(applause)
-If you don't know our organization,
Transportation Choices Coalition is Washington
State's nonprofit advocate for safe,
sustainable and equitable transportation.
For 34 years,
we've been a coalition of business, labor,
transit agencies, transit riders and elected leaders,
all beating the drum for investments in transit
and safe walks to transit.
We do a lot of work in the state legislature.
We organize transit riders across the state.
But we're most known for running and winning
transit ballot measure campaigns.
In 1996, 2008, and 2016, we led the successful sound
transit ballot measure campaigns
that extended light rail across this region.
The recent opening of the Cross
connection shows that we are a region
that can envision big things and get them done.
We're going to prove that
again with Sound Transit 3.
As we'll hear later this evening, Sound
transit is required
to have an affordable 25 year system plan.
That means they need to build, operate and finance
the entire light rail, commuter rail and bus system
affordably over 25 years.
They need to have the revenues to meet their expenses.
Late last year, we found out that
those expenses have increased what was a 25
150 billion, 25 year system plan has risen by about 20%.
That's an increase of about $34.5 billion, bringing the total to around $184 billion.
That is a big number.
But it invests its investment
in something that we all want.
It's investment in transit
and investment in our communities.
And Transportation Choices Coalition is working with a
coalition of advocates from across
the three-county region
to let the board know that this region wants light rail.
And that campaign is called Deep Build.
The 'Build the Damn Trains' campaign will have a huge art.
(applause and cheering)
This is this room for this message.
And I'd love to see some of those shirts out there.
This is a broad alliance of business, labor,
environmental advocates
and transit advocates from across the county,
across the three-county region.
And we are united around a simple message
that we are delivering to the board members.
Those messages are three things.
First, don't cancel the light rail lines.
Keep light rail projects moving.
And remember that we're
all in this together as one region.
Those are the values that bring so many of us
here in the room together
today and bring this broad coalition together
and we're delivering that message to the sound
transit board.
The Sound Transit board is 18 people
who are going to find us a path forward
through the Enterprise initiative.
They are people who want
light rail and have championed this
and made the case for it
at the ballot and in their communities.
These are people who want
light rail
and they didn't ask for the
challenging approaches
that Sound Transit staff provided them.
But these are going to be the 18 leaders
who find us a path forward,
and we're thrilled
to have four of those leaders up here with us tonight.
We're joined by King County
executive Girmay Zahilay, Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson,
King County Council member Teresa Mosqueda,
and Seattle City Councilmember Dan Strauss.
Please give them a huge round of applause.
(applause)
They have been spending a lot of time
over the last few months talking about Sound Transit,
and they've been gracious to come here
and spend their time with us to share
how they're thinking about the Enterprise initiative,
how they want to solve this challenge, and put forth
what is helpful to hear
from the public at this challenging moment.
I also want to recognize the other elected officials
that we have in the room.
There are a lot of you out there,
I believe, outside King County
Council member George Barron joining us to
give him a round of applause.
A transit champion.
Who else am I missing?
Can you get the elected officials
to raise their hands if there's anyone else
other than the four that we have at
the front of the room?
All right.
Well, once again, thank you all so much for being here.
And I want to highlight
that this coming Thursday, May 7th, at 1030,
is going to be a key Sound Transit board meeting.
It's going to be the executive
committee meeting where the Sound Transit board
is going to dive into another approach
that is informed
by the feedback
that they've been getting
from the public over the last month
since their board retreat.
That is a moment where they, by law have to listen to you
deliver your comments.
So please, we're hoping to see a huge
turnout of folks there at that board meeting
to share your message about how important light
rail is your community.
But we're really gracious for these board members to be
spending a beautiful evening here inside with us tonight.
So before I begin, I'm going to go over just a few
ground rules.
Tonight, we're going to
have a moderated conversation with our panelists.
But before that,
we're going to be joined by Sound Transit director of
a deputy executive director of Enterprise Planning,
Alex Krieg, who's going to level set for us
and let us know what is the Enterprise
initiative and what challenge the board is tackling.
We're going to have that moderated panel discussion
and then we're going to be taking questions
from the audience through no cards.
Thank you to everyone who submitted their questions
on the RCP link online.
We have those questions up and ready.
We're going to dive into those at the beginning,
and we were handing out no cards at the entrance.
If you did not get one, please make sure to
get one or raise your hand and take staff on.
Make sure you get a no card.
We have a few. Ask for those questions on those.
No cards first, please. Right.
Just one question on that.
No card to please write it legibly.
And when we get through some of our moderated
questions, first,
raise your cards up
and we'll have transportation choices.
Coalition staff come around, pick
those up,
and we'll get them up to our panelists at the front.
And lastly, we know this is a popular topic.
This is a full room.
There's still more people coming in from the outside.
We're not going to get to everyone's questions.
We're going to try
and have about 30 to 40 minutes of questions.
We're going to get to as many as we can,
but we're not going to be able to get to all of them.
So thank you all so much for being here.
And now I'm thrilled to welcome up
the most knowledgeable person in this entire region
on the Enterprise Initiative,
the deputy executive director of Enterprise
Planning at Sound Transit, Alex Krieg. Alex
-Hi everybody.
Again, my name is Alex Krieg.
I promise you I'm not that knowledgeable,
but I am here to give you an overview
of this thing that we call the Enterprise Initiative.
Thank you, Holden.
Thank you, Kirk, for the kind words
once this video source becomes present.
So the first slide is a map of the sound
transit district, and it makes the point that
the Sound Transit district,
which is made up of the urbanized areas
of King Pierce and Snohomish County,
represents 40% of the state's population.
A large obviously a large share,
and that the mission of Sound Transit
is to deliver high capacity
transit to as many people in that district as possible.
Then there is a slide that shows the fact
that voters have approved three ballot initiatives,
the first in 1996 called Sound Move,
which connected light rail
from Westlake Station to the Sea-Tac Airport.
It also made some investments throughout the district,
including the T line down in Tacoma,
some sounder investments and City Express investments.
We'll look at that
(applause)
Always go with a back up laptop.
You know what I'm saying?
Look at that was the slide.
Okay.
This was the other slide I was talking about.
So SC two passed by the voters in 2008,
made a bunch of investments in link light rail,
which we have been opening over the past several years.
Most recently about a month ago
with the Cross Lake Connection,
including a station in the Judkins
park neighborhood of Seattle,
also bringing
four and five minute headways throughout the day
on the light rail
between International District
Chinatown Station and Lynnwood.
If you haven't used it, it's great.
We also expanded Sounder
South to sell Tacoma and Lakewood.
And then in 2016, 83 passed
bringing investments in link to Ballard West Seattle,
completing the spine to Everett in Tacoma.
New light rail connections in the East King County,
including what's already open to downtown Redmond,
as well as to Federal Way and a project in
Tacoma extending the T Line project
in addition to three new lines of Stride
Bus Rapid transit that will also serve the city
of Seattle up on 1/45.
The next slide would have been our nice and elaborate
map of the voter approved system
that SD three will bring to the region.
So five link light rail lines,
the one through four line, the T line in Tacoma, 116
miles of track with 83 stations, sounder trains
north and south, and two BRT investments as well.
That is all background
in service to this thing that we call
the Enterprise Initiative.
That is our effort to ensure that we can deliver
the greatest benefits of ST3
within available financial capacity.
The agency has faced program
affordability challenges in the past.
Typically when we face
these challenges, we've really only focused on
addressing capital program, scope or schedule.
This time we're trying to be more comprehensive
and look at all parts of the agency,
hence the word enterprise.
