Jolt
Afternoon Jolt: The State of the City
Erica just got back from City Hall and will have much more to say about Mayor Mike McGinn's State of the City speech shortly (Fizz hears he read it from his iPad, and it was long), but in the meantime, here's today's winner and loser inspired by McGinin's speech.
Loser: McGinn's campaign promise to put light rail on the ballot within two years.
Although McGinn mentioned light rail briefly in the context of the ongoing update to the city's Transit Master Plan, he conspicuously avoided mentioning his campaign vow to put light rail to West Seattle and Ballard measure on a citywide ballot within his first two years in office.
"When the Transit Master Plan is finished this summer, we’ll know which corridors are the best for high-capacity modes such as rail," McGinn said, backing away from his specific campaign emphasis on light rail to Ballard and West Seattle. "And I will send to council a Transit Master Plan for high capacity transit, including the kind of rail that makes sense for our overburdened corridors."
This year, Seattle voters will be asked to vote on a seven-year, $231 million Families and Education Levy, and will likely vote on a $241 bond measure on the seawall sometime this year as well. Any rail measure will probably take at least another year, for several reasons: First, the council is skeptical. Second, McGinn needs the legitimacy of the Transit Master Plan's recommendations, which won't be out until this fall, to argue that light rail is the most cost-effective alternative for transit to Ballard and West Seattle.
Also, there's an obvious risk to putting too many costly measures on the ballot at once. And finally, light rail has traditionally been funded at a regional level, not paid for entirely by one city.
"Light rail is generally a regional issue," council transportation chair Tom Rasmussen told PubliCola after McGinn's speech. "If Seattle is going to go it alone, he's going to have to come up with a funding plan."
Today's winner: The future.
Echoing President Obama's call for America to "win the future" during his State of the Union speech this year, McGinn used some version of the phrase (e.g., "We can’t help President Obama win the future if we are scared of change") 20 times over the course of his 46-minute speech.
Loser: McGinn's campaign promise to put light rail on the ballot within two years.
Although McGinn mentioned light rail briefly in the context of the ongoing update to the city's Transit Master Plan, he conspicuously avoided mentioning his campaign vow to put light rail to West Seattle and Ballard measure on a citywide ballot within his first two years in office.
"When the Transit Master Plan is finished this summer, we’ll know which corridors are the best for high-capacity modes such as rail," McGinn said, backing away from his specific campaign emphasis on light rail to Ballard and West Seattle. "And I will send to council a Transit Master Plan for high capacity transit, including the kind of rail that makes sense for our overburdened corridors."
This year, Seattle voters will be asked to vote on a seven-year, $231 million Families and Education Levy, and will likely vote on a $241 bond measure on the seawall sometime this year as well. Any rail measure will probably take at least another year, for several reasons: First, the council is skeptical. Second, McGinn needs the legitimacy of the Transit Master Plan's recommendations, which won't be out until this fall, to argue that light rail is the most cost-effective alternative for transit to Ballard and West Seattle.
Also, there's an obvious risk to putting too many costly measures on the ballot at once. And finally, light rail has traditionally been funded at a regional level, not paid for entirely by one city.
"Light rail is generally a regional issue," council transportation chair Tom Rasmussen told PubliCola after McGinn's speech. "If Seattle is going to go it alone, he's going to have to come up with a funding plan."
Today's winner: The future.
Echoing President Obama's call for America to "win the future" during his State of the Union speech this year, McGinn used some version of the phrase (e.g., "We can’t help President Obama win the future if we are scared of change") 20 times over the course of his 46-minute speech.
