadly, that is a reflection of why we’ll probably never have a rail option that rivals air travel between Seattle and Portland.

    3. This is only phase 1. Virgin already has bonds approved for phase 2 to Palmdale where CAHSR will one day have tracks. By the time Ballard and West Seattle have LR CAHSR will have Palmdale under construction.

      1. CAHSR is all but dead. If it manages to open it’s initial leg the operating costs will consume any money left in the budget. As it stands now costs are approaching $100m/mi. That’s more than building bike lanes in Seattle ;-)

        Any true environmentalist should rail at the thought of what could have been done with these billion$ instead of pouring concrete in the desert.

      3. Lets see you ride a bike from Fresno to Bakersfield in less than 20 mins and not need a shower when complete.

      4. January Governor Newsom said “right now, there simply isn’t a path” for the envisioned San Francisco-to-Los Angeles train line and that the state should concentrate on completing a 165-mile leg from Bakersfield to Merced. Of course they want to keep milking FRA funds to the tune of another billion for this train to nowhere. WSP, the lead contractor has removed top officers over corruption charges. Surprise, pork barrel politics associated with a public works project.

      5. Sounds like you have been reading too much Ralph Vartabedian. This is all old news. CAHSR 2016 business plan had even a worse case scenario than want Newsom stated. May 2019 business plan is much better. Bay area has a 3 county prop, if passed next year, will fun electrification to Gilroy. The authority recently appropriated the monies for run through tracks through LAUS. ACE initiated another run last month to connect to Merced. Newsom and dems are still spending on it, piece by piece, but it is still happening and no signs of letting up.

      6. I agree that there’s no let up in spending all the tax revenue available. But the reality on the ground doesn’t look the money is actually accomplishing much.

        Electrification Delayed
        Caltrain’s electrification project is showing ominous signs of falling badly behind schedule. There are at least five bearish indicators:

        Electrification is a good idea. But the commonly pedaled notion that it makes train travel “carbon neutral” is a farce when CA gets ~1/2 it’s electricity from natural gas. The money being dumped into the HSR project could be far more effectively spent on incremental improvements to existing commuter rail.

      7. The purpose of high-speed rail is to avoid building another freeway or rely so much on airplanes, which both have much higher carbon emissions than trains. Whether it’s carbon neutral depends on the source of the electricity.

        So the Bay Area is proposing to fund the Gilroy to San Francisco segment that CAHSR can’t afford? Is there anything comparable in LA?

        ACE tracks if I understand it go through a pass that’s too narrow for all-day service? So can ACE really fill the gap between Gilroy and Fresno or is that unrealistic?

      8. I haven’t been able to find the proposition to fund electrification to Gilroy but I believe it is a measure to make up the $600 million or so in Federal Funds that Caltrain was counting on to electrify and double track part of an existing corridor. It seems like a worthwhile project but it’s not HSR and unclear if the system would even be compatible with the 200mph trains envisioned for the Central Valley segment. It looks like CA has already committed to Stadler Rail AG for it’s train sets which are capable of 100-125mph (same speed Virgin is looking to meet). If the State wasn’t using it’s revenue from cap and trade to fund CAHSR it could fund incremental improvement projects like this.

      9. Not “too narrow”, Mike, “too busy”. Amtrak California has so many trains on the segment between Oakland and Martinez shared by The Capitols and The San Joaquins that most freight to the southern Bay Area has to go via Altamont.

        It is “narrow” in that it is single-track with some sidings of course but not many, but it’s also fairly slow through Niles Canyon.

        The surviving trackage is the more recently built Western Pacific alignment from about 1910, but the parallel “original Transcontinental railway” from the late 1870’s largely still exists except through Livermore. It hosts a tourist train through Niles.

        UP can spare the line for the seven or eight total hours a day when it goes one-way for ACE. It can’t lose it all day long, though.

    4. Another question – will this train be usable for someone traveling in the reverse direction, that is, someone from Las Vegas visiting Los Angeles? Without a shuttle service, or at least, rental cars, available at the Victorville station, the answer will be emphatically “no”.