So thinking about
policy choices, we can make operational decisions,
we can make finance choices we can make as well.
If we don't act, we will have an unaffordable
Step three program.
But the board does have the tools and resources
necessary to address these challenges.
We really had a sense that the agency was facing
program affordability challenges beginning in late
2024, with a few set of leading indicators,
including some cost growth we were seeing on the West
Seattle Link Extension Project,
the West Seattle Link
Extension project is the light rail
extension in SD three that is furthest
along in its project development lifecycle.
When the board selected the project to be built,
we also disclosed information about something
like 70% cost growth on that project.
That led the board to act.
They did a couple of things.
One thing that they did was they directed staff to begin
a comprehensive effort to find capital program
cost savings across the program.
They also directed staff to
update cost estimates on
all of our other major light rail extensions
in recognition of the fact that
what we were seeing in West Seattle was likely
to be present in our other projects.
Also, in late 2024, we had opened
the Lynnwood Link extension a few months
before we had opened
the starter line in East East King County.
Shortly thereafter, we opened more on the East
side and down to Federal Way.
As we've
expanded, it's been great, but we've also seen
some challenges in that expansion,
particularly in service reliability
and the resilience of the service we're providing.
That has improved in the recent past.
But it did indicate that we were possibly
seeing going to see some cost risk there.
And then just generally,
right now,
there's a lot of uncertainty
in the regional and national and global economies.
A lot of cost growth, post-COVID,
but also a lot of changed
mobility behaviors following the COVID 19 pandemic.
And this can give us an
opportunity to think differently about
the investments identified in Study three past in 2016.
So these were things informing
some of the risks that we saw.
But also the approach that we wanted to take
looking at this challenge comprehensively.
In August of last year, we were able to quantify
the challenge.
You've heard probably the number
34 and a half billion dollars
in either a cost savings or new funding that we need
to fully fund the Study three program.
It is a very large number.
It is approximately 20 to 25% of our overall capacity.
A lot of that cost growth was in our capital program.
Reflecting again,
that post-COVID inflationary environment,
a stat that the
the board chair of Sound Transit loves to give is
between 12 and in 2020
we saw about 70% inflation
in transportation construction
and between 2020 and 2026, we also saw
about 70% inflation.
And that explains a lot of what we're seeing here.
There are also some cost pressures
related to our ability
to deliver a service in transit operations.
We have seen some marginal improvement
on the sort of revenue and financing side.
And I think a key
point is we still have robust resources to deliver
a lot of the investments in stuff. Three,
the board has been very engaged.
In August, they adopted a motion
that established principles to guide
the work of the Enterprise initiative
that are listed here,
including advancing regional connectivity,
really thinking about the population and job
centers served by the investments
supporting future growth,
making sure those investments align
where people are today and where
we think they will be in the future.
Prioritizing the passenger experience, which is again,
really about delivering reliable service.
Making sure that the system overall is dependable
and then protecting public
investments with fiscal integrity.
In this case, I think it's really important
that as staff that we bring to the board
the trade offs that they are going to face
in making a decision of this scale.
Again, the boards have been super engaged, most recently
at a retreat in mid-March in the city of Tacoma.
This is
actually the third retreat that they have had since the
Enterprise initiative kicked off about a year ago.
They directed us to bring forward plausible,
affordable approaches to deliver the City
three capital program.
I know that those approaches, especially in the North
Kingsbury, in the city of Seattle, were not popular.
And I appreciate that
and I certainly appreciate
the energy that people are bringing to this discussion.
The purpose was not to
have these be answers, but really to be
provoking discussion and engaging
in the policy questions surfaced by them.
What we also did at that retreat was bring the board
information about other opportunities
to save costs and expand financial capacity
across the different workstreams that we have
set out for this enterprise initiative that includes
policy and planning, that includes
transit operations, that includes finance.
Because again, it's
I think a core objective of the board
is to deliver as much of the capital program as possible.
And so to look at these other domains to find
either cost savings or additional resources.
We received a lot of great feedback from the board
to help advance towards an updated City
three system plan,
which will be presented and discussed at Thursday's
executive committee meeting.
What did we hear from that board retreat?
We did hear a shared commitment
to delivering on the regional promise of SDG
three of connecting centers, of ensuring
that all parts of the region are served.
Generally speaking, we heard a lot of support
for advancing
light rail investments over other investments
like Sounder
or like some of the parking investments identified in
SG three.
We heard a lot of support for keeping the projects
that are actively underway in either planning or design,
like the West Seattle projects
like the Graham Street Infill Station project
moving forward.
Yeah, shout out
because that gives us a chance
to find more cost savings and also to ensure
that we have a better handle
on the cost risks identified.
There are a few projects
that we haven't really started
any kind of planning work on.
I think we definitely heard interest that beginning.
Any sort of planning work would be beneficial.
Just to understand
both the needs of those communities as well as what
we might be able to either save in those corridors or
consider it to do differently.
And we are the board in particular, are going to have
to make some hard choices about
what we can afford right now
and understanding the pathway for projects
that may be deferred, how
they get back into that affordable part of the plan.
And so
this is new this is a new slide for these.
This shows basically
kind of the problem that we're trying to solve.
We have a lot of capacity to deliver investments
and still a lot of
opportunities to fund the full system plan.
I know the board
is going to take some action
to increase as much capacity as they can,
but they are just one special purpose government
in the state of Washington.
There's a lot of opportunity in Olympia,
in the other Washington, and in working with partner
in partnership
with our local jurisdictions, with washed out
with other governments
to figure out how to deliver the full program,
some of which is listed here.
And that is all that I have.
I want to thank you for your attention
and energy in support of this efforts.
And I don't know where.
there's Kirk.
Back to you. -Alex. Thank you so much.
(applause)
You don't get away that easy.
Tonight, we're going to ask you
to come up and sit with us, but
we have been hosting these town halls across the region
and we've had hundreds of folks
turn out in Everett, in Tacoma, on the east side.
And I'm thrilled to see a packed house in here.
Take a look around. We have 200 people
here tonight to talk about light rail.
So thrilled to have this conversation
in a place that loves transit, the city of Seattle.
So I'm thrilled to welcome up for board members
for tonight's panel conversation.
I'm thrilled to welcome up King County executive
Girmay Zahilay.
(applause)
We're also joined by the mayor of Seattle,
Mayor Katie Wilson.
(applause)
We're joined by King County
Councilmember Teresa Mosqueda,
(applause)
and we're joined by
City of Seattle Councilmember Dan Strauss.
(applause)
All right.
Thank you all so much for being here tonight.
And also, there's one chair open for you here, Alex.
Come on.
Come on up and join us.
(applause)
Well, all right.
Can everyone hear me? Okay?
All right.
I want to thank you so much for that presentation.
Alex, for our first question,
we really want to dive into the history
of the last two years in this region.
In the last two years, Sound Transit has opened light
rail extensions to Lynnwood to Federal Way.
They opened a two lane starter line,
and just a little over a month ago,
they opened the Cross Lake connection,
which finally brought together
the entire region and completed Sound Transit, too.
It's a big moment for this region.
So I want to pose this to each of you.
What does this moment mean
for our region and what does this show?
Our region is capable of delivering?
Well, I'll start, Mayor Wilson.
-Okay.
Hi, everyone.
And love being here to talk about light rail.
So I it's been really exciting
the last couple of years, and I was really excited
to join on opening day at the Cross Connection.
I really think that the last couple of years
have shown us that we can do hard things right.
We can do innovative things.
We can do things that require
lots of time
and lots
of struggle against obstacles,
and we can make it over the finish line.
