Millions of dollars were allocated in Sound Transit 3 to study a link light rail connection between Renton, Tukwila, and West Seattle. The study must be prioritized. Photo credit: Sound Transit

As I’ve covered in previous blog entries, Renton taxpayers have paid between 1-2 billion dollars for Sound Transit, and have received very little benefit.

When Sound Transit 3 (ST3) was approved by voters, it included several million dollars for a planning study of a light rail connection to Renton.  Renton must continue to push for this study to be completed, to ensure we are not left out of link light rail if a Sound Transit 4 is proposed in the future.

Many transit insiders believe there will be an ST4 proposed within a few years, as Sound Transit 3 funding isn’t covering all of the ST3 commitments, with one of the latest challenges being the quantity and cost of new trains.  While the Sound Transit Board has a fiduciary duty to deliver as best they can with the funds they are allocated  (making necessary compromises to design, operating frequency, implementation schedule, etc), the public could bring forward a new proposed ST4 bond issue to resolve these issues and enhance this service at any time.  The last I heard, the buzz was that it may happen between 2024-2026.

We must have a Renton Link Light Rail connection in any future ballot proposals.  I worked hard along with Renton’s Mayor and several council colleagues to get the Renton study into Sound Transit 3, and we then worked to jump-start the study by hiring a consultant to help us identify potential station locations and potential alignments.  We now need for Sound Transit to take this good work, and finish the job.

According to approved ST3 Documents, :

“The planning studies would help to identify the range of alternatives, evaluate potential routes and station locations and terminals, inform local
comprehensive planning, prepare for formal environmental review and engineering, and position the Sound Transit Board to evaluate options and
establish priorities for implementation in future phases of high capacity transit investments in the region. The studies will include public outreach,
preliminary environmental assessment, ridership forecasting, and conceptual engineering and cost estimating.

The studies include:
HCT Study: Light Rail Extending from West Seattle to Burien, connecting to Renton via Tukwila
This study would examine a light rail extension from West Seattle to Renton via Burien and Tukwila. The study would be completed in
coordination with local transit partners to examine a variety of options for service provision and to maximize opportunities for regional
integration.”

 The Issaquah-Kirkland line  is an example of a completed study. It includes 4 new stations and was funded with Sound Transit 3.

Part of the approved (and funded) plan for a Kirkland to Issaquah line

It’s way past time for Renton to get on the Sound Transit Link Light Rail long-term plan.  Unfortunately there are Seattle-based transit interests that don’t think Renton deserves a light rail line and they still want our tax money. Renton officials must push back against these opinions.  For example, prior to ST3, the popular  Seattle Transit Blog published an article which said:

‘The “tell” of excess focus on new regional connections is the heavy emphasis on the east-west Burien/Renton corridor.  To put it mildly, this is not a corridor where existing demand suggests a need for true high-capacity transit.’

Renton officials must be firm advocates for Renton when working with Sound Transit, so that Renton taxpayers do not spend many more billions of dollars while receiving very little benefit.

Part of the ST3 commitment to voters. Source: Sound Transit

Sound Transit’s 2023 Progress report does not include any discussion of these planning studies.

Randy Corman testifying to the Sound Transit Board in 2016. One of the board’s commitments was the study of a Renton-Tukwila light rail connection.  The full story is here.

More Sound Transit 3 documents and reports can be found here.

The Kennydale Econo Lodge/Inn at Lake Washington is owned by REBLX Partners, and has been discussed as a possible homeless services site for Burien

Two days ago the Kennydale Neighborhood Association sent a letter to Burien leadership requesting that the City of Burien remove the Econo Lodge from consideration for relocation of their residents experiencing homelessness.

According to the B-Town blog, a Burien-based blog which provides in-depth city hall coverage, this letter was met with some confusion by at least one Burien council member:

“Why is it you think we are considering sending them to Renton?” Councilmember Stephanie Mora said to the KNA via email. “As far as I know there is only one property we are considering using that’s here in the city of Burien. Please help me understand what I might be missing.”

It’s commendable Councilmember Mora spoke up and asked this important question.  The answer to Councilmember Mora’s question is that the City of Burien website displays an August 1st news release which (as of today) says:

False information is circulating throughout the community that accuses the Burien City Council of rejecting an offer of $1 million from King County for the purpose of establishing a site for temporary housing.

The Burien City Council did not reject the offer presented by King County; the offer is not contingent upon a vote of acceptance by the Burien City Council and remains available through the King County Regional Homelessness Authority (KCRHA). The Burien City Council remains committed to exploring fully the issue of temporary housing for the unhoused community and directed the City Manager to investigate potential partnerships and sites in and outside the city of Burien.

City personnel have identified several potential sites, including a facility operated by REBLX, a partner agency of KCRHA.  All sites remain under consideration until an exhaustive review has been completed by City personnel and shared with the City Council.

