City
Pioneer Square Group: City's Streetcar Promise Was a Promise
Pioneer Square Alliance president Leslie Smith took issue with the city and Sound Transit's contention yesterday that the city never actually "promised" the neighborhood that it would also extend the First Hill Streetcar into Pioneer Square as part the $123 million project to build the streetcar from Capitol Hill to Fifth and Jackson.
The evidence: At a public forum on the future of the Pioneer Square neighborhood in June, Mayor Mike McGinn said, "We have the streetcar coming" to Pioneer Square. "That's good."
Additionally, the city's Pioneer Square 2015 Committee adopted a list of economic development strategies for the city last year that included "implement[ing] the streetcar line extension through Pioneer Square."
As we reported yesterday, Sound Transit and the city say that neither the agency promised the Pioneer Square neighborhood that it would extend the streetcar beyond the planned route form First Hill to the Fifth and Jackson light rail station, and proposed doing so only if there was excess money left over after building the streetcar along the route Sound Transit and the city initially agreed to.
The evidence: At a public forum on the future of the Pioneer Square neighborhood in June, Mayor Mike McGinn said, "We have the streetcar coming" to Pioneer Square. "That's good."
Additionally, the city's Pioneer Square 2015 Committee adopted a list of economic development strategies for the city last year that included "implement[ing] the streetcar line extension through Pioneer Square."
As we reported yesterday, Sound Transit and the city say that neither the agency promised the Pioneer Square neighborhood that it would extend the streetcar beyond the planned route form First Hill to the Fifth and Jackson light rail station, and proposed doing so only if there was excess money left over after building the streetcar along the route Sound Transit and the city initially agreed to.