The vision
for the cross connection originated like 50 years ago,
and and thanks to the tenacity
and resilience of so many partners in this region,
we made it happen.
First light rail on a floating bridge.
That's pretty amazing.
And I think
another thing that the last couple years
have shown is if you build it, they will come. Right.
It was so amazing
seeing the size of the crowds on opening day.
People were lined up for hours
just to ride the train across the lake.
There was a
no Kings rally the same day and people
were seeing the light rail crowds and were like,
is this the No Kings rally?
So it was it was just really amazing
to see that enthusiasm for transit.
So, I mean, despite the challenges
that we're facing right now with the
with our funding gap, I'm actually really hopeful
because I think like rooms like this one
give me hope because I can see
the excitement for transit, the support for transit.
And I'm convinced that we have the right people
at the table to make this thing work.
(applause)
-It's incredibly inspiring to watch the connection
get connected by rail.
You know, when I look at we were able to open
a light rail station in
Snohomish County, which is a really big deal.
We've got to get down to Pierce County next.
I'll just share a story.
My grandma lived in Redmond.
My mom grew up out there and in 2009 and 2010,
I say, Grandma, one day I'm
going to be riding the light rail out to see you.
She said, I'll be dead by then.
And unfortunately, she was. But
I love you, Grandma Jo.
And you know, there's still that connection
that I get to ride the light rail out.
And, you know, it's in view of the house
that my mom grew up in, Right?
That I go to Northgate. It's the closest station.
It's the most accessible station to me.
And I get that one seat ride
out to the town that my mom grew up in. Right.
That feels so far away.
When there's congestion on 520,
it feels so far away on those Thanksgiving days
where the bridge closes down. Right.
But now it feels so much closer
because I have a one seat ride.
And, you know,
I never thought I'd be somebody
that would
take the train to the suburbs to go out for dinner.
But that's what the connection up to
Snohomish County has created for me is.
I've gone out to the suburbs for dinner using the train.
So it does go both ways.
-That the last couple of years show
that we're an amazing region
that can do amazing things, things that no other society
in human history has ever done.
As the mayor pointed out.
And so I think we need to build these damn trains.
I think we need to
truly show
that we can accomplish really hard things.
And I think that these last
couple of years show what our values are.
And our values are a region
that's committed to
the environment, to mobility, to economic opportunity,
and to showing up for each other.
When I look around this room, I just see
all kinds of people from every single corner
of our three county mega region
showing up for each other,
showing up for the type of society
that we want to leave behind for our children
and their children's children.
So thank you all for your commitment.
Thank you, TC, for hosting us today.
Thank you to our colleagues for being here as well.
-Clap for that.
(applause)
Well, good evening.
Thank you so much for hosting us.
I'm happy to be here and so happy
to have been part of the celebration
for the crossing across the pond to the other side
and then to actually have the opportunity to write it
a week and a half later where we saw our community
come out in full force on a beautiful Sunday or
sunny day.
And then they showed up
even when it was raining, because this is now
the reliable way to get to work.
I'm talking about West Seattle Sunset signs up to
to to to make the point of why this is so important.
Right.
It's not just
about getting people back and forth back in front
excuse me, to and from work and places of employment.
This is about making sure that people have access
to the amenities they need.
On a Sunday, I had a health appointment
scheduled at Kaiser
in Bellevue because it was the only place
I could get a screening that I needed.
It was in the afternoon
and I was going to pick up my kid
from her dance class in West Seattle,
and we were on our way
there, picked her up
at dance class, and they said she had a tumble.
She might need to get her neck checked out.
I was like, We're actually on our way to Kaiser.
And so we were able to
take her to the urgent care riding light rail
and everything was fine.
She did a little somersault
without bending her neck enough,
but she was the one who wanted to go to the doctor.
And we were able to get to this amenity, a health care
clinic that was needed by using light rail.
Now, it will be awesome when we can get on light rail
in West Seattle and make that connection
and get all the way to the east side.
But it was really great being able to take each line
downtown, get on light rail and get out there on time,
even actually early for my appointment.
And she got in right away and everything was great.
And to the mayor's point,
they said it couldn't be done.
They said multiple hurdles were going to be in the way.
And yet we built the train.
It's connected, it's running
and it's connecting communities now.
So let's keep doing it.
(applause)
-Let's go.
I'm so glad everyone was okay. I
you you for as board members have to balance dual
responsibilities one a fiscal responsibility
and the other
to deliver on the vision that voters approved.
I'm curious, how do you balance
protecting that vision while working
within very real fiscal constraints?
Anyone want to take that first?
Okay, do it.
-So there is the real constraint
of having to have a balanced,
what, 20 year fiscal outlook.
But the reality is doesn't
apply to most of our jurisdictions.
Most of us look at a capital improvement
project watch list over a six year period.
You go to the state legislature
and they have a capital budget
that looks out over a six year period.
I think if we were having
a conversation about a six year period,
all of this lines that we want to see
built would be on that six year plan.
And yet we're restrained by this 20 year plan,
which I think we can probably work
on some amendments to fix in the near future.
I also think
as as the chair and the
board considers the proposal in front of us,
we know that we have these
legal restraints to look at a balanced plan
over this 20 year period.
But really our message must be
yes and yes, we are going to build all of these lines.
Yes, we are going to create the infill stations.
Yes, we're going to create the spine.
And yes, we are going to make sure
that the extensions that were committed here
in Sound Transit in Seattle are committed to
and that we know we can do this
if we have additional revenue.
So, yes, we're going to do it
and we need the financing tools
to be able to make it possible.
You actually saw a slide from Alex
that showed what some of those financing tools are.
We have them at our disposal and we should be
deploying them right now to make this pencil
that is the rental car tax that's using debt capacity
that Sound Transit has,
frankly, that's
looking at other jurisdictions
around this region to see what other
debt capacity we might be able to lend.
And then it is going
to Olympia with a clear plan showing what the delta
in terms of dollars is to the state legislature
and asking with clarity what the 75 year bonds
bill can fund and ask them to pass that next year.
And finally, it is saying yes to all of these lines.
And when we say yes as a board and advanced design,
we will see additional cost savings
like the $2.6 billion with a B that was shaved
off of West Seattle
in just a six month period, thanks to the board's
authorization to find additional cost savings.
So it's yes and yes, build all the lines.
Yes, build the infill station and let's commit
to using those financing tools to make it possible.
(applause)
-So I will say yes.
And to that right, which is,
you know, in the
not so distant past, we had realignment in 2021
that only used one of the levers,
which was to reduce the capital scope of the program.
And what I'm heartened by with the Enterprise
initiative move
is that we are looking at our planning,
we're looking at our financial tools,
we're looking at our operations
as well as our capital scope.
And it is also important that we fully use
those three other levers
before we start reducing the capital scope.
To Councilmember Mosqueda's Point,
if we were operating with slightly different variables
six years instead of 20,
we would still be in a good financial situation.
We have good parameters at Sound Transit
that say we are.
We understand
that there is a funding gap in a decade from now
and it's really good for us to be here
having this conversation about what that problem
is on the horizon so that we can save it today.
But where my concern is right now is that we are
cutting things off the map before we've fully utilized
all of these other tools.
(applause)
-I agree with everything I've heard
that the question is not whether we build the trains.
The only question in front of us is how.
It's not whether we build, it's how we build.
And to me, that means holding those two ideas
that you said that
we're going to advance all of the projects
and we're going to do it in a fiscally responsible way.
And advancing all the projects means
absolutely connecting our three county mega region.