[Emphasis added; the REBLX site is the Kennydale Econo Lodge/Inn at Lake Washington]

The only subsequent news releases (as of today) on Burien’s website are concerning Planning Commission applications and Burien’s Welcoming Week.

Hence, anyone reading the news from Burien’s administration can reasonably assume that the REBLX/Econo Lodge site is still under consideration, and that information to the contrary is false Information (in the words of Burien’s City Manager’s Office.)

Kennydale residents will be relieved to hear that at least one Burien Council member is not considering the Renton Econo Lodge a viable solution, and Kennydale residents would be even more relieved if the Burien Administration superseded their August 1st statement with a new press release saying that the REBLX site is off the table.

While some Burien leaders may feel they have already clarified this, a KOMO news story last week implies Burien has not completed the “exhaustive review” to find shelter space that they called for in their news release.

Per KOMO on September 26: “What are the shelter options that we have? I think that’s the very crucial next step,” Mora explained.

 

Current screenshot from Burien’s official “News and Announcements” page

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[For additional background on this story, click here]

I’ve included the letter from KNA below:

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Seattle Council and Mayor are looking to open more hotels in Belltown, to help their local businesses and raise city revenues. (photo from trip advisor)

Six weeks ago I pointed out that Renton had lost 22% of our hotel rooms for travel use as they were converted to emergency shelter use for City of Seattle’s homeless residents, while leaving the Red Lion boarded up and uninhabitable.  This number would hit 29% if the Kennydale Econolodge gets converted similarly.  I explained the loss of hotel space was hurting Renton’s economy and our ability to financially recover from the pandemic.

Meanwhile, the City of Seattle is emphasising the vital commercial importance of their own hotels for travelers, which they recognize are critical to help their small businesses recover while generate lodging tax to promote tourism.

A few weeks ago the Seattle City Council began talking about getting more hotels open in the city, particularly in Belletown.  

Per KOMO news:

According to city data, hotel occupancy rates downtown exceeded 90% this summer, which is the highest of any city in the nation. The same study reports occupancy rates are expected to beat pre-pandemic levels in 2024.  The city said it feels, with these latest numbers, more hotel capacity is needed.

“Yes, please,” said Jason Morganstern, the general manager and owner of Hatch Cantina in Belltown.  Morganstern said he and his two business partners took a chance on opening Hatch Cantina 16 months ago, and while it has had its challenges, between inflation, crime and fewer people working downtown, they got some good traction over the summer. But he’d like to see more hotel rooms. He insists more hotels mean more people who will come to Belltown.

“Hotels are the lifeblood of Belltown,” Morganstern said. “Go to any restaurant around here, there is a 40-to-50% increase in sales during tourist season.”

 Yesterday, Mayor Bruce Harrell discussed the importance of hotel lodging tax, which he acknowledges is vital to the city. He proposes increasing the rate from a flat $4 per night to 2.3% to enhance city marketing and maintenance revenues.

Per KOMO news:

“(It) is just another step toward our downtown activation plan,” Harrell said in a morning press conference at the Seattle Convention Center Summit Building downtown.   Harrell said the extra money will, in his mind, bring more people to the city to spend money which goes back into the general fund for services and maintenance.

While no agency appears to be comprehensively tracking hotel-to-shelter conversion rates and voucher use in King County (King County Regional Homelessness Authority only knew about one-out-of-three in Renton), I’ve estimated King County’s and Seattle’s overall hotel-conversion-to-shelter space at around 4 percent.

While Seattle works to quickly build it’s hotel revenues and room space above pre-pandemic levels, these same Seattle officials seem fine letting Renton’s revenues and room counts drop 23-29% .  It’s time for all Renton council members to say “enough”, and insist on more regional fairness.  And King County should rebuild our boarded-up Red Lion into a proper hotel, restaurant, and convention center again– to anchor our Renton Village shopping and dining district the way it did in 2019 before the County leased it.

Renton’s former Red Lion hotel is locked in a lease with King County, and boarded up. Even the boards used do not meet Renton city code.

Renton police process an abandoned stolen car in April 2023

Yesterday’s calls to 911 Valley Com included nine stolen vehicles in Renton and nine abandoned vehicles in Renton.  Cars are increasingly stolen and used for crimes, and then dumped in damaged condition. (Police are typically not allowed to pursue them under our state’s 2021 pursuit law, RCW 10.116.060.)

Updated: the following day there were TEN car thefts; see bottom of article 

Last spring I shared Renton’s official police crime statistics report, and noted that the average rate of stolen cars in March 2023 had crept up to five per day, a 70 percent increase over the year prior.