  3. https://seattletransitblog.wpcomstaging.com/2008/09/22/beacon-hill-elevators-may-delay-link-opening/

    Note the date here, starting with the year. Truly wonder if issue is really only a matter of money. Because if it is, then it could be worth an entire ST-$ to have a competent company, maybe one oriented to either emergency construction or mining, get us at least one reliable elevator there.

    We’re talking four elevators here, not jetliners…which Seattle also used to have a lot less trouble delivering. Can someone familiar with this class of devices weigh in and tell me why we can’t just replace bad elevators with good ones?
    They’re closets, or at worst buildings, not trainsets.

    If answer really is mainly money, can’t think of any funding better spent.

    Mark Dublin

    1. A few days ago I took the elevator from the MAX platform up to Washington Park to look at the leaves in Hoyt Arboretum. A couple of young women happened to be in the same elevator trip and they commented about how much larger and faster our elevators are compared to “Seattle” (no indication of where in Seattle) and wondered “what they’re doing up there.”

      So it does make me wonder how SoundTransit came to the decision to order the vertical equipment they did. You have these massive stations for future capacity but apparently so little planning for future vertical capacity,

      Consultants? Engineering staff? Who made the decisions? How did they wind up with such different results?

  5. Modest proposal:
    -Reroute I-90 and East Link around the north end of Mercer Island. No ramps or transit stops to/from the island.
    -Convert current tunnel into a giant wine cellar.
    -Mercer Island-funded private ferry to Bellevue and Seattle. Boarding requires Mercer Island official ID card or formal paper invitation from an island resident (must include date, destination address, and purpose).

    4. This sounds great! I’d gladly be banned from Mercer Island if it meant all my rides on the 550 were sped up by 5 minutes due to no longer stopping on the island.

      1. My favorite part of the piece was that Island Books had been the subject of an armed robbery, which makes its proprietor an expert on how to avoid crime on Mercer Island by . . . no, I can’t figure out the link. One thing we know, whoever committed that robbery (an Islander or someone else) did not come on Link. And the means by which they got to Island Books are still available regardless of whether there is a bus intercept on the island.

      2. @Breakbaker. Yeah, that was the most ridiculous part. Right now, as we speak, ruffians from Factoria, Eastlake or (shudder) Sammamish are planning their next heist. They are going to catch a bus, rob some place, and make their getaway using an ORCA card. Nasty stuff I tell you.

        I sympathize with the guy, having once had a gun pointed at me. I get it, it is scary. But I guarantee you the perpetrators did not ride a bus. Nor will more bus service lead to more crime. There are real issues that need to be worked out (street crossings, bus layover, etc.) but focusing on BS issues doesn’t help anyone.

  6. ST should have the emergency stairs open for general use like at UW station, so they wouldn’t have to avoid serving the station. It’s a climb, but it would still be more convenient than getting off at a different stop and backtracking by bus.

    2. Uh huh. And what happens with the folks who have climbed 100 feet up and can’t handle another six stories’ worth of stairs? Who’s going to run the rest of the way up to call 911 to report any apparent heart attacks, since cell phones probably won’t work inside the stairwell? I could go on…

  8. Every office building with elevators also has staircases. But I still can’t comprehend why over more than ten years, transit station elevators in a liberal pro-transit US city cannot be either permanently repaired or replaced. What’s the matter here?

    Mark Dublin

    1. Transit agencies’ budgets are public and how much they spend is a political issue, and the public doesn’t always want to raise taxes for redundant elevators and escalators and top-quality parts. The UW Station problem was all about buying light-duty escalators because they cost less than heavy-duty ones. The lack of down escalators in the DSTT and Mt Baker and some Lynnwood Link stations was to cut costs. Never mind that a department store would never omit an escalator or not get it running promptly because customers would say it’s a low-quality department store and shop elsewhere. The Beacon Hill situation we don’t know so I’ll wait until they determine the cause. At least they did install four escalators at Beacon Hill.

      The “emergency” stairs should be turned into full-time stairs. There’s no reason to have stairs that aren’t always open.

      1. The UW station stairs now sound the announcements, in keeping with the principle that every single announcement must be heard in every inch of sound transit property open to the public.

        At Beacon Hill station, the sticking point to opening the stairs might be the cost of the electrician to do the sound wiring.

      2. In addition to the added operating cost incurred by any delay in service, present defects in these critically important station fixtures daily puts us at risk of a serious multiple-casualty incident. ($$$$$$$$$$$$!)