By completing the spine, it means building
West Seattle and building West Seattle.
The fiscal fiscally responsible
fiscal responsibility
there means building it as soon as possible,
because we know that
every day of delay
adds millions of dollars of additional costs.
Fiscally responsible
for Ballard means completing the design
so we can identify all of the cost savings
that are needed to complete that project In the same way
that Councilmember Mosqueda described,
Sound Transit was able to identify
a lot of cost savings with West Seattle
because it's a shovel ready project,
because all of that design and scoping
had already been completed.
We need to do the same thing
with Ballard as soon as possible
so we can get to Market Street as soon as possible.
It means
(applause)
it means building both of those infill stations.
I know my friends from Grand Street
and Boeing Access Road are here, but
(applause)
absolutely,
it means making sure that we're continuing
to complete the design.
Also for the four line out in Issaquah in South Kirkland,
we need to do all of it.
We need to advance all of these projects
and then we need to leave no stone unturned
in terms
of finding the financing, finding the partnerships,
advocating to Olympia.
And again, when we advocate to Olympia,
we all have to come as a unified front, right?
We can't be parochial.
We can't be this corner
of King County, that corner of Pierce.
We all have to come together.
And that's what it looks like
to be committed to that vision
that we have of advancing all the projects
and making sure that we find the money to do so.
(applause)
-Okay.
So I'm just going to add my voice to the choir here.
So I started my organizing here in Seattle
as an organizer and advocate for public transit, and
I was one among thousands of people,
including many people in this room here,
who pushed to get stage three passed.
And now, as mayor,
I'm committed to delivering on that vision. Yes.
(applause)
So so so what does that mean for us here in North King?
First of all, it means I wanted to get us
started on building West Seattle this year.
This is a shovel ready, shovel ready projects.
It's a shovel ready project, and we cannot risk
losing momentum.
It is important that we get those shovels
in the ground that we begin to deliver
on that project on the station
so that people can really see that we are moving forward
because that is what is going to just increase
the faith
of the public in this agency's ability to deliver
and is going to build on the momentum
for us to get whatever
other tools we need in order to complete the whole thing.
It also means that we move
forward and we do not stop until we get to Market Street.
(applause)
I want the FDA
to release the DEIS that is now two years late
so that we can keep advancing toward a final design.
We can find those cost savings again,
just like we did in Seattle,
and we can get a shovel ready plan,
ready to build all the way to markets
Market Street in the next three years.
The plan, not the building, but we'll get there.
So I am committed and I think all of us up here
are committed
to getting construction
started on Ballard as soon as possible.
And it means that we deliver Grand Street,
Grand Street to the Rainier Valley and their three decade
wait for that station.
(applause)
And all of this does not work
If we are pitting our region
against the other regions. I'm also committed
to delivering for the whole region.
I want to see us finish that spine
and make those connections.
All the region, all the way from Everett to Tacoma.
(applause)
And we know that we have work
to do to make all of that possible.
So I think it is
very important that we understand that
the Enterprise initiative, the the quote unquote plan
that we are going to be voting on is a board
that is not an expression of what we are going to build.
That is just a starting point.
And that is what is going to allow us to do that.
Planning to find those cost savings
to go to Olympia, get our bond authority
to get whatever new financing
we need and to build the damn trains.
(applause and cheering)
-If you don't have a teacher yet,
we need to get you all one.
So I.
Councilmember Mosqueda,
I believe the Mayor might have stolen
your thunder on this a little bit, but
West Seattle Link just passed a huge milestone
with a wonky term.
It has a record of decision.
And we've seen at the two town
halls that you've hosted in West Seattle
that Sound Transit has reduced the cost
on that project through creative engineering.
Can you just share
what these milestones mean for West Seattle?
-Well, let's see.
First of all, as you can tell,
there's no turf, there's no stealing.
We're all in this together.
And I think that's the point of these forums
to show people that we want the connection
across our three counties
and we want to continue to deliver lines
that we don't want things to be in a category of
unaffordable or delayed or deferred.
We want them to be
on the list and we're committed to doing so.
So I think how we talk about it
and recognizing that there is work to do
on the financing tools. Absolutely.
But the commitment, the vision, the values
to making sure that we carry through
that needs to be the take away at the end of the month.
So I'm really optimistic.
If you look at West
Seattle and again,
I give credit to my colleagues
who've been on the sound
transit board longer than I have.
I came in three and a half months ago,
but for about three years, three
and a half years, we've been asking,
we must be able to do something.
We must be able to deliver out to West Seattle.
We have workers out there.
We have density in terms of renters
and workers and desire
to leave cars at home and get connected
to the rest of the community, as well as people
who want to come out to West Seattle.
And when the board authorized the staff
to go forth
and find additional cost savings by advancing design,
they saved $2.6 billion off of the cost.
Again, they did this by deciding to tunnel
underneath from Del Ridge up to the junction.
And if you've been there before,
you'll be happy to know that the
the vast majority of houses and businesses
will be preserved by being able to tunnel
or saving businesses and homes, maintaining ridership
and delivering Sound Transit to West Seattle.
Now, I think that that's
a part of the vision
of what we want to see accomplished in places
like Ballard and places
like Issaquah and places across the region
that want to see additional cost savings
and ultimately ridership maintained
and trains delivered.
And so when we think about
what is possible in West Seattle, folks,
it will mean that
if the board authorizes the go ahead here
we literally,
as the mayor said,
can have shovels in the ground in 90 days.
That means projects can get underway.
That means folks can start planning.
That means businesses can have clarity.
And just a small point to add to this,
because I know Councilmember Strauss
and I are of the same mind of this.
And as we authorize,
we need to be supporting small businesses
to stay in place as long as possible,
to prevent areas from becoming ghost towns,
to offer things like protective rent,
to keep people there as long as possible.
And I'm going to keep working to see
if we can change our laws to then have
right of first opportunity to come back
to transit oriented development
to the stations to be able to serve coffee
and maybe your afternoon evening beer
and maybe get your kiddos less music lessons
and be able to have a little concert venue
in the places
that we're creating and child care and housing.
That's what we ought to be doing
to preserve the small business support
and also to be able to deliver light rail.
So I think the vision of what is possible
is really coming true in West Seattle.
If we're able to deliver the line as staff has
realigned it.
(applause)
-Councilmember Strauss,
you were popularly known as the Mayor of Ballard.
You are a champion for this neighborhood.
At every corner.
But when we saw from the three alternatives
that were proposed at the border treat,
none of them got the line to Ballard.
What does that mean for the neighborhood?
And how are you going to get Ballard back on the map?
-Oh, it's bad.
It's really bad.
And frankly, it's politely,
as I can put it, it's unacceptable.
Ballard has changed, has increased its zoning.
But when we go through the comp plan,
including the regional center designation,
including the map zoning changes,
by the time we get through comp plan,
we will have increased zoning in Ballard four times
since Sound Transit three has passed.
And thank you for recognizing my mayorship,
but I'm also the Mayor of Magnolia.
Fremont Phinney, Green Lake, Greenwood,
Crown Hill, many other micro neighborhoods.
And I think what this whole conversation
is lacking for me is that we are talking
about reductions, not expansions.
We need to be talking real about City four
because when those tunnel boring machines...
(applause)
When those tunnel boring machines
come out of the ground
in West Seattle and at Market Street,
it's exponentially
more costly to get them back
in the ground and keep moving.
When I'm looking at Ballard, I'm looking at moving,
going up to Crown Hill,
going through Greenwood, getting back to North.