Yesterday I looked at Valley Communications 911 call activity, and noticed there were nine vehicles reported stolen in Renton in a single day.  I also noticed that at the same time there were nine calls about abandoned vehicles, some of which were likely stolen in previous days or weeks.  Valley Com only publishes the last 24-hours of calls, and I have not been tracking the statistics daily, so I can’t say if this is a one-day anomaly or a new higher trend. But in either case, it’s nine people or families in Renton that sadly lost their cars in one day.   Each stolen car is a financial and emotional setback for Renton residents, and for those with little margin in their schedules it can create a major disruption in their lives.

Renton Police are doing all they can to fight this trend.  But the high rate of car thefts in Washington has been facilitated by the state police pursuit law, which has created an incentive for criminals to use stolen cars to commit burglaries and other crimes.  Under laws put in place in 2021, police cannot initiate pursuit of burglary suspects in a car, so if the car is stolen and untraceable the suspects may never be apprehended.  Stolen cars have become Washington State’s get-out-of-jail-free card.

Under the 2021 law, drivers in stolen cars can also drive recklessly without fear of being pursued, which has contributed to more fatal car crashes than we’ve seen in decades.  This bleak trend has tragically reversed years of positive safety trends from highway and vehicle safety improvements. The legislature made some small improvements to the law in 2023, but it still contributes to crime and highway safety problems.  The latest data shows this year is worse than last.

This does not mean high-speed pursuits should be authorized in every situation.  We should return to the better-designed and very thorough policies we had in Renton prior to the 2021 laws.  These pursuit policies were continuously adjusted based on real experience from our officers and the community, and they served us well in Renton. I and other Renton elected officials had an oversight role in making steady improvements, balancing the needs of road safety and law enforcement.

Even though the legislature is not currently in session, it’s helpful to keep your representatives informed about your feelings on these issues year-round. Courteous emails from the heart are the most effective. Let them know your personal concerns, and any personal impacts you’ve experienced.   Now is a good time to write to them; they are between sessions and probably receiving fewer emails, and may have more time to focus on yours.

Our 11th district State Legislators that represent most of Renton are:

Senator Bob Hasegawa, Bob.Hasegawa@leg.wa.gov

Representative Steve Bergquist, Steve.Bergquist@leg.wa.gov

Representative David Hackney, David.Hackney@leg.wa.gov

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Update on 9/23:  To see if the 9/21 data was a one-day anomaly or more of a trend, I checked data the next day.  There were TEN car thefts in Renton on that day.  Here is the data.

Sunset Gardens in Renton Highlands will include 76 units – studio and 1BR priced from 30%-50% of Area Median Income.  (Picture taken today, 9/17/23, by Randy Corman)

Everyone is asking, what can we do to alleviate homelessness?

Our emergency shelters play an important role, but they are like hospital waiting rooms.  If a hospital does not have the rooms and staff needed to serve all their patients, the answer is not to spend all the money building a bigger waiting room.  The long-term solution to our housing crisis lies in permanent housing and treatment, not in more emergency shelters. (This focus, along with the immense cost, was why I questioned the KCRHA draft five-year plan that proposed spending 25 billion dollars on emergency sheltering, but included no permanent housing.)

As a society we must find a way to build housing that the vast majority of Washington residents can afford, and assist the remainder with dignified subsidized homes appropriate to their needs. We also must treat those with behavioral and addiction issues that hurt their ability to remain housed. Cities, Counties, the State of Washington, and the Federal Government all have major roles to play in this effort. Only when we have all our residents living indoors will we be able to look across our cities and feel truly proud of where we are.

Sustainable long-term housing: Renton Housing Authority’s Golden Pines, built in 1976 and recently refreshed, provides 62 units of low-income senior housing; part of a growing inventory of many hundreds of apartments that RHA maintains for low-income residents.

This a complex topic that I can’t cover with a single blog entry, so I’m going to use this entry to outline the problem as I see it, and identify sub-parts to the solution that I will delve into in follow-on blog entries.

I’ve seen lots of debate about whether homelessness is a housing problem or a drug/behavioral health problem.  It is truly both, as there are many avenues into homelessness in our society.  Working people can fall into homelessness along with people struggling with addiction and behavioral challenges; furthermore, homelessness exacerbates mental health issues, and can lead to addiction.  So the fix involves helping people who are able to work but struggling with affordability, along with helping people who are ill to secure dignified accommodations.

(1) For those who are working, but can’t find affordable housing:

(a) We must make it a state-level and national goal to refocus on affordability as one of our prime metrics in our housing policies. We already prioritize other very important aspects of housing, like safety and energy efficiency.  These are critical, and we need to reasonably maintain them.  But affordability needs to go hand-in-hand with them.

(b) When regulatory changes are not enough, we must adequately fund subsidized housing programs, and build the necessary housing stock as a society to ensure everyone has a home.

