In recent weeks, voters in the 36th District and elsewhere in the city have been evaluating the proposal for a 10th-of-a-cent addition to the King County sales tax to support as many as 700,000 additional hours of Metro Transit bus service.
Included in the package is a bus rapid transit (BRT) route along the Monorail Green Line corridor connecting Ballard and West Seattle's Morgan Junction to Downtown. Wrapped into the Seattle BRT "Rapid Ride" package is the already-planned Aurora Avenue route into Downtown. Lesser improvements in bus service frequency are promised for a few other Seattle routes serving the U District, Capitol Hill and Delridge. Some funding is included for ensuring that buses maintain published schedules.
These additions, along with routes connecting suburbs on the East and West sides of the city, would lead one to believe that support from the 36th District was guaranteed. The district always comes out in force for mass transit.
There is one thing missing, however: the Seattle Center. The initial BRT route from Ballard to West Seattle that was proposed by Metro bypasses the Seattle Center and the Uptown neighborhood. This would be a major omission for the route, the city and the region.
At a recent public meeting of the Queen Anne Community Council's Transportation Committee, Queen Anners and Capitol Hill citizens questioned Metro staff about the Ballard-to-Downtown BRT proposal. Metro staff acknowledged that the initial route proposal is an express bus that bypasses Seattle Center and the Uptown Urban Center. This initial proposal does not make a stop near the Uptown Urban Center. The route's closest stop to the Seattle Center is a Denny Street Station: a four-block, uphill walk to the KeyArena and a five-block, uphill walk to McCaw Hall and its theaters.
Why would Metro bypass one of the major centers of the 36th District, as well as of the city itself? The reason the monorail's route was planned to go to the Seattle Center was to get people, not only from Ballard, but from downtown, to the KeyArena, McCaw Hall, EMP, the Seattle Rep, etc. The monorail was to be a conduit to the arts, concerts, sporting events and festivals, as well as to a wonderfully diverse neighborhood, for the entire region. Now, the surrogate mass-transit solution would bypass the Center altogether and, in so doing, shortchange a very large number of people who use or potentially will use mass transit in Puget Sound.
Over recent years, Metro Transit policy has shifted away from a Seattle-centric focus to a regional focus. Now Seattle and Shoreline, Metro's North Sub-area, is allowed only 20 percent of newly funded transit service hours, with 40 percent going to South King County and 40 percent to the Eastside. While it is imperative to grow service to the suburbs to reduce congestion and pollution, transportation policy cannot neglect the region's hub: Seattle.
The exact routes of the Transit Now plan are still being vetted. However, as the plan now stands, bus service to Uptown, Queen Anne and the Seattle Center would be reduced. These neighborhoods have already lost the monorail route. These neighborhoods also will experience a great deal of congestion when the Alaska Way Viaduct comes down and a new alternative, whatever it may be, is under construction. The Transit Now Ballard-to-Downtown route alternative that cuts out the Seattle Center and Uptown runs counter to the Queen Anne Neighborhood Plan and to the Seattle Comprehensive Plan, which calls for connecting the city's urban centers.
The current plan is not set in stone. And Metro Transit staff are currently considering two other alternatives for the Seattle Center Segment of the BRT Route. Now is the time for the public to weigh in!
Seattle voter support is key to voter approval of the Transit Now tax measure. The 36th District represents one of the largest voting blocs in the region. This tax measure is needed to address the damaging funding reductions for transit and other services from the recent Tim Eyman-sponsored statewide tax-cutting initiatives. But fixing Eyman's damage will not happen without the 36th's support.
In the long term, it is in the 36th District's interest to strengthen Metro Transit funding and expand service regionwide. It is highly unlikely that Metro would get another chance at voter approval for the sales-tax hike until our region's big-ticket transportation capital projects funding needs are addressed by voters in coming years.
If Seattle's voters are to support the initiative in November, Metro needs to put more thought and planning into how Seattle is served by the Transit Now tax hike. In the future, the east side of the city will be serviced by Light Rail. The west side needs dedicated mass transit, too. Transit Now needs to serve the 36th, and it needs to go to the Seattle Center. It's in the district's best interest, the city's best interest, and the region's best interest.
John Coney is co-chair of the Queen Anne Community Council Transportation Committee, vice president of the Uptown Alliance and a member of the Seattle Center Citizens Advisory Commission. He may be reached at 283-2049.
Sen. Jeanne Kohl-Welles represents the 36th Legislative District in the Washington State Senate.
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