If I'm not working at Seattle Center
right, I'm looking at the 147,000 daily
reasons that Ballard Link extension needs to be built.
I'm looking at we didn't Sound Transit did not provide
an approach that maximized ridership if they had
they would be looking at the dollar
per rider figure that the Ballard
Link extension provides.
I'm looking at the fact that
we would be the only
Metropolitan regional center
in the Sound Transit zone that would not be connected
by link light rail.
This is understanding that we have to get this ever
in Tacoma. So this is bad.
What I'm looking for this week
is 100% design and a date
for construction to Ballard,
and that's a base minimum.
(applause)
Anything less than a date certain
and 100% design is a loss.
If we were able to go further to Smith Cove to drivers,
that's when we're getting into
counts of wins in this situation,
because we have to look at this as a total region.
We have to get to Snohomish,
we have to get to Everett, we have to get to Tacoma,
and we can't leave the only urban regional center
unconnected by Sound Transit.
And so that's the, you know,
the last thing that I'll say is that what I'm heartened
by with all of the expansions
is that each of the stations ridership
numbers are way higher than projected.
This is a really good thing.
And so when I say that
there's 147,000 daily reasons to get the Ballard,
I know that number is going to be double or triple.
(applause)
-Mayor Wilson,
my prof for this question just left the room
as as the beautiful sign that said Graham over there.
I know we still have some folks in the in the rooms
advocates their communities along the Rainier Valley
in the Martin Luther King Junior corridor.
I've been waiting a long time
for the promise investments like Graham Street.
I Seattleites
have voted for these in 2015 and 2016 for the move.
Seattle and Sound Transit three.
Where do you stand on delivering for those riders?
-Yeah, as I already said,
I am fully committed to making sure
that we deliver the Grand Street station.
It is long overdue and and really appreciate
all of the folks organizing a town hall rally next week.
And, you know, to me, this means that
we need,
you know, like Ballard,
we need a commitment
to get to
final design by ASAP
so that we can begin to find those cost savings
and understand what it's really going to cost.
And then,
you know, in my capacity as mayor, right,
the city is going to be a full partner
in figuring out
how we can get whatever,
you know,
if additional revenue is needed
to what's in SD three to make sure
that we secure that and that we build that
station as fast as possible.
Executive Zala
You are the only person on this panel
who represents more than one sub area.
You represent the eastern county sub area
and the south King County sub area.
How do you balance the priorities of Seattle
along with the entire county?
My cup runneth over with opportunities,
so it's a really great as county executive, I represent
39 different cities, 2.3 million people.
I'm a point
more than a majority of the Sound Transit board members,
ten of the 18 seats.
And so absolutely
my commitment is to the region,
not just the King County region,
but the three county mega region
and making sure we have
a strong regional system where you can hop on a train
and get from anywhere.
And of course, we have our King
County Metro partners who can add those additional
mobility efforts beyond Rail as well.
We have been hosting
listening sessions and work sessions
with the different caucuses of the north sub area,
south sub area, east
sub area,
working with the board members
who represent each of those regions.
And there is a lot of commitment,
a lot of alignment, a lot of stuff to work through.
We're going to
all of the different town halls around the region.
You know we're here in Seattle.
We're going to be at the Graham Street event on Tuesday.
We're going to be at the South King County event
in a couple of weeks here to talk about
Boeing Access Road as well.
And so I feel committed to the whole region.
I'm going to work with
all of our amazing colleagues and our community members.
You all are
the ones who are really inspiring us
to work together on this and not just think about
our own individual communities.
I love to see the fact that Graham Street
Community is working
alongside the Boeing Access Road Community.
You guys are working in partnership.
That's really inspiring.
I love to see what TCC is doing.
You could easily just host this town
hall in Seattle and capture
a lot of people, especially because the North sub area
is facing the majority of the financial challenges.
But you're hosting them in East
King County and South King County.
So that type of regionalism is what we really need
to create the best possible transit system.
And I want to thank you all for doing that work.
We're in the favorite
subject here, but you're making.
All right.
We've got about two more moderator questions.
So if you have a question on a
no card, please make sure you raise it up.
We have our Transportation Choices
coalition staff in there, build the damn train shirts.
They will collect them to you and make sure
we get them up to the front.
This is a question for all the board members.
The Enterprise initiative
that Alex shared is designed to produce the path forward,
but it's not the end of the story. We know this.
You all talked about what some of the next steps
are once the board makes a decision,
what does implementation look like
and when do you know it's going to be successful?
Or what does success look like for you?
Okay, I'll jump in.
So I want to
let's see folks come down to Olympia and lobby sometimes.
Right. You know, raise your hand.
You go to lobby in Olympia. Okay? Yeah.
You know, when a bill gets introduced,
they talk about putting it in the hopper.
That's just like it just gets introduced
that they're like, Now it's official.
Let's assume that Thursday, when the chair releases
his proposal, it is him putting in the hopper, right?
And this is our chance to see what the draft is
and how we can continue to articulate this.
Yes and approach, because not everything in a piece
of legislation will be there from the ultimate.
Second,
it gets dropped into the hopper,
but we get the chance to add to it
the vision, the values, the next steps.
And some of this can be legislated
and some of this may have to go in a companion
resolution to talk about what the next steps are.
So I want to make sure that
folks know from from from, I think our perspective,
this conversation
about how we can do more within the confines
restraints that we have for this 20 year plan,
we can articulate a broader, bigger vision
of what is possible in our commitment to do more.
If we have that and and we use the revenue
and we deploy new financing and financing tools
and we commit and we direct staff to advance design,
those are all things that the board can do
that are in addition to the legislation
and should
be called out
to the extent possible, to the
to the fullest extent possible
and then articulated as well,
I think in a companion resolution
or ideally within the legislation.
So think of Thursday as the bill
being introduced into the hopper
and then an opportunity for us
to continue to lift up the pieces
about how to make this fuller vision happen.
I think ultimately we show the public
that we are moving forward when we deliver,
as the mayor talked about,
making sure that we advance momentum in West Seattle
helps the public know that we're moving
Sound Transit commitments that they voted
for into action
when they see the plan and the full commitment to design
and that infill stations and the spine being committed
to that provides momentum.
And then when we start
moving forward
with specifics that I think only create additional trust
when design is authorized, I think that builds
additional momentum.
Now, I talked about first right of opportunity
to return for businesses
once transit oriented development is in place.
But I also think we should be amplifying our commitments
while we build to build
with locally sourced resources
like the recycled steel at Nucor,
like making sure that we have local priority and
local priority and priority hire in place
so that our communities are getting access
to these good jobs,
making sure people see the value
of not
only the trains being built and the momentum happening,
but that we're really investing back
into the local community
and protecting those small businesses
and residents as well.
But I do think that
when we think about
how we can augment what gets introduced,
my my take away from the retreat was that
it was a little bit
and Alex, you've heard this I apologize but a little bit
unfortunate that
the financing conversation was relegated or delegated
to a subcommittee discussion in the afternoon
instead of what got covered in front of the press,
because there you would have heard the board members
by board members talking about, yes,
of course, deploy their car rental taxes.
Yes, of course.
Let's look into our debt capacity.
Yes, of course.
We should go back with a more full plan
to the legislature
that articulates what the Delta is
so that we can have a fuller picture
for them to vote yes on the 75 year bond bill.
All of the tables that I listened to
at the financing table were giving the thumbs up.
Now, that would have been a cool takeaway from
the retreat board is committed
to additional financial tools to deliver,
and I still think
that can be the takeaway at the end of May.