(2) For those who are struggling with behavioral health issues or addiction, we must emphasize treatment:

(a) Residential treatment beds must be more widely available, and offer long enough treatment periods and enough follow-up that they achieve good outcomes

(b) Those who receive treatment and can return to family after treatment should do so when possible.  If no family is available, they should be provided supportive living facilities that facilitate sobriety and mental health.

(c) Those unwilling to participate in treatment should be repeatedly encouraged and offered treatment.  If they get arrested for committing low-level crimes, they should be incentivised to seek treatment as an alternative to incarceration.

(d) Those who are ill and refuse to accept treatment should still be provided appropriate housing, but only in adequately-monitored, sustainable facilities that will not become dangerous or dilapidated by their illness.

(3) We should help prevent homelessness for those currently housed:

(a) When someone who’s leasing an apartment encounters a rare one-time challenge paying rent, such as a car theft or health crisis, short-term rental assistance is the least expensive and most caring way for society to help.

(b) Prevent predatory landlords from taking advantage of vulnerable tenants through reasonable regulations that do not inadvertently dissuade good landlords and investors from providing more housing options.

Renton’s former Highlands Library has been remodeled by Renton Housing Authority and several partners to provide outpatient physical and mental health services, dental, and educational services.  More residential treatment programs are needed throughout our region,

After 28 years as an elected official and 33 years as an engineer, I’ve already been following this plan for many years.  As just one suburban council member, I could not accomplish it by myself, but I’m eager to share the details of the direction I’ve been trying to go and how this plan has guided my decisions along the way.

I would like to hear from readers before I publish all the details of this plan.  Do you agree with the way I have outlined the solution? are there other sections I should add?  Please let me know in the comments.  And please check back in the coming days as I share the details of each element of this plan.

Solera Apartments in Renton Highlands will include 275 affordable units targeting 60-80 % AMI, along with 315 market rate apartments and 96 townhomes.

Renton Councilmember Carmen Rivera and King County Regional Homelessness Authority imply our Red Lion Hotel and Convention Center is still hosting business and leisure travelers, even though it’s leased and boarded up by King County. It was converted to a shelter, and never converted back after ruinous fires and floods.

Is the Renton Econo Lodge next? Renton Council Member Carmen Rivera argues that since the County wrecked the Red Lion Hotel and can’t restore it, it shouldn’t count as a hotel that Renton has given up.  So the Econo Lodge and others should now be available to the County.

At least one Renton Council Member appears to be arguing in favor of Burien moving some of their unhoused residents to the Econo Lodge Hotel in Renton.  Burien’s official city website says they are still considering the idea (it’s the REBLX site in their official post). To help get more of Renton’s hotels converted to shelters, Council Member Carmen Rivera provided a guest editorial to the Renton Reporter so full of obfuscations and misstatements regarding my comments on the topic that it will take me several blog entries to unpack it.  Her goal appears to be to increase Renton’s already way-oversized contribution of hotels to the County’s sheltering efforts.

The only accurate thing Councilmember Rivera said about me in her letter was that I voted in favor of an ordinance creating some reasonable size, location, and operating guidelines for homeless services use in Renton, along with four of my colleagues.  We did so to ensure we didn’t have another hotel produce dangerous living conditions or fall into ruin the way the Red Lion Hotel and Convention center did.  My opponent in my current council race, Kim-Khanh Van voted against this sensible ordinance, along with one other council member. And based on her op-ed, Carmen Rivera would have voted against this ordinance if she had been on council.  In other words, like Kim-Khanh Van, she would like no limitations on converting Renton’s hotel space to shelters to solve other cities’ homeless challenges.

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Valley Com dispatched Renton Regional Fire Authority to downed power line at 10:36 PM

Power was out for 1200 customers in downtown Renton last night due to a fallen power line. The line also sparked a small landscape fire on South Grady Way.  Renton Regional Fire Authority was dispatched at 10:36 PM, and by about 1:00 AM power was restored to most affected customers.  Fortunately I have not heard of any injuries.

Downed power lines are obviously extremely dangerous, and can electrocute people in close proximity even through dry ground.  Eight years ago PSE released an informative video showing how to protect yourself if you ever find yourself stalled in a car near a fallen powerline. The video recommends staying in your car until officials come if you can. It also shows if you must exit (if the car is on fire for example) a special jump is the only way you can  get out without assistance.  The video further illustrates how you should then shuffle your feet instead of taking normal foot steps to avoid getting electrocuted by differential ground voltages as you make your way to safety. Bystanders need to stay away, to a recommended safe distance of at least 35 feet (and I’m sure even further in wet conditions).  I’ve included this valuable video below, and recommend everyone watch it.

Image of line down on South Grady Way near new Home Depot.  The line can be seen sparking and smoking where it is touching the pavement and landscape.  This is a screenshot from a video posted by Luis Ortega to the Renton Crime and Safety Page.

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