News
Guess Who Likes the South Lake Union Trolley
In their effort to combat the notion that the $60 vehicle tab for transportation and transit improvements (including bike infrastructure and streetcar studies) is bad for poor people during the recession (high-profile social justice activist John Fox of the Seattle Displacement Coalition has come out against the fee), the Prop 1 campaign held a press conference this morning to announce that Puget Sound Sage has endorsed the measure.
Sage, a low-income advocacy group (originally Seattle Alliance for Good Jobs and Housing for Everyone), is a combo of religious and labor groups working on economic equity issues that was once part of the Church Council of Greater Seattle.
Prop 1 would raise about $20 million a year over ten years, or $204 million—with about half ($99 million) going to transit upgrades, a little over a quarter ($60 million) going to roads, and a little less than a quarter $45 million going to bike and ped projects.
At the press conference, Sage program director Rebecca Saldana played up the working class hero spin, saying, "Fifty percent of households in Rainier Beach, and more than 30 percent in the Rainier Valley currently do not own a car. Despite high transit use and their smaller carbon footprint, Southeast Seattle residents’ transit needs are not being met. Many low-wage workers do not have public transportation as an option and must drive to work. They are forced todrive their 1994 Toyota Corolla in order to get to their swing shift cleaning jobs downtown, their bartending shift at the hotel, their grocery clerk position at the store across town or their factory job in Georgetown."[pullquote]"Disinvestment in infrastructure is the new normal"—Tim Harris[/pullquote]
Real Change Director Tim Harris (Real Change has also endorsed the measure) seconded Saldana's remarks, grousing that "disinvestment in infrastructure is the new normal" and calling it an "ugly downward spiral" for low-income people.
LIHI Director Sharon Lee at today's press conference.
Erica noted the announcement in her Campaign Fizz roundup earlier today. But it was the remarks that came after the official press conference that stuck with me.
Sharon Lee, director of the Seattle Low Income Housing Institute, which has also endorsed the measure (the press conference was held at LIHI's Belltown office), shepherded me and a reporter from the PI.com around the room, pointing out posters on the wall of LIHI housing projects where most residents don't have cars and rely on public transit.
In particular, she hyped the Bart Harvey project for low-income seniors in South Lake Union which does not provide parking (only four residents have cars). "LIHI supports the South Lake Union trolley," she said in an obvious dig at the Displacement Coalition's Fox who made the South Lake Union Streetcar the symbol of bourgeois villainy in the 2000s when he fought city support of Paul Allen development in the former warehouse district just north of downtown.
Only about $8.8 million of the $204 million measure will be dedicated to researching an extension of the streetcar lines, but it's enough to rile opponents like Fox.
Lee's point: LIHI's low-income developments are inextricably linked to public transit like the trolley.
Fox tells me he finds their point about the streetcar "outrageous," calling the trolley "a colossal waste of money."
According to the city, city hall still owes an unanticipated $8.65 million in outstanding capital and operating debt on the streetcar that it was never supposed to pay. There's a provision in the upcoming city budget to extend the loan. Meanwhile, the city has to cover 25 percent of ongoing operating costs (about $2.5 million) and King County Metro covers 75 percent, for which we already gave up 16,800 bus hours in Seattle.
Meanwhile, Fox notes that ridership is down—"it's virtually empty during the day and it only serves Amazon employees at rush hour." Ridership, 1,800 weekday boardings on average in 2010, is actually up 15 percent over 2009, and is exceeding initial projections—which were, admittedly, artificially low. And the numbers certainly don't pencil out when measured against a comparable in-city bus line, between 6,000 and 14,000 a day.
As for the low-income housing at places like Bart Harvey (49 units), Fox credits LIHI with bringing back some affordable housing to the area, but he scoffs at the change from "about 2,500 [affordable] units 20 years ago to about 1,500 today" thanks to neighborhood redevelopment.
Sage, a low-income advocacy group (originally Seattle Alliance for Good Jobs and Housing for Everyone), is a combo of religious and labor groups working on economic equity issues that was once part of the Church Council of Greater Seattle.
Prop 1 would raise about $20 million a year over ten years, or $204 million—with about half ($99 million) going to transit upgrades, a little over a quarter ($60 million) going to roads, and a little less than a quarter $45 million going to bike and ped projects.
At the press conference, Sage program director Rebecca Saldana played up the working class hero spin, saying, "Fifty percent of households in Rainier Beach, and more than 30 percent in the Rainier Valley currently do not own a car. Despite high transit use and their smaller carbon footprint, Southeast Seattle residents’ transit needs are not being met. Many low-wage workers do not have public transportation as an option and must drive to work. They are forced todrive their 1994 Toyota Corolla in order to get to their swing shift cleaning jobs downtown, their bartending shift at the hotel, their grocery clerk position at the store across town or their factory job in Georgetown."[pullquote]"Disinvestment in infrastructure is the new normal"—Tim Harris[/pullquote]
Real Change Director Tim Harris (Real Change has also endorsed the measure) seconded Saldana's remarks, grousing that "disinvestment in infrastructure is the new normal" and calling it an "ugly downward spiral" for low-income people.
LIHI Director Sharon Lee at today's press conference.
Erica noted the announcement in her Campaign Fizz roundup earlier today. But it was the remarks that came after the official press conference that stuck with me.
Sharon Lee, director of the Seattle Low Income Housing Institute, which has also endorsed the measure (the press conference was held at LIHI's Belltown office), shepherded me and a reporter from the PI.com around the room, pointing out posters on the wall of LIHI housing projects where most residents don't have cars and rely on public transit.
In particular, she hyped the Bart Harvey project for low-income seniors in South Lake Union which does not provide parking (only four residents have cars). "LIHI supports the South Lake Union trolley," she said in an obvious dig at the Displacement Coalition's Fox who made the South Lake Union Streetcar the symbol of bourgeois villainy in the 2000s when he fought city support of Paul Allen development in the former warehouse district just north of downtown.
Only about $8.8 million of the $204 million measure will be dedicated to researching an extension of the streetcar lines, but it's enough to rile opponents like Fox.
Lee's point: LIHI's low-income developments are inextricably linked to public transit like the trolley.
Fox tells me he finds their point about the streetcar "outrageous," calling the trolley "a colossal waste of money."
According to the city, city hall still owes an unanticipated $8.65 million in outstanding capital and operating debt on the streetcar that it was never supposed to pay. There's a provision in the upcoming city budget to extend the loan. Meanwhile, the city has to cover 25 percent of ongoing operating costs (about $2.5 million) and King County Metro covers 75 percent, for which we already gave up 16,800 bus hours in Seattle.
Meanwhile, Fox notes that ridership is down—"it's virtually empty during the day and it only serves Amazon employees at rush hour." Ridership, 1,800 weekday boardings on average in 2010, is actually up 15 percent over 2009, and is exceeding initial projections—which were, admittedly, artificially low. And the numbers certainly don't pencil out when measured against a comparable in-city bus line, between 6,000 and 14,000 a day.
As for the low-income housing at places like Bart Harvey (49 units), Fox credits LIHI with bringing back some affordable housing to the area, but he scoffs at the change from "about 2,500 [affordable] units 20 years ago to about 1,500 today" thanks to neighborhood redevelopment.