        So is there any way that the ridership itself can tax itself to both improve and install elevators and escalators? Probably public Seattle’s worst habit is a balance sheet column neither red nor black but just soaking wet.

        With tears shed over what should’ve been done but now, for endless supply of reasons somehow just can’t.
        Never sure what STB really means by ($). Name me anything important that doesn’t have to be paid for. Guess it’s fair if the little financial emoticon can also stand for the cost of repair and improvement.

        Any way to make a keyboard weep with regret?

        Mark Dublin

  9. The Beacon Hill outage raises a bigger design question for me: Does ST design each station with only one power source (transformer, for example) for the entire station’s circulation system? If ever there was a place to electrically design for two halves it would seem to be a subway station.

    I think that this is an important issue, given the number of deep, high-use subway stations to be designed in Seattle soon.

  10. Can we officially declare war on the offensive and unproven link between transit and crime of Mercer Island’s MOMS4SAFE yet? We need to put pressure on elected officials to shame these people over their ridiculous fear-mongering about transit riders from Eastgate and Issaquah.

    1. If you live on Mercer Island, it is an article of faith that no one on the island has ever committed or could commit a crime, only outsiders can. And all outsiders only cross the bridge to commit crimes unless proven otherwise.

    2. I think it’s less an issue of crime, and more that they don’t want north Mercer Island turned into the Port Authority Bus Terminal.

      1. Sam, I seriously doubt that any transit company, or passenger, presently using the Port Authority Bus Terminal will support moving the facility to Mercer Island.

        But just last night, my brother was telling me first-hand that nowhere on the Moscow system does anybody drop a candy-wrapper, let alone a single “period” of graffiti. Fare evasion not a problem either. Don’t imagine many complaints about standing loads, either.

        So ok if I if I keep on power-brokering a deal between Seattle Subways and Vladimir Putin so Mercer Island takes Elektrozavodskaya metro station away from Moscow? Rudi Giuliani tells me it’s in the bag, but one problem condition. The real estate professionals he knows don’t like bein’ told where they’re not welcome.

        Capiche?

        Mark Dublin

  11. With Amazon owning Whole Foods, and Whole Foods Bellevue being located right in front of Wilburton Station, seems like a great location for a couple of Amazon office towers.

  12. I’m glad to see the Downtown Redmond Extension break ground! I’m also glad to see a better quote about ridership: “ Sound Transit predicts that by 2026 between 43,000 and 52,000 daily riders will use light rail to travel to and from Eastside destinations. “ The only vague issue is whether or not Judkins Park is an “Eastside” destination in these data.

    1. Is there an outline somewhere of where the new 1,200 stall P&R lot is going in? I’m guessing it will be all surface parking replacing the storage units currently there. Will Bear Creek P&R be closed after this opens? That would seem to make sense to save bus service hours. Although it would decrease the net increase of parking spaces to ~900.

      Will there be any bus transfers at this lot? I can see where it would make more sense to terminate routes like 248, 268 in DT Redmond and save what would likely be a long detour into this P&R. Especially since this is effectively a peak only destination (other than possibly events at Marymoor).

      1. 1,200 spaces of surface parking is a lot of land. My inclination would be to expect a garage for something that big.

        As far as buses go, the 248 should go to downtown Redmond and on to Avondale. There is no reason for a detour to SE Redmond.

        For the 269, things get interesting, and I see pros and cons of either option. Terminating the line 3/4 mile shy of an urban center feels stupid, which favors downtown Redmond. On the other hand, SE Redmond results in a shorter bus ride and train ride to go to Seattle, and more bus riders are going to be interested in Seattle, even though it’s further, since everyone in Sammamish has a car, and if they want to go to Redmond, they can just drive there.

        My guess is that, at the end of the day, the 269 terminates at SE Redmond station.

        The 268 probably doesn’t exist at all anymore, once SE Redmond station opens.

      2. I should have said 269 in my OP. The 268 has an odd originating point, what’s there? But it highlights one of the big questions, do they close Bear Creek P&R (a reasonably valuable asset). If not, what routes will serve it?

