CDNews reported recently that the funding and plans for a streetcar running between First Hill and Capitol Hill were about to snap into place. Tuesday morning, the City Council’s transportation committee will possibly help get things snapping with bill #116636:
C.B. 116636
DISCUSSION AND POSSIBLE VOTE
Implementation of the First Hill Streetcar Connector Project: This proposed legislation authorizes an agreement with the Central Puget Sound Regional Transit Authority for implementation of the First Hill Streetcar Connector Project.
In much of our coverage of the streetcar route, CHS has reported on the line as the ‘Capitol Hill streetcar’ or ‘Capitol Hill/First Hill streetcar.’ Nobody can deny that the possible routes for the line will run between First and Capitol hills. But our Capitol Hill focus reduces First Hill’s role in all of this. And, worse, sometimes, we’ve focused only on the Capitol Hill opportunities.’ In reality, the route needs to benefit the people that live and work in both neighborhoods. CHS asked First Hill advocate Michael Gray what he feels First Hill needs from the streetcar route the two neighborhoods will share. Here is his reply:
I’m a current Board member and past president of the First Hill Improvement Association, and helped spearhead the efforts to get the streetcar once we lost the First Hill Light Rail Station. I needed to vent my frustrations after reading some of the comments dismissing the need for a streetcar for First Hill, and due to the fact there is a very organized effort to pull the streetcar to the east, in order to serve Capitol Hill businesses and residents.
Both the First Hill Community Council and First Hill Improvement Association have always supported an alignment headed up Broadway to Boren, from Boren eastbound to Broadway via Madison or Seneca, and then north on Broadway to John Street. That alignment runs along the geographic center of First Hill, and makes the streetcar line no more than 3 blocks away from all four major institutions on First Hill. The ‘Broadway – only’ alignment was a compromise we were willing to accept, but is not at all convenient for the 20.000 daily visitors and employees at Harborview and Virginia Mason.
Any alignment that includes 12th Avenue, including the “loop” option, renders the streetcar useless for most First Hill residents and workers. The travel times with the streetcar running one direction would mean travel to either Capitol Hill Station (counter-clockwise route) or International District Station (clock-wise route) would require a commuter to travel almost the entire length of the loop to reach their destination. It then would be faster to just walk to/from Downtown, if the person is physically fit and can traverse the hill climb required. But we’ve already got that option. The streetcar was intended to improve our options. As you well may know, most of our major arterials are clogged during peak hours, and bus travel is no better than walking in most cases.
Stay tuned. CHS will have details from Tuesday’s council committee session and what’s next for the, ahem, First Hill-Capitol Hill streetcar.
Also to be fair, 12th Ave south of Madison isn’t really Capitol Hill either. The streetcar is meant to best serve the area not served by light rail. No need to be territorial about this.
(I mean, geez, Capitol Hill is also under served by light rail. Just ONE station? I find it particularly odd that there is only one station between Downtown and Husky Stadium.)
First Hill is calling the shots.
Most of us still wonder why the Light Rail line does not include First Hill …. having heard the official line many time, I am still wondering if any of it was truth, or just PR for a back room decision for the U …
At least there will be more mass transit – we need all we can get – and already funded is GIANT plus. Sound Tansit might be the only agency in the state not crippled bu cash flow problems …
People DO live on First Hill, you know.
It seems that after the First Hill streetcar is in place that Metro could move some bus service to 12th….
It will be yet another fixed route in Seattle that features excessive turns slowing the service down (think 10, 49, 11…). Plus, I’m imagining this streetcar giving it all it can to make it up Boren…but, alas, still going slow. Plus further, the street environment along this route is awful. I suppose the long-term impact of the streetcar may change that, but that is a long-time of not-so transit-friendly area you expect people to walk along to catch their transit. And I don’t see the City doing anything to Boren besides maybe widening it so as not to impact the perfect SE/NW traffic sewer this street acts as.
Sorry, still not sold. Maybe First Hill should be advocating for spending this money to reinstate the James Street cable car. Maybe a funicular!?
Do the loop. 12th Ave is where it’s at.
There is no Light Rail on First Hill because the station was deemed to risky and expensive. That is why they were promised a streetcar when the station was eliminated way back. The Seattle Transit Blog has great coverage of this.
http://seattletransitblog.com/2009/09/21/first-hill-streetca
http://seattletransitblog.com/2009/04/30/first-hill-streetca
First Hill is an important stakeholder in this process, but First Hill isn’t entirely hospitals…
I find it insane /odd as well. Another stop at the north anchor, say Roy or Mercer, and one on the north end of 15th, would be so hard? Ugh.
exactly: I lived for years at Union & Boren. Many many tall/dense apartments around there, and the 12th route would entirely give half of first hill, the denser half I might wager, the shaft. Likewise cap hill’s 15th and 19th, also denser than many streets, got shafted by both streetcar and light rail.
my dream route / alternative 3:
E on Jackson –> N on 12th –> NW on Boren –> NE on Madison –> N on 15th –> W on John
terminus at Olive & Belmont or Harrison &Broadway; i.e. make folks walk through a whole block of retail for a little retail stimulus boost / inspiration for zoning changes.
this Alt3 hits ALL the hospitals (aside from providence/swedish cherry hill): Virg mason, Harborview and 1st hill/cap hill’s only birthing center at 15th, and also hits museums and schools (2 colleges, 3 private HS + Alder and Gatzert), several major churches/Cathedrals, and public housing and residential density and retail. Connects with more bus routes and bike routes, and keeps the walks for the typical pill hill seniors to a minimum, leaving the SU/SCCC college kids to doing the 5+ minute hikes.
Yes, it means laying a few hundred more feet of steel. ‘Best’ and ‘easy’ aren’t always in bed together.
The 12th/broadway loop is an admirable compromise, but as has been pointed out, it artificially ‘melds’ two zones of coverage to make it look good on paper, while the reality of using it would be a joke.
Boren to Madison is what makes sense if you’re being true to actually linking 1st and Cap transit use. And density = potential users: 12th is surrounded on the east by single-family homes with yards, whereas 1st hill (Spring and Madison) has the First Hill Plaza among other towers. Even as a capitol hill resident & business owner for 12 years, I’m totally behind Gray on this – It ought to be a no brainer.
Rev.Smith,
With all due respect, that is a horrible routing. The streetcar should be a transit route, for transportation purposes, not a whirley-go-round, for entertainment purposes…That route you specify would get everyone nowhere. You could walk from VM and end up at your terminus 30 minutes prior to the streetcar.
We need a funicular (with bike racks, please) to cross I-5 somewhere between Denny and Lakeview. We might as well have one for James (and Queen Anne) as well.
(Still in the afterglow of a trip to Naples…)