If we think about how to augment
this conversation over the next few weeks
and really show members of the public,
no matter what's in, has to be in a 20 year
plan, work committed to the. Yes.
And and we're going to deliver.
Yeah so
you know my my office has already asked South
Sound Transit staff to prepare board action
so that once we are through the Enterprise initiative,
we can issue permits and get shovels in the ground
right away for West Seattle.
So for me,
because all of that construction
is going to be taking place within Seattle,
showing momentum moving forward means the city
being the best possible partner
in doing all the like devil's in the details work
that we need to do to make that construction
go as smoothly and as quickly as possible.
And the city has already done
a ton of work on that score.
We've got a lot of awesome staff
who have been working on that for a very long time.
We've like overhauled our permitting regime
at least partially to
to make make this work better,
and we will continue doing that work.
So for me, it's really figuring out how
how the city can move things along.
And and
then it's, you know, we're already thinking ahead
to next year's legislative session
and what the city's legislative
agenda is going to look like.
And so
we're going to really be leaning into and prioritizing
75 year bonds and any other things
that we can work with the legislature to to do to
to to keep the whole plan moving forward.
Yeah.
So I chaired a couple of minutes ago
what I'm heartened by
with the Enterprise initiative as compared
to the realignment conversation of 2021,
you've also heard me say that we need to have the answers
from the Enterprise initiative
before we start doing capital reduction.
There's a reality that we might not be able
to accomplish that.
And so what I would say is that the Enterprise
initiative should not end this year.
We have much more work to do.
Just in the little bit of the conversation
about the planning money for Ballard Line,
we can find $2 billion of savings.
We've seen that in West Seattle.
Ballard is a longer line with more stops,
and so I know that
there are more savings than just $2 billion.
In one way to show this in real time
is having a date out there for Ballard.
And I know that there's not unanimous conclusions on
should we put a date that's really far out there
and people are upset about that,
or should we just not put a date out there and
give them a better date later?
My answer is let's be transparent.
If we have a set of funds that we can use
to get towards Ballard, what what does that date really?
What is that date?
Because from there and through the in
the rest of the enterprise work of looking
at the planning money
that we've just discussed,
of looking at the financial tools
that Councilmember Mosqueda
and both the mayor and executives talked about,
looking at our ability to go to Olympia.
And I saw a state legislator walking around here
hoping that we can get your support on 75 year bonds.
But when we can pass these different mechanism
to use these different levers
and these tools, we're able to bring that date forward
and be able to show to the public that not only
is this a real number,
but through our good work, through the Enterprise
initiative, that should not end this
year, that should continue forward,
we're able to actually make progress
and deliver the project sooner.
Executive We're doing good.
I'll keep I'll keep assure
what I'm going to be looking for in
the chair's
proposal is
are going to be three things that determine success
for me, regionalism, advancement,
all the financing.
So regionalism to me
means connecting the spine and delivering those stations
all the way up from Everett to Tacoma.
Advancement means advancing
all of the projects across the board.
I don't want us to leave
behind, abandon or table any voter approved projects.
So seeing them progress and move forward
is going to be a must for me to define success.
And finally, leaving no stone unturned in terms
of finding the financing, the partnerships
to get this all done,
let's go.
And we are ready to do that work after the board meeting.
All right.
Thank you all so much for all of your questions.
We have one that is a great one to just kick us off.
Will the board be choosing amongst the three
proposed alternatives for the Enterprise initiative
or is there room for other variation?
There is room for other variations.
As as Alex likes to remind us, those are not here's here
are three options. Choose one.
They are building blocks
and hypotheticals and things to inspire conversation.
And so there will be
there will be different combinations
that we can choose from.
And I also just want
to really like harp on the point that the kind of
like technical exercise that we are doing right now
of getting the system into affordability
because there is so much work to be done
once we get toward
final design on these projects
where we know
we are going to find billions of dollars of cost savings,
the fact that a part of the project
does not appear in that quote unquote affordable plan
does not mean
that it is being canceled or delayed or deferred.
Right.
And so one of the things
that I want to see
is just a really clear plan for, as we do work
for adding those things back into the plan.
And I'm not even talking
like we need more revenue for this.
It just we need to get further along
in the planning process
and then suddenly you're going to see
more stations kind of magically
come back into affordability.
And so that
I think it's a really hard
conceptual thing for us to wrap our minds around.
But like when you see the Affordable Plan
as whatever is rolled out
later this week, it's just really important
to keep in mind that that is not like,
this is all we can build.
The next question is wonky
and nerdy and technical, because this is Seattle.
We've seen recent proposals related to automating
the ballot
and West Seattle line. Is this option
under consideration by Sound Transit?
And if not, why
this question?
I think
when we're going through the Enterprise initiative
and what we'll see later this week is,
you know,
if Mayor Wilson is correct that these
these stations
are not off the plan, that they're not off the table,
then that's a good thing,
that we're able to continue working within the record
of decisions and within the ERISA that we have in place.
But the three approaches that were presented to
the board, Ballard was not on any of them.
And so if that's going to be the case moving forward,
you know, I've had a lot of discussions
with Sound Transit staff where I say, why didn't we
explore using the Burlington Northern Railroad space?
Well, that takes eight years of negotiation.
Or if we'd started it
when we passed
t three, we'd be two years
past a decision on their right.
When we're sitting in these moments of a
if the only urban regional center
is going to be off of link light rail's plan,
then absolutely every option
needs to come back and be scrutinized
and we'll find out where we are later this week.
And I just think
a lesson that I learned from the retreat was not asking.
Sound Transit staff are like
the technical response when something comes up.
And it would be helpful to hear Alex
weigh in on this question that was
asked as well for clarity.
Sure.
I think what I would say is with that proposal
about automating light rail,
there are certainly things that we are actively
looking at with respect to the ideas identified.
I know I saw Trevor around here somewhere.
You know, there are very real
there are very real issues with just the cost
of delivering transit in the United States
relative to other countries that I think
is a sort of a policy question beyond
any individual project team to address and resolve.
It is is a very real opportunity,
not just for this region but for the nation.
We have certainly heard and are incorporating
the feedback around station size.
Everyone, while not everyone,
but some people in this room might know
the reference to the word
trapezoidal station, where we are,
at least at the Seattle Center station, have
found
real significant cost savings.
I would also say, I think with respect
to the proposal, which which does assert
significant cost savings and schedule savings,
there's real risk with process delay.
We do need approval
from the Federal Transit Administration
to get that draft
environmental impact statement published.
Changing that in such a way
just carries risk.
There is also, I think, a real consideration
is around smaller stations and more frequency
around the ability to expand in the future.
We know from a peer region up in Vancouver,
the Canada line is identified as as an example of this.
They're bursting at the seams and it's not easy to
to grow capacity once you've set a station size.
So there are very real tradeoffs.
We love the ideas.
We want people to be engaged in this work
and also just want to be really clear about
there are no easy answers here.
I wish there were,
because then you would all be going about your lives
on a beautiful kind of summer ish evening.
So thank you.
Thank you for that breath, Alex.
Anyone else?
If not, I want to move on to this question
because the handwriting is immaculate and beautiful.
You all should see this.
Big decisions are often sticky decisions.
As the saying goes,
nothing is more permanent than a temporary solution.
With this in mind,
how is the board
working to make sure the decisions and changes
made today don't lock us into the contract?
The contract, sorry, lock us into consequences
writers will be dealing with for decades to come.
The big question,
I think a major part of that is just advancing
all of the designs, right?
We find our biggest cost
savings
as the mayor and both council members were saying,
we found our biggest cost savings.
Once we complete design and get projects shovel ready.