        1,200 parking spots is indeed a pretty big foot print. Scaling Google maps to 100′ and doing a palm of the hand calculation it appears the available storage locker space provides only half the acreage needed (based on a comparison to Angle Lake). But structured parking is stupidly expensive so maybe ST plans on also buying out several of the industrial park buildings in the area. That would seem to be the better investment since they could later sell off a good portion (~75%) when it’s more valuable and pay for structured parking. It also would leave the option of building mix-use/housing at Link Station and taking even more money off the table to build P&R lots in “feeder areas” like Duthie Hill, Trilogy, etc.

      4. Interesting. The link says 1,400 spaces which will make it second only to Eastgate in size. There has been a row of apartments/condos built on the east side of East Lake Sammamish Pkwy. It makes sense to redevelop the industrial park with a fringe DT. With the trail there’s actually decent access to the shopping district at Bear Creek and the eastern edge of Redmond Town Center. Of course with Link it will be an easy hop to DT.

      6. Councilmembers directed that new development and design standards should reflect the proximity to Marymoor Park and allow for eclectic, creative design with the objective being to avoid repetition and sameness, including encouraging flexibility/innovation.

        Eclectic? Fremont is eclectic. The rendering looks like a carbon copy of what’s mushroomed up at Totem Lake. Not that that’s awful. Redevelopment here though won’t be as quick as Totem Lake because of the large number of small parcels which should help break up the “sameness”.

        They’re also going to have to do something major road wise as that area is already a huge choke point where W. Lk Sammamish Pkwy, SR202, SR520, Avondale and Redmond Way and Union Hill all converge. And an Eastgate scale parking garage isn’t the ideal anchor tenant.

    1. I recently had jury duty at the Seattle courthouse, and I appreciated it’s good transit access, plus tons of places within walking distance available for lunch.

      By contrast, getting to the regional justice center in Kent would have been a 2 hour bus ride, and I was really glad not to have to go there.

      If the county really wants to locate their courthouse in a transit inaccessible location, then they need to either exempt people that don’t have cars from the jury pool, or pay for Uber/Lyft/rental cars.

      1. They definitely shouldn’t exempt people without cars. That’d bias the jury pool toward higher-income people, among other problems.

      2. I think we all agree that the right solution is not to exempt people without cars from the jury pool – it’s to locate the courthouse in a transit-accessible area – in other words, right where the courthouse currently is.

        If you’re going to compell people to show up somewhere, it needs to be somewhere that is universally accessible; you shouldn’t have to spend lots of money in order to comply with a jury summons.

      3. Now when I had jury duty they also sent me to King County, which wasn’t hard to get to, but I can walk to the Kent Regional Justice Center. Carbon footprint zero.

        On the other hand, if they think there’s no crime near the Kent Regional Justice Center they’re willfully blind.

      4. I had jury duty a couple times downtown but when I was summoned to Kent I responded that it would take over an hour to get there from north Seattle on the bus and they excused me for a transportation hardship. The Kent facility should really be for jurors who live in south King County or have a car.

        The argument that “2/3 of King County residents live outside Seattle” is true, but there’s no one place where most of them live. South King County is 1/3; the Eastside and Shoreline is the other third. So even if you put it in south King County or the Eastside, it would still be near only 1/3 of the county. Seattle has the advantage that everybody can get to it on peak-express buses, Sounder, or soon Link.

      5. For jury duty, they should divide the county into two “jury districts” and you only get sommoned to the courthouse in the jury district in which you live. The boundaries can be chosen in consideration of the population and caseloads, so that people in both areas have equal chances of being called.

        But, summoning someone from north Seattle all the way down to Kent simply should not happen in the first place. Even if you have a car, it’s still a long drive, and you still have to fight rush hour traffic.

        Also worth mentioning that during rush hour, most of East King, a bus ride to Pioneer Square will take less time than a drive to Kent, even if the availability of a personal car is assumed. You can begin the trip by driving to an express bus, avoiding the need for local feeders. From Bellevue/Redmond/Kirkland, Kent is a substantially longer distance than downtown Seattle, so, even if the average speed is a little bit greater driving to Kent, Seattle may still win in total travel time. 405 often backs up worse than the I-90/520 bridges. Riding a bus over Lake Washington, you get to use the HOV lane, whereas, driving alone down 405, you don’t. In the case of 520, there is also an option to switch to Link at Husky Stadium and avoid traffic on I-5 and downtown streets completely. In 4 more years, Link will directly connect Bellevue and Redmond to Pioneer Square Station, a mere one block from the courthouse entrance.

