Traffic flows through Mercer Street in Uptown on Thursday afternoon. Both traffic and businesses will be significantly impacted in the Uptown neighborhood depending on which option Sound Transit Board selects for its preferred light rail station to Seattle Center.
Laura Marie Rivera
The Sound Transit Board is further narrowing down the best routes and station stops — and alternatives — for its planned West Seattle and Ballard Link extensions project, with a meeting last Thursday drawing a large number of commenters offering opinions.
The West Seattle Link Extension will add 4.7 miles of light rail service from downtown Seattle to West Seattle’s Alaska Junction neighborhood and includes four new stations from SODO to Alaska Junction.
The Ballard Link extension adds 7.1 miles of light rail service from downtown Seattle to Ballard, including a new downtown Seattle rail-only tunnel and includes nine new stations from Chinatown-International District to Market Street.
While the majority of the comments at last week’s Sound Transit Board meeting centered around the routes and station alternatives for other areas of the city, a few members of the Uptown community expressed their concerns about the proposals at Seattle Center, especially the effects on businesses.
As part of the project, Sound Transit is exploring two station options and alternatives at Seattle Center in Uptown. The first is a tunnel Republican Street Station, a preferred alternative, which would include construction of a tunnel station under Republican Street between Queen Anne Avenue North and Seattle Center.
The second is the Tunnel Mercer Street Station, which would involve constructing a tunnel station under Mercer Street, between Queen Anne Avenue North and Warren Avenue North.
LOCAL IMPACTS
Jessica Hurst, owner of Mercer Street Books, told the board that an equity study is needed to determine the impacts of demolishing businesses, including her own, on Mercer Street for the Seattle Center Station Mercer alternative. She said a large number of the small businesses that would be impacted are owned by women and racial minorities, and their earnings are modest enough that if they were forced to move, they would not be able to survive.
“Equity studies were given to the international district, but racial inequity is not quarantined to a single neighborhood,” Hurst said. “The burden of demolition should not fall to those who are least able to recover and most highly prized by their neighbors.”
James Ly, owner and neighborhood barista at Caffe Zingaro, at the corner of Mercer and Warren, said more than just businesses are at risk with the Mercer Street proposal. It impacts the community, as well.
“Community, to me, isn’t just about building new things,” Ly said. “It’s the local barista that remembers you need to have oat milk otherwise you’re in for a really rough day. It’s the owner of the local book store that goes above and beyond to find that perfect childhood book that will be the perfect gift for your grandson or granddaughter. It’s the local barbershop that you sometimes walk in, not to get a haircut, but to sit down and solve the world’s problems or why the Mariners just can’t seem to win the pennant.”
Speaking about the impacts of the Republican Street alternative, Seattle International Film Festival Executive Director Tom Mara said the proposed station at the corner of Queen Anne Avenue North and Republican would hurt Uptown Theatre, which SIFF owns, and its three cinemas at the location.
“Noise and vibration from construction during the five or more years of work will be fatal to our operations and cannot be mitigated,” Mara said.
While Uptown Alliance representatives who spoke did not speak in favor of one proposal over the other, they urged Sound Transit Board to study current data on impacts and costs to the community.
UPCOMING MEETINGS
People still have time to comment at two meetings coming up this month.
At the first, the System Expansion Committee will discuss the project again and might provide a recommendation to the Sound Transit Board to identify the preferred alternative for the Ballard Link Extension. That meeting is from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. March 9.
Later in the month, the full 18-member Sound Transit Board might identify a preferred alternative for the Ballard Link Extension from 1:30 p.m. to 5 p.m. March 23.
Any action at these two meetings will indicate a preference among the light rail alternatives but is not a final decision or commitment by Sound Transit’s board.
Members of the public may attend the Sound Transit Board meetings and System Expansion Committee meetings in person or virtually, including dialing in, through a browser, or the via the WebEx mobile app. For more information on how to attend or provide public comment, visit the Board of Directors website.
All meetings are recorded and will be uploaded to the WebEx Livestream archive.
The final environmental impact statement for the extension project is expected to be published late this year. The Sound Transit Board will select the project to be built after that is published.
For more information on every aspect of the West Seattle and Ballard Link extensions, including links to previous meetings and alternative explanations, visit wsblink.participate.online.