And so I don't want to see a proposal
that tables or eliminates
any projects for that exact reason.
We don't want to
commit ourselves to
a position now before we've even fully explored
what cost savings we can have,
before we fully explored
the partnerships that are possible
before we've passed our beautiful bills in Olympia.
I know the term big, beautiful bill is
is triggering.
But Brianna, I know you're in here
somewhere, Representative Thomas.
So will we have a lot of work to do together.
And so
continuing to advance design is a big part of that.
I think the one of the biggest risks is that
we don't connect our region because we start
sacrificing and reducing at a time
that we need to be expanding and moving faster.
Right?
This comes back to all of the different
subregions of Sound Transit
have increased growth since we passed Study three.
When we just look in Snohomish County
there, airport needs
an airport station as well as a station
for Boeing employees.
This was not the case in 2016.
When we look at Pearson Snohomish County,
not only do we have to get to TCC,
we need to keep going further down towards DuPont.
These are different places.
And even within there,
within our entire region, there is additional need.
And that's what asked for really needs to be about.
We also have a political
problem, really frankly, because we have not delivered
link light rail to Pierce and into Everett,
even though they are benefiting
from Sound Transit Express.
And my apologies,
Councilmember Brown, But we've had the conversation of
I don't have direct bus service to Ballard
right now from downtown.
The last bus left at 545 today.
Right.
So I see a lot of Ballard folks.
I did drive because I don't have my direct bus service.
If anyone needs a ride, I've got four seats
with that.
You know,
I think that the biggest risk that we hold is, again,
reducing when we need to be thinking more boldly.
And for me,
that risk is ending up in my grandma's position
for Ballard, right?
She said she wasn't going to see it in her lifetime.
I thought that she was being dramatic
and it turned out to be a reality.
And I don't want to see that for my community.
Right.
Mayor? I think this next question is for you.
Is the Chinatown International District
Station and location and configuration set a No.
So, yeah,
I don't know
if Alex wants
to speak more to that,
but I know we're waiting for some information back
and discussion yet to be had, Right?
Yeah.
And I, i,
i can see my colleagues
in the back, so if you have questions for them down or.
But no, I'd say the, you know with the Ballard project
the board has identified a sort of locally preferred
alternative that's being carried
in the draft environmental impact statement.
But the draft environmental
impact statement is not the formal process
to set the preferred alternative
that then moves forward.
We've been waiting for a long time to get that
draft is published so people can comment on it
that right now the the board's a locally
preferred alternative is city north and south.
The common period will open soon.
So I would just acknowledge
that the mayor's answer is technically correct.
It is not officially set, but is the name
Will we be Chinatown International District
rather than International District?
Chinatown.
Don't answer that.
All right, because this is the town hall in Seattle.
Have you considered raising revenue
by taxing large employers in Seattle
or King County to fund the gap?
I don't believe we've had that discussion.
But, you know, all options are on the table
if we're looking for new revenue.
As far as I'm concerned, that's correct.
Can I can I
can I weigh in on that? Yeah.
And I do want to thank Mayor Wilson.
Folks know she was a coauthor,
coconspirator and co partner with my team,
Erin House and I when we were at Seattle City Council.
Thanks to my colleague for your support
on the Jumpstart Progressive payroll tax
and I just want to say
that's actually a very real question
about local jurisdictions being able
to have authorization for payroll taxes at the county.
We do not have a payroll tax option.
And I think given what we've seen with payroll taxes
being very important tool to keep the city
the black and invest in affordable housing,
now over $400 million going into affordable
housing combined with the housing levy.
This is how we make sustainable investments,
infrastructure that's desperately needed.
So in addition
to asking for a 75 year bond bill, I would love it
if folks were asking the state legislature
for additional progressive revenue
tools for counties like King County
so that we can continue to look at other options
that don't always rely on sales tax and property tax.
Thank you.
A follow up to this.
How do we plan to change the way
we finance transit in the Puget Sound region and in the
we seem to have unlimited funds
for roads and interchanges
but have to fight between cities
and counties for who deserves having transit
first.
I'm so sorry to jump in. Is that okay?
And you may be able to speak to this better, but,
you know, I just want to sort of
lift up.
We don't have unlimited funds
for roads, especially in King County.
I'm going to start
if you look at White Center, which I proudly represent,
along with Rashaan Island, my friend and colleague,
now executive The Hill I represented Skyway.
They don't have funding for roads still represent.
Scott thank you
solider true and now also white center in Virginia
all these places
but really it is a real issue
and I
and I think that
this question is
really important to lift up that there is not
a sort of competing funds source
that we should be seeing between the two. Right.
If you ride a bus, you are also getting around
and bumped around on the unincorporated roads
in White Center as you take the age line
through white center to get into Seattle.
If you are biking in
unincorporated areas, you too want a protected bike lane.
If you are a pedestrian,
you are lucky to not be
one of the 525 people who died in the last decade
in unincorporated county.
Because we don't have
the infrastructure that's needed
for pedestrians, for bikers, and for,
I would say, anybody
who's using the roads, including transit riders.
So I would love to continue to work.
I know. TCC You've done some work on this.
Thank you to Transportation Choices Coalition
for lifting up how this can also be
a both and conversation because we absolutely
need transit
and we need to make sure that our roads are protected
For those who are riding around in busses
and on their bicycles and walking and strolling as well.
Can I
just take a moment to say how poetic that answer was?
Yeah. You are so good.
You're so good.
It's like you're professionals up here.
Yeah. All right.
The next question is about cutting red tape.
Has the city of Seattle considered revisiting things
fire codes to be able to design
more streamlined stations and more affordable stations?
But in fact, it was my bill.
Yeah.
I mean, like, say, Trump.
I mean, literally the city of Seattle turned
what I think was over 187.
And I'm looking back there
180 790 distinct permits into 74.
Right.
And so there is a way where government can be in the way.
And we did not reduce anyone's ability
to submit comments.
We just
focused them into times that they could be relevant
and that we are then able to move forward.
So we are both streamlining process,
We are continuing to accept public feedback,
but we're not letting these pieces of red tape
and these programs and processes
stand in our way from moving quickly.
And that's why I passed the bill
here in the city of Seattle.
It's one
that I think that our other partner, our other region,
municipal cities need to also look at,
because when we have so many
if you think about every station
has to have its own permit,
every section of rail has to have its own permit,
We are literally just doing the same thing on repeat.
And it
when we do them in isolation, it provides
all of these different opportunities for delay
simply because of government bureaucracy.
And when we are able to package that same product
into a more efficient way of doing business,
we're saving time,
we're saving money, and we're delivering trains faster.
So I will
just add
thank you, Councilmember, for your leadership on that
and eager to continue on that work, figuring out
if we can do more, including by looking at our fire code.
All right.
Zooming from fire codes to things that are larger,
if projects in C3 are deferred,
is there talk of a Sound Transit for to finish lines
or even expand the system? Yes.
I mean, yes.
All right.
I'm going
I just
I'm just going to reiterate it one more time
because I think we can't say it enough that deferred.
If people talk about deferred right now,
that does not necessarily mean that we cannot build it
within the budget of Sound Transit.
Three, it means we need to do that
work to find the savings.
So just just want to keep saying that.
(applause)
-Can I jump in on that?
I just
I want to lift up the point
that the mayor just made as well,
because I think that a lot of us have been saying tonight
we don't
to have the take away be that there is anything deferred.
We don't want there to be a tier two list.
We don't want there to be an unaffordable list.
We recognize that
there is a 20 year plan that we have as a requirement
that we have to make balance.