      6. And, for those wondering about the viability of using Sounder to get from Seattle to a jury summons in Kent, the answer “no”. Morning arrival times in Kent are 6:25 AM, 6:55 AM, and 8:15 AM. For an 8 AM arrival time, you’d either have to arrive an hour early or slog it out on the 150, instead.

      7. “For jury duty, they should divide the county into two “jury districts” and you only get sommoned to the courthouse in the jury district in which you live.”

        This issue was addressed by the state legislature back in 2005 with the passage of HB 1769 which the governor signed and which went into effect on July 24, 2005:

        “NEW SECTION. Sec. 1. The legislature finds that superior courts with more than one superior court facility are asking some jurors to travel excessively long distances to attend court proceedings. In
        these cases, the legislature further finds that consideration of a juror’s proximity to a particular courthouse can be accommodated while continuing to provide proportionate jury source list representation from distinctive groups within the community. The legislature intends to lessen the burdens borne by jurors fulfilling their civic duties by providing a mechanism that narrows the geographic area from which the jurors are drawn while maintaining a random and proportionate jury pool.”

        Additionally….

        “Sec. 2. RCW 2.36.055 and 1993 c 408 s 5 are each amended to read as follows:
        ….
        “In a county with more than one superior court facility and a separate case assignment area for each court facility, the jury source list may be divided into jury assignment areas that consist of registered voters and licensed drivers and identicard holders residing in each jury assignment area. Jury assignment area boundaries may be designated and adjusted by the administrative office of the courts based on the most current United States census data at the request of
        the majority of the judges of the superior court when required for the efficient and fair administration of justice.”

        See RCW 2.36.055 for further information.

    2. The court which is supposed to adjudicate and deter crime is running away from crime? This sounds like something from the 1960s, flee the central city and its problems and let it die. The cost of relocating the court and a new building and subsidizing something other than downtown peak-express buses for jurors would go a long way toward providing housing and services for the homeless in Pioneer Square so that they would no longer be hanging around the courthouse.

    3. Here’s a suggestion: put it at the end of her block. She could walk to work — but probably wouldn’t.

  14. In a recent Instagram story, Sound Transit said that they’re now testing newly delivered Link vehicles. I’ve hope that they can move enough of these into revenue service soon(ish) so that they can do away with two car trains during weekday peak service and special events.

  15. OK, Councilmember Lambert, we get it that the way you want to deal with crime is to run from it. But what happens when whatever site you pick for your next County Seat develops the problems that ran you out of Seattle?

    A few years ago, would’ve recommended that we take advantage of a new “older generation’s” fondness for mobile homes, and put all the county functions into a rolling fleet of vehicles making its “rounds” around what’s now King County.

    But now, what you need is an arrangement with Mark Zuckerberg and Jeff Bezos to make county government completely virtual, and make our county “seat” into an ongoing system of happenings. Jury of twelve is sooooooooo 2015. Now, instead of arguable terms like “guilty” and “innocent”…..have jurors doing “Likes” and “Dislikes” by the millions!

    You also have to know that whichever of the remaining two thirds you give “Seat-hood” to, the losers will get even by becoming criminals just to spite you for not choosing their town and moving into whichever one of the three you happen to live in.

    And start riding buses precisely so nobody can track their predations by using their license plate numbers. Let alone all those speeding and parking tickets they’ll avoid by leaving their car home. So by way of thanks for thinking up this idea, Kathy, will only ask one favor:

    Keep the Capitol in Olympia, but rename it “The State Seat.” And prevail on the Sound Transit Board to convert ST Route 574 to fifteen minute headway express service between The Dome and Sea-Tac Airport Station, which will soon provide ORCA-taps as far as Lynnwood and Redmond via Link.

    Granted you’ll only have a couple of months before the crime of “Tapifelony” renders you a refugee again. But whatever viaduct they’ve now got their blue plastic sheet of a home under, your constituents will thank you for saving them from Seattle.

    Mark Dublin

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