(WSB photos by Dave Gershgorn, unless otherwise credited)
By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor
In the waning moments of today’s two-hour Rethink the Link-presented forum on the West Seattle light-rail project, a ghost from a quarter-century ago appeared: The long-ago, voter-approved-then-scuttled plan for monorail service to West Seattle and elsewhere.
This spectre was raised by the father of the monorail himself, Dick Falkenbury. He wasn’t on the panel, nor had anyone brought up the monorail until an attendee asked about the original Seattle Initiative 41.
(WSB photo by Tracy Record)
Falkenbury rose shortly thereafter to warn everyone in the room that “Sound Transit is punking you” and shortly thereafter to declare that he was there to “hijack the meeting,” eventually offering to decamp to a nearby coffee shop and talk with anyone interested.
Also in the late going, a Lake Forest Park activist told the room that “fighting Sound Transit is like fighting a gigantic Pillsbury Doughboy” and suggested they’d need up to $100,000 if they wanted to pursue legal action against the transit agency, something he said his LFP neighbors were mulling.
The prospect of West Seattle legal action was hinted at by one of today’s panelists, longtime Sound Transit critic John Niles of Smarter Transit, explaining to attendees that there was still time to comment on the West Seattle Link Extension plan while the federal environmental record is still open, and that they “might be setting up for some public interest legal types to do something if this keeps going the way it’s going.”
(L-R, panelists Conrad Cipoletti, Marty Westerman, Martin Pagel, John Niles)
Before Niles and other panelists sat down in the Center for Active Living‘s second-floor event hall to recount their long-voiced concerns, the event started with time to circulate among displays placed around the room, including maps of the routing options the Sound Transit Board approved in October, and lists such as properties that would be affected.
The ~40+ attendees also were invited to write questions for the panel to answer.
RTL’s Alan McMurray introduced the panelists; along with Niles, they were Conrad Cipoletti, described as a “car-free community advocate,” who moderated; Marty Westerman, whose related community involvement has included the West Seattle Transportation Coalition and greenspace advocacy; and Martin Pagel, who along with Westerman has advocated in the past for a gondola system instead of West Seattle light rail, though that option did not arise as a discussion topic today. Here’s our video of the discussion (up until the last ~10 minutes of Q&A, lost to a recording glitch):
Many of the points panelists addressed are contentions that Rethink the Link has made before, repeatedly. Their overarching argument is that West Seattle would be better served, at a far lower cost, by increasing bus service. Observed Niles, “It would be amazing what Metro could do with an extra billion dollars.”
Last year, you might recall, ST revised its high-end potential West Seattle cost estimate to $7 billion. That was another theme today, the higher price tag and lower ridership estimate than what was discussed before voters approved ST3 in 2016, the ballot measure that included a plan for extending light rail to West Seattle. The current plan “is not what you voted for,” Westerman declared. Pagel said he’s not against spending money on light rail but considers the current plan too much money to serve too few riders. “Is West Seattle the right place to do that? … Is it worth it for 5,400 riders [a day]? We have other Seattle projects in the wings. … Management focusing on West Seattle is a huge distraction from what they should be focusing on.”
The panelists spent a fair amount of time on environmental issues as well. RTL contends that Sound Transit is dismissing the “construction carbon” that will be generated by building West Seattle light rail, focusing only on eventual carbon savings by people riding light rail instead of driving gas-burning vehicles. Carbon is carbon, they said, whether it’s “construction or operational.” Not to mention, Niles – who identified himself as an EV owner/driver – said even the federal administration change won’t stop transportation electrification, and that should factor more into the stats than it did originally. “Anything approved in 2016 is way out of date; the world has changed,” What’s the ST plan for mitigating effects to Longfellow Creek?
Westerman said there didn’t seem to be “much of one.” Some questions like that might have been ideally posed to Sound Transit reps, but none were there (RTL said they had “notified” the agency of their event). Meantime, they also noted that it seems counterproductive to be carving into the greenbelt along Pigeon Point while trying to increase tree canopy in the nearby Duwamish Valley. What will be done with the cut trees? That too was a question perhaps ST could have answered.
Though the ST Board has taken its vote on routing and station locations, the panelists stressed that there’s still an opportunity for public comment until the federal Record of Decision is finalized – something that originally was expected before year’s end, but now is projected for next month. “A lot of your money is being spent on this,” Niles exhorted in explaining why people should comment.
One attendee wondered if a ballot measure would be appropriate. Someone piped up from elsewhere in the room to say that Sound Transit isn’t subject to initiatives. “We need to be more aggressive – we can’t be waiting for February,” asserted another attendee. Yet another said, “We need someone like [public-interest superlawyer] Erin Brockovich.”
Niles suggested that people would do best to talk with elected officials, especially state legislators, because ST is a state creation. He also suggested they take note of who’s on the board (Seattle city reps are Mayor Bruce Harrell and Councilmember Dan Strauss) and who’s running to succeed Dow Constantine (who remains on the board through year’s end) as County Executive (two of the candidates, County Councilmembers Claudia Balducci and Girmay Zahilay, are already on the board).
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