Another Powerful Endorsment
The Stranger endorses Prop. 1. They get right down to the facts:
This package, at $17.9 billion, isn’t cheap. But we’ve got to get our region moving. If you think $69 is a lot to spend on transit in tough economic times, think about what you’ve been paying for gas lately. Prices are going to continue to rise—so the $69 you spend to build light rail today will be the thousands you save by not having to drive tomorrow.
If we build light rail now, you—and commuters all over King, Pierce, and Snohomish counties—will have the choice of hopping on a regional rapid-transit system that gets you where you want to go predictably and reliably, every time. And when you do need to drive, you’ll be able to do it on roads that will be as much as 30 percent less congested—cutting greenhouse-gas emissions by nearly 180,000 tons a year. And you’ll be able to start using the system right away, with increases in express bus service across the board—most of it on the highest-demand and most crowded routes. By 2020, you’ll be able to take light rail from Bellevue to Seattle to Northgate and South Seattle—seven years sooner than in last year’s roads and transit proposal.
Critics have claimed that if all the “true” costs were included, this ballot measure would cost $107 billion. They want you to believe that Sound Transit will continue taxing voters well into the 2050s. It’s a lie: The plan we’re voting on this November explicitly bars Sound Transit from taxing voters indefinitely by requiring a rollback of the taxes once the system is paid for.
Mass transit—specifically, fixed-rail rapid transit, the kind other North American cities have been working on since the last century—creates dense communities, raises (and protects) property values, and makes cities the kind of places people want to live. We’ve tried building our way out of sprawl and gridlock; it hasn’t worked. It’s time to give the alternative a try.