But we're saying
that balance is that pie is not big enough
and we're not satisfied with the financing tools
that we have.
So if you're telling us that it doesn't fit,
we're going to broaden out the pie.
We're going to go to Olympia we're going to use
all these tools, we're going to invent new ones.
We're going to ask our
local partners
to help us with this, because we don't want the
outcome of this conversation to be a deferred list.
I think the point is really well taken.
We do
want to have a sense of timing
if something is ultimately
going to be delayed, but not a cut, right?
Not deferred,
not deferred indefinitely
like so many of our community partners have experienced.
So we want to have clarity on timelines,
but we also want there to be a commitment
to getting it done.
And that's,
I think, the difference between
what the board is saying now and what the financing tool
may have been in the past.
We need to change the narrative
and change the tools that we have to actually deliver it.
(applause)
-Can I just reiterate?
Yeah, that commitment is really critical.
I think it is very premature to say anything is deferred.
Think the characterizations
across the board here are accurate.
I had multiple state legislators call me
after this session saying that don't read the the death
of the 75 year bond bill
as a lack of an appetite from the state legislature.
Right.
That that bill passed out of the Senate.
It didn't make it out of the House,
but people are hungry to pass it next year was
what I'm hearing.
And so just one possible tool like that
which could save the agency a lot of money in the short
term to fund many other projects
is something that we should have hope about.
And so we have to continue advancing the ball.
It is premature to say anything is deferred
and we should absolutely leave
no stone unturned in advancing all of the projects.
(applause)
-All right.
And I'll let you all take a crack at this.
Final question.
How can transit riders most effectively advocate
for completing Sound Transit 3?
-I'll take a crack at it.
I think
first and foremost,
doing what you're doing is 100% helpful.
We all know that in our political world
the squeaky wheel gets the grease
and you all have been loud and proud,
and I've seen many variations of many T-shirts and
and hats.
And so continuing to elevate this topic is not
only for us as board members,
because I think you have a lot of allies on the board,
but also your state legislators,
your local partners, making sure that to convey
that Sound Transit and light rail stations
are not only critical, but that is something
that you should continue to convey.
Number two, I would say form partnerships
and alliances with each other across the sub areas
and across region.
We don't want to create a narrative
that people are just out for their own sub area, right?
We don't want to create
a narrative that if you invest in one sub
area that you're taking away from another
or we're eliminating projects to fund other projects,
that's not the narrative we want.
We want the narrative of,
my God, the Grand Street community and, the bowling
access community are all coming together
to say our fates are intertwined
and we want both of these.
We want you all to rise up together
and form those coalitions that really helps.
And number three,
I think the more specificity in what you're asking for,
the the more helpful if you're able
to cite specific bills that you want us to pass,
site specific strategies that you want us to employ,
that helps a lot.
You know, build the damn trains is a great slogan.
And I see somebody with like a 100 point plan
being held up in front of me.
That stuff really helps.
The build the Damn Trains is a great
slogan and additional stuff that you all are doing of
being very specific of what you want us to do
helps a lot as well. So thank you for doing that work.
(applause)
-Yeah, I mean, I agree with all of that.
And just in the interest of saying
something different, I'll just say
keep writing, transit,
get other people the right transit and keep
building momentum and support for transit generally.
So where my office is doing would be transmitting
a proposal for renewal of our sort
of our Seattle transit measure
that funds a lot of bus service here in Seattle
and affordable transit programs.
And we're going to also need all of your support
to get that passed this November.
So just yeah, I keep keep
being cheerleaders for public transit.
(applause and cheering)
-My answers show up.
90% of everything is showing up.
It's a lot harder to not see it.
It's hard to not see you when you show up.
Right? It is.
We see the numbers of emails we get.
We see the numbers of calls that we get.
And when we see you, we cannot look away.
So just showing up is really critical.
And with that, we have a town hall on Monday
at the National Nordic Museum
in Ballard starting at 6 p.m..
We'd love to see you there.
(applause)
-I would add,
there's so
much patience in this room
and we need to be able to deliver.
Right.
I see
Jordan Crawley in the Back, who owns the Alchemy Academy,
where our kiddo went in North Delbridge. Who?
Whose Small business?
Family business.
That is the largest child
care facility in West
Seattle is in the path of the North Delbridge Station.
And they have said,
we want light rail, we just want some answers.
And I think everyone here is saying
we want light rail and we want answers.
We want to be part of the solution
and we need to be able to lean in and offer answers
and timelines and solutions and the vision to businesses
and residents
and community members
who've been asking for so long to
how are we going to make this work?
And I want to thank
businesses and residents who are directly impacted
and those who've been waiting and engaging for so long.
As my colleague said, you know, $30 million a month
is how much we're losing if we don't take action.
So the most important thing for us
is to be able
to have clarity after this month on how
we're going to move forward
and the end the financing tools
that will be able to deliver,
if anything, please hear us in
that we're not hitting lines against each other,
that we're not pitting stations against each other,
that we are not interested in a deferred list
or a tier two and never to happen list
that we are committed
to using these financing tools
and working with greater clarity.
We owe that to the state
to actually have a comprehensive plan
that we go to Olympia with to be able
to show them the delta and what will be delivered.
If we're asking for this tool,
we do that as much last year because we didn't have
the advanced design directive
that is needed to be able to give them that clarity
to show them what the dollars would be
and then to be able to figure out
with our partners, as you've been talking about,
what we also might need to be able to do.
So please hear us
and that we know you have been extremely patient.
We owe you a plan
that shows you how we're going to do this.
And and
and if you can help us
in helping to clarify the narrative,
we're not going to turn against each other.
We're only going to build, build build
(applause)
-Executive.
Take us home.
-Yeah.
I just wanted to add 2 to 2 additional points
just to build off that the point of regionalism
and working together,
just hammering home the point that when we're
talking about a regional system,
it's a reminder
that every part of the system affects every other
part of the system.
And so of course, having
a strong, resilient core helps with getting around
and mobility in the edges of the system.
You know, in the last couple of years
on what I've been working on the Rainier
Valley Safety Master plan and making
sure that we keep the Rainer Valley safe because of that
great station.
That was it.
Only because we care about the lives of people
in Rainier Valley, which we do.
It's that's my home district,
but also because
if 70% of the collisions are having happening in this
little four mile stretch of the system, that of course
impacts reliability and frequency
every other part of the system.
And so if you lead with that messaging and form alliances
with your partners
all across the region, that helps us on this end as.
Well, because when we have to start
making decisions
about the second downtown tunnel and the cost sharing,
having you having that having you as our allies
in reaching out to s King County
and South King County and the other counties,
talking about the fact that that system and the cost
sharing impacts the entire system
and not just Seattle
and not just north sub area, that that helps a lot.
And then the last point I wanted to make
that I would leave you with is
I would love it if you left
the heat
for the board members and show nothing
but gratitude for Sound Transit staff right.
They are
they are for out
and so they are working their butts off.
It's not every day that you hand somebody
a bill and say find me $35 billion of cost savings.
Right.
$35 billion is more than triple King County's
entire annual budget.
So that's a lot of cost savings. Fine.
So they're absolutely leaving no stone unturned.
They're fighting. They're working nonstop.
And so there is a lot of heat to go around.
But I would say direct that heat at us
and show gratitude to the Sound Transit staff.
Thank you.
(applause)
-All right.
Let's give a huge round of applause to our panelists
and our board members up here.
Thank you. Executive Zahilay,
Mayor Wilson, Councilmember
Mosqueda and Councilmember Strauss
for being here and joining us.