Written by Sound Transit Phase 2 won by a wide margin on Tuesday night, showing once-again our region’s commitment to environmental responsibility and world-class transportation infrastructure. The new light rail will undoubtedly be a valuable system when it is complete.
Now, the pressure will be on to make sure Renton does not get left out in the cold by the new system improvements.
Most Renton residents do not realize that prior to last Tuesday’s vote, City of Renton residents were paying a combined total of 30 MILLION DOLLARS PER YEAR for transit service to our city. This money was being collected as sales tax and property tax, to be used for Metro and Sound Transit service. With 85 thousand residents in about 30,000 households, this equates to roughly ONE-THOUSAND DOLLARS PER HOUSEHOLD PER YEAR for transit service to Renton. I don’t know about you, but I question whether we have been getting an appropriate level of service back for these dollars.
Specifically, I think of the downtown transit center. To Metro’s credit, they did find three million dollars to build this center, and the city was grateful for that. But note that the three million was about 10 % of our ANNUAL payment for transit.
And since the construction of the transit center, Metro has done very little to help us keep it feeling safe and convenient for our residents. For example, Renton taxpayers ended up paying for a parking garage for which we lease stalls to King County Metro when it was apparent that parking was going to be a problem. In addition, we paid for a new police substation to be installed near the transit center, to discourage loitering and mischief, again at an additional cost to Renton taxpayers. And most expensively, we now pay for extra police patrols, and some private security, to improve the conditions at the transit center. Considering we send Metro 20 million dollars a year, and Sound Transit 10 million dollars a year, you would hope that these agencies could pay for some Metro Police to help us with some of this work.
Sound Transit has let us down in another key area. While they committed in Phase 1 to put in two new HOV direct access freeway access point, to help buses swiftly get on and off I-405 near the center of town, they were unable to deliver on either of these. The 100 Million dollars (of Renton taxpayer’s money) which was budgeted for this has not been spent to help our local transit system. The only consolation we have since received is that Sound Transit is, to their credit, helping us with $19 million for improvements to the Rainier Avenue corridor to give buses and HOV lane. This is good, and I support it, but it is still only 19 cents on the dollar of what we were promised in Phase 1.
NOW WITH PHASE TWO TAXES, Renton households will be paying another $69 per year, and some people say several times that depending on inflation modeling assumptions, ridership, cost overruns, or other factors.
I WANT YOU TO KNOW that I remain a huge fan of transit. I have been to many cities in the US, Asia and Europe that have extraordinary transit systems that do the lion’s share of moving people around within the urban areas. And these systems are fun and convenient to ride.
But we need to make sure our 85,000 Renton residents are not left out in the rain while everyone else manages to hop a ride. This means we need to remind Sound Transit of their promises on new express bus service, make sure Metro is using large enough coaches on their Renton routes, and make sure that they keep their transit center clean and safe. We also need to ask Sound Transit to make promised capital improvement investments in our city. With 85,000 residents, Renton is twice the size of Redmond, four times larger than Mercer Island, and as big as Federal Way…all cities that have been assured good access to the new light rail extensions. While we will not have good rail access, we need to be included in bus system improvements, and see good return for our existing thousand-dollars per year, plus our new half-cent on the dollar in Sales Tax for Sound Transit Phase 2.
Click here for the Seattle Times story on Sound Transit Phase Two.
Randy,
When my girlfriend and I were looking for a place to settle down, we looked at a whole host of areas. I have lived in the U District, Roosevelt, Greenlake, Mercer Island, downtown Bellevue and Bellevue Crossroad, so I know the area fairly well. One of the primary reasons that we decided to look at Renton was the downtown transit center, the fairly easy access to both Seattle and the Eastside, and the promise of more good things to come.
My dad worked at Sound Transit until he retired a few years ago, and he often spoke of the fantastic support from Renton on transit projects. This also spoke loudly in favor of Renton.
When we moved here, one the criteria was that I need to be able to walk to the transit center, as I take the bus every day. We are an unusual couple, in that we only have one car (+ a scooter). I really want to keep it this way – I would rather take transit than drive. It’s feasible do this now, even living on Renton Hill (see scooter), but much more can be done.
How do we make sure that we continue to get our tax dollars worth of transit? Are there any boards/committees that I should be aware of?
Thanks,
ET
Rambling
Sales Tax:
When the tax rate jumps to aorund 10% – it start making sense to really start avoiding paying it. Driving to Portland to pick up $3,000 in taxable items, you could pay for a nice weekend vacation – $50 gas, $150 hotel, $100 food. Do that once a quarter and you could really enjoy yourself. (Yes… I know about use-tax)
Transit Center:
I’ll be blunt – the place is a problem. It’s gotten better recently, that’s thanks to the RPD.
….
Can we hold up 405 construction until someone pays attention to us?
…
Bus lanes on Ranier – that sound really dumb. It just makes the pedestrian crosswalks 25 feet longer, and will make the place look like an LA freeway for only a small benefit.
Re: Rambling
I like the fining for small violations. Spitting, smoking, etc. I’ve seen some transit employees do this, but without the power to arrest/fine, it’s a losing battle. Most of the riffraff down there has no respect for anyone.
During the prime commute hours, you don’t really notice the problems; it’s only mid-day, late night.
Re: Rambling
Yep – I’ve always been a bit of a tightwad, but this is an excuse to really stop purchasing things altogether unless I’m in a county with lower sales tax or a different state. I work in retail, so I see the dollar difference people pay every time sales tax goes up, and on a $2,000 item, it makes a difference. Plus, I’m tired of construction! It’s made me late way more times than any accident on the freeway. I’m all for mass transit, but I don’t like the way it’s being implemented.
I voted for the proposal even though I think it could be a lot better. What I dont’ get is that there’s no proposal for solving the I-405 mess. All the money seems to go to the I-90 corridor instead.
I still don’t get why light-rail needs to go to Sea-Tac where there’s little need except as a incentive to go through the rough area in South Seattle. There’s not much of a commuting traffic to the airport but a lot from Renton to Seattle and Bellevue.
H
>>What I dont’ get is that there’s no proposal for solving the I-405 mess. All the money seems to go to the I-90 corridor instead.
To put it bluntly: Rich Wite Pepole live on the 1-90 corridor. The 405/167 corridor is filled with poor white people and minorities.
Compare the quality of the Metro busses that Issaquah gets vs Renton. Rich white people get nice new busses, poor black and white people get old abused and poorly maintained bussed.
….
Sometimes I almost get sick of it, and I start to contemplate a move to Northgate or Redmond – where people get the services they pay for and then some.
Randy, the poor get the old buses only after they agree to help the rich by new.
Dave